Public Company News

ASX-listed Neometals’ 50 per cent-owned joint venture company, Primobius has finalised CAPEX and operating cost estimates for its proposed lithium-ion battery recycling operation in Germany. The company is contemplating building and operating an 18,250 tonnes per annum commercial-scale recycling plant, with the forecast CAPEX coming in at US$165 million and operating costs averaging US$1,560 per tonne of batteries processed.

Ardiden Limited is set to receive an $8.7m shot in the arm from the proposed sale of 80 per cent of its lithium assets in Canada. The sale will allow the company to focus on the Pickle Lake gold project whilst retaining some lithium upside courtesy of a proposed 20 per cent free carried interest in the lithium assets to be sold.

Lithium Australia’s 90 per cent-owned subsidiary, Envirostream Australia looks likely to be a major beneficiary from the introduction of an accredited process for the collection and recycling of spent, or end-of life batteries with the launch of the Battery Stewardship Council's national battery collection network early next year. Under the Battery Stewardship Council’s scheme, approved entities will be paid to collect and recycle hazardous and toxic spent batteries.

Aspiring gold miner Classic Minerals has bolstered its board with the appointment of non-executive director, Ms Gillian King as the company looks to bring the Kat Gap gold project in WA into production. Ms King is of Noongar and Gurindji heritage and adds human resource and indigenous affairs expertise to the company’s board.

Estrella Resources says it is sizing up Great Boulder Resources’ high-grade gold discovery along trend from and immediately to the south of its Carr Boyd nickel discovery north of Kalgoorlie. Estrella says its field team is weighing up the latent potential of its project area around Carr Boyd for gold after Great Boulder’s stock quadrupled in the last month based on its gold discovery.

PolarX has been quick to get more samples to the lab after previous samples from its Humboldt Range project in Nevada threw up some crazy grades including 3,384 g/t gold and 2,837 g/t silver. The company says it is now eagerly awaiting assays from the new samples which it says are progressing well through the system.

Western Australia gold producer, Wiluna Mining Corporation continues to demonstrate powerful exploration upside at the historic Wiluna gold centre east of Leonora with results of a 2D seismic survey highlighting large prospective structures outside the existing central 4.26-million-ounce resource envelope. Ongoing drilling has meanwhile added to the immediate enticing production picture, with more high-grade hits to be fed into a new 2021 resource update.

More shallow high-grade drill hits continue to highlight the resource extension potential at emerging WA gold developer Bardoc Gold’s 1.7-million-ounce Aphrodite gold deposit north of Kalgoorlie that cornerstones the 3.07m ounce Bardoc project the company is moving towards a 2022 production start. The drilling underlines the latent prospectivity of Bardoc Gold’s large land position in the middle of the prolific Kalgoorlie-Menzies area.

Altech Chemicals continues to power through its pre-feasibility study in Germany that is looking to firm up the economics of building a plant that can make use of Altech’s high purity alumina coating technology. The company has now secured space for a research and development facility adjacent to a 14-hectare site in Saxony where it has extended an option over the site as it completes engineering and marketing studies for the plant.

Indiana Resources has signed a native title mining agreement that paves the way for an expansion of its exploration activities across a major mineralised shear structure at its Central Gawler Craton gold project in SA’s venerated Gawler Craton region. The company will now be able to test a bevy of “high-priority” prospects within its massive project landholdings, one of which has already returned bonanza gold drill intersections.

Impact Minerals has secured a shot at what it sees as a “walk-up drill target” at Doonia in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields after being granted tenure over an area covering an impressive 3km-long porphyry target near Lefroy’s promising Burns copper-gold discovery. The company is now planning first-pass exploration at the project and expects to kick off drilling in the second half of 2021.

Surefire Resources has returned another impressive batch of wide, high-grade gold intersections from a follow-up reverse circulation drilling program at its exciting Yidby Road gold discovery in Western Australia. The stand-out drill hit from five holes assayed so far is 44m at 2.77 g/t gold from 149m including 3m at 26.47 g/t from 150m and 5m at 6.27 g/t from 177m.