Public Company News

Things just got interesting for Podium Minerals at its Parks Reef platinum group metals project in WA. Five prior drill holes have been re-assayed for a full suite of PGMs and delivered materially higher grades of rhodium and iridium than previously reported Some assays went as high as 1.35 grams per tonne rhodium and 0.70 g/t iridium. Follow-up drilling is now underway.

Active junior gold and copper explorer Native Mineral Resources will move forward with diamond drilling to test for depth extensions of high-grade surface quartz vein gold at Music Well, north of Leonora, after securing a $68,000 Western Australia government grant. Recent sampling has returned some bonanza grade results including one going over 100 grams per tonne gold.

ASX-listed King River Resources has confirmed previously reported output of high-purity alumina at purity levels greater than 99.99 per cent from its Speewah Dome project in WA’s Kimberley region via recently conducted assay tests. The Perth-based company says the high-purity alumina batches were produced by calcining high-purity precursor materials purified by its refining process from an industrial chemical feed stock material.

Neometals has tabled an impressive pre-feasibility study on the proposed production of high-purity vanadium pentoxide from high-grade vanadium-bearing steel making by-products or slag in Finland. The company says its vanadium recovery project is tipped to generate total free cash flows before tax of $US764 million or almost $A1 billion at an average of about $US72.7 million a year across an estimated plant operating life of 10.5 years.

Development of ASX-listed Calidus Resources’ Warrawoona gold operation in WA has been progressing at “a rapid rate” as it looks to kick off preliminary mining in the middle of this year with an eye on pouring first gold in the first half of next year. The Perth-based company says construction at Warrawoona, which has an estimated CAPEX of $120 million, remains in line with budget and schedule.

Estrella Resources is getting close to joining the dots at its revived Carr Boyd nickel project after it hit 16.35m of disseminated to highly disseminated nickel-copper sulphides 75m below one discovery and 65m above another. The upper discovery previously returned 20.1m at 1 per cent nickel and 0.7 per cent copper and the lower discovery came in at 8.05m @ 0.8 per cent nickel & 0.5 per cent copper – assays are pending.

Aruma Resources continues to kick goals in its endeavours to grow its Australian project portfolio. Two new licences have been awarded at the Melrose project in the Pilbara, growing the prospective stratigraphic trend to 13 kilometres in the gold rich region. Other gold exploration licences at the Scotia South project in WA and the Capital gold project in NSW have also been secured.

Classic Minerals has ticked the last box on the pathway to production at its high-grade Kat Gap project after the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety granted its mining lease application. Kat Gap threw up some spectacular high-grade results last year which prompted the company to purchase a mobile plant to mine the near-surface gold.

Australian Bauxite has just uncovered the highest level of rare earth elements to date from its DL130 bauxite project in north-east Tasmania. The company says near-surface results returned from its ongoing drilling campaign at DL130 reveal strong enrichment of the super-magnet rare earth element, neodymium. Assays from the stand-out drill hole include 1m grading 145.8ppm neodymium, 34.55ppm dysprosium, 34.52ppm praseodymium and 5.55ppm terbium.

Native Mineral Resources has upped the ante at its Palmerville project in north Queensland. A recently completed sampling program has delivered two new bumper grade copper samples going as high as 19.99 per cent copper at the Glenroy prospect and 7.99 per cent copper at the Fairlight prospect. Extensive follow-up exploration is now planned for the next quarter.

AVZ Minerals hopes to have a key precursor to the planned development of its Manono hard-rock lithium and tin mining and processing operation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ratified by the end of May. The new DRC Government will shortly consider applying a proposed tax and fiscal incentive arrangement called the “Manono Special Economic Zone” to the project following AVZ’s presentation to a government delegation last month.

Torian Resources is set to dip its toe into the mining contracting business with the gold explorer exercising an option to buy both Carhill Contracting and the massive Tarmoola pastoral station where the business is operated from. The company’s purchase also delivers a ready-made logistical base to fast-track exploration across its flagship Mt Stirling gold project, north of Leonora in WA.