Public Company News

Hot Chili is on a roll now at its colossal Cortadera copper-gold discovery in Chile where the company says a resource upgrade is looming after it hit a 185m intersection going 0.5 per cent copper and 0.2 grams per tonne gold from 568m down-hole at the project. Another 550m long intersection that Hot Chili says is shows copper-gold mineralisation but has yet to be assayed.

ASX-listed aspiring US helium developer, Blue Star Helium has elevated Executive Director and Geoscientist, Trent Spry to the company’s corner office. Mr Spry, who has been appointed as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Star, has more than 25 years of experience in the oil, gas and helium sectors and is regarded as a leading authority on helium within the niche helium market.

Impact Minerals’ maiden drilling program over its Little Broken Hill Gabbro nickel and platinum group element project has validated the company’s conceptual modelling, with three first-pass nickel-PGE targets confirmed in the north of the 6-kilometre-long mafic intrusion. Exploration shows the PGE mineralisation increasing in both thickness and grade with depth, with better results including 51 metres at 0.3 grams per tonne 3PGE from 140m.

First ore has been successfully run through ASX-listed Element 25’s new processing plant at its developing Butcherbird manganese mining and beneficiation operation in WA as part of its current commissioning program. Commissioning activities have been “progressing well”, according to the company, and a saleable manganese concentrate has now been produced.

In what is becoming a definite trend for graphite developers now, ASX-listed Comet Resources is looking for downstream commercial opportunities for its Springdale graphite deposit near Ravensthorpe in WA. The company says it is aiming to create a graphitic product for use in anodes in the flourishing lithium-ion battery market and its recent test work on ore from Springdale showed excellent recoveries and purity levels.

ASX-listed Lithium Australia’s wholly owned subsidiary, VSPC has pinned its commercialisation hopes on India as the preferred jurisdiction for the proposed development of its lithium ferro phosphate cathode powder production facility. Perth-based Lithium Australia has just tabled an impressive pre-feasibility study that it says points to robust project economics for the manufacture of advanced LFP cathode powders using VSPC’s proprietary processing technology.

Si6 Metals has wrapped up another bundle of solid gold hits from drilling at two key prospects at its Monument gold project in WA. Notable intersections from the recent drilling at the Korong prospect included 5m going 2.56 g/t gold from 124m and 5m at 2.03 g/t from 60m, while Waihi chimed in with 4m at 5.89 g/t from 62m and 3m at 2.45 g/t from 113m.

Legend Mining looks to be tugging on the tail of a tiger in WA’s coveted Fraser Range with drilling continuing to expand the footprint of its exciting Mawson nickel sulphide discovery. An innovative blend of geophysics and deep diamond core drilling has outlined three new nickel targets, which extend over more than 3 kilometres of strike.

ASX-listed Buru Energy is set to kick off a multi-well drilling campaign across its JV ground in Western Australia’s oil-rich Canning Basin around mid-June this year after tying up a suitable drill rig with the grunt to drill both the deep exploration target at its Rafael oil prospect and go horizontally in a new Ungani oil field production well.

Horizon Minerals has returned an impressive initial batch of high-grade gold hits from a reverse circulation and diamond drilling campaign at the joint-ventured Penny’s Find underground gold project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. Better assays include 0.85 metres grading an average 23.56 grams per tonne gold from 216.75m, 1.67m going 17.91 g/t from 178.91m and 1.85m at 13.95 g/t from 251m.

XRF scans of diamond core recovered from deep beneath the earth at St George Mining’s Mt Alexander nickel-copper sulphide project in WA’s Goldfields have turned up some scintillating nickel-copper sulphides with one drill hole delivering 10.96m of continuous nickel-copper sulphides from 333.6m downhole with XRF readings as high as 7.34 per cent nickel and 2.94 per cent copper between 342.1m and 343.4m.

The rods continue to spin for Oar Resources at the Gibraltar halloysite-kaolin discovery in SA with assay results now eagerly awaited from drilling to the north of the original discovery that netted high-grade halloysite with grades of up to 20 per cent in grade. Infill drilling has now commenced and regional exploration is set to follow and the granting of the Crown tenement in WA is also imminent.