Public Company News

Aruma Resources has unveiled plans to undertake a maiden round of RC drilling at its Mount Deans lithium project approximately 10 kilometres south of Norseman in WA. The Perth-based company says the project should benefit from its location close to road and rail infrastructure that provides easy access to the Port of Esperance. Mount Deans contains a “swarm” of 71 recognised pegmatites covering 4.5km by 1.5km.

Zuleika Gold’s namesake project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields continues to deliver some tantalising results, with aircore drilling across the company’s Paradigm East discovery outlining gold mineralisation along more than 1.8 kilometres of strike. Results from the recent drilling program include 12 metres at 3.3 grams per gold, which included 4m at 6.0 g/t gold from 72 down-hole, pointing to the deeper potential of the extensive ore system.

Element 25 has wasted no time in laying the foundations for a “stage two” development at its new Butcherbird manganese mining and beneficiation operation in WA. The Perth-based company has just squared away a capital raise worth $35.5 million that it says will largely go towards a planned expansion of Butcherbird’s annual manganese concentrate output from about 365,000 tonnes to more than one million tonnes a year.

Wiluna Mining is edging closer to executing its expansion plans at its Wiluna mine. Firm commitments to raise $7.5m have been received as major shareholders and Wiluna’s Executive Chairman, Milan Jerkovic, line up to plough in another $14m. The money will be used to lift the mine’s production to 120,000 ounces of gold a year and study the potential for it to move to 250,000 ounces per annum.

ASX-listed Altech Chemicals’ 75 per cent-owned subsidiary, Altech Industries Germany has kicked off a pre-feasibility study for a 10,000 tonne per annum high purity alumina battery materials coating plant in Saxony, Germany. The PFS will integrate Altech’s “nano-layer” HPA coating technology with HPA produced at the company’s plant in Malaysia which will be fed from Altech’s kaolin deposit near Meckering in Western Australia.

Podium Minerals has tabled an array of high-grade intercepts from drilling at its Parks Reef PGM discovery in WA. Exploration across the central and eastern sectors of the emerging deposit has delivered some exciting results including 46 metres at 2.01 grams per tonne 3PGM from only 12m and 7m at 5.75 g/t 3PGM, which includes an impressive 1m at 25.74 g/t 3PGM from 89m down-hole.

Kingwest Resources has released a “strong economic case” for mining to kick off at its multi-deposit Menzies gold project in WA. The company’s scoping study on Menzies points to a proposed open-cut mining and toll treatment operation spitting out estimated net revenue of $330 million and free cash flows of between $64 million and $95 million across an initial project life of just over two-and-a-half years.

The rods are set to spin again for Oar Resources at the Gibraltar halloysite-kaolin project on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. A recently completed maiden air-core campaign netted kaolinite and high-grade halloysite up to 20 per cent in grade, with halloysite reported in 24 of the 59 holes drilled. An aggressive 2,500m air-core drilling campaign has commenced to follow-up on the intriguing discovery.

ASX-listed explorer, Venus Metals says latest drill hits have extended the known area of high-grade gold mineralisation at the exciting Grace gold discovery at its joint-ventured Youanmi gold project in WA by 100 metres to the south. Stand-out RC drill intersections received for three of 18 recently completed holes were 8m at 19.9 g/t gold from 68m including 4m at 38.3 g/t.

Novo Resources is set to pocket another $5 million in cash as the sale of its Blue Spec mine draws to a close. The company has offloaded the high-grade mine in the Pilbara to aspiring gold miner Calidus Resources, who has recently commenced construction of its Warrawoona mine and will use the ores from the mothballed operation to boost its own developing production profile.

Legendary former New Zealand national rugby team captain, Sean Fitzpatrick is about to become a regular at ASX-listed junior explorer, White Cliff Minerals. Fitzpatrick has been appointed as Strategic Advisor to the company in a deal that will see White Cliff pick up a slew of lucrative-looking gold projects in the land of the long white cloud.

ASX-listed budding gold producer, Calidus Resources says its Blue Spec high-grade satellite gold deposit is set to significantly boost annual production at its under-construction Warrawoona gold mine in WA’s East Pilbara region, following a Blue Spec “integration” study. According to the study, the company is now looking at forecast gold production averaging 110,000 ounces per annum across the first seven years of production at Warrawoona.