Public Company News

In a Target Statement made to the ASX, Spectrum Metals’ Board has unanimously urged its shareholders to accept the friendly take-over bid by Ramelius Resources. The ASX300 listed company’s implied offer of 15 cents per Spectrum share is a serious 70% increase to its 30-day volume weighted average share price of just over 8 cents. Ramelius’ offer represents an implied value of about $231m for Spectrum’s Penny West gold project.

Hammer Metals will have the rods turning and Geophysicists on the ground very soon at its Mt Isa project in Queensland after being awarded Government grants amounting to $283,000. The windfall will fund a diamond drilling program at the Koppany copper-rare earths project and two magneto telluric surveys, one at the Kalman copper, molybdenum, gold and rhenium deposit and the second across part of the Mt Philp Breccia that is prospective for gold and copper.

After scratching away at the dam wall for a while, it seems that the wall is now crumbling for ASX-listed mining software provider K2fly, with a wave of giant mining companies signing on recently for its unique “RCubed” resource governance software. Latest potential devotees to K2fly’s software include BHP Billiton spin off, South 32, and Vale Australia, a subsidiary of Vale S.A, the largest iron ore producer in the world today.

As the historic Youanmi goldfields gets a new lease on life courtesy of a modern rush of gold explorers, ASX-listed Venus Metals is ahead of the pack with its portfolio of assets surrounding the old Youanmi mine playing host to a range of projects from resource stage to first pass exploration drilling. Venus is about to kick off a geophysical survey across its Penny West Deep South gold target.

ASX-listed Infinity Lithium has executed a binding agreement to divest its African potash assets and the Perth company is now set to focus 100% on its San Jose industrial lithium project in Spain that is looking to lever burgeoning demand for lithium-ion batteries in Europe. Infinity has a 75% interest in San Jose that, according to its pre-feasibility study, is set to deliver 15,000 tonnes per annum of battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

ASX-listed St George Mining has lit up multiple EM anomalies at its various discoveries and prospects along the Cathedrals Belt trend which already boasts a number of high-grade nickel-copper sulphide mineralised zones. St George says it is planning to start drilling the new anomalies shortly and complete resource definition drilling at its Stricklands prospect, all of which are a part of its Mt Alexander project, 120km from the world-class Agnew-Wiluna nickel belt.

ASX-listed Calidus Resources said the near-term development strategy for its 1.25Moz Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara has received a shot in the arm after the project was granted a streamlined State and Federal environmental approval process. The WA office of the EPA has advised Calidus that it will assess the project as an “Accredited Assessment”. Calidus is targeting 100,000 ounces of gold per year at Warrawoona.

In a stunning turnaround, AusIndustry has reversed its decision to deny Northern Minerals’ $24.16m research and development tax offset grant relating to its Browns Range heavy rare earths plant in the Kimberley. The ATO will now review the claim and it looks likely that the outcome will be so profound that it will allow Northern Minerals to thrive and possibly even submit a further multi-million dollar claim for FY19.

Spectrum Metals is not sitting idly by while shareholders consider a takeover bid by ASX-listed Ramelius Resources Ltd. In fact, Spectrum is gearing up for another bunch of drill holes around the various deposits that make up its Penny West gold project. It is targeting resource additions to add to an already healthy maiden estimate of 799kt at 13.8g/t for 355,500 ounces of contained gold.

With rhodium and platinum touching record prices, Podium Minerals has revealed a swathe of notable rhodium assays at its Parks Reef PGM project near Cue in WA. Demand for the rare metal is forecast to soar ahead of its increasing use as a catalyst in automotive catalytic converters, a vehicle part that cleans up exhaust fumes. The company is now looking at rhodium as a potential “credit” metal, with re-assay results averaging about 3% to 4% rhodium within the platinum, palladium plus gold zones across the entire Parks Reef deposit.

Lithium Australia has received a notice of acceptance from IP Australia, all but ensuring that the patent applications for its “LieNA” lithium processing technology will be approved. The company patents will provide for 20 years of protection for its intellectual property with the technology set to revolutionise the lithium industry by increasing lithium recoveries by more than 85% from fine spodumene ore, waste or even tailings streams.

AVZ Minerals is on the home stretch of its mammoth DFS, which is due to hit the market next month, with phase two metallurgical test work delivering another exceptional batch of results that reinforce the potential economic viability of its Manono lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. A bulk 2,000 kilogram sample yielded a 160-kilogram concentrate grading 6.1% lithium oxide at over 60% lithia recovery.