Public Company News

ASX-listed Lithium Australia has taken a major step forward in its mission to obtain patents for the recovery of lithium phosphate from lithium bearing silicates and solutions after the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organisation published two of the company’s patent applications. It is the fourth step on the road to the granting of the patents, which can take some time to achieve.

Canning Basin focussed hydrocarbon explorer and producer, Buru Energy, has reported $3.5 million in revenues from its flagship Ungani oilfield near Broome in WA. Buru is sitting on 5.5 million acres of development and exploration permits in the Canning and it is already turning out about 1,400 barrels of oil per day at its flagship oilfield.

King River Resources has received all assay results following a drilling campaign at its Mt Remarkable project in WA. A new mineralised zone 150 metres east of the main Trudi deposit with notable gold grades up to 2.42 grams per tonne has been identified. The best result to date from the Trudi Main vein is 6 meters grading 5.95 grams per tonne gold from a shallow depth of just 20 meters downhole.

ASX-listed rare earth’s producer, Northern Minerals, looks to be potentially onto something in the East Kimberly with some solid results from rock chip sampling, grading up to 2.92% copper at its John Galt Project, located 200 kilometres south of Kununurra in WA. The rock chip sampling program covered an area of 2 kilometres by 500 metres with half of all samples returning high copper grades of 1% or greater.

ASX-listed Australian Potash has hit a major milestone at its Lake Wells gold project in WA, with the Perth-based company announcing the completion by St Barbara, of its expenditure commitments under the first earn-in stage of a joint venture between the two companies. St Barbara will now proceed to the second earn-in stage which requires a further $3.5 million spend.

ASX-listed mineral sands miner, Image Resources, has capped a successful first year of operations at its zircon-rich, Boonanarring mineral sands mine in WA, with the company reporting that it has easily met its 2019 production and sales targets and is now upwardly revising its heavy mineral concentrate production estimates for 2020. Image’s commissioning of its mineral sands mine in WA was almost text book perfect last year, coming in on time and on budget with no major setbacks.

Podium Minerals has just revealed a suite of base metal results to add to its impressive platinum, palladium plus gold intercepts at its Parks Reef project, near Cue in WA. With mineralised strike extending up to 15 kilometres, the latest results have provided a shot in the arm for Podium’s impending resource update. The latest encouraging assays include include 11 meters grading 3.13 grams per tonne platinum, palladium plus gold and 0.26% copper from just 20m downhole.

ASX listed biotech, PharmAust, has been awarded a one-year extension to its contract with not for profit organization, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, which commemorates the 12th-year of association between the two parties. Under the contract, which is expected to bring in $1.24m in revenue, PharmAust’s subsidiary, Epichem, will provide synthetic and medicinal chemistry services focused on developing new treatments for neglected diseases.

ASX-listed tech company, K2fly, has more than doubled its accounts tally for the December 2019 financial quarter compared to the same quarter last year, with a record $1.67 million worth of invoices raised. Importantly, the crucial “annual recurring revenue” metric which is pretty much the closest thing to an annuity income stream that generally underpins software companies, was up 40% year on year for K2fly.

Medicinal cannabis player, MGC Pharmaceuticals, has unveiled a new medicinal cannabis-based line for Australian and New Zealand markets to be called “Mercury Pharma” with its first product, Mercury Pharma 100, a prescription-only 100mg/mL cannabidiol product. The company has received purchase orders for over 2,000 product units already, which will see revenues of around $270,000 realised.

Horizon Minerals’ Boorara gold project east of Kalgoorlie is nearing its moment of truth as the aspiring developer aims to commence production on three ‘starter’ pits later this year. A major grade control drilling program has recently been completed that will underpin an updated suite of mine optimisations and designs at the project. The geological model to follow from the drilling will provide a significant amount of confidence and potential grade upside.

Lithium Australia, through one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, VSPC, has signed a potentially lucrative agreement with major Chinese chemical manufacturer, Beijing Saideli Technology, that will see the Perth based company progress the commercialisation of its battery cathode technology. The plan is to hit the downstream lithium-ion supply chain, collaborating on an international scale to commercialise VSPC’s cathode technology.