Public Company News

Aurum Resources has recorded its highest-grade gold hit to date from diamond drilling at its Boundiali project in the West African nation of Côte d'Ivoire, with 1m going 163 grams per tonne from 277m. The impressive section was contained within a wider 12.22m intercept grading 14.56g/t gold from 275m that was recorded 60m down-dip from a previous 4m segment at 22.35g/t from 226m.

White Cliff Minerals is poised for an exploration blitz when it kicks off a maiden fieldwork campaign at its Nunavut copper-gold-silver project in the northern Canadian province of the same name. The company has already identified a slew of high-priority targets at the operation and its imminent field campaign has been designed to include detailed geological mapping and sampling ahead of a maiden drill program.

Si6 Metals has increased its tenement area in the Limpopo Mobile Belt in Botswana by 45 per cent to a total of 2868 square kilometres after being granted a new 903sq-km prospecting licence. The newly-granted ground in the South African country sits 7km south of the company’s high-grade copper-silver projects at Airstrip and Dibete and the Maibele North nickel-copper-cobalt.

Incoming Lindian Resources chief executive officer Alwyn Vorster has vowed to bring the company’s massive flagship Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi into construction and operation “as soon as possible”. The experienced rare earths executive, who has a track-record of managing projects through all stages of development, is expected to take up his new post as of this Saturday.

Aruma Resources is heralding the potentially “company-changing” acquisition of two copper operations in Queensland and a highly-prospective iron oxide-copper-gold and uranium play in South Australia. As part of a share acquisition agreement with NHM Holdings, the company has picked up the Wilan project near Olympic Dam in SA, while also adding the Fiery Creek and Bortala copper operations near Mt Isa in Queensland.

Neometals is looking to stage a US$10 million ($AU15.1 million) cash-and-shares payment to grab an 80 per cent share in a United States-based company which has developed a hydrometallurgical process that selectively recovers precious metals from industrial waste streams. The company says it has secured an option for the acquisition, believing its expertise could increase production by further refining the pilot-plant process.

King River Resources has pocketed a timely R&D tax rebate of more than $361,000 as it ramps up spending on a 10,800m reverse-circulation drill program at its prospective Tennant Creek East copper-gold project in the Northern Territory. The program, which kicks off this week, was delayed for several months due to flooding rains, but will now test 13 prospects at the company’s Top End projects.

Terrain Minerals says the latest gallium and rare earths hits at its Larin’s Lane project have provided more compelling evidence of an emerging mineralisation province in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company’s air-core sample assays show total rare earth oxides (TREO) to a high of 3254ppm and surprisingly-elevated gallium signatures to a maximum of 53.74ppm gallium oxide.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we unravel some of the more curious drill intersections revealed on the ASX last week, including Turaco Gold’s long 105m hit at 1.61 grams per tonne gold from 135m. We also take a close look at other notable drill hits from Everest Metals Corporation, Toubani Resources, Venture Minerals and Aurum Resources.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Strategic Energy Resources. Its share price jumped more than 170 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers Gibb River Diamonds, Sierra Nevada Gold and Charger Metals.

Aurum Resources’ diamond drilling efforts at the company’s Boundiali gold project in West Africa’s northern Côte d'Ivoire have continued to deliver big gold hits – this time 74m grading 1g/t from 167m. The latest set of assays included a 1m high-grade chunk going 24.73g/t as Aurum chases shallow mineralisation at depth with three diamond rigs to support a maiden mineral resource estimate for later this year.

Image Resources has edged a step closer to its mining plans at its high-grade Atlas mineral sands project 90km north of Boonanarring in Western Australia after securing environmental approval for the proposed development. Atlas’ 18 million-tonne resource features a heavy mineral grade of 6 per cent, including 9.3 per cent zircon, 46 per cent ilmenite, 4 per cent leucoxene and 6.5 per cent rutile.