Public Company News

ASX listed Alterra is taking a page out of Wesfarmers’ playbook with a proposal to demerge its carbon forestry business and focus on the development of its agribusiness projects. The move is expected to realise the full value of the carbon business and generate a potential windfall to shareholders who will now own 85% of the carbon business in their own right whilst retaining their Alterra shares.

Great Southern Mining has outlined its initial exploration strategy for its new Mt Weld gold play, located 30km southeast of Laverton in the northern Goldfields region of WA. The company will acquire remote geophysical data and complete on-site mapping and surface sampling at the project during this quarter. The project area is centred 12km from the company’s flagship Mon Ami gold project that contains at least 59,000 gold ounces.

Lithium Australia has reached in principle agreement with a battery researcher for the development of advanced silicon anodes that could significantly increase the energy density of lithium-ion batteries. The company is planning to establish facilities for the development of the new graphite/silicon anodes at its VSPC plant in Brisbane with operations starting under the terms of an MOU.

Strike Energy’s $16.1m all-scrip takeover bid for Perth Basin-focused oil and gas company UIL Energy has been found to be both fair and reasonable by an independent expert. The company also said its Jaws-1, deep coal seam gas well in South Australia is now starting to flow gas continuously with regular bursts of up to 100,000 cubic feet per day and gas flows continuing to build.

Hammer Metals has produced some exceptional copper and gold recoveries from initial metallurgical test work studies on ores from its Jubilee prospect, located in the Mount Isa mining district of north-western Queensland. The company achieved exceptional copper recoveries of 98% and even managed gold recoveries of 80%, essentially as a bonus credit in the final concentrate during mineral flotation test work for Jubilee.

PharmAust has signed an agreement with US company Catalent Pharma Solutions for the GMP-grade manufacture of its “Monepantel” anti-cancer drug for its upcoming clinical trials in dogs. Manufacturing the drugs to GMP standards will enable the resultant data to be admissible to the US FDA in support of new drug registration programs, a key milestone for PharmAust.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has finalised the sale of its cannabis-based cosmetics business, MGC Derma, to CannaGlobal for a 10% stake in the private Canadian cannabis investment company. MGC has also received CAD$500,000 for an initial supply order under an exclusive five-year agreement to supply cannabidiol and cosmetics materials to CannaGlobal for the manufacture of the MGC Derma range of products.

Metalicity Limited has secured nearly 2200 square kilometres of promising looking copper-gold exploration tenements over two projects in the sought after Paterson Province of the eastern Pilbara region. The new projects are surrounded by operating mines and significant mineral occurrences. The company is in the process of selling its zinc and lithium interests as it shifts focus towards its copper, nickel and cobalt assets.

ASX listed upstart telco Vonex’s success in growing its cloud PBAX business continues unabated with the company now boasting 25,000 registered users as at the end of October 2018, up 25% from the same time in 2017. Further growth is expected as the second phase of Vonex’s very successful marketing campaign across Australian capital cities hits its stride.

Australian Potash has successfully intersected brines in recent deep aircore drilling at its Lake Wells sulphate of potash project located near Laverton in WA. All new drill holes ended in permeable deep sand aquifers suitable for abstracting the drainable mineral commodity. The new data should allow an upgrade of the existing resources into the measured status of classification, ahead of the company’s highly anticipated DFS.

Adriatic Metals has revealed another exceptional intersection from its Bosnian, multi-commodity play with the latest numbers from the Rupice prospect turning up a serious looking 18 metre intersection grading 17.6% zinc, 9.4% lead, 3.8g/t gold and 508g/t silver from 162m down-hole. The result is 100m up-dip from a previous high grade result and grows the mineralised footprint ahead of the company’s maiden resource estimate.

Azumah Resources has kicked off a massive 40,000m multi-target drilling campaign to be managed and funded by Perth mining investment fund Ibaera Capital. Azumah is seeking to achieve a major boost to its resource and reserve numbers at the interesting looking project as it looks to deliver a feasibility study by the end of the year.