Public Company News

BlackEarth Minerals’ initial metallurgical test work has produced a high grade 96% TGC concentrate with large flake graphite making up more than 52% of its content from composite material obtained from the Razafy prospect. Test work is ongoing on both oxide and primary ore mineralisation from Razafy to establish a preliminary flow sheet design for the current scoping study.

King River Copper has reported encouraging recoveries of vanadium, titanium and iron from separate programs of metallurgical test work underway on ore composites from its flagship Speewah project, located in the Kimberley of WA. The company is seeking the most commercially viable processing route for the ores and to determine the suite of downstream products it can technically generate for the market from the massive project.

Blackstone Minerals has identified the Jewel copper-gold-cobalt prospect in British Columbia as its highest priority drill target after soil sampling identified a 1.5km long copper-gold-cobalt target that sits over a recently identified IP anomaly, that was interpreted to be a potentially large sulphide bearing body. New surface rock chip samples at the Jewel prospect have also returned results of up to 5.6% copper.

Venus Metals’ preliminary beneficiation test work has increased the grade of an oxide composite sample from its Youanmi vanadium project in the Murchison region of WA from 0.58% V2O5 to 0.8% V2O5. This allowed 40% of the mass to be rejected, which could reduce the downstream processing volume and acid consumption. It could also allow Venus to avoid the high capital and operating costs associated with mill processing.

Altech Chemicals has been awarded a key patent from the Australian Patent Office for its proprietary process for the production of high purity alumina from all types of aluminous clay including kaolin, using hydrochloric acid. This enables the company to protect its intellectual property as it progresses development of its proposed HPA plant in Malaysia and associated kaolin mine near Meckering in WA.

Spectrum Metals has acquired the historic Penny West gold mine, located 30km south of the mothballed Youanmi operation in WA. The open pit mine was last worked in 1992 and produced over 85,000 ounces at a staggering grade of 21.8g/t gold. The deposit has a remaining resource of 230,000 tonnes grading 4.8g/t gold for 36,000 ounces, with significant exploration and development potential on two granted mining leases.

Northern Minerals has received a $25m investment from China’s NRE Industrial Group Limited, which is subscribing for 240.4m shares in the company for between 9c and 11c per share. A new private investor is also subscribing for $2m worth of shares priced at 9c each. The funds will be used to progress development of the Browns Range heavy rare earths pilot plant project in the Kimberley region of WA.

Perth-based security surveillance company Spectur has reported revenues of $1.1 million for the September 2018 quarter, up 161% from the corresponding quarter of 2017. The company is also starting trials of its new Shark Warning System, which is based on its solar powered, stand alone, cloud-based HD4 cameras, with the Augusta Margaret River Shire Council in November this year.

ASX listed biotech PharmAust now has sufficient data from testing of different tablet prototypes of its flagship Monepantel anti-cancer drug to take the best performing and most economical tablet for GMP manufacturing. The selected tablets will be used in formal dose escalation studies in healthy Beagle dogs to determine the maximum dose that can be given and with what safety margin.

Hammer Metals’ ongoing rock chip program has returned some extraordinary high grade results of up to 18.4g/t gold, 76g/t silver and 15.15% copper at the new Toby prospect near Mt Isa, Queensland. Follow-up sampling of and mapping of both the Toby and Charlie prospects is underway with results expected soon. The company will also carry out a sub audio magnetics survey and RC drill program at the Perentie project.

Artemis Resources says it finally has a good handle on the geology at its intriguing cobalt-gold-copper ore system at the company's Calow Castle project near Karatha after throwing nearly 25,000 metres of drilling at it this year. The existing resource of 4.5 million tonnes grading 0.9g/t gold, 0.07% cobalt, 0.4% copper and 1.3g/t silver dates from January 2018.

Calidus Resources has intersected wide zones of high grade gold at its Coronation prospect, 12km west of its flagship Klondyke resource in the east Pilbara. Results include a 10m intersection grading 4.69g/t gold from 57m and 5m @ 4.48g/t gold from 35m down-hole. The company’s drill rigs are going flat out at the Warrawoona gold project, targeting ore extensions both down-dip and along strike.