Public Company News

Blackstone Minerals has announced more encouraging results from its maiden drilling program at the Little Gem cobalt-gold play in British Columbia, Canada. High grade results include 3.2m @ 0.8% cobalt and 4g/t gold and were accompanied by extensive alteration zones, indicating a major system may feed the hydrothermal mineralisation being sought.

Tyranna Resources has increased the gold resource at its Jumbuck Gold Project by 46% to 319,000 ounces and is planning a scoping study that will likely include a toll processing option. With all gold mineralisation at less than 100m and still open at depth, Jumbuck is looking to uncover the kind of plunging, high-grade ore shoots seen at the Challenger mine next door.

Calidus Resources has commenced a resource drilling program at its Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara. The company is aiming to expand its mineral resource base beyond 1 million ounces, to underpin a PFS due at year’s end. The 30,000m program will target strike extensions and down-plunge positions at the main Klondyke prospect and also include exploratory drilling of prospective shear zones.

Lithium Australia’s plans to become a significant supplier of battery metals to Europe have taken another step forward with the discovery of cobalt at grades of up to 0.6% at its Eichigt project in Germany. The discovery was made from first-pass exploration in an area that has seen little modern exploration and is not far from the company’s significant lithium resource at the nearby Sadisdorf project.

Draig Resources has announced that a deep exploratory drill hole has intersected 4.3m @ 8.8g/t gold from 575.3m down-hole and is interpreted to be a faulted offset to the main lode at the old Bellevue gold mine that produced 800,000 ounces at around 15 grams per tonne gold. The new discovery is 190 metres west of the historic underground workings and located 500m from surface.

Zinc polymetallic explorer Adriatic Metals has every reason to be pleased with its latest assay results from the waste dump around an historic adit at the Jurasevac prospect at the company’s Vareš Project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Vareš project comprises an old open cut zinc/lead/barite and silver mine at Veovaca and Rupice and an advanced proximal deposit exhibiting high grades of base and precious metals.

King River Copper has provided an unexpected windfall for its investors by converting some of its exploration tax losses into a $306,000 tax credit that will be passed on individually to its shareholders under the Government’s “Exploration Development Incentive.” The credit is made possible by an innovative tax scheme introduced in 2014-15 to help greenfield explorers find Australia’s next big mineral deposit

Metalicity Limited will seek to extract fair value from its giant Admiral Bay zinc project in the Kimberley of W.A by vending all its zinc assets into a new company, Kimberley Mining Limited, to be listed on Canada’s TSX Venture exchange. The deal is worth up to CAD$32.5m for Metalicity and will advance its Admiral Bay project, whilst leaving the company cashed up to pursue its battery metals projects.

Strike Energy is a step closer to discovering whether its Jaws-1 well will be a game-changer for the gas-starved east coast market, with Halliburton’s fracture stimulation equipment on its way to site. The pioneering Jaws-1 well was successfully completed earlier this month and could possibly be within weeks after a seven-stage fracture stimulation program.

ASX-listed biotech PharmAust, has successfully reformulated its promising anti-cancer drug “Monepantel”. Perth-based PharmAust says the new form of Monepantel, which now takes the form of dry tablets, improves the drug’s taste and meets dosage requirements, paving the way for trials in dogs expected to take place by the end of the year ahead of human clinical trials.

Venus Metals has stitched up options with both the plaintiff and the plainted at the historical Younami gold mine, 250km west of Leonora. The transactions will cost less than A$6m in a mix of cash and shares and will guarantee that Venus emerges the victor in a legal dispute that it is not actually a party to. Hundreds of thousands of ounces were left in the ground when the mine was closed in 1997.

In a sure sign of its future strategy, underwater drone specialist Aquabotix will co-locate its American operations with the US military in Virginia in a bid to secure lucrative defence industry contracts. Aquabotix says the co-location with the Joint Munitions Command’s Armament Retooling and Manufacturing Support Program strengthens its links with the US department of defence.