Public Company News

Northern Minerals is ramping up the development of its Browns Range heavy rare earths project near Halls Creek, WA, by purchasing an ore sorting module to upgrade mill feed, potentially doubling the ore grade and reducing operating costs. The company recently obtained commitments for a $30 million placement split into three roughly equal tranches, the first of which totalled $11.9m and was received last week.

King River Resources has started reconnaissance geological exploration field programs and rock chip sampling over several newly granted exploration licences that lie along strike from its Mt Remarkable gold project near Kununurra, WA. The field work has already unearthed new occurrences of quartz-feldspar veining, similar to the very high-grade Trudi Vein system located at Mt Remarkable.

Lithium Australia has firmed up its alliance with Chinese battery manufacturer DLG Battery with the formation of a joint marketing division that will provide a range of lithium-ion batteries, or “LIBs”, with a focus on industry-scale energy storage products. The new Soluna Australia division will also provide technical support, customer service and custom products for large-scale storage applications.

Hammer Metals is cashed up to carry out its maiden drilling program at the Bronzewing South gold project in Western Australia next month, after raising more than $1.76m through a placement priced at 2 cents per share. The company is carrying out an induced polarisation survey to refine potential drilling targets identified during the initial field reconnaissance programs.

Classic Minerals has generated high-grade gold intersections from drilling at its emerging Kat Gap project near Southern Cross, WA, which have doubled the strike length of the ore system to 400 metres. The program targeted the ore body along strike and produced exceptional, shallow drilling results including 7m @ 24.3g/t from 24m down-hole, 9m @ 15.2g/t gold from 22m and 10m @ 8.2g/t from 7m in separate holes.

Kairos Minerals has recovered 223 gold nuggets weighing a total of 21.1 ounces that were hosted directly within a conglomerate unit, from a newly identified area at its Croydon project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The company said the discovery is analogous to the basal gold-bearing conglomerate horizon discovered by Canadian explorer Novo Resources at the Purdy’s Reward project more than 100km to the west northwest.

Calidus Resources has intersected high-grade gold with a bonanza hit of 1m @ 107.2g/t gold from 36m down-hole in a broader intersection of 13m @ 11.1g/t gold from 30m, during infill drilling at the Klondyke-St George shear-hosted deposits within its Warrawoona project, near Marble Bar, WA. The drilling campaign is aimed at upgrading mineral resources and proving up additional ore reserves to support the company’s BFS.

Alterra has appointed Brett Heather as its chief operating and technical officer as it prepares to address opportunities in Australia’s high-value avocado sector. Mr Heather helped transform the avocado category with one of Australia’s leading retailers by driving cost efficiencies from field to fork, improving post-harvest handling and implementing technology to ensure that consumers received the best possible product.

Strike Energy is preparing to carry out wireline logging at its multi-target West Erregulla-2 well in the Perth Basin, Western Australia, that flowed gas to surface earlier this month from the Basal Wagina formation. The company will also evaluate the shallower Lesueur Sandstone and Woodada Siltstone formations before casing the well and drilling ahead to intersect the primary target Kingia-High Cliff sand sequence.

Spectrum Metals’ drilling campaign at the Penny West project near Youanmi, WA, has returned its deepest high-grade gold intersection to date, with a spectacular 9m @ 15.9g/t gold from 294m down-hole, incorporating a 6-metre section going 22.5g/t gold from 295m. The company said additional drill rigs would commence work in August and that the latest results indicate gold mineralisation remains open at depth down-plunge.

Troy Resources’ infill, extensional and exploratory drilling programs at the Ohio Creek prospect of its Karouni project in Guyana have returned high-grade hits of up to 5m @ 27.5g/t gold from 62m down-hole. The results to date indicate that a coherent mineralised ore system is present over a strike length of at least 500m, with widths of up to 20m and a vertical depth of 125m.

Aurora Labs is proceeding with the commercialisation of its proprietary MCP 3D printing technology after its RMP1 Beta Printer completed full-size test prints as part of the commissioning process. Advanced discussions are already underway for the potential sale of the RMP1 Beta Printer to one of the company’s industrial partners while interest has been received from several potential customers for its upcoming production machines.