Public Company News

Adriatic Metals has significantly increased its land holdings at the exciting Vares project in Bosnia, after receiving an Exploration Permit to expand the existing concession area over the Rupice and Veovaca base metals prospects. The company will immediately begin drilling at Rupice North and aims to extend high grade mineralisation down plunge from a 66m thick, high grade intersection it reported in October last year.

88 Energy is preparing to carry out wireline logging operations at its potentially high impact Winx-1 exploration well in Alaska’s famed “North Slope” oil province after completing drilling operations. Interpretation of the wireline logging data will allow a decision to be made on whether to proceed with production testing of the most prospective zone within the primary target Nanushuk formation.

Northern Minerals has generated a maiden mineral resource estimate for its Dazzler rare earths deposit, located 15km south of the Browns Range mining and pilot processing operations in the Kimberley region of WA. The inferred resource contains 144,000 tonnes grading 2.23% total rare earth oxides, which is the equivalent of about 3,200 tonnes of TREO and includes a significant quantity of the sought-after element dysprosium.

Caravel Minerals’ RC drilling has intersected more thick zones of copper including 138m @ 0.35% copper from 74m down-hole and 200m @ 0.31% copper from 42m at its namesake project in the Wheatbelt, WA. Results from the recently completed drilling campaign will now be incorporated into an updated mineral resource model for the Bindi deposit that is scheduled for completion later this quarter.

Artemis Resources has upgraded mineral resources at its Carlow Castle gold-copper-cobalt project near Karratha in the Pilbara region of WA, boosting the tonnages by 71% over last year’s estimate. The deposit now contains an inferred resource of 7.7 million tonnes grading 1.06g/t gold, 0.51% copper and 0.08% cobalt. Last month the company reported exceptional recoveries of gold, copper and cobalt from metallurgical test work at the project.

Lithium Australia’s new refining process has successfully produced a high purity lithium phosphate product for use in lithium-ion batteries, bypassing the need to produce lithium hydroxide or carbonate. The new process fits seamlessly into the SiLeach process and greatly reduces the concentrations of impurities such as potassium, sodium and sulphur, providing scope to further improve battery performance.

Sky and Space Global has signed a trial agreement with African mobile telecommunications provider MTN Nigeria that could result in a commercial agreement for the use of its satellite-based narrow-band communications network. The two companies will examine the potential for collaborative projects using advanced Internet of Things and narrow band applications in the growing African market.

Spectrum Metals has added a bit of polish to its Penny West project near Youanmi in WA discovering 14 metres of mineralisation grading 14.4g/t gold and 4.11g/t silver from 124m down-hole. The zone is north of the historic Penny West open cut, that produced 85,000 ounces grading 21.8g/t gold in the early 1990s. The company said it would expand its drilling to follow up the new find.

Strike Energy has added a new Jurassic sand sequence target that could host about 7.2 million barrels of oil to its upcoming West Erregulla-2 well in the North Perth Basin, WA, which will be drilled in the second quarter of 2019. A success at West Erregulla-2 has the potential to re-value the adjoining acreage to the south and east that were part of the UIL Energy acquisition late last year.

88 Energy has encountered encouraging oil shows whilst drilling its potentially high impact Winx-1 exploration well in Alaska’s famed North Slope oil province. Data observed while drilling the Nanushuk formation in the Winx-1 well appears to be comparable with a nearby third party well targeting the same formation. The company also encountered oil shows in the deeper Torok formation.

King River Resources has extracted up to 97% vanadium in heated sulphuric acid vat leaching metallurgical test work on mineral concentrates from its massive Speewah specialty metals project, located near Kununurra in the Kimberley region of WA. The company previously stated that the results support an alternative ore processing route for its flagship project that could drastically lower capital and operating costs.

Black Rock Mining’s EPC partner Yantai Jinyaun has delivered high quality, flake dominant, graphite concentrates exceeding 99% purity at 93% recovery from pilot plant test work studies in China on ores from the company’s Mahenge deposit in Tanzania. The work was aimed at optimising circuit design and process flowsheets and resulted in an improved graphite flake distribution, whilst preserving exceptional concentrate grades.