Public Company News

Strike Energy has brought its Jaws-1 deep coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin, South Australia, back online after completing workover operations and has restarted the depressurisation of the Vu Upper coal seam. This is aimed at returning the Jaws well to its critical desorption pressure and reinitiating gas flows. The company said the pumps would be slowly ramped up to ensure sustainability of the pumping operations.

Aurora Labs has formed a collaboration with the University of Western Australia and Royal Perth Hospital to develop designs, specifications and parameters for the 3D printing of human medical implants. The company will provide one of its 3D printers, the metallic consumable powders used for 3D printing, and the assistance of its maintenance and technical staff as its contribution to the project.

Nzuri Copper has received an all-cash takeover offer from leading Chinese industrial player Chengtun Mining Group, that values the company at 37c a share, or about AUD$109.5m. The company owns the Kalongwe copper-cobalt project within the Central African Copperbelt in the far south of the DRC, which holds an ore reserve of 8 million tonnes grading 2.94% copper and 0.34% cobalt, which was used to underpin the company’s 2018 feasibility study.

The Tanzanian Government has granted Black Rock Mining two mining licences over its massive Mahenge graphite project and the company now looks to be a real chance at making the quantum leap from explorer to miner. The impressive DFS for Mahenge shows a 32-year project life that could generate a post-tax NPV of USD$895m and an IRR of 42.8% with CAPEX numbers that don’t look to be too frightening.

Metalicity has more than doubled its targeted areas in the emerging Paterson copper-nickel-gold province in WA with its application for seven new exploration licences in three project areas that cover a total area of 3000km2. Exploration by WMC from 1966 to 1971 at the priority Warburton target, identified about 200 copper mineral occurrences and geochemically anomalous soils over significant strike lengths.

MGC Pharmaceuticals has received independent verification from the University of Ljubljana Biotechnical Faculty and Pharma Lab in Slovenia that its proprietary cannabis strains have industry-leading levels of CBD and THC. The company will now carry out an additional breeding round as part of the genetics registration in the European Union to demonstrate the stability of the strains.

Aurora Labs is in detailed discussions regarding its 3D printing technology with two leading automotive manufacturers, two aerospace companies and several heavy machinery manufacturers. The company recently demonstrated the ability of its multi-level 3D printers to achieve print speeds of about 113kg per day, which is up to 55 times faster than the general market speed for 3D printing of around 1.96kg per day for titanium printing.

Hot Chili has executed an option agreement to acquire a 100% interest in Chilean mining group SCM Carola’s Vallenar landholdings, that are adjacent to the company’s Productora and El Fuego copper assets in Chile. The new Cortadera tenements hold a significant copper-gold porphyry discovery which contains extraordinarily wide, consistent, drill intersections of copper-gold mineralisation only released earlier this month.

ASX-listed Australian Potash has started final field programs in the Definitive Feasibility Study for its Lake Wells sulphate of potash project near Laverton, WA. The company will drill up to three production wells for long term pump testing to confirm flow rates and construct trial evaporation ponds to establish the optimal commercial-scale pond design, in terms of cost of construction and effectiveness of the design.

Blina Minerals has exercised an option to fully acquire the Maintirano copper project in western Madagascar, after completing extensive due diligence. Recent field work turned up very encouraging results with several samples exceeding 5% copper, including a sample that registered 37.5% copper and 33ppm silver. The company will now carry out airborne surveys to assist locating additional mineralisation.

Vonex has added more than 1000 new registered PABX users in less than one month, double its typical growth rate of about 500 users per month. This takes its total registered user base to 27,000 as at 21 February 2019. The growth is due to in part to its new channel partner-focused sales software that significantly reduced average deployment time for a hosted PABX customer and the continued rollout of the NBN.

BlackEarth Minerals’ Maniry project in Madagascar now extends over 5km of strike, with the company locating wide, high grade graphite mineralisation over 52m grading 7.03% total graphitic carbon at its new Razafy SE prospect. The trench samples represent the true width of the mineralisation and may outline the potential for significant additional high-grade graphite resources to enhance the value of the project.