Public Company News

ASX-listed Valor Resources has signed an earn-in agreement with global copper and gold producer Barrick Gold Corporation at its Charaque project in Peru. Under the deal, Barrick has a five-year option to acquire 70 per cent of the operation for a cash payment of $1.2 million. Valor says the agreement allows it to focus on the upcoming drill campaign at its flagship Picha copper project.

Strickland Metals has entered into a binding agreement to sell its Millrose gold project to neighbouring global gold miner Northern Star Resources in a deal worth about $61 million. The deal has netted the company $41 million in cash and 1.5 million fully-paid ordinary Northern Star shares, with a $2 million cash deposit paid on the execution of the agreement.

ASX-listed explorer Gold Mountain’s stock doubled from 0.0035 cents to 0.007c after it unveiled a massive land acquisition in prime lithium real estate in Brazil. Management says its 3921sq-km package gives the company the biggest footprint of any Australian explorer in the region as it looks to transform from gold explorer to lithium player.

Oil explorer 88 Energy has confirmed it has multiple targets waiting to be tested at Project Phoenix once the Alaskan winter operation season begins in October. While the company waits to get boots on the ground, it plans to comb over scores of mud gas isotubes and wireline data in a bid to get a better understanding of the project’s composition.

Brightstar Resources has cracked the magical million-ounce milestone after upgrading the resource for its Cork Tree Well deposit to a total of 1.02 million gold ounces across its Laverton and Menzies projects. The independently-completed upgrade at the deposit saw Cork Tree Well increase by 20 per cent from 252,000 gold ounces up to 303,000 ounces of the precious yellow metal.

ASX-listed Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has highlighted a gold-mineralised corridor with a strike length of nearly 7km following reconnaissance fieldwork across its Zelica project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields region. The company has recorded high-grade gold mineralisation in near-surface quartz veining, including results of up to 39.6 grams per tonne gold and 6.44g/t gold from rock chip samples at its West Nest prospect.

American West Metals has continued to ride a copper wave at its Storm project in Canada after revealing more thick and high-grade intervals near surface, with a headline 1.5m hit going an impressive 8 per cent. The company says its “outstanding results” point to the ongoing consistency and scale of its copper mineralisation … with the promise of more to come.

TSX-listed Novo Resources has secured the support of giant neighbour De Grey Mining as a cornerstone investor and potential joint venture (JV) partner in a deal worth up to $35 million at the Becher gold project in WA’s Pilbara region. De Grey could earn a 50 per cent interest in the project and adjacent tenements as part of the deal.

Estrella Resources’ share price doubled this morning on the back of the company revealing an impending world-first helicopter-borne electromagnetic survey (TargetEM) at its Carr Boyd nickel-copper-PGE project in Western Australia. Given the significant technology and sensitivity upgrades of its new system, Estrella is intensifying its hunt for drill targets that previously evaded detection while using the older technology.

ABx Group has hit some “major milestones” through its 83 per cent-owned subsidiary Alcore by finalising the preliminary engineering design phase for its pilot facility and ordering a laboratory reactor. The alumina technologist and rare earths explorer is developing a pilot plant in NSW to recover fluorine from an aluminium smelter waste product to produce hydrogen fluoride.

Terrain Minerals has added a Queensland operation to its raft of WA projects after lodging tenement applications for about 2500 square kilometres of highly-prospective ground near the Cracow gold mine. It says its extensive “Biloela” package includes at least two known historic copper mines, in addition to copper and gold targets first identified by mining giants Rio Tinto, Gold Fields and Newcrest Mining.

Askari Metals has expanded its lithium foothold in Western Australia’s Pilbara region by finalising its purchase of Greenstone Lithium’s 60-square-kilometre Hillside lithium project after fully acquiring the now former owner. Management says the acquisition takes the company’s total landholding in the promising region to 2300sq km. The Hillside project covers two granted tenements considered prospective for lithium, tin and tantalum mineralisation.