Public Company News

Titanium Sands has taken another step towards securing a mining licence for its heavy mineral sands project on Sri Lanka’s Mannar Island after lodging a formal submission with the area’s Central Environment Authority. The company says the CEA and environmental impact assessment consultants recently joined its Sri Lankan staff members on the island for a site visit as it continues to push its mining case.

Altech Batteries has unveiled the new design for its 60KWh Cerenergy sodium chloride solid-state battery pack and now has two prototypes under construction by its project partner, the Fraunhofer Institute in the German city of Dresden. The pack has been upgraded to improve structural integrity, cell retention and connectivity, heat loss and insulation and the ability to endure all temperature extremes.

Globe Metals & Mining has achieved metals extraction of more than 99 per cent on concentrates from its Kanyika niobium project in Malawi following a savvy decision to switch to vapour-chlorination technology. The company says the results validate its decision to move from high-cost, toxic, acid-based extraction and also highlight many other cost, processing, infrastructure, environmental, handling and ESG benefits.

A research and development tax offset of $15.6 million – and a healthy bank balance now at $29.3 million – will underpin Empire Energy Group’s bid to take its Carpentaria pilot project to a final investment decision. The company says its Beetaloo Basin project has the potential to service the Top End and east coast of Australia with more than 500 terajoules of power per day.

Askari Metals has launched a targeted trenching campaign at its flagship Uis lithium project in Namibia, where it will test four high-priority pegmatites within its recently-identified “corridor of interest”. The company will initially focus on its OP target, which has an estimated surface strike of more than 2km, before moving onto the PS, DP and K9 prospects for a total of 111 trenches through 3750m.

Globe Metals & Mining has signed a non-binding term sheet with TCM Research, giving it exclusive use of the latter’s principal technology for processing niobium from the Kanyika project in Malawi. TCM has been selected to design the refinery process for the Kanyika concentrate and to determine the design parameters of a proposed refinery after carrying out metallurgical testwork on a sample.

A raft of solid new gallium hits have backed up Terrain Minerals’ claims in August that it wanted to unearth the silvery-white metal to complement the clay-hosted rare earths at its Lort River project near Esperance in Western Australia. The company says results from its recent AC drilling program included near-surface intersections of 38m at 34.1g/t gallium oxide and 27m at 35.6g/t.

There is new survival hope for people diagnosed with brain cancer after a positive response from patients engaged in a Chimeric Therapeutics trial designed to monitor the efficacy of its promising cell therapy for glioblastoma. The cancer fighter says more than half of its participating patients extended median survival expectations up to 10 months, with two patients demonstrating survival beyond 14 months.

Horizon Minerals will retain financial exposure to 62 tenements within its Kalgoorlie project area despite entering into a binding asset sale agreement for the ground with Northern Star Resources. According to the deal, Northern Star will pay Horizon $3.1 million in cash, in addition to receiving discovery payments of $20 per ounce for any JORC-compliant mineral resource at the sites – capped at 2 million ounces.

Buxton Resources says a new geophysics method has helped to define and prioritise shallow potential open-pit graphite targets at its flagship Graphite Bull project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The company says its recent adoption of the Loupe electromagnetics geophysical survey method has led to multiple near-surface new targets being prioritised near its existing inferred resource.

Strickland Metals has increased its prospective strike target to 700m at the Marwari prospect that forms part of its Horse Well project in WA’s Pilbara region, following results from an air-core campaign. The results include 16m grading 2.2g/t gold from 68m, in addition to 8m at 2.2g/t from 84m, while a hole on the edge of the prospect showed 60m going 0.5g/t gold from 40m.

Prospective ground secured by Buxton Resources in WA’s West Kimberley in 2015 is now looming as a company game-changer – for more reasons than one as it continues to foster a relationship with mining giant IGO. New nickel-copper sulphides potential revealed today from the joint venture’s Quick Shears project could be just the tip of the iceberg for a burgeoning partnership that also includes international exploration.