Public Company News

Maiden drilling on two prospects at St George’s Ajana project in Western Australia has turned up trumps, with significant widespread and shallow zinc-lead-silver mineralisation seen in an untested play concept for the area. The company is now planning more drilling through a vast crop of highly-prospective targets with a similar fingerprint of gravity and/or magnetic anomalies.

88 Energy will flow test four reservoir zones in its Hickory-1 oil well in Alaska’s north during the coming winter operational season. Hickory-1 – part of the company’s project Phoenix, which was previously known as Icewine East – is cased and suspended awaiting the arrival of Rig-111, which is expected to start re-entry of the well from next month.

Reach Resources’ maiden reverse-circulation and deep diamond drilling at its Bonzer prospect at Yinnetharra has intersected multiple thick pegmatites in all holes, including some at depth that do not outcrop at surface. The program was run to follow-up extensive soil and rock-chip sampling results that returned significant lithium, caesium and tantalum values. The discovery highlights the potential for significant lithium mineralisation.

Lindian Resources has moved to commercialise its Gaoual bauxite project in Guinea by inking a memorandum of understanding for a possible sales contract with prominent miner Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée. Lindian will complete a feasibility study for its 102-million-tonne deposit within two years, while the companies negotiate a possible sales contract for the high-aluminium oxide product.

Buru Energy will feed appraisal drilling plans by collecting 200 square kilometres of 3D seismic data from its 100 per cent-owned Rafael gas-condensate project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia’s Canning Basin. The company says interpretation of a fast-tracked volume, also using information from some 2D lines, will be complete in the last quarter of this year.

American West Metals has unveiled bonanza copper grades at its Storm project in Canada with a 0.3m intercept at a whopping 42.8 per cent copper from 67m, in addition to identifying a new zone of mineralisation. The impressive hit was contained within 46m going 2.2 per cent from 64m, including 15.6m grading 4.2 per cent from 65m.

Lycaon Resources says it has intersected more than 13m of visual nickel-copper sulphides from 364m after plunging a maiden diamond drillhole into its Bow River project near Argyle in Western Australia. The company says it signals the potential for a deep and prolific economic accumulation. A second hole is planned to test the keel position of the ultramafic intrusive, where massive sulphide accumulations could exist.

Lithium Universe is on the ground at its Apollo project in Canada’s James Bay, armed with a helicopter and a swag of targets generated by artificial intelligence – less than a month after re-listing on the ASX. The company has used a combination of satellite imagery, geophysics and fieldwork ahead of testing a regional faulted greenstone belt running through Apollo to Winsome Resources’ Adina project.

GreenTech Metals has confirmed spodumene as the dominant lithium mineral in a single rock-chip sample from its Osborne joint venture ground following x-ray diffraction (XRD) mineral characterisation analysis. Previous chemical analysis had revealed the sample contained a healthy 3.6 per cent lithium oxide, prompting management to confirm its host mineral. Spodumene is the most common host mineral in hard-rock lithium deposits.

Perth-based explorer Emu NL has kicked off its maiden drilling campaign at its 100 per cent-owned Condingup clay-hosted rare earths project, near Esperance on Western Australia’s scenic south coast. The 3000m air-core program will test rare earths enrichment within clay traps imaged by passive seismic, adjacent to and overlying the fertile Booanya granite, which the company says may have leached its pay into the clays.

An induced-polarisation survey at Strickland Metals’ Great Western project has thrown up a bonzer drill target for the company, with a high-chargeability anomaly centred over coincident gravity, magnetic and geochemical anomalies. Management believes its survey confirms Great Western as a compelling drill target that potentially represents a large-scale high-grade orogenic gold mineralised system at the site that sits 85km north-east of Wiluna.

A significant increase in recycling division sales has doubled Lithium Australia’s annual revenue in the past financial year to $5.5 million, up from $2.5 million during the previous reporting period. Associated sales costs were also cut by $600,000 down to $4 million, resulting in a gross profit of $1.5 million for the year compared to a gross loss last year of $1.7 million.