Public Company News

A young geologist who made several gold discoveries in the Forrestania gold belt 20 years ago has returned to the region at the helm of Classic Minerals to complete some unfinished business. Exciting geological models that went untested years ago because of a 2001 corporate collapse are finally being put to the test and already yielding spectacular results.

Greenland Minerals and Energy is manoeuvring itself to be one of the world’s largest suppliers of rare earth minerals outside of China. The company is looking to ride the clean energy wave with its elephant sized rare earths play in Greenland and it has already managed to lasso a major Chinese rare earths investor with a balance sheet worth around $4.5b.

Sky and Space Global has hit another milestone in its foray into the South American telecommunications market, with the ASX-listed company commencing testing of its nano-satellite based narrow-band communications network with major regional telco Globalsat Group. After testing, the two companies plan to negotiate a deal that will see Sky and Space provide telco services to Globalsat’s pan-South American customer base.

Aspire Mining has welded together a powerful consortium of Chinese players to deliver on its giant coal project in Mongolia. The ASX-listed junior said last week it has now expanded its consortium to include massive Chinese Government contracting firm The Gezhouba Group. The building of the proposed 549km rail will open up a world of opportunities for Aspire to commercialise its globally significant Ovoot coking coal project.

ASX-listed DroneShield has taken another major step with its cutting-edge anti-drone military hardware, winning a Paraguay Government tender for its drone defence products. The tender is a landmark deal for DroneShield, representing its first South American order and comes amid a ramp up in demand for drone-related security products in that country.

Reedy Lagoon Corporation’s innovative lithium brines play in Nevada is about to be put to the test, with the company spudding a big, 1000-metre deep well at its Columbus Salt Marsh project. The well is the first of its kind to be drilled under new regulations in Nevada and will take about 30 days to reach its target depth before testing begins in earnest.

Altech Chemicals has finalised a US$170m debt package guaranteed by the German Government on very favourable terms to cover more than half the cost of their high purity alumina project, based on the Meckering kaolin deposit in W.A. The “extremely attractive” loan is part of a $US190 million debt package subsidised by Germany because the project will use German technology and engineering.

Lithium Australia is set to become a producer of battery grade lithium chemicals and, in the process, establish its breakthrough SiLeach technology as the way of the future for the downstream lithium industry around the globe. The company has committed to build a large-scale pilot plant producing 2,500 tonnes of lithium carbonate per annum, with a view to ramping up to 10 times that production.

Galena Mining is racing towards a prefeasibility study on a high-grade-underground development of the giant Abra lead-silver deposit after completing a maiden drill program with high-grade hits encountered in every hole. Final assays released today completed a perfect run for Galena and have cleared the way for a maiden estimate of a high-grade resource within weeks.

Aerial drone detection and disabling company DroneShield, has released a new drone-combating product known as DroneGun Tactical. The new product has been launched as a complimentary weapon to DroneShield’s DroneGun MKII, both of which are able to force a drone to land or return to base. DroneGun Tactical has a few new features adding versatility to DroneShield’s security arsenal.

ASX-listed Online screening and verification company CVCheck reported an 11 per cent surge in cash receipts to $2.8 million last quarter on the back of burgeoning demand from corporate clients. Corporate customers now account for almost 60 per cent of total revenue as more and more large companies seek to weed out dodgy job seekers from their interview lists.

After a difficult 2017, Blackham Resources has turned around mining activity at its 100%-owned Wiluna gold project. A strong lift in ounces mined in January continued the positive trend begun late last year and the company expects strong operational cash flows through 2018. Blackham also enters the new year with a strong balance sheet thanks to a fully underwritten capital raising of $36 million that will see it convert resources to reserves.