Public Company News

The European Central Bank, followed by the US Federal Reserve and then the Bank of China, have all confirmed that a new era of falling interest rates has arrived. Historically, small cap equity markets have consistently outperformed during times of monetary easing and these latest central bank moves suggest the period of small cap underperformance may be coming to an end.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … lithium. The silvery-white metal is back in the headlines for all the right reasons, pumping the share prices of several companies, including Arcadium Lithium, which is at the centre of a takeover bid by Rio Tinto. Kali Metals also spiked on the lithium trend, while Rimfire Pacific Mining and Rhythm Biosciences also ran hard.

Global metals-trading giant Glencore has cast its eye across Estrella Resources’ manganese ground in Timor-Leste, where the latter has unveiled high-grade rock-chip assays hitting up to 57 per cent manganese at its Sica and Lalena prospects in the nation’s Lautém Municipality. The results, which highlight the high-grade nature of manganese mineralisation in the largely untapped region, have marked a major step forward for Estrella’s exploration.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining is spreading its exploration wings at its Pinjin project in WA to test new targets next to existing prospects in the southern part of the area’s prospective Laverton Tectonic Zone. The company has lined up air-core drilling at two targets named Kirgella East and Kirgella West, which are respectively centred 1200m north-east and north-west from its combined Kirgella Gift and Providence prospects.

With burgeoning expectations for a new lithium wave to soon appear on the horizon, Chariot Corporation – the biggest lithium landowner in the US – has made a strategy shift at its Black Mountain project in Wyoming to get ready for the ride. The plan is to take advantage of Wyoming’s unique mining regulations in order to scale a future mine in line with the lithium market.

Buxton Resources has secured heritage clearance to drill up to 10 holes at its 80sq-km Centurion project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region in its search for major iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) targets. The principal target is defined by partly-coincident magnetic and gravity geophysical anomalies spanning a surface area measuring about 3500m by 5000m and reporting a 1500 nanoTesla magnetic response and 10.1 milligal gravity response.

A $7 million American West Metals fundraising campaign, which has attracted new investors and the company’s directors, has helped build a war chest to boost exploration efforts and upgrade the resource estimate of its Storm copper project in Canada. Under the placement, 77.8 million new shares have been issued by the company at a price of 9c per share.

Suvo Strategic Minerals has turned nickel slag, the highly-polluting waste product of nickel pig iron production, into a high-strength, low-cost and low-carbon cement. Confirming positive laboratory testing that could revolutionise the centuries-old cement industry, the company says its recent trials in collaboration with Makassar State University in Indonesia achieved a compressive strength of 37.5 megapascals (MPa) after just seven days.

Aurumin has pocketed a cash boost of $500,000 for the sale to private company Newcam Minerals of an exclusive six-month option on the iron ore rights at its Central Sandstone gold project in WA. Newcam will conduct due diligence across the site that consists of three mining leases and it may lead to a JV agreement between the two parties, resulting in a further $500,000 payment.

Octava Minerals says it has locked in the relevant regulatory approvals required to begin exploration works at its high-grade Yallalong antimony project to the north-east of Geraldton in Western Australia. Geological fieldwork including mapping and rock-chip sampling is already underway as the company advances its activities towards the drill-testing of four high-priority targets along a vast 10km antimony corridor identified at the project.

Meeka Metals has confirmed its newly-acquired 750kW ball mill is now en route to its new home as a key component of the company’s expanded Murchison processing plant near Meekatharra in WA. The “Outokumpu” mill is slated to increase plant processing capacity to 640ktpa – a 30 per cent increase on the throughput of the 500kW mill that was included in a DFS in May.

De Grey Mining has invested $7 million to achieve its minimum first-stage spend at Novo Resources’ Egina gold project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, with a further $18 million to be tipped in to create a joint venture operation. The earn-in is part of a required $25 million cash plunge within four years to create the 50:50 equal share at the site.