Public Company News

Sovereign Metals has revealed that accessing a newly upgraded rail network corridor to a deep-water port in Nacala, Mozambique could significantly lower capital costs for developing its rutile and graphite projects in Malawi to the west. Access to the port could provide a low-cost transport and export solution, with estimated charges below USD$66 per tonne from the mine-gate to the port.

Ironbark Zinc is considering the potential for a high-grade development with a targeted 1Mtpa production rate and lower capital cost for its giant Citronen zinc project in Greenland. The starter project would target most of the shallow Beach Zone of the Citronen resource that is also in the measured resource category, while allowing for an expansion to the original feasibility study output of 3.3Mtpa.

St George Mining is expanding exploration to identify further nickel-copper mineralisation and increase the resource potential of existing discoveries at its Mt Alexander base metals project near Leonora, WA. With firm commitments in place for a $3 million placement, the company plans to kick off this exploration program with the diamond drilling of 42 new electromagnetic conductors later this month.

Great Southern Mining is expanding its reach in northern Queensland with two applications for exploration permits that cover much of the prospective ground surrounding the high-grade Dianne copper mine. The permits cover 360 square kilometres in a known gold-copper district and provide the company with an area to carry out detailed exploration to identify similar high-grade copper deposits for follow up drill programs.

Altech Chemicals could sell up to 49% of its high purity alumina, or “HPA”, project for USD$100 million to Frankfurt Stock Exchange-listed company, Youbisheng Green Paper, following strong expressions of interest from European investors. The company will pay about €2.7 million in cash and shares to acquire a 29% interest in Youbisheng, which will then seek to raise up to €70 million in new equity to fund the acquisition.

The Madagascan Government has offered to fast-track development of BlackEarth Minerals’ flagship Maniry graphite project, after a positive meeting with the country’s Minister of Mine and Strategic Resources. A German specialist industrial mineral testing outfit has also begun a program for evaluating the company’s ore concentrates for battery testing, while a Chinese institute has independently confirmed the premium quality of the project’s ores.

Vonex’s core cloud-based PABX telephony business continues to go from strength to strength with the ASX-listed telco now counting a milestone 30,000 registered active users on its books, a 25% increase in the last 12 months. The company also recorded new customer sales value of more than $1.3 million in the June 2019 quarter, which represents a 44% increase from the previous quarter.

Lithium Australia has continued to intersect wide pegmatite intervals with lithium mineralisation from its first pass reverse circulation drilling program at the Youanmi project near Sandstone in WA’s Murchison region. Lepidolite mineralisation has been intersected in most holes drilled to date in the program, which will be used to assess the resource potential and geometry of the pegmatites.

Calidus Resources’ PFS for its flagship Warrawoona gold project located near Marble Bar, WA, will churn out $61m per annum in free, pre-tax cashflows over an initial mine life of six years. Based on an AUD$1,800 per ounce gold price and production of about 100,000 ounces per year through a conventional 2Mtpa plant, the project has an estimated pre-tax NPV of $151m and an IRR of 40%, with payback in two years.

Rox Resources has hit the ground running at its Mt Fisher gold project near Wiluna, WA, with encouraging new assay results returned from drilling at the Dam, Dirks and Damsel South prospects. The company believes that the potential for uncovering large gold zones at the project is high despite deep weathering that obscures the basement rocks and geological structures, which has resulted in sparse drilling below the oxidised profile.

Image Resources has received the green light to drill a 1.3 km section of the highly prospective 5.6km northern extension area, or “NEA”, within its high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring mineral sands project, 80km north of Perth, WA. Drilling and assessment of mineralisation in the NEA is aimed at verifying the presence of economic mineralisation to increase the project’s mine life.

Indonesia focussed gold developer, Nusantara Resources, has increased its confidence in the potential for a grade uplift to be realised once its Awak Mas gold project on the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia, is in production. Trenches dug across an exploration bench have demonstrated additional high-grade structures that were not captured by ore reserve drilling and related block models.