Public Company News

Hawkstone Mining has commenced drilling at its Big Sandy lithium clay project in Arizona state, US to follow up last year’s encouraging drill intersections and metallurgical test work results from the ore system. Best drill results included 43.8 metres grading 2,089 parts per million lithium from just 8.2m down-hole and the company recovered 95% of the lithium from clays by simple acid leaching techniques over 7 hours.

Buru Energy is cashed up, partnered up and has a glint in its eye again as it embarks on a multi-million dollar search for more oil riches in the lucrative Canning hydrocarbon basin in WA’s north. Buru is preparing to drill two production wells to increase production at its Ungani oilfield and up to four exploration wells to test promising oil prospects in the underexplored region. With $64m in the bank and Chinese firm Roc Oil riding shotgun with a $20m farm in agreement, Buru has its chip back on the board.

Tyranna Resources is continuing its determined push to extract near-term cash flow from the Eureka gold project, 50km north of Kalgoorlie. Just weeks after releasing an updated mineral resource, Tyranna has now appointed mining consultant firm Entech to work out the best way to get Eureka into production via processing through one of the many mills in the region and is also planning the next phase of exploration.

ASX-listed graphite specialist Blackearth Minerals is shooting for a high-grade target of up to 34 million tonnes at its Ianapera project in Madagascar after final assays from a trenching program produced yet more impressive results. Latest assays include 14m grading 14.0% total graphitic carbon and follow news earlier this month of a whopping 18m intersection going 22.06% TGC.

Lithium Australia has kicked off a preliminary feasibility study to evaluate the production of lithium iron phosphate battery cathode powders using mica feed material sourced from its Sadisdorf lithium-tin deposit in Germany. The study is seeking to provide supply chain security by delivering cathode materials that require neither cobalt or nickel whilst remaining competitive with batteries using standard lithium carbonate materials.

Caldius Resources does not appear to be resting on its laurels after recently announcing a 1.25 million ounce gold resource in the Pilbara with the ASX junior this week kicking off a drill program to test new targets at its highly prospective Warrawoona project. The program will test three high-priority targets from soil geochemistry that showed the largely unexplored region is still rich with potential.

Australian Potash has started a major study into the benefits of using its sulphate of potash product over the more typically used “muriate of potash” for the growing of crops in WA. The two-year study will be a collaboration with the Western Australian No-Tillage Farmers Association and The University of Western Australia. It will compare the effects of both potassium sources on crop yield, quality, safety and value.

TNG Ltd is finalising its environmental impact statement and permitting processes for its NT-based, Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project and the proposed TIVAN downstream processing plant facility for refining high-value ore products, located close to Darwin. The company will haul concentrated products to a rail siding facility for transportation to Darwin, where the materials will be refined and then exported to customers in Asia.

88 Energy has started discussions with the preferred bidder to farm-in to the conventional acreage at its project known as “Project Icewine” in Alaska’s famed North Slope oil province. Evaluation work on the unconventional HRZ shale at Project Icewine is also continuing with the company expecting to have a dataroom ready by mid-2019, which will allow a formal farm-out process to begin.

Spectrum Metals has drilled high grade extensions at its Penny West gold project near Youanmi in WA, intersecting an 8 metre wide intercept of mineralisation grading 24.2g/t gold from 149m down-hole. The zone at Penny North is directly on strike from a historical open pit, that generated 85,000 ounces at 21.8g/t gold in the 1990s. The company has expanded its drilling campaign to follow up the discovery.

Neometals is now fully focussed on progressing the Barrambie vanadium-titanium-magnetite project near Sandstone, WA, towards a final investment decision this year following the completion of the $104m Mt Marion divestment. The company is also planning to complete the Canadian lithium‐ion battery recycling pilot and feasibility study and proving up the potential of its zeolite production process.

Great Southern Mining has discovered strongly anomalous cobalt and scandium mineralisation in laterite from historical aircore drilling programs completed at its Mt Weld project, near Laverton, WA. Best results were 12m @ 0.19% cobalt from 56m down-hole and 16m at 130g/t scandium from 38m down-hole in separate vertical drill holes. The company is also re-assaying drill samples for their platinum group metal potential.