Public Company News

Venus Metals has reported some very encouraging results from metallurgical testing of its oxidised vanadium ores at the Youanmi project near Sandstone. The work showed impressive recoveries of up to 70% vanadium from simple acid leaching which also recovered valuable nickel, copper and cobalt credits. The company will now commence a drill program to prove up the oxidised mineral resource and provide samples for more metallurgical work.

Pharmaust will complete preliminary clinical trials on dogs in the coming weeks to help determine the required dosage for its newly reformulated Monepantel tablets and to confirm that it is non-toxic. The company will also start a Phase I “pharmacokinetic study” with the new tablets during the fourth quarter and it will also follow this up with initiation of its long awaited Phase II clinical trials.

Volt Resources has received the key Environmental Impact Assessment certificate for its Bunyu graphite project, which is the final pre-requisite for the grant of a mining licence over the promising project in south Tanzania. The company already has two binding offtake agreements in place and plans to raise up to USD$40m through a resources-based notes issue that could underwrite the Stage 1 development.

Southern Gold’s project generation strategy for pinpointing epithermal gold and silver targets in South Korea is starting to bear fruit with the company outlining its fourth new project acquisition at Neungju. Recent rock chip sampling at the project produced grades up to 20.3g/t gold and 13g/t silver and follow on from the discovery of 18g/t gold and 270g/t silver rock chips from the historical Sonbul gold mine nearby.

Great Southern Mining has paid $145,000 in a deal that will allow the junior explorer to pick up 4 exploration licences, within 15km of its Mon Ami project near Laverton in W.A. The new tenements are just 25km trucking distance from Gold Field’s Granny Smith gold operation, opening up the future possibility of toll treating the ore if the company is successful on the hunt in the area.

Venus Metals’ farm in partner Lepidico has intersected lithium mineralisation during drilling at one of the company’s Youanmi project tenements in the Murchison region of W.A. Lepidico reported rock chip samples up to 1.71% lithium oxide from outcropping pegmatites on the ground and has secured an option to earn up to 80% of the lithium rights on the licence located 20km from Venus’ Youanmi gold operation in W.A.

ASX listed Hammer Metals has discovered a new high grade zone at its Perentie project in Mt Isa, Queensland, with rock chip samples returning up to 46% copper and 0.6g/t gold. The Susan prospect now takes the mineralised trend up to more than 3.4km. The company has also identified a fourth mineralised zone on a separate but parallel structure about 2.7km southeast of Paddy B.

Sky and Space Global has signed a binding MoU with South American internet service provider, Foundation Busie Suriname, that could lead to the provision of affordable internet and online connectivity services in that region. The agreement includes a commitment by FBS to utilise a minimum number of devices and services along with the option to scale the commitment up to meet its requirements.

Greenland Minerals has reached an important milestone, submitting its updated environmental impact assessment for the Kvanefjeld rare earth project. The assessment aims to mitigate, eliminate or minimise negative environmental impacts throughout the initial 37-year mine life at the project. The company plans to meet shortly with senior Government officials to discuss timing of the pubic consultation period.

Coolgardie Minerals has commenced open pit mining at its flagship Geko gold project near Coolgardie in the Goldfields region of W.A. The company listed on the ASX this week after it closed out an over-subscribed IPO in July, that put over $4m in its coffers. It will now look to create an early cash flow position from the mine by investigating toll treating options.

Adriatic Metals will increase its land holdings at the exciting Vares project in Bosnia after local municipal authorities approved the company’s request for major expansions to its existing concession agreement over the Veovaca and Rupice prospects at its 100% owned Vares base metals play. At the Rupice project, the expansion includes land immediately north of a 66m wide, high grade intersection of gold, silver and base metals reported by Adriatic in July.

ASX listed Ironbark Zinc has moved to prove up the viability of shipping ore from its Citronen zinc project in Greenland following the arrival of the contracted Nunavik icebreaking cargo ship at the site in the country’s north. The ease with which the Nunavik achieved this goal has increased the company’s confidence in being able to operate the project as a regular mine despite its relatively remote location.