Public Company News

Artemis Resources and Novo Resources have commenced a major exploration program aimed at proving up grades and tonnages at the Purdy’s Reward conglomerate and paleoplacer gold deposit, 35km southeast of Karratha, in the west Pilbara of W.A. The work will generate a mineralisation report to underwrite the application for a mining lease and the company also reported its 3.3km super-deep drill hole has reached 163m depth.

St George Mining has increased the footprint of high grade nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation at the Stricklands prospect with intersections that include 6.25m @ 2.36% nickel, 1% copper, 0.15% cobalt and 1.25g/t total PGEs from 67.2m down-hole. Mineralisation is open to the west, north and east of the prospect and the company is planning a follow-up drill program.

King River Copper is thinking about a serious upsizing of its proposed mine at Speewah after an initial pit study found a monster-sized pit could be the best approach to mining the giant vanadium-titanium-iron deposit. The latest study has lowered the strip ratio to just 0.4 to 1, taking full advantage of the large, flat-lying and evenly-distributed mineralisation.

Adriatic Metals has announced more stunning drill results from its Rupice prospect in Bosnia. High grade results were retuned from two ore lenses intersected in the same drill hole, including 36 metres grading 4.4g/t gold, 463g/t silver, 0.5% copper, 4.3% lead, 5.7% zinc and 55% barite from 196m down-hole and 22m @ 4.1g/t gold, 258g/t silver, 0.8% copper, 7.5% lead, 12.8% zinc and 56% barite from 244m down-hole.

New spectacular drill results from King River Copper’s Mt Remarkable gold project in the East Kimberley have extended a very high grade epithermal gold zone and shored up the company’s view there could be other gold-rich zones nearby. Best results from the latest assays include 3m @ 41.75 g/t gold, including 1m @ 81.5 g/t, from a downhole depth of just 16m.

New assays have confirmed Nzuri Copper’s high hopes for a cobalt-rich zone just 800m along strike from its proposed Kalongwe copper project. Resource drilling is already being planned with expectations of a JORC resource in the near term. Drilling at Monwezi II just 2.5km along strike has also produced some very encouraging signs of copper and cobalt, including massive sulphides.

Kopore Metals has announced that a regional soils program at its KM1 EM anomaly has produced two impressive copper-lead-zinc targets in geologically and structurally favourable locations at the Ghanzi West prospect area in Botswana. The coherent anomalies are identified over a12 square kilometre area, coinciding with airborne and ground EM geophysical anomalies. The company considers the new anomalies to be high value drilling targets.

Australian Potash’s Yamarna gold project could host a northern extension of Gold Road Resources’ high grade gold targets to the south. This includes an anomaly similar in scale to Gold Road’s Ibanez prospect. The company is now finalising a second stage drill program that will include reverse circulation drilling to test the depth and primary mineralised structures.

Geopacific has initiated a major exploration program at its Woodlark gold project in PNG. The company recently raised $10m and will channel the funds towards increasing its mineral resource inventory with a view to extending the proposed mine life beyond 10 years. Drilling will focus on under-explored, high grade structural corridors and historical targets between and adjacent to the large Kulumadau and Busai gold deposits.

Legend Mining has unearthed a third nickel-copper mineralised intrusive of magmatic sulphides within a host rock similar to the famed Nova-Bollinger deposit, at its Rockford project in the Fraser Range. The new result of 37m @ 0.25% nickel and 0.03% copper from 78m depth, was substantiated by rock petrology identifying nickel sulphides in a highly prospective olivine rich gabbronorite rock mass.

Calidus Resources has achieved success in a major resource drill out at its Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara. Results of up to 10m @ 3.84g/t gold from 27m down-hole at the Coronation prospect have confirmed a strike length of about 250 metres for the prospect. The company also reported it had extended the Klondyke mineralisation another 150m down-plunge with strategic deep diamond drilling.

Capricorn Metals expects to secure financing for its Karlawinda gold project in the Pilbara in the September quarter after optimisation work increased the project net present value from $144m to $243m. Other improvements include an IRR of 36% from 31%, payback in just 2.5 years instead of 3 years, a 10% reduction in capital costs to $132m and a 2 year increase in mine life to 8.5 years.