Public Company News

Reach Resources says geophysics, geochemistry and rock microscopy have confirmed a 4.5-square-kilometre oval body as an alkaline intrusive and the likely source of big rare earths-niobium hits at its Wabli Creek project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region. Wabli Creek is one of two exploration licences held by Reach in the highly-prospective Yinnetharra area that is well-known for its often unusual, but critical mineral assemblages.

St George Mining has swooped on the niobium-rich Araxá rare earths project in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais, picking it up for US$21 million (AU$33 million) from Toronto-listed fertiliser specialist, Itafos. Sitting 5km south of the town of Araxá and 1000km north-west of Rio de Janeiro, the project boundary adjoins the high-grade CBMM mine that produces 80 per cent of the world’s niobium.

Buru Energy has locked in a local drilling company to drill two oil wells in Western Australia’s onshore Canning Basin that form the centrepiece of the company’s farm-in joint venture with Sabre Energy. The campaign is set to test the promising Rafael Shallow and Mars exploration wells and binding drill rig hire agreements are to be executed shortly to enable drilling to kick off in September-October.

Radiopharm Theranostics has banked US$2 million from American medical giant Lantheus for the sale of two preclinical antibody assets that target and help to diagnose aggressive cancers. Lantheus is also set to tip in a further US$5 million via a placement at 5c a share – a 42 per cent premium to today’s price – with an option for another US$5 million investment within six months.

Sabre Energy has agreed to stump up $6 million in drilling and testing costs at Buru Energy’s Rafael Shallow oil well in Western Australia’s onshore Canning Basin to earn 50 per cent of any commercial discovery and production. If the drilling leads to a commercial discovery, Sabre will also compensate Buru for its prior Rafael exploration expenses with a further payment of $1.5 million.

Terrain Minerals plans to test its promising Wildflower gold project in Western Australia later this month, with an air-core drill program for 41 holes comprising about 2100m. Drilling will test the company’s two priority targets, Wildflower and Cota, where previous drilling and soil sampling produced encouraging results that management is keen to pursue at the project that sits within WA’s Murchison gold province.

A Latitude 66 geophysics survey has identified strong conductors at the company’s K9 prospect in Finland that correlate with multiple conductors down-plunge from known gold-cobalt mineralisation and local shear zone orientation. The significance of the downhole electromagnetic results from two adjacent holes is that they confirm continuity of K9 mineralisation towards the south-west and north-east and also down-dip and down-plunge.

Allup Silica has nabbed a prized at-surface heavy mineral sands project next to the Eyre Highway at Western Australia’s Eucla Basin in a bid to take advantage of a looming titanium shortage. The McLaren project, which has excellent road and rail access to the Port of Esperance, boasts a 2022 JORC-compliant resource of 280 million tonnes at 4.8 per cent heavy minerals.

A compelling prefeasibility study (PFS) for Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove gold-antimony project in New South Wales shows the operation will spit out an EBITDA of $652 million during a seven-year mine life. Using conservative pricing estimates, the company also revealed a post-tax NPV of $157 million, a post-tax IRR of 50 per cent and a maiden ore reserve of 606,000 ounces at 6g/t gold-equivalent.

Strickland Metals has hauled in a whopping 89.7m running at 4 grams per tonne gold from 244m at its wholly-owned Rogozna project in Serbia. The spectacular intercept includes 24m averaging an impressive 10.5g/t gold from 296m. The well-funded Western Australian explorer has four rigs working around the clock targeting extensions to the existing 4.6 million-ounce gold equivalent Shanac resource.

Meeka Metals has appointed top-gun mine site executive Matthew O’Hara to lead the construction phase for its 100 per cent-owned flagship Murchison gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company has today confirmed that funding is imminent, site environmental permits have been secured and a bigger-than-planned ball mill will be delivered by September, bringing the project another step closer to production.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Alto Metals, after it revealed high-grade gold rock chips – and then also confirmed a takeover bid by Brightstar Resources. There is obviously a fair bit to unpack there, but we will do just that and also look at other companies that ran hard this week, including African Gold, Appen and Atomos.