Public Company News

In basketball terms it's called a slam dunk. Blackham Resources has confirmed a stunning turnaround at the Matilda gold project with gold production climbing to a record of 6,713 ounces in February, while all in sustaining costs were slashed to just A$912 an ounce. Milled grades and gold production are expected to continue to improve with stockpiled ore grades going 1.7 g/t gold.

Lepidolite waste dumps near Coolgardie are firming as a source of supply for Lithium Australia’s large scale SiLeach pilot plant, highlighting the breakthrough advantages of the new processing technology. The waste material is looking promising after innovative ore sorting test work, which suggested the already mined material can be quickly and cheaply upgraded before being processed.

West Perth based Blackstone Minerals has dusted off historical mining records dating back over 60 years to fully understand the potential of its Little Gem Project in British Columbia, Canada that boasts one of the highest grade cobalt-gold deposits in the world. Recent drilling turned up a 4.3 m intersection going 1.0% cobalt and 15 g/t gold, including 1.1 m @ 3.0% cobalt and 44 g/t gold.

Hot Chili has announced some stand out high grade production results from a family owned small scale copper mine that sits atop the company’s exciting San Antonio prospect within its new El Fuego copper project in Chile. The work underlines Hot Chili’s confidence in the potential for regional continuity of high grade sulphide copper ores over significant strike lengths within trucking distance of its flagship Productora Project.

Southern Gold’s partner, Bluebird Merchant Ventures announced this week it had accessed a new level underground at the old Kochang mine in Korea. Significant assay results were returned from “waste” dumps and the tailings dam at the historic Gubong mine which closed decades ago due to low gold prices. Bluebird reported encouraging rock chip results from surface “waste” dumps going 10.5 g/t gold at Gubong.

Calima Energy hasn’t taken any chances locking down the first 20% of its farm in package ahead of time in the lucrative Montney oil and gas formation in British Columbia, Canada. The Perth-based company is planning to spud a three well drilling campaign in November to flow test the liquids-rich Upper and Lower Montney. Ultimately Calima will end up with 55% of the project for an expenditure of C$20m.

New studies at Myanmar Metals’ remarkable Bawdwin deposit in Myanmar, already ranked as one of the world’s best lead-zinc-silver deposits, have revealed a high-grade copper zone with almost 120,000 tonnes of the red metal in-situ. The studies have shown a new copper-rich resource of 3.4 Mt @ 3.12% copper, based largely on historical data and raises hopes of substantial additional discoveries from modern exploration.

Ironbark Zinc has engaged an army of experienced mining operatives, tasked with catapulting its giant Citronen Zinc project into production in Greenland. Ironbark’s newly hired production team have experience in everything from project finance to mine scheduling to plant construction and the company now looks to be on the home straight. The Citronen project remains one of the largest undeveloped zinc projects in the world.

ASX-listed Connected IO has secured a distribution agreement with internet of things supplier M2M Connectivity as the Perth-listed company looks to scale its tech offering in the Asia-Pacific region. Connected IO says the deal will provide it with an opportunity to leverage M2M's strong existing ties with Cisco, Meraki, and Telstra, enabling more consumers to monitor and control everyday items via the internet.

ASX-listed medical cannabis player MGC Pharmaceuticals is set to achieve a major commercial milestone as it edges closer to getting the final green light for its European medical marijuana facility. The company expects to receive official approval for the Slovenian facility this month after being granted an interim licence in January, bringing an 18-month approvals process near to completion.

Auroch Minerals is targeting large-scale zinc, lead, copper and cobalt deposits in a metals-rich region in South Australia after snapping up two high-grade projects that have not been subjected to any modern exploration. The Arden project near Quorn in the Flinders Ranges and the Bonaventura Zinc project on Kangaroo Island have historical drill hits of up to 26.9% zinc and 2.5% cobalt.

ASX-listed biotech Phylogica has achieved a medical milestone on its journey to developing a biological organism that is capable of carrying or “transporting” cancer fighting and other drugs directly inside the nucleus of a diseased cell. The Perth biotech said in a market update that it had successfully delivered a new “proof of concept cargo” known as “Cre” into kidney cells in the laboratory.