Public Company News

88 Energy says its maiden net mean prospective resource estimate for its Leonis project on the North Slope of Alaska shows 381 million barrels (MMbbls) of recoverable oil from the Upper Schrader Bluff formation. The prospective estimate indicates an unrisked (3U) net high of 671MMbbls, a 2U best estimate of 338MMbbls and a 1U low of 167MMbbls.

Neometals has taken a first-hand look at the extraction of high-value metals palladium and gold from metallurgical testwork at the United State-based Precious Metals Recovery pilot plant as it considers taking an 80 per cent stake in the high-tech operation. A second trial has also now begun in a bid to replicate the success when using the preferred feedstock and re-agents process.

King River Resources has completed 11 reverse-circulation drillholes for 1824m at two of the company’s Langrenus gold targets within its Tennant Creek project in the Northern Territory and has sent some 1300 samples away for assay. Management now plans to move the rig to its Commitment deposit, then back to Langrenus to test the orientation of a new quartz-haematite target.

A four-stage plan has allowed Reach Resources to consolidate its share position, negotiate a farm-in deal, raise cash and focus its attention on multiple targets at its Wabli project in WA’s Gascoyne region. The strategic repositioning comes hot on the heels of the company identifying a magnetic intrusive it believes may be linked to the source of niobium, yttrium and rare earths at Wabli Creek.

St George Mining is planning to launch a grid-spaced gravity survey next month at its intriguing C1 rare earths prospect at the company’s Destiny project, about 100km south-west of the Western Australian mining town of Kambalda. The company will conduct a grid-spaced 200m-by-200m gravity survey that has been designed to home in on discrete targets within the prominent magnetic and gravity-high core of C1.

Perth-based explorer Thunderbird Resources is beefing up its bank balance to the tune of $4.1 million ahead of a 2400m drilling blitz targeting high-grade uranium at its flagship Hidden Bay project in the globally-renowned Athabasca Basin in Canada. Fieldwork programs are already underway, with the company’s drill-testing of multiple targets at the operation expected to kick off in August.

Red Metal has delivered a boost to its Sybella rare earths discovery in Queensland, with metallurgical testwork enhancing the prospects of a low-cost and low-capital heap leach processing operation. Management believes the results could pave the way for a process route that lifts revenue and lowers processing costs in a future mine at the project.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we unravel some of the more curious drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including Southern Cross Gold’s 0.5m at 473g/t gold equivalent from 913.6m. We also take a close look at other notable drill hits in the past week from Falcon Metals, Flynn Gold, Northern Minerals and Austral Resources.

Estrella Resources’ hunt for manganese in Timor-Leste is heating up, with recent grab samples from riverbeds going as high as 58.4 per cent manganese at the company’s newly-coined Dasidara prospect. Management says geological reconnaissance across its 503.7 square kilometres of ground has defined mineralisation through 30km of strike length as proposals to kick off trenching and drilling are maturing.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week goes to … DY6 Metals, which hiked more than 505 per cent on the back of impressive historic rare earth assays at its Tundulu project in Malawi. It joins fellow runners Forrestania Resources, Nanoveu and DeSoto Resources.

ASX-listed Aurumin will focus its attention on its flagship Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region after completing the last of its strategic divestments near Southern Cross in a deal with Kula Gold. The company has entered into a binding term sheet for Kula to acquire an initial 51 per cent interest in the Mt Palmer project for $250,000 in cash or shares.

Si6 Metals says it has discovered a 3km-by-800m pegmatite corridor at its Padre Paraiso project in the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil, with assays returning anomalous lithium from auger drilling and rock chip samples. The project sits 20km from Sigma Lithium’s renowned Grota do Cirilo operation that produces 270,000 tonnes per annum of lithium concentrate.