Public Company News

Aurumin has pocketed a cash boost of $500,000 for the sale to private company Newcam Minerals of an exclusive six-month option on the iron ore rights at its Central Sandstone gold project in WA. Newcam will conduct due diligence across the site that consists of three mining leases and it may lead to a JV agreement between the two parties, resulting in a further $500,000 payment.

Octava Minerals says it has locked in the relevant regulatory approvals required to begin exploration works at its high-grade Yallalong antimony project to the north-east of Geraldton in Western Australia. Geological fieldwork including mapping and rock-chip sampling is already underway as the company advances its activities towards the drill-testing of four high-priority targets along a vast 10km antimony corridor identified at the project.

Meeka Metals has confirmed its newly-acquired 750kW ball mill is now en route to its new home as a key component of the company’s expanded Murchison processing plant near Meekatharra in WA. The “Outokumpu” mill is slated to increase plant processing capacity to 640ktpa – a 30 per cent increase on the throughput of the 500kW mill that was included in a DFS in May.

De Grey Mining has invested $7 million to achieve its minimum first-stage spend at Novo Resources’ Egina gold project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, with a further $18 million to be tipped in to create a joint venture operation. The earn-in is part of a required $25 million cash plunge within four years to create the 50:50 equal share at the site.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has revealed thick new gold intercepts that extend mineralisation to 2km of strike at the Wessex prospect within its Pinjin project, 140km north-east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Results from a recent aircore campaign include 4m going 2.06g/t gold with 3m at 2.69g/t and hits of 4m at 2.37g/t and 4m at 1.72g/t within longer primary intercepts.

Fresh from delivering a feasibility study on its massive Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, Lindian Resources has completed a successful North American roadshow to promote the project’s economic credentials and explore finance options. The company says it has fielded strong interest in helping it fund the first two stages of the operation and is in the process of reviewing potential partners.

Surefire Resources has confirmed it has secured clearance to launch an 11-hole, 2200m maiden drilling campaign at its recently-discovered Phat Boy copper prospect in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The prospective ground consists of four coincident copper-zinc anomalous zones and is interpreted to sit within a similar geological and structural setting to the world-class Golden Grove massive sulphide deposit.

Buru Energy’s hunt for onshore oil in Western Australia’s mighty Canning Basin has moved up a gear with the spudding of the Rafael Shallow 1 exploration well. The drilling is targeting the Rafael Shallow oil prospect where a prospective resource of between 3.2 million stock tank barrels (MMstb) of oil and 79 MMstb has already been identified, including a best estimate of 19 MMstb.

White Cliff Minerals has bolstered its funding for an upcoming drill program at its Rae copper-silver project in Canada, with a $5 million capital raise at a premium to the market price – cornerstoned by its strategic advisor, John Hancock. Management says the raising attracted widespread support from new and existing shareholders and institutional funds based locally and in the United Kingdom, United States and Europe.

Strickland Metals has landed a massive 545.7m drill hit grading 1.1 grams per tonne gold equivalent to create a northern resource extension of the Shanac deposit within its Rogozna gold and base metals project in Serbia. The intersection came from one of three recently-finished holes at site. Starting at 108m, it also included higher-grade sections of 102m at 1.7g/t and 30m at 2.4g/t.

In tough recent times for many junior mining companies on the ASX, luring a financially-powerful “big dog” onto the share register to provide some much-needed muscle has become a common boardroom pursuit. In this second part of an occasional series, Bulls N’ Bears takes a look at some of those companies which have prospered after jumping into the business bed with a major partner.

Horizon Minerals has secured the green light to start gold mining at Phillips Find in WA, less than a week after mining the first ore from its Boorara mine that also sits in the State’s Goldfields region.