Public Company News

88 Energy is just weeks away from spudding its high impact Winx-1 exploration well in Alaska’s North Slope oil province, which targets a gross, best estimate, prospective resource of about 400 million barrels of oil. The company submitted the key drilling permit application before the end of 2018 and has started construction of the ice road to the well site.

Caravel Minerals has the wind in its sails now after its recent diamond drilling program at its copper project in the Wheatbelt confirmed the presence of thick, higher grade zones at the Bindi Hinge zone with assays of up to 26m @ 0.69% copper from 182m down-hole. The new results have increased support for an alternative development model based on the initial mining of higher grade zones at its namesake copper project.

Coolgardie Minerals has received its first revenue cheque of $1.68 million from the sale of high grade oxide ore to Northern Star Resources from its Geko pit near Bullabulling in WA. The company is carrying out further grade control drilling to determine the extent of the remaining supergene zone in the western part of the pit and to define the Stage 2 oxide ore zones for mining this month.

Australian Potash has successfully transported its first raw salt products from the pilot pond network at the Lake Wells sulphate of potash project near Laverton in WA, for the processing and production of trade samples for its Chinese off-take partners. This processing work will commence immediately in the lead up to the company’s DFS for Lake Wells, which is expected in the latter half of 2019.

BlackEarth Minerals has delivered a maiden resource estimate of 9 million tonnes grading 5.8% total graphitic carbon at its Haja graphite prospect in southern Madagascar. The new estimate complements the nearby Razafy graphite mineral resource of 11.2 million tonnes grading 7.1% TGC, which is presently undergoing an internal scoping study due for completion early next quarter.

Northern Minerals has produced its first heavy rare earth carbonate product for export from its Browns Range pilot plant project, located near Halls Creek in the East Kimberley region of WA. The near 2.6 tonne ore parcel is being sent to Darwin Port for shipment to customers in China. According to the company, the first product shipment meets the high-quality specifications required by its offtake partners.

Neometals will bank another $104m from the final equity sell down of its founding stake in the Mt Marion lithium mine near Coolgardie. The sale takes Neometals’ total equity and dividend return from the project to an incredible $200m from an original investment of just $3m. The company’s co-shareholders in the project, Mineral Resources and Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium will pay about $51.9m each to become 50/50 co-owners.

ASX listed heavy rare earths producer Northern Minerals has now reached practical completion at its Browns Range pilot plant project, located near Halls Creek in the East Kimberley region of WA. The company said that commissioning of the plant was progressing well and that rare earth carbonate product from ore processing is being stockpiled ahead of the first shipment, which is expected by the end of the year.

Artemis Resources has delineated a new shallow, indicated mineral resource of 1.15Mt @ 0.52% nickel, 0.73% copper and 277ppm cobalt at its Radio Hill nickel mine near Karratha in WA. Management said more work is required in 2019 to determine the best way to monetise the project, which is located just 400m from the existing Radio Hill processing plant.

Pilbara conglomerate gold theorist Novo Resources has generated rich concentrates from ore sorting trials at its Comet Well project near Karratha, producing ore grades up to 792.4g/t gold. The company also separated coarse gold nuggets from gravelly ore horizons at its Egina project near Port Hedland using gravity techniques and it has suggested that the procedure could be ramped up to a larger scale in the future.

Legend Mining has identified two significant new bedrock conductors at the Shackleton prospect within its Rockford Project in the revered Fraser Range that may be prospective for VMS mineralisation. The company plans to carry out RC and diamond drilling to test the Shackleton 1 conductor and carry out further surveying over this trend in 2019.

St George Mining has intersected a 5.25m drill intersection going 6.95% nickel, 2.67% copper, 0.23% cobalt and 3.1g/t palladium plus platinum from 185m down-hole at its Investigators prospect near Leonora in WA. Another impressive 8.49m long intersection in a separate hole showed 5.78% nickel, 2.64% copper, 0.18% cobalt and 3.61g/t palladium plus platinum from 183.9m down-hole. The impressive results continue to extend the mineralised footprint at the prospect.