Public Company News

88 Energy is just one approval away from receiving the green light to spud its much anticipated Winx-1 exploration well that will target up to 400 million barrels of oil in Alaska’s famed North Slope oil province. The company will submit the drill permit application before the end of the year with approvals expected to flow in January 2019. This will allow the well to be drilled in February next year.

Strike Energy is wrapping up the takeover of fellow Australian oil and gas explorer UIL Energy after receiving acceptances representing 92.01% of UIL shares on issue for its all-scrip offer. UIL’s three northern permits are believed to potentially contain an extension of the Kingia-High Cliff sands that are the main target at the West Erregulla prospect. Strike plans to drill it in the first quarter of 2019.

Surefire Resources’ high level geological review of its Kooline project in the Ashburton region of WA, has thrown up extensive, untested areas the company says are prospective for lead-silver-copper and gold mineralisation. In the north, scattered gold results were reported from historical auger samples and shallow drilling, whilst to the south an investigation of the Kooline mine workings confirmed the potential of the mineralisation to thicken along strike.

Galena Mining says that a combination of higher lead/silver resource and reserve ore grades and reduced development costs at its Abra deposit, have the potential to materially improve the economic outcomes for the project. The company will complete an interim update of the PFS early next year, ahead of the release of its DFS for the underground base metal mining project in the middle of 2019.

Venus Metals has unearthed two intriguing looking exploration targets from gravity surveys at its DeGrussa North copper project near Meekatharra in WA. The anomalies are located 200m from surface and may be related to sulphide mineralisation. The targets are located 3km north of Sandfire Resources’ high grade DeGrussa copper-gold operations and the company is planning follow up ground electromagnetic surveys to help identify their source.

Australian Potash is set to benefit from a hefty reduction in WA State Government rental rates for potash brine projects as part of an initiative to help develop a new industry in the state. From the new year, rental rates for brine mining leases will be slashed from $18.70 per hectare to just $2.32 per hectare for the first five years before rising to $4.64 per hectare from the sixth year onwards.

Conglomerate gold developer Novo Resources continues to progress exploration and resource development activity for its large tenement holdings in WA’s Pilbara region. At the Egina project, bulk samples of gold-bearing gravels are being processed through the company’s gravity gold plant on-site, whilst progress on other work programs was reported for the Karratha, Beatons Creek and Talga Talga gold projects.

TNG Ltd has appointed Germany’s KfW IPEX-Bank to lead a syndicate that will raise USD$600m to underpin development of its Mount Peake vanadium-titanium-iron project in the Northern Territory. The final capital requirements will be determined and optimised during the ongoing front end engineering and design study and lender’s due diligence.

Venus Metals has completed a detailed resource definition drilling program at its Youanmi vanadium oxide project near Sandstone in WA, in preparation for updating the mineral resource estimate for the deposit. The work will allow the company to convert a large part of the existing inferred resource into measured and indicated oxide resources, from which ore reserves can then be optimised.

Metalicity Limited says it has outlined four significant structural exploration targets for copper-gold at both of its recently secured large project regions in the Paterson province of the Pilbara region in WA. The company identified two targets each at the Mandora and Desert Queen projects that cover over 900 square kilometres, after compiling and modelling existing geophysical and geological data sets.

Volt Resources has received approval from the Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange for its proposed USD$40m resources-based note issue that will underpin the stage 1 development of its Bunyu graphite project in Tanzania. The company is now awaiting final approval from the Tanzanian Capital Markets and Securities Authority before proceeding with the note issue.

Kalia Limited has been busy doing the geological ground work to systematically unlock the mineral riches on Bougainville Island from early next year. It has now completed a highly anticipated geophysical survey over the Mt Tore JV tenements and commenced data interpretation for the exploration of its porphyry copper-gold assets. The company’s engagement of local communities is bearing fruit, with a number of areas already approved for exploration.