Public Company News

Green energy metals explorer and developer Octava Minerals and its JV partner Future Metals have received an early boost from their freshly minted joint venture. Future Metals has identified broad zones of disseminated magmatic nickel-copper and platinum group elements sulphides at its Panton project that crosses into the tenement they share, Panton North, which is located in a Tier 1 nickel sulphide-PGM province in the East Kimberley region of WA.

Perth-based minerals explorer Surefire Resources has appointed as managing director a highly experienced resources executive with a 30-year career in exploration and mining. Paul Burton is a geologist with an MSc in Mineral Exploration from McGill University, Canada and was recently the MD of Tivan, formerly TNG. His experience in vanadium will be welcome at Surefire which has massive vanadium resources in WA.

St George Mining has entered into a binding agreement for an option to pick up the Woolgangie critical metals project that covers around 1200 square kilometres in the Goldfields region of WA. The company says Woolgangie is prospective for lithium, nickel-copper sulphides and ionic clay-hosted rare earths mineralisation. The package includes nine granted or in application exploration licences and extends south-west of Coolgardie and west of Kambalda.

Askari Metals has commenced a project wide mapping and sampling program across part of its Uis lithium project in Namibia after its first phase of drilling hit visible lithium in addition to tantalum and tin. The company says most of the project remains unexplored, something the current program will be looking to rectify before the company launches its second phase of drilling.

Legend Mining has declared a maiden nickel-copper-cobalt resource at its Mawson deposit in the Fraser Range that it says still has plenty of room to grow and is currently comparable to about a year’s worth of production from heavyweight Fraser Range neighbour IGO’s Nova discovery. The initial estimate clocks in at 1.45Mt at 1.14 per cent nickel, 0.74 per cent copper and 0.07 per cent cobalt.

DiscovEx Resources’ JV partner, Carnaby Resources continues to kick goals in Queensland announcing a suite of prominent precious and battery metal strikes at the duo’s Greater Duchess project in the Mt Isa region. The campaign was headlined by a 6m parcel grading a sky-high 6.7 per cent copper and 1.2 grams per tonne gold from 77m at the emerging Burke & Wills discovery.

Brightstar Resources is set to kick off a fresh 6300m RC drilling campaign at its flagship Cork Tree Well project as it looks to extend its gold mineralisation along strike to the north and at depth. The company says the 30 hole program will also include infill drilling at the project’s main structure as it looks to convert inferred mineralisation into indicated JORC resource status.

Queensland-based and WA-focused explorer Infinity Mining has wasted little time getting boots on the ground for what promises to be a big year of drilling, opening its 2023 campaign in the Central Goldfields. On the look-out for gold, lithium and rare earths, Infinity has about 2000m of RC drilling planned for this year across several of its WA tenements.

Minerals explorer Godolphin Resources is pocketing a handy $100,000 grant from the NSW Government to help fund its next drilling campaign at its promising Cyclops copper prospect north of Yeoval in the state’s central west. The grant comes from the Government’s New Frontiers Exploration program as part of the NSW Government’s Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy.

Middle Island Resources is widening its copper-gold chase at its Barkly project in the NT with its maiden drilling program throwing up all the trademarks of an iron oxide-copper-gold style mineralisation. The company has been on the hunt for all available sources of data to build into its geological model as it awaits final assay results from the four-hole probe.

Surefire Resources’ Victory Bore deposit in WA’s Mid West, is looking like the gift that keeps on giving after a program of 62 RC holes for 5189m delivered a 56 per increase in the operation’s already hefty vanadium resource. The asset now tips the scales at 235 million tonnes at 0.39 per cent vanadium pentoxide.

Mineral sands producer Image Resources has posted a productive quarter with higher ore tonnes processed than forecast at its flagship wholly owned, high-grade, zircon-rich Boonanarring mineral sands project, located 80km north of Perth in the North Perth Basin in WA. Lower ore grades were partially offset by the higher production and heavy mineral concentrate sales were in line with forecast.