Public Company News

Aruma Resources has kicked a goal at the start of its hunt for rare earths at its Saltwater project in Western Australia, with the discovery of significant rare earths mineralisation and cobalt-copper-enriched rocks. Results have reaffirmed the potential for the area to host unconformity heavy rare earths and highlighted the prospectivity for base metals deposits along an interpreted 80km strike length of prospective host rocks.

Meeka Metals has tabled a solid set of numbers from a prefeasibility study into its Murchison gold project, forecasting the return of a post-tax free cash flow of $261 million from a mine life of more than nine years and with a payback period of just 22 months at a gold price of $2750 per ounce. Environmental studies are being fast-tracked.

Horizon Minerals has launched a new drill campaign in a bid to expand the footprint of its Cannon gold project near Kalgoorlie from a single planned underground operation to a mining hub with potential open-pit mines. The Cannon deposit hosts a mineable ore reserve of 135,000 tonnes at 4.1g/t gold for 17,680 ounces and forms part of the company’s 1.15-million-ounce Kalgoorlie-Boulder gold resource.

Perth-based explorer Si6 Metals has moved to acquire about 178 square kilometres of tier-one Brazilian rare earths and lithium ground in that country’s renowned “Lithium Valley”. The company has completed its due diligence on the deal and will proceed with the acquisition of a portfolio of 10 tenements in partnership with the ground’s owner, Foxfire Metals, subject to shareholder approval and independent expert review.

European-focused Altech Batteries is seeking a green nod of approval for its Cerenergy sodium-chloride battery from renowned environmental research centre CICERO after a study found it emitted 50 per cent fewer greenhouse gases than lithium-ion batteries – and without needing critical metals, lithium and cobalt. Altech’s planned Cerenergy battery plant in Saxony will utilise renewable energy sources to minimise its carbon footprint.

Everest Metals’ Rover project is set to be hit with the drillbit this week when Rio Tinto Exploration kicks off a seven-hole, 1400m reverse-circulation (RC) program. The new campaign will target potential pegmatite-hosted lithium mineralisation beneath weathered outcrop at the project’s northernmost tenement in the Central Yilgarn region of Western Australia – an area undergoing a resurgence in exploration.

Classic Minerals has successfully completed the commissioning of its Kat Gap processing plant in Western Australia’s Goldfields region and has declared it will have its first bar of gold doré smelted this month. The company is set to start processing its 6504 tonnes of bulk sample ore at an average head grade of 6.06g/t, using a combined modular-designed “Gekko” and conventional processing plant.

Auric Mining is a step closer to a maiden gold pour from its Jeffreys Find project near Norseman, with the first 30,000 tonnes of gold ore set for processing once it is transported to Greenfields Mill in Coolgardie. The company says mining at the site has been ongoing for six weeks and it has secured triple road trains to haul its first ore to Coolgardie.

GreenTech Metals has extended its Kobe lithium prospect in the West Pilbara after receiving rock chip assays showing up to 1.8 per cent lithium oxide, confirming it is onto a consistent mineralised pegmatite zone more than 7.5 km long. The latest batch of assays backs–up the company’s reconnaissance sampling earlier in the year, which returned up to 1.65 per cent lithium oxide rock chips.

Infinity Lithium says its battery training and development programs offered through its subsidiary Extremadura New Energies have been declared a “strategic” qualification by the local regional government. The Extremadura Public Employment Service (SEXPE), part of the Regional Government of Extremadura, will now provide grants through public funding in coming months to advance the company’s training initiatives.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has gone 8 for 8, with all 8 rock chip samples recently submitted to the lab from a newly discovered outcropping gold vein at its Perrinvale project near Leonora showing some colour. The company tabled assays from its Pine Well North prospect within Perrinvale going as high as 4.08 g/t gold. Other higher grade results included 2.39 g/t and 1.88 g/t gold.

Venus Metals says it has identified a strong lithium anomaly at its Youanmi lithium project in Western Australia’s Murchison region that may indicate pegmatite-hosted lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) mineralisation. The discovery was made from a reconnaissance soil sampling program in an area not previously explored for LCT mineralisation where several pegmatite outcrops are located.