Public Company News

Middle Island Resources has reported that ore sorting trials to upgrade gold mineralisation at its flagship Two Mile Hill underground deposit will be completed this month. Preliminary test work has proved highly successful in pre-concentrating ores via optical sorting methods. Resource definition drilling is also underway and is designed to increase resources at the Sandstone gold project.

Tech play Connected IO took in cash receipts and invoiced products this quarter to the value of $660,000 with another $650,000 in purchase orders on the books yet to be invoiced. Bottom line performance is also expected to improve with reduced U.S. overheads and renegotiated manufacturing costs expected to boost gross margins from 30% to 50% on some products.

Neometals has executed a two-year option agreement with the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder to sub-lease a 40 hectare site for its proposed lithium refinery, located in an industrial estate at West Kalgoorlie. The site is located close to critical road, rail and power infrastructure, just 70km by road from the existing Mt Marion Lithium operations, where the company will initially source the raw spodumene lithium feedstock.

After agreeing terms for the spin-off of its giant Admiral Bay zinc project, Metalicity is now rapidly reshaping the company as a serious player in the battery metals sector. Exploration activity is being stepped up at three well-placed projects in lithium, cobalt and graphite, backed by an MOU already in place with Shanghai Metals for offtake, development and financing support.

Hammer Metals has announced significant cobalt-copper results from drilling at its Millennium JV project, near Cloncurry in western Queensland. The program tested up-dip continuity of the main lode, returning a best result of 7m @ 0.15% cobalt, 0.36% copper and 0.12g/t gold from 14m down-hole. The company also identified a new exploration target from rock chip sampling and mapping, 1km north of the Millennium resource.

Kopore Metals will commence its maiden drill program at the Ghanzi West project near MOD Resources significant copper find in Botswana, following receipt of Government environmental approvals. The company defined a number of high priority exploration targets using a combination of airborne and ground geophysics, with coincident base metal soil anomalies.

Junior explorer King River Copper’s gold project at Mt Remarkable in the Kimberley region of W.A could be just that – remarkable – if the latest drilling results are anything to go by. Assay results received in the past week have revealed fine visible gold in the latest drill holes including a 4m intersection going 113 grams per tonne gold.

Aspire Mining’s dream of a northern Mongolian railway has taken a leap forward with a feasibility study finding it could deliver coking coal from the company’s Ovoot deposit to world markets at competitive prices. The study highlighted the positive economics of the US$1.25 billion project which Aspire says will churn out US$2.75b in free cash after tax over thirty years.

Strike Energy’s technically ground-breaking Jaws-1 gas well at the Southern Cooper Basin project looks like it could be the making of the company after a vital fracture stimulation program was proclaimed a success yesterday. The company’s share price soared by 30% after it broke the news that all seven-stages of the Jaws-1 stimulation program had gone exactly to plan.

St George Mining shares have jumped by more than 20% on the ASX after news that its Mt Alexander project returned more high-grade drill hits. The copper-nickel-cobalt mineralisation remains open to the north, west and east and the latest results have highlighted the potential for further extensions of the mineralisation, with planning already underway for a follow-up drill program.

Auroch Minerals has initiated a geophysical survey program across its Arden base metals project, 360km north of Adelaide in S.A. Recent surface sampling identified highly anomalous zinc, copper, lead and cobalt mineralisation across three separate prospects. Interpretation of the survey data acquired will be used in conjunction with field mapping and geochemical sampling to identify drilling targets.

Altech Chemicals has announced it has received a formal manufacturing licence from the Malaysian Government for the company’s proposed 4,500 tonne per annum high purity alumina plant in Johor State at the southern tip of Malaysia. The company will source high purity kaolin clays from Meckering, near Perth in W.A. before transporting it to Johor, where it will be processed for industrial use.