Public Company News

ASX-listed Sky and Space Global is running ahead of schedule with the assembly of its three demonstration "nano-satellites" as it progresses the launch of its potentially game-changing satellite based communications network. The company says construction of the first three units is due for completion in December ahead of the planned Q2 2017 launch.

The FIRB has cleared a $30m Chinese investment in Northern Minerals, clearing the way for the rapid development of the company’s heavy rare earths project at Browns Range in WA. Northern Minerals have already banked $3m and will bank another $9m from Huatai Mining next week with two more $9m payments to follow.

Lithium Australia is in the final approval stage for a maiden drill program in Mexico, adjacent to a world-class project that has already secured celebrated electric car maker Tesla as an off-take partner. It follows an announcement earlier in the week of an additional Lithium discovery at Electra from surface sampling that returned ore grade assays. 

Upstart biotech company Pharmaust is getting close to proving up their breakthrough anti-cancer drug in dogs with a second canine patient suffering from late stage cancer recruited last week. The company recently announced that a second dog had started treatment at Sydney’s Animal Referral Hospital using PharmAust’s reformulated drug known as Monepantel.

You know you're onto something when you cant even find a spot to build your mine because you keep discovering more Lithium under areas designated for mining infrastructure. Such is the predicament of Pilbara Minerals who are strugging to find a non-mineralized spot to build their mine.

A recent drilling campaign at Perth based hammer Metals’ “Millennium” project in Mt Isa has unearthed a cocktail of mineralization on a tenement package that cost the mining junior just $83k in cash and shares – and they bought it from Chinese interests. Minerals present include Copper, Gold, Cobalt, Silver and lead with most results easily convertable to plus 1% Copper equivalents. 

Lithium Australia have begun the final stage of pilot plant trials to prove up their unique “Sileach” Lithium processing technology. The goal of the current trial is to prove to the market that the company’s Sileach process can cheaply and efficiently turn raw mine product into highly sought after battery-grade Lithium Carbonate at around half the cost of traditional processes.

Blackham Resources this week joined the select ranks of Australian gold miners with the commencement of production at their Matilda gold project in Wiluna. With 860 sq km's of tenements to explore and a stellar record of working out where the gold is hiding, it is safe to assume that Blackham’s Matilda Gold resource wont sit at 5.1m ounces for long.

Terrain Minerals, with a market cap of less than $4m and a share price of around .009c are looking to differentiate themselves from the sea of mining junior's by creating an early cashflow from their Great Western gold project near Leonora. The company has appointed a consulting metallurgist to investigate building an onsite gravity milling operation. 

If Lithium is the new iron ore for W.A, then Pilbara Minerals are potentially the new Rio Tinto. The company is already sitting on arguably the largest Lithium resource in the world and they have just dramatically expanded their footprint in the Pilgangoora lithium district by paying $8m for Dakota Minerals' neighboring Lynas Find project covering 268 sq km's. 

An 80-hole aircore drill program is set to begin at the Rockford project, widely regarded as one of our best hopes for another Nova-Bollinger discovery in the Fraser Range. Legend Mining and the Creasy Group have been prompted to undertake the big regional drilling program following encouraging assay results from their first two diamond drill holes. 

In what could be a major publicity boost for Perth head-quartered Sky and Space Global, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space craft carrier, Cosmic Girl, is considering utilizing the company’s breakthrough nano-satellites for its aerospace communications under an agreement signed this week. The company's share price recently doubled.