Public Company News

US oilfield services giant Halliburton has been piqued by Strike Energy’s ambitious Southern Cooper Basin project and has penned a MOU with the Adelaide explorer to potentially drill dozens of wells in the area. The deal has emerged less than a week before the ground-breaking Jaws-1 appraisal well kicks off. It will be one of the deepest pure coal seam wells ever drilled, at 2000m.

Plymouth Minerals is pulling out all stops at its San Jose lithium-tin project in Spain, appointing a senior executive to negotiate off-take deals and changing its name to reflect its aspirations for a big future based on lithium. Ryan Parkin has been appointed General Manager Corporate Development, bringing in additional skills to take San Jose from an advanced exploration project to a major supplier of lithium to the European market.

Draig Resources’ punt on a high-grade parallel lode to the famed and now closed Bellevue mine in the Wiluna belt continues to pay off, with a new series of high-grade gold hits at the Tribune Lode. Latest drill results have extended the depth of Bellevue-style quartz sulphide gold and confirmed the continuity, prompting acceleration in drilling activity.

ASX-listed Connected IO has secured a letter of intent from a US-based cyber security company to provide it with customised routers ahead of a proposed deal worth $6.9 million over a three-year period. The deal, which is expected to be finalised in the next week, will see Connected IO supply the US company with its cutting-edge Category 1 internet of things wireless routers .

Calima Energy has received an all-important permit from British Columbia authorities to build the road it hopes will lead to riches by unlocking liquids-rich hydrocarbons at its Canadian Montney Formation play. The company is shifting from acquisition phase to operational mode and will construct the road to give drill rigs and personnel access into one of the most lucrative plays in North America.

Geopacific is toasting the gift that keeps on giving at its Woodlark gold project in Papua New Guinea, which has delivered more high-grade intercepts in assay results from a 22-hole drilling campaign at the Boscalo area. The Perth company is on track to develop a world-class gold mining operation at Woodlark as it targets a revised ore reserve estimate of one million ounces plus by next month.

A young geologist who made several gold discoveries in the Forrestania gold belt 20 years ago has returned to the region at the helm of Classic Minerals to complete some unfinished business. Exciting geological models that went untested years ago because of a 2001 corporate collapse are finally being put to the test and already yielding spectacular results.

Greenland Minerals and Energy is manoeuvring itself to be one of the world’s largest suppliers of rare earth minerals outside of China. The company is looking to ride the clean energy wave with its elephant sized rare earths play in Greenland and it has already managed to lasso a major Chinese rare earths investor with a balance sheet worth around $4.5b.

Sky and Space Global has hit another milestone in its foray into the South American telecommunications market, with the ASX-listed company commencing testing of its nano-satellite based narrow-band communications network with major regional telco Globalsat Group. After testing, the two companies plan to negotiate a deal that will see Sky and Space provide telco services to Globalsat’s pan-South American customer base.

Aspire Mining has welded together a powerful consortium of Chinese players to deliver on its giant coal project in Mongolia. The ASX-listed junior said last week it has now expanded its consortium to include massive Chinese Government contracting firm The Gezhouba Group. The building of the proposed 549km rail will open up a world of opportunities for Aspire to commercialise its globally significant Ovoot coking coal project.

ASX-listed DroneShield has taken another major step with its cutting-edge anti-drone military hardware, winning a Paraguay Government tender for its drone defence products. The tender is a landmark deal for DroneShield, representing its first South American order and comes amid a ramp up in demand for drone-related security products in that country.

Reedy Lagoon Corporation’s innovative lithium brines play in Nevada is about to be put to the test, with the company spudding a big, 1000-metre deep well at its Columbus Salt Marsh project. The well is the first of its kind to be drilled under new regulations in Nevada and will take about 30 days to reach its target depth before testing begins in earnest.