Public Company News

Big River Gold has achieved a significant goal this week, after it signed an agreement with the local Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Norte, to underpin the future development of its flagship Borborema gold project in Brazil. The agreement ensures that the company will have full access and co-operation from the State’s departments for power, roads, water and the environment and includes important tax concessions for mine start-up.

Lithium Australia’s partial subsidiary, Envirostream Australia, has executed an offtake MoU with South Korean company SungEel HiTech Co., Ltd for the sale of its recycled battery metals as a “mixed metal dust” product. SungEel will refine the materials into suitable chemicals for the production of new lithium-ion batteries and effectively “close the loop” for the battery manufacturing and recycling business.

ASX-listed agricultural asset development firm Alterra, has entered into some potentially lucrative agreements that secure exclusive rights to access quantitative avocado data with Western Australian producer, French’s Group. Alterra will have access to genetic information from avocados that have been selectively produced over the past 33 years and use the science behind the fruit to optimise soil, water and nutrient use in under-utilised agricultural lands.

King River Resources has updated the resource at its Central deposit at the company’s giant Speewah metals project in WA’s Kimberley. As part of an investigation into additional revenue streams, the company has formally analysed the “alumina” and “magnesia” contents of the Central deposit and produced a 1.24 billion tonne resource grading 12.5% alumina and 4.7% magnesia.

AVZ Minerals has commenced environmental and social impact studies at its Manono lithium project, located in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, appointing in-country organisation, EmiAfrica, to conduct the work. The studies will form the bases of its later ESIA documentation for permitting the project. The company also met with stakeholders and dignitaries in the region affected by the future mining proposal for Manono.

Indonesia-focussed gold developer, Nusantara Resources, has secured the right to fully extinguish a third-party royalty arrangement over future gold production from its Awak Mas gold project on Sulawesi Island. The company can terminate the existing net smelter royalty deal with Vista Gold Corporation, by paying a small consideration of cash and shares and then two payment tranches up to USD$4.9m before 30th April 2021.

Strike Energy has kicked off a 3D seismic campaign at its Walyering conventional gas discovery in the southern Perth Basin, where it has previously defined prospective resources of up to 263 billion cubic feet of gas and 6.3 million barrels of associated liquids condensate. The discovery was made in 1971 at about 3,350m depth, where the Walyering-1 gas well flowed at 13.5 million standard cubic feet per day.

Calidus Resources has lengthened its successful list of drilling results whilst firming up the mining credentials of its rapidly developing Warrawoona gold project in WA’s East Pilbara region. The company is also continuing to de-risk its million ounce-plus ore resource with recent results including a tidy 12m grading 5.58g/t from 12m down-hole, 15m at 4.33g/t from 6m downhole and visible gold in diamond drill core.

Legend Mining has kicked off its next phase of exploration at its Rockford project in the Fraser Range of Western Australia. A two-hole, 1000 meter diamond program has now commenced that will test for nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation at the D1 and D5 prospects. These new prospects were identified by a low-frequency moving loop electromagnetic survey in some of the area’s most prospective nickel-copper ground.

Canning Basin focussed hydrocarbon explorer and producer, Buru Energy, has largely completed its lateral section drilling at the emerging Ungani 7H well within the productive Ungani oilfield in the Kimberley region of WA. The company also reported some $3m in revenue from other wells within the Ungani oilfield this week, with two further production wells in the field, Ungani 6H and 7H, expected to come on-line during December.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources have hit high grade gold in aircore drilling at their Venus JV project near Youanmi in WA. The drilling is located north of the old Penny West gold mine and Spectrum Metals’ recent much-heralded Penny North discovery. Best numbers came in at 4 meters grading just over 7 grams per tonne from 24m depth and 5m grading nearly 2.5 grams per tonne from 60m downhole.

ASX listed biotech, PharmAust, has put a call out for canine volunteers to join its anti-cancer drug treatment trials in partnership with veterinary practices across Australia. The trials will study the effectiveness of Pharmaust’s anti-cancer drug in dogs suffering from B cell lymphoma – the most common canine cancer. Preliminary findings from phase I trials were very positive, with a notable reduction in tumours and prolonged lifespan.