Public Company News

Venus Metals has entered into a farm-in agreement with the unlisted Pilgangoora Minerals to vend out a number of its lithium exploration licences in WA. The agreement will fast track exploration for lithium bearing pegmatites on 2 leases located near the large Wodgina mining operation, 2 leases near the operating Pilgangoora lithium mines and 2 leases in the historical Poona mining district near Cue in the Murchison region.

Hammer Metals has purchased two prospective looking exploration permits covering the Sunset and Black Rock copper-gold prospects near Mount Isa in Queensland. The Sunset prospect has returned near-surface historical drill results up to 24 metres grading 1.41% copper and 0.49g/t gold from just 10m down-hole, whilst Black Rock has previously returned wide intersections of lower grade mineralisation, including 78m @ 0.54% copper and 0.13g/t gold from 140m down-hole.

PharmAust has developed a prototype “good manufacturing practice” method for the large-scale manufacture of its anti-cancer drug, Monepantel and its analogues at an economical cost and to standards required for clinical trials. The method can also be used for molecules in the drug library that PharmAust secured from Nihon Nohyaku in September 2017, which are related to but different from Monepantel.

ASX listed biotech Phylogica has identified a next generation cell penetrating peptide that is four times more efficient at delivering a large drug cargo inside cell walls than its original biological product. The discovery was made as the company screens and validates its large library of peptides with a view to discovering even more new cell penetrating peptides. Work on this project will continue until February 2019.

Artemis Resources has locked in a new set of cobalt and base metal drilling targets across its extensive land holdings near Karratha in WA, with a comprehensive geochemical soil sampling program outlining a number of interesting looking, multi-element anomalies for follow-up exploration activities. The company utilised baseline data from the existing Carlow Castle cobalt-gold-copper project area as a guide to highlight the priority and tenor of the new assay results.

Canadian listed gold developer Novo Resources has confirmed the gold potential of two basal conglomerate units defined at its Comet Well JV project near Karratha in WA, with maiden bulk sample assay results outlining grades up to 10.4g/t gold and gravity recoveries of up to 99.6%. The company will now use the bulk sample assays and recent diamond drilling data from Comet Well, to produce a mineralisation report.

Ironbark Zinc has signed a memorandum of understanding with industrial machinery company Metso Sweden for the provision of services and equipment at the giant Citronen zinc project in Greenland. The agreement also enables Metso to commence engineering tasks that are required before the completion of detailed engineering of processing equipment, which includes providing technical specifications for third party equipment.

Great Southern Mining has unearthed rock chip samples up to 1.65g/t gold and 185g/t silver during its first pass geological reconnaissance exploration program at the Edinburgh Park project, located only 25km from the revered Mt Carlton epithermal-style gold mine in northern Queensland. The company has generated a number of high priority structural targets from the campaign and is now planning an RC drilling program to test those areas.

Australian Potash has successfully produced its first salt products from the pilot pond network at the Lake Wells sulphate of potash project, located 180km northeast of Laverton in the Goldfields region of WA. About 20 tonnes of potassium and sulphate bearing salts are expected to be produced from the ponds once the process runs its course. These salts will be further processed to a refined sulphate of potash.

St George Mining has outlined a significant 200m plunge extension to its nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation at its enticing Investigators prospect near Leonora in WA. A new drill hole intersection penetrated over 14 metres of massive and disseminated mineralisation from 177.5m down-hole, including an impressive 5.25m true width intercept of massive sulphides grading up to 8.8% nickel and 4.5% copper from 185m down-hole.

Image Resources is well on the final stretch towards production at its Boonanarring mineral sands project 80km north of Perth after commencing wet commissioning of the processing facility. The company is on track to start producing mineral sands concentrate in the current quarter, receiving its first revenue in January 2019 and becoming cash flow positive by the end of the first quarter of 2019.

Aurora Labs has signed a partnership agreement with Fortescue Metals Group to explore the potential of its trailblazing 3D printing technology with a view to reducing production and operational costs in the mining and resources sector. Aurora’s ability to essentially “print” replacement mechanical parts quickly and accurately using its proprietary 3D printers could reduce costs and lead times normally required to procure specialist parts.