Public Company News

Image Resources has de-risked the sale of heavy mineral sands from its Boonanarring project just 80km north of Perth with the execution of a second binding offtake agreement with China’s Hainan Wensheng High-Tech Materials. The agreement complements Image’s existing agreement with Natfort as both offtake partners have agreed to take up the other’s share of production in the event that one is unable to do so.

Northern Minerals has re-estimated its mineral resources for the 2018 financial year, reporting just over 9 million tonnes grading 0.63% total rare earth oxides, which includes an ore reserve of 3.3 million tonnes grading 0.68% TREO containing more than 13 tonnes of sought-after dysprosium oxide. The company is currently proving up new discoveries of high grade rare earth element mineralisation at the Dazzler and Iceman prospects.

Volt Resources says the Tanzanian Ministry of Minerals has recommended approving two mining licences over the company’s Bunyu graphite project in the south of the country. The licences strategically cover the footprint for both the proposed Stage 1 and Stage 2 mine developments at the project. The company has been advancing offtake agreements for its product stream and recently completed a positive feasibility for the Stage 1 development.

Adriatic Metals has reported more fantastic drilling intersections from its Rupice multi-mineral ore system in central Bosnia. New drilling results include an impressive 28m intersection going 10.8% zinc, 5.9% lead, 271g/t silver, 3.4g/t gold, 0.5% copper and 61% barite from 236m down-hole. The new hit effectively extends the mineralisation by a further 140m down-dip at the northern end of the deposit, adding more resource tonnes.

Hammer Metals has nailed its latest rock chip program with an exciting suite of super-high grade rock chips at its Perentie project in Mt Isa over a 5km strike. Best results include 31% copper, 19g/t gold and 240g/t silver. The trend runs parallel to the Paddy B-Judith-Copper Ridge trend, where additional mineralised zones discovered by the company’s sampling activity have taken the strike length up to 5.5km.

Azumah Resources has produced an updated mineral resource estimate of 49.2 million tonnes grading 1.6g/t gold for just under 2.5 million ounces at its Wa project in northwest Ghana. This represents a sizeable 21% increase on the previous global resource inventory reported 2 years ago. The measured and indicated resource categories have lifted by 16%, which will help underpin potential ore reserve upgrades for the project later this year.

ASX listed 88 Energy has reached two agreements to increase its Project Icewine acreage in the famed “North Slope” oil province in Alaska by 45,239 net acres. The new western leases are partly covered by several prospects in its current conventional farm-out package whilst the Central Fairway leases are prospective for both conventional and unconventional plays and close to the road and pipeline.

Neometals has appointed two new non-executive directors with wide ranging experience to strengthen its board ahead of the proposed demerger of the Barrambie titanium-vanadium project and associated non-lithium technology assets into a new ASX-listed entity. Dr Jennifer Purdie is the CEO of Adani Australia Renewables while Leslie Guthrie was most recently Vice President Projects (Potash in Canada) for BHP Billiton.

MGC Pharmaceuticals will focus on its cannabis-based pharmaceutical products after reaching a deal to sell its cannabis cosmetics division, MGC Derma, to Canadian private cannabis investment company CannaGlobal for CAD$12.5m in scrip. CannaGlobal will also commit to an exclusive five-year supply agreement for MGC to supply it with raw materials and proprietary production intellectual for the period.

Venus Metals has completed a heli-borne electromagnetic survey at its Greenbushes East base metals project in WA, with preliminary interpretations outlining several conductive features which are coincident with historical zinc and copper surface geochemical anomalies. Interestingly, the project is just 20km from Venture Minerals’ recent massive sulphide discovery at Thor. Venus is now planning follow up field geological reconnaissance once final results of the geophysical survey are known.

Precious metals explorer Emu NL has outlined its proposed program for the upcoming field season at the Vidalita project in northern Chile. The company will undertake a comprehensive campaign of shallow aircore drilling at its Vidalita, Peon 4, Vidalota D and Jotahues areas and will target higher grade gold and silver mineralisation with diamond drilling at the main Vidalita project. Field teams will be on-site in early November.

Sky and Space Global has signed a binding MoU with inter-governmental organisation OECS for the provision of network services to the eastern Caribbean region. The two parties will explore how the company’s connectivity platform can be incorporated into the communication infrastructure of OECS member states, to improve and enhance its reliability, accessibility and feasibility.