Public Company News

Altech Chemicals have exercised an option to buy the land underneath their Meckering kaolin deposit, smoothing the way for a development that would make the company the world’s largest supplier of high purity alumina (HPA). Demand for HPA is expected to boom because of its essential role in Lithium Ion batteries and synthetic sapphire wafers found in LEDs, semiconductors, watches and consumer electronics.

Move over Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. There’s a new tech industry on the rise and the valuations of its players are stunning. Some have market caps worth billions, others have been trading at multiples of 30 times earnings and the smaller ones get taken out by the big players for hundreds of millions of dollars. Appetise will be the only ASX listed online food ordering business when they list next month.

Lithium Australia shares have jumped by almost 20% on a run of positive developments, including news the company had taken a majority stake in a promising Lithium clays JV in Mexico. This followed last week’s announcement of an equity deal between ASX 200 Lithium miner Galaxy Resources and a junior technology company that licenses its technology to Lithium Australia in W.A.

A newly released feasibility study for Nzuri Copper’s Kalongwe Copper-Cobalt project in the DRC shows it will generate piles of cash for the junior explorer, with revenues of US$499m, an internal rate of return of 71% and an NPV of USD$116m. The project could be generating cash just 12 months after development approval underpinning Nzuri’s big ambitions for its prime tenements in the African copper belt.

ASX-listed MGC Pharmaceuticals have harvested over 4,000 kilograms of cannabis for use in their range of marijuana-derived products as the Perth-listed company progresses its promising growing operations in Europe. MGC’s botanical division, largely based in the EU, is also on the verge of harvesting more than 450 medicinal cannabis plants for use in their genetic research program.

The seemingly insatiable global demand for Lithium has created a modern day gold rush of sorts – and everyone is looking for an edge. Those mining entrepreneurs who made their fortunes sniffing out gold, nickel and copper are now all fired up about the prospect of starting over again with Lithium. Whilst hard rock projects are popular, Lithium brines are set to star and Reedy Lagoon look to be well placed.

Calima Energy have bulked up their land holdings in the red hot, liquids-rich, Montney oil and gas play in Canada. This is the second time Calima have successfully bid in Government auctions for additional Montney acreage in the last month. The newly listed explorer’s acreage has increased by 6% and the company has enhanced its position as a significant landowner in one of North America’s hottest energy provinces.

Blackham Resources have added 310,000 ounces of gold to their Wiluna North suite of open pits and are now looking at digging one giant, 3.5km long super pit that will join together all of the historic workings in the area. Importantly, the global resource at the Wiluna project has cracked the 3 gram per tonne mark for the first time with the project now boasting 65m tonnes grading 3.1 g/t gold for 6.5m ounces.

Stargroup says transactions from its independent ATM network remain robust despite the four major banks scrapping cash withdrawal charges from their ATMs. Stargroup chief executive Todd Zani says the company’s revenue and transaction projections remain strong and the company is unlikely to be impacted by the changes because Stargroup’s ATMs operate in the insulated "convenience" market.

ASX listed DroneShield has the tiger by the tail in the anti-drone market. The ASX junior with a market cap of just $30m has carved out a suite of products that both detect and disable unmanned drones. The company’s stationary mounted “Drone Sentry” looks like a sci-fi version of ET and the “DroneGun” looks a bit like the ultimate warrior’s hand held machine gun – albeit it doesn’t shoot bullets.

Northern Minerals have raised $3m from a placement to a local sophisticated investor to top up financing for their $56 million Browns Range heavy rare earths project in the East Kimberley. The company also reported the first modules of the processing plant being built by Sinosteel MECC were due to ship from China by the end of the week.

ASX-listed biotech PharmAust has secured a patent in the US relating to the use of its promising anti-cancer drug Monepantel, for the treatment of non-cancerous conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and age-related illnesses. The patent is another move by Perth-based PharmAust to boost its global IP protections and follows the granting of patents in Europe, US, Australia and China.