Public Company News

Mineral-explorer Si6 Metals has fired up an air core rig at its Monument gold project in WA’s Laverton gold district. The campaign will build upon an initial phase of drilling undertaken in late 2021 where 18 targets were confirmed as prospective for bulk tonnage gold mineralisation. The current round of exploration will see 140 holes over 5000m plunged into five target areas.

A large, multi-element geochem survey for Queensland focussed Superior Resources has delivered results from its wholly-owned Bottletree copper prospect. Multiple, strong targets for a planned aggressive drilling program into the cores of at least three porphyry intrusions have been identified as well as several large zones of copper mineralisation that will feel the pressure of the drill bit.

Results from Askari Metals’ recent soil sampling program have grown the extent of mineralisation at the company’s Barrow Creek lithium project in the NT. The mineralised zone containing multiple lithium-caesium-tantalum type pegmatites has now been extended to an area of 2.8km by 1.9km and remains open in all directions. Notably, significant surface strike extensions of the fertile pegmatite zones identified in the first phase of exploration have been made.

Calidus Resources’ recent spin-off Pirra Lithium has produced another grab bag of high-grade results from its latest rock-chip sampling and mapping program at the company’s Spear Hill discovery in WA’s emerging East Pilbara lithium field. The recently identified pegmatite has been mapped out over 2.5km in strike with assays yielding up to an impressive 2.75 per cent lithium oxide.

Kula Gold’s first pass soil sampling over its wholly-owned Brunswick project in WA’s southwest has returned gold, platinum, palladium and copper anomalies over a magnetic feature it has dubbed the Hippy Lady prospect. The company believes the target is prospective for Julimar-style mineralisation and is now planning a follow up infill soils program to home in on future drilling locations.

Surefire has used a historical data review to light up 15 priority gold and nickel targets at its newly granted Perenjori West tenure, 300km northeast of Perth. The under explored tenure lies within the West Yilgarn nickel-copper-PGE province that has been the recent focus of intense exploration following the discovery of Chalice Mining’s world-class Julimar PGE deposit.

Wiluna Mining’s foray into drill-testing the down-plunge extensions of high-grade gold mineralisation at the historically-significant East Lode has come up trumps, returning an impressive 9.4 metres at 4.87 grams per tonne gold that included 1.8m delivering 9.74g/t of the precious yellow metal. The mineralisation was reportedly intercepted 200m below historical workings and the current mineral resource envelope.

King River Resources says salt roast test work with Murdoch University has delivered exceptional first-pass extraction results of up to 92 per cent vanadium concentrate using ore from its Speewah deposit in the Kimberley region of WA. The company is currently hammering away on a new green process flowsheet to produce high-purity vanadium pentoxide, vanadium electrolyte, titanium dioxide and metallic iron from the deposit.

Mineral explorer Aurumin has completed a lithium-focused drilling program into its Mt Palmer gold project in WA, coinciding with the return of positive soil sample results. The 12-hole program drilled 1212m into target B of the Vickers Find South prospect and intersected pegmatites ranging from one to 40m in thickness in 11 of the 12 holes. Assays to reveal the lithium content are currently pending.

88 Energy’s hunch reservoirs charging an adjacent oil discovery might continue into its Icewine project acreage on the Alaskan North Slope looks to have paid off with third-party mapping interpreting three target reservoir units extending into the company’s permit areas. An in-depth petrophysical re-evaluation of Icewine-1 and the broader area has been carried out by independent petrophysical consultants.

Mining software developer K2fly has sealed a one-year deal worth $2.12 million with BHP to roll out its ground disturbance solution data management system to the mega-miner’s iron ore operations in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The company now provides its ground disturbance solution to the three biggest iron ore players in WA, with Rio Tinto and Fortescue Metals Group also on the roll call.

Junior explorer Twenty Seven Co has unveiled a slew of gold-in-soil geochemical anomalies at its Yarbu gold project, 160km northeast of Southern Cross in Western Australia. The latest round of auger drilling has confirmed three previous anomalies etched out from last year’s program along with highlighting a new target area with samples grading up to 92.7 parts per billion gold.