Public Company News

Junior explorer Aurumin has just wrapped up the first stage of auger drilling at its recently-acquired Central Sandstone gold project in WA. A vehicle-mounted auger drill rig tested five near-mill targets in addition to a further 29 areas of interest. The 467-hole program aimed to geochemically sample the interface between the covering sediments and bedrock with the company expecting its results in a few weeks.

ASX-listed Middle Island Resources has completed a ground-based induced polarity survey at its Barkly copper-gold project in the Northern Territory's East Tennant Creek region. The company says the survey is expected to provide a three-dimensional outline of the prospect's anomaly and assist in target definition with a drill program expected to kick off next month.

Aurumin Limited is going after lithium-bearing pegmatites with the drill bit at its Mt Palmer project in WA. The ongoing program will drill up to 2500m of RC holes and is expected to take about one week with assays to be fast tracked. The explorer firmed up its targets with a series of soil samples revealing anomalous geochemistry coinciding with historically intercepted pegmatites.

Multi-commodity explorer Valor Resources is moving to expand its footprint in Peru by around 30 per cent after applying for a 60 square kilometre patch containing historic gold and silver mine workings. The new area is only 30km from its exciting Picha copper and silver project in the Moquegua area of southern Peru, a region seeing renewed interest from major mining houses.

Surefire Resources is set to launch a diamond drilling campaign at its Victory Bore vanadium deposit, about 530km north-east from Perth in WA after tying down a drilling contractor to complete the probe. The company already has its footprint all over a 151 million tonne resource at 0.44 per cent vanadium pentoxide, 25 per cent iron and 6.73 per cent titanium dioxide at the operation.

The Resources Round-up conference for ASX-listed explorers is rolling into the streets of Sydney and shaping as the largest conference on the east coast in the event's 18-year history. Ticket sales for the three-day extravaganza that kicks off on May 3rd have been reported as 'huge' with 1500 registered delegates and more than 100 exhibition stands set to showcase the latest from the resources industry.

Triangle Energy has outlined a series of new initiatives including the commencement of a seismic program over some significant onshore Perth Basin targets. Alongside Pilot Energy, the two companies have also outlined adjustments to a number of permits including for the Cliff Head joint venture that will result in a serious reduction in abandonment liabilities on completion.

Oar Resources says surging demand for graphite could breathe life back into its previously shelved Oakdale project in South Australia where the company produced a scoping study back in 2015. With global markets now diving headfirst into low-carbon energy, the company is casting a renewed eye over the asset where it will look to build on the work already completed at the venture.

Strickland Metals is confident that its Millrose gold deposit in the Yandal Belt of WA is a "very substantial" gold system. Strickland has revealed a new drill intersection of 25m at 5.1 g/t gold from 82m that it says demonstrates continuity across a 200m strike with a previous result of 55m at 2.4 g/t gold from 86m. Millrose has a current resource of 346,000 ounces of gold.

Coda Minerals has extended the central bornite zone of the Emmie iron oxide-copper-gold deposit within its Elizabeth Creek copper project in South Australia's Gawler Craton. The explorer says recent drilling has intersected significant widths of bornite and chalcopyrite mineralisation. Importantly, the results materially extend the bornite zone discovered 100m to the southeast and support the potential for further mineralisation to the south.

Calidus Resources has ticked off a major milestone in its quest to becoming Australia’s next gold producer with the commencement of continuous ore processing at its Warrawoona gold project in WA’s emerging Pilbara goldfields ahead of the first gold pour expected in the coming weeks. Under the multi-stage development plan, production is scheduled to ramp up initially to about 90,000 ounces a year.

Canning Basin pioneer Buru Energy has been vindicated in its dogged drive to build a robust energy company in the Canning Basin after an independent report described its Rafael conventional wet gas discovery as a resource tipping over the magic one trillion cubic feet of gas mark, along with a possible additional 20 million barrels of condensate.