Public Company News

Alaska-focused oil explorer 88 Energy Limited is poised to spud the Merlin-2 well at its wholly owned Peregrine oil project in Alaska with mobilisation of the drilling rig to site complete. Merlin-2 is targeting a prospective resource of 652 million barrels of oil. Managing Director and CEO, Ashley Gilbert said success at Merlin-2 has the clear potential to be “transformational.”

Multi-element junior explorer Askari Metals has completed an expansive airborne reconnaissance site visit across its Yarrie lithium project in an escalation of its hunt for the highly sought-after white gold that sits at the heart of the EV minerals revolution. Located in Western Australia’s Eastern Pilbara, the project spans more than 1,700 square kilometres and is surrounded by some of the most significant hard rock lithium deposits in the world.

Mineral explorer Valor Resources has lit up an interesting geophysical anomaly at its Picha project in Peru. The 2km by 2km induced polarisation anomaly is believed to reflect potential copper-bearing sulphide mineralisation at depth related to a large porphyry body. The company has kicked up a clutch of compelling copper-silver targets from its combined geophysical and geochemical surveys that are begging to feel the drill bit.

Panther Metals has amassed high-grade nickel and cobalt zones in all drill holes assayed to date in a maiden program at the company’s flagship Coglia project just 70 kilometres east of Glencore’s Murrin Murrin mine about 880 kilometres east of Perth. Noteworthy results include 14 metres grading 1.17 per cent nickel from 49m downhole with an internal metre going 3.44 per cent nickel and 1,460 ppm cobalt.

Drilling by Javelin Minerals at its Coogee project 55 kilometres southeast of Kalgoorlie has delivered lower grade copper-gold hits over 40 metres wide and some shorter but very high-grade copper hits including two metres at 8.34 per cent copper. Another 19m intersection came in at 1.28 g/t gold and 0.15 per cent copper from 202m and included 9m at 1.75 g/t gold and 0.20 per cent copper from 202m.

Coda Minerals looks to be riding a winner at its Emmie Bluff Deeps IOCG-style copper discovery in South Australia after eyeing around 60 metres of chalcopyrite mineralisation in a recently completed step-out hole. The company says the cracking intercept has extended the strike length of the known mineralisation by nearly 60 per cent to 550m.

Calidus Resources has cleared its final construction hurdle on time and on budget, with commissioning now underway of its 100 per cent owned Warrawoona gold project in the Pilbara region of WA. The company says it expects crushing and milling operations to start within the next eight weeks with first gold set to be poured approximately two weeks later.

Development of ASX-listed Adriatic Metals’ Vares high-grade silver project in Bosnia is accelerating with construction starting on time as the company firmly eyes production by the second quarter of 2023. Adriatic is in the throes of appointing mining contractors, engineering consultants and key personnel as it finalises test work and orders mechanical equipment.

Tambourah Metals is eyeing extensions to the known mineralisation at its Pilbara namesake project after recent soil sampling returned up to 3.05 grams per tonne gold. The project, located 85 kilometres southwest of Marble Bar, yielded plenty of other positive samples too with 177 of the 259 samples collected providing potential evidence of an extension to the existing mineralised zones.

Blackstone Minerals has tabled a stunning pre-feasibility study for its vertically integrated nickel mine and refinery project in Vietnam that shows a post-tax net present value as high as $3.57 billion at today’s nickel prices. Almost inexplicably the company says the US$854 million CAPEX required to build the project could be paid down in just 1.8 years from first production. It will churn out over half a billion US dollars a year in operating cashflows.

Aldoro Resources has uncovered a string of high-grade rubidium from a pegmatite rock chip sampling program at its Wyemandoo project approximately 80 kilometres southeast of Mount Magnet in WA. According to the company, the assay results pointed to “exceptional” grades of up to 1.24 per cent in individual samples and says lithium and tantalum were also present.

Soil assays from Strickland Metals’ Iroquois discovery show copper highs that map an interpreted feeder zone structure for zinc-lead mineralisation. The recent zinc-lead discovery is located on the western edge of the greater than 1.5km long feeder zone, creating excitement for the next round of drilling targeting the structure. Iroquois is in the Earaheedy Basin, WA’s newest base metals hotspot.