Public Company News

Aurum Resources has hit sulphides in all drillholes bar one as part of a maiden drilling campaign at its Penny South gold project. The activity is targeting structural anomalies along strike from the high-grade Ramelius owned Penny North deposit and the historical high-grade Penny West mine. The company is currently halfway through an 18 hole program for a total of 5,000 metres.

ASX-listed junior explorer Askari Metals is enjoying some early success at its newly acquired Barrow Creek Lithium Project in the renowned Arunta pegmatite province of the Northern Territory. Spontaneous sampling whilst the company was performing due diligence in its acquisition of the project revealed rocks running at an encouraging 817 parts per million lithium oxide. Askari is now gearing up for further exploration.

Image Resources has announced its intention to pay a 2 cent fully franked dividend after it receives the final results from the 2021 calendar year which it says are strong. The continued solid demand for Image’s heavy mineral sands from its Boonanarring project 80km north of Perth along with buoyed mineral sands prices and some cost control has resulted in a bumper calendar year for the Perth based company.

Infinity Lithium has chalked off another breakthrough at its San José lithium project in Spain after a metallurgical test work program proved successful in scaling up the production of battery-grade lithium carbonate and hydroxide ahead of a looming feasibility study. The work is funded by EIT Innoenergy and aimed at developing a more sustainable refining technology for lithium mineralogies.

Podium Minerals has upgraded its mineral resource estimate at the company’s Parks Reef platinum group metals project near Meekatharra in WA boosting its previous PGM estimates by 28 per cent to 2.8 million ounces grading 1.56 grams per tonne PGM. The copper estimates also experienced a healthy boost rising by 31 per cent to 27.8m tonnes at 0.24 per cent copper for 104,000 tonnes of contained copper.

Battery metals developer AVZ Minerals is set to plough $25 million into an early works program and exploration drilling campaign at its Manono lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa. The outlay follows a $75 million cash injection from a heavily oversubscribed capital raise and aims to fund the company’s shift to lithium production.

Torian Resources continues to rake in the high-grade gold hits at its flagship Mt Stirling gold project approximately 40km north-west of Leonora in WA. The results include an 8-metre intersection returning 8.26 grams per tonne gold from 153m, that held an impressive 5m running at 12.74 g/t from 153m. The company is set to deliver a global mineral resource estimate in the first quarter of this year.

ASX-listed ABx Group is targeting more metallics in Tasmania after unveiling a new high-grade rare earths prospect 52 kilometres east of its Deep Leads REE prospect in Tasmania. According to the company, the results from the newly discovered Portrush prospect include 581 parts per million neodymium and a solid 4,800 ppm total rare earth oxides over a one metre mineralised section from 11 metres.

Alaska-focused oil explorer 88 Energy will drill the highly anticipated Merlin 2 well in March following the completion of the access road to site and the commissioning of the contracted drilling rig. The well is the follow up to the 2021 Merlin 1 discovery that encountered multiple oil shows in the Brookian Nanushuk Formation – a significant production horizon in the North Slope area of Alaska.

Multi-commodity explorer Oar Resources has bolstered its coffers with a solid $500,000 injection following the sale of its ‘non-core’ Bramfield iron ore project in South Australia. The company plans to utilise the extra cash to focus on exploration efforts of its Crown nickel-copper-PGE project in the Julimar district in Western Australia where Chalice Mining recently made headlines with its behemoth nickel-copper-PGE deposit.

ASX-listed copper explorer Hot Chili has wrapped up drilling at its Cortadera copper-gold porphyry discovery ahead of an imminent resource upgrade for its fast-tracked Chilean project. The company is confident all three of the Cuerpos orebodies are linked to the same footprint. It says the significant extent of the porphyry mineralisation gives it versatile low grade, low-strip ratio sulphide mining options.

WA’s most recent rare earth explorer, Torian Resources has reconfirmed and upgraded significant Yttrium and other heavy rare earth element grades at its exciting Yttria discovery at the company’s evolving Mt Stirling gold project in WA. The company has utilised improved assaying techniques to reanalyse samples resulting in a 10 per cent upgrade in values.