Public Company News

Mineral exploration company, Podium Minerals has commenced drilling two deep diamond holes to 750m to test for depth continuity of its flagship Parks Reef PGM deposit near Meekatharra in WA. The company recently delivered an updated mineral resource estimate for the project clocking in at a head-turning 40.2 million tonnes going 1.54 g/t 3E PGM for 2.2 million ounces of contained platinum, palladium and gold.

ASX newcomer, Tambourah Metals has launched an airborne gravity survey at its Julimar North project in the Wheatbelt region of WA. The survey will look to unveil ultramafic rocks prospective for nickel, copper and PGE mineralisation akin to Chalice Mining’s spectacular Julimar discovery nearby. The explorer recently pocketed $8m from an IPO for its listing on the ASX.

Middle Island Resources has been quietly beavering away, pulling together a swag of new gold prospects and a 2km long nickel anomaly at its Sandstone project in Western Australia. It has also increased its footprint around the newly discovered Crosswinds copper prospect in the Northern Territory.

88 Energy looks set to tap its Merlin-2 well that it says is prospective for some 652 million barrels of oil, after inking a deal with Doyon Drilling to use the company’s Arctic Fox rig to test the well at its Project Peregrine in the North Slope of Alaska. The company says the appraisal well has been independently assessed to have a geological success rate of 56 per cent.

ASX-listed Neometals and its joint venture partner, mega German engineering firm, SMS Group, have successfully completed commissioning of their showcase lithium-ion battery recycling demonstration plant. All leaching, purification and recovery circuits of the “Stage 2” hydrometallurgical refinery have now been successfully wet commissioned. The plant trial on electric vehicle batteries will commence as scheduled in early November.

Surefire Resources has kicked off two separate phases of RC drilling that intersected broad zones of sulphides at its Yidby Road gold deposit near the 1.1-million-ounce Minjar gold project in WA. The company peppered Yidby with 22 RC holes totalling 2,298m with a view to extending the existing Yidby deposit. Previous hits at the deposit include 40 metres going 3.01 grams per tonne gold from 24m.

Si6 Metals wasted no time smashing through 4,198m of government co-funded drilling at its Monument gold project in Laverton where 50 per cent of direct billing costs, up to $75,000 will be reimbursed to Si6 by the WA Government. Of the 126 holes drilled, 50 holes intersected the targeted high-level felsic intrusive rock suite analogous to the seven million ounce Wallaby Gold Deposit, also in the Laverton Tectonic Zone.

Buru Energy has announced an unexpected gas show above its targeted reservoir section in the highly anticipated exploration well Rafael 1. According to the company, shows of natural gas and even hydrogen and helium in a thicker than expected Anderson Sandstone immediately above the crest of the targeted structure validate an active petroleum system and trapping mechanism at the Rafael location.

Indonesian-focused explorer, Sihayo Gold has delivered more solid gold hits from regional exploration drilling at its namesake project in North Sumatra. New hits at its Hutabargot Julu target area include 10.2m at 2.5 g/t gold from 153m at the Penatapan epithermal vein gold and silver prospect. The company is seeking to unearth more ounces to add to an already impressive 1.5-million-ounce gold resource base.

Brightstar Resources has picked up some prime geological real estate contiguous to its current gold exploration land holdings near Laverton, boosting the company’s holdings in the region to a solid 300 square kilometres. The acquisition comes off the back of a recent $2.3 million placement that has given it enough funding to drill test its significant landholdings in the region.

ASX-listed gold and base metals explorer Godolphin Resources has fired up the drill rig and kicked off a fresh round of RC drilling at its high-grade Gundagai gold project in the renowned Lachlan Fold Belt in New South Wales. The company intends to plunge 11 holes into the project totalling 1,825 metres after an extensive review of historical data and rock chip sampling identified several walk-up drill targets.

Ora Banda Mining has now received all assay results from first-pass regional air-core and brownfields reverse circulation drilling programs conducted earlier this year at its Davyhurst project north of Kalgoolie. A spectacular 5m hit at almost an ounce to the tonne gold from 127m headlined the results at Victoria Workings approximately 300m north of the Mulline Rose pit.