Public Company News

Strickland Metals is set to kick off reverse circulation and aircore drilling programs this month at a keystone deposit and an emerging prospect at its Horse Well gold project in WA. The company says its recently launched gravity geophysical surveying work has turned up several “look-alike” targets near the anchor Dusk Til Dawn deposit that it intends probing with a round of RC drilling.

ASX-listed Blackstone Minerals’ board of directors has given the green light to a definitive feasibility study on a proposed downstream processing refinery and a related downstream pilot plant at its flagship Ta Khoa nickel-copper-PGE project in Vietnam. The move comes after the company tabled a “compelling” pre-feasibility study on hydrometallurgical processing of nickel sulphide concentrate to produce a battery-grade nickel-cobalt-manganese for use in lithium-ion batteries.

ASX-listed PharmAust Ltd subsidiary Epichem OHD has hit a milestone in its development of technology to turn waste into fuel on an industrial scale, after the company completed the build of a benchtop scale reactor that will enable research, development and promotion of its potentially disruptive technology. The reactor turns biomass waste from a wide range of sources into fuels, fertiliser, agricultural growth stimulants and even ethanol.

Bardoc Gold has pivoted towards front-loading gold production and cash flows into the first five years of its proposed Bardoc mining and processing operations in WA. The company says it has kicked off a cash-flow optimisation study that will run the ruler over increasing the projected annual gold production rate, margins and free cash flows across the first five years of Bardoc’s forecast life of mine.

Lithium Australia, through its 90 per cent owned recycling division Envirostream Australia, has filed a patent application related to its alkaline battery separation process used in fertiliser micronutrients, as it looks to secure intellectual property protection for its battery recycling technology. The company recently launched an expanded field trial using the process to generate samples for manganese-deficient soils across four sites in WA and one in SA.

St George Mining appears to be onto a new high-grade nickel trend at its Mt Alexander project in Western Australia. Soil sampling over the Carnac trend, about 14 kilometres north of St George’s nickel sulphide discoveries on the Cathedrals Belt, is producing anomalous nickel and copper along more than 1,600 metres of strike with drilling now scheduled to kick off in the weeks ahead.

Si6 Metals has delivered a 154,000-ounce gold resource for its Korong and Waihi deposits that make up its 100 per cent owned Monument gold project near Laverton in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The update has added more than 100,000 ounces of gold to the previous estimate as the company eyes further resource and exploration drilling at the project.

Bardoc Gold is striking promising returns on two fronts. The ASX-listed company is embarking on a major drilling program at its flagship Zoroastrian deposit north of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in a bid for a substantial expansion of its resource and it has been unearthing significant gold mineralisation in drilling at its North Kanowna Star project. The results are seen as important for the potential size of the reserve and mine life across Bardoc’s operation.

Todd River Resources is growing its suite of nickel-copper-PGE targets in Western Australia’s South West mineral field, with the explorer extending its Eastern trend in the Berkshire Valley to over seven kilometres of strike. Shallow auger drilling shows two distinct target areas along the mineralised trend, with platinum and palladium levels kicking at more than 10 times background levels associated with coincident copper and nickel anomalies.

Estrella Resources has continued to return broad intercepts of nickel sulphide mineralisation from its T5 discovery in Western Australia. The company’s latest results from the prospect include 14.14 metres at 1.05 per cent nickel and 0.58 per copper which includes an impressive 5.41m at 1.45 per cent nickel and 0.88 per cent copper from 408.34m down-hole.

ASX-listed gold producer Ora Banda Mining has rattled off a spate of impressive high-grade gold intersections from drilling at its Riverina underground deposit near its Davyhurst mining and processing operation about 120km north-west of Kalgoorlie in WA. Better assays include 1.3m grading 25.3 g/t gold from 217.8m, 2.8m at 21.2 g/t from 253.7m, 1.4m at 18.1 g/t from 281.6m and 5m at 16.7 g/t from 200m.

Horizon Minerals has kicked off this year’s Diggers & Dealers in Kalgoorlie with a couple of “stunning” thick, high-grade gold drill hits at one of the promising prospects within its Binduli gold project near Kalgoorlie. Best of the intersections from the company’s latest drilling at the Kestrel prospect was 18m grading 4.64 g/t gold from 49m including 1m at a bonanza 56.65 g/t from 64m.