Public Company News

Central Africa lithium developer AVZ Minerals hopes to secure an all-important mining licence for its advancing flagship Manono hard-rock lithium and tin project in the DRC in the not-too-distant future as it builds relationships with the newly formed Congolese Government. The company says some timelines for regulatory approvals have been prolonged due to the change in the country’s government earlier this year.

Oar Resources has launched field exploration at its Crown nickel-copper-PGE and gold project just 9km west of Chalice Mining’s heralded Julimar discovery in Western Australia. Geological mapping and outcrop sampling will look to assess about 20 identified target areas, with systematic soil sampling set to follow. A maiden drilling program is planned for later in the year.

ASX-listed Wiluna Mining continues to deliver impressive drilling results in areas targeted for expanding underground production at its namesake operations in Western Australia. Ongoing diamond drilling across the East and Happy Jack lodes has turned out a welter of new high-grade intercepts grading up to 773 g/t gold in the Happy Jack area.

ASX-listed Galan Lithium has hit the go-button on a scoping study into the potential development of its Candelas lithium brine project in the Catamarca, Argentina, sector of South America’s “lithium triangle”. Candelas lies south-east of and in the same fertile salt flat terrane as the Perth-based company’s flagship Hombre Muerto West brine project, which was the subject of an impressive scoping study last year.

ASX-listed Image Resources is on track to beat its 2021 heavy mineral concentrate production guidance after reporting record June quarter output from the wholly-owned Boonanarring operation, 80km north of Perth in Western Australia. The company says surging ilmenite, rutile and now zircon prices are set to boost its full-year heavy mineral concentrate sales and strengthen its pursuit of growth options.

Neometals is edging closer to demerging its significant Mt Edwards nickel sulphide project near Kambalda in Western Australia into a new company, Widgie Nickel, which is targeting a September listing on the ASX. Existing Neometals shareholders are set to get a free piece of Widgie proportionate to their current shareholdings. A new board of directors has now been appointed for Widgie.

Junior explorer Latitude Consolidated has scored a high-grade gold hit at the St Anne’s prospect just 3km south of its existing 610,000-ounce Turnberry open-pit deposit, which forms part of its Murchison gold project in WA’s Murchison Goldfields. The latest drilling highlight from the company’s recently completed reverse circulation program was an intersection of 5m grading an average 6.77 grams per tonne gold from 103m depth.

Venus Metals has pounced on a hefty 546 square kilometres of ground prospective for nickel, copper, platinum group elements, gold and rare earths in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. Two of the new licences, one granted and one under application, adjoin tenure hosting a 1km-long outcropping structure where rock chip samples have returned 1 per cent copper and 0.6 per cent nickel.

Adriatic Metals has successfully cleared the final major regulatory approval hurdle that now opens the way for it to start construction of its proposed Vares silver-zinc-lead mining and processing operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina later in the year. The company says it clinched the exploitation, or mining, permit for the project’s keystone Rupice underground deposit from the country’s Federal Ministry for Energy, Mining and Industry.

Australian Bauxite’s 87 per cent owned chemical refining subsidiary, Alcore, appears to have made a significant technical breakthrough with its proprietary mineral production process used to produce commercial-grade aluminium fluoride from metal refining waste known as “dross”. The company believes its process can deliver substantial economic and environmental benefits for Australasian aluminium smelters reliant on imports of the material.

ASX-listed Comet Resources expects to have results of testwork to assess the suitability of concentrate produced from its Springdale graphite project in Western Australia to be used in battery anode manufacturing in the current quarter. The company says the testing at a specialised facility in Germany follows initial “excellent” grade and recovery results in preparation of the concentrate sample in Perth.

Terrain Minerals has intercepted “exciting” new gold zones at three prospects at its Smokebush project in Western Australia’s Murchison goldfield, including a 3m hit going 4.86 grams per tonne gold at the Monza prospect where strike length has now more than doubled to 700m. First pass drilling has also hit a new mineralised structural zone at Monza North with returns including 3m at 1.53 g/t gold from 39m.