Public Company News

ASX newcomer Barton Gold is poised to commence drilling at its Tarcoola and Tunkillia gold projects in South Australia’s famed Gawler Craton, where the company is looking to build on a plus-1 million ounce resource base. SA-based contractor Bullion Drilling is mobilising to join Barton Gold’s exploration team on site and kick off more than 11,000m of drilling over coming weeks.

Askari Metals has successfully listed on the ASX, hitting the boards at an impressive 25 per cent premium to its 20c offer price. The company has raised close to $6 million as part of its initial public offering and has already locked in a drill rig to begin testing its highly prospective suite of copper and gold projects in Western Australia.

Lithium Australia appears to have taken a key step to commercialising its lithium manganese ferro phosphate or “LMFP” cathode powder used in lithium-ion batteries with the product now available for consumer testing. The company says LMFP-type batteries are cheaper, safer and longer lasting than traditional nickel-based alternatives with the likes of Tesla transitioning to phosphate-based batteries to power its electric vehicles.

Premium fertiliser hopeful Trigg Mining has edged closer to an ultimate development of its Lake Throssell sulphate of potash project near Laverton in WA following a “highly successful” brine pumping field trial. The company hopes to deliver a maiden indicated mineral resource this quarter on the back of its recently released inferred-category resource estimate of 14.2Mt of drainable sulphate of potash at 4,638mg/L potassium.

Aldoro Resources is spreading its wings in Western Australia’s Murchison region, snapping up lithium pegmatite prospects adjacent to its Windimurra lithium footprint through a deal to acquire the neighbouring Wyemandoo as well as the Niobe tantalum-lithium project near Mount Magnet from privately-owned Meridian 120 Mining. Aldoro says Windimurra is rich in lithium-cesium-tantalum or “LCT” type pegmatites, with tungsten also present.

Valor Resources has bumped up its uranium exploration acreage in the mighty Athabasca Basin region in central Canada to 986 square kilometres by acquiring five new projects, including one along strike from Rio Tinto’s Janice Lake property. The Athabasca Basin has historically produced about 20 per cent of global primary uranium supply and hosts the world’s highest-grade uranium mine at Cigar Lake.

Torian Resources has picked up the scent of arsenic from recent surface portable XRF gun and field work that it says points to two new high-priority gold targets at its Mt Stirling project about 40km north-west of Leonora in WA. The company says arsenic anomalies have previously correlated with gold in the region and recently led to the discovery of the Viserion lode at Mt Stirling.

Neometals has wrapped up a review of historical data for its 11 nickel sulphide deposits forming the Mt Edwards resource base near Kambalda in Western Australia, bumping up the total resources to a hefty 162,560 contained nickel tonnes grading at an average 1.6 per cent. Neometals plans to demerge Mt Edwards into a new ASX-listed company and focus on its core battery recycling and vanadium extraction businesses.

Middle Island Resources has set about the task of expanding the overall gold resource inventory at its multi-deposit Sandstone project in WA as it looks to improve the economic feasibility of recommissioning the old Sandstone processing plant. To help kick things along the company says it decided to extinguish the legacy two per cent net smelter return royalty that was hanging over Sandstone by paying Troy Resources $250,000.

ASX-listed Eclipse Metals has received a green light from the Greenland Government to commence initial exploration fieldwork at Ivittuut in the country’s south-west, enabling it to get boots on the ground next month at what was once the world’s only commercial source of cryolite. Eclipse aims to compile a JORC-compliant resource and also assess the rare earths potential at Ivittuut.

Native Mineral Resources has executed a pivotal access agreement with the pastoral leaseholder at its promising Music Well gold project north of Leonora in Western Australia. The Pastoral Access Deed agreement with Next Horizon 888 Management gives Native Minerals a clear path to accelerate exploration and development at Music Well, which has been producing bumper gold results from sampling of an outcropping quartz vein.

ASX-listed junior explorer St George Mining is set to kick off a seismic survey next week across an under-explored western portion of the “Cathedrals Belt” at its joint ventured Mt Alexander nickel-copper sulphide project in WA’s north-Eastern Goldfields region. The Perth-based company will be looking to map the host intrusive structures in the western area, where new electromagnetic conductors have been recently encountered.