Public Company News

ASX-listed aspiring central Africa lithium developer AVZ Minerals has poured $40 million into its coffers via a “heavily oversubscribed” capital raise, paving the way for the company to increase its ownership stake in its flagship Manono lithium and tin project in the DRC to 75 per cent. Funds from the share placement will also help advance early project capital works.

As it closes in on a fresh mineral resource estimate for its flagship Parks Reef project in WA, PGMs explorer Podium Minerals has served up a cluster of high-grade assays from a recent resource extension reverse circulation drilling program. The pick of the drill intersections from the first batch of results received for the “stage seven” round of 27 holes totalling 4,157m came from one hole.

ASX-listed Buru Energy has spudded the onshore Currajong 1 exploration oil well targeting 28 million barrels of conventional oil in the Canning Basin in the north of Western Australia. A second well, Rafael 1, targeting 69 million barrels of oil is set to follow with a seismic program to define new prospects for future drilling also on the horizon.

Native Mineral Resources is to focus exploration on its core Music Well gold project in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia and its Palmerville copper project in North Queensland after divesting its non-core Mt Morgan copper-gold project south of Rockhampton in Queensland to ASX-listed GBM Resources. The two core projects have been delivering bumper grade samples including 129 grams per tonne gold at Music Well.

Aldoro Resources is poised to kick-off drilling at its Narndee project, east of Paynes Find in Western Australia. The company owns a strategic ground holding over the underexplored terrane, with recent work outlining two high-priority nickel-copper-PGE targets that have now been flagged for drill testing in addition to the recent discovery of a potential lithium-bearing pegmatite swarm on the company’s nearby Windimurra tenure.

Technology Metals Australia’s two-step strategy to bring its Yarrabubba magnetite iron ore and vanadium project south of Meekatharra in Western Australia to life ahead of developing its nearby Gabanintha vanadium project, said to be one of the highest-grade undeveloped vanadium deposits in the world, is motoring along. The company has progressed a suite of activities as a definitive feasibility study on Yarrabubba nears completion.

ASX-listed Troy Resources has attracted global gold major Barrick Gold Corp into its large Karouni gold project in Guyana. A new joint venture agreement will see Barrick target tier-one gold finds in the southern part of Troy’s ground, including around the exciting Potaro prospect, while the Australian company continues to explore and develop in the north.

Alaskan oil and gas explorer/developer 88 Energy now has a full treasury and no debt after closing the recently flagged early sale of state oil and gas tax credits worth US$18.7 million to a US company. 88 Energy now has about A$15m in the tin to accelerate exploration in Alaska where it is targeting more than one billion barrels of gross mean prospective oil resources.

Neometals has taken the shrewd step of demerging its Mt Edwards nickel sulphide project near Kambalda in Western Australia into a new company, Widgie Nickel, which will seek to list on the ASX. Management says the move will benefit shareholders by providing a dedicated nickel-focused entity to advance Mt Edwards, whilst Neometals can focus on its core battery recycling and vanadium extraction businesses.

Aruma Resources is set to increase its tenement holdings at its Saltwater gold project in WA’s Pilbara region. Its application for an adjoining exploration licence covers the “prospective” Spinifex dome structure north-west of the project’s fertile Saltwater structure. The company’s recent drilling at Saltwater points to what it suggests is a potential new gold camp analogous to Kalamazoo Resources’ Mt Olympus gold deposit to the west.

Lithium Australia has confirmed exploration asset sale and joint venture terms with fledgling base and precious metal explorer Charger Metals, which has obtained conditional approval to list on the ASX after its $6 million IPO closed oversubscribed. Lithium Australia will retain 30 per cent of three JV exploration projects in Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Ora Banda Mining’s retiring managing director David Quinlivan has officially handed over the MD’s baton to Peter Nicholson, who has been in the CEO’s chair for the past three months. Mr Quinlivan will now switch to being a non-executive director of the company. The executive leadership transition comes after Mr Quinlivan played an instrumental role in reviving Ora Banda’s Davyhurst mine about 120km north-west of Kalgoorlie.