Public Company News

Ora Banda Mining has added to its rapidly developing story at the Davyhurst gold project that it rescued from the Administrators of the failed Eastern Goldfields Ltd after it nailed a set of drill results at its Riverina South Project. The development comes just days after the company churned out its first gold bar from the re-invigorated project north of Kalgoorlie.

Zuleika Gold has kicked off a 30,000-metre drilling program across its namesake project in the fertile Eastern Goldfields in WA. First cab off the rank for the company is the Paradigm East target where previous drilling has returned a wealth of mineralised intercepts including 27 metres at 2.87 grams per tonne gold from 33m and 7m at 9.8 g/t gold from 42m down-hole.

Australian-based Blackstone Minerals has graduated to the US-based OTCQX Best Market, the highest market tier of OTC Markets, on the back of its progress in developing a significant “green” nickel business in Asia. The company is currently developing the Ta Khoa nickel sulphide project in northern Vietnam, with recent results from its King Snake discovery continuing to showcase the project.

Aspiring ASX-listed heavy rare earths developer, Northern Minerals is looking to shave two years off its target date for commercial production and cash flow at its 100 per cent-owned Browns Range project in WA. The company is now aiming for first cashflows from a full-scale beneficiation plant at Browns Range in WA’s top end as early as 2023.

Victory Mines has returned a clutch of broad gold intersections from a second major drilling program at its historic Coogee gold project about 55km south-east of Kalgoorlie. The company says results from 14 holes at Coogee – out of 40 holes to be drilled in the current RC campaign totalling 6,000m – highlight the high‐grade nature of some of the thicker gold intersections at the project.

Altech Chemicals has taken a giant leap towards securing the remaining financing required for its proposed US$280 million HPA processing plant at Johor in Malaysia, with preparations well under way for a US$144 million listed green bond instrument. Altech’s Malaysian subsidiary plans to use US$100 million of the total amount raised as a secondary debt facility for the partial funding of plant construction costs.

Hot Chili expects a VAT tax refund payment of up to $4 million this year against all expenditure associated with its Cortadera copper-gold discovery, the centrepiece of its overarching Costa Fuego porphyry copper-gold project in Chile. Hot Chili says the VAT refund was given the nod by the Chilean Government and the tax refunds will shore up the company’s cash position as it gradually moves to full ownership of Cortadera.

Venture Minerals is poised to ride the crest of the monster iron ore price wave as it counts down to the start of iron ore production at its revived Riley mine in north-west Tasmania. The company has just raised $10 million and has been busy getting its ducks in a row for the main construction phase push at the Riley project development site including the critical wet screening plant.

ASX-listed Eclipse Metals has vectored in on a large circular magnetic anomaly containing multiple conductive exploration targets on its ground just a kilometre or two east of its recently acquired Ivittuut cryolite mine in southern Greenland. Eclipse is targeting cryolite, rare earth elements, high-purity silica and even nickel sulphides as it continues to explore its tenement in the frozen north.

Australian Bauxite appears to have added a second string to its bow with the company encountering intriguing levels of rare earth elements at its Tasmanian and Queensland bauxite projects that it describes as “potentially game changing”. Initial results from exploration undertaken over the past 15 months returned encouraging hits of rare earth elements at the Binjour bauxite deposit within its Sunrise project 115km south-west of the Bundaberg port and at the DL130 prospect in north-east Tasmania.

Comet Resources has rattled the tin and raised a million dollars from sophisticated and institutional investors. The cash injection will largely go towards funding an expansion of exploration activities at its historic Barraba copper project in the New England Fold Belt region of NSW. Recent geochemical sampling results at the project included up to 4.6 per cent copper, 4.0 per cent zinc and 0.7 per cent cobalt.

Indiana Resources has uncovered an historic gold assay that has laid dormant in the annals of the South Australian mineral core library for nearly six years without anybody actioning it. Indiana’s decision to re-examine historic core held by the South Australian Government could lead to a golden pay off after wide mineralised intersections were observed in a historic drill hole.