Public Company News

Venus Metals Corporation says it has discovered petalite mineralisation assaying up to 4.6 per cent lithium oxide in multiple pegmatites at its Deep South prospect at Youanmi in Western Australia’s Murchison region. Petalite is an important ore mineral of lithium and the new pegmatite discoveries comprise several small outcrops up to about 60m across that are scattered through a 450-square-metre footprint.

American West Metals has unveiled a maiden mineral resource for its Storm project in Canada of 17.5 million tonnes at 1.2 per cent copper and 3.4g/t silver after just one season of resource drilling. The JORC-compliant estimate holds 205,000 tonnes of copper and 1.9 million ounces of silver at the operation on Somerset Island in the Canadian province of Nunavut.

Minerals exploration and development company GreenTech Metals has suddenly found itself next to a new power-play among lithium giants right next door to its own developing West Pilbara lithium project in Western Australia. Significant corporate activity is targeting the region, including global lithium giant SQM’s joint venture (JV) with Novo Resources and separately, SQM and Hancock Prospecting’s $1.7 billion bid for Azure Minerals.

Auric Mining has recorded multiple high-grade intercepts from grade control drilling at its Munda gold project near Widgiemooltha in Western Australia’s Goldfields region, including a 1m hit at a stunning 184.6g/t gold. The company has drilled 351 holes to complete the campaign, with assays already received from 244 holes sunk representing about 70 per cent of the program back from the laboratory.

Cashed up and ready to drill – Legend Mining has $14 million in the bank and is preparing to dive into a bag of targets at its Rockford project in Western Australia’s Fraser Range. The company is looking for magmatic nickel-copper, volcanogenic massive sulphides hosting zinc, copper and silver and structurally-controlled gold in ground that has recently returned some tantalising geophysical hits.

The Nunuvut Planning Commission has given White Cliff Minerals the go-ahead to kick off exploration at its Coppermine project in Canada, where it will follow up on high-grade historical copper results. The company says it marks a major step in the permitting process and allows it to appoint contractors for this year’s exploration initiatives in the Canadian province of Nunavut.

Alma Metals has revealed a new 32.8m diamond drill hit of 0.78 per cent copper mineralisation across the contact between the granodiorite intrusion and enclosing volcanics at its Briggs project in Queensland. The hole tested the south-eastern margin of the Briggs Central resource zone and management says it further validates its concept of elevated copper grades in the near-surface zone straddling the two rock types.

Infinity Lithium is charging ahead with fieldwork at its San José lithium project in Spain as it prepares to lodge an exploitation concession application for the operation with local authorities. The company says its recent work will support its environmental impact assessment that will form part of its application to mine and process the 111-million-tonne orebody grading 0.61 per cent lithium oxide.

Aurum Resources has appointed experienced African gold miner Caigen Wang as its new managing director as the company works-up the shallow, wide gold-bearing orebody at its Boundiali project in Côte d'Ivoire. Wang is no stranger to maturing African gold discoveries, taking Tietto Minerals from a market cap of about $30 million to nearly $700 million at its Abujar gold mine, also in Côte D’Ivoire.

Buxton Resources’ 100 per cent-owned Graphite Bull Project in WA’s Gascoyne region has ticked another milestone with testwork confirming its product is suitable for the manufacture of lithium-ion battery anodes. The testwork verified that uncoated purified spherical graphite (uPSG) made from Graphite Bull deposit concentrate exceeded the 350 mAh/g charging values considered to be ‘good’ for uncoated graphite achieving charging values as high as 370 mAh/g.

Bookbuilds & Banter with Boz: WA State Manager of Shaw and Partners Davide Bosio waxes lyrical about the lessons learnt from the twentieth century’s most successful day trader Jesse Livermore in Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. Livermore was once considered to be one of the richest people in the world and is generally thought to be the pioneer of day trading.

Surefire Resources has developed a “breakthrough” metallurgical process which has yielded extraction rates of 91 per cent vanadium and 88 per cent titanium from its Victory Bore magnetite concentrate in WA’s Midwest. The company says its provisionally patented technology alleviates the need for standard vanadium industry pre-treatment processing and will be incorporated into its developing Victory Bore operations where its economic, operational and environmental benefits will be evaluated.