Public Company News

Eclipse Metals has launched into its maiden exploration program at the smoking hot Devil’s Elbow uranium prospect in the Northern Territory. First pass exploration included the field checking of key targets with radioactivity levels all but confirming the presence of the lucrative but controversial energy metal. The company has now begun planning for a first pass drilling program for the 2021 dry season.

Comet Resources has spiced up its portfolio with the acquisition of the high-grade Santa Teresa gold project in Mexico. Drilling at Santa Teresa has already returned a bevy of eye-catching gold hits including 3.9m at 39 g/t gold and 1m at a whopping 958.4 g/t gold. The company is updating the resource over the project with exploration expected to kick-off in the coming months.

Middle Island Resources looks to have a new near-surface gold resource in the making at its historic Sandstone gold project in WA following more high-grade drill hits from the Plum Pudding satellite deposit. Notable latest RC drill intersections included 7m at 24.1 g/t gold from 36m, 7m at 19.0 g/t from 36m, 12m at 7.22 g/t from 40m, 3m at 24.7 g/t from surface and 3m at 10.0 g/t from 30m.

Lithium Australia is set to claim ‘first mover’ status after Envirostream signed two additional suppliers to provide spent EV battery packs for recycling through the company’s innovative facility in Melbourne. These new contracts complete the company’s supply chain with Envirostream claiming ‘first mover’ status in Australia and set to expand the business through the Asia-Pacific region.

ASX-listed gold explorer Kairos Minerals has ratcheted up its multi-prospect exploration blitz across its flagship Pilbara gold project hub in WA. The company has now kicked off a follow-up RC drilling program totalling 5,000m, with the large greenfields Fuego prospect within the Croydon tenements first in its sights followed by the historic Mt York deposit.

Podium Minerals has continued its winning streak as it races towards proving up Australia’s first economic PGM deposit at the Parks Reef project in WA. Ongoing drilling has extended the footprint of the company’s discovery to nearly 7km of strike with results returned including intercepts of 19m at 2.11 g/t platinum group metals. The company is presently modelling its latest drill results for inclusion in an updated resource scheduled for release in October 2020.

Aspiring gold developer Barton Gold has started the ball rolling on evaluating its unexploited 558,000-ounce Tunkillia gold project in the Gawler Craton region in South Australia. The company is looking to formulate a future development plan beyond an early production pathway at its historic Tarcoola gold mine.

Aruma Resources innovative approach to exploration is already paying dividends at its Melrose project on the southern margin of the Pilbara, with the explorer racing to peg two new tenements after identifying new zones of gold mineralisation in the region. The company’s project surrounds Northern Star’s revered Paulsen’s gold mine, with Aruma hoping to unearth a similar company-making deposit.

PharmAust’s cancer fighting drugs continue to inhibit COVID-19 in its testing of the effects of the drugs on cultured cells infected by the virus. Preliminary results from lab studies undertaken for PharmAust by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne show the virus can be suppressed by up to about 95 per cent following treatment with the company’s monepantel and monepantel sulfone products.

Fuelled by rising commodity prices, Horizon Minerals’ high-grade Nimbus silver-zinc project near Kalgoorlie is back in play, with all options on the table, according to the company, and a few sniffs from interested third parties having already been received. Horizon, which this month launched a massive 70,000m drilling campaign at its adjacent flagship Boorara gold project, has kicked off a strategic review of Nimbus designed to maximise value from the historic mine.

ASX-listed gold developer, Calidus Resources, has cleared the critical final ministerial environmental approval hurdle for its planned $116 million Warrawoona mine 20km south-east of Marble Bar in WA’s East Pilbara region. The company is now progressing debt financing negotiations and says it has plenty of interest from debt providers as it looks to short-list potential lenders next month ahead of the project’s definitive feasibility study being tabled.

The Australian Taxation Office has thrown Northern Minerals a $10 million cash lifeline and wiped out a further $9 million in potential debt after settling a protracted research and development grant dispute that has played havoc with the company’s finances. The dispute related to which aspects of Northern Minerals’ Kimberley-based, heavy rare earths pilot plant were technically considered R&D.