Public Company News

Altech Chemicals have finalised design of their high purity alumina plant in Malaysia, boosting capacity by 12.5% and widening the range of finished products so it can supply Lithium Ion battery makers. The design improvements will be reflected in an updated BFS due out soon as the company enters the final stages of securing a debt guarantee from the German Government.

Reedy Lagoon Corporation have received approval to drill two exploration holes to test for Lithium brines at their Big Smoky South project in Nevada, right on the doorstep of the only producing Lithium brines mine in the US. The company have produced some compelling drill targets after geophysical surveys suggested highly conductive brines at depth, potentially rich with Lithium.

There’s no doubt about it. Western Australia is truly blessed with an endowment of exotic minerals that will keep the wheels of industry turning around the world for hundreds of years to come. Altech Chemicals are sitting on a remarkable deposit of “Kaolin” in Meckering that is expected to make AUD$100m a year for Altech shareholders for at least the next 30 years, generating an NPV of AUD$650m

ASX-listed Sky and Space Global has signed a deal with Italian space systems company D-Orbit to provide launch and deployment services for the Perth-listed company’s constellation of up to 200 nano-satellites. The deal moves Sky and Space a step closer to rolling out its disruptive telco network based on the their next-generation miniature satellites that are capable of providing telco services to remote regions.

ASX-listed Peppermint Innovation’s advance to full commercialisation of its mobile payments technology continues, with the tech company signing a deal with major Philippines healthcare provider, Cooperative Health Management Federation of the Philippines. The company is partnering with CHMF to provide its 18000 members with mobile-based access to its healthcare services.

Recently listed Calidus Resources will jump into an additional 5,000 metres of drilling immediately east of its main Klondyke target at the Warrawoona Gold project after another strong batch of intercepts. Significant new gold intercepts included 24 metres at 2.52 g/t and 7 metres at 5.29 g/t, continuing an exceptional run of discovery success for the newly listed Calidus.

ASX-listed biotech PharmAust has hit several key milestones in the development of its promising anti-cancer drug Monepantel, or MPL as it is commonly known. The company says reformulation of the potential breakthrough anti-cancer substance is progressing well, with its Canadian partner, BRI Pharmaceutical Research, achieving long awaited improvements on taste and dosage capacity.

Excitement around Nzuri Copper’s joint venture with Ivanhoe Mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been validated by some very interesting hits of Cobalt and Copper from early stage exploration. Drilling has identified a high-grade Cobalt zone at Monwezi West and shown that another target has similarities with Ivanhoe’s giant Kamoa-Kakula Copper discovery nearby.

Altech Chemicals have exercised an option to buy the land underneath their Meckering kaolin deposit, smoothing the way for a development that would make the company the world’s largest supplier of high purity alumina (HPA). Demand for HPA is expected to boom because of its essential role in Lithium Ion batteries and synthetic sapphire wafers found in LEDs, semiconductors, watches and consumer electronics.

Move over Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. There’s a new tech industry on the rise and the valuations of its players are stunning. Some have market caps worth billions, others have been trading at multiples of 30 times earnings and the smaller ones get taken out by the big players for hundreds of millions of dollars. Appetise will be the only ASX listed online food ordering business when they list next month.

Lithium Australia shares have jumped by almost 20% on a run of positive developments, including news the company had taken a majority stake in a promising Lithium clays JV in Mexico. This followed last week’s announcement of an equity deal between ASX 200 Lithium miner Galaxy Resources and a junior technology company that licenses its technology to Lithium Australia in W.A.

A newly released feasibility study for Nzuri Copper’s Kalongwe Copper-Cobalt project in the DRC shows it will generate piles of cash for the junior explorer, with revenues of US$499m, an internal rate of return of 71% and an NPV of USD$116m. The project could be generating cash just 12 months after development approval underpinning Nzuri’s big ambitions for its prime tenements in the African copper belt.