Public Company News

ChemX Materials has secured a funding package worth up to $6 million from US-based investment firm Mercer Street Global Opportunity Fund. Management says the fresh funding will go towards the company’s high-purity manganese play on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula and its high-purity alumina project in Perth. ChemX has also promoted Peter Lee to the role of chief executive officer.

Budding gold producer Auric Mining has delivered the first five gold doré bars from its Jeffreys Find gold project near Norseman in WA to the Perth Mint for further refining. The company has also packaged a 36,000-tonne ore parcel for delivery to the Greenfields Mill in Coolgardie for toll treatment, which is expected to be completed in the coming week.

Buru Energy says commercialisation of its Rafael gas-condensate discovery in Western Australia’s Canning Basin will service the Kimberley’s power needs at reduced capital expenditure through phased development. It says the development is viable for all contingent resource volumes as it moves ahead with de-risking subsurface uncertainties and firming up volumetric estimates, with an imminent 3D seismic survey to be followed by appraisal well drilling next year.

ABx Group’s 83 per cent-owned subsidiary Alcore has captured a research-and-development tax offset of $522,715 from the Australian Tax Office for work undertaken last year on its world-first process to recover hydrogen fluoride. Management says it also expects to receive an additional tax offset for the R&D activities it undertook at its Deep Leads-Rubble Mound rare earths project in Tasmania.

Venture Minerals has received a handy boost to its coffers with $450,000 in research-and-development support from the ATO for the 2022 financial year. The cash bonus will help the company recoup the significant expenditure it has committed to metallurgical testwork and studies at its flagship Mount Lindsay tin-tungsten project in Tasmania and will enable ongoing exploration on other important projects.

Ora Banda Mining has unveiled a swag of new drilling results, including an 8.1m hit at 13.4 grams per tonne gold from 515m, expanding its Riverina project beyond its current resource boundaries to the south and at depth. Management says separate exploration at the company’s Siberia project is also targeting below the current pit floors of the Missouri and Sand King open-pit mines.

Lindian Resources has delivered the highly-anticipated maiden mineral resource estimate for its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, coming in at 261 million tonnes at a cracking grade of 2.19 per cent TREO. Including 5.7 million tonnes of contained rare earths of excellent grade, it positions the project among the world’s biggest deposits and paves the way for offtake agreements and mine development.

TSX-listed Novo Resources is aiming to join the ranks of ASX mineral explorers after lodging a prospectus with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission amid plans for an initial public offering. It has secured the support of giant neighbour De Grey Mining as a cornerstone investor and potential joint venture partner in a deal worth up to $35 million at its Becher project.

Galan Lithium says its new Catalina tenement in Argentina’s “Lithium Triangle” could add between 500,000 and 1.5 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent at between 953 and 988 milligrams per litre lithium to its Hombre Muerto West resource. Management says a well-drilled 500m to the south of Catalina hit lithium grades in the target range and believes it may extend into its exclusively-owned ground.

An independent technical review of Gold Mountain’s Wabag project in Papua New Guinea has highlighted its potential for more copper exploration and recommended extra work across several prospective zones. Management says the comprehensive report’s author, Dr Steve Garwin, has already identified a series of targets using the company’s database for its Wabag tenements.

American West Metals’ stock touched an all-time high of 31 cents during today’s intraday trading, up from last night’s close of 20c after making a fresh copper discovery at its Storm project in Canada – including 45.5m of visual sulphides in one hole. It says the discovery exhibits similarities to many of the world’s major sediment-hosted copper systems.

Octava Minerals has launched a new soil-sampling program to follow up three priority targets defined by a recent hyperspectral survey within its Talga project near Marble Bar in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The campaign has a particular focus on lithium, although the gold and base metals potential in the wider tenement area is also of interest to the company.