Public Company News

ASX-listed Si6 Metals has launched a new drill program at its flagship Dibete copper-silver project in Botswana, with a 15-hole campaign set to explore untested anomalies within the site’s known oxidised zones. The company says Dibete is the first of three projects to be tested in the next four months, with its Airstrip and Malbele North sites set to be next on its exploration calendar.

ABx Group’s ALCORE pilot plant in NSW is now fully funded to completion after the company raised an extra $1.5 million to complement a $7.5 million grant received from the Australian Government through its Modern Manufacturing Initiative. Construction at the NSW Central Coast site has started and the company has taken delivery of the bath mini-reactor, with formal commissioning of the plant just days away.

ChemX Materials has advanced its high-purity alumina (HPA) micro-plant flowsheet as it prepares to scale up to pilot-plant production. The company has now also identified intermediate HPA product pathways and says investment in high-precision analytical equipment and dedicated human resources has resulted in increased operational performance for its HPA micro-plant. A maiden high-purity manganese mineral resource estimate is also imminent.

Javelin Minerals looks set to put significant new impetus behind its lithium exploration and production goals in Uganda after signing a strategic takeover bid implementation agreement with Gecko Minerals. The company says Gecko directors have “unanimously” recommended shareholders back the move, which will net it two new projects in the African nation that are considered prospective for lithium.

Empire Energy Group has lit up with increased gas flow rates from its fracture-stimulated Velkerri shale gas horizontal well, known as “Carpentaria-3H”, in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin. The company says it has reaffirmed its optimised extended production test strategy. The results replicate post-soaking improvements seen in its other horizontal well, Carpentaria-2H, auguring well for the planned gas pilot project to service existing gas pipelines.

A deep dive into an historical dataset coupled with boots on ground has lit up a 10km lithium trend at GreenTech Metals’ West Pilbara projects that sit tantalisingly close to Azure Minerals’ Andover lithium discovery. Field mapping and analysis of historical soil sampling has etched out two distinct lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite trends where recent rock-chip sampling returned assays peaking at 3.6 per cent lithium oxide.

Maiden drilling on two prospects at St George’s Ajana project in Western Australia has turned up trumps, with significant widespread and shallow zinc-lead-silver mineralisation seen in an untested play concept for the area. The company is now planning more drilling through a vast crop of highly-prospective targets with a similar fingerprint of gravity and/or magnetic anomalies.

88 Energy will flow test four reservoir zones in its Hickory-1 oil well in Alaska’s north during the coming winter operational season. Hickory-1 – part of the company’s project Phoenix, which was previously known as Icewine East – is cased and suspended awaiting the arrival of Rig-111, which is expected to start re-entry of the well from next month.

Reach Resources’ maiden reverse-circulation and deep diamond drilling at its Bonzer prospect at Yinnetharra has intersected multiple thick pegmatites in all holes, including some at depth that do not outcrop at surface. The program was run to follow-up extensive soil and rock-chip sampling results that returned significant lithium, caesium and tantalum values. The discovery highlights the potential for significant lithium mineralisation.

Lindian Resources has moved to commercialise its Gaoual bauxite project in Guinea by inking a memorandum of understanding for a possible sales contract with prominent miner Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée. Lindian will complete a feasibility study for its 102-million-tonne deposit within two years, while the companies negotiate a possible sales contract for the high-aluminium oxide product.

Buru Energy will feed appraisal drilling plans by collecting 200 square kilometres of 3D seismic data from its 100 per cent-owned Rafael gas-condensate project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia’s Canning Basin. The company says interpretation of a fast-tracked volume, also using information from some 2D lines, will be complete in the last quarter of this year.

American West Metals has unveiled bonanza copper grades at its Storm project in Canada with a 0.3m intercept at a whopping 42.8 per cent copper from 67m, in addition to identifying a new zone of mineralisation. The impressive hit was contained within 46m going 2.2 per cent from 64m, including 15.6m grading 4.2 per cent from 65m.