Public Company News

AVZ has reeled in monster lithium hits from the final 36 holes of a 53-hole resource drill-out of the Roche Dure deposit at its Manono project in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The latest results include an extraordinary 342m at 1.86 per cent lithium oxide from 208m. The remarkable ore body stretches more than 1.8km and remains open along strike and at depth.

Classic Minerals’ Kat Gap processing plant in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region has secured a key endorsement for its efficient approach to gravity gold recovery after an independent evaluation of the company’s circuit design. An independent reviewer found that the company’s bench and pilot-scale tests indicate its current configuration is well suited to maximise the recovery of gravity-recoverable gold.

ABx Group’s 83 per cent-owned subsidiary Alcore has been boosted by the arrival of a second $2.7 million instalment of funding from the Australian Government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative. Management says the funding will go towards the company’s planned $16.4 million aluminium bath recycling plant at Bell Bay in Tasmania, in addition to supporting its pilot plant on the NSW Central Coast.

A scoping study on Auric Mining’s Munda gold deposit in Western Australia’s Goldfields region supports the potential for open-pit mining and the processing of ore at an existing toll treatment plant, highlighting the potential for “significant accumulated cashflow”, even at low gold prices. The company’s study also outlined a cashflow surplus of $76.9 million under the base-case scenario.

Critical metals explorer Reach Resources has uncovered more high-grade niobium from surface sampling at its Wabli Creek project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region. New rock-chip results, peaking at 10.3 per cent niobium oxide, were taken 400m from previous sampling of a 1.5km mapped pegmatite that returned 14.3 per cent niobium oxide, suggesting Reach has its foot on the tail of a potential stacked pegmatite swarm.

Alma Metals has expanded the reach of its Briggs copper project in Central Queensland, with its latest assays extending the known limits by more than 150m from the boundary of its current inferred resource. The company has revealed its latest drillhole produced a 366m intersection going 0.23 per cent copper and 28 parts per million molybdenum from just 6m.

Image Resources has tabled a prefeasibility study on its proposed new Bidaminna mineral sands project in WA that estimates a total EBITDA for its contemplated 10.5-year mine life of $379 million. Management says it will cost $194 million to build the mine which should yield a net present value of about the same figure.

Quantum Graphite has achieved flake purity grades of 99.99 per cent graphitic carbon following thermal purification results from its final phase of testing on samples from its Uley 2 mine in South Australia. The flake was treated at 2850 degrees celsius in a testwork program conducted by Germany’s Institute of Nonferrous Metallurgy and Purest Materials (INEMET), ProTherm Systems and Sunlands Power.

Classic Minerals has won approval from the WA Government to spud a second water-bore to help run its “Gekko” processing plant and to suppress dust at its Western Australian Wheatbelt-based Kat Gap gold project. The bore will provide vital operational water supply security as the State’s imminent next gold producer gears up to join the production ranks.

Aurumin set the drillbit spinning this morning on the first of its four planned diamond drill holes at its Mt Palmer project in Western Australia. It is targeting lithium-bearing pegmatites where it believes the geology is analogous to Wesfarmers’ and SQM’s Mt Holland lithium deposit, 65km to the south. The design of the diamond drill holes was awarded government funding for half of the costs.

Zuleika Gold has wrapped up a plethora of soil-sampling surveys at its Zuleika, Goongarrie and Menzies projects in Western Australia’s golden heartland. Employing CSIRO’s patented “Ultrafine” assaying technique, which can detect mineralisation blanketed by transported cover, the company is looking to later this year drill-test a string of compelling anomalies that are coincident with historical workings and favourable structures. Planning is well underway.

Globe Metals & Mining has launched into its next stage of processing and testwork after extracting a 12-tonne bulk sample from its Kanyika niobium project in Malawi and trucking it to Johannesburg. Management says it has also selected six separate vendors to undertake key operational tasks as the project reaches its next stage of development.