Public Company News

ABx Group has hit some “major milestones” through its 83 per cent-owned subsidiary Alcore by finalising the preliminary engineering design phase for its pilot facility and ordering a laboratory reactor. The alumina technologist and rare earths explorer is developing a pilot plant in NSW to recover fluorine from an aluminium smelter waste product to produce hydrogen fluoride.

Terrain Minerals has added a Queensland operation to its raft of WA projects after lodging tenement applications for about 2500 square kilometres of highly-prospective ground near the Cracow gold mine. It says its extensive “Biloela” package includes at least two known historic copper mines, in addition to copper and gold targets first identified by mining giants Rio Tinto, Gold Fields and Newcrest Mining.

Askari Metals has expanded its lithium foothold in Western Australia’s Pilbara region by finalising its purchase of Greenstone Lithium’s 60-square-kilometre Hillside lithium project after fully acquiring the now former owner. Management says the acquisition takes the company’s total landholding in the promising region to 2300sq km. The Hillside project covers two granted tenements considered prospective for lithium, tin and tantalum mineralisation.

ASX-listed Aurumin has kicked off a diamond drill program at its Mt Palmer project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region, where it will target lithium-bearing pegmatites with a focus on its Vickers Find South prospect. The target hosts confirmed pegmatites within a mafic-ultramafic sequence in a geological setting similar to that at the Mt Holland lithium deposit, which is about 65km to the south.

Brightstar Resources is primed to join the ranks of Western Australian gold producers, with mining set to begin in August at its Selkirk open-pit gold mine that holds 30,000 tonnes of ore going more than 6 grams per tonne gold. Brightstar picked up the operation that forms part of the Menzies gold project after completing its successful merger with Kingwest Resources last month.

ESG software provider K2fly will continue to supply mining behemoth BHP with its “ground disturbance” solution for another three years after the “Big Australian” agreed to a contract extension. Management says the new deal will generate annual recurring revenue of $664,000 and has a total contract value of $1.99 million. The deal will cover the global miner’s iron ore operations in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

DiscovEx Resources can tick heritage surveys off its to-do list ahead of planned drilling at the Contact prospect within its Sylvania project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Drilling at the 2.5km-long target area is due to begin in August, in addition to geophysics targeting copper-gold and lead-zinc mineralisation at the project’s Prairie Downs fault zone.

Once primarily used in steel-making to boost strength and add corrosion and heat resistance, niobium is now turning heads with its ability to cut charging times and fire risks for lithium-ion batteries. Accordingly, companies finding the metal are watching their stock take flight ahead of the next boom as sales for electric vehicles step up another notch.

Terrain Minerals has successfully wrapped up the first phase of drilling at its Smokebush project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, with 10 of the 11 holes drilled intersecting multiple zones of pegmatites. The reverse-circulation program prioritised seven of the 11 pegmatites identified, ranging from about 10m to 15m in width and 200m in length, before shifting undercover in about a 4km area.

Infinity Mining has highlighted rare earths at its Victor Bore project, with two samples from a recent reverse-circulation campaign returning results of more than 1000 parts per million TREO. Of 24 samples from a drill campaign in WA’s Central Goldfields, one returned a 1m hit at 1018ppm TREO from 20m, while a second recorded another 1m intercept at a solid 1582ppm TREO from 53m.

Toro Energy has confirmed massive nickel sulphide hits at the Dimma discovery that forms part of its greater Dusty nickel project after the return of assays previously identified by X-ray fluorescence analysis. One diamond drillhole intersected 4.31m of massive nickel sulphides at 1.16 per cent nickel and 0.29 per cent copper, in addition to 0.386 grams per tonne platinum and palladium from 243.33m.

BMG Resources has expanded its portfolio of Western Australian gold and lithium projects, acquiring the Bullabulling project in the Eastern Goldfields' emerging Coolgardie lithium and gold region. The company exercised its option on the project after initial reverse-circulation drilling confirmed strong prospectivity for lithium and gold. Plans for follow-up drilling is underway and more assays are due in the coming weeks.