Public Company News

European-focused Altech Batteries has engaged a group of suppliers with extensive backgrounds in automation and robotics to help power its move into the next phase of plant construction as part of its Cerenergy battery project in Saxony, Germany. Management says the design of the plant is aimed at completing one battery cell every 45 seconds as the project’s definitive feasibility study continues to gather momentum.

St George Mining has fired up the drill rig in its maiden nickel-copper hunt at its Ajana project east of Geraldton in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company is plunging about 3000m into a duo of intriguing geophysical anomalies in the heart of the underexplored Northampton mineral field that is prospective for Julimar-style intrusive-related nickel-copper-platinum group mineralisation.

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.