Public Company News

After locking onto two new nickel-copper-PGE targets in WA’s South West the JV between Chalice Mining and Venture Minerals is ready to take its exploration to the next stage with surveys and a sampling program. The duo’s South West project hosts the Thor prospect, a 20km long magnetic anomaly containing multiple electro-magnetic targets which is giving Chalice a sense of deja vu.

Meeka Metals has recorded more shallow gold hits outside the defined mineral resource on the western flank of the company’s Turnberry deposit that forms part of its greater Murchison gold project. Turnberry currently has a resource of 11.3 million tonnes grading 1.7g/t for 610,000 ounces of gold with an update scheduled before the end of the year.

Ora Banda Mining has extended mineralisation of its Riverina gold system by more than 100m to the south and 100m vertically with the deposit remaining open in all directions following positive assay results. The company has completed 46 diamond drill holes for a total of 13,046m at the site near Kalgoorlie as Ora Banda explores the system for underground mining potential. The success has encouraged the company to expand the program to 54 holes for a total of 15,331m.

ASX-listed 88 Energy has sealed a rig contract agreement with Nordic-Calista to use one of the company’s rigs to launch drilling operations at its Hickory-1 oil exploration well on Alaska’s North Slope next year. The well is on course to be spudded by March and has been devised to test half a dozen key reservoir targets which could yield 647 million barrels of oil.

ASX-listed Legend Mining has benefited from a financial windfall after the company received a refund from the Australian Taxation Office to the tune of $2.93 million including a research and development claim. The early Christmas bonus will be more than enough to cover the cost of a recent 3D seismic survey of its Octagonal prospect that forms part of its greater Rockford project in the Fraser Range.

White Cliff Minerals has polished off a high-resolution magnetic and radiometric survey at its Yinnetharra lithium and rare earths project about 100km northeast of Gascoyne Junction in WA. The operation is within earshot of several high-profile plays including Hastings Technology Metals’ world-class Yangibana rare earths acreage and Arrow Minerals’ emerging Reid Well prospect where rock chip sampling returned grades of up to 3.77 per cent lithium oxide.

West Perth-based minerals explorer Terrain Minerals has added a new commodity of interest to its Smokebush gold exploration project in Western Australia’s Mid West – lithium. Terrain has identified up to 20 pegmatite structures to date in a so-called “Goldilocks zone” for potential lithium mineralisation. Rock chip samples have been sent to a laboratory and results are expected in February.

Askari Metals has signed a binding heads of agreement with Earth Dimensions Consulting to acquire an 80 per cent interest in a lithium prospective tenement near the town of Uis in Namibia, southwest Africa. The tenure is peppered with visible spodumene mineralisation on its surface with previous rock chip assays delivering high-grade results of up to 3.2 per cent lithium oxide, 663 ppm tantalum and 1640 ppm rubidium.

Australia currently leads the globe in terms of lithium production and according to Geoscience Australia about 95 per cent of Australia’s lithium resources are found within just five deposits and all are in WA. The renowned Greenbushes mine, 200km south of Perth, is the undisputed king when it comes to contained amounts of lithium and grade. The next two deposits on the leaderboard, Pilgangoora and Wodgina, both belong to the Pilbara, an area that is again a hotbed of exploration and discovery.

Terrain Minerals is now the sole owner of the Smokebush tenements in WA’s Mid West after mopping up the remaining 20 per cent interest of the gold-bearing ground from a private vendor. The company has been systematically exploring the zone since entering a farm-in and joint-venture deal in 2019 posting several solid intersections since then including 3m at 4.86 grams per tonne gold.

Meeka Metals has received positive results from test work at its Cascade Valley rare earths project near Esperance with up to 90.4 per cent of the elements recovered in the less than 20 micrometre fraction. The company says cheap and simple screening and hydro-cyclone classification can be applied to discard the coarse fraction greater than 20 micrometres and remove up to 65.5 per cent of the mass whilst retaining up to 90.4 per cent of the rare earth elements.

AVZ Minerals has delivered a suite of broad lithium intersections including 144.5m at 1.75 per cent from 13.5m and 172.3m going 1.57 per cent from 48.5m at its monster Manono hard-rock lithium and tin project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Four more extensional diamond drill holes have been knocked over during a probe at its centrepiece Roche Dure deposit as the company looks to bolster its battery metal inventory.