Public Company News

Aspire Mining has begun a 58-hole, 10,000 metre drilling campaign at its Nuurstei coking coal Project in Northern Mongolia in an endeavour to upgrade its resource in readiness for production. The Perth-based explorer, and aspiring coal miner aims to complete a feasibility study this year and has flagged potential first production from Nuurstei from as early as the first quarter of next year.

Terrain Minerals has generated four new base metal drilling targets at its Red Mulga project in the Murchison region of Western Australia. The company reports anomalous base metal results from its recent reconnaissance mapping, rock chip and soil sampling program and now plans to complete a limited drilling program as a follow up. Terrain believes that a large mafic-ultramafic complex may exist at the project.

ASX listed Hammer Metals has announced further high grade copper-gold results from an infill and extensional drilling program at its Jubilee prospect near Mt Isa. Significant results include a 4m intersection grading 6.27% copper and 0.70 g/t gold from the northernmost line of the program, implying that the mineralised system is not closed off along strike or down-dip just yet.

The finish line is in sight for Altech Chemicals, who is considering mezzanine debt amongst a number of options to secure the balance of capex funding for the construction of its high-purity alumina plant in Malaysia. The Perth-based company is eager to avoid heavy dilution of its share register and has expressed confidence that the final piece of the funding jigsaw will slot into place by the middle of the year.

Canadian independent geological consulting firm McDaniel and Associates has given Calima Energy’s coveted Montney Formation acreage in British Columbia a confidence-boosting review with estimates of 2.1Tcf of recoverable gas and 114million barrels of liquids. This verdict has reinforced Perth-based Calima’s conviction that it has a standalone project in the making as it prepares for a drilling campaign.

ASX-listed Hot Chili has created a sense of early excitement around its new Valentina prospect at the El Fuego copper project in Chile. The company has stumbled across historic records that show up to 4.8% copper was pulled from the shallow, small scale, family owned mine at Valentina back in the 1990s. Other historical results include an 11m intersection going 2% copper.

Northern Minerals has timed its Browns Range heavy rare earths project in the East Kimberley to perfection, with construction nearing completion just as US President Donald Trump calls on Australia to help it secure new supplies of strategic rare earths. Northern confirmed this week the project is on track for completion by June 30 and work is well advanced on exploring moves into downstream processing.

Galena Mining’s bold plan to unlock the potential of the giant Abra deposit is coming together in spectacular fashion, with a new resource estimate confirming it as one of the largest undeveloped lead-silver deposits in the world. The deposit now boasts 11.2 Mt at a very impressive 10.1% lead and 28 g/t silver, ranking it as the highest grade lead deposit in Australia and one that has global significance.

MGC Pharma’s new cannabis based diet and vegan vitamin supplement comes in seven different flavours to be sold in both capsule and powder form. The ASX-listed medical marijuana company is tapping into a growing global health supplement market estimated at over US$550 billion. The company said the product meets strict European Union guidelines and will be used to instil “inner health and wellbeing”.

Neometals has announced high-grade drilling intercepts at its Virginia Hills prospect, located adjacent to its flagship Barrambie project. The discovery shows 8 km of strike continuity for the vanadium-titanium mineralisation. Neometals is well advanced with technical studies for the project, including detailed drilling to define a 50,000-tonne ore parcel for metallurgical test work.

Geopacific Resources looks set to join the coveted ranks of the 100,000 ounce a year club with its Woodlark Gold Project in Papua New Guinea for at least the next ten years. The company’s share price rose 20% ahead of the highly anticipated pre-feasibility study, which is now on the street and hasn’t disappointed with a projected all in sustaining cost to produce each ounce of gold below the magical AU$1000 an ounce mark.

The wait is almost over and the anticipation is palpable. John Poynton chaired Strike Energy’s historic Jaws-1 appraisal well is steaming seamlessly towards completion in the Southern Cooper Basin as the company attempts to prove that coal seam gas can be accessed economically at previously unheard of depths. An interconnecting horizontal well will now be subjected to a seven-stage hydraulic stimulation program.