Public Company News

Strike Energy is preparing to push the envelope of wellbore capacity by drilling possibly the world’s deepest pure coal-seam well and the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere. The Jaws-1 well in the Southern Cooper Basin is set to spud in mid-February and is aiming to unlock a massive gas resource of up to 11Tcf to help Australia’s eastern states fend off a looming energy crisis.

Perth-listed Connected IO has posted a staggering 363 per cent lift in revenue in calendar year 2017 to $2.44m after a better-than-expected December quarter. The “internet of things” upstart company expects further growth in 2018 and says it has already secured a strong pipeline of new purchase orders worth more than $2 million for 2018.

After an impressive run of nickel-copper hits at Mt Alexander in the final weeks of 2017, St George Mining is now also focussing on its East Laverton project with the re-start of drilling at the X3 conductor. St George rates X3 as one of its best targets in the current drill program, partly because of its stand-out conductivity.

Heavy rare-earths developer Northern Minerals has slotted important pieces of the puzzle into place as its Browns Range project near Halls Creek approaches completion in the June quarter. Final equipment components from China are being delivered to the pilot plant near Halls Creek with installation also running smoothly and first product shipments set for the September quarter.

Perth-based Myanmar Metals is working hard to create a new chapter in the life of one of the worlds most fabled lead-zinc mines, the Bawdwin deposit in northeast Myanmar, where drilling began this week. A 5,000-metre drilling program is now underway to boost confidence in an already impressive estimate for the potentially world class lead/zinc resource.

Draig Resources has added some choice acreage to its gold portfolio by acquiring the Yandal South Prospect which is close to some of Western Australia's once great, but subsequently forgotten gold mines. The junior explorer is aiming to re-shine a number of abandoned West Australian mines by introducing state-of-the-art, modern exploration techniques into the equation.

Geopacific Resources has reminded investors there is more to the company than just their flagship Woodlark gold project in PNG with news of a gold-silver discovery at their legacy Kou Sa project in northern Cambodia. The epithermal gold specialist this week reported a number of drill hits of high-grade gold in unusually wide zones of mineralisation that suggested potential for a big mineral system.

Nzuri Copper has continued the lightning pace set at its flagship Kalongwe copper-cobalt deposit into 2018, hiring one of Australia’s biggest engineers to conduct a further scoping study on a potential major expansion. The move comes just days after Nzuri banked a $10m placement and adds further momentum to its exciting project in the heart of the booming African copper Belt.

Hammer Metals can’t put a foot wrong with the drill bit. Following news of 7% copper hits at Jubilee, the explorer this week announced high grade grade cobalt hits at Millennium in Mt Isa from the first drill program with a new Canadian partner. A three-hole program returned assays of up to 1.11% cobalt and has encouraged the partners to begin a 10-hole drill program next month.

Blina Minerals has discovered and dusted off a number of historic reports that show crazy cobalt grades of between 6% and up to 18% were mined on their Chilean La Cobaltera project as far back as 1844. Blina are completing a round of DD on the project which they currently have under option and they have also optioned up more ground near their project, dramatically extending their footprint.

Ironbark Zinc has moved closer to a development of its Citronen zinc-lead project in Greenland after appointing a leading global corporate finance adviser to line up finance for the US$514m project. A feasibility study in September delivered an outstanding set of numbers for Citronen, which has emerged as one of the world’s best undeveloped zinc projects just as zinc stocks head for critical lows on the LME.

Podium Minerals is aiming to become the first platinum mining operator in Australia when it lists on the ASX in February. The Perth-based explorer is looking to raise $6.6million for infill drilling and extended exploration campaigns to define a platinum-palladium resource at the Weld Range Complex in Western Australia. The company also has a number of strong potentially nickel and copper conductors at the project.