Public Company News

Geopacif Resources shareholders can look forward to a flood of material news this year with a new resource and reserve estimate due out soon ahead of a DFS at the end of the year. The Woodlark gold project in PNG is also fully permitted to mine after passing all environmental, technical and social hurdles. The company is confident that development work in 2017 gives encouraging impetus for producer status in the not too distant future.

Legend Mining will follow up last month’s exciting anomalous nickel and copper results from the Rockford project with an infill drilling program to pinpoint the extent of the newly discovered mineralised system. The program follows resampling and assaying that identified several narrow intervals with even higher grades than had been previously announced.

Revered UK online beauty store business Cult Beauty will distribute MGC Pharmaceuticals medical marijuana skin care products as part of an exclusive sales and marketing deal signed between the two companies. MGC said global distribution channels for its products had substantially expanded following an agreement that will bring many of its products to the fore on a global, web-based catwalk of quality cosmetic brands.

Australia’s newest graphite pure play BlackEarth Minerals is set to launch an aggressive drill program at its flagship Maniry project in Madagascar after successfully listing on the ASX. The company will begin a 10,800-metre diamond and RC drill program next month with the aim of publishing a maiden JORC resource by mid-year and a scoping study within 12 months of listing.

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.