Public Company News

MGC Pharma is aiming to hit a series of new highs in 2018 with a number of medicinal and cosmetic cannabis products hitting the shelves in the new year as the company shifts into production phase. The Perth-listed company is moving into the final countdown on the launchpad to the release of its first medical marijuana product to designed treat severe cases of epilepsy.

Legend Mining has taken another important step towards discovering a Nova lookalike at its Rockford project in the Fraser Range with news that last week’s highly anomalous nickel, copper and cobalt results were from the same host rocks as those at the revered Nova ore body nearby. New assays also showed significant nickel and copper 1.6 kms away, suggesting Legend could be on to something decent.

Hammer Metals’ maiden drill program at the Mt Frosty joint venture with Glencore has produced a series of impressive hits of copper and gold, including 6 metres at 2.55% copper. The results are an early reward for Hammer, who bought its way into Mt Frosty earlier this year on the basis that it could potentially define a resource with minimal drilling. This is the second time Hammer have done this.

Northern Minerals is racing towards the commencement of production at its Brown Range pilot plant and is set to become a rare, global producer of dysprosium outside of China. Located near Halls Creek in the north of Western Australia, the Browns Range pilot plant looks set to produce 60,000 tonnes of dysprosium a year for three years following a targeted start-up in the third quarter of 2018.

Six months after listing on the ASX, Calidus Resources has added 300,000 ounces of gold to their Pilbara gold project. The total mineral resource at the Warrawoona project expanded to 10.5 million tonnes at 2.11 g/t gold for 712,000 ounces, up 74% as Calidus closes in on its target of one million ounces.

Geopacific Resources has discovered a significant new gold zone at the Woodlark gold project in PNG, boosting hopes that in time it could grow into something more like its multitude of Tier 1 neighbours. The new Boscalo gold zone is only 300 metres from an existing deposit and could potentially be incorporated into an expanded pit design. The best result at Boscalo was 12m @ 7.45 g/t gold.

Altech Chemicals appear to have pulled off a major financial coup with their announcement that the German Government would provide a debt guarantee for their proposed Malaysian high purity alumina plant that will be fed with Kaolin, mined in Meckering, W.A. The project is now debt guaranteed, fixed price guaranteed , has a 10 year off-take guaranteed and the quality and throughput rate is also guaranteed.

St George Mining has ended 2017 with its share price on an upward trajectory on confirmation that its Mt Alexander project produced one of the most impressive base metals drill hits in the country this year. New assay results have revealed a 17 metre drill intersection grading 3.01% nickel, 1.31% copper, 0.13% cobalt and 1.68 g/t platinum group elements from a depth of just 37.45 metres.

Perth-based biotech company PharmAust has announced a set of tail wagging results from tests conducted on dogs with cancer who were given PharmAust’s promising development drug Monepantel, or MPL, which stabilised the spread of the disease in the animals. 6 of the 7 dogs tested experienced a reduction in tumour size over a two week period when administered with MPL.

Lithium Australia is moving quickly to improve its newly defined maiden lithium resource in Germany with a diamond drilling program aimed at lifting confidence in the deposit and potentially expanding its size. Historical drilling has already shown potential to supply a 25,000 tonne per annum lithium carbonate plant for 10 years and the company is now keen to see what new drilling may reveal.

Perth-listed junior tech company Connected IO posted a whopping 340 per cent lift in revenue in 2017, delivering a top-line of $2.2 million this year. The “internet of things” company, which has rapidly expanded its customer base in 2017, expects further growth in 2018 given the strong pipeline of new purchase orders it secured in recent months. The order book for 2018 is already sitting at $3.3m.

ASX-listed MGC Pharma is set to rollout a marijuana-derived psoriasis treatment after clinical trials in Europe showed the product, CBD Herbal Repair Cream, was effective at relieving dermatological symptoms such as irritated and inflamed skin. The first product offering from MGC’s Derma Plus line, is scheduled for launch in January and will be sold online and through existing channels.