Public Company News

Ongoing drilling at Estrella Resources T5 Zone, near the old Carr Boyd nickel mine north of Kalgoorlie, is providing something of a renaissance in a region where a short-lived nickel-copper mine operated early in the 1970s nickel boom. The company’s project area takes in the mothballed Carr Boyd Rocks nickel mine, which shut decades ago and has seen little serious exploration since that time.

Classic Minerals has topped up the tank, banking $1.2 million on the back of a successful placement to professional and sophisticated investors, with the funds earmarked for its ongoing exploration and development across the Forrestania greenstone belt in WA. The company received an overwhelming response to the share issue that was three times oversubscribed, with Classic offering a wealth of developing gold projects and a potential near-term move to production.

ASX-listed Australian Bauxite’s 89 per cent-owned chemical refining subsidiary, Alcore, is gearing up to become the first domestic producer of aluminium fluoride. The company is looking to ramp up from a laboratory-scale to a commercial-scale production outfit and in the process diversify and increase the security of supply for Australasian smelters.

Ardiden Limited has pulled out its exploration tool-kit as it ramps up its field program at Pickle Lake in Ontario, Canada. The company is deploying a raft of innovative exploration techniques as it tracks down the hidden gold endowment within its tenure. The program has included the use of drone-based geophysical surveying, surface geochemistry and ongoing drilling over the high-grade Kasagiminnis gold deposit.

Blue Star Helium has continued to expand its project tenure at its Las Animas helium play in Colorado in the proven high-grade helium fairway adjacent to the historic Model Dome helium field, as the company prepares for a much-anticipated maiden drilling program. It has just secured leases for a further 6,720 acres to increase its overall lease holdings to 182,000 gross or 127,000 net acres.

ASX-listed gold hopeful, Great Southern Mining, has been swamped by investors who have piled into its $3.12 million capital raise. Funding from the oversubscribed share placement will go towards jump-starting an aggressive drilling campaign the company has mapped out for its Cox’s Find and Mon Ami gold projects near Laverton in WA.

Following up electromagnetic conductor results that lit up like a Christmas tree, ASX-listed Legend Mining has hit paydirt again after it rolled out an assortment of high-grade nickel intercepts at its Mawson project in the Fraser Range of WA. The geological feast included a strike of 14.45m at 2.63 per cent nickel and 2.09 per cent copper from 162.05m with ongoing drilling continuing to hit its mark.

Estrella Resources remains on the money, with drilling at its T5 nickel discovery north of Kalgoorlie in WA continuing to deliver a wealth of sulphide mineralisation. The recently auspicious nickel explorer has furnished punters with yet another broad nickel sulphide intercept from its accelerated drilling campaign, with drill hole CBDD033 offering up close to 26m of sulphidic core.

King River Resources has elected to shift its strategic focus to its own recently identified leaching and refining process, utilising readily available aluminium chemical feedstocks, in what it says is a lower risk and faster path toward High Purity Alumina production. King River’s recent lab testing has now confirmed the production of a high-purity precursor compound suitable for calcining into HPA.

Novo Resources is well on the way to pouring first gold in the March 2021 quarter from its rapidly developing Beatons Creek gold project adjacent to the town of Nullagine in WA’s East Pilbara. The company says the fast-tracked development of the Beatons Creek gold mine, including the refurbishment of the recently acquired Golden Eagle gold treatment plant, continues to progress on schedule and within budget.

ASX-listed Alterra Ltd will sell the third tranche of its legacy Dambadgee Springs agricultural land in the town of Dandaragan, north of Perth, significantly progressing its efforts to become a major agribusiness developer in Western Australia. The sale, once completed, will allow it to accelerate its flagship Carpenters avocado project in WA’s south-east.

ASX-listed Oakdale Resources has made the most of its time at the company’s Gibraltar halloysite-kaolin project on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula closing out a maiden aircore drilling program in under two weeks. The quick work made at the site was possible due to the near-surface nature of the mineralisation with resulting assays expected back within a month.