Public Company News

King River’s plans to push its giant Speewah vanadium, titanium and iron deposit in the East Kimberley towards a definitive feasibility study have been given a boost with the production of an almost pure, high purity alumina product, or “HPA” through further refinement of its metallurgical flowsheet. The pioneering company will now commence tests using the new HPA process to extract alumina directly from waste fractions.

Adriatic Metals’ confidence that it can grow its spectacular high grade polymetallic Rupice prospect in central Bosnia even further has received a boost after two new assays indicated the area’s mineralisation is larger than previously thought. Results from one of the two holes testing Rupice’s southern extensions returned 16 metres at 1.96 grams/tonne gold, 350g/t silver, 5.3% zinc, 3.4% lead, 0.5% copper and 43% barite from 330m.

Great Southern has backed up its maiden drilling results released last month, with ounce-plus hits rolling off the drill bit at its Cox’s Find project. New results include 5 meters grading a magical ounce to the tonne gold from 134 meters down-hole that includes a super-high one-metre zone grading 143 grams per tonne gold. These drill holes are stacking up well against old production files that recorded an amazing historical cut-off grade of 12g/t gold.

Hot Chili has the West Perth mining glitterati and their followers on St Georges Terrace all abuzz with news of its nearly 1km long mineralised drill hole at its Cortadera project in Chile. The latest drill result may well rank up there with some of the all-time remarkable drill intercepts and is most likely the best hit anywhere in Australia and possibly even around the globe for 2019.

Aurora Labs has partnered with engineering firm Gränges AB to embark on a potentially lucrative research project that will investigate the possibility of commercialising Aurora’s 3D printing technology for the high value, high turnover automotive spare parts industry. The innovative pair will look to combine their expertise, potentially paving the way for significant sales of Aurora’s “RMP1” 3D metal printer into the car parts manufacturing industry.

With a recent new drill hole at its Penny North prospect going 2.87m at 14.7g/t from 363m downhole, Spectrum Metals appears to be showing that its shiny new ore body, recently discovered just to the north of the historic Penny West open pit in W.A, is not going to give up anytime soon. Penny North is located 25km south of Youanmi.

Further surface mapping conducted just before the launch of its maiden drilling program at the Gaoual bauxite project in northwest Guinea has given Lindian Resources the confidence it is sitting on an ore body that is significantly larger than previously anticipated. The company says it is convinced that Gaoual’s high grade, outcropping Bouba “conglomerate” bauxite target is almost double the length than originally thought.

Agricultural asset developer, Alterra, has signed a property rights agreement for its Dambadgee Springs investment property in Western Australia that could see $2.5 million flow into the company’s coffers over the next 25 years. The PRA will allow the construction and operation of wind turbines at the evolving $400 million Yandin wind farm in the WA wheatbelt shire of Dandaragan.

Altech Chemicals has effectively been given the go-ahead by a German corporate regulator to further rattle the tin in a USD$100 million fund raising that will provide a runway for the Perth company to breathe life into its proposed high purity alumina plant in Malaysia. High purity alumina is in demand from the electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery industry and from the LED lighting markets.

Blackstone Minerals has caught the eye of South Korea’s largest electric vehicle battery cathode manufacturer, Ecopro BM Co, which has offered to help the Australian outfit expand the downstream processing capabilities of its re-emerging Ta Khoa nickel project in north Vietnam. The two companies have signed a non-binding MoU which could become a full-blown joint venture involving the production of nickel and cobalt for lithium-ion batteries.

Middle Island Resources has attracted WA-based engineer, Brad Marwood to its board as a Non-Executive Director as it approaches its moment of truth at the Sandstone gold project. The ASX-listed company is looking to make the transition from explorer to developer and Marwood looks well placed to give the company a shove in the right direction.

The tills have been ringing at mining software company, K2fly, with annual recurring revenues from just one of its software offerings, “RCubed”, almost doubling the annual target of $500,000 in just six months, with $900,000 a year now contracted annually for RCubed. The latest numbers come only weeks after the Perth based ASX-listed company signed a five-year software provision contract with mining goliath, Rio Tinto.