Public Company News

Northern Minerals is preparing to ramp-up ore sorting, product separation and exploration initiatives for its Browns Range heavy rare earth project, near Halls Creek in the East Kimberley region of WA. The move to progress the project comes after the company received commitments for a $30 million placement priced at 6.2 cents per share split into three roughly equal tranches, the first of which is due to be received on 23 July.

Coziron Resources has received $685,000 in funding from its directors and largest shareholder, Yandal Investments and will shortly undertake a placement to underpin a substantial mineral resource definition program at its intriguing Ashburton magnetite iron project in the west Pilbara, WA. Previous drilling returned thick, consistent intersections of magnetite iron mineralisation with simple metallurgical beneficiation test work yielding premium 67% iron ore products.

Venus Metals and Rox Resources have kicked off an RC drilling campaign targeting down-plunge and along-strike extensions of high-grade gold mineralisation intersected in previous drilling at their Youanmi gold projects in WA. Drilling at the Currans Find North prospect has returned a metre result of 72.67g/t gold from 39m down-hole, within a wider zone of 3m @ 27.5g/t gold.

Sovereign Metals has revealed that accessing a newly upgraded rail network corridor to a deep-water port in Nacala, Mozambique could significantly lower capital costs for developing its rutile and graphite projects in Malawi to the west. Access to the port could provide a low-cost transport and export solution, with estimated charges below USD$66 per tonne from the mine-gate to the port.

Ironbark Zinc is considering the potential for a high-grade development with a targeted 1Mtpa production rate and lower capital cost for its giant Citronen zinc project in Greenland. The starter project would target most of the shallow Beach Zone of the Citronen resource that is also in the measured resource category, while allowing for an expansion to the original feasibility study output of 3.3Mtpa.

St George Mining is expanding exploration to identify further nickel-copper mineralisation and increase the resource potential of existing discoveries at its Mt Alexander base metals project near Leonora, WA. With firm commitments in place for a $3 million placement, the company plans to kick off this exploration program with the diamond drilling of 42 new electromagnetic conductors later this month.

Great Southern Mining is expanding its reach in northern Queensland with two applications for exploration permits that cover much of the prospective ground surrounding the high-grade Dianne copper mine. The permits cover 360 square kilometres in a known gold-copper district and provide the company with an area to carry out detailed exploration to identify similar high-grade copper deposits for follow up drill programs.

Altech Chemicals could sell up to 49% of its high purity alumina, or “HPA”, project for USD$100 million to Frankfurt Stock Exchange-listed company, Youbisheng Green Paper, following strong expressions of interest from European investors. The company will pay about €2.7 million in cash and shares to acquire a 29% interest in Youbisheng, which will then seek to raise up to €70 million in new equity to fund the acquisition.

The Madagascan Government has offered to fast-track development of BlackEarth Minerals’ flagship Maniry graphite project, after a positive meeting with the country’s Minister of Mine and Strategic Resources. A German specialist industrial mineral testing outfit has also begun a program for evaluating the company’s ore concentrates for battery testing, while a Chinese institute has independently confirmed the premium quality of the project’s ores.

Vonex’s core cloud-based PABX telephony business continues to go from strength to strength with the ASX-listed telco now counting a milestone 30,000 registered active users on its books, a 25% increase in the last 12 months. The company also recorded new customer sales value of more than $1.3 million in the June 2019 quarter, which represents a 44% increase from the previous quarter.

Lithium Australia has continued to intersect wide pegmatite intervals with lithium mineralisation from its first pass reverse circulation drilling program at the Youanmi project near Sandstone in WA’s Murchison region. Lepidolite mineralisation has been intersected in most holes drilled to date in the program, which will be used to assess the resource potential and geometry of the pegmatites.

Calidus Resources’ PFS for its flagship Warrawoona gold project located near Marble Bar, WA, will churn out $61m per annum in free, pre-tax cashflows over an initial mine life of six years. Based on an AUD$1,800 per ounce gold price and production of about 100,000 ounces per year through a conventional 2Mtpa plant, the project has an estimated pre-tax NPV of $151m and an IRR of 40%, with payback in two years.