Public Company News

Hammer Metals has generated its maiden mineral resource for the Jubilee deposit near Mount Isa in Queensland, defining 1.4 million tonnes grading 1.41% copper and 0.62g/t gold. The project is of a similar size and mineralisation style to other copper-gold deposits successfully mined by small-scale open pit operations elsewhere in the district, providing the company some confidence that Jubilee may be economically extracted in the future.

Strike Energy continues to achieve greater continuous flows of gas from its super-deep Jaws-1 coal seam gas well in the Cooper Basin, South Australia, as more coal enters the critical desorption window. Water production has also remained steady which is an indicator that continued fluid recovery will lead to more gas production growth.

Middle Island Resources has been awarded a $150,000 grant from the WA Government, which will assist in funding an exploratory diamond drilling program on three geophysical gravity targets at its Sandstone gold project in WA. The discrete gravity lows are interpreted to be similar to, and located within a 1km radius of the major Two Mile Hill tonalite deposit, which is a large, low grade, gold-mineralised ore system.

WA agribusiness player Alterra is another step closer to demerging its carbon forestry business after receiving proxy votes that favoured the demerger. The company is seeking shareholder approval at Thursday’s extraordinary meeting for the demerger, which will place its carbon arm and a solid stream of income into the hands of individual Alterra shareholders.

King River Resources, formerly King River Copper is focusing on an alternative development plan centred on the use of acid leaching for its giant Speewah vanadium project in the east Kimberley region of WA. This has the potential for capital and operating costs savings whilst increasing and diversifying product outputs and revenue opportunities.

Artemis Resources has announced an updated mineral resource estimate of 975,000 tonnes grading 2g/t gold for just under 63,000 ounces at its satellite Weerianna gold project, just 35km from its 500,000 tonne per annum Radio Hill processing plant near Karratha in WA. Gold mineralisation at Weerianna outcrops at surface and the deposit could potentially be mined by open cut methods as an ore feed for the existing plant.

Azumah Resources continues to build the case for underground mining at its flagship Wa project in Ghana after making further deep, high grade drill hits including 35m @ 4.7g/t gold and 5m @ 6.01g/t gold. The company said that the Bepkong system remains open at depth and along strike and that follow-up holes are underway to extend mineralisation in the Eastern lode.

Myanmar Metals’ extraordinary base metals play in Myanmar just got a little more extraordinary with the discovery of the Yegon Ridge lode that could reduce the already low strip ratio in the China Pit scoping study and significantly improve the project economics. The new find continues the company’s ongoing success in finding high grade mineralisation in areas that were too difficult to access for historical miners.

88 Energy is just one approval away from receiving the green light to spud its much anticipated Winx-1 exploration well that will target up to 400 million barrels of oil in Alaska’s famed North Slope oil province. The company will submit the drill permit application before the end of the year with approvals expected to flow in January 2019. This will allow the well to be drilled in February next year.

Strike Energy is wrapping up the takeover of fellow Australian oil and gas explorer UIL Energy after receiving acceptances representing 92.01% of UIL shares on issue for its all-scrip offer. UIL’s three northern permits are believed to potentially contain an extension of the Kingia-High Cliff sands that are the main target at the West Erregulla prospect. Strike plans to drill it in the first quarter of 2019.

Surefire Resources’ high level geological review of its Kooline project in the Ashburton region of WA, has thrown up extensive, untested areas the company says are prospective for lead-silver-copper and gold mineralisation. In the north, scattered gold results were reported from historical auger samples and shallow drilling, whilst to the south an investigation of the Kooline mine workings confirmed the potential of the mineralisation to thicken along strike.

Galena Mining says that a combination of higher lead/silver resource and reserve ore grades and reduced development costs at its Abra deposit, have the potential to materially improve the economic outcomes for the project. The company will complete an interim update of the PFS early next year, ahead of the release of its DFS for the underground base metal mining project in the middle of 2019.