Public Company News

Auroch Minerals high-impact, deep-drilling exploration program in Portugal for giant copper-zinc deposits has hit encouraging rocks on the way to its target depth of more than 1,000 metres. The aggressive junior explorer reported it had hit sulphidic, highly deformed sediments, which are characteristic of the rocks hosting the “supergiant” Neves Corvo deposit just 20 kms along strike.

Perth-listed biotech PharmAust has signed a deal with a leading Japanese chemical company that will give the ASX listed company rights to a library of 50 patents over promising anti-cancer agents. The new patents will complement the development of PharmAust’s main anti-cancer drug Monepantel, which has already shown positive results in fighting cancer.

Perth-based tech company Peppermint Innovation have gained a key strategic partner after making an equity placement for $1 million at $0.02 a share. The 2c placement, which was done at double the last traded price for Peppermint shares, caused the company’s stock to jump by up to 60% yesterday, touching 1.6c a share before settling back to 1.4c.

ASX-listed Stargroup have signed a deal with blockchain technology company DigitalX to develop ATM machines that can exchange bitcoins for cash and enable cryptocurrencies to be added to digital wallets. Under the agreement Stargroup will lean on its relationship with Korean ATM manufacturer NeoICP to develop a two-way ATM solution for Bitcoin, the leading form of crypto-currency worldwide.

Hammer Metals have opened up yet another new exploration front at their Mt Isa project, with a high grade gold hit at the Kalman West prospect. The ASX listed explorer reported a one metre intercept at 36.9 g/t gold and scored hits from both of the first two holes. Highly encouraging results have also come from drilling at the Revenue prospect, with gold again the main prize.

Perth oil and gas explorer Calima Energy pulled off a seriously successful back-door listing last week amid a red hot market for its new core asset in Canada’s revered “Montney” oil and gas basin. The stock ran from a theoretical relisting price of 3.3c to a high of 5.9c last week before settling back to 5.3c at weeks end. Their ground in Canada is considered to be highly prospective for oil and gas.

Northern Minerals have found an innovative source of advance funding for their $56 million Browns Range pilot project, signing an R&D loan facility to provide up to US$30 million for the project. The new facility will accelerate the flow of R&D tax rebates, which will pile up as the company pioneers Australia’s first heavy rare earths project and works towards a planned full-scale development.

With the electric car market about to hit the stratosphere, a resurgence of interest in wind and solar energy and the phenomenal acceptance of the Lithium powered Iphone, W.A is in the box seat when it comes to Lithium driven business opportunities. The challenge for WA’s mining glitterati is to also harness the downstream processing opportunities that arise from Lithium in addition to just mining and shipping it.

In a sign that employers are becoming increasingly wary about truth stretching job seekers, CVCheck has lifted full-year revenues by 47% to $10.43 million on the back of a growing corporate customer base. $5m in costs were stripped out of the business this year underpinning the technology company’s stated goal of breaking even in the first half of FY18.

Blackham Resources’ planned expansion of the Matilda gold mine to more than 200,000 ounces a year will see the mine churn out an annual EBITDA of more than $118m a year or 36c a share for a stock that can be bought on market today for just 28.5c a share. Blackham are predicting that the expanded mine will produce free cash of $571m or $1.74 a share assuming the $114m capex can be debt funded.

ASX-listed Shark Mitigation Systems has launched its breakthrough anti-shark technology known as “SAMS” directly into the US water sports market, rolling it out to more than 200 US surf stores. SAMS are a series of proprietary stripes that can be attached to marine apparel for the purposes of deterring a shark or camouflaging the wearer.

New assays have backed Auroch Minerals’ hunch that an ancient European Copper mine could be rich in Cobalt with expectations around the upcoming drilling program now elevated. Assays from a second round of samples from waste dumps at the Tisova mine in the Czech Republic have produced economic grades of Cobalt, Copper, Gold and Silver, including a best result of 0.69% Cobalt.