Public Company News

American West Metals has paved the way for a resource upgrade and extension for its Cyclone deposit in Canada, with notable new drill hits including 19.8m at 1.2 per cent copper and 3g/t silver from just 12.2m. That intercept includes 4.6m going 3 per cent copper and 7g/t silver from 21.3m and a 3m slice running 3.2 per cent copper and 8.5g/t silver from 59.4m.

Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) has given its approval for a powerful Japanese consortium consisting of Sumitomo Metal Mining and Mitsubishi Corporation to join forces with Ardea Resources for the development of the Goongarrie Hub operation within the latter’s giant Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP) in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. A joint venture (JV) agreement was signed by the three parties in April this year.

Estrella Resources has applied for four additional exploration and evaluation licenses, identified as containing rich outcropping manganese, in Timor-Leste’s Baucau municipality. The new coastal licenses, which are 8km west of the company’s existing grounds, cover an area of 194.4 square kilometres. If granted, the additional prospects would bring Estrella’s total landholding in the country to nearly 700 square kilometres.

Latitude 66 has found evidence of high-grade gold hits after digging through historical data from its K8 target in northern Finland and says the findings support the company’s previous strong assay results and is further evidenced through recent geophysical work at the site. The data was previously compiled from drilling campaigns run by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) and former project owner Belvedere Resources.

Buru Energy and Sabre Energy have kicked off oil well pad construction at their Rafael Shallow 1 joint venture in Western Australia’s Canning Basin. The launch of the civil works for the project, which will be completed ahead of well spudding in late September, follows the receipt of heritage and environmental approvals and Sabre’s recent $6 million commitment to drilling and testing costs.

GreenTech Metals’ recent downhole electromagnetic survey at its Whundo project in WA’s Pilbara region has identified a big conductor plate measuring 400m long and between 50m and 100m wide at its Shelby target. It comes after Fox Resources’ geophysical work in 2006 picked up a deep conductor associated with a weak magnetic response at Shelby, about 500m north of the old Whundo open pit.

Terrain Minerals’ geophysics have identified five conductors at its Lort River project near Esperance in Western Australia that show the potential for sulphide mineralisation analogous to IGO’s renowned Nova-Bollinger deposits in the same mineral belt. Two of the conductors lie on the western periphery of a prominent “eye-shaped” aeromagnetic imagery feature that may also signify a mineralised mafic intrusive.

A first batch of rock chip samples revealing an eye-watering 42.6 per cent copper and an impressive 38.2 grams per tonne gold at White Cliff Minerals’ newly-named Phoenix district, within its Great Bear Lake project in northern Canada, has management convinced it could be on the precipice of not one, but two major, high-grade copper discoveries in the near-term.

American West Metals’ recent metallurgical testwork on copper-mineralised sample material from its Cyclone and Chinook deposits at its Storm project in Canada has successfully generated what it says is commercial-grade direct shipping ore. The testwork employed a two-circuit ore-sorting and inline pressure jig stream, which was shown to produce a range of direct shipping copper concentrate grades with good yields.

Buxton Resources has wheeled in a reverse-circulation drill rig at its Graphite Bull play in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, eager to unveil the full extent of thick graphitic mineralisation intersected from a recent diamond program. The company says it has squared away several strategic deals, with its drilling and earthworks contractors to partly fund the 5500m program.

With Galan Lithium’s phase one pond inventories now sitting at 3200 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) – up 15 per cent from last month – and its fourth and fifth ponds nearing completion, the company has continued to make strong inroads at its Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project in the Catamarca region of Argentina as it continues to push forward with finance and offtake agreements.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some of the notable drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including Wildcat Resources’ Tabba Tabba run of 67m at 1.9 per cent lithium oxide. We also look at other interesting intercepts as reported by Rumble Resources from its Western Queen project in WA and Strickland Metals at its Rogozna project in Serbia.