St George Mining Limited (ASX:SGQ) has announced significant developments in its exploration efforts at the Myuna Rocks Project in Western Australia's Ravensthorpe region. The project, owned by Lithium Star Pty Ltd (a joint venture between St George Mining and Amperex Technology Limited), has seen its tenure double in scale, now spanning 546 square kilometres. The newly granted Exploration Licences E74/789 and E74/790 have expanded the project's area, with the land package extending over 50 kilometres north-west along a regional greenstone corridor, starting just five kilometres north of the Mt Cattlin Lithium Mine. This corridor hosts active explorers such as Fortescue,…
The Australian government has recently announced a significant investment of up to $840 million in the Arafura rare earths project and a $230 million loan for Liontown Resources. These investments are part of the government's efforts to boost critical minerals projects and strengthen Australia's position in ethical and sustainable manufacturing of rare earths. The investment in the Arafura rare earths project aims to support the development of the Nolans Project, a rare earth mine located north of Alice Springs. The funding package includes $495 million from the Critical Minerals Facility, $200 million from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF), $115…
It’s possible that a domestically-listed gold explorer, which boasts a not-too-shabby evolving flagship project in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt, may be looking to lithium to help boost its languishing market valuation. No doubt the WA-based junior is also hoping that a farm-in agreement it made back in 2022 with a fellow exploration house will garner some much-needed shareholder interest sometime in the future. When Austgold Ltd (ASX: AUC) presented at Vertical Events’ RIU Explorers Conference in February last year, its share price was around the 0.05 cents mark, giving it a market capitalisation of $105 million. By the same time this…
A West Australian junior involved in a number of exploration projects is confident it has come across an iron oxide-gold-copper (IOCG) deposit in its home state. Late last year, Miramar Resources Ltd (ASX:M2R) said that a review of historical drilling data had “potentially” revealed very significant magnetite iron opportunities at its wholly-owned Whaleshark project, which sits within the Carnarvon Basin in WA’s Ashburton region. Field work conducted in the area by Western Mining Corporation (WMC) in the 1990s whilst exploring for an IOCG intersected significant widths of magnetite-rich banded iron formation (BIF) averaging above 25 per cent iron beneath younger…
Joint venture partners Covalent Lithium, Wesfarmers and Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile (SQM) have opened of the Mt Holland lithium mine and concentrator project. The Mt Holland lithium project consists of an open-cut mine and concentrator, located 110km southeast of Southern Cross in the Wheatbelt region, and a refinery currently being constructed in the Kwinana Industrial Area. With an expected cost of $2.6 billion, the project is supporting 1,000 jobs during construction and 350 jobs during operations. Mt Holland will produce 380,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate per year, which will be refined into 50,000 tonnes of battery-quality lithium hydroxide.…
BMG Resources Limited has announced promising results from its ongoing exploration review of the Dragon project neighbouring WA1 Resources’ site in the West Arunta region of Western Australia. Multiple targets showing structural and magnetic features have been identified at the Dragon Project — features similar to those that represent mineralised carbonatites at WA1 Resources’ ground and the nearby Aileron Project of Encounter Resources. BMG’s Dragon Niobium-REE Project is immediately adjacent to and shares a 30-kilometre-long border with the West Arunta Project of WA1 Resources. BMG Non-Executive Chairman John Prineas said: “Our ongoing review of exploration data for the West Arunta…
Pantera Minerals Limited has announced a substantial expansion of its Smackover Brine Project in North America, with the acquisition of 3,553 acres, representing a 26 per cent increase in leased acreage. The company's total net leased acreage now surpasses 17,000 acres. The bulk of the new acreage comes from a key lease with a mineral owner covering 2,194 acres, placing Pantera in a unique position of strength. This expansion not only enhances the project's scalability but also consolidates Pantera's control, with 100 per cent ownership of the project now under its purview. Pantera, the sole junior company listed in the…
Last year, Adriatic Metals PLC acquired TSX-listed Tethyan Resource Corp to advance the former Kizevak and Sastavci polymetallic mines in the Raska District in Serbia, and over the last few months the company has been progressing with drilling programs at these sites. This morning, Adriatic reported that assay results have been returned for 16 diamond core holes at Kizevak and three holes from Sastavci. Drilling at Kizevak has confirmed the down dip continuity of a high-grade lens in the central-northwest part of the deposit, beneath the limit of historic drilling, and the company advised that mineralisation remains open. Meanwhile, confirmation…
Eagle Mountain Mining Limited has recommenced drilling at its 80 per cent owned Oracle Ridge Copper Project in Arizona, USA. The first drill hole for 2021 is WT-21-01 and was completed last week, while WT-21-02 is underway. All drilling undertaken by the company last year was aimed at expanding the existing mineral resource base. Eagle Mountain outlines that assays received from the 2020 drilling program contained significant grades of copper mineralisation. Assays for the last five drillholes are still pending. The company remains confident in achieving its previously announced Exploration Target of adding an additional 14-29 million tonnes (Mt) at…
Rio Tinto is on-track to become the first producer of high-quality scandium oxide in North America, with the construction of a new commercial-scale demonstration plant underway at its Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (RTFT) metallurgical complex in Sorel-Tracy, Quebec. RTFT expects to commence commercial supply of scandium oxide in the second quarter of 2021. With its world-class aluminium business, the company is also well positioned to produce aluminium-scandium alloys to meet customers' needs. Rio Tinto is investing US$6 million for the construction of a first module in the plant, with an initial capacity to produce three tonnes of scandium oxide…
Barrick Gold Corporation has announced preliminary full year and fourth quarter 2020 results which indicate that it has met its 2020 guidance targets. According to Barrick, preliminary gold production for the full year of 4.8 million ounces is at the midpoint of the 4.6 to 5 million ounce guidance range, while preliminary copper production of 457 million pounds is also within the guidance range of 440 to 500 million pounds. The preliminary Q4 results show sales for the quarter of 1.19 million ounces of gold and 108 million pounds of copper, as well as preliminary Q4 production of 1.21 million…
Pan Asia Metals Limited (PAM), has today provided an update on the drilling program at the Khao Soon Tungsten Project (KSTP) and has reported that a drill rig has been mobilised to the Reung Kiet Lithium Project, both located in southern Thailand. KSTP, located approximately 600 kilometres south of Bangkok, is one of PAM’s primary assets and a significant historical high-grade producer. PAM outlines that modern exploration has discovered potentially world-class district-scale tungsten mineralisation across numerous prospects. Today PAM announced that drilling of Priority One holes at the Than Pho West (TPW) Prospect have been finalised. Ten holes were drilled…
Rio Tinto has agreed to a new electricity agreement with Meridian Energy that allows New Zealand’s Aluminium Smelter (NZAS) to continue operating the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter until 31 December 2024. The extension provides certainty to employees, the local community and customers while providing more time for all stakeholders to plan for the future. NZAS is New Zealand’s sole aluminium smelter. It commenced production in 1971 and produced 353,293 tonnes of aluminium in 2019. NZAS is 79.36 per cent owned by Rio Tinto and 20.64 per cent owned by Japan's Sumitomo Chemical Company. In July 2020, Rio Tinto announced the…
Australian precious metals mining exploration company, Prospech Limited, has received 18 rock chip samples taken from outcrop and spoil heaps, located within the company’s Pukanec exploration licence, which is part of its 100 per cent owned Nova Bana project in Slovakia. Prospech’s Nova Bana project is a package of three licences totalling 45 square kilometres situated on the western flank of the Hodrusa caldera. Of the 18 rock chip samples assayed, the company outlined that eight returned gold grades over 1 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold (Au) and of these, the average was 12.1 g/t Au. 10 of the…
