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…
A West Australian-based lithium explorer looks well-positioned to capture significant upside when the alkali metal’s market moves into its anticipated recovery mode. In 2023, Global Lithium Resources Ltd (ASX:GL1) spent a great deal of its corporate time sizing up its wholly-owned outcropping Manna pegmatite project in its home state of WA, completing a large-scale 60,000 metre reverse circulation and diamond drilling campaign which covered infill and extensional targets. The junior also started metallurgical and geotechnical programs that have since carried over into 2024. Located around 100 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in the state’s Goldfields, Manna currently enjoys an indicated and…
Hillgrove Resources has commenced production of its first copper concentrate from the Kanmantoo mine in South Australia, following the successful completion of the processing facility; both milestones were met within the company's target timeframe of Q1 2024. The transition from explorer to producer makes Hillgrove Resources one of only a few copper producers on the ASX. Hillgrove Resources CEO and Managing Director Lachlan Wallace said: “Operations will be bedded down at Kanmantoo as we ramp up to steady stage production and our attention will turn to growing the business by converting future exploration and development opportunities.” “The project is well-positioned…
Australian mineral exploration company, Tyranna Resources Limited has acquired private company US Cobalt Pty Ltd, who owns the Goodsprings Cobalt and Base Metals Project, in Nevada, USA. US Cobalt's Goodsprings Cobalt and Base Metals Project consists of 329 mining claims covering 6,580 acres located within the Goodsprings mining district in southern Nevada. In March this year, Tyranna entered into a binding option agreement to acquire US Cobalt, as part of the company's diversification strategy to capitalise on the battery minerals revolution. Tyranna’s Managing Director, Bruno Seneque said the acquisition was an ‘outstanding deal’ for Tyranna and their shareholders. “Historical mining results…
Rio Tinto recently opened a fourth diamond pipe, known as the A21, at the Diavik Diamond Mine in Canada. The pipe is located adjacent to Diavik’s existing mining operations at Lac de Gras (a notable Lake in Canada that was the centre of the diamond rush of the 1990s). The new open-pit pipe will provide an important source of incremental supply over the next four years, assisting with sustaining production levels at the mine. First ore was delivered in March and the pit is expected to be at full production during the fourth quarter of 2018, following a four-year construction period…
Argosy Minerals Limited has successfully produced battery-grade life-cycle engineering (LCE) product from the Stage 1 Plant at the Rincon Lithium Project in the Salta Province of Argentina. [caption id="attachment_11937" align="alignleft" width="281"] Image courtesy of Argosy Minerals Limited.[/caption] The Australian owned company said that following the recent plant works at the site, approximately 30kg of LCE product was produced. The product was tested in-house and the results indicated that the product is a lithium carbonate content value of 99.6 per cent. “We are delighted at this significant milestone – to achieve such a result from our Stage 1,500tpa capacity plant is…
Canadian company McEwen Mining has just announced exploration results from their ongoing $15 million exploration program at the Black Fox Complex near Ontario in Canada. McEwen intends to grow its known deposits and will continue to make new discoveries that contribute to near-term gold production. The company recently completed a total of 39,300 metres of surface exploration drilling at the site, for a year-to-date total of 66,900 metres. “Our drilling continues to deliver very encouraging results, particularly from the three project areas highlighted in this release: Stock East, Froome and Gibson. Continued drilling success reinforces our view about the strong…
Mokran Solar Power Plants Complex was constructed in the eastern province of Kerman over a period of six months. The opening of the plant took place in the presence of Iran's Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian, Deputy Minister and the Head of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency organization (SATBA) and other government officials, on Monday. The plant holds the capacity of approximately 20 megawatts and was built with an investment of US $27 million by Swiss company Durion, supervised by a German company, Adore. The plant includes a total of 76,912 solar panels, each producing 260 watts over an area of…
The companies behind the Zaldívar copper mine in Chile have plans to become the country’s first mine to operate with 100 per cent renewable electricity. The mine forms a part of a Joint Venture between the Chile-based copper mining group, Antofagasta PLC, and the Canadian gold-mining company Barrick. The Zaldívar copper mine is currently located in the Andean Precordillera in Region II of northern Chile, approximately 1,400 kilometres north of Santiago and 175 kilometres southeast of the port city of Antofagasta. If successful, the works at the Zaldívar copper mine will be able to replace greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to…
The announcement was made on July 21, that Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), ONGC, GAIL, Oil India Limited and Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) have come together to sign a Joint Venture (JV) agreement for the execution of the North-East Natural Gas Pipeline Grid Project. The Joint Venture between the five companies was on the agreement to ‘develop, build, operate and maintain’ the new Natural Gas Pipeline Project which has plans to connect the Indian City Guwahati to other major North-Eastern cities, and major load centres such as Numaligarh Refinery. This agreement will also include the integration of the North-East Natural…
