RIU Explorers 2023 - Conference Companion

A quick glance at the desk calendar tells me it’s February, which can only mean that January has done its usual disappearing act.

Every year, it’s the same routine. February 1 arrives and people the world over collectively wonder at how one of the longest months of the year vanishes in the blink of an eye to herald in the shortest month of the year, which ironically enough is one of the busiest.

February is also the month of the RIU Explorers Conference where the crème del a crème of the exploration and junior (companies usually run by teams of people aged anywhere up to their 70s, but are demeaned by industry vernacular) mining companies gather.

They come each year filled with enthusiasm and optimism for the year ahead as they can’t wait to tell all present of the advances they have made on their respective tenements.

We can hardly wait to hear about the finds of lithium bearing spodumene and clay-hosted rare earths scattered between the earlier gold, nickel, copper and other commodities that have been fashionable in the past.

Whatever our inscrutable trade partners in China need at present, can we find it? Yes, we can!

As the New Year got into swing, so to did commodity prices as China’s cold diplomacy began to thaw alongside US inflation that was reported to have dropped in January to 6.5 per cent for the 12 months through to December 2022.

This gave share markets the back to school boost they were looking for and they didn’t disappoint despite having not much to climb over given December was such a basket case.

This time last year the Board of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided to maintain the cash rate target at

10 basis points, where it remained until May, at which time the fun began and the Board lifted the cash rate target by 25 basis points to 35 basis points.

“The Board judged that now was the right time to begin withdrawing some of the extraordinary monetary support that was put in place to help the Australian economy during the pandemic,” The RBA said.

“The economy has proven to be resilient and inflation has picked up more quickly, and to a higher level, than was expected.

“There is also evidence that wages growth is picking up. Given this, and the very low level of interest rates, it is appropriate to start the process of normalising monetary conditions.”

Fast forward to December and the Board increased the cash rate target by another 25 basis points to 3.10 per cent.

“There has been a substantial cumulative increase in interest rates since May,” The RBA explained this time.

“This has been necessary to ensure that the current period of high inflation is only temporary.

“High inflation damages our economy and makes life more difficult for people.

“The Board’s priority is to re-establish low inflation and return inflation to the 2–3 per cent range over time.”

Whether or not this attempt at containing inflation works, some analysts aren’t too sure.

There are those who feel markets will remain volatile, but not as bad as seen in 2022, however, as the rate increases mentioned above kick in, global economies will react and may find it hard to avoid recession.

Inflation remains on the rise, as have retail sales giving many to think the RBA will again raise the stakes in early Feb (after time of writing).

As we were writing this the Australian bourse had just finished a four week run of gains, hitting a nine-month high in the process.

Many fiscal indicators were given credit for the run, such as punters making peace with the rate increases or Wall Street being pleased with the US economy on the rise.

But, for me it is the return to the desk from the beach that has the Aussie market hitting its New Year straps.

People are back watching their screens instead of sunsets and the lure of investing money in exploration for Future Facing Metals is strong.

If you’re here at the RIU Explorers Conference in person, you’re in the best place to start your 2023 campaign.

Front Cover Picture: Ausgold Limited - Katanning Gold Project Photo credit: Travis Deane

resourcesroadhouse.com.au

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OzAurum Resources

(ASX: OZM)

OzAurum Resources approached 2023 with confidence following the receipt of excellent results from sighter metallurgical testwork undertaken at the company’s Mulgabbie North gold project on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The sighter metallurgical testwork delivered up to a healthy 98.6 per cent recovery from oxide composite samples in CIP testwork conditions from Mulgabbie North.

The results demonstrated excellent average recovery from composite fresh samples of 88.3 per cent and high gold recoveries on all oxide, transition and fresh composite samples while consuming very low levels of reagent circa 0.22 - 0.25 kilograms per tonne cyanide and 0.62 - 1.9kg/t lime.

To close out 2022, OzAurum completed five diamond drill holes including: one diamond drill hole at the Hotel prospect, two diamond holes at the Perseverance prospect, and two diamond holes at the James prospect, results for which were still to come at the time of writing.

This drilling followed the intersected wide zones of alteration and sulphides at the Mulgabbie North project, including:

» MNODH 009

33 metres at 1.02 grams per tonne gold from 90m, including 14m at 1.46g/t gold from 92m and 7m at 1.27g/t gold from 112m;

» MNODH 008

26m at 0.85g/t gold from 99m, including 3m at 2.36g/t gold from 99m, 2m at 3.04g/t gold from 115m and 1m at 5.3g/t gold from 116m, and 7m at 1.41g/t gold from 66m; and

» MNODH 007

4m at 1.35g/t gold from 216m.

A JORC 2012 compliant Minerals Resources Estimate at Mulgabbie North is anticipated for release sometime in Q1 2023. This will entail twinning of RC holes by diamond drill holes as a requirement of the MRE QAQC process.

Other work for 2023 will be undertaking sighter heap leach testwork in Q1 2023 and further diamond drilling to recover oxide, transition and fresh samples that can be used for this testwork.

“The Mulgabbie North maiden Mineral Resource Estimate, planned in Q1 2023, is a huge milestone for the company to achieve in just two years since listing on the ASX, and is testament to the scale of our advanced exploration programs,” OzAurum Resources CEO and managing director Andrew Pumphrey said. ozaurumresources.com

Sayona Mining (ASX:

SYA)

Sayona Mining resisted the tingling of Christmas Jingle Bells to work through the holiday period as it speeds toward recommencement of production in Q1 2023 at the company’s North American Lithium (NAL) operation in Québec, Canada.

The yuletide sacrifice of some 50 workers resulted in progress towards the concentrator restart nearing 90 per cent by the end of December for engineering and construction, with all critical equipment received, including the Vacuum pump and WHIMS Rectifier‐ Reducer.

The Christmas holiday workers maximised progress while the company ensured safety measures were front of mind to meet deadlines with no recordable injuries during the period.

This was supported by no environmental‐related incidents being reported during the period either, reflecting Sayona’s focus on maintaining high environmental standards.

Pre‐operational verifications and operational readiness activities are underway, including training and process operational support, with 75 per cent of electrical and mechanical inspections completed.

Sayona has previously reported all environmental approvals have been received, providing major de‐risking to NAL’s restart.

Budget expectations have been undercut with commitments to end December totalling C$49 million versus planned commitments of C$49.3 million, with potential cost savings being further investigated.

All equipment required for the restart has been procured, with all major procurement packages received at site.

NAL’s advances towards the production of locally sourced lithium in Québec in 2023 follow continued demand growth from electric vehicles (EVs) in North America.

In the United States, EV sales nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022, while Canada is targeting 60 per cent of all vehicle sales to be electric by 2030.

Sayona cited analysts Benchmark Minerals Intelligence by saying almost US$300 billion of investment in new lithium‐ion battery gigafactories has now been announced, including US$131 billion in 2022, up 24 per cent on the prior year.

“Sayona continues to advance towards the restart of production at NAL this quarter, and I congratulate the project team for pushing through the holiday period to ensure targets are met,” Sayona Mining managing director, Brett Lynch said.

“This is particularly noteworthy given widely publicised global supply chain issues and cost pressures, with our team working hard to mitigate any potential issues.”

sayonamining.com.au

International Graphite (ASX:

IG6)

International Graphite claimed the third graphite discovery at the company’s Springdale graphite project, located between Hopetoun and Ravensthorpe in Western Australia.

International Graphite reported the discovery on the back of assay results from ten RC holes in an area now known as Springdale South that encountered multiple zones of shallow high-grade graphite mineralisation 500 metres south of the existing Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at the Springdale graphite project.

Highlights of the drilling included:

» SGRC0061

4 metres at 10.6 per cent total graphitic carbon (TGC) from 15m downhole;

» SGRC0062

4m at 9.6 per cent TGC from 70m downhole and 5m at 17 per cent TCG from 104m downhole, including 3m at 22.1 per cent TGC from 105m downhole at Springdale South; and

» SGRC0063

2m at 10.1 per cent TGC from 39m downhole and 3m at 11.6 per cent TGC from 43m downhole.

The company has undertaken some 6,000m of mineral resource and exploration drilling at Springdale since June 2022 with the aim to upgrade the existing Springdale MRE from Inferred to Indicated status.

The MRE currently stands at 15.6 million tonnes at 6 per cent TGC, including a high-grade component of 2.6 million tonnes at 17.5 per cent TGC.

The aim is to also expand the mineral resource inventory through exploration drilling in areas highlighted by an airborne electromagnetic geophysical (AEM) survey undertaken in 2019.

Springdale South is the third discovery from International Graphite’s drilling, following identification of Springdale Far West and Springdale Central in September and October 2022 respectively.

“Springdale South is the third graphite discovery made by our exploration team and demonstrates yet again the pathfinding ability of the airborne electromagnetic geophysical survey that was undertaken over a portion of our tenements at Springdale,” International Graphite managing director and CEO Andrew Worland said.

“Large parcels of our ground holding show significant anomalies and represent excellent further targets for exploration drilling.

“The success of our exploration to date and the likelihood of being able to replicate it at the sites of these untested anomalies gives us great confidence that we can significantly expand the Springdale mineral resource base over time with targeted drilling.” internationalgraphite.technology

Widgie Nickel (ASX:

WIN)

Widgie Nickel enhanced its lithium credentials with news from the company’s Mt Edwards nickel lithium project on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The company’s first announcement for 2023 provided assay results from the final eight Reverse Circulation (RC) holes completed last year at the Faraday lithium prospect that identified lithium bearing pegmatite extending beneath a 600-metre surface outcrop measuring up to 25m wide.

Highlights of the results include:

» MERC253

16m at 0.77 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O) from surface, including 7m at 1.17 per cent Li2O from 1m; and

» MERC247

7m at 0.73 per cent Li2O from 0m, including 2m at 1.16 per cent Li2O from 2m.

“Lithium is now confirmed as the second major critical mineral within our tenement package which the company will progressively advance in tandem with its highly successful and ongoing nickel exploration effort,” Widgie Nickel managing director Steve Norregaard said.

“Widgie looks forward into the new year with great anticipation.

“Two high-value, high-demand commodities with abundant exploration upside further evidence the immense value inherent in our tenement package which the company is keen to unlock.”

The lithium story developed as Widgie Nickel, buoyed by the lithium potential demonstrated at the Faraday prospect, continued to review all available datasets demonstrating potential for lithium bearing pegmatites.

An initial review of drill data highlighted historical assay results of up to 14m at 0.95 per cent Li2O from 13m at the Voyager prospect on the southernmost drill line.

The company carried out re-interpretation and confirmatory surface mapping, from which it interpreted a different orientation, which it considers could suggest previous drilling at the Voyager prospect was ineffective.

Armed with this new interpretation, Widgie Nickel indicated it intends, upon completion of RC drilling at Faraday, to conduct a drill program to test the lithium potential at Voyager.

“The benefit of an extensive dataset has come to the fore for Widgie, with a second high priority lithium target now undergoing drill testing,” Norregaard said.

“Widgie will progressively test these new targets as they evolve as part of our exploration effort, in conjunction with the continued development of our growing nickel resources.”

widgienickel.com.au

Astral Resources (ASX:

AAR)

Astral Resources picked up in 2023 where it left off in 2022 with drill rigs turning at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Feysville gold project, located 14 kilometres south of Kalgoorlie in the Goldfields region of Western Australia.

Astral kicked off its 2023 with the first drilling program to be undertaken at Feysville since 2019.

The company had completed four diamond drill holes on three prospects prior to the 2022 Christmas break - two at Ethereal, one at Hyperno and one at Rogan Josh.

The New Year will see 750 metres of additional diamond drilling focussed on determining potential controls to fresh rock mineralisation associated with previous drilling undertaken at the Think Big, Ethereal, Hyperno, Rogan Josh and Kamperman prospects.

Coming into 2023, Astral’s Group consolidated Mineral Resource stood at 32.9 million tonnes at 1.1 grams per tonne gold for 1.15 million ounces.

The numbers have the company fast approaching the critical mass it considers needed to support advanced mining studies and potential mine development.

“Feysville provides a compelling opportunity to continue building this critical mass, noting that the absence of drilling here for more than three years occurred solely for the reason that the company chose to instead focus its technical and financial resources on the drill-out of Mandilla,” Astral Resources managing director Marc Ducler explained.

“With labour and equipment availability increasing, it is exciting to now be able to advance our flagship Mandilla and Feysville gold projects simultaneously.”

Other drilling will target prospects including Michelangelo, Montevesuveo and Rosina, all of which have historical underground mining shafts with limited, or no previous drilling, leading Astral to consider them to have not been effectively tested down plunge of mapped workings.

Once drilling at Feysville is completed, the RC rig will move to Mandilla to undertake a 140-hole program to add further in-fill and extensional drilling at Hestia and Theia.

“Our focus for 2023 is to deliver continued growth in our resource inventory at both Mandilla and Feysville while also completing the relevant studies to establish the economic credentials of our projects,” Ducler said.

astralresources.com.au

Centaurus Metals

(ASX: CTM)

Centaurus Metals provided shareholders with reasons to celebrate in the lead up to Christmas with a healthy increase in both the size and confidence levels of the Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the company’s 100 per cent-owned Jaguar nickel sulphide project in northern Brazil.

Centaurus Metals was quick to claim the updated JORC 2012 compliant MRE, comprising 108 million tonnes at 0.87 per cent nickel for 938,500 tonnes of contained nickel, confirms Jaguar as one of the largest nickel sulphide resources held by an ASX-listed company and the largest outside of the major mining companies, cementing its position as a Tier-1 global nickel sulphide development project with class-leading GHG emission credentials.

What is important to note is that the company’s in-fill resource development program completed over a 12 months period has resulted in a 100 per cent increase in the Measured & Indicated component of the Resource to 85.8 million tonnes at 0.85 per cent nickel for 730,300 tonnes of contained nickel, representing more than 75 per cent of the Global MRE.

Centaurus indicated the Measured and Indicated component of the MRE is set to underpin a maiden Ore Reserve Estimate and Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) due for completion in mid-2023.

“Delivering another major step-up in the global MRE, including a more than 100 per cent increase in the higher-confidence Measured and Indicated categories to over 730,000 tonnes of contained nickel, is a fantastic achievement by the entire Centaurus team,” Centaurus Metals managing director Darren Gordon said.

Gordon explained that more than 600,000 tonnes nickel metal in the Measured and Indicated categories sit within a US$22,000 per

tonne nickel pit shell and that the company expects to see a strong conversion of the Measured and Indicated Resource to Ore Reserves to underpin a DFS that is set for delivery mid-2023.

“This provides a great platform for Jaguar to produce plus-20,000 tonnes of nickel in sulphate per annum for 20 plus years, setting Centaurus on the path to become a top-10 nickel sulphide miner globally,” he said.

Centaurus is looking good for 2023 being well funded with $47 million cash and no debt.

centaurus.com.au

Legend Mining (ASX:

LEG)

Legend Mining looks to expand on 2023 activities undertaken at the company’s Rockford project, located in the highly prospective Fraser Range district of Western Australia in 2022.

The Fraser Range is renowned for exploration success and is considered prospective for mineralisation styles including magmatic nickel-copper, VMS zinc-copper-silver and structurally controlled gold.

Rockford comprises 14 granted exploration licences covering 2,994 square kilometres, sections of which Legend operates under its own steam, others with partners who know the business inside and out.

A detailed breakdown of ownership, area and manager reveals:

» Legend (100%) 144sqkm;

» Legend (70%)/Creasy Group (30%) two JVs covering 2,192sqkm with Legend manager;

» IGO (60%)/Creasy Group (30%)/Legend (10% free carry) JV covering 634sqkm with IGO manager; and

» IGO (70%)/Legend (30% free carry) JV covering 24sqkm with IGO manager.

The December 2022 quarter was busy for Legend with exploration activities continuing at top speed at the Rockford project, including seismic reprocessing at the main Mawson prospect, acquisition of 3D seismic data at the prospective Octagonal prospect, and regionally, innovative EM and aircore drilling continuing to identify a new pipeline of prospective nickel-copper targets.

The aim of the seismic survey at Mawson was to define the architecture of the intrusion in relation to the stratigraphic package, to a depth of investigation of a minimum 1,000m below surface across a 6.5sqkm area.

Legend has already completed phase one diamond drilling of select seismic targets and has now shifted its focus to the reprocessing of the seismic data to refine diamond drill targets for 2023.

A 3D seismic survey was undertaken at the Octagonal prospect with the aim of defining the architecture of the Octagonal Intrusive Complex in relation to the stratigraphic package, to a depth of investigation of a minimum 1,500m below surface.

Once results have been received, Legend intends to conduct an intensive process of interrogation, including incorporation of existing geophysical, geological, geochemical, and structural datasets with the aim to define and rank new diamond drilling targets for the 2023 field season at Octagonal.

Regionally, aircore drilling is to be undertaken over selected prospective areas as well as data analysis to identify new areas.

legendmining.com.au

Musgrave Minerals (ASX:

MGV)

Musgrave Minerals received good news to begin 2023 in the form of Evolution Mining satisfying the earn-in requirement under the Cue Project Earn-in and Exploration Joint Venture Agreement to earn a 75 per cent interest in the Cue JV in Western Australia’s Murchison district.

The Cue JV is primarily focused on Lake Austin, which lies to the north of Musgrave’s 100 per cent-owned Mineral Resources at the Cue gold project.

The Cue gold project hosts a current Mineral Resource Estimate of 12.3 million tonnes at 2.3 grams per tonne gold for 927,000 ounces, including the Break of Day High-Grade Trend (982,000 tonnes at 10.4g/t gold for 327,000 ounces contained gold) and including the Moyagee Western Trend (9.8 million tonnes at 1.7g/t gold for 541,000 ounces contained gold) both in the southern area of the project.

Musgrave’s new gold discoveries at Amarillo and along the Waratah trend are all outside the existing resource areas.

Reasons for Evolution opting to stick around became clearer with the announcement of diamond drilling completed by Evolution at the West Island prospect, approximately 6km north of Break of Day, had intersected further strong gold intersections within a basement dolerite host unit.

Results from the Evolution drilling include:

» 22CUDD019A

5.5m (3.8m estimated true width (ETW)) at 4.16g/t gold from 349.5m; and

» 22CUDD021

11.5m (8m ETW) at 8.71g/t gold from 235.5m, including 1m (0.9m ETW) at 66g/t gold from 238m.

The drilling program is targeting key mineralised gold lodes to determine the scale of the mineral system at West Island.

The mineralised lodes are interpreted as a series of stacked shears and veins, with associated high-grade splays.

“These are another set of good results from West Island and continue to define the scope of the basement gold mineralisation,” Musgrave Minerals managing director Rob Waugh said.

A Joint Venture committee will meet in February, at which time a data review currently underway and a program and budget for ongoing exploration will be considered.

Musgrave has the right to contribute or can elect to dilute once the program and budget has been approved by the committee..

musgraveminerals.com.au

Eagle Mountain Mining

(ASX: EM2)

Eagle Mountain Mining was out of the blocks early in 2023 to commence underground drilling at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Oracle Ridge copper mine project in Arizona, USA.

Eagle Mountain Mining kicked off the underground drilling at Oracle Ridge following completion of initial refurbishment of the underground mine.

The program is serious with thirteen drill stations established to allow Resource upgrade and metallurgical drilling to occur from within the mine.

From the first drill station alone, the company plans to have 17 holes drilled.

Eagle Mountain expects drilling from underground to be far more efficient than drilling from surface due to shorter hole lengths and less impact from weather events.

Underground drilling will prioritise the upgrading of existing Indicated and Inferred Resources into Measured and Indicated Resources respectively, with a focus on those areas of the deposit expected to be mined in the first five years of potential production. The additional confidence achieved will assist in technical and economic studies.

An underground wall sampling program was also commenced targeting the large exposure of copper mineralisation in the underground workings to generate high-quality underground geological maps and semi-continuous samples across the exposed mineralisation. From this, Eagle Mountain hopes to better understand small scale grade variability, assess the representativity of the existing Mineral Resource Estimate and identify suitable areas for additional metallurgical work such as bulk sampling.

“With the completion of the initial underground refurbishment at Oracle Ridge, we are now ramping up the underground activities,” Eagle Mountain Mining CEO Tim Mason said.

“It is unique to access in-situ mineralisation compared to drill core and we are committed to make the most of this significant advantage.

“We recently kicked-off a drilling program to upgrade our existing resource to higher confidence categories.

“Drilling from underground is a game changer for the project due to improved efficiencies with shorter hole lengths and less impact due to inclement weather.

“The program is focused on those mine areas where production is expected to occur in the first five years of the potential mine life.

“We have also recently commenced an extensive wall mapping program targeting approximately four kilometres of mineralisation exposed underground.”

eaglemountain.com.au

Ausgold

(ASX: AUC)

Ausgold was eager for 2023 to start so it could, in turn, commence a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) on the company’s 2.16 million ounce Katanning gold project (KGP) near the wheatbelt town of Katanning in Western Australia.

“Moving forward on the DFS for the…Katanning gold project sends a clear signal of our intent to become Australia’s next mid-tier gold producer,” Ausgold managing director Matthew Greentree said.

“The team is working through a number of optimisation opportunities identified in the Prefeasibility Study to optimise the project size ultimately supporting a project financing process later this year.

“In parallel, the company is focused on executing a large 25,000 metres exploration drill program that is designed to further expand the KGP Resource and test a number of regional exploration opportunities.

“Over 9,000 metres of drilling has already been completed during the holiday period with results expected through the quarter.”

Ausgold announced completion of a Prefeasibility Study (PFS) in August 2022 that demonstrated the Katanning gold project as the largest undeveloped free milling open cut gold mining project in WA.

The PFS outcomes will form the basis for the DFS, which showed:

» Maiden Probable Ore Reserve of 32 million tonnes at 1.25 grams per tonne gold for 1.28 million ounces (Inferred Mineral Resource excluded);

» High 1.47g/t gold head grade in the initial six years of production;

» Average annual gold production of 105,000oz for 11 years LOM using simple open cut mining methods;

» Excellent metallurgical characteristics with gold recoveries over 90 per cent;

» Project Mineral Resources 56 million tonnes at 1.21g/t gold for 2.16 million ounces;

» Post-tax NPV of $364 million assuming $2,300 gold price;

» Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 40.7 per cent post-tax;

» All-In-Sustaining Cost (AISC) $1,370/oz first six years of production; and

» Payback period of 1.7 years.

Current drilling is expected to extend beyond PFS Resource areas in the Southern and Northern Zones, aiming to expand the Resource and build scale beyond the current project.

A regional exploration program is underway to test a number of targets for gold at Lake Magenta and the Duggan, Stanley and Tamacurring areas.

ausgoldlimited.com

Future Metals

(ASX: FME)

Future Metals greeted 2023 confident in the robust nature of the company’s Panton PGM project in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia.

The Panton project hosts a Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 129 million tonnes at 1.2 grams per tonne PGM3E (palladium, platinum, gold), 0.19 per cent nickel, 0.04 per cent copper and 154ppm cobalt (1.66g/t PdEq) at a cut-off grade of 0.9g/t PdEq for contained metal of 5 million ounces PGM3E, 239,000 tonnes nickel, 48,000 tonnes copper and 20,000 tonnes cobalt (6.9Moz PdEq).

The MRE includes a high-grade reef of 25 million tonnes at 3.57g/t PGM3E, 0.24 per cent nickel, 0.07 per cent copper and 192ppm cobalt (3.86g/t PdEq) for contained metal of 2.9 million ounces PGM3E, 60,000 tonnes nickel, 18,000 tonnes copper and 5,000 tonnes cobalt (3.2Moz PdEq).

Things, as they say, can only get better, and they did for Future Metals by striking a Farm-in and Joint Venture Agreement with Octava Minerals on its Panton North and Copernicus North nickel-copper-(PGE) projects.

The Panton North project sits directly atop Future Metals’ Panton project and contains the Panton North and Panton West prospects, both of which are mineralised ultramafic intrusions.

Rock chip and soil sampling at Panton North has demonstrated an anomalously mineralised (palladium-platinum-nickel-copper) area that has seen very little drilling carried out by previous owners.

This limited drilling, however, did return anomalous intervals of PGM’s, nickel and copper.

The Copernicus North project sits along strike from the Copernicus historical nickel-copper mine.

The southern end of the project area hosts the Palamino prospect, where limited previous drilling confirmed pyroxenite-hosted magmatic sulphide mineralisation.

“This Joint Venture farm-in Arrangement significantly increases Future Metals’ exploration position in the East Kimberley thereby providing further scope, to explore what is highly prospective ground for nickel-copper-PGE sulphide mineralisation,” Future Metals managing director Jardee Kininmonth said.

“Panton North and Copernicus North have been subject to only limited, shallow drilling despite compelling geochemical and EM anomalies.

“There is significant opportunity to apply modern geophysical techniques, such as those being applied at Future Metals’ Panton project to identify high quality targets for economic accumulations of nickel-copper-PGE sulphides at depth.”

future-metals.com.au

Technology Metals Australia (ASX:

TMT)

Technology Metals Australia received a late Christmas card with the postie delivering a Letter of Interest (LoI) in January from EKF Denmark’s Export Credit Agency (EKF) regarding potential financing support for the company’s Murchison Technology Metals Project (MTMP).

The high-grade MTMP is located outside Meekatharra in Western Australia and consists of the Gabanintha and Yarrabubba deposits located on granted Mining Leases.

Technology Metals is developing the MTMP to be a long-term supplier of critical minerals targeting average vanadium production of approx. 12,500 tonnes per annum vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) over an initial 25 year mine life as well as production of a titanium (ilmenite) by-product from mining and processing ore from Yarrabubba.

A recent Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) upgrade delivered a global MRE for the MTMP of 153.7 million tonnes at 0.8 per cent V2O5, inclusive of a Measured and Indicated MRE of 63.2 million tonnes at 0.9 per cent V2O5, which the company expects to support an increase on the current 25 year mine life.

The EKF LoI contemplates financing support of around $150 million subject to, among others, sufficient Danish economic interest in the MTMP, approvals, satisfactory documentation, and customary due diligence.

Financing support from EKF is backed by the Danish state and as such can be considered to carry a AAA rating.

EKF has been involved in the financing of projects all over the world and has extensive and positive experience working with FLSmidth, a key equipment supplier for the MTMP.

“This is, an exciting and significant milestone alongside our partnership with FLSmidth, which places TMT in a strong position to progress the development of the MTMP,” Technology Metals Australia managing director Ian Prentice said.

“The TMT team is undertaking considerable work in progressing the MTMP funding strategy, including engagement with a range of institutions and also importantly progressing implementation of the company’s holistic ESG action plan in collaboration with WSP Golder, whilst maintaining a clear focus on the timely development of the MTMP and the supply of high purity vanadium pentoxide to play an important role in the global transition towards net zero.”

tmtlimited.com.au

Turaco Gold

(ASX: TCG)

Turaco Gold started 2023 on a positive note when announcing assay results from RC drilling carried out at its 100 per cent-owned Satama gold discovery within the eastern permit of the company’s Eburnea gold project in central Côte d’Ivoire.

The Eburnea project covers two granted permits covering 690 square kilometres.

The Bouake North permit hosts the 2.5 million ounces Fetekro gold project and the 2.5 million ounces Bonikro and 1 million ounce Agbaou gold mines.

The Satama permit covers a large north-east trending shear splaying off the crustal scale Ouango-Fitini shear, which marks the margin of the Birimian Comoé basin.

Turaco’s drilling at Satama has delineated gold mineralisation from surface along 2kms of strike.

Turaco Gold declared the New Year results had continued to confirm Satama as being a multi-kilometre strike length greenfield gold discovery of note, which the company expects will continue to grow.

The results came from a program of twelve RC holes that were undertaken to identify higher grade plunging shoots and down dip extensions to previous drilling.

The program achieved both, with a high-grade plunging shoot defined at the northern area of the drill grid with hole STRC0095 returning 26 metres at 4.82 grams per tonne gold from 35m, the highest gram metre intersection the company has achieved to date.

As things currently stand, this zone of high-grade mineralisation remains open in all directions.

A 2,050m auger program was also completed testing parallel structures to the west of the existing drill grid where an IP survey

highlighted high chargeability and resistive anomalies extending over four kilometres in strike.

“Drilling at Satama continues to generate good results with this latest round of RC drilling delivering the best result to date at Satama,” Turaco Gold managing director Justin Tremain said.

“We look forward to receiving and reporting results from the reconnaissance, shallow auger drilling recently completed testing the western parallel structures which, if positive, would show substantial growth potential at Satama.

“Following a short break over the Christmas period, exploration activities resumed with auger and soil geochemical sampling programs underway at the Odienne project in northwest Cote d’Ivoire.”

turacogold.com.au

Azure Minerals

(ASX: AZS)

Azure Minerals may not be big Kevin Costner fans, but the company has certainly taken his, ‘build it and they will come’, mantra and run with it to the Andover project (60% Azure/40% Creasy Group) in Western Australia.

Azure has already shown the Andover project hosts vital, high-value metals of nickel, copper, cobalt, and lithium, which we all know are necessary for the transition to industry decarbonisation, electrification, and battery storage.

Azure has made two discoveries of nickel-copper-cobalt deposits and released a maiden mineral resource (MRE) for the Andover deposit of 4.6 million tonnes at 1.11 per cent nickel, 0.47 per cent copper and 0.05 per cent cobalt (1.41% NiEq), containing 51,700 tonnes nickel, 21,700 tonnes copper and 2,290 tonnes cobalt.

As exciting as that all seems, it is the lithium potential of the project that has attracted some attention of late, especially after Azure announced abundant spodumene-rich, lithium-bearing pegmatites outcropping in an 8km-long, up to 4km-wide corridor.

To ring in the New year, Azure announced that global lithium company Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A., via its whollyowned subsidiary SQM Australia is to make a major cornerstone investment of up to $20 million to acquire a 19.99 per cent interest in Azure through a two-stage transaction.

“We’re very pleased to welcome SQM as a substantial and strategic investor in Azure, which demonstrates their strong interest and belief in the lithium potential of the Andover project,” Azure Minerals managing director Tony Rovira said.

“This is a significant milestone event and is a strong endorsement of Azure and our projects by one of the world’s leading lithium producers.

“The new relationship will allow Azure to draw upon SQM’s technical expertise in pegmatite-hosted lithium exploration, project development, production and marketing, providing Azure with strong support as we look to develop the Andover lithium assets.

“Azure is now in a very strong financial position and, following completion of both tranches of the transaction with SQM, Azure will have a cash balance of more than $25 million which will be used to accelerate lithium exploration through a program of intensive drilling across the Andover project.”

azureminerals.com.au

Ardea Resources

(ASX: ARL)

Ardea Resources boasts a large portfolio of 100 per cent-controlled projects on the outskirts of Kalgoorlie in West Australia.

The company is developing the Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP) and its sub-set the Goongarrie Hub.

These consist of a series of large nickel-cobalt and critical mineral deposits, which combine to host the largest nickel-cobalt Resource in the developed world at 830 million tonnes at 0.71 per cent nickel and 0.046 per cent cobalt for 5.9 million tonnes of contained nickel and 380,000 tonnes of contained cobalt, all located in a jurisdiction with commendable Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) credentials, notably environment.

Ardea is also focussing on nickel sulphide exploration at the Emu Lake prospect in the Kalpini Hub where it claimed discovery of Type 1 massive nickel-copper-PGE sulphides at the Binti prospect.

Follow-up drilling intersected additional magmatic nickel sulphides, a discovery of some importance in that it occurs in the Kurnalpi Terrane, in which there are only a few other Type 1 nickel sulphide deposits.

At the Kalpini project, Ardea holds approx. 20 kilometres strike of the prospective Western Komatiite Belt and more particularly the Western Ultramafic sequence.

The Western Komatiite Belt historically is largely unexplored for primary magmatic nickel sulphide mineralisation.

Ardea considers there to be great potential to make additional high-grade nickel-copper-PGE discoveries in the Kalpini project.

During 2023 Ardea will commence assessment for nickel sulphide potential at other projects in the KNP including the Goongarrie Hub (Highway, Ghost Rocks and Moriaty), Yerilla Hub (prospective

komatiite facies at Lake Rebecca and Jump-Up Dam), Bulong and Perrinvale.

“Ardea’s strategic tenement portfolio in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia remains underexplored, due to the historic focus on the globally significant KNP nickel-cobalt laterite Resource,” Ardea Resources managing director and CEO Andrew Penkethman explained.

“Whilst KNP feasibility study work and advancing the Goongarrie Hub towards development as a major source of sustainable and ethical nickel-cobalt battery mineral supply is the main priority, Ardea is mindful of the significant value that exploration success can generate for the company.

“On this basis, both feasibility study work and exploration on compelling targets will continue.”

ardearesources.com.au

Hot Chili

(ASX: HCH)

Hot Chili was out of the blocks in a hurry for 2023 getting drilling underway across a recently secured western extension to the Cortadera copper-gold discovery, which is the main focus of the company’s low-altitude, Costa Fuego senior copper development in Chile.

Hot Chili raised the drilling temperature with one diamond drill rig (operating on a double-shift basis) and one reverse circulation drill rig (operating on a single-shift basis) turning furiously at the project, testing the potential for Cortadera to host a much larger copper porphyry cluster than currently defined.

Hot Chili is not wasting time with the initial program to comprise approximately 10,000 metres of drilling that will test four porphyry targets (including three targets on the recently optioned AMSA landholding) added to Cortadera through the company’s consolidation efforts carried out in late November 2022.

This consolidation more than doubled the prospective strike length of the discovery from 2.3km to 5.2km, increasing the near term, material Resource growth potential.

Cortadera’s current Indicated Resource of 471 million tonnes at 0.46 per cent copper equivalent (CuEq) for 1.7 million tonnes copper and 1.8 million ounces gold and Inferred Resource of 108 million tonnes at 0.35 per cent CuEq for an additional 0.3 million tonnes copper and 0.3 million ounces gold is contained within three porphyry centres.

Both drill rigs are drilling Cortadera’s potential fourth porphyry (Cuerpo 4), where previous historical drilling had intersected encouraging shallow copper-gold porphyry mineralisation.

The company is well funded to attack planned drilling and deliver its next set of key growth and development milestones for Costa Fuego.

These include a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) in H1; and a resource upgrade in H2.

This next growth phase provides an opportunity to optimise and potentially up-scale Costa Fuego’s future annual metal production rates, currently being studied at up to 100,000 tonnes copper and up to 70,000 ounces gold for a +20-year life of mine.

Hot Chili plans to deliver Costa Fuego’s Pre-feasibility Study (PFS) in H1 2024 and remains on-track as one of only a few near-term production projects in the world capable of producing +100,000 tonnes per annum copper in the next five years.

hotchili.net.au

Bellevue Gold

BGL)

Bellevue Gold has great ambitions for the company’s Bellevue gold project in the Goldfields of Western Australia.

The project resembles others in some respects, however, some major differences separate Bellevue from the pack.

The Bellevue gold project is one of Australia’s highest-grade gold mines, with a Mineral Resource of 3.1 million ounces and is fully funded and on-track for production in the second half of CY2023.

Bellevue is forecast to be one of the highest-grade, lowest cost mines with Life of Mine All-in Sustaining Costs of $1,000 per ounce $1,100 per ounce and one of the fastest growing, high-grade gold developments globally in a Tier 1 mining jurisdiction.

Projected annual production of 200,000 ounces per annum would place the Bellevue gold project within the top 20 Australian gold mines.

Now, here’s the kicker: Bellevue Gold has set itself a highly ambitious goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the Bellevue gold project by 2026.

The company has underpinned this forecast on a sector-leading hybrid renewable power station, with an average of 80 per cent renewable energy penetration rate.

Bellevue Gold says its ability to produce ‘green gold’ will be a world-first and the company is exploring opportunities to generate a ‘green premium’ for the sale of its gold.

UPPERCASE

Uppercase symbolises confidence, establishment and stature.

The colour of compassion, courage, passion, wealth and wisdom.

Bellevue Gold declared its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) hand way back in 2020 when it released its inaugural Sustainability Report.

Fast forward to the pre-revenue phase of its mining cycle, Bellevue Gold has continued to focus on positive ESG outcomes and has set a standard of leadership in areas such as climate change and gender diversity for others to note.

“This strategic initiative was pioneering at the time, but these sustainability focused topics are now forming a greater part of investor expectations across Australia and the globe,” Gleeson said.

“The project is forecast to have the lowest greenhouse gas emissions intensity per ounce of any major gold mine in Australia.”

The Bellevue Gold logo is to be trademarked in Australia. Please contact Coup Studio for further discussion.

Please see the link below for logos and typefaces to be used in all Bellevue Gold https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1-WDrdgjS62zrUQLkkHzd_qUUGUKVmwKf

“Bellevue Gold has designed one of the most effective carbon mitigation strategies for any mining company globally,” Bellevue Gold chief sustainability officer Luke Gleeson said.

“Now, during the construction phase, we are delivering on our promises.”

bellevuegold.com.au

AuTECO Minerals

(ASX: AUT)

AuTECO Minerals got 2023 off to a positive start with reports of further high-grade gold intersections from the company’s Pickle Crow gold project in Ontario, Canada.

The company’s first announcement for the year of recorded drill results stemmed from step-out drilling at the Tyson discovery, a series of mineralised quartz lodes first discovered by AuTECO in 2021.

The latest drilling encountered two separate high-grade intersections of:

» AUDD0347

2.7 metres at 16.1 grams per tonne gold and 2.3m at 16.4g/t gold.

These intersections are located approx. 70m along strike of a previously reported zone of 7.8m at 16.7g/t gold, providing further evidence of broad-scale continuity of mineralisation in the Tyson veins while also demonstrating the Pickle Crow 2.2 million ounces at 7.8g/t gold Inferred Resource remains open in all directions.

2023 was still new and fresh as AuTECO kicked off its regional winter exploration program with two diamond drill rigs.

The firming of ground over winter provides access to areas across the company’s tenements that are harder to reach in warmer months.

The initial focus of AuTECO’s winter exploration program will follow up drill intersections from its 2022 campaign at the Talia discovery (5.5m at 18g/t gold) and Cohen-MacArthur, where assays of up to 92g/t gold were returned.

Later drilling will focus on testing the Tarp Lake Shear zone, a major regional gold bearing structure the company considers having strong potential for a major discovery.

AuTECO’s stated intention is to continue its dual focus on both in-mine expansion at Pickle Crow and regional exploration to test for

further gold mineralisation on the company’s highly prospective 500 square kilometres of exploration claims to provide the next generation of Resource growth.

“Our latest drilling has turned up some fantastic results, particularly from the Tyson area, which continues to deliver exceptional high-grade results over multiple drill sections,” AuTECO Minerals chief executive officer Darren Cooke said.

“Our focus now turns to regional drilling over the next threemonths, as access to areas improves with the ground firming over the winter period.

“With the continued regional drilling campaign, AuTECO is poised for an exciting 2023.”

autecominerals.com

Helix Resources

(ASX: HLX)

Helix Resources began 2023 in earnest by mobilising a RC rig to the company’s Canbelego copper project in the copper producing region of Cobar, New South Wales.

The Canbelego copper project is a Joint Venture with local copper producer Aeris Resources (Helix 70%/Aeris 30%).

Helix is undertaking the drilling to infill shallow copper mineralisation ahead of an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) planned for late March 2023.

The present Inferred MRE of 1.5 million tonnes at 1.2 per cent copper was undertaken in October 2010.

Drilling on behalf of the JV has identified new high-grade copper shoots that continue with depth for several hundred metres below the existing Resource.

The current program is following up on results achieved last year that identified large scale, conductive targets from DHEM surveying. The conductive targets were, at the time, interpreted as distinct, high-grade copper shoots, that had not been intersected by any previous drilling.

In addition to identifying further conductive anomalies a deep-drill test also intersected copper sulphide mineralisation at the predicted down-dip position of the lode structure.

The observed copper-sulphide mineralisation indicated the overall mineralised shear zone continues with depth, possibly to 600m from surface.

“It’s great to start the year on site with the exploration team and two rigs testing the Canbelego Lode at these different levels the RC drill infilling the shallow gaps and the diamond rig testing the highly conductive anomalies we discovered recently at depth,” Helix Resources managing director Mike Rosenstreich said.

“We are hoping to intersect high-grade copper shoots with the deeper diamond drilling they are very strong geophysical anomalies unlike anything we have recorded previously.

“Preliminary, visual results should be available in late January.

“The ‘near-miss’ drill outcome we reported recently highlights the unpredictable ground conditions where we haven’t drilled before and the requirement for sophisticated, highly technical directional drilling technology.

“We are fortunate to have geologists and drill operators who are highly experienced in this very specialised drilling activity.

“The large scale and highly prospective nature of these targets remains the same.

“We look forward to reporting on the drilling outcomes as soon as possible.”

helixresources.com.au

Coda Minerals (ASX:

COD)

Coda Minerals’ goal is the discovery and development of minerals important to global energy transformation through electrification and the adoption of renewable energy technologies.

Coda’s main focus is the 100 per cent-owned Elizabeth Creek copper-cobalt project, located in the Olympic Copper Province in the Eastern Gawler Craton of South Australia.

Elizabeth Creek sits 100 kilometres south of BHP’s Olympic Dam copper-gold-uranium mine, 15km from its new Oak Dam West project and 50km west of OZ Minerals’ Carrapateena copper-gold project.

Coda reached 100 per cent ownership of the Elizabeth Creek project after acquiring its former Joint Venture partner, Torrens Mining, in 2022.

Coda Minerals kicked off 2023 at Elizabeth Creek by commencing an Ambient Noise Tomography (ANT) survey over the Emmie Bluff IOCG discovery and Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt deposits therein.

The company said the ANT survey was “a pivotal new phase of exploration aimed at unlocking the broader potential of the Emmie Bluff project and following up on the discovery of the Emmie IOCG copper-gold deposit in June 2021”.

The survey is designed to provide a highly detailed sub-surface velocity map to assist in identifying structures that may host extensions of and/or thicker mineralised portions of the Emmie IOCG deposit.

Coda also has a Farm-In and Joint Venture Agreement to acquire up to 80 per cent of the Cameron River copper-gold project, located in the Mount Isa Inlier in Queensland.

The project comprises 35 square kilometres of copper and gold exploration tenure spanning two Exploration Permits (EPMs 27042 and 27053).

Assay results were recently received for drilling undertaken at Cameron River in 2022 that confirmed Coda’s visual estimates by indicating a copper-bearing hydrothermal system exists.

“The presence of a copper-bearing hydrothermal system has been effectively confirmed by the persistent low-level copper anomalism and elevated pathfinder elements such as arsenic, and while supergene enrichment has clearly played a part in the disparity between the surface and subsurface expression of that mineralisation, the presence of chalcopyrite and other sulphides at surface suggests more is going on that we don’t yet fully understand, which warrants further investigation,” Coda Minerals CEO Chris Stevens said.

codaminerals.com

Chalice Mining

(ASX: CHN)

Chalice Mining is the company all the others want to be with many aspiring peers often describing their prospects as ‘Julimar lookalikes’.

Chalice Mining’s 100 per cent-owned Julimar nickel-copper-PGE project is less than one hour’s drive north-east of Perth in Western Australia.

Julimar hosts the Gonneville deposit, for which Chalice has defined a tier-1 scale Mineral Resource Estimate of:

350 million tonnes at 0.94 grams per tonne palladium+platinum+gold (3E), 0.16 per cent nicke, 0.1 per cent copper, 0.015 per cent cobalt (approx. 0.58% nickel equivalent (NiEq) or approx. 1.8g/t palladium equivalent (PdEq)) for 11 million ounces 3E, 560,000 tonnes nickel, 360,000 tonnes copper and 54,000 tonnes cobalt contained - Equivalent to approx. 2 million tonnes NiEq or approx. 20 million ounces PdEq contained.

The higher-grade sulphide component of the Resource stands at:

82 million tonnes at 1.7g/t 3E, 0.21 per cent nickel, 0.2 per cent copper, 0.02 per cent cobalt (approx. 1% NiEq or approx. 2.9g/t PdEq);

Containing 4.5 million ounces 3E, 180,000 tonnes nickel, 170,000 tonnes copper, 16,000 tonnes cobalt (approx. 790,000 tonnes NiEq or approx. 7.7Moz PdEq);

Chalice has claimed Gonneville as the largest nickel sulphide discovery worldwide since 2000, and the largest PGE discovery in Australian history demonstrating the potential for Julimar to become a strategic, long-life ‘green metals’ asset.

Chalice has been undertaking the appropriate studies on the Julimar project, however, the scale of the Resource and uniqueness of the mineralogy at Julimar has resulted in a longer study duration

than the company originally anticipated to determine what preferred development pathway it could take.

“Recent metallurgical testwork results have highlighted a material opportunity to deliver significant improvement to metallurgical recoveries through leaching of the flotation tails and/or finer grinding,” Chalice Mining managing director and CEO Alex Dorsch said.

“The new results point to a significant step forward in metallurgical understanding of the unique PGE-rich nature of the deposit.

“This, combined with the recent wide, PGE-rich step-out drilling results to be incorporated in the Resource update in Q1 2023, have given us compelling reasons to extend the Scoping Study in order to fully evaluate and understand the additional value potential.”

chalicemining.com

Torque Metals

(ASX: TOR)

Torque Metals left market watchers wanting more towards the end of 2022 after announcing results of a drilling program carried out at the company’s Bulfinch project near Southern Cross in Western Australia.

The Bullfinch project is located over Archaean greenstone lithologies the company considers prospective for gold, massive nickelcopper sulphides, rare earth elements (REE), and lithium-pegmatitic deposits.

Torque Metals’ shallow RC drilling campaign at Bullfinch consisted of 21 holes and was focused entirely on the Withers Find prospect.

Results confirmed the presence of hard-rock pegmatite hosted REE, with the best drillhole producing:

» BRC001

3 metres at 0.107 per cent total rare earth oxide (TREO) with 187ppm neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) from 15m.

“Following the initial reprocessing of more than 20 magnetic and gravity surveys conducted in-house, we have identified multiple structural-geophysical anomalies that could host multi-element deposits,” Torque Metals managing director Cristian Moreno said.

“It’s an incredible outcome to have discovered anomalous hard-rock pegmatite hosted rare earth elements in all 21 holes at Bullfinch project which were drilled along an approx. 6.5 kilometres long geophysical target.

“Many of the REE intercepts of our first drilling campaign at Bulfinch start from surface and end in mineralisation, with some holes ending in high grade.

“Without a doubt, this discovery warrants further investigation in potential nearby mineralised structures.

“We are now evaluating further drilling plans to better understand these structural-geophysical anomalies.”

Elsewhere in its portfolio, Torque Metals completed an 80 per cent earn-in to Jindalee Resources’ Maynard’s Dam prospect ELs 15/1736, 15/1747 and 15/1752, tenements of which on final approval by DMIRS will be transferred to Torque while Jindalee will retain a 20 per cent free carried interest.

The Maynard’s Dam project adds approx. 75 square kilometres to the company’s existent tenements bringing the total new area of the Paris project on the Boulder-Lefroy Fault Zone near Kalgoorlie to approx. 176sqkm.

“The 14 kilometres of largely unexplored, strike extension of our high-grade ‘Paris Gold Corridor’ adds further massive opportunities to grow the Paris project into a major gold mining camp similar to that of St Ives operated by Gold Fields, immediately to the North of us,” Moreno said.

Alto Metals (ASX: AME)

Alto Metals left market watchers hanging at the close of 2022 by reporting strong gold results from drilling carried out at the Indomitable Camp, within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Sandstone gold project in Western Australia.

The phase of Resource drilling at Indomitable East was designed to follow up previous wide-spaced step-out holes, targeting extensions of a mineralised banded iron formation to the north-west and south-east.

The drilling intersected shallow gold in multiple holes, confirming continuity of mineralisation defined over a total strike greater than 800 metres and continues to remain open along strike to the north-west and south-east and at depth.

An intersection from hole SRC882, the most southerly hole drilled, returned 11 metres at 1.2 grams per tonne gold in oxide demonstrating mineralisation remains open.

“We are pleased to announce shallow oxide gold results from this major drilling program at Indomitable, which puts us in a great position to deliver an updated resource estimate in the March quarter 2023,” Alto Metals managing director Matthew Bowles said.

“The excellent results reported to date continue to highlight the potential for a much larger system.

“We are looking forward to commencing our next drill program in the new year to follow up on these results and continue growing our shallow gold resources at Sandstone.”

Alto also completed a RC drilling program at the historic high-grade Oroya Mine, which produced 220,000 ounces at 16.5g/t gold from underground mining between 1904-1920 and a further circa 25,000 ounces at 2.3g/t gold from open pit mining from 1994-1995.

This is the first time Oroya has been subjected to any drilling in over 15 years.

The program was planned to test potential high-grade extensions of the Sandstone Reef, below the shallow-mined Oroya pit (60m depth) and along strike and down dip of the underground workings of the main reef.

At time of writing, assays were pending from this program and further drilling is planned to be undertaken at Oroya early in 2023.

“We look forward to updating shareholders on our plans for further drilling at this exciting high-grade gold target,” Bowles said.

altometals.com.au

Dreadnought Resources

(ASX: DRE)

Dreadnought Resources provided shareholders with a bright start to 2023 with the announcement of two additional discoveries, Sabre and Y8, being confirmed at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Mangaroon project, located in the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia.

The confirmation came via Dreadnought’s 2022 drilling program of 38 RC holes on the approx. 30 kilometres long Yin REE Ironstone Complex.

The Yin Complex currently hosts an Initial independent Resource of 14.36 million tonnes at 1.13 per cent total rare earth oxide (TREO) from only 3 kilometres of 30km strike.

This initial RC program was designed to determine the location and orientation of mineralised ironstones Dreadnought had identified in sporadic outcrops and sampled in earlier reconnaissance work.

The drilling intersected mineralised ironstones ranging from 1-23 metres thickness over approx. one kilometre in strike with mineralisation remaining open in all directions.

The program also intersected ironstones in parallel lodes to the main targeted trend, which the company believes could open potential for a new trend that is yet to be tested.

“The success of this first pass wide spaced program not only highlights the potential of the wider complex and the Sabre and Y8 trends, but it lays the foundation for follow up framework drilling and ultimately the delivery of additional discoveries along other ironstone trends in addition to Yin,” Dreadnought Resources managing director Dean Tuck said.

More good news followed with a first pass drilling program at the C3 discovery, confirming an approx. 600m by 550m zone of REEPhosphorus pentoxide (P2O5)- Niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5)-titanium dioxide (TiO2)-scandium (Sc) mineralisation.

Dreadnought is eager to get out and conduct more RC and diamond drilling in 2023, which will include the completion of first pass drilling at C3 then commence JORC Resource infill drilling to extend mineralisation at depth and pursue high-grade core as seen at Mt Weld and Mountain Pass.

First pass drilling is to be completed at C2, C4, C5, C7 targets while first pass drilling will commence at C6.

All the above is to be carried out with the intention of building on the already substantial Yin Ironstone Complex JORC Resource.

dreadnoughtresources.com.au

De Grey Mining (ASX:

DEG)

De Grey Mining continued into 2023 focussing on the Hemi gold deposit, located within the company’s Mallina gold project in Western Australia.

There should be no surprise De Grey chooses to continue in this fashion, considering the Hemi deposit is a Tier 1 gold discovery in a Tier 1 jurisdiction with world class infrastructure at its doorstep. 2022 was a busy and decisive year for De Grey as it upgraded the Hemi Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) to 8.5 million ounces in May 2022 and taking the Mallina gold project overall MRE to 10.6 million ounces.

A maiden Hemi JORC Probable Ore Reserve of 103 million tonnes at 1.5 grams per tonne gold for 5.1 million ounces was announced in September, coinciding with the release of a Pre-Feasibility Study that demonstrated average total annual gold production of 540,000 ounces per annum over the first 10 years with total production of 6.4 million ounces of gold over a 13.6 year life of mine. The company shows no sign of slowing down and is focused on a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) in mid-2023 in parallel with formal project construction financing discussions.

At this time, De Grey anticipates a project final investment decision (FID) to be proposed for mid-2023, subject to statutory approvals.

It is expected DFS drill programs will be completed in the March quarter ahead of an increase in resource extension and discovery drilling targeting the identification of shallow, intrusion-hosted deposits with scale potential.

In December 2022, De Grey signed a Mining Agreement with the Kariyarra Native Title Holders, the Traditional Owners of the lands at the Mallina gold project.

“We have worked closely with the Kariyarra People since the discovery of Hemi and I would like to thank their Elders, their community and the Kariyarra Aboriginal Corporation for the agreement we have reached together,” De Grey Mining managing director Glenn Jardine said.

“We are committed to providing economic, employment and vocational opportunities for the Kariyarra People through the future development of Hemi.

“It will also support Aboriginal cultural heritage and land management through the establishment of a ranger program within Kariyarra country around the Hemi area.”

degreymining.com.au

Make the right decisions

Southern Cross Gold (ASX:

SXG)

Cygnus Gold

(ASX: CY5)

cygnusgold.com southerncrossgold.com.au

Southern Cross Gold kept 2023 market watchers waiting until near the end of January to announce further high-grade gold and antimony mineralisation from step-out drilling of the Apollo prospect at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Sunday Creek project in Victoria.

Drill hole SDDSC052 was designed as a 40 metres step-out on the most easterly extensions of the already drilled area at Apollo to extend the strike of mineralisation.

The hole intersected three separate veins sets to be bestowed the title of the 7th best hole on the project - based on a cumulative grade times metre ranking with 179 grams per tonne times metres gold equivalent (AuEq) from 118m to 229m.

“SDDSC052 is the 7th best hole on the project,” Southern Cross Gold managing director Michael Hudson reiterated.

“Itself a 179 grams per tonne gold equivalent cumulative intersection and the 21st greater than 100 grams per tonne times metres gold equivalent at Sunday Creek, this hole increases the strike of the system with a step-out on the most easterly margin of the drill area.

“As the project becomes more predictable it keeps on delivering extremely high grades across the entire strike, this time up to 73.2 grams per tonne gold and 13.8 per cent antimony grade and widths, including 11.6 metres at 6.4g/t gold and 0.7 per cent antimony within three individual mineralised structures.”

At the time of writing, Southern Cross had three drill rigs turning at Sunday Creek across the Golden Dyke, Rising Sun and Apollo prospects.

Eleven holes (SDDSC53-60, 62, 63, 65) are being geologically processed and analysed.

SXG considers gold and antimony included in its gold equivalent calculation have reasonable potential to be recovered at Sunday Creek.

Cygnus Gold enjoyed a buoyant start to 2023 on the back of assay results from initial mapping and sampling at the company’s Pontax lithium project in the well-endowed lithium terrane James Bay region of Quebec, Canada.

Cygnus Gold is earning up to 70 per cent in the Pontax project, which is in the prolific Superior Province of Quebec, one of Canada’s most prolific lithium provinces.

Cygnus Gold received results from surface sampling undertaken last year that returned high-grade assays of up to 3.3 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O) and 857ppm tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) that have expanded the potential scale of the mineralised system at Pontax.

At the Pontax Central target further results of up to 3.3 per cent Li2O took the known strike length of mineralisation to 700 metres, which remains open along strike under shallow cover.

Ongoing drilling is planned to focus on stepping out along strike and beneath cover.

At the Pontax North target, results of up to 2.5 per cent Li2O highlighted the prospectivity of what is considered a new interpreted trend that is set to become an immediate major drill target.

“These first assay results from Pontax confirm high grade spodumene mineralisation from surface, significantly expand the footprint of the Pontax system and confirm the strong potential to replicate Pontax immediately to the north,” Cygnus Gold executive director Michael Naylor explained.

“The ongoing drilling program will accelerate rapidly with two more rigs on their way to site and assays from last year’s drilling expected to start coming in next month (February).

“This strategy is aimed at expanding the known mineralisation at both Pontax and Pontax North, culminating in a maiden Resource in the middle of this year.”

Great Boulder Resources

(ASX: GBR)

greatboulder.com.au

Great Boulder Resources provided a New Year update to the market on activities at the company’s Side Well gold project near Meekatharra and the Whiteheads project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

Great Boulder ended 2022 with a large-scale mapping exercise over the south-eastern area of Side Well as well as sampling of any available bottom-of-hole chips from historic drilling within the mapping area.

A maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) was got underway in January using all drilling and geological information collected from the Mulga Bill and Ironbark areas with the Resource anticipated to quantify high-grade gold mineralisation defined by drilling carried out over the past two years at Side Well and to demonstrate the broader potential of the project.

At the Whiteheads project 416 soil samples were completed at the Painkiller and nearby Leachers prospects, assays from which are expected in mid to late March and will be used to define and prioritise targets for follow-up exploration programs.

“Our exploration team has taken full advantage of the break in drilling by completing a comprehensive mapping program at Side Well, concentrating on the area from Ironbark to the southern end of the tenement,” Great Boulder Resources managing director Andrew Paterson said.

“This will be a huge benefit to our understanding of the local stratigraphy, which in turn will assist with exploration targeting.

“We’ve also completed surface sampling programs at the highly prospective Ironbark North prospect at Side Well and the Painkiller prospect at Whiteheads.”

The MRE for Mulga Bill and Ironbark is being estimated by an external consultant.

Once this is finished, Great Boulder indicated it would be ready to resume RC drilling at Side Well.

Zenith Minerals (ASX:

ZNC)

zenithminerals.com.au

Zenith Minerals provided 2023 punters something to consider when it announced it had secured an option to acquire 100 per cent of the Hayes Hill lithium–nickel project, located in the Norseman–Widgiemooltha area of Western Australia.

The Hayes Hill project comes with two granted exploration licences and three exploration licence applications in a highly mineral prospective corridor Zenith Minerals described as having “significant untested lithium potential”.

Zenith later reported high-grade lithium drill results from pegmatites at the Waratah Well lithium project, also in WA.

New drill results confirmed high-grade lithium below the depth of weathering, returning healthy lithium encounters, including:

» 14 metres at 1 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O), including 8m at 1.5 per cent Li2O;

» 10m at 1.4 per cent Li2O, including 6m at 2 per cent Li2O; and

» 27m at 0.8 per cent Li2O (true width 10m), including 12m at 1.2 per cent Li2O (true width 6m).

Lithium mineralisation was identified by laboratory XRD analysis as containing up to 84 per cent petalite.

Planning is in progress for follow-up drilling to define lithium mineralisation that remains open to the north, south and east under shallow soil cover at Waratah Well.

To top this off, Zenith reported gold results up to 12m at 6.07 grams per tonne gold from 108m from a 15 hole RC drill program over the Dulcie Far North prospect within the company’s Split Rocks gold project, still in WA.

The new assay results support previous high-grade gold intersections at Dulcie Far North, producing assay results encouraging enough for Zenith to justify it exercising its Option to Purchase 100 per cent rights, title and interests over Mining Lease 77/1292 off a private syndicate.

Black Cat Syndicate (ASX:

BC8)

Black Cat Syndicate is developing a three-pronged gold attack with the aim of becoming a multi-operation gold producer from three 100 per cent-owned bases within Western Australia.

The Coyote Gold Operation is located around 20 kilometres from the Northern Territory border, on the Tanami Highway.

Coyote consists of an open pit and an underground mine, 300,000 tonnes per annum processing facility, and other related infrastructure.

Black Cat announced the first combined Resource over Coyote Central since 2008, increasing the total Resources at the Coyote Gold Operation by 32 per cent from 488,000 ounces at 5.1 grams per tonne gold to 645,000 ounces at 5.5g/t gold.

Total Indicated Resources increased 105 per cent from 150,000 ounces at 3.8g/t gold to 307,000 ounces at 5.3g/t gold.

With just five months of drilling, Black Cat has taken Coyote Central to be one of the highest-grade underground deposits in Australia.

The Paulsens Gold Operation is located 180km west of Paraburdoo with an underground mine, 450,000tpa processing facility, along with numerous potential open pits and other related infrastructure.

Recent diamond drilling results from Paulsens into the project’s Gabbro Veins showed promise with drilling intersecting quartz-sulphide (pyrite+/-chalcopyrite+/-galena) veins within altered gabbro, as predicted by the company’s geology model.

Gold mineralisation sitting immediately adjacent to the decline could mean little development will be needed to bring the operation back online.

The Kal East Gold Project comprises around 800 square kilometres of highly prospective ground just outside Kalgoorlie, hosting a Resource of 18.8 million tonnes at 2.1g/t gold for approx. 1.3 million ounces, including a preliminary JORC 2012 Reserve of 3.7 million tonnes at 2g/t gold for 243,000 ounces.

Copper Search (ASX:

CUS)

Copper Search listed on the ASX in 2021 with support from a $12 million IPO armed with the self-assigned mission of targeting world class copper-gold deposits within the Gawler Craton of South Australia.

The company’s main focus, at this stage, is its Peake project that emerged from a review carried out by its exploration team in 2022.

This review involved a revised exploration strategy that introduced a new tactic: that being to use a mineral systems approach while incorporating multiple big data sets, innovative peer-reviewed emerging techniques, and well- established conventional exploration methods.

The result was a re-ranking of all the company’s exploration targets across all of its tenements using the geological information from drilling results to date and the new geophysics survey data acquired in 2022.

The ultimate winner was the Peake project in the NE Gawler Craton, which is considered by Copper Search as prospective for largescale copper (IOCG) deposits after the identification of over 20 shallow potential IOCG targets less than 500 metres deep and a further six deeper targets at the project.

Further infill geophysics (IP, gravity, AMT and MT) surveys have been slated to be conducted to inform the final target ranking and refine drill collar locations.

All up, thirteen targets were identified within the southern area of the Peake project by the company utilising parameters and benchmarking against known IOCG deposits, such as Ernest Henry.

Simultaneously, adjacent explorer Demetallica confirmed prospectivity for Ernest Henry-style copper mineralisation from its drilling efforts.

Prior to drilling, Copper Search plans to complete minor infill geophysics surveys and re-score targets.

With all this underway, drilling programs remain planned to commence in Q1, 2023, subject to drilling rig availability.

Global Lithium Resources (ASX:

GL1)

globallithium.com.au

Global Lithium Resources kept its powder dry in the beginning of 2023 as punters waited to hear updates on a Scoping Study commenced at the company’s Manna lithium project, outside Kalgoorlie in the Goldfields region of Western Australia.

The Study announcement came quick on the heels of the company releasing an updated JORC Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for its two 100 per cent-owned hard rock lithium projects the Manna project and the Marble Bar lithium project (MBLP) in the Pilbara region in WA.

Large scale drilling programs carried out in 2022 enabled Global Lithium to upgrade the company’s global MRE by a whopping 148.5 per cent to 50.7 million tonnes at 1 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O).

The MRE included a 230 per cent increase in the Manna MRE to 32.7 million tonnes at 1 per cent Li2O and a 71 per cent increase in the Marble Bar MRE to 18 million tonnes at 1 per cent Li20.

The Study will define the process and non-process infrastructure requirements at Manna, as well as the estimated capital and operating costs for the project as well as forming the basis for a Feasibility Study, whilst also providing the key risks and opportunities to be targeted.

“Our CY2022 Exploration Program at Manna has been highly encouraging and we are excited about the prospect of this Scoping Study further determining the potential of this project,” Global Lithium Resources managing director Ron Mitchell said.

“The Scoping Study is an important step for Global Lithium as we move towards the Manna Lithium Project Feasibility Study, scheduled to commence in Q1 CY2023.

“We are confident the Scoping Study will deliver a positive outcome that GL1 can build from.”

Carnaby Resources (ASX: CNB)

carnabyresources.com.au

Carnaby Resources is focussed on copper and gold projects in the Mount Isa Inlier of Queensland and the Pilbara’s Mallina Basin and Yilgarn Margin of Western Australia.

The company’s Greater Duchess copper gold project, located approximately 70km southeast of Mount Isa in Queensland and centred around the historical Duchess copper mining district, encompasses 1,022 square kilometres of Iron Oxide Copper-Gold (IOCG) prospective tenure, including its recent Nil Desperandum, Lady Fanny and Mount Hope discoveries.

The Mount Hope Mining Lease provided a positive start to 2023 with the Queensland Government Department of Resources Mineral Assessment Hub’s final view and recommendation regarding the location of the Mount Hope Mining Lease falling in support of Carnaby’s submission as to the actual boundary location of the 100 per cent-owned granted mining lease ML90240.

Unsurprisingly, Carnaby viewed the resolution of the Mining Lease boundary at Mount Hope as an important de-risking event as it allows the company to clearly focus on extending the rapidly growing high-grade Mount Hope Central discovery.

Carnaby signalled an extensive drill out of the Mount Hope Central prospect is to be carried out using multiple drill rigs.

At the time of writing Carnaby was waiting on results from approximately 20 drill holes, including the last diamond core hole drilled, MHDD060 from which pXRF readings recorded up to 10 metres at 4 per cent copper, which remains completely open at depth.

Carnaby is targeting a maiden Mineral Resource for the Greater Duchess copper gold project in Q2 2023 while completing scoping and commencing pre-feasibility studies.

Economic evaluation of copper gold mineral deposits discovered to date, will include the three core deposits of Nil Desperandum, Lady Fanny and Mount Hope.

Novo Resources (TSX:

NVO)

Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Novo Resources boasts a prospective land package covering approximately 11,000 square kilometres in the resource rich Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Novo’s primary focus is its Nullagine gold project - Beatons Creek mining operation, along with further development of what it considers being an exciting exploration portfolio.

Novo picked up the Nullagine gold project in September 2020 by way of its acquisition of Millennium Minerals, a former ASX-listed mining company that had operated in the region for almost 10 years.

Novo anticipates a fresh phase of mining to commence at Beatons Creek sometime in late 2023 or early 2024 after completion of an economic Feasibility Study and granting of mining approvals from the Western Australian government and subject to a final investment decision.

Novo’s exploration aspirations are not limited to Beatons Creek with the company also eyeing high-quality gold and battery metals targets within WA and Victoria, through both brownfield and greenfield exploration.

The Novo team has already achieved much success on the ground having generated a series of high-quality, multi-commodity projects.

Complacency, however, appears to not appear in the company glossary and it continues to explore compelling targets to build a portfolio of advanced opportunities within the Pilbara that are expected to grow Novo in size and scale.

At the Malmsbury and Queens projects in the highly prospective Bendigo Tectonic Zone of Victoria, a series of exciting gold targets are also being developed near Kirkland Lake Gold’s Fosterville gold mine. Across Novo’s Western Australian and Victorian projects, the company is committed to developing and optimising technical expertise and knowledge throughout a wide range of leading-edge exploration technologies.

Peak Minerals

(ASX: PUA)

As 2022 drew to a close, Peak Minerals announced it would be commencing a round of diamond drilling in Q1, 2023 at its Rixon, Earaheedy and Copper Hills target areas following completion of a positive Moving Loop Electromagnetics (MLEM) survey.

The 2022 MLEM survey confirmed conductivity downdip and north of a Down Hole Electromagnetics (DHEM) target at Copper Hills completed in 2010.

Drilling undertaken at Copper Hills in early 2021 produced encouraging results, including:

» CHRC0021

37 metres of 0.67 per cent copper, including 6m at 1.21 per cent copper and 5m at 1.42 per cent copper.

Diamond drilling at Rixon will follow up the Lady Alma-Rixon gabbro contact area and coincident historical VTEM anomaly, and at Earaheedy to follow up VTEM targets, which were not satisfactorily tested by shallow historical drilling.

“It is now time to diamond drill test the Rixon and Copper Hills areas,” Peak Resources CEO Jennifer Neild said.

“The depth of interpreted mineralisation requires a reliance on the strong geological modelling from geochemistry and geophysics that has been undertaken in the past year.

“Despite having many historical holes and samples across the ground, the area hadn’t been sampled for all elements needed to effectively target mineralisation until Peak picked up the ground.

“Adding to the excellent historical geological mapping, we’ve further defined areas of interest where indicator elements and elemental ratios overlap with geophysical anomalies.

“At Earaheedy, we are looking forward to getting back on the ground to follow up these geophysical anomalies defined by VTEM.

“The recent reprocessing of geophysics at both Green Rocks and Earaheedy has given us cause to re-examine our preconceived notions about the geology and I’m incredibly excited to see what comes out of the ground.”

Rox Resources

(ASX: RXL)

Rox Resources got drilling early in 2023 alongside its Joint Venture partner Venus Metals Corporation, kicking off substantial reverse circulation (RC) and diamond drilling programs at the Youanmi gold project (OYG JV) in Western Australia.

The 16,000 metre RC and 7,000 metre diamond drill programs will be ongoing throughout January-April with first drill assay results expected in late February.

Rox explained the Resource drilling is focused on converting Inferred resources to Indicated at the high priority Link and Kathleen areas.

The conversion of these Inferred Resources will be important to the Youanmi gold project as they will form early production for the purposes of future feasibility studies.

“Drilling is planned to infill high-grade areas at Kathleen and Link to bolster shallow, Indicated Resources for upcoming feasibility studies,” Rox Resources managing director Rob Ryan said.

Rox will also conduct exploration drilling on the exciting, high-grade Midway discovery made by the OYG JV in 2021, which it considers being a near mine exploration target that is open in all directions.

Drilling at the Youanmi South prospect will also be carried out.

Previous drilling at the Youanmi South prospect has encountered broad high-grade gold intersections.

“The Midway discovery is an exciting discovery and is close to existing infrastructure with tremendous potential to grow in all directions,” Ryan continued.

“The limited drilling to date, within the structural corridor, has shown thick continuous high-grade intersections.

“We intend to drill out the Midway area with the aim of adding additional Resources to the Youanmi gold project.

“With drilling underway and feasibility studies advancing, investors can look forward to consistent news flow in 2023 as we look to improve the current Resource and project metrics.”

Bulletin Resources (ASX:

BNR)

Bulletin Resources wasted little of 2023 before announcing a new highgrade spodumene pegmatite discovery at the company’s Ravensthorpe lithium project in Western Australia.

The discovery is a result of a LIDAR survey completed last year and has grown the project’s Western Pegmatite Trend to three kilometres in length.

Mapping conducted south along the Western Pegmatite Trend identified the high-grade spodumene lithium bearing pegmatite by returning rock chip assays of: 4.81 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O), 4.67 per cent Li2O, 4.31 per cent Li2O, and 3.54 per cent Li2O.

The pegmatite outcrops for 100 metres in strike length and has an apparent width of up to 10m, dipping moderately to the southwest.

The spodumene bearing core of the pegmatite strikes for approx. 20m in length with spodumene generally appearing more siliceous and foliated than the spodumene seen along the project’s Eastern Pegmatite trend.

The Ravensthorpe lithium project is just one of the projects that make up the company’s project portfolio.

The Lake Rebecca gold project sits in the southern portion of the Laverton Tectonic Zone, a regional scale shear/fault system in the WA Goldfields hosting the Sunrise Dam, Wallaby, Red October and Granny Smith gold camps.

The Chifley gold project is a 79 square kilometres exploration tenement prospective for gold sitting approx. 50km to the south of Lake Rebecca and on a northwest trending splay of the Claypan Fault.

The Duketon North project is prospective for gold and nickel located 30kms north of the Moolart Well three million tonnes per annum gold mill and 30kms south of the Olympia nickel deposit. Targets in the area include gold in soil anomalies and coincident magnetic highs and EM targets.

Rumble Resources (ASX:

RTR)

Rumble Resources made progress in 2022 at the company’s 75 per cent-owned Earaheedy project (Zenith Minerals 25%), near Wiluna in Western Australia.

Rumble announced the Chinook prospect discovery in 2021 as an important zinc-lead discovery while highlighting its potential to become a very large-scale (Tier 1) zinc-lead system.

Rumble has since drilled a six kilometres extension to the west of Chinook along the 15km long, 100 per cent-owned Sweetwater Trend, a tenement that accounts for over 70 per cent of Rumble’s total Earaheedy Basin land holding.

RC drilling along the Sweetwater Trend intersected high-grade mineralisation increasing the deposit’s mineralised footprint to over 5.5km by 2km open in all directions.

Basically, 18 months on from the Chinook discovery Rumble has, across two locations, a combined footprint of 13km by 2km of mineralisation that is open in all directions that is zinc sulphide dominant, flat lying and open in all directions.

The company believes the nature of the mineralisation lends itself to a potential low-cost, open pittable mining scenario in a world class mining jurisdiction.

Rumble approached Earaheedy with an initial exploration target of around 40 million tonnes, which it has since increased to 100 120 million tonnes at 3.5 per cent to 4.5 per cent zinc-lead sulphides, numbers that place the project in the global giant zinc deposit category.

The maths is simple: having tested 2km of a 45km of prospective mineralised strike means Rumble, to date, has only tested 15 per cent of its target area, however the work it has carried out has enabled it to focus on the emerging feeder zones.

The company anticipates release of a maiden Resource in the middle of 2023.

Greenstone Resources

(ASX: GSR)

Greenstone Resources opened 2023 by reporting three discreet zones of mineralisation at the company’s Mt Thirsty Joint Venture (MTJV) (Greenstone 50%: Conico 50%) in Western Australia.

The three discrete zones are the Upper nickel-cobalt-manganese-scandium horizon; the Middle PGE horizon; and the Lower nickel horizon.

Greenstone said results continued to highlight the prospectivity of the Mt Thirsty project and, importantly, the suite of target commodities, all of which could play a critical role in the decarbonisation economy.

Drilling the Upper Zone confirmed a lower, and potentially highergrade, nickel-cobalt-manganese-scandium zone sitting outside the existing resource and supported by historical drilling.

The middle zone consists of an intrusive gabbro sill hosting anomalous palladium-platinum-gold-copper-nickel mineralisation.

Of note, highly anomalous mineralisation was intersected in all 15 holes for which Greenstone reported assays.

The lower zone consists of a chromium rich basalt hosting a thick zone of continuous nickel mineralisation, which was intersected in eight out of 14 holes received.

“While the Joint Venture has yet to intersect high-grade PGE mineralisation, similar to the neighbouring Callisto deposit, having intercepted the target horizon and high anomalous PGE mineralisation in a number of holes we remain encouraged by these results,” Greenstone Resources managing director and CEO Chris Hansen said.

“Furthermore, as the exploration campaign has evolved over the past months, we have gained a much better understanding of the local controls on mineralisation, having more recently focussed our attention on potential structural traps serving to accumulate sulphides.

“(At time of writing) Assays are still pending for 17, 4 and 5 holes for the upper, middle and lower zones respectively, and we look forward to keeping shareholders updated on a regular basis as our understanding of this geologic system continues to develop.”

Encounter Resources (ASX:

ENR)

Encounter Resources left investors with a 2022 triple cliff hanger across its project portfolio.

An initial assessment of an 8,000 line kilometres airborne magnetic-radiometric survey completed at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Aileron copper-REE project in the West Arunta region of Western Australia identified new targets.

Hurley a discrete magnetic target highlighted east of the Worley and Crean targets on the major Elephant Island fault; and

Macklin an interpreted intrusion on the key Endurance fault north-west of the Caird gravity target and WA1 Resource’s mineralised carbonatite discovery at Luni.

Critical Minerals kept coming with field reconnaissance at Encounter’s Junction lithium project in the Northern Territory elevating potential of the Crawford target.

Activities identified a series of outcropping and sub-cropping pegmatites over four kilometres of strike that may potentially extend under shallow cover to the north.

The pegmatite trend is situated along the western margin of a large granite body - located approx. 4km east of Core Lithium’s Ringing Rocks lithium prospect.

Lastly, high-grade copper-gold was intersected in 200m step out drilling at the Dune prospect, part of Encounters’ 100 per cent-owned Lamil copper-gold project in the Paterson Province of WA.

Drilling intersected copper-gold reefs closer to surface as well as intersecting a different style of mineralisation at Dune, which appears epithermal in nature containing high-grade copper-silver mineralisation.

Follow up exploration efforts will test for extension of high-grade copper-gold reefs intersected between 175-210m and the up-dip projection of an epithermal copper-silver bearing vein intersected by previous drilling.

“Encouragingly, this is a new style of mineralisation at Lamil and we will now integrate these new results into our existing models to design the next phase of exploration,” Encounter Resources managing director Will Robinson said.

Tempest Minerals (ASX: TEM)

Tempest Minerals dropped the mic on 2022 by advising the market that the company, along with its wholly-owned subsidiary, West Resource Ventures (WRV), will proceed with a new initial public offering (IPO).

WRV, currently the holder of several lithium tenements in Western Australia, will be renamed Electra Minerals.

The new IPO will combine WRV’s Western Australian underexplored hard rock lithium exploration projects with the Smith Creek lithium brine property in Nevada USA.

WRV proposes to acquire Lithium of Nevada (LON) which has a binding agreement with TSX-V listed Iconic Minerals for the rights to acquire up to 50 per cent of the Smith Creek project.

The Smith Creek project is located within Smiths Creek Valley in Nevada with the current LON claim blocks covering an area of 65.4 square kilometres over a major gravity low.

The Smith Creek project is hosted within a volcanic ash unit considered to be a potentially good source of lithium. Previous drilling at the project did not test for lithium.

The company’s WA projects represent a substantial holding of approximately 365sqkm (29sqkm granted 336sqkm pending) across three areas.

These include the Windarling gold lithium project (41sqkm), the Rocky Hill lithium project (289sqkm), and the Caranning gold lithium project (35sqkm).

Exploration by Tempest at the Rocky Hill project encountered extremely anomalous soil results, including lithium up to 60ppm in soils along with strong LCT pegmatite indicator signatures.

“Although an exploration target for some time, the relatively recent recognition of the South Western quadrant of Western Australia as a new extremely exciting domain for exploration of further lithium resources has thrust projects such as these into the limelight in recent times,” Tempest Minerals said.

ioneer (ASX:

INR)

Ioneers’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project is the most advanced undeveloped lithium project in the United States, which the company has on track to provide an environmentally sustainable, long-life source of both lithium and boron for delivery into the US domestic electric vehicle (EV) supply chain.

Ioneer started 2023 on an extremely positive note by receiving Conditional Commitment from the US Department of Energy (DOE) for a proposed loan of up to US$700 million to develop the Rhyolite Ridge project.

The proposed loan is to be made under the DOE Loan Programs Office’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program for a term of approximately 10 years with an interest rate fixed from the date of each advance for the term of the loan at applicable US Treasury rates.

The Conditional Commitment follows nearly two years of extensive and detailed technical, legal, and market due diligence by the DOE.

The proposed DOE loan coupled with Sibanye-Stillwater’s expected equity contribution to secure a 50 per cent interest in the project, is anticipated to fund a hefty amount of preliminary capital expenditure.

The DOE’s conditional commitment reflects continued strong and dedicated support under the Biden Administration to develop a US domestic EV supply chain.

“We are pleased to have finalised the term sheet and received a Conditional Commitment from the DOE for up to a US$700m loan from the ATVM program,” Ioneer managing director Bernard Rowe said.

“The Conditional Commitment is the culmination of 23 months of discussions with and due diligence by the Loan Programs Office and it represents a significant milestone for Rhyolite Ridge.

“We look forward to working with the DOE and Sibanye-Stillwater to complete the remaining milestones to start construction of Rhyolite Ridge.”

Nordic Nickel (ASX: NNL)

Nordic Nickel made a fast start to 2023 by accepting delivery of the first of its two diamond drill rigs due at the company’s Pulju nickel project in northern Finland.

The arrival of the first diamond rig on site heralded the commencement of Nordic Nickel’s 2023 exploration campaign, which is scheduled to test multiple targets in the early months of the year at the Hotinvaara prospect.

Nordic Nickel explained the first rig will be used predominantly to test several of the shallower geophysical electromagnetic (EM) anomalies the company detected during previous down-hole EM surveys, as well as to expand and enhance the existing near-surface disseminated nickel sulphide Resource.

Nordic has completed a maiden JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate for Hotinvaara based on the drilling for 133 million tonnes at 0.21 per cent nickel and 0.01 per cent cobalt for 278,530 tonnes nickel and 12,650 tonnes cobalt.

Nordic’s exploration plan is expected to result in the company drilling continuously for 14 months as it embarks on what it hopes to be a potentially transformational exploration effort in the Central Lapland Greenstone Belt.

“The delivery of our first diamond drill rig to site is an important milestone for Nordic Nickel and, with the second rig scheduled to arrive later…we will be well placed to rapidly advance our exploration plans at our flagship Pulju nickel project,” Nordic Nickel managing director Todd Ross said.

“Pulju is located in an under-explored greenstone belt that is known to be nickel-rich with proven geological potential for large-scale critical mineral deposits.

“We are looking forward to the significant news-flow that we expect this drilling campaign to generate in the weeks and months ahead.”

Aruma Resources

(ASX: AAJ)

Aruma Resources rung in the New Year by announcing further highgrade lithium-rubidium intersections from the final batches of assays from a drilling program completed in 2022 at the company’s Mt Deans lithium-rubidium project.

Aruma reported that the program returned lithium-rubidium grades in excess of 2 per cent, with a total of 12 intersections producing grades in excess of 1.5 per cent lithium-rubidium, of varying widths.

The company also highlighted that high potassium values, of up to 3.6 per cent, with noteworthy caesium (up to 0.6%) and tin-tantalum (600ppm and 700ppm).

Aruma declared the drilling confirmed and extended the lithium and high-grade rubidium that had been previously intersected in multiple pegmatites in the company’ first phase of drilling in the central part of the project area, and a subsequent rock chip sampling program.

The 100 per cent-owned Mt Deans project is in the Mt Deans pegmatite field, within the Eastern Goldfields Terrane of the Yilgarn Craton, in between the mining centres of Kalgoorlie and Norseman.

The project sits within the lithium corridor in south-east WA, which hosts multiple hard-rock lithium projects and is interpreted to sit within the same host rocks and structures as the nearby Mt Marion, Bald Hill and Buldania lithium projects

Based on the continuing positive results from its drilling and exploration activities at Mt Deans, Aruma indicated it may look to identify micaceous pegmatites with high-grade lithium-Rubidium-caesium-potassium ore.

The company is of the opinion that this, conceptually, may potentially be capable of being concentrated using simple froth flotation/ gravity circuits to produce a saleable lithium-potassium concentrate, with valuable rubidium and caesium by-products with possible tin and tantalum gravity concentrates.

Alicanto Minerals

(ASX: AQI)

Alicanto Minerals provided market watchers something to look forward to in 2023 with its December announcement of assay results from its initial drill hole at the Skyttgruvan-Naverberg target at the company’s Falun copper-gold-zinc-silver project in Sweden.

Alicanto reported assay results from the first drill hole that confirmed multiple zones of mineralisation from intersections including:

» GRO22-19

5.3 metres at 6.8 per cent zinc equivalent (Zneq) (84 grams per tonne silver, 0.5 per cent copper, 3.3 per cent zinc, 1.2 per cent lead);

» 2.9m at 14.7 per cent Zneq (194g/t silver, 0.1 per cent copper, 4.9 per cent zinc, 7.6 per cent lead);

» 6.8m at 9.7 per cent Zneq (114g/t silver, 0.5 per cent copper, 5.5 per cent zinc, 1 per cent lead, 0.13g/t gold); and

» 3.9m at 11.3 per cent Zneq (20g/t silver, 0.2 per cent copper, 9.5 per cent zinc, 1.5 per cent lead).

Mineralisation includes native silver (assays up to 744g/t silver), copper mineralisation (assays up to 1.9% copper), anomalous gold values (assays up to 0.65g/t gold) within broader zones of zinc (assays up to 32.4% zinc).

Alicanto indicated diamond core drilling would be undertaken along key target areas of the 3.5 kilometres prospective mineralised limestone horizon that hosts the historic copper-gold-zinc-silver Falun mine.

“These are extremely encouraging results which suggest we have made an important breakthrough in our search of the extension of the rich Falun mineralised system,” Alicanto Minerals managing director Rob Sennitt said.

“We have always believed that there is significant potential for additional mineralisation in the region.

“These results, some 3.5 kilometres from the historic Falun mine, continue to build on our thesis that the Falun system is much bigger than what was initially mined.”

New World Resources (ASX:

NWC)

In the lead up to Christmas 2022, New World Resources received firm commitments for a placement to raise $8 million to further advance the company’s 100 per cent-owned, high-grade Antler copper project in Arizona, USA towards development and production.

The raising came on the back of an updated JORC Minerals Resource Estimate (MRE) that substantially increased the high-grade resource base at the project, while cementing its position as a new high-grade VMS copper project of note.

The updated MRE came in at:

» 11.4 million tonnes at 2.1 per cent copper, 5 per cent zinc, 0.9 per cent lead, 32.9 grams per tonne silver and 0.36g/t gold (11.4Mt at 4.1% copper-equivalent).

The MRE will enable New World to advance rapidly towards development with an updated Scoping Study due in Q1 2023 followed by a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) by mid-year.

The company hopes this to allow resumption of mining operations at Antler and position the company to become a high-grade copper producer ready to take advantage of the expected global surge in demand.

“Over the past 12 months we’ve increased the high-grade resource at the Antler copper project by 48 per cent,” New World Resources managing director Mike Haynes said.

“The new funds will enable us to continue to expand the Antler resource base firstly by continuing to drill at depth below the Antler deposit itself, where the deepest holes have recently returned assays, including 27m at 7 per cent copper-equivalent, 21.3m at 5.3 per cent copper-equivalent, and a spectacular intercept of 10.7m at 13.7 per cent copper-equivalent, and secondly by testing the high-priority targets that we have delineated along strike from the Antler deposit, that provide opportunities to discover additional VMS deposits.”

Medallion Metals

(ASX: MM8)

Medallion Metals waited until after the New Year to unwrap a new initial JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) at the Gift deposit within the Kundip Mining Centre (KMC) that is part of the company’s Ravensthorpe Gold Project (RGP) in Western Australia.

The Gift MRE has come in at 1.26 million tonnes at 1.4 grams per tonne gold for 60,000 ounces of gold and is based on approx. 11,000 metres of drilling completed between 2008-22 by a string of previous owners.

The inclusion of Gift to the resource inventory takes the Ravensthorpe Gold Project to a MRE of 1.47 million ounces gold equivalent (AuEq) at 2.5g/t AuEq.

Medallion anticipates a further MRE update based on between 12,000m and 15,000m of completed drilling will be released in the early part of 2023 that will form the basis of a Pre-Feasibility Study to be completed later this year.

Medallion followed this up by reporting extensional drilling results from the Flag deposit, also within the KMC.

Diamond drilling intersected the Flag Main Lode in the footwall to the Main Lode.

Assay results from the veins include:

» DD22KP1138

0.92 metres at 34.2 grams per tonne gold, 0.5 per cent copper, 16.4g/t silver from 283m Flag Main Lode; and

» 0.45m at 118g/t gold, 9.3 per cent copper, 61.1g/t silver from 319.9m Flag Fault Cross Lode.

Medallion considers the continuation of high-grade results in the area extremely positive for the potential extension of Mineral Resources at the Flag deposit.

“These results, combined with previous drilling and historical underground mapping gives us great confidence the deposit can be mined successfully from underground,” Medallion Metals managing director Paul Bennett said.

New W orld RESOURCES

Caspin Resources

(ASX: CPN)

caspin.com.au

Caspin Resources approaches 2023 with confidence at its Western Australia-based projects.

The Yarawindah Brook project is located within an emerging PGE-nickel-copper province, the West Yilgarn while the Mount Squires project sits in the West Musgrave region, one of the country’s foremost mineral exploration frontiers.

In 2022, Caspin claimed discovery of a new PGE prospect at Yarawindah Brook.

Dubbed Vicia, the prospect sits at the northern margin of the Yarabrook Intrusion adjacent to Caspin’s Serradella discovery, from which it reported high-grade and broad widths of PGE mineralisation, along with high-grade rhodium mineralisation.

The anomaly is located at the northern margin of the Yarabrook Intrusion, northwest of the Central Yarabrook prospect, west of the Serradella discovery and structurally below the Radio Tower Thrust.

Six holes were drilled, some of which returned high values of PGEs, including:

» YARC0030

32 metres at 0.48 grams per tonne palladium + platinum + gold

(3E) from 58m, including 4m at 1.12g/t 3E from 81m; and

» YARC0032

10m at 0.42g/t 3E from 42m, including 2m at 1.13g/t 3E from 42m.

Activity at the West Musgrave nickel-copper extension at the company’s Mount Squires project in 2022 resulted in discovery of surface copper mineralisation along an 8km copper geochemical anomaly now known as the Sienna prospect.

Caspin completed extensive exploration programs of drilling, soil and rock chip sampling as well as airborne geophysics.

Assays returned high-grade copper values up to 10.6 per cent from a small malachite-rich outcrop within a broader area of mafic outcrop covering an area of approx. 2.5 square kilometres.

All up, a total of four samples were collected from this outcrop, averaging 7.1 per cent copper, including elevated levels of gold (up to 0.1g/t) and silver (up to 6.9g/t).

Venture Minerals (ASX: VMS)

ventureminerals.com.au

Venture Minerals approached 2023 with great expectations thanks to positive reactions from Joint Venture partner Chalice Mining to work carried out at the South West project in Western Australia.

Results achieved throughout 2022 identified two new nickel-copper-PGE targets resulting in Chalice deciding to commit to the second stage of the JV.

Subsequently, Chalice has commenced ground and airborne EM surveys, and a geochemical sampling program.

The work will focus on further delineating existing targets and potentially identifying new targets for future drill testing at the South West project.

“With Chalice now on the ground at the South West project, the company looks forward to the results of the EM surveys and geochemical sampling programs to further delineate the two new interpreted magmatic nickel-copper-PGE sulphide targets,” Venture Minerals managing director Andrew Radonjic said.

“This phase of exploration by Chalice will also begin to test the underexplored northern part of the 20 kilometres long Thor target, a newly interpreted parallel unexplored ultramafic unit west of Thor, and a new area at the Odin nickel-copper-PGE prospect.

“The prospectivity of the South West project, combined with the company’s well credentialled JV partner, provides Venture’s shareholders with multiple opportunities to participate in a new nickel-copper-PGE discovery.”

Chalice will complete Auger Soil Geochemical sampling for the recently identified two new nickel-copper-PGE targets to constrain the Phase One Auger Soil Geochemistry targets, including other new target areas along the Thor trend, north and south, and to do additional ground Fixed Loop EM (FLEM) lines to investigate untested airborne EM anomalies previously generated by Venture.

Elsewhere, Chalice will target a newly interpreted parallel unexplored ultramafic unit west of Thor to provide initial testing by Xcalibur airborne EM lines as part of a larger survey.

Austral Resources (ASX:

AR1)

Austral Resources is a copper cathode producer operating in the Mt Isa region of Queensland that has big ambitions for 2023.

The company owns the Mt Kelly copper oxide heap leach and solvent extraction electrowinning (SX-EW) plant that has a nameplate capacity of 30,000 tonnes per annum of copper cathode.

Austral has developed its Anthill oxide copper mine, which has an Ore Reserve of 5.06 million tonnes at 0.94 per cent copper.

The company expects to produce 40,000 tonnes of copper cathode over a four-year period from mid-2022.

That Austral’s aspirations are within reach became evident with the company meeting its target of achieving Commercial Production in December 2022 from the Anthill project.

A healthy December 2022 resulted in Austral achieving an average production rate of 33.3 tonnes per day of plated copper for a total of 976 tonnes over a 29-day operating period meaning commercial levels of production were hit at the Mt Kelly crushing/processing facility to bring the project into operationally cash flow positive territory.

Other copper projects in the Austral portfolio include Lady Annie, Cameron River, and Miranda, all of which add up to 2,100 square kilometres of highly prospective exploration tenure in the heart of the Mt Isa district.

Austral claims owner ship of a large copper inventory with a JORC compliant Mineral Resource Estimate of 60 million tonnes at 0.7 per cent copper for 420,000 tonnes of contained copper.

The company is implementing an intensive exploration and development program that it is confident will extend the life of mine and increase its resource base, from which it will be able to review options to commercialise its copper resources.

IGO (ASX: IGO)

IGO maintained its lithium growth focus into 2023 by announcing that Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia (TLEA), the lithium Joint Venture entity owned by Tianqi Lithium Corporation (TLC) (51%) and IGO (49%) had entered into a Scheme Implementation Agreement (SIA) to acquire 100 per cent of Essential Metals.

Acquisition of Essential Metals makes sense for TLEA as the deal hits the JVs strategy focused on building a global lithium business, diversifies and expands its lithium portfolio within WA while securing additional lithium resources with potential for continued growth through future exploration, and allows entry into a highly prospective lithium province.

Essential Metals is a lithium exploration company that owns 100 per cent of the Pioneer Dome project in WA.

Pioneer Dome is located approximately 130 kilometres south of Kalgoorlie and 200km north of the port of Esperance.

The project covers an area of 450 square kilometres and is close to the Mount Marion and Bald Hill lithium projects.

Pioneer Dome is one of only 14 JORC compliant spodumene lithium resources in Australia, with a defined JORC resource of 11.2 million tonnes at 1.16 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O).

Essential Metals also holds several other interests in early-stage exploration projects across lithium, nickel and gold.

“Both IGO and TLC are committed to progressing and growing our lithium joint venture business,” IGO acting CEO Matt Dusci said.

“The ESS transaction provides an opportunity to accelerate lithium exploration to bring new resources to production.

“It also complements the significant growth opportunities within the TLEA business, which include the continued expansion of the Greenbushes operation, the successful ramp up Train 1 of the lithium hydroxide facility at Kwinana and progressing towards the financial investment decision for Train 2.”

Galan Lithium (ASX:

GLN)

Galan Lithium’s assets comprise two world-class lithium brine projects, Hombre Muerto West Project (HMW) and Candelas, located on the Hombre Muerto salar in Argentina, within South America’s ‘lithium triangle’.

Hombre Muerto is proven to host lithium brine deposition of the highest grade and lowest impurity levels within Argentina.

Galan Lithium’s first announcement for 2023 entailed news of completion of the company’s 2022 brine pumping test campaign at the HMW Project in Catamarca Province, Argentina.

A total of three production pumping wells were completed during the second half of 2022 two at Pata Pila (PPB-01-21 and PPB-02-22) and one at Rana de Sal (PBRS-01-21)

The results from the three production wells tested at HMW, confirmed that the HMW Project is ready to provide the brine flow and quality for the 4,000 tonnes per annum LCE pilot development.

Strong extraction and production well chemistry results from all three long-term brine pumping tests support the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) as it approaches completion.

Further exploration drilling and sampling has continued across the HMW Project tenements to complement surface geophysical work.

“The positive long-term pumping brine test results are extremely significant by providing certainty of brine flow extraction, lithium grade, and cementing the HMW reserve model,” Galan Lithium exploration manager Álvaro Henríquez said.

“We have further demonstrated a high production capacity at both Pata Pila and Rana de Sal.

“Importantly, we have extended the reservoir quality throughout the main (uphill) alluvial deposits of Pata Pila.

“Recent results at Pucara de Salar also show further potential to expand the total HMW Project resource and reserve.

“All of the above factors, keep adding empirical support for the world-class nature of the HMW Project and its continued rapid advancement and development to production.”

Stavely Minerals (ASX:

SVY)

Stavely Minerals approached 2023 with a determined mind set regarding the company’s 100 per cent-owned Stavely copper-gold project in western Victoria.

Stavely described upcoming activities as “a significant new phase of exploration” following an extensive review of regional and near-resource discovery opportunities.

As 2022 ended, Stavely invited porphyry expert, Dr Steve Garwin to review Cayley Lode drill data, to visit site, and inspect drill core.

Dr Garwin’s review delivered a new porphyry target beneath and along plunge of some deeper intercepts on the Cayley Lode, including holes SMD173 and SMD182.

SMD173 intercepted 43 metres at 2.6 per cent copper, 0.42 grams per tonne gold and 10g/t silver from 378m and while doing so altered the character of the mineralisation relative to intercepts from previous drill-holes.

SMD182 was the last drill hole of the Mineral Resource drill-out with the objective to further test the down-plunge extent of the Cayley Lode beyond SMD173.

SMD182 intercepted 10.4m at 4.34 per cent copper, 3.17g/t gold and 11g/t silver from 421m, including 4.9m at 6.74 per cent copper, 6.45g/t gold and 19g/t silver, demonstrating near parity of gold grade in g/t to the copper grade in per cent.

“Dr Garwin’s insights have assisted the site team to recognise a systematic zonation of sulphides in the high-grade copper-gold mineralised structures, and this has provided very material encouragement to pursue the Cayley Lode at depth,” Stavely Minerals executive chair and managing director Chris Cairns said.

“In essence, the mineral assemblage in the last few, and so far deepest, drill holes completed on the Cayley Lode while completing the initial Mineral Resource drill-out, indicate an increase in temperature of mineral formation which, if it continues, should bring our drilling towards the causative porphyry.”

Gold Road Resources

(ASX: GOR)

goldroad.com.au

2023 should be a case of ‘steady as you go’ for mid-tier gold production and exploration company, Gold Road Resources.

The company is in a 50:50 Joint Venture for the Gruyere gold mine with Gruyere Mining Company, a member of the Gold Fields Ltd Group, which operates Gruyere.

The mine ticks along nicely; in the recent December 2022 quarter, Gruyere delivered quarterly gold production of 74,201 ounces, adding to its annual production of 314,647 ounces for the 2022 calendar year, falling within annual production guidance of between 300,000 and 340,000 ounces.

In January, Gold Road released its Annual Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve Statement as at 31 December 2022 for the Gruyere JV and for its 100 per cent-owned Mineral Resources at Yamarna.

Gold Road’s attributable Mineral Resources of 4.79 million ounces increased slightly as a result of an extension of the Gruyere underground resource, offsetting mining depletion at the Gruyere pit and minor adjustments to Golden Highway open pit resource assumptions.

On a 100 per cent basis the Gruyere JV Open Pit Mineral Resource is 153 million tonnes at 1.36 grams per tonne gold for 6.69 million ounces.

Gold Road’s exploration strategy remains directed at delivering economic gold deposits it believes can be developed as standalone mining operations, creating value through organic growth.

Gold Road holds over 18,000 square kilometres of exploration tenure across Western Australia, South Australia, and Queensland.

The company aims to continue evaluation and optimisation of its large portfolio, with the purpose of creating a high-quality exploration project pipeline that provides increased value to the business.

As at 31 December 2022, Gold Road Resources had cash and equivalents of $80.8 million with no debt drawn.

OZ Minerals (ASX:

OZL)

ozminerals.com

It could be standing room only when OZ Minerals has its turn to present at this year’s Explorers Conference as attendees listen to an update of the proposed OZ Minerals take over by mining giant BHP.

In December, OZ Minerals entered a Scheme Implementation Deed (SID) with BHP Lonsdale Investments Pty Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of BHP Group Limited, under which it is proposed that BHP will acquire 100 per cent of the shares in OZ Minerals.

Should the Scheme proceed, OZ Minerals’ shareholders would be on the receiving end of a healthy return with $28.25 per OZ Minerals share in cash coming their way, representing a 49.3 per cent premium to OZ Minerals’ closing share price of $18.92 per share in August 2022 prior to BHP’s initial proposal of $25 per share that was rejected at the time.

“The OZ Minerals Board believes that BHP’s offer appropriately reflects the quality, growth profile and strategic nature of OZ Minerals’ long-life copper and nickel assets,” OZ Minerals managing director and CEO Andrew Cole said.

OZ Minerals will seek shareholder approval at a Scheme Meeting expected to be held in late March to early April 2023.

Should this be achieved implementation of the Scheme is expected to occur in mid to late April 2023.

“The OZ Minerals Directors formed the view that, on balance, the combination of value and certainty offered by the cash scheme consideration is likely to deliver a superior outcome for OZ Minerals shareholders now compared to what would otherwise be available, on a risk adjusted basis, if OZ Minerals continued to operate as a standalone entity,” OZ Minerals chairman Rebecca McGrath said.

PVW Resources

(ASX: PVW)

PVW Resources was peeking over the 2022 fence into 2023 with anticipation after announcing it identified a new rare earth elements (REE) exploration target at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Tanami heavy rare earth and gold project in Western Australia.

PVW Resources’ exploration team zeroed in on the high-priority exploration target via reinterpretation of the structural geology around the unconformity-hosted REE mineralisation the company had encountered during its 2022 drilling program at the Watt’s Rise prospect.

A subsequent extensive mapping program conducted by a leading consultant geologist resulted in the identification of a north-west oriented Breccia Zone, which has been interpreted as a possible control on REE mineralisation in the area.

This new target emerged based on the interpreted extension of this structure at depth where it intersects the unconformity at a high angle.

“When the field geologists identified this breccia structure, they immediately realised its potential link to the existing mineralisation,” PVW Resources executive director George Bauk said.

“At Watts Rise, the Pargee Sandstone may be acting as a ‘cover’ to significant mineralisation.

“The unconformity mineralisation which we intersected in south-oriented drilling earlier this year is controlled and confined by stratigraphy limiting its lateral extent, however structurally controlled mineralisation below this in steep structures may not have the same limitations.

“The mineralisation in the Pargee Sandstone and at the unconformity confirm the mineralising system and given the intensity of alteration, we believe it is close to a mineralising structure.

“If our interpretation is correct the real prize would lie deeper, and the Breccia Zone represents a possible controlling structure.

“The continuity and nature of the brecciation needs to be tested with drilling, which we plan to progress as soon as we can.”

OAR Resources

(ASX: OAR)

OAR Resources put 2023 on notice by applying for five additional tenements surrounding its three already granted tenements at the company’s Denchi lithium project near Wiluna in Western Australia’s Northern Goldfields.

The applications follow field reconnaissance OAR carried out in early December 2022 that identified several potential lithium bearing pegmatites outcropping within granites previously mapped by the Geological Survey of Western Australia.

The new tenements cover 784.3 square kilometres across 253 blocks, expanding the existing project area to a total 1004.4sqkm.

“These tenement applications, once granted, will expand OAR’s project footprint considerably in this highly prospective area,” Oar Resources CEO Paul Stephen said.

“Following recent work by our field exploration team, our confidence is further buoyed in the prospectivity of the Denchi lithium project.

“The presence of several lithium bearing pegmatites within the existing project area has been previously confirmed and there are visual indications of numerous additional potential pegmatites and similar geology in the surrounding areas.”

The Denchi lithium project was a recent acquisition by the company, as was 100 per cent of Australian Precious Minerals, an acquisition that delivered ownership of the Crown project in Chittering, near Chalice Mining’s Julimar PGE-nickel-copper-cobalt-gold discovery.

Elsewhere, Oar Resources has been busy at its Oakdale graphite project on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia, undertaking a detailed assessment of the project, which included a review of a previous Scoping Study.

The Oakdale graphite project is listed as a ‘critical minerals project’ by the Federal Government and has been drilled extensively by OAR, resulting in the definition of an initial combined Indicated and Inferred JORC Resource of 13.47 million tonnes at 3.3 per cent total graphite content (TGC).

Altech Chemicals (ASX:

ATC)

Altech Chemicals is poised for a new look in 2023, with the company proposing a name change to Altech Batteries, which will be put to a shareholder vote on February 21.

The board believes the new name reflects the vision of Altech to meet a battery storage future as the world transitions to the electrification of energy solutions.

Its three current projects are the “game-changing alternative to lithium-ion batteries” CERENERGY batteries project; the Silumina Anodes battery materials project; and the high purity alumina production project.

CERENERGY led the newsflow in January, with managing director Iggy Tan saying there had been “outstanding progress” since striking a joint venture in September with German battery institute Fraunhofer.

The pair plan to commercialise the CERENERGY Sodium Alumina Solid State (SAS) battery.

The battery technology uses table salt and is free of lithium, cobalt, graphite and copper, eliminating exposure to critical metal price rises and supply chain concerns, and the batteries are fire and explosion-proof, Altech said.

They launched the CERENERGY SAS 60KWh battery pack for the renewable energy and grid storage market in November and have since finalised the design for a 100MWh battery plant in Germany and begun preliminary offtake and finance discussions.

“Major milestones have been achieved in a very short period of time,” Altech said.

Also in Germany, Altech is implementing a pilot plant for its Silumina Anodes project, designed to improve lithium-ion battery life using proprietary high purity alumina coating technology.

“The company is in the race to get its patented technology to market,” it said.

Thirdly, Altech aims to become a supplier of 99.99 per cent high purity alumina and is advancing its kaolin project in Western Australia and processing plant in Malaysia.

Platina Resources (ASX:

PGM)

Platina Resources started the New Year with a new exploration focus by commencing exploration campaigns at recently acquired gold properties Beete and Brimstone in Western Australia.

Platina signalled its priority is a soil sampling program to be undertaken at the Beete project, 50 kilometres south-west of Norseman, covering 134 square kilometres within what is believed to be a possible extension of the Norseman greenstone belt, a prolific gold producing region.

Although the area has not historically been systematically explored, there has, in recent times, been some peer companies in action on projects to the south of Beete, from which they have reported very encouraging high-grade gold intersections and rare earth assays, highlighting the mineral prospectivity of the region.

“Beete is located on interpreted geophysical structures that we believe host gold mineralisation located north and south of the tenement,” Platina Resources managing director Corey Nolan said.

“Aruma Resources has reported a number of very-high-grade gold intersections at its Salmon Gums project to the south, while the Norseman Mining Centre to the north has a resource totalling nearly five million ounces.”

Permitting and logistics were being finalised at the Brimstone project at time of writing.

Once these have been okayed, Platina will commence a drilling program at Brimstone that sits just outside Kalgoorlie close to the Penny Find gold deposit and the Kanowna Belle gold mine.

Previous work at Brimstone has produced interpreted geological structures covering up to 10km of strike length of mineralisation on prospective greenstone rocks.

Key drill targets include the Garibaldi prospect, which includes encouraging historical drilling, as does the Jammie Dodger prospect.

A POW application has been approved and heritage survey clearances have been obtained for M27/501 at Garibaldi.

Altech Chemicals Limited

Corazon Mining (ASX:

CZN)

Corazon Mining opened its 2023 account by reporting high-grade lithium assay results from spodumene-bearing pegmatite within the company’s Miriam nickel sulphide project in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.

Corazon had previously reported the discovery of spodumene (lithium mineral) bearing pegmatite at Miriam, along with widespread indicators of pegmatite via a field-mapping program.

The identification of spodumene was verified at that time using Raman Spectroscopy.

Subsequent laboratory analysis confirmed the presence of lithium and validated the company’s initial findings, including high-grade values of between 1.01 per cent and 1.85 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O).

In mid-January, Corazon announced the granting of Prospecting Licences and the commencement of on-ground exploration at the Miriam project.

Work carried out at Miriam by previous owners has established the existence of a defined target trend that will allow Corazon to undertake focused and detailed exploration programs, utilising modern higherpowered electromagnetic (EM) geophysics.

As well as its lithium potential, Miriam is also considered prospective for nickel and gold.

Corazon intends to initially focus on the nickel potential via a ground electromagnetic (EM) geophysical survey to test the Miriam nickel sulphide deposit and interpreted extensions.

The EM electromagnetic method is ideally suited to detecting bedrock conductors such as massive sulphides, with the equipment configured to minimise the effect of conductive cover and improve the interpretability of any bedrock conductors detected.

A moving loop survey will cover the prospective approximately 2.4 kilometre trend, on 200m metre spaced lines with 100m spaced stations.

This first phase of fieldwork was anticipated to be completed by the end of January, with the outcome of the survey expected to be announced sometime in February 2023.

Prodigy Gold (ASX:

PRX)

An $11.65 million raising in the second half of 2022 had Northern Territory-focused explorer Prodigy Gold well-placed for more drilling as the New Year began.

Prodigy has a resource inventory of one million ounces of gold, with its portfolio featuring the Northern Tanami and Lake Mackay projects and joint ventures with companies including IGO and Newmont.

Prodigy said the Tanami was home to one of Australia’s most successful gold mines, Newmont’s Callie operation, “highlighting the potential of large-scale mineral systems in the region”.

Prodigy’s 1Moz includes the resource at the Old Pirate project, which Prodigy has agreed to divest to Stockton Mining along with 23 exploration tenements.

The terms were amended in late December to extend the end date to June 30.

The Old Pirate deal excludes the Buccaneer resource, where Prodigy Gold is planning to complete a scoping study.

Under the deal with Stockton, Prodigy can continue to access Old Pirate’s camp and infrastructure to progress Buccaneer.

Prodigy resumed drilling at Lake Mackay’s Phreaker prospect in the December quarter, to follow up on results including 4.5m at 3.03 per cent copper, 1.78 grams per tonne gold and 14g/t silver from 562m.

“This program is anticipated to complete the restructuring of the joint venture agreement with IGO Limited giving Prodigy Gold a majority interest in the gold tenements while retaining its 30 per cent position in the base metal tenements,” managing director Mark Edwards said at the time.

The company was planning to focus on the Northern Tanami including the Hyperion, Tregony and Boco North prospects in early 2023, once the wet season ended, with Edwards saying it was an exciting time for the company.

Belararox (ASX: BRX)

Nexus Minerals

(ASX: NXM)

Belararox burst into 2023 in near-dynamite fashion with plans to acquire the TMT project in Argentina.

The Toro-Malambo-Tambo project is described as an expansive land package of more than 32,000 hectares in San Juan, with potential largescale base metal mineralisation and untested porphyry targets.

The deal, subject to final due diligence, is with Fomo Ventures No1, led by prominent exploration geologist and CEO Jason Ward who was instrumental to SolGold’s discovery success in Ecuador.

As part of the transaction, Condor Prospecting an experienced exploration team based in Argentina owned by the vendors and closely associated with Ward would be responsible for executing the exploration program at TMT.

“BRX are committed to conduct the exploration this project requires, and I believe we have a very good chance of making an economic discovery,” Ward said.

Belararox said the proposed strategic acquisition would complement its existing portfolio of Australian zinc-copper projects while providing a strong value proposition for shareholders.

“The project is located in the mining-friendly province of San Juan in Argentina which has recently been rated by the Fraser Institute as the number one mining destination in Latin America,” Belararox managing director Arvind Misra said.

“I believe this acquisition both fits within our existing battery mineral strategy and will help bring our company to the next level.”

Belararox’s flagship Australian project is Belara in New South Wales, where the company unveiled a maiden resource in November, about 10 months after listing.

The resource for the Belara and Native Bee deposits comprised 5 million tonnes at 3.41 per cent zinc-equivalent, “with the mineralisation open in every direction,” Misra said.

Belararox also has the Bullabulling gold exploration project near Coolgardie in Western Australia.

Active explorer Nexus Minerals was busy on both sides of Australia as 2023 got underway, advancing its gold and copper-gold projects which it says have “the right rocks”.

In Western Australia, Nexus was awaiting drill results at the time of writing from its 2,500 square kilometre Wallbrook gold project, just north of Northern Star Resources’ multimillion-ounce Carosue Dam operations.

Results were pending from extensional drilling at its Crusader-Templar and Branches discoveries, and from first pass aircore drilling at regional prospects MC4.1 and MC3.1.

Nexus said quartz-goethite alteration and hematite altered quartz porphyry were intersected in a number of holes at Targets 4.1 and 3.1, the same mineralisation style as seen at Crusader-Templar and Branches.

“The ‘right rocks’ were intersected at both target areas, exhibiting the potential to host gold mineralisation,” Nexus said in January.

Recent results from Crusader-Templar have included 13 metres at 3.63 grams per tonne gold, within 84m at 1.35g/t from 9m, and 20m at 4.6g/t within 33m at 2.96g/t from 110m.

Nexus also has the earlier-stage Mt Celia gold project and Pinnacles Joint Venture in WA’s Eastern Goldfields.

A ground magnetic survey has been slated for Mt Celia in the current quarter.

In Victoria’s north-east, Nexus added the 194 square kilometre Bethanga porphyry copper-gold project to its portfolio just over a year ago.

It has said the project also has “the right rocks” and was in the same geological host as the world-class Cadia-Ridgeway and Northparkes porphyry copper-gold projects further north in New South Wales.

Nexus recently completed a rock chip geochemistry program, detailed geological mapping program, and detailed ground magnetic survey at Bethanga.

The company planned to release its porphyry fertility assessment for Bethanga this quarter.

Miramar Resources

(ASX: M2R)

Western Australia-focused explorer Miramar Resources has launched into 2023 with clear plans to advance “multiple discovery opportunities”.

Top of its list is the potential for a new gold camp at the Gidji Joint Venture, one of Miramar’s projects in the Eastern Goldfields.

Miramar believes Gidji has million-ounce potential, citing its similarities to the nearby Paddington gold deposit.

The company also plans to test Gidji’s nickel sulphide potential, with recent re-analysis of aircore holes producing further platinum and/ or palladium assays associated with high nickel and/or copper results.

“High nickel, by itself, is not a good indicator of nickel sulphide mineralisation but can instead be a result of the high background nickel content in the ultramafic stratigraphy and/or of lateritic weathering,” Miramar Resources executive chairman Allan Kelly said.

“The combination of elevated nickel and copper with elevated PGE results, however, is strongly suggestive of a relationship between the higher nickel results and a nickel sulphide source.”

Also in the Goldfields, Miramar is planning to test the East Glandore target at its Glandore project, which has already returned multiple high-grade gold results.

The company is also set to test large copper-gold targets at Whaleshark project in the Gascoyne, which has a geochemical signature like known iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) deposits.

Miramar considers it to have aircore anomalism like Ernest Henry and a rare earth element (REE) signature like Prominent Hill.

High on Miramar’s list is to confirm the REE potential at Dooley Downs, part of its polymetallic Bangemall project in the Gascoyne, from which it announced multiple REE targets in January from magnetic and radiometric surveys.

The company is looking to leverage the board’s track record of successful discovery, development, and production.

Matsa Resources (ASX: MAT)

Matsa Resources kicked off the year by starting priority drilling at the Fortitude North prospect, as it looks to increase the resource at its flagship Lake Carey gold project in Western Australia beyond 1 million ounces.

Lake Carey already has an 11.5 million tonne resource grading 2.4 grams per tonne gold for 886,000 ounces.

Its Fortitude deposit contains 489,000oz and sits on a granted mining lease.

Matsa said the initial Reverse Circulation program at Fortitude North would target shallow, high-grade gold mineralisation identified and modelled through recent drilling.

Highlights have included 9.4m at 3.27g/t gold from 120.8m, 26m at 1.95g/t from 58m and 4m at 13.63g/t from 79m.

Lake Carey’s Devon Pit 65,000oz resource is subject to a $4 million profit-sharing 50:50 Joint Venture agreement with Linden Gold Alliance, reached in late December.

Matsa said it would be free-carried for all costs associated with permitting, financing, development and mining at Devon Pit.

Mining was expected to start in 2024 and could generate $20 million for Matsa.

The company’s other main exploration focus is Thailand, where it’s building a lithium portfolio.

Matsa announced the discovery of nine coarse-grained lithium bearing pegmatite outcrops at its Phang Nga project in the December quarter.

It’s described the western granite belt as an “untapped new lithium frontier” and said Pan Asia’s recent exploration efforts demonstrated the prospectivity.

Matsa has copper and gold-silver drill targets at other Special Prospecting Licence Applications in Thailand.

The company has reported peak assays of 54.7 per cent copper and 148g/t silver from surface chip sampling at Siam.

Matsa also has early-stage exploration projects in WA targeting gold, base metals and rare earth elements.

Hammer

Metals (ASX: HMX)

hammermetals.com.au

Explorer Hammer Metals is aiming to build on its mineral inventory in 2023, following news in December from its copper-gold projects in Queensland and an “exciting development” at its Yandal gold project in Western Australia.

At Yandal, Hammer announced the discovery of pegmatites and lithium-bearing rock chips, about 40km east of Liontown’s Kathleen Valley lithium development.

“Whilst it is very early days in our review of these systems, the addition of lithium prospects to Hammer’s copper-centric portfolio is the perfect fit for a company with aspirations to supply materials to meet the globe’s requirements for a clean and green supply and distribution of energy,” managing director Daniel Thomas said.

“With an extensive portfolio of quality drilling prospects, the team will continue to rank and prioritise all of our targets with a view to drill testing those with the highest geological potential in early 2023.”

Hammer’s cornerstone asset is its Kalman copper-gold-molybdenum-rhenium project, slated for a resource update this year.

It currently contains 360,000 tonnes of copper-equivalent metal and is one of Hammer’s 100 per cent-owned projects in the Mount Isa province.

The company also announced a modest initial resource for its Lakeview copper-gold project in December, as well as high-grade drilling results from the Mount Hope area, including 6m at 3.73 per cent copper and 1.47 grams per tonne gold.

At its Mount Isa East joint venture, where Sumitomo Metal Mining Oceania is earning 60 per cent, broad copper mineralisation was intersected in initial drilling at Pearl including 68m at 0.29 per cent copper and 0.03g/t gold.

Thomas said 2023 was shaping up as a pivotal year for the company, adding all of Hammer’s targets had the potential to “move the dial”

Galileo Mining (ASX: GAL)

galileomining.com.au

Galileo Mining quickly retrieved the New Year noisemakers to alert the market of drill assays from diamond core drilling at the Callisto palladium-platinum-gold-rhodium-copper-nickel discovery within the company’s 100 per cent-owned Norseman project in Western Australia.

The results were well worth the noise, encountering palladium grades up to 7.06 grams per tonne over one metre in hole NRCD320 within a 33m high-grade intersection.

Results also included the highest individual grades of copper and gold the company has encountered over one metre to date with 5.01g/t 3E (2.62g/t palladium, 0.57g/t platinum, 1.82g/t gold), 1.96 per cent copper, and 1.19 per cent nickel from drill hole NRCD301, within a high-grade 32m intersection.

In addition to the drilling at Callisto, Galileo has its first program of metallurgical work underway that is focussing on flotation testing to determine recoveries of the key metals palladium, nickel, copper, platinum, rhodium, and gold.

Results from this work are expected within the first quarter of 2023.

Galileo has interpreted the Callisto mineralisation as a broad continuous zone of disseminated sulphides that remains open at depth.

Logging and interpretation of drill core has indicated that Callisto is a separate mineralised sill that has intruded the pre-existing parent sill.

From this, the company has determined the parent sill to have a strong magnetic signature that trends north-northeast with the non-mineralised parent sill outcropping over the five-kilometre prospective horizon to the north.

“Geological interpretation suggests that the Callisto rock unit originated further to the east and that the ultimate source of mineralisation may yet be discovered at this location,” Galileo Mining managing director Brad Underwood said.

Diamond core drilling was set to resume in mid-January with the first program of drilling testing this concept with step out drilling.

Charger Metals

(ASX: CHR)

True to its name, Charger Metals began 2023 at pace, resuming drilling in January at its Medcalf spodumene discovery.

Medcalf is at the battery metals-focused company’s Lake Johnston lithium project in Western Australia, where Charger holds the majority interest and recently increased its tenure to include a “Goldilocks zone” considered to have enhanced lithium prospectivity.

“Charger’s maiden drilling program at the Medcalf spodumene prospect got off to a very encouraging start before a break for the festive season, with numerous spodumene-bearing pegmatites intersected within a 50 metres-wide structural zone,” Charger Metals managing director David Crook said.

“The first 17 holes have provided critical information about the orientation of mineralisation, and drilling has now resumed to test the 800 metres by 300 metres swarm of pegmatites both along strike and at depth.”

The company said Lake Johnston had “attracted considerable interest” due to its proximity to Covalent Lithium’s advanced Earl Grey project, one of the largest undeveloped hard-rock lithium projects in Australia.

Charger also received approval for maiden drilling at its Bynoe lithium and gold Joint Venture in the Northern Territory, which is surrounded by Core Lithium’s Finniss lithium project and new mine.

The company believes the trend direction of lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites could be interpreted to extend from the Finniss project into Bynoe.

Back in WA, Charger completed initial drilling at its majority-held Coates platinum group elements-nickel-copper-cobalt project, which it says has a “lookalike signature” to Chalice Mines’ Julimar discovery 29km away.

Four diamond holes were completed to plan, and each intersected the targeted Coates Mafic Intrusion and surrounding mafic country rock.

The company has cash in hand after a $5.5 million raising in the second half of 2022.

Mincor

Resources (ASX: MCR)

Well-supported Western Australian nickel miner Mincor Resources has made an enviable start to 2023, with millions in the bank, mining ramping up and new exploration success.

The company closed a share purchase plan early on January 3, raising $8.7 million well above the $5 million target on top of a successful $55 million placement in December.

The company plans to use the funds to advance exploration and accelerate mining activities at its operations near Kambalda.

It has the established Northern Operations and Cassini, the world’s newest underground nickel sulphide mine where Mincor says it’s “only just getting started with this world-class orebody”.

Mincor’s first exploration results for this year were “outstanding new high-grade intercepts” at its Northern Operations, including 1.9 metres at 12.4 per cent nickel at Durkin North.

“The latest interpretation suggests that Long, LN04a and Durkin North orebodies all form part of the same, broad mineralised channel, which may have a strike extent of greater than 2.5 kilometres,” Mincor said.

The Northern Operations’ reserves were given a 58 per cent boost last year thanks to the initial Golden Mile (LN04a Surface) reserve of 12,500 tonnes nickel, which looks set to provide a step-change for the operation.

Mincor recently secured a third underground diamond drill rig to bring forward the first underground exploration at Cassini since development began.

“Similar to the Northern Operations, the potential for resource extensions at Cassini is enhanced by the proximity to existing high-quality underground infrastructure, with Cassini offering exciting opportunities to introduce additional near-term ore sources and materially extend mine life,” Mincor said.

The company is aiming to exit the current financial year at nameplate mining rates and have produced 8-10,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate.

Ramelius Resources

(ASX: RMS)

Ramelius Resources picked up in 2023 where it left off 2022 completing a Stage 3 Open Pit - Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) for the company’s Edna May gold project in Western Australia.

The Edna May project has a total Mineral Resource of 31 million tonnes at 1 gram per tonne gold for 990,000 ounces.

The PFS encountered some hurdles, one of which being mining contractor pricing being much higher than in the January 2021 Scoping Study due to the current industry cost inflationary environment.

As a result, and after Board deliberation, Ramelius took the decision to defer the Stage 3 Open Pit on economic grounds.

“Ramelius has remained disciplined when it comes to delivering superior returns to shareholders, whether it be through strategic acquisitions or organic growth projects such as the Stage 3 Open Pit at Edna May,” Ramelius Resources managing director Mark Zeptner said.

“Well publicised cost increases across the WA mining sector have eroded the returns on the Stage 3 Open Pit project to the point where they simply do not meet our internal hurdles.

“Ramelius has a number of development options elsewhere in our portfolio and we will instead look to deploy capital in those directions for better financial returns at a later date.

“The ounces at Edna May are not lost but we will not mine them merely to fill out a production profile when the financial returns don’t meet our hurdles.

“However, by completing the permitting the company maintains optionality.”

Ramelius owns and operates the Mt Magnet, Edna May, Vivien, Marda, Tampia and Penny gold mines.

In January 2022, Ramelius completed the take-over of Apollo Consolidated, taking 100 per cent-ownership of what is now called the Rebecca gold project.

Auroch Minerals

(ASX: AOU)

Auroch Minerals greeted 2023 with news of lithium expansion and encounters over its portfolio of international and domestic projects.

The company undertook a review of vacant ground outside its 80 per cent-owned Nevada lithium project (NLP) in Nevada, USA with the aim of increasing the project’s footprint.

The review identified two strategic land parcels considered to host lithium bearing claystone that Auroch subsequently staked.

“Following field mapping and technical evaluation work, we have significantly added new prospective ground that potentially contains the same geological unit that hosts American Lithium’s nearby TLC deposit,” Auroch Minerals technical director Robin Cox said.

Back home, Auroch reported assay results from pegmatite rock chip samples taken at its 80 per cent-owned Kangaroo Hills Lithium Project (KHLP) in Western Australia (Lodestar Minerals 20%) that exceeded its expectations, returning 2.37 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O) and 0.17 per cent Li2O.

The company made note that the mineralised outcrops it encountered are located over 600 metres south-east of drill hole NPRC084 that provided the first hit of lithium mineralisation observed at KHLP (6m at 1.38 per cent Li2O from 198m) in November 2022.

Auroch believes the latest results could potentially expand the mineralised footprint of the project.

“The discovery of outcropping mineralised pegmatites at a different location to the earlier November 2022 discovery at the Kangaroo Hills project is extremely exciting,” Cox said.

“Just as exciting are the elevated pathfinder elements for LCT pegmatite in the weathered outcrops across the project.

“The company now has confirmed three high priority targets that present the potential for significant strike length mineralisation and will be tested in the first phase of drilling at Kangaroo Hills.”

Sunshine Gold

(ASX: SHN)

shngold.com.au

As 2023 dawned, Sunshine Gold expanded its reach in north Queensland, striking a deal to add a second gold Resource and five advanced prospects to its portfolio that already contained four projects with tier one potential.

Sunshine Gold struck a farm-in and Joint Venture agreement with London-listed Rockfire Resources, to earn into the Lighthouse gold project that adjoins its polymetallic Ravenswood West project.

Ravenswood West is adjacent to Queensland’s largest gold mine, Ravenswood.

Lighthouse contains a 961,000 tonnes Resource at 1.66 grams per tonne gold for 50,000 ounces at Plateau, which Sunshine Gold states is geologically analogous to the nearby 3.5 million ounce Mt Leyshon gold mine.

“Lighthouse further consolidates Sunshine Gold’s holding in the prolific and highly prospective Ravenswood District,” Sunshine Gold managing director Dr Damien Keys said.

“The initial 50,000 ounces gold resource at Plateau gives Sunshine Gold a second resource front (with the Triumph 118,000oz gold resource) with potential for rapid growth.

“In addition to Plateau, Lighthouse contains a suite of advanced prospects with strong gold and base metals results from soils, rock chips and drilling.

“We will build on the solid foundation built by Rockfire at Lighthouse where there is plenty of opportunity to build on the existing resource base as well as make multiple discoveries.”

Sunshine Gold can earn into 75 per cent of Lighthouse by spending $2.2 million over three years.

Keys said field work would get underway ahead of first drilling planned for March.

The company also has resource extension drilling planned in February for its Triumph project, which hosts the 118,000 ounces resource grading 2.03g/t announced a year ago.

Elsewhere in Queensland, Sunshine Gold has the Investigator copper project and the Hodgkinson gold-tungsten project.

Blackstone Minerals

(ASX: BSX)

blackstoneminerals.com.au

Blackstone Minerals will be keen to maintain momentum in 2023 after notching up a major milestone in December for its “mining green” plan to build its integrated Ta Khoa nickel mine to battery precursor project in Vietnam.

Blackstone completed a 12-month piloting program at ALS Metallurgy late last year, saying it was a critical milestone to validate and underpin ongoing definitive feasibility studies.

Highlights from developing the scaled version of Blackstone’s concentrate to sulphate flowsheet included achieving battery-grade specification for both nickel and cobalt sulphate, and 4N specification for copper cathode.

The piloting program also received five visits from potential partners and other stakeholders.

“Outputs of the pilot plant have confirmed that our project’s flowsheet will be one of the lowest cost and lowest emissions globally; and an essential source of precursor supply for the accelerating electric vehicle market,” managing director Scott Williamson said.

“Results of piloting are being incorporated into partnership discussions that will inform DFS outcomes.”

Blackstone said the success of the piloting program was a product of its investment in research and development, utilising internal and external resources.

Its owners’ team brought more than 50 years’ experience in leadership roles at major nickel mines and refineries globally, the company said.

Former Western Areas boss Dann Lougher was appointed to the board in the December quarter and will chair a recently-formed technical committee to oversee the company’s Ta Khoa project development.

Resource definition drilling in November returned grades of up to 4.3 per cent nickel and 18.2 grams per tonne platinum group elements at Ta Khoa’s King Snake Massive Sulphide Vein deposit.

The company also reported strong nickel and copper results from the first hole at the Suoi Phang MSV target.

Brightstar Resources

(ASX: BTR)

The new year heralds a transformation for Brightstar Resources thanks to a strategic merger agreed with fellow Goldfields explorer Kingwest Resources in late December.

The merged company is expected to continue to trade as Brightstar Resources and hold almost one million ounces of gold on granted mining leases.

Brightstar said its Laverton processing plant, currently on care and maintenance, could transform the merged group into a potential near-term and low capex developer.

The pair said the merged group had “potential inorganic growth upside available” in the Leonora-Laverton district, a recent consolidation hotspot.

“This is a transformational transaction for Brightstar which marks a refreshed strategic direction for the company,” Brightstar managing director Bill Hobba said as the deal was announced.

“The merger with Kingwest creates a larger, diverse junior gold play and means the company can now start to assess development options utilising a larger resource base and our significant existing infrastructure.”

Having played an instrumental role in the merger, Hobba was set to retire from Brightstar’s board in January, with investment banker Alex Rovira to take on the role of managing director.

Under the Kingwest scheme of arrangement, Brightstar will acquire 100 per cent of the shares in Kingwest.

The Kingwest board unanimously recommended that its shareholders vote in favour of the scheme, in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to an independent expert opining the scheme was in the best interest of the Kingwest shareholders.

The scheme is subject to shareholder and court approvals and is expected to be completed in late April.

Brightstar said it had also received firm commitments from sophisticated investors to raise $1.6 million to advance exploration activities and provide working capital.

Kalamazoo Resources

(ASX: KZR)

Kalamazoo Resources was looking forward to the New Year as it progressed its gold and lithium growth strategy in eastern and Western Australia.

The company accepted a $3 million cornerstone investment by long-term supporter Lind Partners in the second half of 2022 to accelerate its gold and lithium exploration in the Pilbara, Victoria and New South Wales.

Kalamazoo then completed its acquisition of the Mt Piper gold project within weeks, taking its ground holding in Victoria to 2,006 square kilometres.

“Kalamazoo considers the Mt Piper gold project to be an excellent fit with the company’s strategy of acquiring and exploring high-quality gold projects in Victoria with a target threshold of 1 million ounces at grades >10 grams per tonne gold,” the company said.

In Western Australia, a resource update and scoping study were imminent for its Ashburton gold project, which currently contains 1.65 million ounces at 2.5g/t gold.

Also in WA, Kalamazoo reported “an intriguing but also highly encouraging” intercept of 1m at 10.35g/t in the December quarter from maiden drilling at its Mallina West gold project, described as along strike from De Grey Mining’s Mallina project.

“We know that we are in the right neighbourhood with De Grey’s 10Moz Hemi discovery to the north-east and we are looking forward to getting back on the ground in the upcoming field season,” executive director Paul Adams said.

On the lithium front, leading producer Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile is spending $12 million over four years to earn into two of Kalamazoo’s three Pilbara lithium projects under a deal struck in December 2021.

Kalamazoo recently added to its lithium portfolio with a “first mover play”, the Jingellic exploration licence in NSW’s Lachlan Fold Belt.

Impact Minerals (ASX:

IPT)

Impact Minerals’ new year celebrations included being selected in BHP’s inaugural Xplor program, designed to accelerate exploration to find critical resources needed for the energy transition.

Impact will receive up to US$500,000 cash from BHP over six months and gain access to a network of internal and external experts, according to the January announcement.

“We are thrilled and honoured to be one of first-ever participants of the prestigious BHP Xplor program and to partner with the world’s largest mining company in our exploration,” Impact Minerals managing director Dr Mike Jones said.

“This is a testament to Impact’s innovative thinking over the years and we are looking forward to working with them to accelerate exploration at Broken Hill and also upgrading our skills company-wide by gaining access to their global network.”

The company said the funding would be used to identify new target areas for copper and other energy metals around the Broken Hill area, where Impact has built up its ground position over the past few years.

It said the Xplor program excluded its two tenements which are subject to an $18 million Joint Venture with miner IGO.

Impact also has 10 gold, lithium and nickel-copper-platinum group metals projects and JVs in Western Australia, spanning 4,000 square kilometres.

Drilling is planned for the first quarter of 2023 at Beau, where four “large and significant” soil geochemistry anomalies were identified last year.

These were a 2.5km by 1km copper-nickel-PGM-silver-cobalt anomaly, a gold-palladium anomaly about 500m in diameter and two lithium-caesium-tantalum anomalies.

Impact has described “building a battery metals fortress in WA” and Beau is one of its 100 per cent-owned projects in the emerging nickel-copper-PGM province near Chalice Mining’s Julimar deposit.

Neometals

(ASX: NMT)

Emerging sustainable battery materials producer Neometals powered into 2023, advancing three core battery materials businesses and its Barrambie titanium- vanadium project in Western Australia.

Neometals’ lithium-ion battery recycling unit Primobius, a 50:50 Joint Venture with SMS group, is ramping up a commercial disposal service at its 10 tonne per day plant in Germany.

It began sales of an intermediate nickel-cobalt product to “multiple off-takers” in the September quarter.

“The LIB recycling technology prioritises maximum safety, environmental sustainability and product recoveries, to support the circular economy and decarbonisation,” Neometals said.

Primobius is also considering a 50tpd operation in Canada in partnership with steelmaker Stelco, to process lithium-ion batteries from end-of-life vehicles that Stelco secures for its scrap steel requirements.

Primobius now expects to make an investment decision in the second half of 2023, Neometals said in January, following the completion of customer trials and engineering cost studies in the June quarter.

The company’s second unit is focused on vanadium recovery in Scandinavia.

It’s evaluating building its first plant in Finland in a potential joint venture with Critical Metals, to produce high-purity vanadium pentoxide by processing a steelmaking by-product, underpinned by a slag supply agreement with leading steelmaker SSAB.

The second potentially larger vanadium recovery opportunity is in Sweden.

Neometals’ lithium chemicals business is looking at producing battery-quality lithium hydroxide from brine feedstocks in Portugal in a JV with companies including Portugal’s largest chemical producer Bondalti Chemicals.

Back in WA, Neometals describes its Barrambie project as one of the largest vanadiferous-titanomagnetite mineral resources globally.

It said the robust prefeasibility study released in November confirmed “value-in-use” for Barrambie’s product basket and supported dialogue with potential offtake partner Jiuxing Titanium Materials.

Black

Canyon (ASX: BCA)

blackcanyon.com.au

Black Canyon set the stage to advance its Carawine manganese Joint Venture this year, earning a 75 per cent interest as 2022 drew to a close.

The company has a binding Heads of Agreement with Carawine Resources, providing the exclusive right to farm-in to the Carawine project.

Black Canyon unveiled a 64 per cent increase to the project’s Flanagan Bore deposit in the December quarter, taking it to 171 million tonnes at 10.3 per cent for 18Mt of manganese.

Executive director Brendan Cummins said the update and highergrade zone, of 40Mt at 13 per cent manganese, boded well for an improved, multi-decade mining operation.

“Our previously announced scoping study, based on the superseded mineral resource, evaluated production targets of 36.1Mt at 11.7 per cent manganese over a 20-year mine life, generating a pre-tax NPV8 of $134 million and pre-tax IRR of 67 per cent,” he said.

Black Canyon applied for a mining lease over Flanagan Bore’s FB3 and LR1 deposits in November.

The company is looking at supplying manganese oxide concentrates, used as alloys in the steel industry, plus downstream production of high purity manganese sulphate monohydrate (HPMSM) suitable for the electric vehicle battery industry.

Initial sighter testwork announced in December produced manganese sulphate with 32.3 per cent manganese content, equivalent to greater than 99 per cent purity, and “highly comparable to the typical 32.2 per cent manganese content of HPMSM”.

“Over the past year, Black Canyon has built a rapid and significant understanding of a potential mine development at Flanagan Bore,” Cummins said.

“We look forward to the coming year as we continue to add value and de-risk Flanagan Bore, whilst also seeking to continue exploration activities across the company’s prospective portfolio.”

Beacon Minerals

(ASX: BCN)

beaconminerals.com.au

Gold miner Beacon Minerals made a shining start to 2023, having achieved a solid December quarter of production at Jaurdi, acquired the nearby Geko tenements and locked in forward gold sales.

The company’s vision is to build a 10-year mine life with a production profile of more than 50,000 ounces a year.

It expects to produce 24,000-28,000 ounces in the current financial year.

Its Jaurdi gold mine near Coolgardie produced 6,418oz in the December quarter, in line with guidance.

Beacon sold 6,317oz of gold over the period, generating $16.63 million.

The company has since locked in three months of forward gold sales for 6,000oz at a higher average price of $2,729/oz.

“The average of $2,729/oz for 70 per cent of Beacon’s budgeted production for the months of February to April 2023 is a material improvement on the previous quarter, Beacon’s budgeted average gold price of $2,500 and the previous average price received for the December 2022 quarter of $2,634,” the company said.

Beacon finalised its acquisition of the Geko tenements, 15 kilometres from Jaurdi’s processing plant, late last year.

The move was part of the company’s strategy to increase the mine life at Jaurdi by acquiring projects that built reserves and complemented the current operations.

“With the Mineral Resource Estimate expected to be issued in Q1 2023 we are already working diligently on the tenements to realise the full potential of the acquisition,” managing director/executive chairman Graham McGarry said at the time.

Beacon paid $9 million in dividends in FY22 and $25 million in FY21.

The company has gold and nickel exploration targets at its MacPhersons project just south of Coolgardie.

Further afield, Beacon has nine pending exploration applications in Timor-Leste.

Accelerate Resources (ASX:

AX8)

Accelerate Resources paved the way for a good start to 2023, wrapping up the second tranche of a $3 million placement at the end of December.

The company plans to use the proceeds along with existing cash primarily to explore its Woodie Woodie North manganese project; advance its East Pilbara lithium project where it recently identified pegmatites; and progress its Comet gold project.

Managing director Yaxi Zhan said the company was delighted with the level of support after receiving firm commitments for the placement from a range of professional and sophisticated investors in November.

“Together with existing cash on hand, these funds will ensure we are well funded to rapidly advance our battery metals strategy, and in particular, exploration across our portfolio of highly prospective manganese and exploration projects in the prolific Pilbara region of Western Australia,” Zhan said.

“At our Woodie Woodie North manganese project, we await assay results from recent drilling, and we are already planning our next drill program and work is underway for our maiden manganese resource.”

Field work in the December quarter revealed numerous outcropping pegmatites at Accelerate’s East Pilbara project, about 30 kilometres from Global Lithium Resources’ recently upgraded Archer lithium deposit.

Accelerates sees the interpreted geological and structural setting to be similar to the Archer deposit.

Assay results would be used to prioritise targets for follow-up mapping and sampling early this year and to progress to the drilling stage.

In the Murchison, Accelerate has extended its ground position at its Comet gold project and was planning a drilling program in 2023 to test priority target areas.

Previous drilling results from the Comet East prospect included 9m at 3.89 grams per tonne gold from 34m.

Hillgrove Resources

(ASX: HGO)

hillgroveresources.com.au

Hillgrove Resources sped into 2023 as it moves to resume production at its Kanmantoo copper-gold mine in South Australia.

Its first order of business in January was to respond to an ASX price query, often dubbed a speeding ticket, due to an increase in the price and volume of securities traded.

Hillgrove pointed to the rising copper price, saying it was not aware of any other explanation.

“The company does however note the recent increase in the copper price from circa $12,200 per tonne to $13,200 per tonne at the time of writing which improves the project economics of the Kanmantoo underground project and as such, the ability to fund its restart,” it said.

The Kanmantoo open pit operated from 2011 to 2019, with the last of the stockpiles processed in 2020.

Hillgrove is planning to use its existing infrastructure and restart operations by developing the underground project.

The project is fully permitted and expected to cost less than $30 million.

Successful drilling at Nugent and Kavanagh boosted Kanmantoo’s resource last year, increasing total copper metal by 21 per cent to 75,900 tonnes.

Drilling since then at Spitfire has yielded results including 13m at 2.1 per cent copper and 0.18 grams per tonne gold.

“The extension of Spitfire is particularly welcome as Spitfire utilises the decline and ventilation infrastructure already invested for Kavanagh and as such can be mined for relatively low incremental cost,” Hillgrove Resources managing director Lachlan Wallace said.

The company received $6 million last year after striking a royalty agreement with long-term supporter Freepoint Metals & Concentrates. Hillgrove has pointed to further upside at Kanmantoo and at its nearby exploration licences spanning more than 6,000 square kilometres.

Sarytogan Graphite (ASX: SGA)

Sarytogan Graphite made a determined start to 2023 with the release of the final round of drilling results from the company’s 2022 drilling campaign at its Sarytogan graphite deposit in Central Kazakhstan.

Sarytogan Graphite had much to crow about with the drilling encountering healthy graphite intercepts above 25 per cent total graphitic carbon (TGC) around the margins of the project’s Central Graphite Zone (CGZ).

These results came from within the existing 209 million tonnes at 28.5 per cent TGC Inferred Mineral Resource and include:

» St-94

13.3 metres at 33.6 per cent TGC from surface, including 4.4m at 37.9 per cent;

» St-97

5.5m at 29.3 per cent TGC from 1.3m and 69.1m at 25.3 per cent from 12.3m, including 7.1m at 39.5 per cent, and including 4m at 36.5 per cent and 13.6m at 21.3 per cent from 91.6m; and

» St-98

22.9m at 31.2 per cent TGC from surface, including 6m at 36.3 per cent.

Close spaced drilling confirmed near surface high-grade graphite in the Northern Graphite Zone (NGZ) returning:

» St-99

26.8m at 30.4 per cent TGC from surface ending in mineralisation; and

» St-100

47.6m at 31.3 per cent TGC from surface, including 13.9m at 40.2 per cent, and including 6.8m at 37 per cent.

A Mineral Resource upgrade is due in Q1 2023 focussing on estimating a proportion of Indicated resources as well as increasing the total tonnage.

“The results have consistently returned thick intersections of high-grade graphite mineralisation both within and beyond the existing giant Mineral Resource,” Sarytogan Graphite managing director Sean Gregory said.

“The planned upgrade to the Mineral Resource estimate is now underway ahead of further metallurgical test-work and economic evaluation.”

Geopacific Resources

(ASX: GPR)

Geopacific Resources has started the new year pointing to the potential at its Woodlark gold project in Papua New Guinea.

The company released the final results from its 2022 drilling program in January, highlighting positive near-surface intercepts.

Results included 91m at 2.64 grams per tonne gold from 40m at Busai, including 1m at 25.4g/t from 76m.

At Kulumadau, results included 3m at 17.82g/t within 24m at 3.94g/t from 31m.

Geopacific explained the latest results weren’t available in time for December’s resource update for Woodlark, which comprised 47.88 million tonnes at 1g/t for 1.54 million ounces.

High-grade results reported last year from extensional drilling at Busai had included a standout 6m at 300g/t gold.

Geopacific had focused on drilling, community relocation and a business transformation plan in 2022, after pausing Woodlark’s development a year ago amid delays and escalating costs.

It had been forecast to produce more than 980,000oz over 13 years at an average all-in sustaining cost of $1,239/oz.

“It is pleasing to see that the final phase of the 2022 drilling campaign on Woodlark Island has continued to yield positive results, further improving our confidence in the recently updated mineral resource and continuing to highlight the potential of the project,” interim CEO Richard Clayton said in January.

Clayton, a non-executive director, took on the role following CEO Tim Richards’ recent resignation.

“Geopacific is fortunate to have a professional with the depth of industry experience and skills of Richard Clayton to act as interim CEO,” chairman Andrew Bantock said in December.

“Under Richard’s leadership we will continue to advance the major workstreams to re-evaluate the Woodlark project as previously announced.”

The company has also begun the search for a new CEO.

Bellavista Resources

(ASX: BVR)

Bellavista Resources entered 2023 intent on continuing exploration activities on its projects along the northern edge of the Edmund Basin in the Northern Gascoyne Region of Western Australia.

Bellavista has a strong land position, in a highly prospective mineral province in WA, it considers capable of hosting giant to super-giant base metal deposits, and battery mineral deposits.

The projects include Brumby Deposit, Vernon Base Metals, Vernon Nickel/PGE and Gorge Creek.

The company considers all to be prospective for Large to SuperLarge SEDEX (sedimentary exhalative) base metal deposits, Abra-style IOCG copper-lead-silver-gold deposits, sulphide related nickel/PGE’s deposits in Mafic/Ultramafic Intrusions and possible sediment hosted uranium.

Work towards the end of 2022 included maiden drilling programs at the Brumby project that illustrated the magnitude, scale and continuity of the SEDEX system, intersecting 10-30 metres wide mineralised zones in drilling spaced over one kilometre apart.

High grades of copper-rich mineralisation were also identified at both ends of the Brumby prospect, which the company interpreted to show potential for additional near-surface copper zones at the project.

“These results show there is strong potential for a large SEDEXstyle zinc-copper discovery at Brumby,” Bellavista Resources executive director Mick Wilson said.

“We have intersections of 10 to 30 metres at grades up to 2.4 per cent zinc equivalent.

“This SEDEX-style of mineralisation has been intersected across the 30 square kilometres target area.

“We have also established that there are localised zones of very high-grade mineralisation grading up to 5.8 per cent zinc and 3.3 per cent copper in sub-metre intervals.

“In addition, assays on rock chips samples taken in an area east of this drilling have returned grades up to 2.6 per cent copper and 54 grams per tonne silver.”

Latin Resources (ASX: LRS)

Latin Resources tangoed into 2023 by deploying field teams and drilling rigs at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Salinas lithium project in Brazil.

Latin Resources landed a fleet of six, small environmental footprint, man portable/modular diamond drilling rigs capable of drilling to around 400-450 metres and got drilling underway immediately.

The 65,000m program focused on rapid expansion of a maiden Indicated and Inferred JORC Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 13.3 million tonnes at 1.2 per cent lithium oxide (Li2O) at the Colina deposit.

The rigs also drilled the Colina West prospect to enable expansion of the existing MRE into this emerging high-priority area.

Assay results received from 2022 diamond drilling confirmed the Colina West prospect represents an exceptional resource growth opportunity.

Over 67m (cumulative) of mineralised lithium pegmatites were intersected in one hole, located approx. 200m along strike to the south of the Colina West discovery hole, returning intersections of:

» SADD055

13.73 metres at 1.38 per cent Li2O from 200.19m;

» 16.08m at 1.07 per cent Li2O from 306.69m;

» 10.85m at 1.96 per cent Li2O from 322.15m;

» 11.16m at 1.61 per cent Li2O from 360.17m; and

» 16m at 1.61 per cent Li2O from 393.6m.

“The Colina West area is shaping up to be a critical new discovery,” Latin Resources geology manager Tony Greenaway said.

“The thick high‐ grade mineralisation we have encountered here is on par with, or arguably better that the main Colina deposit.

“The potential scale of the Colina West discovery, highlighted by these latest results, means that this area is a major focus for our current 2023 drilling campaign.

“We believe, that with more drilling, Colina West has the potential to deliver significant tonnes to the overall resource base for the project.”

Future Facing Commodities is the premier Asian investment showcase connecting Exploration and Mining with ESG and Sustainability.

The event at a glance:

April 4 Welcome Cocktail Party (after Singapore Mining Club Gold Seminar)

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Keynotes and company presentations

Ben Cleary Portfolio Manager Tribeca Global Natural Resources Fund