Andrew Duffy

88 Energy has expanded its footprint in Texas after agreeing to pick up an interest in Permian Basin production and development assets with best-estimate reserves of 0.68 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE). The ground has nine producing wells that pumped out 6200BOE gross in 2022 – with an estimated net profit for the project of about $300,000.

Reach Resources says it has seen multiple thick, stacked pegmatites in reverse-circulation (RC) cuttings within the same rock package that hosts Delta Lithium’s Malinda and Jamesons projects to the east and west. The company says it has now completed 57 RC holes for 5282m at its Morrissey Hill lithium project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, with the majority intersecting pegmatites.

Legend Mining’s mission to conquer WA’s mighty – but patience-testing – Fraser Range has taken a positive new twist, with geophysical data defining three conductors possibly related to nickel and copper. The conductors, identified during a maiden high-power fixed loop electromagnetics survey over the company’s entire “Octagonal” intrusive complex in the past three months, have positive drill intercepts with visual sulphide mineralisation identified in core.

Si6 Metals’ wait for new assays from drilling at its Maibele North prospect in Botswana has stepped up a notch in intensity after core and rock chips revealed strong visual copper and nickel sulphide mineralisation. The company says it has seen pentlandite, chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite sulphide concentrations – which are indicators of nickel-copper-platinum group elements mineralisation – at the prospect near the Zimbabwe border.

Lithium Universe is stepping closer to launching a definitive feasibility study on its Apollo project in Canada after expediting the engineering design for its 1-million-tonne per year lithium processing hub’s stand-alone concentrator. The plant is designed for an assumed feed grade of 1.1 per cent lithium oxide, with the output expected to be about 140,000 tonnes per annum of spodumene concentrate grading 5.5 per cent.

An independent carbon capture and storage study on Buru Energy’s Canning Basin blocks has strengthened the “commercialisation pathway” for it to develop its Rafael conventional gas and condensate discovery. Buru’s subsidiary GeoVault recently found the blocks to be capable of holding significantly more carbon dioxide than Rafael is modelled to produce, supporting the company’s development strategy for the field.

Reach Resources has sprung back into drilling action at its Morrissey Hill lithium project in Western Australia’s emerging Gascoyne region to double down on the area’s pegmatite potential following phase-one drill results. Its 9000m RC program will test the extension of multiple thick, stacked lithium-bearing pegmatites at its Bonzer prospect, in addition to six of 50 undrilled pegmatite targets mapped during fieldwork.

Javelin Minerals will acquire high-resolution aeromagnetic and radiometric data covering its Mt Ida-Ida Valley tenure near Leonora to help charge its hunt for precious and base metals, lithium and rare earths. It says much of its ground is proximate to the gold-rich Ballard Fault, Delta Lithium’s newly-discovered gold and lithium occurrences and the lithium, precious and base metals activities of St George Mining.

The Spanish Government has boosted Infinity Lithium’s coffers with a cash-ringing endorsement of $31 million for its 75 per cent-owned San José lithium project as the limelight intensifies on the battery metal’s supply chain. The grant funding was awarded to company’s wholly-owned Spanish subsidiary, Extremadura New Energies, which plans to develop an underground mine at the deposit.