Matt Birney

ASX-listed Classic Minerals is making steady progress on its ambitions to become a gold producer and has begun installing a processing plant on foundations at the company’s flagship Kat Gap project in the WA Goldfields. The heaviest parts of the Australian-made Gekko plant are being secured to foundations and work is beginning on ancillary structures, electrical and plumbing scopes.

Aurum Resources has commenced an induced polarisation gradient array geophysical survey at its Penny South project that is planned to cover an area of 5.2 square kilometres. The main target for the IP survey is ultramafic schist units that Aurum believes are possibly more extensive than previously interpreted and may host nickel-copper mineralisation. The Penny South project is located 126 kms south-east of Mt Magnet in WA.

Chimeric Therapeutics has successfully secured the manufacturing of a key tool for cell therapy targeting gastrointestinal and neuroendocrine tumours as the company gets set for a clinical trial. Management says by securing the supply of “viral vectors” it has successfully navigated one of the most critical and challenging components of the manufacture of its “CAR T” cell therapy Chimeric is now focused on advancing its treatment to a first phase clinical trial.

Lindian Resources continues to pull impressive assays from its Kangankunde project in Malawi with the latest drill results highlighting a 3m hit at a whopping 15.6 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 69m. The high-grade intercept is contained within a larger 26m section grading 6.15 per cent TREO from 58m and includes a 1m segment at a head-turning 18.76 per cent TREO from 71m.

Strickland Metals will commence drilling at its Iriquois base metals project in WA’s Earaheedy Basin with a minimum of three diamond holes after the company developed a new geological model for the site. The campaign will target the site’s currently untested “feeder structure” to the zinc-lead mineralisation that the company believes could be enriched with silver and copper. Strickland’s latest modelling for the system suggests the potential for a much larger copper-zinc-silver-lead mineralisation than previously estimated.

Everest Metals will focus on a slew of conductor targets with a new deep drilling campaign at its Revere gold project near Meekatharra and along strike from Sandfire Resources’ DeGrussa copper-gold mine. The company says the upcoming campaign will aim to intersect volcanic hosted massive sulphide copper-gold mineralisation down to a depth of around 300m and similar in geology to the famed DeGrussa deposit.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has unveiled its maiden mineral resource for the company’s La Mascotte gold deposit near Kalgoorlie of 3.61 million tonnes at 1.19 grams per tonne gold for a total of 138,000 gold ounces. The modelled resource footprint measures 700m north-south by 500m east-west and 140m below surface. KalGold says the deposit remains open at depth at a cutoff grade of 0.6 g/t gold with recently identified targets offering an opportunity for resource growth.

Venture Minerals has won the right to truck iron ore around the clock from its Riley mine to the port of Burnie in Tasmania after the state’s Supreme Court overturned all three grounds of a legal challenge. The initial challenge by the Tarkine National Coalition was directed at the Tasmanian Environment Protection Authority who had previously granted approval for 24-hour trucking movements from Venture’s Riley iron ore mine. 

Medical technology company Radiopharm Theranostics has entered into a binding agreement to acquire Pharma15 Corporation – a US-based company focused on therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals to treat prostate cancer. Pharma15 is developing products that aim to overcome resistance to prostate-specific membrane antigen targeting cancer therapies currently available or in late-stage development.