Matt Birney

ASX-listed Infinity Lithium has become involved in a Spanish battery consortium led by one of its key strategic partners, EIT InnoEnergy that hopes to snare a whopping €1.2 billion in pandemic recovery funding from the Spanish Government. The company’s San Jose lithium project may be in line for a €256 million CAPEX injection if the consortium’s application is successful.

ASX-listed aspiring West African bauxite developer, Lindian Resources has continued to put potential infrastructure building blocks in place to help accelerate the development of its Lelouma, Gaoual and Woula bauxite projects in Guinea. Its subsidiary, Terminal Logistics and Holdings recently struck a memorandum of understanding with the Guinean Government to appraise the possible joint development of the Dobali port and an associated logistics corridor in Guinea.

Zuleika Gold has kicked off a 30,000-metre drilling program across its namesake project in the fertile Eastern Goldfields in WA. First cab off the rank for the company is the Paradigm East target where previous drilling has returned a wealth of mineralised intercepts including 27 metres at 2.87 grams per tonne gold from 33m and 7m at 9.8 g/t gold from 42m down-hole.

Aspiring ASX-listed heavy rare earths developer, Northern Minerals is looking to shave two years off its target date for commercial production and cash flow at its 100 per cent-owned Browns Range project in WA. The company is now aiming for first cashflows from a full-scale beneficiation plant at Browns Range in WA’s top end as early as 2023.

Altech Chemicals has taken a giant leap towards securing the remaining financing required for its proposed US$280 million HPA processing plant at Johor in Malaysia, with preparations well under way for a US$144 million listed green bond instrument. Altech’s Malaysian subsidiary plans to use US$100 million of the total amount raised as a secondary debt facility for the partial funding of plant construction costs.

Venture Minerals is poised to ride the crest of the monster iron ore price wave as it counts down to the start of iron ore production at its revived Riley mine in north-west Tasmania. The company has just raised $10 million and has been busy getting its ducks in a row for the main construction phase push at the Riley project development site including the critical wet screening plant.

Australian Bauxite appears to have added a second string to its bow with the company encountering intriguing levels of rare earth elements at its Tasmanian and Queensland bauxite projects that it describes as “potentially game changing”. Initial results from exploration undertaken over the past 15 months returned encouraging hits of rare earth elements at the Binjour bauxite deposit within its Sunrise project 115km south-west of the Bundaberg port and at the DL130 prospect in north-east Tasmania.

Indiana Resources has uncovered an historic gold assay that has laid dormant in the annals of the South Australian mineral core library for nearly six years without anybody actioning it. Indiana’s decision to re-examine historic core held by the South Australian Government could lead to a golden pay off after wide mineralised intersections were observed in a historic drill hole.

ASX-listed Blue Star Helium’s US helium development hopes have been given a massive lift on the back of a 175 per cent increase in combined potential resources to 9.6 billion cubic feet across five prospects at its Las Animas helium project in Colorado. The additional 6.1 billion cubic feet in “2U/P50 unrisked prospective” helium resources came from Blue Star’s newly assessed Galactica, Pegasus and Argo prospects.