Matt Birney

Lithium Australia is set to claim ‘first mover’ status after Envirostream signed two additional suppliers to provide spent EV battery packs for recycling through the company’s innovative facility in Melbourne. These new contracts complete the company’s supply chain with Envirostream claiming ‘first mover’ status in Australia and set to expand the business through the Asia-Pacific region.

Podium Minerals has continued its winning streak as it races towards proving up Australia’s first economic PGM deposit at the Parks Reef project in WA. Ongoing drilling has extended the footprint of the company’s discovery to nearly 7km of strike with results returned including intercepts of 19m at 2.11 g/t platinum group metals. The company is presently modelling its latest drill results for inclusion in an updated resource scheduled for release in October 2020.

Aruma Resources innovative approach to exploration is already paying dividends at its Melrose project on the southern margin of the Pilbara, with the explorer racing to peg two new tenements after identifying new zones of gold mineralisation in the region. The company’s project surrounds Northern Star’s revered Paulsen’s gold mine, with Aruma hoping to unearth a similar company-making deposit.

Fuelled by rising commodity prices, Horizon Minerals’ high-grade Nimbus silver-zinc project near Kalgoorlie is back in play, with all options on the table, according to the company, and a few sniffs from interested third parties having already been received. Horizon, which this month launched a massive 70,000m drilling campaign at its adjacent flagship Boorara gold project, has kicked off a strategic review of Nimbus designed to maximise value from the historic mine.

The Australian Taxation Office has thrown Northern Minerals a $10 million cash lifeline and wiped out a further $9 million in potential debt after settling a protracted research and development grant dispute that has played havoc with the company’s finances. The dispute related to which aspects of Northern Minerals’ Kimberley-based, heavy rare earths pilot plant were technically considered R&D.

All eyes will be on Gawler Craton-focused aspiring gold developer, Barton Gold, next month as the results from its 5,328m phase one drill program around and below the old Perseverance open pit at its Tarcoola project in South Australia start to roll in. The program involved 37 RC holes that targeted along strike and depth extensions of the pit.

ASX-listed explorer, Venus Metals, has successfully farmed out the Curara Well project in WA to AIC Mines but maintains a minority interest in the highly prospective joint venture ground that lies in the vicinity of existing successful gold and copper-gold mines. Venus now holds a 20 per cent free carried interest in Curara Well, about 170km north-east of Meekatharra.

Blackstone has charmed yet another nickel discovery out of the jungle in Vietnam, with geophysics lighting up the Viper Discovery Zone, just 200 metres east of the current exploration focus, the Ban Chang prospect. The company’s exploration and development program over the Ta Khoa nickel-copper project continues to gain pace with both a maiden resource and scoping study on the horizon.

Aruma Resources has built on its already enviable ground position at its Saltwater gold project on the southern margin of WA’s emerging Pilbara goldfield. The company has added three new exploration licences to the project with its tenure now covering over 65km of highly prospective and under-explored stratigraphy. Exploration is expected to kick off in the coming weeks with drilling planned for later in 2020.