Matt Birney

The dust clouds from a maiden drill campaign are billowing in Western Australia’s Kimberley with Askari Metals kicking off a 2500m RC program at its Horry copper-gold project. The program is targeting the site’s Horry Horse copper prospect that was identified as a high-priority target after rock chip samples returned results up to 8.5 per cent copper, 0.71 grams per tonne gold and 42 g/t silver.

Classic Minerals has been given the green light to begin production at its Kat Gap gold mine near Southern Cross after officially receiving WA Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety approval. The Kat Gap deposit hosts almost 93,000 ounces of an inferred mineral resource at 2.96 grams per tonne gold and is the principal contributor to the company’s total gold inventory of more than 400,000 ounces.

Empire Energy has notched up another milestone in the Beetaloo sub-basin with ongoing production testing of its Carpentaria-2H well in the Northern Territory delivering a 30-day average of 2.4 million standard cubic feet of gas per day. The company says its new data suggests the well’s gas is endowed with a low impurity composition that could support low carbon development opportunities.

Silica sand explorer Allup Silica has applied for two new exploration projects, Blue Vein in WA and Trigger Fish in the NT. The company is also looking to beef up its Dune Buggy project lodging an application to expand its tenement just 15km from the port of Esperance in WA. Since listing in May, Allup’s strategy has been focused on projects, purity and ports.

Battery metal explorer Askari Metals has completed another round of field mapping and sampling at the company’s Barrow Creek lithium project located in the NT’s Arunta pegmatite province. The field program was designed to identify and sample outcropping pegmatites in the previously unexplored south-central portion of the project.

Mineral sands producer Image Resources has executed a land access agreement that will allow it to extend mining operations at its wholly-owned Boonanarring project near Perth in WA. The deal enables the miner to access raw material from the operation’s south thereby curtailing a production gap brought on by relocating processing equipment to its Atlas deposit that is next in line to be brought into production.

Kairos Minerals is set to begin drilling at its Lucky Stump prospect where spodumene pegmatite samples grading up to 1.9 per cent lithium oxide were discovered near the company’s Mt York project in the Pilbara. The 16-hole RC drilling campaign is planned to cover 2400m and target multiple spodumene pegmatites that form part of a larger swarm at Mt York only 4km south of Pilbara Minerals’ Pilgangoora lithium-tantalum mine.

Soil samples taken from Si6 Metals’ Maibele East and Mashambe prospects in Botswana have revealed elevated levels of copper, zinc and nickel suggesting the possibility of nickel-sulphide deposits lurking beneath. Identified by X-ray fluorescence analysis, Si6 says the samples show evidence of ultramafic lithology across the Maibele-Mashambe trend whilst exploration at its Gobajango prospect has also revealed highly prospective mineralisation.

Lithium Australia’s wholly owned subsidiary Envirostream has bolstered a partnership with an arm of consumer electronics dynamo LG to recycle over 250 tonnes of lithium-ion batteries. Under the agreement the company will deliver spent cells to the recycler’s facilities in Melbourne where the devices will be stripped, processed and treated before being repurposed into new energy storage solutions.