Matt Birney

Ahead of an RC drilling campaign later this month, battery metals and gold explorer Askari Metals has uncovered up to 31.9 g/t gold in stream sediment from a loaming campaign at its Horry copper and gold project in WA’s Kimberley region. The company’s exploration campaign included panning creeks and tributaries, metal detecting and collecting rock chip samples. The rock chips revealed grades of up to 3.82 g/t gold and 4.3 per cent copper.

TSX-listed Novo Resources has launched an RC drilling campaign aimed at testing gold and nickel targets at its Purdy’s North project near Karratha in WA’s Pilbara region. The campaign will initially focus on Novo’s Milburn nickel-copper-gold and Morto Lago orogenic gold targets before moving to several identified areas within the district. The initial targets are next to Azure Minerals’ Andover nickel-copper-cobalt discovery and Artemis Resources’ Carlow Castle gold-copper-cobalt prospect.

ASX-listed biotech and cancer fighter Chimeric Therapeutics has been granted patent protection in Japan for some of its novel cell therapy treatments – including one in a phase one trial and another at the pre-clinical stage. Chimeric management says the patents will expand the company’s intellectual property portfolio underpinning important assets in its development pipeline. Japan is the world’s third-largest pharmaceutical market.

After nailing down a brace of new targets at Venture Minerals’ South West nickel-copper-PGE project about 240km south of Perth, Chalice Mining has decided to commit to the second phase of the duo’s joint venture agreement. As part of the deal, Chalice will spend an additional $2.5 million on exploration over the next two years to claim a 70 per cent stake in the operation.

Calidus Resources has identified strong gold-in-soil anomalies in samples taken across a 3km strike length in historically mined sections of its Blue Spec project near Nullagine in WA’s Pilbara region. The program targeted the untested western end of the Blue Spec fault zone associated with gold mineralisation. Preliminary fieldwork is underway to identify drill targets in addition to areas for program of work applications and heritage surveys.

Xanadu Mines has completed metallurgical recoveries of up to 91 per cent gold and 46 per cent copper from preliminary glycine and cyanide leach testing at its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia. The tests were performed on partially oxidised material from surface to 30m depth and returned head grades between 0.52 and 2.25 grams per tonne gold and from 0.12 up to 0.67 per cent copper.

Ora Banda Mining has reduced the assumed gold price used to calculate its ore reserve figures at the company’s Davyhurst gold project near Kalgoorlie as it focuses on higher-margin ounces and increased quality from deposits. The change to the price assumption means the company will target higher gold grades to improve the economic viability of each of its deposits at Davyhurst.

Conico is set to spin the rods this week on a 5800m drilling probe at its Mt Thirsty multi-metal project as it seeks to extend Galileo Mining’s major discovery at Callisto that sits only 200m from its fence line. Conico is keen to test the underexplored mineralised horizon on its patch of dirt that has recently delivered a slew of head turning results for its neighbour, only 16km from Norseman in Western Australia.

Middle Island Resources has revealed a strong iron oxide-copper-gold-style alteration in its first diamond drill hole at Crosswinds in the Northern Territory East Tenant region. The hole was drilled to 808.4m and intersected increasing veining, brecciation and alteration at depth. The current exploration campaign is targeting previously uncovered aeromagnetic and induced polarisation geophysical anomalies beneath a trench sample of 130m at 0.75 per cent copper.