Matt Birney

St George Mining has recommenced lithium exploration at its emerging WA Mount Alexander lithium pegmatite field covering 15km by 5km. Latest rock chip assays to 2.8 per cent lithium oxide and 1.26 per cent rubidium oxide build excitement for the assays from its first 23 RC drill holes, due within weeks, lithium minerals were logged in 20 of the drill holes. More drilling is set to recommence later this month.

WA-based producer Triangle Energy has squared away a cool $4.5 million after receiving payment for its second oil shipment to a refinery in Thailand over the December period. The shipment is part of the company’s Cliff Head joint venture with Pilot Energy which sees the duo complete production at the Cliff Head oil field about 270km north of Perth before mobilising it to buyers in Asia.

Quantum Graphite has completed the design of its pilot thermal energy storage and power generation system as it moves one step closer to producing long-duration energy devices at an industrial scale. The finalised design of the systems follows the company’s successful high-temperature testing in November that was introduced to mimic the conditions inside a thermal energy cell throughout its charging and discharging stages. Testing was completed alongside the operation’s project engineers, ProTherm Systems.

Green energy metals explorer and developer Octava Minerals and its JV partner Future Metals have received an early boost from their freshly minted joint venture. Future Metals has identified broad zones of disseminated magmatic nickel-copper and platinum group elements sulphides at its Panton project that crosses into the tenement they share, Panton North, which is located in a Tier 1 nickel sulphide-PGM province in the East Kimberley region of WA.

St George Mining has entered into a binding agreement for an option to pick up the Woolgangie critical metals project that covers around 1200 square kilometres in the Goldfields region of WA. The company says Woolgangie is prospective for lithium, nickel-copper sulphides and ionic clay-hosted rare earths mineralisation. The package includes nine granted or in application exploration licences and extends south-west of Coolgardie and west of Kambalda.

Legend Mining has declared a maiden nickel-copper-cobalt resource at its Mawson deposit in the Fraser Range that it says still has plenty of room to grow and is currently comparable to about a year’s worth of production from heavyweight Fraser Range neighbour IGO’s Nova discovery. The initial estimate clocks in at 1.45Mt at 1.14 per cent nickel, 0.74 per cent copper and 0.07 per cent cobalt.

Brightstar Resources is set to kick off a fresh 6300m RC drilling campaign at its flagship Cork Tree Well project as it looks to extend its gold mineralisation along strike to the north and at depth. The company says the 30 hole program will also include infill drilling at the project’s main structure as it looks to convert inferred mineralisation into indicated JORC resource status.

Minerals explorer Godolphin Resources is pocketing a handy $100,000 grant from the NSW Government to help fund its next drilling campaign at its promising Cyclops copper prospect north of Yeoval in the state’s central west. The grant comes from the Government’s New Frontiers Exploration program as part of the NSW Government’s Critical Minerals and High-Tech Metals Strategy.

Surefire Resources’ Victory Bore deposit in WA’s Mid West, is looking like the gift that keeps on giving after a program of 62 RC holes for 5189m delivered a 56 per increase in the operation’s already hefty vanadium resource. The asset now tips the scales at 235 million tonnes at 0.39 per cent vanadium pentoxide.