Matt Birney

Junior gold explorer, Torian Resources looks set to add rare-earth metals to its arsenal with the discovery of a significant yttrium anomaly at its Mt Stirling project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. A broad one kilometre anomaly has been uncovered at the project with peak values up to 521 parts per million of yttrium. The critically listed rare earth metal is used in renewable technologies including electric vehicles.

West Australian-based explorer Kairos Minerals has unveiled a promising new greenfields gold target at its wholly owned 873,500oz Mt York gold project in WA’s Pilbara region. Following on from a recent 15,000m drilling blitz at Mt York, Kairos continues to probe the prospectivity of its extensive Pilbara tenure with results from the latest surface geochemical program throwing out values up to 4.6 g/t gold.

Perth based Askari Metals has tabled a series of high-grade copper and gold results from a second round of rock chip sampling at its Horry copper project in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Results from the recent sampling include a surface rock chip grading an impressive 8.5 per cent copper with 0.71 grams per tonne gold and 42 grams per tonne silver.

St George Mining has kicked off a diamond drill program at its Mt Alexander nickel-copper-platinum group element project in WA with the first of several high-priority seismic targets in its crosshairs. Confidence in the Mt Alexander area has been strengthened by a recent St George and CSIRO research project that indicates the rocks hosting nickel mineralisation at the nearby Cathedrals belt are associated with Mt Alexander.

Globe Metals & Mining has appointed a full time Africa-based CEO to develop its Kanyika Project in Malawi, promoting Grant Hudson from General Manager - Corporate Services to run the aspiring niobium and tantalum miner. Long serving managing director Alistair Stephens will become a senior adviser to the Board and Executive Management Team that Globe said would allow for a smooth transfer of responsibilities.

West Cobar Metals has mobilised a diamond drill rig to its Mount Jack copper-gold project in New South Wales with an initial 500 metre hole planned to test a bullseye ‘Cobar style’ anomaly. Historical drilling in the area showed geochemical indications of copper and gold mineralisation in the cover rocks but failed to reach the modelled magnetic target interpreted to sit at approximately 200m depth.

Middle Island Resources has defined multiple drill targets considered prospective for “IOCG” style copper-gold mineralisation at its Crosswinds project within the emerging Tennant Creek mineral hub in the NT. An induced polarisation geophysical survey identified the deep-seated targets below previously defined surface copper mineralisation. A recent cash injection has the company well-funded with plans now being drawn up to commence an aggressive drilling campaign of the area.

Buru Energy is nearing completion of its Ungani 8H horizontal development well in the Canning Basin oil field of Western Australia, with the company reporting the drilling program has surpassed the 2,000 metre mark en route to its intended depth of 2560m. Buru’s latest drive is the eighth well it has sunk into the Basin, designed to further increase production levels.

Element 25 has roared back to life with record daily production after repair and modification works of the processing plant were completed at its Butcherbird manganese project in WA. The processing plant modifications, which were undertaken following a shaft failure late last year, delivered improved production volumes averaging 934 tonnes per day since kicking the plant back into action on 23 December 2021.