Matt Birney

Multi-mineral explorer, PolarX is set to extend its Alaska Range Project with recently completed diamond drilling at the Caribou Dome Copper deposit hitting finely disseminated native copper in four drill holes. The vein-hosted mineralisation currently extends 1.1 kilometres and the discovery has potential to grow the existing resource at Alaska Range which comprises both the Caribou Dome and the Zackly deposit.

Nickel exploration company, Estrella Resources continues to deliver the goods in its nickel sulphide hunt at its compelling T5 discovery near the historical Carr Boyd Rocks nickel mine, north of Kalgoorlie in WA. Step out drilling to the north and south of the currently defined T5 mineralised zone has intercepted more nickel-copper sulphides to grow the strike to a hefty 1.5 kilometres.

Venus Metals has discovered highly anomalous nickel, copper, chromium, platinum and palladium in soils in its Barrabarra North project next door to Chalices’ acclaimed and similarly named Barrabarra project. Venus has also applied for two new exploration licences to increase its tenure in the area to over a massive 1000 square kilometres with planned systematic soil sampling and geophysical surveys on these tenements once granted.

King River Resources has taken a big step in its ambitions to build a processing plant for high purity aluminium with the go-ahead for a definitive feasibility study on a facility at Kwinana to produce precursor aluminium compounds to feed the lithium-ion battery market. The project is a reduced version of the original plan for a full-scale HPA plant.

The Victorian Environmental Protection Agency has issued Lithium Australia with a 99-year operating licence that provides the environmental and legal framework for its subsidiary company, Envirostream Australia to continue lithium and other battery recycling activities at its premises in Campbellfield, Victoria. The licence permits Envirostream to process more than 500 tonnes of specified electronic waste annually.

Trigg Mining has delivered a robust scoping study evaluating the proposed development of its Lake Throssell “sulphate of potash” fertiliser project in WA. The company says the project could generate $97m a year in EBITDA over a 21-year initial mine life. The project is about 170km north-east of Laverton in WA and Trigg will now launch into a pre-feasibility study to firm up its numbers.

ASX-listed Altech Chemicals could be on its way to becoming a key player in the thriving lithium-ion battery industry with its high purity alumina coating technology that the company says may be able to resolve fundamental issues with energy densities and the cost of lithium-ion batteries. The company is undertaking a pre-feasibility study for a proposed 10,000 tonne per annum battery materials coating plant in Saxony, Germany.

ASX newcomer, West Cobar Metals made a solid debut on the market last week after pocketing $5.5m in a strongly backed initial public offering ahead of the listing. The Perth-based explorer’s $0.20-a-share IPO hit the boards at the ASX in style on Friday with the stock reaching $0.25 in intraday trading. The company now plans to unleash the rig on its compelling copper and gold targets in NSW.

Mineral exploration company, Kairos Minerals has put its foot on 479 square kilometres of tenure in the celebrated Pilbara region of WA to swell its landholding in the district to a whopping 2,026 square kilometres. The company says the new exploration licence applications are prospective for lithium pegmatite discoveries and intrusion-related gold mineralisation similar to De Grey’s world-class Hemi discovery in the region.