Announcements

The finish line is in sight for Altech Chemicals, who is considering mezzanine debt amongst a number of options to secure the balance of capex funding for the construction of its high-purity alumina plant in Malaysia. The Perth-based company is eager to avoid heavy dilution of its share register and has expressed confidence that the final piece of the funding jigsaw will slot into place by the middle of the year.

Canadian independent geological consulting firm McDaniel and Associates has given Calima Energy's coveted Montney Formation acreage in British Columbia a confidence-boosting review with estimates of 2.1Tcf of recoverable gas and 114million barrels of liquids. This verdict has reinforced Perth-based Calima's conviction that it has a standalone project in the making as it prepares for a drilling campaign.

ASX-listed Hot Chili has created a sense of early excitement around its new Valentina prospect at the El Fuego copper project in Chile. The company has stumbled across historic records that show up to 4.8% copper was pulled from the shallow, small scale, family owned mine at Valentina back in the 1990s. Other historical results include an 11m intersection going 2% copper.

Northern Minerals has timed its Browns Range heavy rare earths project in the East Kimberley to perfection, with construction nearing completion just as US President Donald Trump calls on Australia to help it secure new supplies of strategic rare earths. Northern confirmed this week the project is on track for completion by June 30 and work is well advanced on exploring moves into downstream processing.

Galena Mining's bold plan to unlock the potential of the giant Abra deposit is coming together in spectacular fashion, with a new resource estimate confirming it as one of the largest undeveloped lead-silver deposits in the world. The deposit now boasts 11.2 Mt at a very impressive 10.1% lead and 28 g/t silver, ranking it as the highest grade lead deposit in Australia and one that has global significance.

MGC Pharma's new cannabis based diet and vegan vitamin supplement comes in seven different flavours to be sold in both capsule and powder form. The ASX-listed medical marijuana company is tapping into a growing global health supplement market estimated at over US$550 billion. The company said the product meets strict European Union guidelines and will be used to instil “inner health and wellbeing”.

Neometals has announced high-grade drilling intercepts at its Virginia Hills prospect, located adjacent to its flagship Barrambie project. The discovery shows 8 km of strike continuity for the vanadium-titanium mineralisation. Neometals is well advanced with technical studies for the project, including detailed drilling to define a 50,000-tonne ore parcel for metallurgical test work.

Geopacific Resources looks set to join the coveted ranks of the 100,000 ounce a year club with its Woodlark Gold Project in Papua New Guinea for at least the next ten years. The company's share price rose 20% ahead of the highly anticipated pre-feasibility study, which is now on the street and hasn't disappointed with a projected all in sustaining cost to produce each ounce of gold below the magical AU$1000 an ounce mark.

The wait is almost over and the anticipation is palpable. John Poynton chaired Strike Energy's historic Jaws-1 appraisal well is steaming seamlessly towards completion in the Southern Cooper Basin as the company attempts to prove that coal seam gas can be accessed economically at previously unheard of depths. An interconnecting horizontal well will now be subjected to a seven-stage hydraulic stimulation program.

Connected IO has strengthened its relationship with a major US telco, securing a reseller agreement for its internet of things products in North America. The deal will see Connected IO's wireless modem like products sold into the US by the unnamed telco giant that has a sales force of over 3,000 people in North America. Connected IO's technology enables a user to remotely monitor and control devices via the internet.

Calidus Resources has identified a swag of exciting gold targets at its Warrawoona Project after completing an exhaustive regional target generation study at the rapidly expanding Pilbara project. The Company has identified 45 high priority exploration targets that will be fully evaluated and ranked in the coming months. Calidus will complete reconnaissance exploration ahead of drilling programs scheduled to commence during Q2 2018.

In basketball terms it's called a slam dunk. Blackham Resources has confirmed a stunning turnaround at the Matilda gold project with gold production climbing to a record of 6,713 ounces in February, while all in sustaining costs were slashed to just A$912 an ounce. Milled grades and gold production are expected to continue to improve with stockpiled ore grades going 1.7 g/t gold.

Lepidolite waste dumps near Coolgardie are firming as a source of supply for Lithium Australia's large scale SiLeach pilot plant, highlighting the breakthrough advantages of the new processing technology. The waste material is looking promising after innovative ore sorting test work, which suggested the already mined material can be quickly and cheaply upgraded before being processed.

West Perth based Blackstone Minerals has dusted off historical mining records dating back over 60 years to fully understand the potential of its Little Gem Project in British Columbia, Canada that boasts one of the highest grade cobalt-gold deposits in the world. Recent drilling turned up a 4.3 m intersection going 1.0% cobalt and 15 g/t gold, including 1.1 m @ 3.0% cobalt and 44 g/t gold.

Hot Chili has announced some stand out high grade production results from a family owned small scale copper mine that sits atop the company's exciting San Antonio prospect within its new El Fuego copper project in Chile. The work underlines Hot Chili's confidence in the potential for regional continuity of high grade sulphide copper ores over significant strike lengths within trucking distance of its flagship Productora Project.

Southern Gold's partner, Bluebird Merchant Ventures announced this week it had accessed a new level underground at the old Kochang mine in Korea. Significant assay results were returned from “waste” dumps and the tailings dam at the historic Gubong mine which closed decades ago due to low gold prices. Bluebird reported encouraging rock chip results from surface “waste” dumps going 10.5 g/t gold at Gubong.

Calima Energy hasn't taken any chances locking down the first 20% of its farm in package ahead of time in the lucrative Montney oil and gas formation in British Columbia, Canada. The Perth-based company is planning to spud a three well drilling campaign in November to flow test the liquids-rich Upper and Lower Montney. Ultimately Calima will end up with 55% of the project for an expenditure of C$20m.

New studies at Myanmar Metals' remarkable Bawdwin deposit in Myanmar, already ranked as one of the world's best lead-zinc-silver deposits, have revealed a high-grade copper zone with almost 120,000 tonnes of the red metal in-situ. The studies have shown a new copper-rich resource of 3.4 Mt @ 3.12% copper, based largely on historical data and raises hopes of substantial additional discoveries from modern exploration.

Ironbark Zinc has engaged an army of experienced mining operatives, tasked with catapulting its giant Citronen Zinc project into production in Greenland. Ironbark's newly hired production team have experience in everything from project finance to mine scheduling to plant construction and the company now looks to be on the home straight. The Citronen project remains one of the largest undeveloped zinc projects in the world.

ASX-listed Connected IO has secured a distribution agreement with internet of things supplier M2M Connectivity as the Perth-listed company looks to scale its tech offering in the Asia-Pacific region. Connected IO says the deal will provide it with an opportunity to leverage M2M's strong existing ties with Cisco, Meraki, and Telstra, enabling more consumers to monitor and control everyday items via the internet.

ASX-listed medical cannabis player MGC Pharmaceuticals is set to achieve a major commercial milestone as it edges closer to getting the final green light for its European medical marijuana facility. The company expects to receive official approval for the Slovenian facility this month after being granted an interim licence in January, bringing an 18-month approvals process near to completion.

Auroch Minerals is targeting large-scale zinc, lead, copper and cobalt deposits in a metals-rich region in South Australia after snapping up two high-grade projects that have not been subjected to any modern exploration. The Arden project near Quorn in the Flinders Ranges and the Bonaventura Zinc project on Kangaroo Island have historical drill hits of up to 26.9% zinc and 2.5% cobalt.

ASX-listed biotech Phylogica has achieved a medical milestone on its journey to developing a biological organism that is capable of carrying or “transporting” cancer fighting and other drugs directly inside the nucleus of a diseased cell. The Perth biotech said in a market update that it had successfully delivered a new “proof of concept cargo” known as “Cre” into kidney cells in the laboratory.

High purity vanadium is being tipped for greatness as a revolutionary force in battery storage of renewable energy. Perth's King River Copper may well have the largest and highest purity in-ground resource in the world in W.A. Last week the company proved it could produce the holy grail of purity levels at 99.5%, placing it amongst elite company around the world.

Shares in Perth-based carbon plantation manager Alterra spiked 30 per cent last week after the company revealed its agro-forestry projects in Western Australia are set to deliver $23 million in revenues over the next decade and that it remains in a strong financial position, with $2.5 million cash in the bank and $2.6m in real property that is also generating valuable rent for the business.

A leading Perth broker has set a big price target for Altech Chemicals as it enters the home straight in its quest to become the world's biggest manufacturer of in-demand high purity alumina. DJ Carmichael has set a target more than double Altech's current price, after weighing up the benefits of securing a US$170 million debt package that was guaranteed by the German Government.

DroneShield has secured $210,000 worth of purchase orders for its drone-combating products from European distributors, ForcePro. DroneShield says the products will be used to set up a Netherlands' demonstration hub for the company's cutting edge anti-drone products, where the NATO Joint Force is headquartered. DroneShields' products can detect and disable aerial drones.

Whilst others are still furiously marching around the bush looking for lithium deposits, Lithium Australia has again jumped one step ahead of the market by raising $18m to fund two plants – one to make lithium-ion battery chemicals and another to make cathodes. The company has raised $18m with a con note issue to underwrite its evolution into a vertically integrated lithium processing business.

An exploration review of the lease containing Myanmar Metals' historic zinc-lead-copper mine near the Chinese border has confirmed a number of remarkable opportunities, including at least 30 gossan outcrops with similarities to the original gossans above the known lodes. The report comes just before Myanmar releases first assays from a maiden drilling program at the project.

CVCheck has reported solid growth for the December half, with revenues up 16 per cent to $5.8 million due to surging corporate demand and its strongly performing New Zealand operations. Impressive cost control at the ASX junior has also resulted in a 27% drop in general expenses and a 12% drop in employment expenses as the company races towards the magical breakeven point.

A small copper mine acquired by Hot Chili within trucking distance of its Productora development looks like it could be sitting on a much bigger, higher grade copper deposit than previously thought. Small-scale lease mining in recent weeks produced 16.3 tonnes of ore at 5.24% copper from depths of less than 15 metres and has extended the strike length of high-grade, shallow copper to 1km.

Queensland Police will use ASX-listed DroneShield's sci-fi looking drone combatting rifles at the Commonwealth games to protect athletes from potentially lethal aerial intruders. In other developments DroneShield has applauded the Australian Government's efforts to stimulate defence industry manufacturing and exports by adopting an innovative new Defence Export Strategy policy.