Public Company News

A recent trip to several Chinese lithium producers has reinforced Lithium Universe’s commitment to building its proposed 16,000 tonnes per annum battery-grade lithium carbonate refinery in Canada. The trip, undertaken by the company’s key management figures, took in the Jiangsu lithium carbonate refinery that was built by Lithium Universe executives Iggy Tan, Dr Jingyuan Liu and John Loxton during their time with Galaxy Resources.

Meeka Metals says a $180,000 WA Government grant is a glowing endorsement for its 100 per cent-owned “kilometre-scale”, gold-rich Circle Valley project near Esperance in Western Australia’s deep south. Previous drilling at the project has thrown up impressive gold drill hits as high as 16m at 1.5g/t drilling is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year.

Si6 Metals will assume a more commanding role in its Brazilian critical minerals joint venture with Foxfire Metals after lifting its stake in the partnership to a 70 per cent interest in any future licences – up from its 50 per cent share in the existing 10 licences. It signifies Si6’s commitment to its already massive Brazilian ground-holding, which is prospective for rare earths and lithium.

A surging uranium price has led Toro Energy to re-evaluate the mineral resource of its Dawson Hinkler deposit in Western Australia, leading to a 115 per cent increase in the site’s contained uranium oxide. Management says the market supports a lower cutoff grade for the deposit’s economics, allowing it to lift its resource from 9.44 million pounds of uranium oxide up to 20.29 million pounds.

Novo Resources will kick off 4km of RC drilling next week to follow up on high-grade gold hits reaching up to 6m at 6.12g/t at its Nunyerry North prospect, about 150km south-west of Port Hedland in Western Australia. Results from the company’s maiden drill program turned heads, with other intercepts running as high as 11m at 2.52g/t from 22m including a 6m chunk at 4.19g/t.

A successful Lindian Resources infill drill campaign has underpinned an indicated resource boost of 61 million tonnes at 2.43 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) at the company’s giant Kangankunde project in Malawi. Management confirmed this morning that the updated indicated resource also includes a higher-grade component of 25 million tonnes at an impressive 3.26 per cent TREO.

After getting a long-awaited green light last week to start exploring its Stansmore niobium-rare earths project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region, Lycaon Resources is now building a war chest to fuel its mission. The company today revealed it had completed a $2.5 million capital raise and also secured a $180,000 State Government grant to drill two holes to test its Stansmore and Volt prospects.

A recent drone aeromagnetics survey by Buxton Resources has unveiled a north-east-trending cluster of magnetic anomalies in the south-central part of the company’s 100 per cent-owned Wolverine prospect in Arizona. The cluster coincides with the orientation of copper-molybdenum mineralised porphyry dykes, with rock chip sampling yielding 1.2 per cent copper and 383ppm moly next to Buxton’s permitted drill site.

Aurum Resources has reassembled part of the management team that helped establish Tietto Minerals’ Abujar gold mine in West Africa to drive the development of its new Boundiali operation in Côte d’Ivoire. The company has named Yao N’Kanza as country manager, reuniting him with former Tietto workmates Caigen Wang and Yaya Ouattara in a bid to expedite Aurum’s project and business development initiatives.