Public Company News

Lithium Australia has entered into a binding agreement to sell its 30 per cent share in the Lake Johnston lithium project to Charger Metals as the company concentrates on its battery recycling portfolio. The agreement will see Charger take 100 per cent control of the project to the west of Norseman in WA and grants Lithium Australia first right of refusal for offtake of up to 30 per cent of lithium produced at the site.

West Perth-based and WA-focused explorer Terrain Minerals has started what the company expects to be a very busy year with boots on the ground at its Smokebush gold project in WA's Yalgoo minerals field. Two programs at Smokebush spearhead a major exploration and drilling campaign across its portfolio of projects with the ultimate objective a maiden mineral resource within 12 months.

Altech Chemicals believes the commissioning of its Silumina lithium-ion battery anode pilot scale plant in Germany is destined for the third quarter of 2023. The plant will be scaled up to a 10,000 tonne per annum production facility for which a Definitive Feasibility Study is progressing in tandem with the plant's construction. The company is racing to meet the demand of the white-hot battery technology market.

Coda Minerals is putting the finishing touches on a scoping study for its Elizabeth Creek copper project in South Australia with final test work currently underway before the report's expected release in April. The company says it has now completed work to assess all material inputs into the pending study up to the point of production of a copper-cobalt concentrate from a centrally located on-site flotation plant.

NSW-based reproductive technology specialist Memphasys has received another feather in its cap with a supportive paper published for its patented Felix system which aids IVF procedures in a renowned scientific journal. The paper praises Felix as a “positive technical development”, citing the speed of the Felix process and the low level of DNA damage in sperm samples as two of the system's key features.

Askari Metals has confirmed high-grade lithium and tin mineralisation in rock samples from one of two promising tenements the company acquired recently in Namibia. Headline results from the samples, analysed as part of due diligence for the acquisition, include 3.3 per cent lithium oxide, 3.2 per cent tin, 4280 parts per million tantalum and 7980ppm rubidium.

BMG Resources' metallurgical testing has confirmed that it achieved a 93 to 95 per cent gold recovery using typical gravity and cyanide carbon-in-leach processing at its Abercromby gold project near Wiluna in Western Australia. The ore was found to be free milling with the majority of the gold leached in the first eight hours with low reagent consumption. The gravity circuit recovered between 34 and 41 per cent of the gold.

Oil explorer 88 Energy is set to get the drill bit spinning at its Hickory-1 well target on Alaska's North Slope after the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission handed the company an all-important Permit to Drill. The bore is now on track to be spudded early next month and is tipped by the enterprise to hold 647 million barrels of oil within six key reservoir targets.

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.

Lindian Resources has recorded its best drill hit to date after its latest assays confirmed a 35m intercept at a whopping 3.94 per cent total rare earth oxides at its Kangankunde project in Malawi. The impressive section was part of a wider 179m intercept going 2.2 per cent TREO from surface and also included a 4m hit at a massive 7.82 per cent TREO.

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.

Surefire Resources is eyeing a rapid return to drilling at its promising Yidby Road gold prospect in WA with a drill rig locked in to start exploration later this month. 2500m of RC drilling is planned to follow up on the company's recent discoveries at Marshall and Fender and the campaign will step out to the north and the south on both gold mineralised structures.