Public Company News

Wiluna Mining Corporation's joint-venture partner, A-Cap Energy has raised its stake in their Wilconi nickel-cobalt project in WA from 20 to 55 per cent after sinking $5 million into the project as part of its phase 2 earn-in milestone. The transaction comes after its initial $500,000 cash payment to Wiluna and follows a major resource upgrade at their project.

Junior explorer Askari Metals has completed a third phase of RC drilling at the company's Burracoppin gold project in WA's Wheatbelt region. The 40-hole 3639m campaign was targeting untested anomalies identified in earlier surveys and aimed to build on known gold mineralisation intersected in the previous two phases as the company looks to table a maiden mineral resource for the project.

King River Resources has returned high-grade results from RC drilling at its Tennant Creek gold project in the Northern Territory, including one hole recording a 1 metre intersection going 35.26 grams per tonne. A total of 34 holes were drilled at the project's Kurundi Main prospect where rock chip samples returned multiple results between 10 and 17g/t gold along a previously undrilled 2km trend.

Panther Metals has exceeded its JORC exploration target by an impressive 40 per cent with a maiden mineral resource estimate of 70.6Mt at 0.7 per cent nickel at its Coglia nickel-cobalt project in WA. The company's resource estimate is well above the 50Mt upper limit of its former JORC exploration target and has room to grow from its base of 70.6Mt at 0.7 per cent nickel and 460ppm cobalt for 476,000t of nickel and 32,200t of cobalt contained.

88 Energy has inked a licensing agreement with SAExploration that will see the explorer pick up a raft of 3D seismic data from a significant parcel of land at its Icewine East oil project on Alaska's North Slope. The company says newly acquired surveys stretch from Pantheon Resources' nearby acreage onto Icewine and covers a number of reservoir units that could host hydrocarbons.

IGO Limited has snapped up an interest in Venus Metals Corporation after acquiring nine million shares in the company and securing an exploration deal at its Bridgetown Greenbushes project in WA's South West region. After spending $2.07 million at 23c per share, IGO will secure a 5.6 per cent stake in Venus, making it a substantial shareholder. The project takes in Venus' Greenbushes East lithium project and its Bridgetown East copper-nickel-PGE project.

ASX-listed Okapi Resources has hit the go button on an 11-hole, 1800m diamond drilling campaign at its Sunnyside prospect, part of the larger Enmore gold project in northern NSW. The work is aimed at following up on a suite of “exceptional” hits scored in a maiden drilling campaign at the venture late last year.

Surefire Resources is keen to keep its drill bits spinning as it looks to bring in more rigs across the company's gold, iron ore and vanadium projects in Western Australia. Having just wrapped up a round of RC drilling and a diamond hole at its gold and vanadium projects, Surefire is now lining up a rig for its iron ore venture.

Cell immunotherapy company Chimeric Therapeutics will launch the first-ever trials of its patented CORE Natural Killer cells with two complementary smart drug therapies — one to stimulate the body's uptake of the treatment and the other to attack the defence mechanisms of colorectal cancer cells. The trials will be conducted at the UH Seidman Cancer Center in Ohio, USA.

St George Mining has tabled a flurry of exploration results across its WA portfolio, including the sighting of visual copper sulphides at its Paterson copper-gold project. The company has also identified a suite of priority drill targets at its Ajana and Mt Alexander nickel-copper-PGE operations through geophysical surveys.

Metal Hawk's dominant partner IGO Limited will inject another $4 million into the duo's Goldfields joint venture nickel operation. The stage 2 earn-in deal will give IGO an additional 24 per cent stake in the partnership. After spending $3 million at stage 1, the latest move will lift IGO's interest from 51 per cent to 75 per cent.

CZR Resources has been cleared to fast-track drilling after receiving heritage approval that it hopes will lead to a 1.6km expansion of its strike length at the northern extension of its Robe Mesa iron ore project in WA's Pilbara region. The deposit forms part of CZR's Yarraloola iron ore project, 120km south-west of Karratha. The company says heritage clearance allows it to drill along strike to the north of Robe Mesa's current mineral resource.