Public Company News

South Australia-focused explorer Indiana Resources has launched into a 3,600m aircore drilling campaign in the prospective Gawler Craton. The drilling is along strike from the company's Minos prospect where the company previously reported multiple stellar drill hits including 38m going 6.54 grams per tonne gold. Assay results from more recent drilling at Minos are due soon and diamond drilling is also on the cards.

A review of historical drilling at its Ngalia Basin project in the Northern Territory has served up shallow uranium, vanadium and strontium mineralised zones for Eclipse Metals. Intercepts including 0.5m going 960 parts per million uranium and 570 ppm strontium from just 1m depth and a zone stretching over 11km of strike caught the eye. Seven untested radiometric target areas were also delineated.

Adriatic Metals has secured an exploration permit for additional mineral concession areas at its developing Vares silver-zinc-lead project in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The dual ASX and London-listed company was awarded the concession areas covering 32 square kilometres last year and has already completed an initial heliborne magnetics and radiometric geophysical survey across the new ground-holdings.

Emu NL is currently building a substantial copper target in WA's emerging South West Mineral Field, with recent surface sampling at its Viper project outlining copper mineralisation along nearly four kilometres of strike. Sampling extended both east and west of the high-grade Netty copper mine and also returned anomalous levels of nickel and cobalt, pointing to a deeper sulphidic target.

WA-focused explorer St George Mining has launched into a 10,000m drilling blitz targeting new copper and gold discoveries along 35km of prospective stratigraphy at the Paterson project in the state's north. The maiden reverse circulation program is aimed at emulating recent discoveries in the region that include Rio Tinto's Winu project hosting some 503Mt in resources going 0.45 per cent copper-equivalent.

ASX-listed CZR Resources is set to tip $7 million into its treasury via a well-supported two-tranche capital raise, with the bulk of the funds earmarked for feasibility studies on its 85 per cent-owned Robe Mesa iron ore project in WA's Pilbara region. The company will issue 608.69 million new shares to sophisticated and institutional investors including major shareholder, Creasy Group.

ASX-listed junior explorer, Okapi Resources has kicked off a maiden round of drilling at its Enmore gold project about 30km south-east of Armidale in NSW's New England Fold Belt region. The company says the first-pass drill program, consisting of up to 10 reverse circulation holes for at least 1,000m, will probe priority targets at its two key brownfields prospects.

88 Energy has moved to 100 per cent ownership of the Peregrine oil project in Alaska, USA, by acquiring the half share of its partner, Alaska Peregrine Development Company. 88 Energy now has a clear run to continue exploration in the oil rich Nanushuk formation where it is targeting more than one billion barrels of oil in gross mean prospective resources.

Active junior explorer, Native Mineral Resources has added some exciting greenfields copper, gold and nickel search targets to its WA and Queensland copper-gold portfolio after a successful bid for ground in the WA Nullarbor region. The company is aiming to get on the ground and commence fieldwork as soon as the tenements are granted.

WA explorer, Estrella Resources says a further intersection of massive nickel-copper-iron sulphides from drilling in the T5 discovery area near the old Carr Boyd nickel mine north of Kalgoorlie has added to confidence in its geological modelling ahead of market reporting of assays. An incoming funding boost will put Estrella in a position to up the tempo again at its cornerstone project.

Gold explorer Barton Gold has successfully raked in $15 million in a “significantly oversubscribed” IPO as it prepares to list its shares on the Australian Securities Exchange later this month. The company says the capital raise will now be closing on Monday, four days ahead of the prospectus deadline.

Aspiring Balkans polymetallic project developer, Adriatic Metals has locked in another of the key regulatory approvals for its significant new Vares silver-zinc-lead project in Bosnia and Herzegovina that puts it on the verge of a mining permit all-clear. The company says it has just been granted an urban planning permit for the cornerstone Rupice underground deposit from the country's Federal Ministry of Spatial Planning.