Junior in Right Geological Setting for Field Success

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: An active field campaign is helping Apollo Consolidated (ASX: AOP) set itself up within the next generation of domestic gold producers as it expands the inventory of the company’s wholly-owned one million-ounce (plus) Lake Rebecca project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. By Mark Fraser

Since announcing Lake Rebecca’s total indicated and inferred mineral resource of 27.1 million tonnes at 1.2 grams per tonne gold for 1.035 million ounces (in optimised pit shells) earlier this year, the junior has been busy in the field, with infill, extensional, RC and diamond drilling continuing to deliver mouth-watering results.

Comprising 160 square kilometres of tenure located some 150km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, the project covers the eastern margin of the Norseman-Wiluna Greenstone Belt and sits at the southern end of the Laverton Tectonic Zone.

Located in a similar geological setting just 140-150km to the north-west are three world class gold operations – Barrick Gold Corp’s (TSX: ABX) Granny Smith and Wallaby mines as well as AngloGold Ashanti’s (ASX: AGG) Sunrise Dam project.

As it stands, Apollo is currently targeting three key Lake Rebecca prospects – the flagship Rebecca, which contains 775,000 oz (indicated and inferred), Duchess (180,000 inferred oz) and Duke (80,000 indicated oz).

Although Apollo managing director Nick Castleden told delegates at today’s RIU Resurgence Conference in Perth that Rebecca would “drive the project forward”, he was also keen to point out that the company had not been resting on its laurels when it came to its field activities.

Deeper diamond drilling since the announcement of the inferred resource, for instance, had revealed underground mineralisation with gold intercepts of:

5m at 2.5g/t
5m at 5.53g/t
14m at 1.3g/t and
22m at 3.44g/t.

Additionally, during late August, the junior announced it had identified further mineralisation at Cleo, situated some 2km to the west of Rebecca, where an anomalous zone of at least 150m wide was established.

According to the company, this material is hosted by fine grained disseminated sulphides in micro-diorite to amphibolite, as opposed to the granodiorite gneiss found at Rebecca, Duchess and Duke.

Two RC holes in particular – 38m at 2g/t gold from 65m depth (including 2m at 20.4g/t from 74m) and 2m at 9.39g/t (with 1m at 17.2g/t) – were particularly encouraging as they sit within widespread gold anomalism totalling 113m at 0.46g/t from 31m.

Meanwhile, another drill hole located 100m to the north also intersected widespread gold anomalism (70m at 0.34g/t from 15m). A fresh rock result of 2m at 9.39g/t from 47m, including 1m at 17.2g/t from 48m, was also welcomed by the junior.

Further shallow infill RC drilling at Duchess – which sits just 4km south of Cleo and Rebecca – also came up with the goods, returning gold intercepts like 9m at 1.82g/t from 11m and 24m @ 0.87g/t from 50m, 12m at 1.15g/t from 76m, 9m at 1.17g/t from 113m (as well as multiple plus-5m hits at 0.50g/t), 14m at 0.74g/t from 40m, 35m at 0.90g/t from 94m, 10m at 1.46g/t from 148m and 18m at 0.74g/t from 161m.

Drilling will continue around the three key deposits at Lake Rebecca and along further exploration targets, including Cleo, throughout the remainder of the year.

Further diamond drilling will also test specific high-grade step-down exploration targets at the Rebecca deposit.

An additional 12 infill RC holes have also been completed at the 80,000oz Duke deposit as part of a planned mineral resource definition program, while the RC rig is now undertaking infill and step-out drilling at Rebecca.

Apollo also plans to start some of the longer-lead project fieldwork that will feed into option analysis and future mining studies.

Castleden told the conference delegates Lake Rebecca represented, “a window to what can be done in a pretty mature terrain”.

“Certainly, there is a lot of interest in this company because we do things in a constrained and conservative sort of way,” he said.

“These are real ounces – we think they can be dug up with real machinery.

“The metrics for our shareholders are undemanding, we think, compared to some of our peers; certainly, it’s not a high-grade system, but it is a very solid system.”

The company remains in a strong financial position to continue its exploration endeavours, with $21 million in the bank as at the end of June 2020.

Although it had been active in the west African nation of Cote d’Ivoire, Castleden indicated Apollo was now strongly focused on developing its WA assets.

It does, however, retain a valuable royalty interest (1.2%) over the growing (plus) 1 million oz Seguela gold project, which is being developed by Canadian gold miner Roxgold (TSX: ROXG), where an NI 43-101 indicated resource of 529,000 oz at 2.3g/t and an inferred one of 508,000 oz at 2.9g/t, covering four deposits, has been established.

Castledine said he was expecting the Canadian company to make a mining decision regarding this project within the next 12-18 months.

 

Argonaut Chief Lauds ASX at RIU Resurgence Conference Opening

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THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Argonaut chairman & head of corporate finance Eddie Rigg opened the RIU Resurgence Conference in Perth with an interesting look at the importance of the role played by the ASX to the well-being of the resources industry.

The resources sector is the number one sector on the ASX by number of companies – around 750 in total.

That means approximately 40 per cent of all companies listed on ASX are resource companies that are currently operating in 80 different countries.

“Without question…the ASX is now dominating the global stock markets in resources,” Rigg told the opening session audience.

Rigg said the ASX has led the world over the past three years in terms of the number of resource Initial Public offerings (IPOs) and Follow On (FO) raisings.

“The number of transactions over in the last three years on ASX is more than all the other exchanges combined,” he said.

“Yes. New York has raised more money, but on a very few transactions.”

In the 2017- 2020 time-frame, the ASX saw over 1800 capital raisings, raising around $28 billion.

This compares most favourably versus the TSX, which used to be Australia’s biggest competitor, that raised around $13 billion featuring very few transactions- less than 200 over three years.

Since COVID the TSX welcomed around 30 raisings, while back home there have been over three hundred companies to have raised money since mid-March to the end of August (2020)

“Thankyou to marijuana and thankyou to crypto-currency because effectively you have imploded their market, making our market the dominant (resources) market,” Rigg said.

Follow-on raisings completed on ASX since COVID have resulted in over $7 billion hitting the boards, although this figure is partly distorted by $1.1 billion raised by Newcrest, nevertheless that is a lot of money going into the local industry.

Only 10 companies raised $100 million or more, make that 11 companies now with the raising completed by De Grey Mining this week.

“That lot of money is going to come up with a lot of discoveries,” Rigg declared.

“85 per cent of the raisings completed were done by companies with less than $100 million market cap.”

Rigg put the success being enjoyed by the local bourse down to its modus operandi, which he said stood out from the rest of the world’s exchanges.

“The ASX has wonderful rules, they are actually enhancing the rules to make sure we don’t get the undesirables back in our industry,” he stressed.

“It is a market that has enormous integrity. The capital raising rules in Australia are so far superior.”

“It’s a wonderful opportunity, it’s a wonderful industry, and it’s a wonderful market.”

 

Alicanto Minerals Drilling at Greater Falun in Sweden

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Alicanto Minerals (ASX: AQI) has kicked off a 4,000m diamond drilling program at the company’s Greater Falun copper-gold project in the Bergslagen region of Sweden.

Alicanto Minerals will be drilling to test new targets and seek to establish extensions to known mineralisation located in the vicinity of major copper gold systems.

The company explained the drilling will be the first thorough modern exploration campaign undertaken at Greater Falun as well as being the first drilling since Alicanto made a major breakthrough by establishing that the dominant mineralisation is copper-gold skarn, not a Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide (VMS) system as long believed.

Alicanto aims to establish a mineral inventory capable of supporting a central processing hub.

The diamond drilling program has commenced at the Green Mile targets, after drilling of which Alicanto expects to move the drill rig onto the next set of targets.

Alicanto is currently interpreting historic airborne electro-magnetic surveys and undertaking new ground electro-magnetic surveys, from across a large portion of the company’s tenements, to assist in further refining the search for conductors within the tenements.

“The extent of known mineralisation and the high quality of our targets mean this is a potentially company-making drilling program,” Alicanto Minerals managing director Peter George said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We have mapped more than 2,000 outcrops and historical surface workings which have resulted in us discovering seven copper-gold skarns at surface.

“When we overlay this information onto the large volume of historical and recent geophysical survey data, an impressive picture of the Greater Falun project is forming that has not been seen before now.

“This is the largest program ever undertaken within the Greater Falun project and will see us test the multiple EM signatures, IP Anomalies and copper-gold and polymetallic skarn targets we have discovered.

“We have started the drilling program with the untested EM conductors at Green Mile along strike from the historic, high-grade copper-gold Falun Mine, which produced 28 million tonnes at 4 per cent copper, 4 grams per tonne gold, 5 per cent zinc, 2 per cent lead and 35 grams per tonne silver up until 1992.

“The conductors are coincident with footwall alteration and high-grade rock chip results mapped on surface.”

 

Email: info@alicantominerals.com.au

 

Web: www.alicantominerals.com.au

 

Blackstone Minerals Raises $21 Million to Advance Ta Khoa

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Blackstone Minerals (ASX: BSX) should be operating a busy booth on the opening day of the RIU Resurgence Conference after announcing firm commitments from sophisticated, professional and institutional investors to raise up to a total of $17.8 million through a placement of approximately 42 million fully paid ordinary shares at an issue price of 42 cents per share.

Buoyed by the placement, which includes Fidelity International corner-stoning the raise with an $8 million pledge, Blackstone will also offer a Share Purchase Plan to raise a further $3 million.

“We’re excited to welcome new long-term institutional investors to our register and the opportunity to raise $21 Million for Blackstone to support the ongoing exploration, resource drilling and future studies at the Ta Khoa project,” Blackstone Minerals managing director Scott Williamson said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Net proceeds from the Placement and SPP are intended to be used to fund exploration and resource drilling activities, as well as a Pre-Feasibility Study and Definitive Feasibility Study at the company’s Ta Khoa nickel project in Vietnam.

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Email: admin@blackstoneminerals.com.au

 

Web: www.blackstoneminerals.com.au

 

Kin Mining Eyes Large Mineralised System at East Lynne

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Kin Mining (ASX: KIN) should be garnering plenty of attention on the opening day of the RIU Resurgence Conference following its announcement of new assay results from recent aircore (AC) drilling at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Cardinia Gold Project (CGP), located near Leonora in Western Australia.

Kin Mining recently completed AC drilling at the East Lynne prospect as part of the ongoing Phase 3 drilling program at the CGP, from which it reported assay results for Lines 7 and 8 of 14 lines drilled at the emerging trend.

The company considers the East Lynne prospect to be a potential new discovery within the CGP.

Results include:

Line 7

EL20AC170
4 metres at 1.14 grams per tonne gold from 8m;

EL20AC171
4m at 0.94g/t gold from 8m.

Line 8

EL20AC192
5m at 35.1g/t gold from 40m to EOH;

EL20AC191
4m at 0.96g/t gold from 12m.

Kin recently drilled its first deep diamond hole drilled in the far northern part of the East Lynne target that also intersected high-grade gold mineralisation, including:

EL20DD332
2m at 1.03g/t gold from 184.04m;
1m at 20.9g/t gold from 230m.

“This is an exciting breakthrough for our ongoing systematic exploration of the East Lynne trend, which we now believe has all the hallmarks of an emerging, large-scale mineralised system,” Kin Mining managing director Andrew Munckton said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Intersecting 5 metres at 35 grams per tonne in shallow, wide-spaced air-core drilling is a remarkable result and will certainly see our exploration at East Lynne step-up a gear.

“What’s important is that this is not a one-off.

“The new AC results are delineating areas of significant high-grade gold mineralisation within the East Lynne Trend over an extensive area.

“We have now defined a semicontinuous zone of mineralisation spanning an area 100 metres wide and up to 3.2 kilometres long above a significant geological contact.

“While we always believed that the East Lynne target had significant potential, the latest results demonstrate that the target is an extensive zone of sulphide mineralisation containing significant areas of high-grade gold mineralisation away from the historical workings along the trend.

“We are looking forward to testing the other sections at depth at 800 metres spacing to confirm the continuity of the sulphide zone and see if we have an emerging greenfields discovery of considerable scale and potential.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Email: info@kinmining.com.au

Web: www.kinmining.com.au

 

Lithium Australia Heralds National Battery Stewardship Scheme

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THE CLEAN ENERGY CAFE: Lithium Australia (ASX: LIT) has its sights on providing an ethical and sustainable supply of energy metals to the battery industry.

The company believes that by doing so it is creating a circular battery economy, thereby contributing to national, and global, energy security.

A major factor in Lithium Australia’s strategy is the recycling of old lithium-ion batteries to new.

The company is not alone in its objective with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) recently highlighting its position on the environmental harm caused by disposing of batteries to landfill, which along with the cost of recycling batteries, is not currently reflected in their price.

As popular and mainstream household recycling has become there is currently little incentive – or instruction – for the disposal of batteries around Australia.

This is rapidly becoming an issue of some importance, for if you stop to think about the number of batteries being used in your home at this given moment, do you also stop to think about where they go when they die?

At present, responsibility for managing disposal of batteries is on the heads of local governments, meaning there is a lack of commercial incentives for Australian businesses to not only promote, but to more importantly, participate in the environmentally responsible disposal of end-of-life (EOL) batteries.

With all this is in mind, the ACCC has authorised the Battery Stewardship Council (BSC) to implement a national stewardship scheme for all types of EOL batteries, apart from lead-acid batteries and those already captured by existing schemes.

The rationale behind the scheme is to unite battery supply chain companies in efforts to greatly reduce the volume of toxic EOL batteries being disposed of as waste to landfill, and to maximise resource recovery by increasing collection and recycling rates and developing a domestic battery reprocessing capacity.

The levy and rebate system proposed under the scheme aspires to better align the price of batteries with the cost of their responsible disposal while increasing the incentive for businesses to facilitate their recycling.

The scheme will operate by imposing an annual levy, that will be reviewed annually and will be passed on through the supply chain to consumers.

This fee will be initially be set at four cents per equivalent battery unit (EBU) and will apply to companies that import more than 1,000 EBU annually.

It is estimated that the levy will raise $22 million annually.

Lithium Australia subsidiary company, Envirostream Australia is Australia’s only mixed battery recycler.

Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said this paced the subsidiary in good stead to take advantage of the benefits of the scheme.

“The levy on batteries will commoditise EOL batteries, currently considered waste material, and the value created will be a strong incentive to divert them from landfill,” Griffin said.

“We are anticipating a significant increase in feed material for Envirostream, and the more it gets the greater the benefit for the environment.

“The scheme should encourage more sustainable use of critical materials used in the manufacture of batteries, reducing reliance on primary production which, in some cases, relies on child labour and supply from conflict zones.”

Envirostream Australia is a mixed battery recycling company that was established in 2017 to develop safe and innovative management solutions for battery recycling, which it identified as an emerging challenge for the Australian waste industry.

In 2019 the CSIRO forecast the amount of discarded lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) in Australia will grow from 3,300 tonnes recorded in 2016 to between 100,000 and 188,000 tonnes by 2036.

Lithium Australia is investing in the logistical infrastructure necessary to recycle LIBs through a partnership with Envirostream Australia.

The company has now lodged two Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) applications relating to LIB recycling processes.

The first of these focuses on extraction of cathode materials for which Lithium Australia filed a PCT application entitled ‘Process for recovering values from batteries’ – that relates to processes for the recovery of electrode materials from LIBs (for example, electrode material comprising a cathode material and/or an anode material, such as a mixed metal dust), as well as recovery of the electrolyte.

The second covers the extraction of critical battery metals.

Entitled ‘Process for recovering metal values from process liquors’ it relates to processes for the selective recovery of mixed metal sulphates (for example, a mixed cobalt-nickel sulphate) from a metal sulphate process liquor.

“With our recent successful capital raising, we’re in a strong position to accelerate commercialisation of the technologies discussed here,” Adrian Griffin said in nteh company’s ASX announcement.

“Indeed, the first of those has already been implemented on a commercial scale at our Melbourne processing plant.

“These technical advances are timely, in that they coincide with the introduction of a national battery stewardship scheme designed to divert batteries from landfill, thereby increasing the quantities of spent batteries available for recycling.”

 

Email: info@lithium-au.com

 

Web: www.lithium-au.com

 

Meteoric Resources Confirms Historic Mineralisation at Palm Springs

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: In the lead-up the RIU Resurgence Conference next week, Meteoric Resources (ASX: MEI) reported encouraging news from drilling at the company’s Palm Springs gold project in Western Australia.

Meteoric Resources drilled the first two diamond drill holes of the 2020 drilling program at the Palm Springs project, which it said intersected broad zones of sulphide mineralisation.

The company said these first two holes had visually confirmed the location and geometry of the historical high‐ grade gold intercepts underneath and along strike from the Butchers Creek open pit in the Kimberley.

The company has taken increased confidence from the diamond drill holes intercepting broad zones of visual sulphide mineralisation that are consistent with the location of the historical high‐grade gold intercepts at Butchers Creek.

RC drilling will now commence in conjunction with the diamond drill rig, with both rigs drilling throughout September and into October.

“For the first time we are seeing these wide high‐grade mineralised gold zones in drill core and we are liking what we see,” Meteoric Resources managing director Dr Andrew Tunks said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“It was important to get these first diamond drill holes into the deposit to confirm the presence and geometry of the mineralised trachyte, and I am very pleased to report that these holes have intercepted mineralisation consistent with our interpretation.

“We now have the confidence to turn the dial up on our drilling efforts and have both an RC and diamond rig in action simultaneously.

“Core logging and processing is progressing well and we expect to be reporting assay results from the first holes of the 2020 Palm Springs project in October.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

 

 

Web: www.meteoric.com.au

 

Legend Mining Drilling Returns Second Favourable Intercept

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Legend Mining (ASX: LEG) reported a healthy intersection from drilling at the Mawson prospect within the company’s Rockford project in the Fraser Range of Western Australia.

Legend Mining reported the intersection, another from diamond drillhole RKDD023, which was designed to test a strong conductor at the Mawson prospect.

Assaying has shown RKDD023 intersected a plus-90 metres mineralised zone of nickel-copper sulphide, including: 12.95m massive sulphide; 7.55m semi-massive sulphide; and multiple zones of net-textured, matrix, and heavy disseminated sulphide.

“The discovery of another 12.95 metres of massive nickel-copper sulphide in diamond drillhole 23, circa 200 metres from the previously announced massive sulphides, is a quantum boost for the potential of the Mawson prospect,” Legend Mining managing director Mark Wilson said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The nature of the mineralisation suggests we are closer to the intrusive source but we are not there yet.

“Downhole EM from this hole, which is now underway, is designed to provide data to assist in planning future diamond holes in this immediate vicinity.

“Importantly, the RC drilling confirms the Mawson intrusive complex extends north and east of the known Mawson nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation, confirming the prospectivity for mineralised intrusives below the eastern aircore geochemical anomaly.

“The RC holes are also a great platform for downhole EM.”

 

 

 

Web: www.legendmining.com.au

Great Southern Mining Extends Strike at Cox’s Find

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Great Southern Mining (ASX: GSN) reported further high-grade gold intersections from recently-completed Reverse Circulation (RC) and Diamond drilling programs at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Cox’s Find project in the Laverton gold district of Western Australia.

Great Southern Mining said it was encouraged by diamond program results with intersections including:

20CFRCD008
3.6 metres at 8.03 grams per tonne gold from 169m, including 1m at 27.5g/t gold.

This hole was 30m down plunge from a previous intersection that was reported in July encountered in:

20CFRCD004
5.65m at 80g/t gold from 160m, including 1.1m at 404g/t gold.

The RC program was designed to test the shallow down plunge and strike extensions of the main lode north and south of the pit.

Great Southern indicated this had intersected continuity of the mineralised system with results including:

5m at 5.51g/t gold from 59m, including 2m at 12.5g/t gold; and
7m at 1.23g/t gold from 86m, including 2m at 2.94g/t gold.

Extension drilling confirmed the mineralisation sequence continues further south than previously thought with further encouraging results including:

15m at 1.01g/t gold from 167m; and
6m at 0.62g/t gold from 157m, including 1m at 2.57g/t gold.

“These results cement a tremendous platform for further exploration and growth at the company’s Cox’s Find project,” Great Southern Mining recently appointed chief executive officer Sean Gregory said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The team has demonstrated that the bonanza grades reported earlier in the quarter are part of a continuous mineralised system that extends to depth and along strike to the south.

“It is an exciting time for the company as we are only just beginning to unlock the geological potential of this high-grade gold system.”

Great Southern Mining said the recent RC and Diamond drilling program at Cox’s Find had demonstrated high-grade mineralisation persists at depth and along strike at Cox’s Find.

The company signalled further interrogation and expert reviewing are planned over the coming weeks, which it expects to tightly delineate targets for further drilling; namely the unmined high-grade level 5-6 material, and the plunge extensions at depth and to the south.

 

 

Email: admin@gsml.com.au

 

Web: www.gsml.com.au

 

Dreadnought Resources Drilling at Matzke’s and Longmore’s Finds

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Dreadnought Resources (ASX: DRE) has started a 36-hole RC drill program at the company’s Illaara gold-VMS-iron ore project in Western Australia.

Dreadnought Resources will commence by drilling 19 holes at Metzke’s Find, where it has previously encountered high-grade gold intercepts.

Once the Metzke’s Find drilling is complete, Dreadnought will move the rig approximately 10 kilometres north to Longmore’s Find and undertake the first drilling program targeting three forgotten historical lodes identified by Captain Longmore in the 1920s.

Longmore’s Find has a Lassiter’s Reef feel to it, having been unearthed by Dreadnought while researching the history of Metzke’s Find in a 1923 newspaper article discussing the results of the No. 3 State Prospecting Party’s discovery six miles north of Metzke’s Find.

Having achieved recent rock chips, up to 18 grams per tonne gold, Dreadnought is excited to accelerate exploration at Longmore’s Find.

“Dreadnought is excited to recommence drilling at Metzke’s Find to follow up on previous significant intercepts,” Dreadnought Resources managing director Dean Tuck said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“As well, we will kick off the first ever drilling at the recently re-discovered Longmore’s Find.

“We have an exciting time ahead with drilling and results from Illaara prior to heading up to the Kimberley.”

 

TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE

 

Email: info@dreadnoughtresources.com.au

 

Web: www.dreadnoughtresources.com.au