Saturn Metals Drills Positive Results at Apollo Hill

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Saturn Metals (ASX: STN) received results from diamond drilling at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Apollo Hill gold project near Leonora in the Western Australian goldfields.

Saturn Metals explained the drilling had focused along higher grade structural zones or shoots within the main Apollo Hill deposit, which has a 0.5 million ounce JORC 2012-compliant inferred gold resource of 17.2 million tonnes at 0.9 grams per tonne gold.

Results returned in this first batch of assays included:

AHDD0007
7.4 metres at 2.01g/t gold from 220.5m;

AHRCD0016
11.2m at 1.77g/t gold from 173.8m, within 24.2m at 1.22g/t gold from 173.8m; and

AHDD0005
3.8m at 2.05g/t gold from 89m, including 0.5m at 15.6g/t gold from 92.3m.

Saturn Metals said the results from AHRCD0016 and AHD0007 had improved the geological continuity of the higher-grade Armstrong zone within the resource, highlighting the potential to increase the overall grade of the known mineralised system.

The company currently has RC drilling further targeting this, and other higher-grade positions.

Saturn submitted samples from the AHRCD0016 mineralised intercept for a second and third round of assays using larger sample size bottle roll cyanidation and screen fire assay to help assess the effect of the nuggety gold noted in the drill core on the reported assay results.

Other results delineated several other wider zones of Apollo Hill style gold mineralisation with intersections including:

AHDD0003
7.8m at 1.12g/t gold from 85m; and

AHDD0005
15m at 0.8g/t gold from 146m.

Saturn indicated that all results would be used in an upcoming resource re-calculation with a resource statement anticipated for later in 2018.

Assays remain pending for four diamond drill holes taht tested distinctly different positions within the greater Apollo Hill gold system.

“Results continue to outline better grades within specific parts of the Apollo Hill gold system and we look forward to seeing how they affect our resource re-calculation in the coming months,” Saturn Metals managing director Ian Bamborough said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

 

Email: info@saturnmetals.com.au

Website: www.saturnmetals.com.au

 

Resources IPOs Lead 2018 Listings

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COMMODITY CAPERS: An interesting piece of research hit The Roadhouse inbox this week in the shape of a Snapshot of Australian IPO Activity for the first half of 2018 from our friends at HLB Mann Judd.

According to the business and finance advisers’ Perth-based Partner Corporate & Audit Services man, Marcus Ohm, the first six months of 2018 witnessed a slower start to the IPO market than the same period for 2017.

Through the 2018 time-frame 39 companies listed on the ASX, compared to 57 for 2017.

As always, there was some silver lining the declining IPO cloud with 2018 still managing to outperform the previous five-year average of 37 listings.

“During 2017 there were 110 listings in total and these were relatively well spread throughout the year, which is contrary to the trends seen over the past decade,” Ohm noted.

“Historically, approximately a third of new listings occur in the first half of the year, which would indicate that 2018 may still prove to be a positive year for the Australian IPO market.”

The irony continued with the month of January providing the strongest month to date – listing-wise – with 10, but money-wise it recorded the lowest total funds raised, with just $50 million, or two per cent of the total for the six-month period.

April came in as the strongest money month, thanks to the listing of L1 Long Short Fund Limited (ASX: LSF) to the tune of $1.3 billion, accounting for 65 per cent of all funds raised for the six-month period.

May was also a good month, welcoming seven new listings – the same number as April.

RESOURCES MAINTAIN THE RAGE

The resources sector continued to be a major contributor to the IPO market, making way for 16 listings in the first six months of 2018.

According to Ohm, the sector is performing on par with its start to 2017, when 15 new listings hit the bourse.

Most noteworthy is that it is the rock-kickers doing all the heavy lifting in the sector with Energy stocks failing to bother statisticians.

Source: HLB Mann Judd

“New Materials listings are still enjoying support from the market, with an average of 98 per cent of subscription rates achieved, which is similar to 2017’s subscription rates,” Ohm observed.

In the lead-up to Diggers & Dealers it is good for the Western Australian sector to be well-represented.

The state has continued its domination of the resources listings, providing 13 new listings.

New South Wales, Queensland and Victoria all recorded one listing each.

“While the Eastern states are usually home to the larger resources listings, this has not been the case so far this year with only $28.1 million raised,” Ohm said.

“Three states: Western Australia (+12 per cent) NSW (+11 per cent) and Queensland (+10 per cent) all recorded gains to the end of June, with only Victoria finishing in the red.”

With IPOs heavily slanted towards WA, it can be no surprise gold has featured heavily in the listings for the start of the year.

Five listing to date in 2018 are solely focused on the precious metal while another five polymetallic companies are also on the lookout for gold.

Copper and nickel have also enjoyed their recent rise in popularity and relevance thanks to the interest generated by the burgeoning electronics and Electric Vehicle spread across six and five listings respectively.

“No other commodities recorded more than two listings, however the diversity of the market continues to grow with over 14 different resources sought,” Ohm said.

“Coal, which for some time has struggled to gain traction in the market, recorded one listing.”

So, there we are at the halfway mark and with another 11 listings in the pipeline for 2018, coupled with an outlook of strong commodity prices and solid share price performance, Ohm predicts Materials IPOs are likely to remain strong performers for the remainder of the year.

 

Web: www.hlbwa.com.au

 

Blackham Resources Delivers Wiluna Tailings Maiden Resource

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Blackham Resources (ASX: BLK) has completed an initial Mineral Resource estimate for the historical tailings at the company’s Wiluna Gold Operations in Western Australia.

Blackham Resources said the tailings are all within 2km of the Wiluna processing plant and have added 620,000 ounces to the Wiluna free milling gold Mineral Resource base.

The maiden Mineral Resource for the Wiluna Tailings is 33.6 million tonnes at 0.57 grams per tonne gold with 77 per cent of the Mineral Resource classified under the JORC 2012 code as Indicated Resources.

Blackham explained that historical tailings have accumulated at the site since the 1930s and recent independent metallurgical test work has shown potential gold recoveries of between 42 to 50 per cent can be achieved through standard mining and gold leaching processes.

The company added that additional metallurgical test work will potentially enhance the gold recovery and validate how this material may supplement its operating plans.

“Blackham has successfully identified additional free milling ore associated with the Golden Age mineralisation and the Wiluna oxidised zones,” Blackham Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“The company also continues its exploration programs into its priority Lake Way targets and has now completed the first phase of drilling.

“This drilling is the first new drilling in that area for 12 years and the company is awaiting final results.”

Blackham intends to continue to add to its free-milling resource inventory at its Wiluna operations with a view to fully utilising its available assets.

Annual updated Mineral Resource estimates are currently underway for all areas at Wiluna and are expected to be reported in the current quarter.

 

Email: info@blackhamresources.com.au

Website: www.blackhamresources.com.au

 

Alto Metals Lodges Mining Lease Applications

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Alto Metals has lodge a Mining Lease Application (MLA) over the Indomitable Camp deposits at the company’s Sandstone gold project in Western Australia.

Alto Metals has lodged the application, confident of a positive outcome to the current Scoping Study being carried out on the deposits.

Results from aircore drilling programs in 2017 and 2018 have led Alto to consider there to be an opportunity to commence open pit mining operations over several shallow oxide and primary gold deposits in the project’s Indomitable and Vanguard Camps.

“Alto has commissioned Carras Mining Pty Ltd to undertake Mineral Resource estimates of Tiger Moth, Piper, Indomitable and Vanguard, to form the basis of scoping study,” Alto Metals said in its ASX announcement.

“In anticipation of a positive outcome, and to minimise any delay, Alto has lodged a Mining Lease application over the Indomitable Camp deposits with the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DMIRS).

“Over the September Quarter of 2018, Alto expects to undertake drilling to collect samples for metallurgical testwork and other studies and will investigate processing options.

“The testwork and studies will occur in parallel with continued drill testing and exploration of a number of advanced gold-in-soil and litho-structural targets.”

 

Email: admin@altometals.com.au

Website: www.altometals.com.au

Galena Mining Granted Lease Covering Vital Infrastructure

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Galena Mining (ASX: G1A) has had a General Purpose (GP) Lease granted for all planned mine processing facilities and supporting infrastructure for the company’s Abra base metal project in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia.

Galena Mining said the granting of the lease, which includes administration, mine camp and airstrip was important in terms of maintaining momentum towards development.

The company indicated process engineering as a significant component of the ongoing Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) and having a permitted area for the associated infrastructure further de-risks the project.

“The granting of our GP lease is significant in that it provides security over the area adjoining the granted mining lease, which contains the Abra deposit, and enables us to expedite planning towards production,” Galena Mining CEO Ed Turner said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The PFS is on track towards completion in September.

Galena is carrying out a PFS investigating the economic viability of the Abra lead-silver-copper-gold deposit.

Besides the lease granting, other PFS components are well advanced and on track for completion in September 2018.

These include Mining Studies covering scheduling, production ramp-up and rates as well as integrating infill drilling that is aiming to convert additional tonnes of Inferred Resources to Indicated.

 

Email: admin@galenamining.com.au

Website: www.galenamining.com.au

 

Saturn Metals Doubles Drilling Efforts at Apollo Hill

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Saturn Metals (ASX: STN) has commenced a second phase RC resource drilling program at the company’s wholly-owned Apollo Hill gold project, near Leonora in the Western Australian goldfields.

Saturn Metals has mobilised two drill rigs to site to accelerate the program, which will comprise approximately 4,000 metres of RC drilling in 35 holes.

The company explained the planned holes will follow up on recent drilling results that have highlighted the potential to increase the scale of the known mineralised system from the project’s current 0.5 million ounce JORC 2012-compliant inferred gold resource of 17.2 million tonnes at 0.9 grams per tonne gold.

Recent drill results compared well with historic mineralised intervals, including:

AHRC0029
22 metres at 1.01g/t gold from 52m, including 11m at 1.49g/t gold from 52m (Northern Extension); and

AHRC0005
23m at 1.15g/t gold from 11m (Southern Extension).

The upcoming drilling will focus along a 250m southern extension corridor to the 1.1km long resource zone but will also look to extend mineralisation to the north where drilling remains open.

Other objectives of the RC drilling will be to follow up on recent higher-grade shoot intersections including:

AHRC0019
20m at 2.5g/t gold from 52m.

Saturn Metals is working towards an expected update to the resource later in 2018.

“This program of drilling is in keeping with Saturn’s objective of growing the Apollo Hill gold system,” Saturn Metals managing director Ian Bamborough said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We look forward to reporting results in due course and to including them in our new resource estimation.”

Saturn anticipates the program will take two to three weeks to complete, and will provide further information as results are received and analysed.

 

Email: info@saturnmetals.com.au

Website: www.saturnmetals.com.au

 

Teal Done, Goongarrie Lady to Come

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THE INSIDE STORY: Intermin Resources (ASX: IRC) is a gold exploration and mining company focussed on developing and operating gold mines within the Kalgoorlie and Menzies areas of Western Australia.

Intermin Resources currently has $8.5 million in the bank, carries no debt, and has a further $1 million in investments.

Intermin’s strategy is to develop a pipeline of gold mining projects to generate cash and self-fund aggressive exploration, mine developments and further acquisitions.

A strategy that was put to effective use at the Teal gold mine, from which ore was processed at the nearby Lakewood toll milling facility.

“We started the Teal gold mine late in 2016 and poured the last gold at that operation in May 2018,” Jon Price told The Resources Roadhouse.

“Teal was forecast to produce around 18,000 to 19,000 ounces of gold but produced 21,836 ounces.

“The development and operation of the Teal mine was a perfect example of our strategy to generate cash from developing and operating mines while using third party infrastructure in the region.”

The 100 per cent-owned Goongarrie Lady gold mine 85km north of Kalgoorlie-Boulder has been designated as Intermin’s next venture.

A scoping study for Goongarrie Lady in April 2017 was followed up with infill drilling to increase geological knowledge and confidence in the project.

A Feasibility Study followed, delivering an updated JORC 2012 Mineral Resource Estimate for Goongarrie Lady of 0.31 million tonnes at 2.4 grams per tonne gold for 24,000 ounces with over 87 per cent of the Mineral Resource Estimate sitting in the Measured and Indicated categories.

A maiden Ore Reserve estimated 0.135 million tonnes at 2.94g/t gold for 12,700 ounces.

The FS included metallurgical test work on representative samples from all ore zones achieving estimated recoveries of 94 per cent.

The Goongarrie Lady FS found the project to be technically strong and financially viable with specifications including an openpit mine designed to produce 135,000 tonnes at a fully diluted grade of 2.94g/t gold for 12,700 ounces over a seven month mine life.

Third party milling at 94 per cent metallurgical recovery has been estimated to recover 11,938 ounces of gold while capex is low at $0.73 million with C1 Costs of $1,131 per ounce and All In Sustaining Costs of $1,164 per ounce.

“The Scoping Study established around 10,000 to 15,000 ounces of gold with all in costs around $1100 to $1200 delivering a profit margin of around $500 per ounce,” Price said

“Three months to first gold and then the mine will be done and dusted within seven months, depositing some five to six million dollars in the bank, based on a $1,700 per ounce gold price.”

Next up for Goongarrie Lady is completing already well-advanced statutory approvals by the September and December quarters and a review of development options and negotiations with mining and haulage contractors and third-party toll milling operators leading to anticipated Board approval for mine development in 2019.

“The Feasibility Study gave us robust economic results with strong projected cash margins and reduced geological risk for the project,” Price said.

“As with the Teal gold mine, we have taken a conservative approach at Goongarrie Lady regarding both Resource estimation and development studies with infill drilling increasing geological confidence and mine optimisation studies adopting conservative cut off grades to ensure acceptable cash margins.”

With Goongarrie Lady development progressing, Intermin is casting its discovery net wider, commencing with a Resource growth drilling program of 55,000m planned within a $4 million budget.

A combination of RC and diamond drilling is underway with the stated aim to grow Resources and Reserves to one million ounces of gold to underpin a higher production profile and support a standalone milling option.

Fifty percent of the drilling budget is allocated to new discovery drilling and 50 per cent on Resource growth to grow the current Resource base.

“We are working to grow the business to where we want to see ourselves in 18 to 24 months, holding emerging mid-tier status producing 100,000 ounces per annum, with a four to five-year mine plan,” Price said.

New discovery targets include the Blister Dam project area, Anthill east and Fire Ant and new targets within the Teal gold camp.

Resource growth drilling will focus on extensions along strike and at depth at Anthill, Teal and the new Jacques Find discovery.

“The 25,000 metres of drilling at Teal has indicated four multiple, parallel structures sitting within a six-kilometre strike window,” Price continued.

“We now know this is a very big system, from which we expect a continuous flow of drilling results and Resource updates and mine planning as we look to understand how big this system is, particularly at depth.”

“We are conducting 14,000 metres of drilling at the Ant Hill mine to extend strike from the from the 80,000 ounces of Resource we have now to over 100 metres strike,” Price said.

“We anticipate extending to over 400 metres of strike and increasing the Resource by the same multiplication factor, but we have to let the drill bit tell us that.”

Intermin’s December quarter will be all about new discoveries at Blister Dam where the company will be drilling an area not drilled since the 1990s.

“There are not a lot of drill holes below 80 metres and where we have started to put some tester holes we are already hitting some very good grades,” Price said.

Besides its gold interests, Intermin has several Joint Ventures in place across multiple commodities and regions of Australia providing exposure to vanadium, copper, PGE’s, and nickel/cobalt where the JV partners are collectively earning in to projects by spending over $20 million over five years, thus enabling the company to focus on its gold business while maintaining upside leverage.

The most advanced of these is the Richmond vanadium project in northwest Queensland with a total Mineral Resource of 2,579 million tonnes at 0.32 per cent vanadium oxide (V2O5) at a 0.29 per cent cut-off.

JV partner AXF has committed to the project’s stage 2 expenditure of $5 million over three years to March 2021 inclusive of a Feasibility Study on commercial production to qualify for a 50 per cent interest.

In late 2017, AXF collected approximately 1.2 tonnes of vanadium samples from the Lilyvale prospect area sent to two research laboratories in China: Beijing General Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (BGRIMM), and Hunan Research Institute for Nonferrous Metals (HRINM).

Both Institutes account for over 60 per cent of test work conducted on vanadium in China jointly developed using AXF’s in-house expertise.

Metallurgical work on Lilydale samples confirmed previous work where 90 per cent of the contained V2O5 reported to the fine size fractions below 43 microns.

Initial two-stage concentration tests resulted in a 1.1 per cent V2O5 grade in 39 per cent of the mass at a 78.4 per cent recovery.

Work is now underway to optimise the pre-concentration stages with the aim of delivering a 1.5 per cent to two per cent V2O5 feed stock at acceptable recovery for downstream processing testwork.

“Results such as these from two highly-credentialed research institutes in China was a great result for the project,” Price said.

“We are now working with AXF on the downstream processing studies and upgrading the Lilyvale resource.”

 

Intermin Resources Limited (ASX: IRC)
…The Short Story

HEAD OFFICE
163-167 Stirling Hwy
Nedlands WA 6009

Ph: +61 (8) 9386 9534

Email: iadmin@intermin.com.au
Website: www.intermin.com.au

DIRECTORS
Peter Bilbe, Peter Hunt, Jon Price

 

Alto Metals Re-invigorating Sandstone Gold Potential

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THE INSIDE STORY: Alto Metals is aiming to re-establish standalone oxide and primary gold mining and milling operations at the company’s Sandstone gold project in Western Australia.

Alto Metals holds 800 square kilometres of the prospective Archaean Sandstone Goldfield in the East Murchison Mineral Field of WA.

Alto acquired the project in June 2016 and has compiled and reviewed a large legacy database leading to a series of focused exploration and drilling campaigns.

“We acquired the project in June 2016 andthe tenements were granted in September that year,” Alto Metals managing director Dermot Ryan explained to The Resources Roadhouse.

“During that 18 months we completed a detailed airborne magnetic survey, compiled a data base and made some new discoveries.

“Most of the Sandstone belt is covered by a layer of soil and sand and laterite, so airborne magnetics are needed to look to the basement rocks underneath to find favourable lithologies and structures for gold mineralisation.

“We did that, then burrowed through the Western Australia Mines Department historical soil sample and historical drilling results.

“We integrated those data sets and identified 56 targets we divided into camp-style areas, ranking them in order of potential prospectivity.”

Armed with this information, Alto aims to delineate a combined one million-ounce JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource, to be the basis for recommencing operations.

Work date has demonstrated this resource is likely to comprise relatively shallow gold deposits from brand new discoveries – new discoveries near known small deposits in the vicinity of Vanguard and Indomitable and expanding existing deposits such as Lord Nelson and Lord Henry.

“Oxidisation in the Sandstone region is around 50 metres deep, so drilling an angled hole to average of 41 metres depth, like many previous explorers at Sandstone, doesn’t test the primary zone,” Ryan explained.

“At targets such as Vanguard and Indomitable, we are drilling deeper, inexpensive aircore holes to get a good look in that primary zone with the view of developing these targets into open pit Resources we can mine from surface.

“For a junior company, discovering and mining a new deposit that is oxide on top and primary zone within 100 metres of surface is a better first option than drilling 200 to 300 metre holes under somebody else’s old pit.

“This deeper drilling can be funded later, or done now by others, if they have the requirement and the necessary funds.”

From a one-million-ounce start, Alto’s hopes to define over five million ounces of gold, which it considers comparable to other more intensely explored greenstone belts in the Yilgarn area.

Early results from RC and AC drilling conducted at the Vanguard and Indomitable targets demonstrated the Vanguard system contains many high-grade mineralised structures.

Alto’s drilling at Vanguard discovered four new high-grade mineralised structures, in addition to the previously known structure, providing further evidence the Vanguard system is robust and open.

Assay highlights from Alto’s RC drilling of the oxide zone at Vanguard included:

SRC046
8 metres at 7.8 grams per tonne from 34m;

SRC064
29m at 2.3g/t gold from 28m; and

SRC067
33m at 2.3g/t gold from 39m.

RC drill results from the primary zone at Vanguard included:

SRC075
22m at 4.2g/t gold from 88m, including 3m at 13.3g/t from 28m;

SRC016
17m at 4.5g/t gold from 122m, including 2m at 12.2g/t gold from 133m;

SRC032
22m at 3.3g/t gold from 103m, including 1m at 15g/t gold from 109m; and

SRC048
7m at 7g/t gold from 126m, including 2m at 10.8g/t gold from 128m.

“Between May and June 2018 we drilled over 12,000 metres of aircore over ten high priority prospect areas at Sandstone,” Ryan said.

“Approximately half of these holes, and half of the metres, were drilled around Vanguard and between Vanguard and Vanguard North.”

All five mineralised structures at Vanguard plunge shallowly to the northeast and remain open at depth.

The oxidation base was encountered at approximately 50m depth with mafic volcanics being the primary host rock.

A soil sampling program early this year identified a two square kilometre gold in soil anomaly connecting Vanguard and Vanguard North.

Assays of 197 of almost 400 samples from the Hancocks Mining Centre south of the Bull Oak pits defined a coherent 30 parts per billion (ppb) gold-in-soil anomaly over 9sqkm.

Assays from 28 samples out of a total of 340 samples collected near the Edale Fault returned anomalous results of over 7ppb gold in two discrete linear zones, each between 1,000m to1,500m long.

A third target, Chance, also lies on a splay of the Edale Fault.

“Our sampling program appears extensive, but we’re not blanket covering the whole belt,” Ryan said.

“We have focused on target areas of historic work that is incomplete.

“Once there, we are conducting detailed soil sampling to see if we can expand or constrain those targets for follow-up drilling.

“Although we have already completed 12,000 metres of aircore drilling this year, we have another 8,000 metres scheduled.”

More recent soil sampling over a geophysical target approximately 12km south of Sandstone has defined a plus 7ppb gold anomaly striking southeast over 1,500m.

In keeping with the history of naming prospects at Sandstone after WW1 British battleships, the target was dubbed ‘the Superb Anomaly’, possibly due to it returning a maximum value of 228ppb gold, with a further 13 samples returning over 15ppb gold.

The area hosting the Superb Anomaly was initially identified by Barry Bourne, a consultant of Terra Resources, in 2017 after processing and interpreting the detailed aeromagnetic data mentioned above that had been flown and/or compiled by Alto over the entire Sandstone project area.

Bourne described the target as, “a break in sediment/mafic stratigraphy with proximal mineralisation”.

“The Superb Anomaly lies in an area of iron rich duricrust, or laterite, so we need to determine whether the gold is representative of a primary gold source at depth, or is alluvial in nature,” Ryan explained.

“Further soil sampling will determine the extent of this gold in soil anomaly which is open to the south east.

“We have lodged a Program of Work for Aircore drilling with the Department of Mines, Industry and Safety and are awaiting approvals to enable us to start drilling.”

At the same time as the search proceeds for the new one million ounce discovery, Alto is reviewing potential for generating early cashflow from treating 100 year old battery sands from Hacks, Oroya, Havilah and Maninga Marley prospects.

Auger sampling and metallurgical test work is underway to determine the material’s viability for being incorporated into a low-cost heap leaching operation.

“There is still a lot of gold – underground – at Oroya, and we’re currently digitising the old level plans and having a look at what might be a residual Resource that we could do something with – or somebody else might want to do something with,” Ryan said.

“Hacks is another deposit mined by the old timers to the south of Sandstone that historically produced around 206,000 ounces of gold at 28 grams per tonne gold.

“In the short term we are reviewing all the existing open pits and looking at what potential may lie beneath them.

“The deposits we are looking at all have very high-grade in the primary zone.”

 

Alto Metals Ltd (ASX: AME)
…The Short Story

HEAD OFFICE
Suite 9
12 – 14 Thelma Street
West Perth, WA, 6005

Ph: +61 8 9381 2808

Email: admin@altometals.com.au
Web: www.altometals.com.au

DIRECTORS
Terry Streeter, Dermot Ryan, Dr Jingbin Wang, Terry Wheeler

 

Lithium Australia Subsidiary Commences Production of Lithium-ion Cathode Material

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THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Lithium Australia announced the first cathode material produced at VSPC’s re-commissioned pilot plant in Brisbane destined for delivery to international battery makers in Q4 2018.

A Lithium Australia subsidiary, VSPC is a specialist battery-component research and development laboratory.

The latter’s pilot production facilities in Brisbane are now fully re-commissioned, and lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery cathode material is being produced.

International battery makers have previously shown strong interest in VSPC’s 4th-generation LFP cathode material.

Tests completed late in 2017, demonstrated the performance of VSPC’s cathode material exceeded that of an industry standard material.

With its electrochemical laboratory facilities now fully operational, the quality and consistency of VSPC’s pilot-production materials are currently being verified via the company’s advanced, on-site electrochemical testing facilities, the capabilities of which include the ability to assemble and test lithium-ion coin and pouch cells.

“VSPC gives Lithium Australia the opportunity to manufacture the world’s most advanced cathode materials – at the high-margin end of the battery metals market,” Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Importantly, VSPC will also allow us to capitalise on waste batteries as a feed source.

“We anticipate immense pressure on the supply of energy metals such as lithium and cobalt in the near future.

“Battery recycling not only supports sustainability but may also, ultimately, prove the cheapest source of those energy metals materials in years to come.

“The ability to produce cathode powders from these materials, while also controlling particle size, is clearly advantageous.

“It is an integral part of our sustainable and ethical supply policy.”

 

Email: info@lithium-au.com

Website: www.lithium-au.com

 

Impact Minerals Drilling at Clermont Gold Project

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THE DRILL SERGEANT: Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT) has commenced drill testing of five target areas at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Clermont gold project located in the southern part of the Drummond Basin in Central Queensland.

Impact Minerals identified the targets via geophysical and geochemical data.

The project lies 30 kilometres south of the town of Clermont and about 50km south of Impact’s recently acquired Blackridge conglomerate-hosted gold project.

“A recently completed gradient array Induced Polarisation (IP) survey has identified multiple coherent northeast trending linear resistivity anomalies that coincide in part with numerous outcrops of gold-bearing quartz veins,” Impact Minerals said in its ASX announcement.

“The resistivity data suggests that the quartz veins extend over a strike length of at least 6,000 metres.”

Impact has taken 98 rock chip samples from variably gossanous quartz veins over the 6,000 metres of strike that returned assays of up to 8.1 grams per tonne gold with 35 samples returning assays of more than 0.1g/t gold and 10 returning assays greater than 1g/t gold.

“A review of an MMI soil geochemistry survey completed by Impact in 2012 showed that the linear resistivity anomalies are coincident with elevated gold, silver and lead in soil values as well as elevated copper to the north and zinc to the east,” the company said.

“The IP data together with the soil and rock chip geochemistry data have been used together with previous drilling data where appropriate to identify five priority areas for drilling.”

The Clermont gold project is located in the southern part of the Drummond Basin, which Impact described as being a prolific epithermal gold-silver belt hosting several world class gold deposits such as Pajingo (Vera-Nancy) (greater than 5 Moz), Mt Leyshon (greater than 3 Moz) and Mt Wright (greater than 1 Moz).

 

Email: info@impactminerals.com.au

Website: www.impactminerals.com.au