Aussie Juniors on the Cobalt Trail

/in , /by

COMMODITY CAPERS: The search for new cobalt resources in on in earnest with several ASX-listed explorers conducting greenfield exploration and revisiting previous results across their tenements.

Jervois Mining (ASX: JVR) has developed its Nico Young cobalt-nickel project into a core asset, with cobalt-nickel resources becoming increasing valuable due to the forecast acceleration in demand.

The Nico Young exploration licenses, held by Jervois, contain published JORC Inferred resources of:

167.8 million tonnes at 0.59 per cent nickel and 0.06 per cent cobalt (using a 0.6% nickel equivalent cut-off), including a higher-grade zone of 42.5 million tonnes at 0.8 per cent nickel and 0.09 per cent cobalt (using a 1% nickel equivalent cut-off).

Within this mineral resource, focusing upon cobalt leads to JORC Inferred resource of:

99.1 million tonnes at 0.58 per cent nickel and 0.08 per cent cobalt (using a 0.05% cobalt cut-off), including 33.4 million tonnes at 0.66 per cent nickel and 0.12 per cent cobalt (using a 0.08% cobalt-cut off).

The company is currently undertaking a drilling campaign with the view to define an Indicated Resource.

The intention of the infill drilling is to consolidate current nickel-cobalt mineralisation and delineate the extents of high-grade cobalt zones.

Jervois considers that expanding the size and geological confidence of shallow cobalt rich zones will assist early mining studies, which will be reviewed as part of a Preliminary Feasibility Study.

Corazon Mining (ASX: CZN) has recently extended the cobalt footprint of its Cobalt Ridge prospect within the company’s Mt Gilmore project near Grafton in north-eastern New South Wales.

Corazon claimed discovery of four new cobalt-copper-gold anomalies at the Cobalt Ridge prospect.

The new geochemical anomalies have extended the known cobalt-mineralised system at Cobalt Ridge to an area of approximately three kilometres in strike and one kilometre in width, which remains open in all directions.

The company said the newly-identified cobalt-copper-gold anomalies strengthen its exploration model for the entire project area to potentially host cobalt dominant sulphide deposits, in addition to the known mineralisation at the Cobalt Ridge prospect.

The new anomalies were identified via results from a recently completed geochemical soil-sampling program at Cobalt Ridge testing for extensions to previously defined mineralisation.

Corazon owns a 51 per cent interest in the project, and the exclusive right to earn up to an 80 per cent interest.

Recent drilling by Corazon at Cobalt Ridge has validated historical mining and exploration results and confirmed the presence of multiple zones of cobalt-copper-gold sulphide mineralisation over a strike length of at least 300 metres.

The mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth.

The Main Cobalt Lode has been the primary target of the company’s recent drilling (and much of the historical drilling).

This lode is up to 25m in true width and contains multiple narrow zones of higher-grade mineralisation.

Of course, Australia is not the only country to be blessed with attractive amounts of cobalt endowment, which is why some ASX exploration plays are active overseas.

Blackstone Minerals (ASX: BSX) recently commenced a maiden drilling program at the company’s high-grade Little Gem cobalt-gold project in British Columbia, Canada.

The first diamond drill hole of the program tested the upper portion of the alteration zone.

Although the hole was terminated (due to mechanical issues) halfway through the mineralised target, it had managed to intersect massive, semi-massive and disseminated mineralisation with results including:

4.3 metres at 1 per cent cobalt and 15 grams per tonne gold, including 1.1m at 3 per cent cobalt and 44g/t gold.

The initial results Blackstone achieved from the maiden drilling at Little Gem are consistent with historic drilling and adit channel sampling, which returned average grades of 3 per cent cobalt and 20g/t gold.

Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS) is currently drilling its second diamond drilling campaign on the company’s 100 per cent-owned Sara Alicia gold and cobalt project in the northern Mexican state of Sonora.

The drilling is following up Azure’s 2017 maiden drilling program, in which all six drill holes intersected high-grades of gold and cobalt mineralisation at shallow depths, returning a best intersection of:

26.2m at 9.5g/t gold and 1.26 per cent cobalt from 0.60m depth, including 12.6m at 16.8g/t gold and 6.35m at 3.57 per cent cobalt.

The new drilling has been designed to target along-strike and down-dip extensions of the high-grade mineralisation intersected in the 2017 program.

Based upon anticipating further success, Azure is already planning a second phase of drilling to complete a 50m by 50m drill pattern over the mineralised body.

 

 

Cobalt Firms into Battery Favouritism

/in , /by

COMMODITY CAPERS: Try striking up a conversation about lithium-ion batteries without cobalt eventually featuring.

The reason is simple, cobalt contributes up to 60 per cent of the value of lithium-ion batteries, which in turn accounts for 42 per cent of demand for cobalt.

Cobalt’s other main use at 16% is in superalloys which compliments the battery demand as high-tech industry grows.

Therefore, there is little surprise that cobalt represents similar percentages of any discussion of lithium-ion batteries, electric vehicles (EVs) and all the other electronic paraphernalia that rules our modern world.

We have spoken in previous articles on how the lithium-ion battery is projected to become the world’s most significant source of power with their use in EVs being a key driver.

Bloomberg forecasts 35 per cent of vehicles sold by 2040 will be electric.

Those of us who remember the seventies know that isn’t far away and the fact that currently only one per cent of global car sales are EVs means they will be an omnipotent presence on our roads sooner rather than later.

One only has to recall how cool it was to have been the first kid in class to own a Casio digital watch to understand.

The number crunchers have determined cobalt demand is expected to rise at five per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next four years.

Cobalt has been something of a poorer cousin in recent commodity terms, especially when compared to the battery markets eponymous metal, lithium.

Lithium kicked off all the excitement – and it took a long time to take off as crusty old exploration company executives struggled to come to the realisation that gold, iron ore, and uranium may have been losing the appeal, and importance, they once exerted over the rest.

Cobalt is expected to have a supply deficit as currently mining is only just meeting demand.

This has been reflected in a rise in the cobalt price which Deloitte, in its recent WA Index March 2018, said had,” increased by 1.4 per cent to US$81,000 per tonne as a beneficiary of bullish global demand for lithium.”

Deloitte claimed that electronics giant, Apple had been the subject of reports suggesting it was, “Entering into talks to secure long-term supplies of cobalt directly from cobalt miners amid fears of a looming shortage attributable to what has been coined the electric vehicle boom, has seen the metal’s price increase across February.”

The current price is heading in the right way, but it is still shy of the heady days of 2008 when it was sitting at US$52/lb (US$115,000/t), which was coincidently, also the last time global supplies of cobalt were in deficit.

The reason global cobalt supply is as tight as it is stems from approximately 98 per cent of the world’s supply being produced as a by-product of copper and nickel production with 15 mines representing half of the world’s supply.

Not only does this make supply tight, it also exposes it to any supply stream disruption, such as the shutdown of copper mining in the Katanga Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) slicing off three per cent of cobalt supply.

Sixty per cent of global production comes from the DRC, which has a reputation as a politically unstable country and is thought by many to be somewhat unethical in its approach to the mining industry.

In the Fraser Institute Survey of Mining Companies, 2017, DRC was rated amongst the bottom ten jurisdiction in the world for investment according to the survey’s Policy Perception Index (PPI), a composite index that measures the overall policy attractiveness of the 91 jurisdictions in the survey.

That means the good corporate citizens of the world are looking elsewhere for their cobalt supplies to produce ethically-cleansed products for their equally ethically-minded customer base.

At the recent RIU Explorers conference, Patersons senior resources analyst Simon Tonkin declared cobalt as being the best performing commodity over the past 12 months.

“Cobalt is a critical metal in terms of lithium-ion batteries and it is very difficult to secure supply,” he said.

Tonkin suggested there was potential for the demand for cobalt to double by 2022 and that by 2030 some estimates are for 47 times the current cobalt demand.

“Australia has the second largest cobalt reserves in the world, he said.

“Hopefully we can look to exploit that position.”

 

 

Peel Mining Confirms Large-Scale Mineral System at Wagga Tank

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Peel Mining (ASX: PEX) released further drill results from the company’s 100 per cent-owned Wagga Tank/Southern Nights project, south of Cobar in western New South Wales.

Peel Mining said the results continue to confirm its view that it has discovered a large or ‘camp-scale’ base metal-rich mineral system comprising multiple high-grade deposits clustered close to one another.

The drilling was carried out before and after the Christmas/New Year break and Peel considers them to emphasise the extensive and high-grade nature of zinc-lead-silver-gold mineralisation present at the Southern Nights prospect.

Other drilling included a first-pass program on the The Bird/Fenceline prospect, the results from which indicate potential to add further high-grade mineralisation to the Wagga Tank/Southern Nights project.

Previous and latest high-grade zinc-lead-silver-gold intercepts from Southern Nights, returned:

WTRCDD062
12m at 16.11 per cent zinc, 5.41 per cent lead, 151 grams per tonne silver, 0.44g/t gold from 215m;

WTRCDD061
15m at 4.81 per cent zinc, 2.31 per cent lead, 0.61 per cent copper, 66g/t silver, 0.59g/t gold from 234m and 18m at 4.41 per cent zinc, 1.57 per cent lead, 19g/t silver, 0.12g/t gold from 274m;

WTRCDD075
9.2m at 7.18 per cent zinc, 1.98 per cent lead, 0.48 per cent copper, 34g/t silver, 0.64g/t gold from 263m;

WTRC090
6m at 5.01 per cent zinc, 1.91 per cent lead, 435g/t silver, 2.46g/t gold from 195m; and

WTRC093
22m at 4.71 per cent zinc, 1.93 per cent lead, 80g/t silver, 0.12g/t gold from 178m.

The recent drilling confirmed the Bird/Fenceline prospect as an additional high-priority target with high-grade lead-silver-gold intercepts returned.

Better assays include:

TBRC001
24m at 12.55 per cent lead, 0.2 per cent zinc, 68g/t silver, 2.49g/t gold from 118m, including 13m at 21.49 per cent lead, 0.27 per cent zinc, 120g/t silver, 4.36g/t gold from 119m;

TBRC002
6m at 11.69 per cent lead, 0.4 per cent zinc, 39g/t silver, 1.38g/t gold from 91m, including 3m at 20.95 per cent lead, 0.61 per cent zinc, 66g/t silver, 2.08g/t gold from 92m; and

TBRC012
2m at 7.48 per cent zinc, 4.49 per cent lead, 36g/t silver, 0.21g/t gold from 137m.

“RC and diamond drilling at the Wagga Tank/Southern Nights project is ongoing, with a focus on processing and sampling drilling material that is currently at hand,” Peel Mining said in its ASX announcement.

“Follow-up drilling at Fenceline/The Bird is also planned.

“Drilling will be designed to continue to test for strike and dip extensions; and to test other targets in the general Wagga Tank area.

“Additional surface geophysical surveys are also planned to assist with targeting.

“First-pass metallurgical testwork is underway with follow-up work expected to commence during the next quarter.”

 

Email: info@peelmining.com.au

Website: www.peelmining.com.au

 

Corazon Mining Extends Cobalt Ridge Footprint

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Corazon Mining (ASX: CZN) claimed discovery of four new cobalt-copper-gold anomalies at the Cobalt Ridge prospect, located within the company’s Mt Gilmore project in New South Wales.

Corazon Mining said the new geochemical anomalies have extended the known cobalt-mineralised system at Cobalt Ridge to an area of approximately three kilometres in strike and one kilometre in width, which remains open in all directions.

The company said the newly-identified cobalt-copper-gold anomalies strengthen its exploration model for the entire project area to potentially host cobalt dominant sulphide deposits, in addition to the known mineralisation at the Cobalt Ridge prospect.

The new anomalies were identified via results from a recently completed geochemical soil-sampling program at Cobalt Ridge testing for extensions to previously defined mineralisation.

Corazon is continuing its exploration activities at the project, including additional sampling, mapping and geophysics, which it will use to define specific targets for the next phase of drilling.

“To date, the results of Corazon’s exploration work at Cobalt Ridge suggests the geochemical dispersion of metals within the soil profile is restricted due to the carbonate rich nature of the host rocks,” Corazon Mining said in its ASX announcement.

“As such soil sampling has proven to be a good indicator of mineralised basement.

“Four new areas of interest have been identified from this latest soil-sampling program.

“The generated anomalies are of lower tenor than that discovered over the Cobalt Ridge outcrop areas, where mineralisation outcrops.

“However, they are not closed off and may represent the margins of much larger soil anomalies.

“Field validation, infill and extension soil sampling is currently underway to further test these features.”

 

Email: info@corazon.com.au

Website: www.corazon.com.au

 

Barra Resources Develops New Burbanks Gold Strategy

/in , /by

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Barra Resources (ASX: BAR) has completed a strategic review of its gold assets resulting in an updated gold exploration strategy for the company’s wholly-owned Burbanks gold project southeast of Coolgardie in Western Australia.

Barra Resources recently consolidated ownership over the entire Burbanks gold project following the re-acquisition of the Birthday Gift gold mine, which the company said was the first key step in the implementation of its new gold strategy.

The company explained that the Birthday Gift acquisition returns millions of dollars of underground development and infrastructure back into its portfolio with the Birthday Gift decline providing future access to in-situ resources and untapped depth potential at both Birthday Gift and Main Lode, two historically rich high-grade mines separated by just 600 metres of future decline extension.

Barra now has uninterrupted access to five kilometres of strike along the Burbanks Shear Zone, historically one of the richest gold producing structures in the Coolgardie Goldfield.

From here the company hopes to build the resource inventory at Burbanks by embarking on a clear, focused and systematic exploration program targeting a newly established Exploration Target for Burbanks.

“The company’s new gold strategy sets a pathway targeting over 500,000 ounces of gold before embarking on a new mine plan and ultimately restarting mining operations,” Barra Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“The addition of a JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate of 95,400 ounces via the acquisition of Birthday Gift provides a solid foundation that will underpin resource growth at Burbanks via accelerated exploration activity.”

 

Email: info@barraresources.com.au

Website: www.barraresources.com.au

 

Intermin Resources Accrues World-Class Vanadium Resource

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Intermin Resources (ASX: IRC) released an updated JORC 2012-compliant Mineral Resource for the company’s Richmond vanadium project in central north Queensland.

Intermin Resources owns 100 per cent in five Mineral Exploration Permits (EPM25163, EPM25164, EPM25258, EPM26425 and EPM26426) covering 481 Blocks near Richmond and 100 per cent of the metal rights to Global Oil Shale Plc’s Julia Creek (Burwood) MDL 522.

The company explained the updated Mineral Resource has been compiled to consider changes to tenement boundaries and to ensure compliance with the JORC Code (2012).

The Mineral Resource for the Richmond project area now stands at:

2,579 million tonnes at 0.32 per cent vanadium oxide (V2O5) at a 0.29 per cent lower cut-off grade.

The Richmond project is a Joint Venture with Chinese backed AXF Vanadium Pty Ltd (AXF), under which AXF can earn up to 75 per cent interest by spending $6 million by 2021 inclusive of completion of a Feasibility Study.

“The Richmond project hosts a globally significant Vanadium resource amenable to low cost, shallow open cut mining in close proximity to existing road, rail and ports,” Intermin Resources managing director Jon Price said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“With vanadium prices reaching ten-year highs on the back of tightening supply and surging demand in the grid-scale battery market, Richmond has the potential to become a major supplier of vanadium to the energy storage and steel markets.

“The company looks forward to supporting AXF as the JV completes infill drilling and metallurgical test work to assess the most economic and efficient pathway to commercial production.”

 

Email: iadmin@intermin.com.au

Website: www.intermin.com.au

Alto Metals Improves Vanguard Gold Values

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Alto Metals (ASX: AME) released results from 50gm fire assays carried out on one-metre individual RC samples from a recent drilling program.

Alto Metals said the 15 hole and 1 re-entry drilling program had been undertaken in February at the Vanguard prospect within the company’s Sandstone gold project in the East Murchison Mineral Field of Western Australia.

Fire assays from one-metre samples from Vanguard primary zone include:

SRC075
25 metres at 3.8 grams per tonne gold from 85m, including 9m at 6.4g/t gold from 89m and 6m at 7g/t gold from 104m, including 4m at 10.7g/t gold from 106m; and

SRC060
10m at 3.7g/t gold from 81m.

On completion of the Vanguard drilling, Alto moved the RC rig to the Indomitable prospect to test a new model of mineralisation.

Fire assays from one-metre composite samples from the three holes completed before the weather moved in returned numerous 1m to 5m intervals of 0.5g/t gold to 1.95g/t gold.

The best result returned was:

SRC086
5m at 2.5g/t gold from 91m.

“As reported on 20 February 2018, the RC drilling completed in February has better defined the structures hosting gold mineralisation in fresh rock, and shown that the mineralisation remains open at depth,” Alto Metals said in its ASX announcement.

“As expected, 50gm fire assays of the one-metre samples produced higher-grade gold results over slightly shorter intervals than the assays from the four-metre composite samples.”

 

Email: admin@altometals.com.au

Website: www.altometals.com.au

Magmatic Resources Identifies 2km Mineralised Gold Trend

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Magmatic Resources (ASX: MAG) informed the market of completion of RC drilling at the MacGregors and MacGregors South targets at the company’s Parkes Joint Venture project in New South Wales.

Magmatic Resources said the drilling identified a two-kilometre mineralised gold trend at higher grades than previous exploration.

Three deep RC holes were undertaken at MacGregors to test mineralisation intersected in previous Gold Fields drilling, returning best intersections of:

PERC021
10 metres at 1.25 grams per tonne gold from 146m within a broader zone of 19m at 0.8g/t gold;

PERC022
15m at 0.74g/t gold from 108m within a broader zone of 30m at 0.57g/t gold; and

PERC023
4m at 1.29g/t gold from 136m.

At MacGregors South 20 RC holes targeted an elongate NNE-trending arsenic and gold anomaly identified by previous auger drilling and a recent hand-portable pXRF program.

Magmatic explained the anomaly to be adjacent to a magnetic high zone within Forbes Group metasediments (slates and lithic sandstone) which it has interpreted to be a regional scale fault: the Parkes Fault Zone.

Best results included:

PERC013
5m at 0.71g/t gold from surface.

PERC014
2m at 1.47g/t gold from 30m.

“These results follow our successful drilling at the Lady Ilse 10 kilometre copper-gold trend and Boxdale-Carlisle Reefs 15 kilometre gold trend,” Magmatic Resources managing director David Richardson said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“These results give Magmatic three significant gold projects, with follow up work programs planned for the next quarter.”

The Parkes JV is a Joint Venture with the Japanese government resource agency Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC).

JOGMEC has agreed to expand its first-year exploration expenditure from $1 million to $1.35 million.

This enabled completion of the MacGregors – MacGregors South drill program and a diamond drilling program at Alectown, the assays for which are on their way.

 

 

Website: www.magmaticresources.com

Saturn Metals Drilling at Apollo Hill

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Saturn Metals (ASX: STN) announced the commencement of a maiden Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Apollo Hill gold project in the Western Australian goldfields.

Saturn Metals carried out a re-interpretation of historical drill data from Apollo Hill, from which it has highlighted the potential for several stacked, higher grade plunging shoots within the greater gold system.

The recently-listed company indicated that drilling will specifically follow up on historic intersections including:

2 metres at 69.6 grams per tonne gold from 146m; and
5.3m at 10.3g/t gold from 70.7m.

Saturn Metals intends testing these targets from two new drill orientations optimal to the new geological interpretations.

The company declared an additional objective of the drill program, which will be to identify further mineralisation and gather information for use in the calculation of a new resource for the project.

An updated Resource is anticipated to be ready to announce in mid to late 2018.

Drilling will also step out along strike to the north and south where only shallow aircore drilling has tested the mineralised Apollo Hill fault zone beneath the cover sequence.

“We are excited to start drilling and test some of the new theories that have been developed in the process of preparing the company for listing on the ASX,” Saturn Metals managing director Ian Bamborough said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The drill program, whilst providing the required information for the next resource calculation, also has the potential to further unlock the geological understanding of the prospect and highlight a significant new style of higher-grade gold target.”

Saturn has approximately 3,000m of RC drilling planned in this initial phase of exploration, with the program estimated to take three to four weeks to complete.

A follow-up phase of diamond drilling has already been scheduled for May 2018.

 

Email: info@saturnmetals.com.au

Website: www.saturnmetals.com.au

Rox Resources and Arafura Resources Restructure Bonya JV

/in , /by

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Rox Resources (ASX: RXL) has restructured its Bonya Joint Venture with Arafura Resources (ASX: ARU) in the Northern Territory.

Rox Resources explained the JV has been restructured to simplify the current arrangements between both parties.

Back in 2014, Rox earned a 51 per cent interest in certain minerals, (copper, lead, zinc, silver, gold, bismuth and PGE’s), collectively known as the ‘JV Minerals’ on the joint venture tenement.

Arafura held 49 per cent of these minerals plus 100 per cent of other minerals, including the highly prospective tungsten and molybdenum mineralisation known to outcrop -referred to as ‘Other Minerals’.

The restructure of the joint venture interests has resulted in Rox divesting 11 per cent of its interest in the JV Minerals to Arafura, with Arafura to transfer 40 per cent of its interest in the Other Minerals to Rox.

“Each party will then own an interest in all of the minerals, with the percentage interests of the parties in the joint venture being Rox 40 per cent and Arafura 60 per cent,” Rox Resources said in its ASX announcement.

“This simplifies the structure and operation of the joint venture.

“Rox will continue to be operator of the joint venture.”

In 2014 Rox discovered high-grade copper mineralisation at the Bonya Mine prospect, including:

11 metres at 4.4 per cent copper from 30m, and
38m at 4.4 per cent copper from 60m.

Recent exploration has outlined a gravity anomaly at the northern end of the Jervois line of mineralisation, which has been interpreted to suggest that the Jervois copper-silver-zinc-lead system may extend into the joint venture tenement.

Further exploration is planned this year to define suitable targets for drilling.

 

Email: admin@roxresources.com.au

Website: www.roxresources.com.au