Azure Minerals Returns Positive Metallurgical Results from Oposura

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Azure Minerals (ASX: AZS) reported positive results from preliminary metallurgical testwork carried out on sulphide mineralisation from the company’s Oposura project, located in the northern Mexican state of Sonora.

Azure Minerals explained the metallurgical testwork is being undertaken in parallel with an accelerated resource drill-out program for Oposura, where the company currently has three diamond rigs operating with the aim of delivering a maiden mineral resource estimate in March-April 2018.

Azure completed a series of flotation tests on a composite sample comprising sulphide mineralisation and waste rock taken from historical underground workings at Oposura.

The head grade of the composite sample was 7.2 per cent zinc, 5.9 per cent lead, 0.2 per cent copper and 43.9 grams per tonne silver, which the company considers to be similar to the grade of the overall mineralised horizon at Oposura.

The final test in this program comprised a full dual circuit lead-silver and zinc flotation test, replicating a typical dual circuit flotation plant utilised to treat lead, zinc and silver ores in order to produce separate lead-silver and zinc sulphide concentrates.

The results of the last test in the series for a lead-silver concentrate, demonstrated that a lead concentrate grade of between 53 per cent and 58 per cent could be achieved at lead recoveries respectively of between 82 per cent and 78 per cent.

The silver grade in the lead concentrate varied between 330g/t silver and 360g/t silver.

The test showed a zinc concentrate grade of between 52 per cent and 60 per cent could be achieved at zinc recoveries respectively of between 71 per cent and 68 per cent.

The company declared these to be very encouraging results for a preliminary testwork program.

“Metallurgical factors are always critical when evaluating project viability, and the earlier that this is achieved, the better,” Azure Minerals managing director Tony Rovira said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“This high-level study was undertaken to ensure that the zinc, lead and silver mineralisation at Oposura could be extracted and concentrated into an easily saleable product.

“These very favourable results allow us to continue progressing development studies with confidence.”

Website: www.azureminerals.com.au

St George Mining Trumpets Thick Nickel Copper Intersection At Stricklands

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) reported a nice, big thick intersection of nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation at the company’s Mt Alexander project in Western Australia.

St George Mining reported drill hole MAD71, undertaken at the Stricklands prospect, intersected 17 metres of nickel-copper sulphide mineralisation from 37.5m downhole comprising massive, matrix, stringer, brecciated and disseminated nickel sulphides.

The intersection included massive nickel-copper sulphides comprising a total of 10.1m of the overall intersection.

St George explained that MAD71 mineralisation is open to the north and west.

The hole was drilled within a large SAMSON EM anomaly, which largely remains untested.

A downhole EM (DHEM) survey will be completed in MAD71 later this week, after which further drilling at Stricklands will be prioritised following review of the survey data.

“The results in MAD71 are outstanding with thick widths of high grade mineralisation at shallow depths,” St George Mining executive chairman John Prineas said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“This is very favourable for the economics of a potential mining operation at Mt Alexander.

“We have already established recurrent high-grade mineralisation over a 3.5 kilometres strike length in the Cathedrals Belt.

‘Now, with the exceptional intersection in MAD71, the confidence in the resource potential at Mt Alexander continues to build.”

St George completed a fixed loop EM (FLEM) survey earlier this year that identified the large EM anomaly at the Stricklands prospect.

The EM anomaly was tested previously by drill hole MAD49, which intersected a 42.5m thick ultramafic unit returning:

18.86m at 0.42 per cent nickel, 0.16 per cent copper, 0.02 per cent cobalt and 0.36 grams per tonne total PGEs from 31.8m; and

3.36m at 2.09 per cent nickel, 1.18 per cent copper, 0.09 per cent cobalt and 1.82g/t total PGEs from 50.66m.

MAD71 was drilled 15m to the north of MAD49 to test the continuity of the mineralised ultramafic and the potential for further nickel-copper mineralisation.

The hole displayed over 10 cumulative metres of massive nickel-copper sulphides with hand held XRF readings averaging 5.5 per cent nickel and 2.1 per cent copper.

St George indicated a conclusive determination of the nickel, copper, cobalt and PGE values of the sulphide mineralisation will be confirmed when laboratory assays are available.

The company considers the thickness of the cumulative ultramafic and the volume of nickel-copper sulphides returned to date to be supportive of further mineralisation being intercepted to the west and north of MAD71, where the strong associated SAMSON EM anomaly remains untested.

 

Email: info@stgm.com.au

 

Website: www.stgm.com.au

Stavely Minerals’ Confidence in Thursday’s Gossan Strengthens

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Stavely Minerals (ASX: SVY) released technical information, which it claims provides strong independent support for potential of a world-class porphyry copper-gold deposit at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Stavely copper project in western Victoria.

Stavely Minerals has recently completed RC and diamond drilling it says has not only produced impressive copper-gold assays, but has also provided further strong indications for a potential discovery.

The company said technical data collected from recent drilling at the Thursday’s Gossan porphyry copper-gold prospect has surpassed previously released copper and gold grades, leading the company to consider it may have a reasonable copper-gold discovery opportunity.

Results of recent drilling have been interpreted to be structurally controlled ‘leakage’ from a mineralised alkalic copper-gold porphyry at depth.

Independent datasets have highlighted a copper-gold porphyry target zone located beneath recent drilling.

These include: Short-wavelength absorption features for white micas highlight the shortest wavelengths in the hangingwall to the ‘leakage’ structure, indicating proximity to a porphyry source; and the occurrence of ‘acid-sulphate’ alteration minerals, including pyrophyllite and alunite together with observed vuggy silica textures the company considers characteristic of a high-level position in the mineralised system for the drilling to date.

“We have now amassed a significant body of independent technical work – augmented by independent technical experts who are individual leaders in the field of porphyry exploration – which provides strong support for the discovery potential and the targeting approach we have adopted at Thursday’s Gossan,” Stavely Minerals managing director Chris Cairns said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We hope that by providing open access to the underlying experts’ reports and providing a downloadable 3D model with various switchable layers that can be interrogated and rotated, we can better share the reasons why we are so excited about the discovery opportunity ahead of us.

“To put it simply, we want everyone to be able to see what we are seeing.”

Stavely Minerals already has the next phase of follow-up diamond drilling at Thursday’s Gossan underway, with the first hole completed and the second in-progress.

The company has a total of up to eight holes planned as part of the current program, with drilling set to continue for the next few months.

Website: www.stavely.com.au

Emmerson Resources Drilling in NSW and NT

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Emmerson Resources (ASX: ERM) recently completed a geophysical survey at the company’s Kadungle project in New South Wales.

Emmerson Resources informed the market it will be drilling on this project shortly, as well as at its Tennant Creek project in the Northern Territory.

Emmerson explained the Kadungle drilling is funded from a recent $2 million capital raising while the drilling at Tennant Creek is funded by the company’s partner, Evolution Mining (ASX: EVN) as part of a $15 million earn-in and JV where Emmerson is the manager and operator.

Emmerson completed an IP geophysical survey and alteration mapping at the Mt Leadley prospect within the Kadungle project, which it says confirms potential for shallow gold and deeper copper-gold mineralisation.

The activities have demonstrated the IP anomalies to be apparent across five consecutive lines, over one kilometre and within a previously identified zone of magnetite destruction.

Emmerson explained this was the first systematic exploration it has conducted on this project and although there has been previous but limited drilling, the company’s recent work has extended the project’s shallow gold and deeper copper-gold potential, as most of the anomalies remain untested.

At Tennant Creek a drilling campaign is currently underway focusing on extending previously discovered, high-grade copper and gold at the Gecko-Goanna project.

A previous deep co-funded drill hole by Emmerson/Evolution and the NT Geological survey intersected:

7 metres at 5.98 per cent copper, including 3m at 10.4 per cent copper from 123m down the hole.

A further zone of 3m at 4.75 per cent copper, including 1m at 10.6 per cent copper from 162m remains open in all directions and will be tested by eight RC drill holes.

In addition, a down plunge diamond hole at Goanna will test for deeper extensions beneath the previously intersected, high-grade copper and gold.

“The recent systematic exploration over the Kadungle project has produced further indications of a large shallow epithermal gold and deeper porphyry copper-gold system,” Emmerson Resources managing director Rob Bills said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Pleasingly the scale of the alteration and mineralisation over approximately two kilometres has been confirmed by the recent geophysical surveys and significantly, the better geophysical targets remain untested.

“Drilling will commence in late November and is focussed on establishing the extent and grade of both shallow epithermal gold and deeper porphyry copper-gold.”

Website: www.emmersonresources.com.au

Talisman Mining Completes RC Program At Sinclair Nickel Project

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Talisman Mining (ASX: TLM) completed a five-hole RC drill program at the company’s 100 per cent- owned Sinclair nickel project in Western Australia.

Talisman Mining explained the drilling was carried out to follow-up recent highly encouraging results at the Schmitz Well South and Delphi North prospects.

Four holes were undertaken at the Schmitz Well South prospect along strike and downdip from recent air-core (AC) drilling results at Schmitz Well South, which had returned:

SNAC0083
1 metre at 0.68 per cent nickel from 27m down-hole; and

SNAC0096
5m at 0.5 per cent nickel from 50m down-hole.

Although all four holes of the latest RC drilling program intersected a consistent, thick sequence of high-magnesian ultramafic rocks including minor disseminated sulphides, they did not return any significant nickel intersections.

“Talisman interprets the results to represent a possible channel flow environment with the potential to host accumulations of nickel sulphides,” Talisman Mining said in its ASX announcement.

“The thick ultramafic sequence overlies a basaltic footwall unit similar to that seen at the Sinclair Mine and other locations along the ultramafic belt.”

The fifth hole of the recent drilling program was carried out on the Delphi North prospect with the aim of providing the company with further understanding of the interpreted massive and disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation near high conductance electromagnetic (EM) conductors it had identified in previous drilling.

The company reported the drill hole intersected the lower edge of previously modelled EM conductors and encountered massive and disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation on the basal contact.

Assays results included:

SNRC031
2m at 1.95 per cent nickel from 198m down-hole, including 1m at 2.97 per cent nickel from 199m down-hole.

Talisman said the results from this hole had continued to highlight the potential for additional sulphide mineralisation at Delphi North where previous RC and diamond drilling has returned encouraging results.

“Talisman will continue to evaluate the potential of the Delphi North prospect to host economic nickel sulphide mineralisation and to develop exploration programs across the wider Sinclair nickel project as part of it’s staged, cost effective exploration strategy,” the company said.

 

Email: info@talismanmining.com.au

 

Website: www.talismanmining.com.au

Western Australian Lithium Miners in right Spot at Right Time

/in /by

THE CONFERENCE CALLER: The Western Australian lithium industry has always been healthy and according to Tianqi Lithium Australia general manager Phil Thick it’s going to get healthier.

Presenting to the first day crowd at the Low Emissions and Technology Minerals Conference in Perth, Thick reminded the audience of WA lithium’s current global standing.

“Until last year a third of the world’s lithium came out of Western Australia,” he said.

“All of that lithium came out of one mine – the Talisman mine at Greenbushes.

“So, we already have a dominant position in the world.”

Thick informed the room that over the past year or so there has been, in Western Australia, other miners that have commenced exporting both raw spodumene rock and spodumene concentrate.

“If we add up the announced, potential production of all of the West Australian ASX-listed companies it comes to somewhere between three and four million tonnes per annum of spodumene concentrate,” he said.

“If we convert all of that into lithium carbonate equivalent – it is about two and a half times what the world is currently using.”

Thick tossed up a couple of disclaimers, including the time frame that it will take these projects to get into production and their combined ability to meet the growing global demand, which he expects to grow considerably over the next couple of years.

He mentioned there were already a small number of WA lithium miners that are making noises regarding moving into the downstream processing realm.

“We could do what we do very well in Western Australia, which is to dig the rocks out of the ground and send it all to China for them to process and add value,” he said.

“That is what has happened to date with all the lithium that comes out of Greenbushes.

“Or, we could move further down the stream, and it wold be great to have three or four companies in this state all processing their spodumene rock into something that is of significantly higher value.”

Thick’s company, Tianqi Lithium Australia is already doing this, at its refinery in Kwinana, which is the site of BHP Nickel West’s proposed expansion.

He said that over the course of the two-day conference delegates could expect to hear plenty of discussion about the emerging Electric Vehicle market and the effect it has had on the lithium market, especially in the past 12 months.

“Twelve months ago, there was a lot of speculation and there wasn’t much fact built into what lithium demand was going to do over the next ten years,” he said.

“In the past six months, just about every significant car manufacturer outside of China has come forward with some pretty hard numbers around what they are going to be doing between now and 2025, in terms of electric vehicle manufacture.”

Given there were around one million EVs on global roads last year, which equates to approximately one per cent of the world car footprint, China’s announcement that intends producing EVs doubling that number pumping out two million on its own by 2020, the global analytical outlook for lithium is, understandably, bullish.

Thick said we could expect a 15 per cent lift in year on year growth in lithium sales between now and 2025.

“There is plenty of lithium resources around the world, and Western Australia hasa more than its fair share of it,” he said.“But the next big gap, over the next five years, will be in lithium processing.

“There are a number of projects…that are underway at the moment, but the sum of everything underway at the moment, will go nowhere near meeting the global demand for lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate over the next few years.”

Cobalt Making Its Move On The Technology Circuit

/in , /by

THE CONFERENCE CALLER: Although talk of lithium dominated the Low Emissions and Technology Minerals Conference in Perth, space opened for its lesser cousin, cobalt to take centre stage.

Addressing the conference’s second day audience, CSA Global director Aaron Green said that the trappings of modern life – iphones, ipads, computers, and the soon to be ubiquitous electric vehicles – were bringing cobalt into the spotlight.

“We live in a revolutionary period as we as a planet strive to reduce our carbon emissions and control pollution levels,” Green said.

“In recent years we have seen incredible interest in technology minerals – firstly graphite, and more recently lithium – now the market has realised that cobalt is one of those commodities that will power the next century.”

Lithium’s place in the battery world was assured when technological types decided to name the power packs lithium-ion batteries.

In recent times nickel has enjoyed a moment of glory thanks to Elon Musk identifying its part in the technology, but cobalt too has of late begun to pull focus.

“The importance of cobalt has led the US government to label it a strategic metal and the EU to include it on their lest of critical metals,” Green said.

Historically, the price, production and costs of cobalt has been linked to copper and nickel markets as the commodity is a by-product of the mining of these more traditional metals.

Globally, just two per cent of cobalt production occurs independent of nickel and copper mining.

Most of this is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which raises strong possibilities of geopolitical risk destabilising global supplies.

Ninety-eight per cent of 2016 global cobalt mine production was derived as a secondary by-product from either nickel or copper mining.

Fifty-four per cent of 2016 global cobalt mine production was derived from copper mining in the DRC.

“Historically, nickel and copper economics have dictated cobalt supply and price,” Green said.

“Cobalt has been produced as a by-product with mine recoveries not attuned to maximise cobalt extraction.”

Between 2010 and 2016, a cobalt supply surplus was created by new nickel and copper projects coming online, resulting in refined production exceeding demand.

This led to a period of depressed cobalt prices, in line with nickel and copper prices, and a slow down in world economies.

“Since mid-to-late 2016 we have seen a significant decoupling of the cobalt price from nickel and copper,’ Green explained.

“This has been due to the emergence of electric vehicles and lithium-ion battery demand.

“The cobalt price more than doubled in this period and has risen by, approximately, seventy per cent since January this year.”

Just as the lithium spokespeople before him, Green emphasised the effect the rising demand of the electric vehicle market has had on the commodity’s rise.

“Electric vehicles have been the major driver of recent cobalt demand,” he said.

“A growing number of major jurisdictions are introducing legislation for minimum numbers of electric vehicles, including China and Europe.

“China is now pushing forward with an aggressive zero emission program, targeting eight per cent by 2018 and twelve per cent by 2020.”

Intermin Resources Extends Jacques Find Mineralisation

/in /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Intermin Resources (ASX: IRC) announced results from reverse circulation (RC) drilling carried out on the company’s 100 per cent-owned Teal gold project, located northwest of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia.

Intermin Resources said the drilling was undertaken to test for extensions to known mineralisation at the Jacques Find prospect and to test an Induced Polarisation (IP) anomaly that trends for over 600 metres along strike at the Yolande prospect.

High-grade downhole RC intercepts from the program include:

JFRC1704
26 metres at 7.81 grams per tonne gold from 48m and 16m at 5.33g/t gold from 86m;

JFRC1702
7m at 7.13g/t gold from 100m;

JFRC1708
12m at 4.25g/t gold from 66m;

JFRC1709
5m at 2.13g/t gold from 133m and 5m at 3.49g/t gold from 151m; and

PFRC1701
12m at 1.94g/t gold from 84m.

“These excellent widths and grades clearly demonstrate the potential scale and quality of this large new mineralised system in the heart of the WA Goldfields,” Intermin Resources managing director Jon Price said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“The new results at Yolande are also encouraging as the mineralisation appears to be related to the IP anomalies north of the Jacques Find discovery where very little drilling has been conducted to date.

“This area has now been prioritised with follow up drilling now commenced.”

Intermin indicated that the quantity of high-grade mineralisation discovered in JFRC1704, had provided impetus for the company to commence a new priority follow up RC drill program.

The drilling will comprise five holes, three of which will be completed near JFRC1704 the company expects will help provide further detail on the geometry of this shoot.

Intermin has also interpreted hole JFRC1701 to have been drilled too shallow and as such will be re-entered to test the depth extension of the gold discovered in JFRC1708.

One further hole is planned to test the strike length of a black shale unit situated a further 80m north of JFRC1708.

Intermin anticipates results of this program to be available in the current December Quarter.

Email: iadmin@intermin.com.au

Website: www.intermin.com.au

Metalicity Intersects Sizeable Cobalt at Kyarra

/in /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Metalicity (ASX: MCT) reported drilling results from the first exploration drilling program conducted at the company’s Kyarra cobalt project, located in the Yerrida Basin, Western Australia.

Metalicity has previously identified high-grade and widespread surface cobalt results at Kyarra.

The company said the drilling program was designed to understand the origin of anomalous surface cobalt geochemistry it had delineated over a target area of 2 kilometres by 3.5 kilometres.

The program involved an initial RC percussion drilling program to test whether a linear anomaly trend was associated with underlying structural/stratigraphic controlled mineralisation, or was related to scavenging of metals mobilised in the surface weathering environment by iron and manganese oxides.

According to Metalicity this drilling intersected a stratigraphic setting and returned anomalous copper and cobalt analyses, which are consistent with the company’s exploration targeting model at Kyarra.

“Structural interpretation of the Yerrida Basin and the high-grade and widespread levels of cobalt in our surface sampling results supported our view that Kyarra is prospective for copper-cobalt and nickel-cobalt deposits,” Metalicity managing director Matt Gauci said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Applying the prolific Central African Copper belt exploration model, drilling continues to provide a body of evidence this model is stacking up.

“Drilling intersected anomalous cobalt in every hole and importantly identified an 8 to 12 metre-thick zone of mineralisation that may sit above the source of cobalt mineralisation, which the company will target in the next phase of exploration.”

Website: www.metalicity.com.au

Calidus Resources Hits Encouraging Gold at New Satellites

/in /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Calidus Resources (ASX: CAI) announced the intersection of encouraging widths and grades of gold mineralisation at the Fielding’s Gully and Copenhagen deposits within the company’s wholly-owned Haoma tenements.

Calidus recently acquired 100 per cent interest in the tenements that are part of its Warrawoona gold project in the East Pilbara district of the Pilbara Goldfield in Western Australia.

A total of nine holes were completed at Fielding’s Gully and 16 holes at Copenhagen.

RC drill results from the recently completed program returned gold intercepts grading greater than 10 gram-metres including:

Fielding’s Gully

17FGRC005
16 metres at 3.52 grams per tonne gold, including 1m at 10.85g/t gold and 1m at 22g/t gold from 71m;

17FGRC006
21m at 1.85g/t gold, including 1m at 10.3g/t gold from 55m;

17FGRC007
8m at 3.97g/t gold from 22m;

17FGRC004
11m at 2.62g/t gold, including 1m at 19.75g/t gold from 25m;

17FGRC003
11m at 2g/t gold from 25m;

17FGRC008
11m at 1.74g/t gold from 28m; and

17FGRC007
7m at 2.42g/t gold, including 1m at 11.97g/t gold from 35m.

Copenhagen

17CPRC009
18m at 4.35g/t gold, including 1m at 13.8g/t gold and 2m at 11.41g/t gold from 46m;

17CPRC002
2m at 8.23g/t gold, including 1m at 10.12g/t gold from 27m; and

17CPRC004
2m at 5.22g/t gold from 56m.

Calidus Resources described the Warrawoona syncline as being one of the largest mafic-ultramafic-hosted goldfields in the East Pilbara Granite Greenstone Terrane.

The company explained how these gold deposits are composed of quartz lodes within three main shear zones: the Klondyke shear zone, the Copenhagen shear zone and the Fielding’s Find shear zone.

“The Fielding’s Gully drill program was designed to provide the initial testing of an extensive gold anomaly defined by shallow historic open hole drilling completed in the 1980’s and 1990’s,” Calidus Resources managing director Dave Reeves said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“These assay results confirm the presence of a large mineralised system over 300 metres of current strike length with all holes intersecting zones of quartz veining in mafic and ultramafic schists similar to that observed at the Klondyke deposit approximately 10 kilometres to the east.

“Mineralisation at Fielding’s Gully outcrops and remains open along strike and at depth and will be followed up in future drill programs.

“The Copenhagen drill program was designed to test extensions along strike and to investigate a possible parallel lode that had been defined to a limited degree in previous drilling.

“The results show that the main Copenhagen orebody is plunging to the east and remains open.

“We plan to systematically follow the plunge of this high-grade orebody downdip in the next drill campaigns.”

Email: info@calidus.com.au

Website: www.calidus.com.au