Antipa Minerals Inks $60M Farm-In with Newcrest

/in , /by

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Antipa Minerals (ASX: AZY) has struck a $60 million farm-in agreement and associated exploration Joint Venture agreement with Newcrest Operations Limited.

The deal covers the southern portion of the company’s 100 per cent-owned ground in the Paterson Province of Western Australia that is to be now known as the Wilki project.

Newcrest has also entered into a subscription agreement with Antipa, under which Newcrest will acquire a 9.9 per cent shareholding in Antipa through a placement of new shares at 1.7 cents per share to raise $3.9 million and have the right but not the obligation to appoint a director to Antipa’s board.

Key terms of the deal include:

An initial $6 million minimum exploration expenditure within two years to be managed by Antipa;

A further $10 million exploration expenditure within five years of commencement to earn a 51 per cent JV interest; and

A further $44 million exploration expenditure within eight years of commencement to earn a 75 per cent JV interest.

“We are delighted to welcome Newcrest as a shareholder of Antipa and to be partnering with them to progress the exploration of our Wilki project in the world-class Paterson Province of Western Australia,” Antipa Minerals executive chairman Stephen Power said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“This transaction demonstrates Newcrest’s commitment to the region and its strong belief in the prospectivity of the Wilki project, which is strategically located surrounding its long-running Telfer gold-copper operation and ore processing facility.

“The agreement with Newcrest is designed to ensure a robust exploration program will be undertaken across the Wilki project over the coming years, including the drill testing of a number of highly prospective targets.

“Furthermore, the Share Placement positions Antipa in a strong financial position enabling the company to progress exploration activities on its remaining 100 per cent-owned tenure.”

Antipa retains 100 per cent ownership of 1,700 square kilometres of highly prospective ground in the Paterson Province, including existing gold-copper resources at Minyari-WACA and its recently discovered Reaper-Poblano-Serrano gold-copper trend.

Rio Tinto Exploration will continue to fully fund the 1,300sqkm Citadel project JV exploration activities.

 

 

Web: www.antipaminerals.com.au

 

Moho Resources Awarded Queensland Government Exploration Grant

/in , /by

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Moho Resources (ASX: MOH) has scored a grant of $112,000 to undertake a regional hydrogeochemical sampling program at the company’s Empress Springs project in Queensland.

Moho Resources was awarded the grant as part of the Collaborative Exploration Incentive (CEI) program by the Queensland Government, administered by the Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy (DNRME).

The company explained the CEI grant will fund a borehole hydro-geochemistry study in partnership with the CSIRO, while enabling Moho to sample and comprehensively analyse waters beneath the cover rocks from existing water bores spread throughout its eleven Empress Springs tenements.

Moho will also sample water in holes drilled in 2018 and 2019 that located evidence of four separate mineralising systems within the Empress Springs project.

“Moho looks forward to utilising the CEI funds in cooperation with CSIRO to advance our knowledge of mineralising systems at the highly prospective Empress Springs project,” Moho Resources managing director Shane Sadleir said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

Moho and the CSIRO will carry out the survey hoping to locate chemical signatures substantiating large mineralised systems hidden beneath the cover rock sequences to focus future exploration towards finding new mineralisation in the area.

The CSIRO will contribute its technology and considerable background data on water sampling and analyses in the region and provide the equipment, training and supervision for the sampling program.

The chemical analyses for a comprehensive suite of elements will be performed by or under the direction of the CSIRO and the resulting data will be assessed by Moho and the CSIRO using their computer machine learning technology.

The field and analytical program is expected to commence in March 2020 and be completed in May 2020.

 

Email: admin@mohoresources.com.au

Web: www.mohoresources.com.au

 

Lithium Australia Lithium Extraction Technology Patent Accepted

/in , /by

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Lithium Australia (ASX: LIT) has received a Notice of Acceptance from IP Australia for its LieNA® technology patent application.

Lithium Australia, in conjunction with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) is researching and developing the LieNA technology for the recovery of lithium from spodumene, the most common hard-rock source of lithium for the production of critical battery chemicals.

While the recovery rate of lithium from conventional spodumene beneficiation varies, it can be as low as 50 per cent owing to the concentrate offtake specification constraints applied by thermal convertors.

The LieNA process does not require a roasting stage and is able to recover lithium from the fine spodumene that otherwise ends up as waste or tailings streams during current concentration processes.

Being able to rescue the fine spodumene that would otherwise go to waste, LieNA has the potential to not only expand current hard-rock lithium resources, thereby reducing mining costs, but also enhance the sustainability of spodumene production and subsequent manufacture of lithium chemicals.

Lithium Australia considers its receipt of the Notice of Acceptance from IP Australia for its LieNA patent application as vindication of the value of the company’s intellectual property.

Lithium Australia has also received notification from WIPO that its patent application for the second-generation LieNA process technology, which includes the enhancements achieved by recovering lithium phosphate, has been published.

“The ability to process fine spodumene that would otherwise never enter the supply chain represents a real opportunity,” Lithium Australia managing director Adrian Griffin said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Processing such material can reduce the environmental impact of hard-rock lithium mining and improve sustainability with no additional mining costs or footprint.

“Importantly, application of LieNA® could not only change the economics of spodumene production but also provide a means of producing lithium-ion batteries that includes fewer processing steps and better quality control.

“We appreciate the involvement of ANSTO, a leader in the field of lithium-extraction technologies.”

 

Email: info@lithium-au.com

Web: www.lithium-au.com

 

Impact Minerals Enters Broken Hill Alliance MoU

/in , /by

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT) has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Castillo Copper (ASX:CCZ) and Squadron Resources.

Castillo Copper and Squadron Resources, along with Impact, are also holders of large tenement packages around the world class Broken Hill Mine.

The tree entities are coming together to form the new Broken Hill Alliance.

Impact’s contribution to the Alliance will be the rights to silver-lead-zinc Broken Hill-style mineralisation and other associated styles of mineralisation.

Impact will retain the rights to all of the platinum group metals (palladium-platinum-rhodiumosmium-iridium-ruthenium) as well as associated nickel-copper and other precious and associated metals across its entire tenement holding in the region.

Two key terms of the non-binding MoU are:

It is an initial six-month agreement to market the Alliance’s ground holding to potential strategic partners, with the marketing to be led by Castillo Copper; and

If a suitable partner is found, then the three parties will form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) which will acquire the relevant tenements and metal rights from the three parties in return for equal shareholdings (33.3% each) in the new SPV company.

“With palladium and rhodium yet again reaching record prices late last week and now being well funded following our recent successful capital raising, we are gearing up to return to exploration at our unique Broken Hill project where our previous drilling there has delivered exceptional grades of all six platinum group metals (palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium and iridium) not to mention gold, nickel and copper as well,” Impact Minerals managing director Dr Mike Jones said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“As we move towards the follow up drill campaign it is important that we focus our exploration funds on the platinum group metals and therefore we are delighted to have signed this MoU with Castillo Copper and our major shareholder Squadron Resources Limited who also have tenements in the area, to search for a strategic partner for the non-PGM and associated metal rights on our ground holding.

“The Broken Hill region is highly prospective for silver-lead zinc mineralisation and it is only appropriate that we look for partners to help maximise the potential of our large strategic ground holding there.

“We look forward to working with the Alliance to achieve this goal.”

 

Email: info@impactminerals.com.au

Web: www.impactminerals.com.au

 

Magnetic Resources Raises $3M to Feather Hawks Nest

/in , /by

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Magnetic Resources (ASX: MAU) has received binding applications for approximately $3 million via a placement of approximately 4.84 million new shares at 62 cents per share.

Magnetic Resources indicated the funds raised will be predominately used at the company’s Hawks Nest 9 project for additional drilling, metallurgical work, resource and scoping studies to advance the company’s gold projects.

“The past 12 months have seen the company define additional mineralisation both at depth and along strike at the Hawks Nest 9 project, with the company of the belief that additional drilling will result in a JORC resource being declared,” Magnetic Resources managing director George Sakalidis said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“These funds will allow the company to undertake metallurgical and resource definition work with the view to initiating pre-feasibility studies later in the year.”

 

Web: www.magres.com.au

 

Impact Minerals Cashed Up for Exploration Advance

/in , /by

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Impact Minerals (ASX: IPT) has received firm commitments to raise just over $2.1 million.

The raising is by way of a placement of 233.4 million share to sophisticated and professional investors at 0.9 cents per share.

Impact Minerals indicated it would be using the funds raised to fund new drilling at the company’s Broken Hill project targeting high-grade palladium and other platinum group metals at Red Hill, and other prospects, at a time of record prices for palladium and rhodium.

In addition, follow-up copper-gold focused work at Impact’s Commonwealth project, near Orange and along trend from the recent Boda discovery of Alkane Resources, including soil geochemistry surveys and ground geophysics, is also now fully funded and will commence as soon as practicable.

“With palladium at a record price of more than US$2,500 per ounce, and rhodium prices literally exploding above US$10,000 an ounce in the past week, Impact is pleased to now have the funds to aggressively return to exploration at our unique Broken Hill project,” Impact Minerals managing director Dr Mike Jones said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Our previous drilling there has delivered exceptional grades of all six platinum group metals (palladium, platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, osmium and iridium) not to mention gold, nickel and copper as well.

“We are looking forward to getting the drill bit turning at Red Hill as soon as possible where we returned drill grades of 1.2 metres at 254 grams per tonne palladium and 4.6 grams per tonne rhodium – exceptional PGM grades on a world scale.

“The company is also about to commence re-assays of key drill intercepts, for rhodium, which is not routinely assayed for.

“With this new funding, Impact is also now in a position to push forward with follow-up work on our exciting Commonwealth project targets along trend and close to the recent Boda discovery in the copper-gold rich Lachlan Fold Belt, currently one of the hottest exploration footprints in Australia.

“We will have boots on the ground there shortly to complete soil geochemistry surveys and subsequently ground geophysical surveys to define targets for drilling later in the year.”

 

Email: info@impactminerals.com.au

Web: www.impactminerals.com.au

 

Barra Resources Finalises Mt Thirsty PFS

/in , /by

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Barra Resources (ASX: BAR) released the long-awaited results for the Pre-Feasibility Study completed at the company’s Mt Thirsty cobalt-nickel project in Western Australia.

Barra Resources declared Mt Thirsty has now claimed the number one position of Australia’s ‘most advanced genuine cobalt project’.

Nickel is not forgotten and has emerged as a useful by-product with a cobalt-nickel value split of 71 per cent to 29 per cent.

The study has scaled up the project to a 1.8 million dry tonnes per annum feed rate to produce 19100 tonnes of cobalt and 24800 tonnes of nickel as a Mixed Sulphide Product (MSP) over a 12 year mine life.

The project boasts an estimated maiden JORC 2012 Probable Ore Reserve of 18.8 million dry tonnes at 0.13 per cent cobalt and 0.54 per cent nickel.

The release of the study results coincides with a cobalt price that is forecast to rise by investment banks surveyed by the company as demand for electric vehicle batteries continues to grow and other cobalt supply growth options limited.

The Mt Thirsty Joint Venture (MTJV) has identified the highest value development path to be a farm-in from a large global firm, eager to secure a guaranteed sustainable source of cobalt.

The direct project expenditure for the MTJV now reverts to a minimum while the partnering strategy is pursued as planned.

The MTJV is now re-engaging with several major Australian and international mining, trading and refining firms who have all identified a high quality PFS as their minimum investment criteria.

“This study is the culmination of 18 months’ work by the MTJV,” Barra Resources managing director and CEO and MTJV PFS manager Sean Gregory said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“I am confident that the PFS has been completed to a very high standard by global engineering houses that will stand up to the most detailed scrutiny from potential project partners.

“We are now looking forward to engaging with these large global firms who are eager to secure a guaranteed sustainable source of cobalt for electric vehicle batteries.”

 

Email: info@barraresources.com.au

Web: www.barraresources.com.au

 

Alloy Resources Acquires New Exploration Pipeline Via Dingo Resources

/in , /by

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Alloy Resources (ASX: AYR) has entered into a binding Heads of Agreement to acquire unlisted public company Dingo Resources Limited.

Alloy Resources explained that Dingo has the right to acquire two mineral exploration projects in Western Australia which Alloy believes will revitalise its pipeline of exploration projects and offer new opportunities for exploration success.

“We have been looking for the right opportunity to revitalise the company’s pipeline of projects and these high-quality exploration plays have the potential to be ‘company makers’ for Alloy,” Alloy Resources executive chairman Andy Viner said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Through Dingo, we are pleased to be acquiring two fantastic exploration opportunities in Western Australia.

“To complement our JV with Rio Tinto in the Paterson, we are now purchasing a project from Rio in the West Musgrave region which has a well-defined target.

“In addition, we have also secured a large landholding right in the middle of Sandfire’s Bryah Basin exploration areas which has numerous early stage copper-gold targets.

“This year is going to be incredibly busy for Alloy and we look forward to delivering on this huge potential for both existing shareholders and new investors.”

The Morgan Range project is located in the West Musgrave belt of Western Australia and encompasses similar geology to the large Nebo-Babel and Succoth nickel-copper deposits, located some 50 kilometres to the south west, which have been the subject of a recently completed Pre-feasibility Study by Oz Minerals in Joint Venture with Cassini Resources.

The principal target is a strong historical aerial electro-magnetic anomaly (TEM) selected by Rio Tinto Exploration (RTX) for pegging, which has now been optioned to Dingo.

The Bryah Basin project is located approximately 80 kilometres north of Meekatharra in the Gascoyne district of Western Australia.

The project comprises five early stage Exploration Licences covering 260 square kilometres.

 

Email: info@alloyres.com

Web: www.alloyres.com

 

Middle Island Resources Grabs More Barkly IOCG Ground

/in , /by

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Middle Island Resources (ASX: MDI) has been allocated between 19 per cent and 95 per cent of each of four competing exploration licence applications, located within the newly available IOCG-prospective former Barkly moratorium area of the Northern Territory.

Middle Island had already had a further six Middle Island exploration licence applications accepted in full (100%).

The latest Barkly super-project allocations to Middle Island comprise:

ELA32297 – 35 of 186 blocks allocated (19%), representing 110.92 square kilometres;
ELA32298 – 137 of 228 blocks allocated (60%), representing 443.37sqkm;
ELA32301 – 230 of 242 blocks allocated (95%), representing 740.7sqkm; and
ELA32304 – 21 of 73 blocks allocated (29%), representing 67.8sqkm.

The newly allocated Middle Island applications include three sites that have been reserved for government basement stratigraphic drilling in 2020, and five applications surround or immediately adjoin those of Newcrest Mining.

Subject to normal approval procedures, Middle Island’s awarded super-project blocks collectively comprise 10 applications covering 3,253sqkm, extending semi-continuously for over 350km along the axis of the East Tennant ridge from Tennant Creek east to the Queensland border.

Competing applications with Rio Tinto (in the Tennant Creek area) and Newcrest Mining (in the Barkly moratorium area) gave the applications a ringing endorsement of the project’s technical merit and strategy.

Middle Island believes the project represents a low entry cost and low initial exploration cost opportunity for the company to identify high value, Tier 1 IOCG targets of interest to major and mid-tier resources companies.

“We are extremely pleased with the outcome of what appears to have been a very equitable process involving the allocation of various competing exploration licence applications within the now former Barkly moratorium area,” Middle Island Resources managing director Rick Yeates said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“Middle Island has secured priority areas and targets in several cases, and the allocated areas also include or immediately adjoin three sites planned for much anticipated government stratigraphic basement drilling during 2020.”

 

Email: info@middleisland.com.au

Web: www.middleisland.com.au

 

Matador Mining Raises $5.2M to Support Cape Ray Scoping Study

/in , /by

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Matador Mining (ASX: MZZ) announced the raising of $5.2 million to support activities at the company’s Cape Ray gold project in Newfoundland, Canada.

Matador Mining raised the cash by way of a private placement of shares to institutional, professional and sophisticated investors at a price of 20 cents per share.

“The placement includes participation by directors of the company, who subscribed for 1.35 million shares, the issue of which will be subject to the approval of Matador shareholders at the company’s next general meeting,” Matador Mining said in its ASX announcement.

The company indicated the proceeds will be put towards the completion of a Scoping Study, which is on schedule to be completed later this quarter, as well as the recommencement of exploration activities at the Cape Ray project.

The capital raising follows a recent increase to the Resource at the Cape Ray project.

The updated Mineral Resource currently stands at 16.7 million tonnes at 2.2 grams per tonne gold and 6.6g/t silver for 1.2 million ounces gold and 3.9 million ounces silver.

 

Web: www.matadormining.com.au