Andrew Duffy

Si6 Metals’ wait for new assays from drilling at its Maibele North prospect in Botswana has stepped up a notch in intensity after core and rock chips revealed strong visual copper and nickel sulphide mineralisation. The company says it has seen pentlandite, chalcopyrite and pyrrhotite sulphide concentrations – which are indicators of nickel-copper-platinum group elements mineralisation – at the prospect near the Zimbabwe border.

Lithium Universe is stepping closer to launching a definitive feasibility study on its Apollo project in Canada after expediting the engineering design for its 1-million-tonne per year lithium processing hub’s stand-alone concentrator. The plant is designed for an assumed feed grade of 1.1 per cent lithium oxide, with the output expected to be about 140,000 tonnes per annum of spodumene concentrate grading 5.5 per cent.

An independent carbon capture and storage study on Buru Energy’s Canning Basin blocks has strengthened the “commercialisation pathway” for it to develop its Rafael conventional gas and condensate discovery. Buru’s subsidiary GeoVault recently found the blocks to be capable of holding significantly more carbon dioxide than Rafael is modelled to produce, supporting the company’s development strategy for the field.

Reach Resources has sprung back into drilling action at its Morrissey Hill lithium project in Western Australia’s emerging Gascoyne region to double down on the area’s pegmatite potential following phase-one drill results. Its 9000m RC program will test the extension of multiple thick, stacked lithium-bearing pegmatites at its Bonzer prospect, in addition to six of 50 undrilled pegmatite targets mapped during fieldwork.

Javelin Minerals will acquire high-resolution aeromagnetic and radiometric data covering its Mt Ida-Ida Valley tenure near Leonora to help charge its hunt for precious and base metals, lithium and rare earths. It says much of its ground is proximate to the gold-rich Ballard Fault, Delta Lithium’s newly-discovered gold and lithium occurrences and the lithium, precious and base metals activities of St George Mining.

The Spanish Government has boosted Infinity Lithium’s coffers with a cash-ringing endorsement of $31 million for its 75 per cent-owned San José lithium project as the limelight intensifies on the battery metal’s supply chain. The grant funding was awarded to company’s wholly-owned Spanish subsidiary, Extremadura New Energies, which plans to develop an underground mine at the deposit.

88 Energy has certified an additional 250 million barrels of oil equivalent in its best estimate of gross contingent reserves within the basin floor fan reservoir at its Phoenix project in Alaska. The maiden resource for the reservoir interval – the deepest hit by the Hickory-1 well in March – provides a project boost ahead of flow testing shallower reservoirs in the well early next year.

88 Energy hopes to bolster its Phoenix project in Alaska this month by certifying a maiden contingent resource for the lower basin floor fan reservoir intersected by the Hickory-1well in March this year. The pay zone was drilled and flow tested successfully by neighbouring company Patheon Resources on its ground to the north, resulting in a significant 962.5 million barrels of total marketable liquid as a best estimate contingent resource for the reservoir.

Alma Metals has achieved the stage one earn-in requirements to reach an initial 30 per cent interest in Canterbury Resources Briggs, Mannersley and Fig Tree Hill joint venture copper project in Queensland. Alma has placed an exploration target of between 480m and 880m tonnes on Briggs alone, grading between .20 and .30 per cent copper and between 25 and 40ppm moly – and that’s in addition to the existing resource.