Andrew Duffy

Everest Metals Corporation will keep the drillbit spinning after delivering more high-grade rubidium and lithium results at its Mt Edon project near Paynes Find in Western Australia’s Mid West region. New drill results show up to 0.51 per cent rubidium oxide and 0.94 per cent lithium oxide, with an 80m hit at 0.32 per cent rubidium oxide and 0.11 per cent lithium oxide from 25m.

ChemX Materials has established a maiden manganese resource of 13.1 million tonnes at 5.7 per cent manganese at its Jamieson Tank deposit, 150km west of South Australia’s Port of Whyalla. The company says testwork on the resource has shown “excellent” upgrade characteristics through simple gravity and magnetic separation and it will now complete an internal scoping study on the production of high-purity manganese battery-grade products.

Emu NL expects an October assay return after completing a maiden drilling program on time and on budget at its Condingup clay-hosted rare earths project near Esperance on Western Australia’s south coast. The company says 34 holes for 2762m targeted clay traps adjacent to and overlying the Booanya granite outcrops that produced rock chips testing as high as 2124ppm TREO.

Reach Resources has identified more than 50 new pegmatites during fieldwork at its Morrissey Hill lithium project in WA’s emerging Gascoyne region, as drilling, rock-chip and soil sampling continues. It says it has mapped individual pegmatites extending up to 2km along strike and up to 30m in width in the sequence that hosts Delta Lithium's neighbouring Malinda deposit, which boasts mineralisation from surface to 350m.

DiscovEx Resources says it is cashed up to bolster exploration activities at its Sylvania and Edjudina projects in Western Australia after banking more than $250,000 from recent tenement and shares sales. The company says a geophysical survey will follow up on previous soil-sampling gold and lead hits at Sylvania in multiple areas of both disseminated and semi-massive sulphides along the Prairie Downs Faults Zone.

Auric Mining has started milling the second ore parcel from its 100 per cent-owned Jeffreys Find mine near Norseman and expects the first cash to land in the till next month – at a serendipitous time of strong gold prices. The company says the 145,000 tonnes of ore will take about seven weeks to process, with 52,000 tonnes already delivered to the Greenfields Mill in Coolgardie.

ChemX Materials has advanced its high-purity alumina (HPA) micro-plant flowsheet as it prepares to scale up to pilot-plant production. The company has now also identified intermediate HPA product pathways and says investment in high-precision analytical equipment and dedicated human resources has resulted in increased operational performance for its HPA micro-plant. A maiden high-purity manganese mineral resource estimate is also imminent.

Lindian Resources has moved to commercialise its Gaoual bauxite project in Guinea by inking a memorandum of understanding for a possible sales contract with prominent miner Compagnie des Bauxites de Guinée. Lindian will complete a feasibility study for its 102-million-tonne deposit within two years, while the companies negotiate a possible sales contract for the high-aluminium oxide product.

Lithium Universe is on the ground at its Apollo project in Canada’s James Bay, armed with a helicopter and a swag of targets generated by artificial intelligence – less than a month after re-listing on the ASX. The company has used a combination of satellite imagery, geophysics and fieldwork ahead of testing a regional faulted greenstone belt running through Apollo to Winsome Resources’ Adina project.