Doug Bright

Aurumin has bolstered its financial position at its Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, with a refreshed “drill-for-equity” agreement coming hot on the heels of it closing out on a convertible note. The company’s rekindled deal with drilling contractor Topdrill will give management crucial choice and flexibility to increase drilling while preserving its cash.

Buxton Resources says samples from its Sun Devil and Aztecs prospects in Arizona have revealed geochemical signatures indicating the sites lie above the main copper molybdenum-enriched zone of a typical porphyry system. The 87 rock chip samples yielded results of up to 3.08 per cent copper, 156ppm molybdenum and 9.34g/t silver, strongly indicating the potential for a copper-porphyry target to exist at depth.

King River Resources has revealed promising geochemical anomalism at its Providence target that lies along strike from a highly-regarded copper operation in the heart of Australia’s Northern Territory. The company says the anomalism could be related to the style of Tennant Minerals’ Bluebird-Perseverance deposit that has thrown up results including 61.8m at a grade of 2.3 per cent copper.

BMG Resources has applied for two additional exploration licences adjoining its granted Dragon project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region – an emerging world-class niobium-rare earths district. It says data reviews have identified several areas where strong magnetic features are located next to major faults, which can be interpreted as being highly-prospective for potential carbonatites and represents priority niobium-rare earths exploration targets.

Radiopharm Theranostics says a new six-patient study shows its terbium-based treatment has superior potential to tackle prostate cancer than lutetium following a head-to-head assessment of the rare earths metals in its therapies. Management says the results from tests on patients with metastatic “castrate-resistant” cancer vindicate its development of next-generation, terbium-based radiotherapies for the treatment of the often deadly condition and other advanced cancers.

Infinity Mining has topped up its total gold resource inventory to 63,000 ounces with the addition of a maiden 2700-ounce gold resource estimate from its Great Northern project at Leonora in Western Australia. The company has 10 mineral tenements in the Leonora district and is developing a portfolio of gold resources, with its eye on an initial 500,000-ounce target.

With uranium prices soaring globally, Toro Energy has reconfirmed its commitment to constructing its Lake Maitland pilot plant to test ores from three uranium-vanadium deposits within a radius of 110km south-west of Wiluna in Western Australia. The company says its recently-commissioned pilot plant will test improved beneficiation and hydrometallurgical circuits that it has developed from its bench-scale research.

Some old-fashioned detective work has set Terrain Minerals on a pathway to try and emulate Sirius Resources’ 2012 discovery of the hulking Nova-Bollinger deposit in WA’s Fraser Range. Terrain says its search through old geophysical records identified an intriguing “eye-shaped” feature near its ground similar to the one that led to the Nova-Bollinger base metals discovery – just 300km to the north on the same geological structure.

Valor Resources has ticked off a second item from its targeted triad of lithium targets in Canada’s booming Thunder Bay area in Ontario after completing its acquisition of the Jesaulenko project. Valor’s 100 per cent acquisition of Jesaulenko comes just days after it also grabbed the nearby Frazer Lake lithium project and an 80 per cent share of the Hook Lake uranium play in Saskatchewan.