Pic: via Getty Images.
Mining
It’s a wrap for the September quarter. Here are some of the latest highlights from a few ASX small and midcaps on their activities for the three months to the end of September.
During the quarter, SHN flagged copper gold hits from historical drilling on the western extension of the Liontown prospect at its Ravenswood Consolidated project in QLD.
The explorer is hunting for large mineral systems in a district which has produced over 20Moz gold and 14Mt of volcanic massive sulphides ore (copper-gold, zinc-lead).
Assays from the previous project owners’ drilling returned results including 11m at 1.74g/t gold, 0.86% copper, 9.17% zinc, 5.05% lead, 179 g/t silver.
Looking forwards, the plan is to update the Liontown 2.29Mt at 10.78% zinc equivalent resource to include 96 additional historic holes and results from the new drilling program currently underway.
The company has been hard at work exploring its Elizabeth-Blackdome gold project in Canada, which comprises 315km2 and includes the historical Blackdome mine and mill which produced approximately 230,000 ounces of gold at an average mill head grade of 21.9g/t gold (1985-1991).
Rock chip sampling at the Elizabeth project (30km from and connected to Blackdome) returned up to 5.9g/t gold from the Elizabeth East zone.
The Elizabeth Northwest zone returned two samples with anomalous gold grades and the company plans to include both zones in future drill programs targeting expansion of the overall gold mineralisation footprint at Elizabeth.
TMR has just picked up some lithium projects in Manitoba which its exploring this quarter.
Frontier inked a deal in the quarter to acquire Waroona Energy whose project is adjacent to its Bristol Springs project in WA.
The plan is to create a large-scale Australian renewable energy company that can share the benefits of nearby infrastructure – including secured connections to the South West Interconnected System – for green hydrogen production and supply.
Waroona Energy has shovel ready solar generation of 335MW and the potential to expand to more than 1GW and has commenced a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for a 120MWdc Solar Facility (Stage One) due for completion in early 2024.
Waroona has also begun a study assessing a 120MW Dual Fuel (Green Hydrogen) peaking plant.
As at 30 September 2023, Frontier had cash of $6.9m (unaudited).
SER commenced drilling at the Canobie project in QLD, which is fully funded under the Farm-in and Joint Venture agreement with Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) to test a magmatic nickel copper sulphide target called Wondoola.
Once drilling is complete there, the rig will move on to test multiple Ernest Henry-type Iron Oxide Copper-Gold (IOCG) targets.
A Magnetotelluric (MT) survey also kicked off at the Mundi project in NSW to define targets for structurally controlled IOCG mineralisation at depth.
The company raised $2.5m during the September quarter to fund the completion of multiple exploration activities including a diamond drill program at the Isa North copper-gold project in QLD.
However due to time commitments to fulfill its role as operator of the Canobie FJV with FMG and the limited exploration season in NW Queensland, SER has delayed this drill program until next field season.
During the quarter, Basin completed its maiden drilling program at the Geikie project in Canada’s Athabasca Basin, where anomalous uranium was discovered in four of the eight holes drilled, up to 0.27% U3O8.
This along with elevated lead isotope anomalies and extensive hydrothermal alteration observed in five holes indicate the potential for a major uranium mineralising system, the company says.
BSN has now reached the 60% ownership milestone of Geikie and plans to earn up to 80% in the project.
At the North Millenium and Marshall projects, the 3D inversion of ZTEM data was completed, and a 5km target corridor was defined at North Millennium along the interpreted fault extension that hosts Cameco’s Millennium uranium deposit.
The company ended the quarter with $4.2m cash.
At the Treasure Creek project in Alaska, assays from 17 holes extended the near-surface, oxidised gold mineralisation at the NW array prospect and high-grade antimony results were also flagged.
The company’s drilling approach is concentrated on targeting near-surface oxide gold mineralisation, displaying grades comparable to, or surpassing, the current head grades of nearby Kinross’s Fort Knox Mine, a local Tier 1 gold mine searching for additional ore supply.
As an added bonus, finding both gold and antimony opens up multiple development pathways at the project – as there is also no current domestic antimony production in the US.
RIE completed 35 reverse circulation (RC) holes for 2,142m at the Kingman Project in Arizona during the quarter, focusing on the Tintic prospect.
The Kingman Project was mined predominantly for high-grade gold and silver from the 1880s until the early 1940s.
Multiple shallow high-grade gold, silver and base metal assays were returned, including 1.52m at 15.6g/t gold, 160.5g/t silver, 1.02% lead, 0.38% zinc from 40.3m and 4.57m at 25.7g/t gold, 55g/t silver, 1.29% lead, 0.73% zinc from 11.43m.
The results will underpin a resource estimate, which is on track for release by the end of 2023.
Cash in bank at 30 September 2023 was approximately $1.3m.
During the quarter, GRL submitted an application for a new 112km2 exploration licence ELA6637 (EL9601) adjoining its Narraburra rare earth project in NSW which contains a type of granite called Thanowring that has never been tested for REEs.
The tenement is also prospective for base metals, and hosts the Kalms workings, a historic tin mine.
The company also completed a two-hole, 618m diamond drill program at its Goodrich-Yeoval copper-gold project in NSW, with assays post quarter end confirming high-grade copper mineralisation from the Goodrich prospect.
A $2.137m placement is expected to fund further work at Narraburra and Yeoval, as well as other exploration opportunities.
Sunshine Metals, Tempus Resources, Frontier Energy, Strategic Energy Resources, Basin Energy, Felix Gold, Riedel Resources and Godolphin Resources are Stockhead advertisers.
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