‘Bonus’ high-grade iron ore could improve the economics of a gold mining operation at Alliance Resources’ (ASX:AGS) Weednanna deposit in South Australia.

Weednanna has an existing 181,000oz gold resource which is due to get bigger.

But it also contains some pretty significant concentrations of iron ore which, like gold, is experiencing a price boom right now.

Alliance is updating the geological model for Weednanna using additional drilling info acquired since 2017, and a new iron ore resource will be calculated during September 2020.

“If the updated iron mineral resource estimate and feasibility studies support it, a staged investment and mining plan is proposed whereby open pit mining of high-grade, low-impurity iron DSO can be stockpiled onsite and made available to generate revenue at the appropriate time,” the company says.

“Gold mineralisation would be stockpiled during this initial mining period and be available for processing as soon as the gold processing facility is constructed.”

 

Cauldron Energy (ASX:CXU) has dusted off a “forest of data” from the historic Blackwood project joint venture in Victoria which reveals high-grade gold zones outside the numerous historic mining areas.

Blackwood could host multiple high-grade gold systems from a near-contiguous 3.5km long trend of exploration targets, the company reckons.

Cauldron is now seeking approval to drill these high priority targets.

 

Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL) has scored an all-important mining lease for its flagship project in WA.

The Australian Vanadium project is currently one of the highest-grade vanadium projects being advanced globally, with 208.2 million tonnes at 0.74 per cent vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) containing a high-grade zone of 87.9 million tonnes at 1.06 per cent V2O5.

“The granting of the mining lease is an important milestone for AVL and provides certainty to investors and potential project financiers in Australia and globally,” managing director Vincent Algar says.

 

A landmark acquisition deal will instantly transform Mali Lithium (ASX:MLL) into a cash-generating gold producer, while Thomson Resources (ASX:TMZ) will acquire the Hortons gold tenement in northern NSW.

You can read more about that here.

Also up substantially on no news were gold-copper explorer Canterbury Resources (ASX:CBY), advanced iron ore play GWR Group (ASX:GWR), and Kalgoorlie-based goldie Lefroy Exploration (ASX:LEX).