Michael Philipps

While some companies slow down at the end of each year, Valor Resources spent December building its lithium and uranium portfolio and also added a cool $1 million to its coffers through a successful placement. The first move it made in the last month of 2023 was entering into an exclusive option agreement to pick up three lithium projects in the Canadian province of Ontario.

Novo Resources is closing out its year with a flurry, revealing it has formed a new joint venture partnership with private company Liatam Mining for its Quartz Hill project in Western Australia’s East Pilbara region. Subject to TSX approval, Liatam has also agreed to invest $1.8 million for 9 million Novo shares at 20c each to increase its shareholding to about 6 per cent.

Altech Batteries has forecast a stunning project life EBITDA of more than €3.08 billion (AU$5 billion) for its 8000 tonnes per annum Silumina Anodes project in Germany following the completion of a definitive feasibility study. The facility will produce patented alumina-coated silicon battery anode materials known as Silumina Anodes to meet high demand in the European and US electric vehicle and grid storage battery markets.

Novo Resources will join forces with SQM Australia after the latter agreed to pay $10 million for a 75 per cent interest in five of the former’s lithium-nickel tenements in Western Australia’s West Pilbara region. The two companies will create the “Harding Battery Metals” joint venture, with the deal also including an option over additional tenements held by Novo in the Pilbara.

King River Resources is set for a big 2024, with 20,000m of drilling planned for 12 priority targets at its Tennant Creek gold project in the Northern Territory after running an extensive geophysics campaign this year. The company has set aside $2.5 million for the program, which includes 17 reverse-circulation (RC) holes already completed for 2790m at its Providence prospect.

Buxton Resources has nailed a massive 405.38m intercept at 0.7 per copper equivalent from 608.38m during its maiden drill program testing porphyry mineralisation at its Copper Wolf project in Arizona. The impressive intersection sits below a previous drillhole that returned 83.76m grading 0.9 per cent copper equivalent from 527.91m, which the company says results in an aggregate section of about 485.85m going 0.73 per cent.

American West Metals has pumped up the mineral resource at its West Desert project in Utah with nearly 24 million ounces of indium and 119,000 gold ounces and says it has the only indium deposit in the United States. The updated JORC resource adds to the existing 1.3 million tonnes of zinc, 49,000 tonnes of copper and 10 million ounces of silver at the project.

Quantum Graphite has outlined an internal rate of return of almost 50 per cent and a net present value of more than $497 million following a financial update of its Uley 2 graphite project in South Australia. The independent assessment identified that doubling the mill throughput up to 1.2 million tonnes a year would lift production up to 100,000 dry metric tonnes of flake graphite.

Xanadu Mines has tabled a staggering resource estimate upgrade for its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia, jumping to 1.3 billion tonnes with 3.4 million tonnes of contained copper and 8.5 million gold ounces. The updated estimate represents a 12 per cent increase in tonnes, a 15 per cent surge in contained copper and a 9 per cent jump in contained gold.