ASX Quarterly Wrap: PAM lifts RK lithium resource tonnes by 42pc; HGO moves closer to copper production

It’s the quarterly season again as the ASX market announcements page becomes increasingly flooded with update lodgements.

To save you the trouble of trudging through it all, we’ve wrapped up the highlights from some of the reports that caught our eye.

PAN ASIA METALS (ASX:PAM)

During the quarter, PAM continued to progress its project and is currently in discussions with EV OEMs and or lithium chemical producers on each of its projects in Thailand, Vietnam and Chile.

A resource was delivered for the RK lithium project in Thailand, increasing resources tonnes by 42% to 14.8Mt, increasing the contained LCE by 46% to 164,500 tonnes, and moving 75% of the MRE to Measured and Indicated.

PAM has begun a collaboration with one of Thailand’s largest cement producers on the use of concentrate and lithium chemical processing residues in cement manufacturing, with initial testwork confirming this application.

The company raised $1.45m by way of a placement to new and existing sophisticated and institutional shareholders.

HILLGROVE RESOURCES (ASX:HGO)

It was a busy quarter for Hillgrove towards the end of 2023 as the company prepared for first copper production.

On the mining side of things, HGO says primary ventilation was installed which enabled a second jumbo to be deployed, increasing the development rate, while commissioning of the process facility was split into two halves.

“Everything upstream of the mill was commissioned during the quarter, including the primary and secondary crushers, screening plants and conveyors,” HGO CEO and managing director Lachlan Wallace says.

“Post quarter-end, commissioning of the remainder of the processing facility has commenced and first copper production remains on track for the first quarter of 2024.”

FUTURE METALS (ASX:FME)

Future Metals completed the Panton PGM scoping study during the quarter, which demonstrated the potential for the project to be one of the few significant primary PGM operations in the western world.

The study supports a high-grade, initial nine-year operation processing both Reef and high-grade dunite material through a conventional crush, grind and flotation flow sheet, producing 117,000oz PGM 3E (platinum plus palladium and gold), 134,000t chromite concentrate and 1,200t of nickel (161,000oz palladium equivalent).

All in sustaining costs of $US789/oz has it down the bottom of the global cost curve, putting FME in a strong position to ride out any price weakness.

ITECH MINERALS (ASX:ITM)

More than 145 drill holes have been drilled at the Lacroma Central graphite prospect on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, where graphite mineralisation up to 8.4% total graphitic carbon (TGC) is being returned.

The company’s resource drilling now covers over 1.6km of strike, and once resource drilling is complete, the drill rig will move 2km to test the Lacroma North graphite prospect.

Drilling this quarter is focussed on the southern 1km of strike and continue to intersect graphite mineralisation suggesting continuation of mineralisation to the south.

Results will then be reported in the following quarter.

TOUBANI RESORUCES (ASX:TRE)

Toubani says it capped of the December 2023 quarter with a clear strategy for its large oxide gold project, having continued the significant progress made at Kobada during the year to position the project for updated economic studies, and ultimately, development.

The Kobada Gold Project is a simple, large, free milling oxide development project in Mali focussed on defining the development of a bulk mining approach to bring forward processing of a larger tonnage of majority oxide ore to a larger processing plant.

A 6,000m auger drilling program was carried out on targets on the Faraba and Kobada East exploration permits, which fall on or adjacent to major shear corridors which have had little or no previous testing and lie between 5 and 15km from the Kobada deposit.

Drilling is anticipated to be completed by the end of Q1 2024 with results to be reported as received.

QEM (ASX:QEM)

A number of boxes were ticked at QEM’s Julia Creek vanadium and oil shale project during the December 2023 reporting period including various mineralisation characterisation assessments and the sale of the Julia Creek renewables project to Enel Green Power Australia.

A 2D seismic survey was carried out across the project to determine the geological structures and continuity of the resource while core samples recovered from 2023 drilling were sent for assaying.

These results, along with the geophysical data obtained during the campaign are currently being processed by Measured Group and will be incorporated into company’s JORC report expected in Q1 2024.