Andrew Duffy

Aurum Resources has bolstered its African diamond drilling fleet with a new, more powerful rig to help the company unlock a maiden gold resource estimate for its Boundiali gold project in Côte d’Ivoire this year. The three-rig drilling fleet will deliver an impressive 30,000m of core as the company takes aim at deep gold mineralisation beneath and adjacent to artisanal mines at the project.

Si6 Metals says it has mapped and sampled clay-rich saprolite outcrops prospective for ionic-adsorption clay rare earths up to 12m thick at its Caldera JV project it shares with Foxfire Metals in Brazil. Assays are now pending after the JV sent 16 soil, channel and auger samples to the SGS Geosol laboratory in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais.

88 Energy has completed the first stage of its farm-in to a massive 18,500 square kilometres of ground in Namibia’s Owambo Basin – one of the globe’s last remaining onshore frontier petroleum basins. It now has a 20 per cent interest in the ground and can up its share to 37.5 per cent in phase two and 45 per cent in phase three of the farm-in.

Horizon Minerals has moved to build further on its mission to become a mid-tier gold producer in Western Australia’s renowned Goldfields region through a proposed merger with Greenstone Resources. The merger would create a combined entity with a significant landholding containing 1.8 million ounces of gold near a toll treatment mill in the historic WA town of Coolgardie.

Si6 Metals and Foxfire Metals are poised to launch their joint venture search for rare earths and lithium at their Caldera project in Brazil that sits near Meteoric Resources’ colossus Caldeira play boasting 409 million tonnes at 2626ppm TREO. Geophysical studies are underway and surface sampling will begin this week, while lithium exploration will begin in this year’s second quarter in the “Lithium Valley”.

Si6 Metals and Foxfire Metals are poised to launch their joint venture search for rare earths and lithium at their Caldera project in Brazil that sits near Meteoric Resources’ colossus Caldeira play boasting 409 million tonnes at 2626ppm TREO. Geophysical studies are underway and surface sampling will begin this week, while lithium exploration will begin in this year’s second quarter in the “Lithium Valley”.

Si6 Metals has confirmed it is now the co-owner of 10 prime Brazilian exploration licenses covering a massive 17,000 hectares prospective for lithium, rare earths, gold, base metals and platinum group elements. And its new joint venture with Foxfire Metals plans to start exploring ground this month in the Caldera rare earths project area, which sits within the State of Minas Gerais.

BMG Resources is planning to beef up its holdings in WA’s West Arunta region – known as elephant country for niobium and rare earths – with an option to nab a 90 per cent interest in 1470sq km of ground. The package sits 30km from Encounter Resources’ Crean project and its resource of 282 million tonnes at 0.54 per cent niobium oxide and 0.17 per cent TRE0.

Perth-based explorer King River Resources is on the hunt for high-grade gold in elephant country in Australia’s Top End. It has plenty of cash and a gaggle of lucrative-looking targets begging to see a drill bit. With miners selling gold at record highs, King River’s focus on Tennant Creek in the NT, an area that has historically pumped out millions of gold ounces, is timely.

Testwork on ore from Infinity Lithium’s San José project in Spain has confirmed recoveries of more than 90 per cent, a result that will support a definitive feasibility study and pilot plant design. The company says the results exceed recoveries assumed in the project’s scoping study and confirm consistent production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate from the 111-million-tonne orebody.

The complex mineralisation at Strickland Metals’ Marwari trend is unravelling to reveal a 2.6km-long corridor with similar gold enrichment style to that seen at Millrose – which the company sold for $61 million. The corridor contains six leads that have seen little drilling to date. The company is planning to get its drill bit in the ground in April.

88 Energy is eyeing up contingent resources in Alaska as it prepares to flow test two reservoir intervals in its Hickory-1 well, both of which showed strong hydrocarbon indicators during drilling. If the tests are successful, the company hopes the results will lead to the conversion of some of the prospective resource to the higher-confidence contingent category.

ChemX Materials has been granted a vital patent in Australia for its 100 per cent-owned proprietary disruptive “HiPurA” high-purity alumina process as it eyes commercialisation options. The granted patent opens the pathway to global commercialisation of the company’s scalable and modular system, which it plans to take to pilot testing with plant commissioning planned for the second half of this year.

Gold Mountain is set to kick-off rare earths exploration this month at its Down Under project in Brazil, along strike from and flanking ground hosting Brazilian Rare Earths’ massive 510.3-million-tonne resource. Management says its drilling will be guided by a local geologic consultant, who will assess radiometric and magnetic data in conjunction with satellite imagery to define prospective areas begging to see the drill bit.

The United Kingdom Government has shown its confidence in Triangle Energy Global, offering it a North Sea license containing five prospects with at least 269 billion cubic feet of gas, along with multiple shallow leads. The acreage bolsters Triangle’s global portfolio as the company matures plans to drill two wells in the onshore Perth Basin this year.

Lindian Resources is taking aim at upgrading a significant portion of its massive Kangankunde rare earths deposit in Malawi to the high-confidence indicated category ahead of a feasibility study due this quarter. The deposit’s 261 million tonnes grading 2.19 per cent TREO currently sits in the inferred category and the company hopes to make an eyebrow-raising maiden ore reserve statement as part of its study.

Software provider K2fly says cost management remains its major focus as the company’s latest financial report today revealed a remarkable 14th consecutive quarter of annual recurring revenue growth. The ARR was at $8 million in the past quarter, up 16 per cent compared to the previous corresponding period (PCP) and revenue was at $3.4million, up 21 per cent from the PCP.

Buru Energy rounded out the past financial quarter with no debt and $18.4 million in the till as it prepares to drill an appraisal well at its 100 per cent-owned Rafael gas field in WA’s Canning Basin. The company is eyeing a final investment decision in the second half of next year and first gas production in the last half of 2027.

Buru Energy rounded out the past financial quarter with no debt and $18.4 million in the till as it prepares to drill an appraisal well at its 100 per cent-owned Rafael gas field in WA’s Canning Basin. The company is eyeing a final investment decision in the second half of next year and first gas production in the last half of 2027.

Perth-based petroleum producer and explorer Triangle Energy finished the past quarter with $5.24 million in the bank as it homes in on the onshore North Perth Basin, where it will drill for oil this year. The company is currently producing crude from its Cliff Head field off Dongara, with that operation netting it $15 million as part of a sales deal with Pilot Energy.

Cashed up and ready to drill – Legend Mining has $14 million in the bank and is preparing to dive into a bag of targets at its Rockford project in Western Australia’s Fraser Range. The company is looking for magmatic nickel-copper, volcanogenic massive sulphides hosting zinc, copper and silver and structurally-controlled gold in ground that has recently returned some tantalising geophysical hits.

Infinity Lithium is charging ahead with fieldwork at its San José lithium project in Spain as it prepares to lodge an exploitation concession application for the operation with local authorities. The company says its recent work will support its environmental impact assessment that will form part of its application to mine and process the 111-million-tonne orebody grading 0.61 per cent lithium oxide.

Aurum Resources has appointed experienced African gold miner Caigen Wang as its new managing director as the company works-up the shallow, wide gold-bearing orebody at its Boundiali project in Côte d'Ivoire. Wang is no stranger to maturing African gold discoveries, taking Tietto Minerals from a market cap of about $30 million to nearly $700 million at its Abujar gold mine, also in Côte D’Ivoire.

Buxton Resources’ 100 per cent-owned Graphite Bull Project in WA’s Gascoyne region has ticked another milestone with testwork confirming its product is suitable for the manufacture of lithium-ion battery anodes. The testwork verified that uncoated purified spherical graphite (uPSG) made from Graphite Bull deposit concentrate exceeded the 350 mAh/g charging values considered to be ‘good’ for uncoated graphite achieving charging values as high as 370 mAh/g.

Octava Minerals will pick up the Byro rare earths and lithium project in WA’s Gascoyne after agreeing to purchase 100 per cent of the shares in private company Byro Mining. The conditional agreement will see Octava undertake due diligence on two exploration licenses at the project which has some tantalising historic exploration hits from drill cuttings peaking at 388ppm lithium oxide and 501ppm total rare earth oxides.

Buxton Resources says it has seen intense porphyry style veining along with evidence of copper mineralisation in outcrop at its 100 per cent owned Sun Devil prospect in Arizona. The prospect is part of the larger Copper Wolf project and remains undrilled but has historic rock chips as high as 76,800 ppm copper and 93ppm molybdenum.

Assays from the first eight diamond drill holes at Aurum Resources’ Boundiali gold project in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa suggest wide, shallow gold mineralisation with more assays on the horizon. The best results were 16m at 1.24 grams per tonne from 117m including a 6m thick section grading 2.44g/t from 127m, 7.39m at 1.94g/t from 139.34m including 5.35m at 2.53g/t from 141.37m.

Gold Mountain has moved closer to locking-down drill targets at its Custodia hard-rock lithium project in Brazil with stream sediment sample assays backing-up soil sampling results. Steam sampling has identified a total of 15 target areas and only two of those areas have seen overlapping soil sampling programmes to-date. The company says it will be back on the ground shortly to conduct more sampling before getting a drill-bit in the ground.

Everest Metals Corporation will develop the 48,545 ounces of gold and 89,011 ounces of silver at its 100 per cent-owned Mt Dimer Taipan gold and silver project in WA’s goldfields as the gold price continues to trade near record highs above $3000 an ounce. The company will now lean into the project which contains recent intercepts as high as 8m at 13.55 g/t gold from 80m – including a 4m slice at a 23 g/t.

Toro Energy has moved quickly to take advantage of the recent price spike in global uranium prices announcing plans to freshen up a previously released scoping study over its Lake Maitland project eyeing off the possibilities of what the current 16-year high price above US$100 a pound could mean for the prospects of its uranium project near Wiluna in WA.

Non-executive director of BMG Resources John Prineas will replace Greg Hancock as the non-executive chairman of the company as it kicks off a search for a new MD to develop its 500,000-ounce gold find near Wiluna. The move follows the resignation of Managing Director Bruce McCracken and will see Mr Hancock remain on the board as an independent non-exec director.

Toro Energy’s Wiluna uranium project may grow with the addition of ore from two of the company’s 100 per cent owned satellite deposits now being assessed as part of an extension study. Ore from the company’s Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede deposits, which are about 70km west of the project’s main Lake Maitland deposit, may add to the project’s already impressive financial metrics that predict a $100m a year EBITDA for 17.5 years.