Andrew Todd

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… DY6 Metals Ltd, after the company announced high-grade gallium assays at its Tundulu rare earths project in Malawi. Dateline Resources flew on a presidential seal of approval for its Colosseum project from Donald Trump, Andromeda Metal’s lab trials confirmed high purity alumina from its kaolin deposit and Jindalee Lithium ran on US government backing for a strategic fast permitting framework.

Meeka Metals is officially Australia’s newest gold miner, pulling ore for the first time at its 1.2-million-ounce Murchison gold project, outside Meekatharra in Western Australia. The gold ore pulled from the company’s St Anne’s North open pit is a breakthrough step on Meeka’s journey toward first production, as open pit mining ramps up and processing plant expansion works approach completion.

Ora Banda Mining has mailed in another strong performance at its Davyhurst gold project in Western Australia, producing 23,150 ounces of gold in the March quarter and uncovering a potentially game-changing high-grade discovery. The company’s gold sales rose 6 per cent, lifting the total financial year-to-date sales to 71,467 ounces - 6 per cent ahead of the last full-year’s output with a full quarter remaining.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Redstone Resources, which announced a biblically deep drill hole to test for copper in WA’s West Musgrave area. Anteris Technologies ran on a $9/share price target from US-based Cantor Fitzgerald’s research department and Jindalee Lithium shot up on news its flagship McDermitt project had received US government backing to be listed on a strategic fast permitting framework.

McLaren Minerals has put a bow on a 6000m air core drilling campaign at its flagship McLaren titanium project in WA’s Eucla Basin, aiming to improve resource definition and progress feasibility studies. The six-week program covered 64 per cent of planned priority locations, with infill drilling enhancing the existing 280-million-tonne resource and step-out holes revealing thick new heavy mineral sands zones to the north and east.

American West Metals has revealed a sizeable new copper target at its Storm project in Nunavut, Canada, with historical drill tests intersecting visual copper sulphides at its newly titled Midway prospect. The company says a 2018-hole intersected 58m of visual sulphides, primarily chalcocite, with intervals containing up to 2.5 per cent estimated sulphide content.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Grand Gulf Energy, after it acquired an option over a billion-barrel oil prospect off the coast of Namibia. Meteoric Resources announced a maiden resource for its ionic clay deposit in Brazil, Aus Strategic Materials flourished under US rare earths supply concerns following Chinese export bans and NeuroScientific Biophamaceuticals acquired an innovative and life-changing stem cell technology company.

Galan Lithium has announced a transformation partnership with US lithium expert Authium for a funding and offtake package that will propel its Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project toward first production. The deal includes a fully funded and operated plant to be supplied by Authium, eliminating a substantial US$41.5 million (A$65.5M) in capital expenditure for Galan.

Ardea Resources has secured a pivotal $4.6 million strategic placement from Japanese joint venture partner Sumitomo Metal Mining to progress the company’s mammoth Kalgoorlie Nickel project in Western Australia. The cash injection will primarily fuel working capital, ensuring Ardea’s expert team continues to drive the ongoing $98.5M definitive feasibility study, which Sumitomo will pay for.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Osteopore Ltd after its 3D-printed bone regrowth implants were approved by the European Union for distribution. Leeuwin Metals’ historical gold results unveiled extensive shallow high-grade mineralisation over 3km at its new Marda project in WA, Golden Horse Minerals returned stellar gold extensions at its WA project and Pivotal Metals ran up on no news other than renewed interest in its Canadian copper project with a sizeable resource.

Thunderbird Resources’ joint venture partner Firetail Resources is ramping up exploration efforts at their Picha JV copper project in Peru, ahead of maiden drill testing set for the second half of this year. Firetail is upping its game with geophysics, soil sampling and structural mapping underway to unlock the region’s substantial copper porphyry potential.

The United States Interior Department has reconfirmed ASX-listed Dateline Resources’ rights to mine and explore for gold and rare earths at its flagship Colosseum project in California. The long-awaited decision paves the way for a dual-commodity future for the company, just 10km from the US’s only operating REE mine, Mountain Pass.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runners of the Week is… Whitehawk Ltd, after it became a core cyber partner in a massive US$920M (A$1474M) US government contract. WA junior goldie OzAurum surged on results from its Cross Fault discovery next to Carosue Dam, Argent’s cannabis-based epilepsy therapy was approved for prescription in Germany and Galan turned down an unsolicited $240M bid for its Argentinian lithium projects.

Galan Lithium has turned down a US$150 million (A$240M) cash offer from a Chinese-French combo to acquire its lithium brine projects in Argentina, labelling the proposal “opportunistic” and “undervalued”. The market responded swiftly, with Galan’s shares soaring more than 50 per cent to a high of 16c per share - defying the broader ASX index and lithium market sentiment.

Javelin Minerals has taken the final hurdle ahead of drilling at its Eureka gold project, 50km north of Kalgoorlie, by completing of a heritage survey that clears the path for a maiden 3000m reverse circulation drill program. The company has a rig secured and ready to target extensions of high-grade lodes and a series of untested anomalies around the existing high-grade pit.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Saferoads. The company's share price rocketed after it pocketed $10.8 million from the sale of its Road Safety Rental arm. Errawarra Resources acquired an historically high-grade silver mine in the Pilbara, RareX Ltd announced stunning gallium hits from its project in the Kimberly and Belararox Ltd intersected promising visual copper in its chase for a mammoth copper porphyry in Argentina, as the red metal hit all-time highs.

Chariot Corporation has secured convertible note deal, roping in up to $2 million to fuel its lithium hunt across the United States and Australia. The company has locked in an initial $600,000 drawdown from New York-based investor Obsidian Global, with the potential to tap an additional $1.4m over the next 12 months.

Titanium Sands Ltd has cleared another big hurdle in its quest to bring its vast Mannar Island heavy mineral sands project in Sri Lanka into production after the country’s environmental authority issued terms for the company’s pivotal environmental impact assessment. The milestone sets the stage for the final environmental studies required for Titanium Sands to secure an industrial mining licence to bring its high-grade deposit into production.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Tlou Energy. It says share sellers are gone, and the Botswana energy firm is back to business as usual. Renewable solutions group GreenHy2 announced a tech contract with a leading Euro supplier, Besra recouped some share price losses as it focussed on its substantial Bau gold project and Trek found glimmering visual gold in drilling core samples as the gold price cracked US$3000 an ounce.

Thunderbird Resources has expanded its gold footprint in NSW, lodging an application for a strategic 118-square-kilometre expansion to its Kookabookra gold project immediately to the east. The company is doubling down on its gold presence in the state, suggesting that Kookabookra could host an intrusion-related gold system – similar to the kind of deposits that’s delivered multi-million-ounce gold hauls at places such as Fort Knox in Alaska and Kidston in Queensland.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Wide Open Agriculture. Its share price ran on sales of its lupin protein to Europe, Latin America and Australia. South African helium producer Renergen announced maiden commercial sales of its liquid helium, Resolution Minerals acquired three antimony/gold projects on Australia’s east coast and Metal Powder debuted on the ASX on its metal powder process technology.

Ora Banda Mining has again struck gold, with a stellar set of high-grade intercepts at its latest discovery, Little Gem, south of its Riverina gold camp, outside Kalgoorlie. The company is gushing over its latest results from a drilling program exhibiting thick, rich lodes of gold. The results have sparked an immediate 16-hole follow-up campaign to pepper a 4.7km gold trend emerging south of its flagship Riverina mine.

GreenTech Metals has jagged enticing visual intersections at its Whundo copper-zinc project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region from the first two diamond drill holes in a 4000m stage two program. The holes intersected thick zones of massive and semi-massive sulphides. The tantalising results from the company’s Shelby and Austin targets confirm down-plunge continuation of mineralised shoots at the project.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Industrial Minerals. The company had no news this week, instead its share price ran up on speculation about its high-purity quartz projects and tariffs pricing. Base metals explorer Litchfield identified two big sulphide-bearing targets for drilling, fintech group InFocus announced a stablecoin deal with a Seychelles tech provider GBO and TG Metals acquired an advanced gold asset in WA.

St George Mining has kicked off a major downstream processing study at its high-grade niobium-rare earths project Araxá in Brazil, aiming to fast-track the project into production following completion of its acquisition last week. Metallurgical programs are already underway and are soon to be accompanied by a substantial drilling campaign scheduled to begin this month.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Wide Open Agriculture. The company surged on news its high-protein lupin isolate had received approval for export into China. Pacific Edge received a stamp of approval for its bladder cancer diagnostics test, Forbidden Foods and its oat milk range received on-market buying from major shareholder Steve Smith, and Olympio acquired a Canadian gold project in a major mining postcode.

Ora Banda Mining has continued its smooth transition to become a high-grade underground miner, with its Sand King underground ramping up production and over-delivering on gold returns from its Davyhurst project in Western Australia. The company says it has successfully processed its first batch of Sand King ore, with both the reconciled gold grade and metal recovery exceeding expectations at the recently opened underground mine.

Novo Resources is pushing ahead on multiple exploration fronts across Australia ahead of drilling at its John Bull and Tibooburra gold projects in NSW, while ex-tropical cyclone Zelia throws a temporary spanner in the works with flooding at its Karratha and Balla Balla gold projects in WA. Drilling across all projects is slated for next quarter as the gold price continues to push all-time highs.

Aurum Resources has uncovered more high-grade gold outside the 1.59-million-ounce resource boundary at its Boundiali gold project in Côte d’Ivoire, intercepting 12m of gold running at a staggering 22g/t. The intercept from 145m downhole was the first assay of four holes drilled at the company’s BD Target 3 for 678m and features bonanza grade sections of 2m at 35.59g/t and 7m of 27.5g/t gold.

Ora Banda Mining has posted a blistering half-year result, raking in record revenues of $186.4 million, up 94 per cent on last year, from its Davyhurst gold project in Western Australia. The company, which is sitting on a $57.8m cash pile, saw surging production and cash flows last year. It sold 47,824 ounces of gold in the six months to December.

After a week of market elation and ASX all-time highs, this week saw the index experience a serious pullback as banks and miners alike were left with nowhere to hide.

Reach Resources’ share price surged 29pc this morning to 1.8 cents, up some 125pc on this time last week, after the company unveiled initial drilling results from its Murchison South gold project in Western Australia. The first two reverse circulation drill holes intersected shallow high-grade gold, including an impressive 41m section grading 2.01g/t.