Andrew Todd

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runners of the Week is… Santa Fe Minerals, after the company scooped up a gold exploration play in a red-hot West African jurisdiction. Long-suffering Energy World shot up after it wiped more than a half a billion dollars in debt off its books, Next Science sayonara’d a chunk of its med-tech assets for $76 million and Loyal Metals picked up an super-high-grade historic copper-gold asset in central Queensland.

Thunderbird Resources is zeroing in on high-grade gold mineralisation at its Kookabookra gold project near Armidale in New South Wales, with rock chip assays returning up to a spectacular 153.5 grams per tonne gold at the company’s Mt Secret prospect. Continued surveys will direct a maiden drilling program at Thunderbird’s recently acquired projects, planned for later this quarter.

St George Mining has launched advanced geophysics surveys at its Araxá niobium-rare earths project in Brazil’s mining heartland of Minas Gerais. The company is flying its high-tech surveys in a quest to expand its project to become a globally significant niobium resource base. Meanwhile, the company is winding up a 10,000-metre drilling blitz at the relatively untested project.

Green360 Technologies has penned an agreement to produce low-carbon retaining wall blocks with leading WA precast concrete manufacturer PERMAcast. PERMAcast will fund the purchase of a block laying machine and batching plant and the joint venture partners will split then the profits from selling the blocks into WA’s mining construction market, while maintaining control of the product.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runners of the Week is… Ovanti Ltd, after the company scored a buy now, pay later maestro to guide its US expansion. Olympio unveiled visible gold in its first drill hole in Canada, Codeifai flew on a poorly kept takeover secret, and Sunrise unveiled high-grade scandium results at its NSW critical minerals project.

Terrain Minerals has cranked up the drill bit at its Smokebush project in Western Australia, extending its current reverse circulation drilling campaign in search of high-grade silver and gold at its Lightning and Monza prospects. The company has tacked on an extra 700m and three holes, expanding the program to a substantial 20 holes for 4300m. The expansion stems from keen field observations by Terrain on the ground.

Neometals, through its partnership with mining services heavyweight Mineral Resources, has inked an agreement with mining giant Rio Tinto to advance its patented lithium processing technology – the ELi process. The company’s 70:30 joint venture Reed Advanced Materials has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Rio subsidiary Livent USA to explore the commercialisation of its proprietary process to convert lithium feedstock into high-purity lithium hydroxide monohydrate.

Legend Mining has snapped up a 100 per cent interest in the Pinnacle Well gold and base metals project outside Leonora in Western Australia for a mere $50,000 cash. The company says its underexplored gem in the northern Goldfields marks Legend’s first foray beyond its nickel-copper stronghold in the Fraser Range and signals a strategic gallop into the booming gold space.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runners of the Week is… Amplia Therapeutics. The biotech beauty might just be onto a fabled golden bullet for pancreatic cancer. ArchTIS Limited surged on a pair of blockbuster defence cybersecurity contracts. And Vanadium Resources unveiled an early-stage direct shipping ore agreement with a Chinese global metals trader.

Javelin Minerals will charge towards production at its 112,000-ounce Eureka gold project outside of Kalgoorlie, under a plan to fast-track mining at the existing open pit to recover 34,000 ounces gold by next year. Javelin says its latest strategy comes on the back of a recent round of successful drilling, sky-high gold prices and a ready-to-go mining lease.

Estrella Resources has deployed the heavy-duty diamond rig to build on a recent high-grade massive manganese discovery at its Ira Miri prospect in Timor-Leste. The company says it has uncovered further significant new supergene manganese outcrop at the project some 350m north of its discovery hole and believes it to be a direct continuation of the discovery.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runners of the Week is… Icetana Limited, after the AI solutions provider partnered with global robotics developer SoftBank. Resolution Minerals snapped up a US critical and precious minerals project in Idaho and Highfield Resources bounced back on hopes its mammoth Muga potash project in Spain could soon get developed.

American West Metals is charging into exploration season at its flagship Storm copper project in Nunavut, Canada, with the drill bit primed for a bevy of deep, high-grade copper targets at the sprawling project. Drilling is set to kick off shortly as the company simultaneously rolls out a regional mobile magneto-telluric survey to test for deeper copper sulphide targets across the 110km copper belt.

St George Mining has launched a major drilling assault on its giant Araxá rare earths project in Minas Gerais, Brazil, with the company deploying three drill rigs for a substantial 10,000-metre, three-month program. The campaign will be carried out alongside a high-resolution airborne magnetic survey and aims to significantly expand the project’s recently unveiled major maiden resource.

Lindian Resources has made significant strides towards opening its flagship Kangankunde rare earths mine in Malawi. The company says it is running ahead of schedule as it looks to swiftly bring the low-cost critical minerals project into production. Haul roads and a solar farm for the project are underway and Lindian has filled five key positions to progress the site into its next development phase.

American West is about to launch a new drilling campaign in Utah targeting a suite of US-listed critical metals, including copper, gallium and molybdenum. The company’s West Desert project already holds the United States’ largest undeveloped indium resource and remains open in multiple directions.

Red Metal is poised to unlock the vast mineral potential of its Queensland copper-gold projects, thanks to $400,000 in collaborative drilling grants from the Queensland Government. The funds are set to spearhead the company’s proof-of-concept drilling at two highly prospective iron oxide-copper-gold projects at its Gulf and Three Ways prospects.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears' ASX Runners of the Week is… Eden Innovations, after it broke into the clean high-rise building sector and announced record concrete additive sales. Focus Minerals shot up thanks to a juicy $250 million cash gold project sale, InFocus Group unveiled a blockbuster $5M deal to become the exclusive tech partner for a Taiwanese gaming guru and market darling Dateline Resources had another roaring run.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has locked in a 75 per cent stake in its highly prospective Pinjin gold project near Kalgoorlie, completing the first milestone of its farm-in agreement over the project. The company has sealed the deal with a $1.65 million all-cash settlement for the project, which incorporates its Kirgella Gift and Providence mineral resources, alongside its promising breakout Lighthorse discovery and Wessex gold prospect.

Toro Energy has supercharged the project financials for its Lake Maitland uranium project near Wiluna in WA, unveiling an updated scoping study forecasting a low-cost, long-life mining operation. The latest numbers paint an encouraging picture for a standalone operation, improving an historic net present value by 9 per cent to a hefty $908 million, while slashing the project’s payback period to 1.5 years.

Titanium Sands Limited has locked in its Mannar Island heavy mineral sands project for a final push towards production, after the Sri Lankan government extended its four key exploration licences. The retention paves the way for the company to complete ongoing environmental studies and brings it closer to securing the all-important industrial mining licence for its high-grade mineral sands deposit.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Oceana Lithium, after a capital raise to fill its coffers ahead of base metals testing in WA’s Gascoyne region. Zoono Group signed an exclusive packaging deal with UK majors, MetalsGrove Ltd ran on belated appreciation of its new Côte d’Ivoire gold projects, and Raiden Resources reported eight-from-eight shallow, high-grade gold hits from its emerging Bulgaria project.

Aurumin Ltd has moved closer to cashflows in a JV with contract miner Newcam, which will spend up to $4M to farm into its gold projects. One project has an almost shovel-ready 64,000 ounces waiting to be tolled. The company has also landed a quick million dollars after agreeing to sell the non-gold rights at another of its WA gold projects.

Empire Energy has secured a hefty $28M war chest to propel its trailblazing Carpentaria gas pilot project in the N.T’s colossal Beetaloo Basin, as it manoeuvres to become Australia’s next big onshore gas player. The capital injection will turbocharge the hydraulic stimulation and flow testing of Empire’s Carpentaria-5H well, the longest horizontal well in the Beetaloo Sub-basin at a whopping 3310m.

Estrella Resources has notched yet another landmark achievement in Timor-Leste, formally East Timor, announcing the first conversion of permits into exploration licenses under the mineral-rich country’s new mining laws. The newly minted licenses will enable the company to deploy ground-disturbing exploration methods, including all-important maiden drilling campaigns, set to kick-off upon receipt of the nation’s first ever drill rig.

Lindian Resources is juggling a slew of financing proposals from leading African and European commercial and investment banks, for its world-class Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi. The company says it is riding a wave of financial momentum, with multiple funding proposals under due diligence to bankroll Kangankunde’s Stage 1 continued development.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… XPON Technologies Group, after the company snapped up a leading Australian digital marketing outfit to supercharge its revenue growth. Locksley Resources enjoyed a run after lodging drilling permits on its US-based Mojave project in prime critical metals country, high-grade gallium hopeful DY6 Metals continued last week’s strong run and Arizona Lithium curiously climbed to new highs on no new news.

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.