Andrew Todd

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.

Chariot Corporation has secured strategic West Australian lithium and gold assets by obtaining seven tenements in the Southern Cross greenstone belt, a world-class lithium and gold address. Chariot swooped in after a series of relinquishments by other gold and lithium explorers over the past two years, taking advantage of a countercyclical opportunity. The company says it has successfully leveraged the strategy elsewhere.

This week's Bulls N' Bears Runner of the Week is… Caprice Resources. The company's share price rocketed after unveiling gold results at its Island Gold project in the Murchison. EV Resources and its ultra-high-grade molybdenum in Peru surged thanks to China's export bans, Scorpion acquired yet more Murchison hot property and Latitude 66 is returning to test its high-grade gold projects in Northern Finland.

BMG Resources is poised to ramp up drilling at its Abercromby gold project near Wiluna in Western Australia, with phase one results expected any day and phase two drilling scheduled to begin next month. With the first-round results from December's 1076m diamond drilling campaign expected imminently, BMG is confident that visual observations suggest the project's existing 518,000-ounce gold resource is set to grow.

Ora Banda Mining has uncovered a new gold discovery – along with another set of blockbuster results from deep drilling at its Riverina mine in Western Australia. The results will also extend the deposit's mine life. The company's depth extension drilling campaign has continued to intersect high-grade gold for more than 300m below its current mine plan, further extending the life of mine at the company's ever-refining Davyhurst operation.

St George Mining has secured $8 million in backing from leading global mining engineering firm Shandong Xinhai Mining to fast-track the development at its high-grade Araxá niobium-rare earths project in Brazil. The company has formed a major strategic partnership with the engineering and construction services giant through an agreement that includes an engineering, procurement and construction contract over Araxá.

Terrain Minerals has launched into stage two drilling at its Wildflower gold project in WA's Mid West region, following its recently completed, high-impact sulphide conductor drilling in the Albany-Fraser Belt. The company has turned its focus to the surging commodities of gold and gallium at its broader Smokebush project, ramping up a 1368m RC program targeting gold discoveries and gallium metallurgy research that is currently underway.

Xanadu Mines has handed over the reins of its flagship Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia, following the successful transition of operatorship to its joint venture partner, Chinese mining giant Zijin Mining. Zijin will now progress the world-class Kharmagtai project towards final development, following a promising prefeasibility study delivered by Xanadu late last year.

Terrain Minerals has launched into an eagerly awaited reverse circulation drilling campaign early at its Lort River copper-nickel project in Western Australia's renowned Albany-Fraser Belt. The campaign will target two high-priority Nova-Bollinger-like sulphide conductors, hot on the heels of promising ground-based electromagnetic survey results completed last month.

Legend Mining has reached for some innovative exploration techniques at its Rockford nickel-copper project in WA's Fraser Range, earning it a windfall $1.77 million research and development cash refund from the taxman. Legend's high-power fixed loop electromagnetic equipment has pushed the boundaries of traditional electromagnetics by identifying targets at depths below 600m.

Reach Resources has kick-started a highly anticipated reverse circulation drilling program at its Murchison South gold project marking the first time its new geological model will be tested at the site near Paynes Find in Western Australia. The program is focused on reevaluating previous structural controls and targeting high-grade zones identified to be connected to the newly interpreted Primose fault structure.

Terrain Minerals has revealed an ambitious exploration roadmap for 2025, pitching a diversified drilling assault across WA on gold, nickel, copper and gallium targets. The company is gearing up for two significant reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaigns at its flagship Smokebush gold-gallium and Lort River nickel-copper projects which is set kick-off this month and continue through the quarter and beyond.

Galan Lithium has secured phase two permitting for its Hombre Muerto West and Candelas lithium brine projects in Argentina's world-class Lithium Triangle. The permit allows for expanded production of up to 21,000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate equivalent and sets the stage for Galan to scale its operations in line with a predicted lithium market bounce back.

Lindian Resources has appointed seasoned businessman Robert Martin as chairman to assist with the development of its mammoth Kangankunde project in Malawi, one of the largest rare earth deposits in the world. Martin, who sits on a number of other ASX-listed company boards has a track record of experience across a broad range of sectors, including mining and mining services, manufacturing and capital markets.

Aurum Resources has confirmed some impressive high gold recoveries from its flagship Boundiali gold project at Côte d'Ivoire peaking at 97.1 per cent while also reducing reagent costs significantly. The company managed the twin achievements of high recoveries at reduced cost with lime use dropping by 32 per cent and cyanide requirements slashed by 40 per cent during leaching. Additionally, gravity recovery alone accounted for 50-60 per cent of gold recovery, a testament to the free-milling nature of the ore.

Altech Batteries has sealed a third offtake agreement with Axsol GmbH, a defence market renewable energy solutions supplier for NATO based in Germany. The partnership is set to provide Axsol with up to 120MWh of energy storage over the first five years from Altech's groundbreaking lithium-ion battery alternative Cerenergy solid-state salt batteries.

Horizon Minerals has tabled a solid set of numbers from a prefeasibility study into its Penny's Find gold play, 50km northeast of Kalgoorlie, in WA, predicting a free cash flow of $24m at a gold price of $3600 per ounce. The study reveals a profitable underground mining scenario with a production target of 329,900 tonnes of ore at a grade of 3.2 grams per tonne gold for 33,500 ounces.

Octava Minerals has wound-up drilling at its Yallalong antimony project in WA's Gascoyne region, confirming visual signs of antimony mineralisation and unlocking the next phase drilling of 14 high-priority targets, to follow assay results expected early next year. Octava completed 41 reverse circulation drill holes for a total of 2748m across its Discovery and Central antimony targets.

Triangle Energy's well pad for its upcoming Becos-1 exploration well in WA's Perth Basin is in the final stages of construction. The pad's completion is set for the end of December, ahead of a March spud of the highly anticipated onshore Becos-1 wildcat well, which is targeting a resource of between 1 million and 21m barrels of oil.

American West Metals has unveiled an impressive 117% increase in indicated copper resources at its flagship Storm project in Nunavut, Canada, noting multiple recent discoveries remain to be included in the substantial resource inventory. The upgrade propels the total resource to 20.6 million tonnes at 1.1% copper and 3.3 grams per tonne silver, representing some 229,000t of copper.

GreenTech Metals has launched high-powered electromagnetic surveys at its flagship Whundo project in WA's Pilbara region to uncover deep copper-zinc-rich targets ahead of a major 4000m drilling campaign that kicks off this month. The fixed loop electromagnetic survey will cover 1.14 square kilometres and examine the northern down-plunge extensions of key known mineralised zones, including Whundo, Austin, Shelby, and Yannery.

Chariot Corporation is pummelling its near-surface lithium spodumene targets with drilling at its flagship Black Mountain project in Wyoming, USA. Armed with a cutting-edge Boart Longyear reverse circulation drill rig, the company is targeting high-grade spodumene resources to fast-track its small-scale lithium mining strategy to service the burgeoning US electric vehicle market.

Terrain Minerals' recent drill success at its Wildflower gold project in WA's Midwest has caused it to create a new geological model which it will put to the test with the drill bit in a planned December drilling blitz. The company says it will plough another 2150m of drilling into the Wildflower discovery next month that is located 150km east of Dongara in WA.

American West Metals has unveiled a wave of new copper targets at its Storm project in Nunavut, Canada. The latest slew of greenfield copper prospects underscores what the company says is the “vast greenfield potential” of its 110km-long copper belt at Storm. New prospects, including Seabreeze and Hailstorm, include lab busting copper rock sampling grades of more than 50 per cent copper, the upper limit for the lab testing technique.

Pilot Energy has big plans to liquify and then store carbon emissions from WA industrial emitters in its depleted sub-sea oil well near Dongara in WA. It is also looking to lever its oil and gas assets to build a world class clean hydrogen and ammonia facility in WA's Mid-West. The remarkable project has received a shot in the arm after a Korean energy consortium raised $2.2m to conduct a study on the project.

With antimony prices hitting an all time high and the Chinese government banning exports of the valuable military metal, Octava Minerals is cranking up the drill rig at its Yallalong antimony project 200km east of Kalbarri in Western Australia. The drill bit is set to touch down this weekend for a highly anticipated 3000m reverse circulation drill program just as the silvery metal hits an all-time high of $33,000 a tonne.

Estrella Resources has uncovered not one but two supergene manganese discoveries at its Lautém project in Timor-Leste. The reportedly high-grade manganese assets were uncovered using the company's predictive modelling of its prospective Noni rock formations. Estrella says its Ira Miri and Sica discoveries are around 4.5km apart just outside the town of Lautém and feature some of the highest-grade rock chips sampled to date.

This week's Bulls N' Bears Runner of the Week is … NoviqTech. The blockchain powered ledger technology and carbon footprint monitoring company shot up 172% on Friday following a “strategic placement” to cryptocurrency heavyweights including blockchain investor, European politician and High Stakes Poker TV-personality ‘Tony G'.

ChemX Materials has been awarded nearly $662,000 by the Federal Government through a research and development rebate for its pioneering chemistry-focussed, patented high-purity alumina research. The cash boost is some $100,000 more than the company was originally estimated to receive under its R&D grant eligibility and will be directed to help drive its 24-tonne per annum HPA pilot plant development in WA.

Horizon Minerals has kicked off mining activities at its Phillips Find gold project outside Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. Pre-strip mining operations are underway at the joint venture with first gold ore expected to be mined from the Newhaven and Newminster open pits at the project by next month.

Dateline Resources has revealed a potential ace up its sleeve at its 1.1-million-ounce Colosseum gold project outside of Las Vegas in California, suggesting mine waste at the gold project could provide a crucial second revenue stream by converting it into construction materials to serve the bustling southern Nevada concrete market.