Craig Nolan

Thunderbird Resources is forging a golden path in NSW’S renowned Lachlan Orogen, acquiring the drill-ready Springfield gold deposit and kicking-off a $2.2 million placement to fuel its exploration blitz. The binding agreement to acquire Springfield with its impressive series of existing drill hits, sets in train a boost to the company’s growing portfolio of gold projects.

Larvotto Resources has launched a bold refurbishment of key infrastructure at its Hillgrove processing plant near Armidale in NSW, as the company looks to ramp up commissioning of the facility in July next year. Refurb works have officially kicked off at the company’s antimony-gold project, marking the start of a comprehensive plant upgrade to transform the historic processing facility into a modern production powerhouse.

Javelin Minerals has locked in a profit-sharing mining agreement with renowned contract firm MEGA Resources to mine 39,000 ounces of gold from its Eureka gold project near WA’s historic Kalgoorlie mining hub. In a huge win for Javelin, full-service contractor MEGA will fully fund the operation, covering the full spectrum of mining activities, project financing and haulage services.

Aguia Resources has delivered a powerful update for its Tres Estrades phosphate project in Brazil, with a revised economic study pointing to pre-tax free cash flow rocketing by 150 per cent to $411 million (US$274 million). It reveals a favourable scenario for the company, with both pre-tax NPV and EBITDA soaring by more than 70%.

Dateline Resources is continuing to flex its muscles in the high-stakes arena of US critical minerals by snapping up the promising Argos strontium project, near its groundbreaking Colosseum gold-rare earths project in California. In a powerhouse move that catapults its American footprint into overdrive, the company has sunk its teeth into the US’s largest known strontium deposit.

Ora Banda Mining has jagged bonanza-grade gold hits outside its Sand King life-of-mine plan and boosted its mining inventory at the underground mine northwest of Kalgoorlie. Step out drilling produced several stunning hits. The two best results were 1.7m at 1371.2g/t gold, including 0.4m going 5545g/t, and a pearler intersection running 5.6m at 346.3g/t gold, including a superb 3.5m slice grading 551.5g/t.

Beetaloo Energy has observed significant gas flowing while running clean up at its Carpentaria-5H well in preparation for an upcoming IP30 flow test, after recently undertaking successful stimulation of the well. The company is nearing the pointy end of identifying just how productive its Carpentaria-5H horizontal well may be, as it zeroes in on the Northern Territory’s extensive Beetaloo Basin to prove up a massive gas resource.

Altech Batteries has been approved as eligible for a proposed €46.725 million (A$83.55 million) German government grant to further develop the company’s groundbreaking CERENERGY sodium-chloride solid-state battery project in Saxony. The grant endorsement recognises Altech’s vision to redefine energy storage with a sustainable alternative to lithium-ion batteries, using the humble power of table salt, reflecting Europe’s plan to transition to renewables.

Terrain Minerals has revealed a striking gold interval of 22 metres grading 2.71 grams per tonne gold at its Lightning prospect, part of the wider Smokebush Project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The latest drilling program followed up a compelling 600m-long induced polarisation anomaly from geophysical data and formed part of the company’s exploration strategy.

Rio2 Ltd has upgraded its share listing to the Toronto Stock Exchange, where its stock will begin trading on Wednesday. The exchange has the world’s tenth-largest market capitalisation. The company is developing the Fenix Gold Project in Chile’s Atacama region using a heap leach process to extract up to 4.8 million ounces of gold, to reach a projected annual production of 91,000 ounces of over the first 12 years.

Pilot Energy has received a $3.887 million Petroleum Resource Rent Tax refund after oil production ceased at its joint venture Cliff Head oil field. The refund, paid via operator Triangle Energy Operations, was attributed to funds spent on abandoning, decommissioning and rehabilitating the Western Australian offshore production site. Pilot is cashed up after also raising $6.8 million in a recent share and convertible note issue.

The critical battery mineral – lithium - may be set for sustained higher pricing after a Chinese crackdown on illegal mining activity removed a chunk of supply from the market and triggered a price surge. The price touched its peak for this year of US$970 (A$1485) per tonne of the industry-standard 6 per cent spodumene concentrate, putting a welcome smile on the faces of lithium players.

Triangle Energy and its joint venture partner Athena Exploration have substantially boosted gas resources at their UK North Sea permit, marking a significant milestone for the two companies. The marked increase in both contingent and prospective resources positions the partners among the top three holders of undeveloped gas resources in the UK west of the Shetland Islands and in the southern North Sea.

Lindian Resources can now significantly increase its rare earths mining area by almost three-fold at its Kangankunde project in Malawi after receiving departmental approval for its stage two modular expansion plan. It is a further positive step forward in the company’s plans to supercharge its stage-two expansion of the world-class rare earths project that boasts a massive high-grade rare earths deposit.

Javelin Minerals has tweaked its mining plan to boost the expected gold recovery at the company’s Eureka project to 39,000 ounces, following a 27 per cent jump in the resource’s higher confidence indicated category. The lift to indicated resources was accompanied by a 32 per cent bump-up in grade to 1.98 grams per tonne gold, providing a significant uplift in the expected cash flow from mining the project.

A compelling link-up between Aurumin Limited and Brightstar Resources will see the consolidation of their respective Sandstone gold assets into a major gold resource. The two companies have entered a scheme implementation deed, paving the way for a scrip-based deal that will enable Brightstar to acquire Aurumin via one Brightstar share for every four Aurumin shares.

Thunderbird Resources’ latest assay results confirm significant high-grade gold from selective rock chips and grab sampling at its Kookabookra project in northeastern New South Wales. Results from 39 rock chip and grab samples returned impressive high-grade gold results of 11.65g/t and 5.29g/t at its Bear Hill prospect, along with rock-solid 32.1g/t finds at the company’s Columbo and 20.7g/t at its German Reef prospects.

Singapore mining entity Bastion Mining has declared victory in its battle for control of ASX-listed Xanadu Mines, announcing its off-market takeover bid is now unconditional after Bastion secured a 55.65 per cent stake in the Mongolian-focused copper and gold explorer. Bastion quickly accumulated the required 50.1 per cent of shares necessary for a successful takeover, after offering 8c per Xanadu share.

Pilot Energy has locked in the purchase of the WA-based Cliff Head oil facility from former joint venture partner Triangle Energy and will repurpose the asset for carbon capture and storage. Pilot has acquired Triangle’s remaining 78.75 per cent interest in the oil field to assume full ownership of its onshore assets as well as all its offshore assets within WA jurisdiction.

Aguia Resources is set to kick off surface exploration at its prospective Atocha gold-silver project in Colombia, in a bid to generate new drill targets at the site where high-grade gold and silver have already been identified. Previous rock chip sampling returned grades of 19.9g/t, 14.65g/t and 14.2g/t gold and silver assays up to 3480g/t.

Aspiring mineral producer Lithium Universe has snapped up the global rights to an innovative microwave technology designed by Macquarie University in Sydney, to simplify the separation of silicon and valuable metals in solar photo-voltaic (PV) panels. The company has entered a binding agreement to acquire Macquarie-owned New Age Minerals, which holds the exclusive licensing agreement to use and commercialise the new-age recycling technology.

Horizon Minerals has opened the cash floodgates from mining and processing gold-bearing ore from the company’s two cash-generating mines, under separate toll treating arrangements in WA’s renowned Goldfields region. Under its watchful eye, Horizon has witnessed a stream of cash pouring through its doors as the hauling and processing of ore achieves a continuous steady state.

Empire Energy Group – under its new name Beetaloo Energy Australia - has kick-started hydraulic stimulation activities at the company’s 3.3km-long Carpentaria-5H horizontal well in the Northern Territory’s massive Beetaloo Basin. The company plans to run more than 60 stimulation stages along the longest horizontal well in the Beetaloo sub-basin and expects the program to take four weeks.

Aguia Resources has locked in a $4 million loan from a government-owned Brazilian bank to refurbish its leased processing plant and kick-start mining operations at the company’s Tres Estradas phosphate project. The 20-year loan will cover an initial $118,000 capital expenditure required to kick-off mining activities and fund the estimated $1.97M needed to bring the plant up to speed to process an expected 100,000 tonnes annually.

Ora Banda Mining has nailed high-grade gold hits at the company’s Davyhurst project in WA’s Goldfields from an infill drilling program at its Riverina deposit and exploration drilling at its Waihi and Little Gem prospects. Multiple hits exceeded 100g/t gold at Riverina, including 1m at 129.5g/t, 4.3m going 24.6g/t, with a pumped-up 0.3m slice grading 229g/t, and 4.7m running at 12.5g/t with a 0.5m section returning 108g/t.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is… Eclipse Metals. Its share price surged after unveiling a beefed-up rare earths resource in Greenland. Bryah Resources share price ran on a major shareholder’s plans for a boardroom revolt, Bastion Minerals is readying up for a JORC-compliant resource reveal and Codeifai Limited received a $570,000 kick into its kitty to help drive growth of its SaaS technology revenue.

Lithium Universe is on the hunt for a minimum 10 years’ worth of spodumene supply from local producers to feed its future Canadian lithium refinery, which it expects to kick-start the conversion of the battery mineral at the refinery in 2028. The company is seeking a large supply to help lock in its required project finance, having reached a final investment decision earlier this year for the project to kick into gear.

Strickland Metals has nailed more high-grade gold with hits of 4m at 10.1g/t and 8m going 6g/t from a first hole in a recent drilling program at the company’s Gradina prospect, part of its huge 7.4-million-ounce gold-equivalent Rogozna project in southern Serbia. The results from the deposit’s northern end extend the known high-grade mineralisation across 1km of strike and 900m vertically.

Horizon Minerals has locked in a $30 million raise at 4.3 cents per share, aiming to bolster the company’s finances to complete refurbishment studies on its Black Swan processing plant in WA and fund new drilling programs. The funds raised from local and offshore institutional investors will support drilling and engineering studies for Black Swan, prior to an expected influx of cash from its two gold mining operations.

Thunderbird Resources has nabbed high-grade gold up to 19.3 grams per tonne and 4.12 per cent antimony in rock chip grab samples from initial exploration work at its Rockvale and Kookabookra projects in northeastern NSW. The Rockvale project is within shouting distance of Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove gold-antimony operation, which hosts the nation’s largest antimony resource.

Altech Batteries is pumping out its high-tech Silumina anodes from its German pilot plant, marking a milestone for the company as it supplies first product to potential customers for testing and sets itself up for future commercial production. The new-age technology has achieved a significant breakthrough by coating silicon particles with alumina, boosting the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries by up to 55 per cent.

Horizon Minerals’ updated mineral resources summary highlights a massive nickel boost from its recent merger with Poseidon Nickel, which has added a huge spread of nickel icing to its Kalgoorlie golden cake. Some 422,000 tonnes of nickel metal now bolster the company’s mineral portfolio, which also includes 1.8 million ounces of gold scattered across a plethora of Goldfields deposits, including several being mined to benefit from a surging gold price.