Craig Nolan

Reach Resources has intercepted thick rare earth hits at its 100 per cent owned Wabli Creek project in WA’s Gascoyne region, scoring a whopping 109m running 1109 parts per million total rare earth oxides. Initial assays from 18 holes drilled at the company’s Pelops target returned significant intersections of rare earths from surface, with multiple holes ending in mineralisation.

Larvotto Resources latest reverse-circulation drill campaign at its Hillgrove project has kept the gold-antimony party going with further big high-grade hits rolling off the drill bit at the company’s Clarks Gully deposit, some 23km east of Armidale in northern NSW. Larvotto also struck visible gold in diamond core drilling at its Bakers Creek prospect within the Hillgrove project area.

Novo Resources has bolstered its bank balance with the sale of its remaining 20 per cent interest in the Quartz Hill joint-venture project, along with the company’s gold and silver rights, for $850,000. Novo is now laser-focused on developing its prospective gold and base metal projects in Western Australia’s Pilbara region.

King River Resources has discovered two new zones exhibiting high-grade gold from its phase-one, 28-hole reverse-circulation drill program at the company’s Kurundi project in Australia’s top-end. A phase-two campaign is already underway to further interrogate the new finds, with one zone sitting in the Kurundi Main Central target area and the other about 250m to the south.

Allup Silica has undertaken further analysis on its 2023 air-core drill samples and identified promising rare earths, uranium and graphite mineralisation at its Pink Bark project near Esperance in WA’s Albany Fraser region. The campaign originally identified a significant kaolin clay deposit that the company believes may contain a resource of between 700,000 and 1.2 million tonnes.

Aurum Resources’ bid for Mako Gold could create a new West African golden-force with $20 million in cash, its own fleet of drill-rigs and a string of well mineralised projects within cooee of each other. And this isn’t the first rodeo for Aurum managing director Caigen Wang who has done it all before in Côte D’Ivoire having built the 3.8m ounce Abujar gold mine on the same structural trend.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Green Critical Minerals. The critical mineral explorer picked up some new groundbreaking graphite technology that can produce high-thermal conductivity material. Li-S Energy ran hard after revealing improvements to its lithium-sulfur battery tech, while other movers and shakers this week were Asian Battery Metals and Red Mountain Mining.

Infinity Lithium non-exec chairman Adrian Byass will step up into the roles of executive chairman and interim CEO as the company shifts its operational focus to Spain for its San José lithium project. Infinity has been pushing hard to obtain the relevant project approvals and is working with the Mines Department to establish a public consultation period, hoping to work with stakeholders and finalise the approval process.

Red Metal has been knocked over by punters in the rush for shares after its latest share purchase plan received applications totalling $6.6 million blowing an initial target of $2 million out of the water. The company’s exploration plans at its Sybella rare earths project in Queensland and drill programs at its other prospective targets are now fully-funded for the next year.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Peak Minerals. The junior miner acquired a large swathe of ground prospective for uranium-rutile in the West African nation of Cameroon. Yandal Resources also ran hard after a series of impressive gold-drilling hits, while other movers and shakers this week were Argent Minerals and TZ Limited.

Horizon Minerals is set to take over Poseidon Nickel and its mothballed mining plant with a $30m all-scrip deal that will give Horizon a neat opportunity to commercialise its myriad of gold deposits scattered around Kalgoorlie. Horizon is offering 0.1156 of its shares for each Poseidon share and aims to raise a minimum of $14 million via a two-tranche placement at 4.5c per share to bolster its balance sheet.

Suvo Strategic Minerals’ subsidiary, Climate Tech Cement, has inked a 50:50 joint-venture (JV) agreement with respected pre-cast concrete manufacturer PERMAcast to commercialise intellectual property for a low-carbon “geopolymer” cement product made from processed mining waste. The aim is to introduce low-carbon concrete projects and products to market. PERMAcast has supplied concrete products for many notable WA developments.

White Cliff Minerals has extended its land grab in Canada by securing ground adjacent to its Rae copper-silver project that sits in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The project now boasts a prospective strike length of 72km for copper-hosted sedimentary structures. The company jumped on the additional 243 square kilometres of tenure identified from geophysical data that it says may have district-scale potential for mineralisation.

Suvo Strategic Minerals has raised $2 million in a heavily-oversubscribed placement to develop and commercialise its low-carbon green cement product, with the owners of WA’s premier supplier of pre-cast concrete products, PERMAcast, kicking in $300,000 to join the register. Suvo holds a worldwide intellectual-property (IP) license for its “Geopolymer” cement that is manufactured using what would traditionally be waste streams from other industries.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Ovanti Ltd. The buy-now-pay-later hopeful is planning to tackle the U.S market after appointing an ex-Zip Co executive to drive its plans forward. Also, Nanoveu ran hard as it readies for crucial testing on its new semiconductor technology, while other movers and shakers this week were African Gold and James Bay Minerals.

Askari Metals has revisited exploration data from its Horry copper-gold play in Western Australia’s Kimberley region to whip up new drill targets after fielding significant interest in the company’s local assets due to strong commodity pricing for both metals. Based on previous programs at the site, management now believes it has the potential to reveal high-grade mineralisation via a significant exploration push.

Subiaco-based Altech Batteries has supercharged its alumina-coated silicon anodes to boost the energy capacity of lithium-ion batteries by 55 per cent after combining graphite with its high-tech anodes. The company says the game-changing results stem from its strategy to coat silicon particles with alumina, overcoming previous drawbacks associated with using silicone as an anode material.

A recent induced-polarisation geophysical survey run by Strickland Metals at its Rogozna gold project in Serbia has highlighted what the company says are two targets exhibiting strong chargeability anomalism. The survey identified the Jezerska Reka and Obradov Potok targets as having bigger anomalous zones, with stronger responses than the anomalies associated with its Shanac and Copper Canyon deposits that comprise a 5.4 million-ounce gold-equivalent resource.

Quantum Graphite has extended its land grab at the Uley project in South Australia, increasing the ground area to 117 square kilometres at the site near the State’s historic fishing town of Port Lincoln. The company is on the hunt for deposits of flake graphite to supply the critical mineral into its Sunlands Power joint venture for conversion into thermal energy storage cells.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … lithium. The silvery-white metal is back in the headlines for all the right reasons, pumping the share prices of several companies, including Arcadium Lithium, which is at the centre of a takeover bid by Rio Tinto. Kali Metals also spiked on the lithium trend, while Rimfire Pacific Mining and Rhythm Biosciences also ran hard.

Aurumin has pocketed a cash boost of $500,000 for the sale to private company Newcam Minerals of an exclusive six-month option on the iron ore rights at its Central Sandstone gold project in WA. Newcam will conduct due diligence across the site that consists of three mining leases and it may lead to a JV agreement between the two parties, resulting in a further $500,000 payment.

De Grey Mining has invested $7 million to achieve its minimum first-stage spend at Novo Resources’ Egina gold project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, with a further $18 million to be tipped in to create a joint venture operation. The earn-in is part of a required $25 million cash plunge within four years to create the 50:50 equal share at the site.

Surefire Resources has confirmed it has secured clearance to launch an 11-hole, 2200m maiden drilling campaign at its recently-discovered Phat Boy copper prospect in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The prospective ground consists of four coincident copper-zinc anomalous zones and is interpreted to sit within a similar geological and structural setting to the world-class Golden Grove massive sulphide deposit.

White Cliff Minerals has bolstered its funding for an upcoming drill program at its Rae copper-silver project in Canada, with a $5 million capital raise at a premium to the market price – cornerstoned by its strategic advisor, John Hancock. Management says the raising attracted widespread support from new and existing shareholders and institutional funds based locally and in the United Kingdom, United States and Europe.

In tough recent times for many junior mining companies on the ASX, luring a financially-powerful “big dog” onto the share register to provide some much-needed muscle has become a common boardroom pursuit. In this second part of an occasional series, Bulls N’ Bears takes a look at some of those companies which have prospered after jumping into the business bed with a major partner.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Hydration Pharmaceuticals. The company sold its non-US assets for a sum equivalent to, quite incredibly five times its market capitalisation. Also, Odessa Minerals ran hard after raising more than $1 million to drill its Lyndon uranium project in WA, while other movers and shakers this week were Nyrada and Australian Rare Earths.

Surefire Resources is planning a maiden drill program at its recently-discovered Phat Boy copper prospect in Western Australia’s Mid West region in a bid to add to its established critical minerals portfolio. The prospect consists of four coincident copper-zinc anomalous zones and is interpreted to sit within a similar geological and structural setting to the world-class Golden Grove massive sulphide deposit.

Octava Minerals has tapped the market for $1 million in a bid to expand the antimony prospect within its Yallalong project in WA, with plans for both extensional and infill drilling. In a further show of support, company directors have also agreed to stump up $150,000 to provide a cash boost that will bolster the funds required for planned exploration programs.

Xanadu Mines has confirmed it is in the final stages of completing a prefeasibility study on its Kharmagtai copper-gold project that sits in Mongolia’s South Gobi region. The company recently handpassed operational duties for the massive project to joint venture partner and Chinese behemoth, Zijin Mining, and says it has taken additional time to finalise the mine design to ensure a higher standard.

Strickland Metals is targeting the near-surface mineralisation at its Gradina prospect in Serbia in a bid to expand the company’s existing 5.4 million-ounce gold equivalent Rogozna project and drive its gold and base metal resource to next-level status. A new diamond-drilling program for 10,000m has been launched at the site that sits in the landlocked Balkan nation.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Element 25 after the potential high-purity manganese producer hit paydirt with a US Government energy grant for US$166 million (AU$241.5 million). West Cobar Metals’ share price also leapt higher after it nailed impressive antimony-copper drill hits at its NSW project, while other movers-and-shakers this week were Emperor Energy and Neometals.

Terrain Minerals has leapt into a new drill campaign at its Wildflower gold project in Western Australia’s Murchison province, with an air-core program of 41 holes for 2100m set to test its two high-priority targets – Wildflower and Cota. The AC drilling will target a significant 1000m-by-500m gold-in-soil geochemical anomaly consisting of a peak value of 246 parts per billion gold.