Craig Nolan

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … BPM Minerals. The exploration company hit high-grade gold at its Claw project in Western Australia and its share price surged on massive volume. Octava Minerals’ stock also leapt on an antimony discovery from historical drill results at its Yallalong project, while other movers-and-shakers this week were Mithril Silver and Gold and Metal Hawk.

Metallurgical testwork at Xanadu Mines’ Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia has highlighted impressive recovery levels of 80 per cent from sulphide feed and a high-grade concentrate with low impurities. The potentially-saleable concentrate shows grades of up to 25 per cent copper and 25 grams per tonne gold from the porphyry deposits at the company’s South Gobi site in the landlocked East Asian country.

King River Resources has intersected significant geochemical anomalies from recent drilling at its Langrenus and Providence prospects that sit within the company’s Tennant Creek East project in Australia’s Top End. The drill campaign is part of a $2 million spend to follow up geophysical targets generated from last year’s program and encountered anomalous gold, copper, silver, antimony, bismuth and cobalt.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Aruma Resources. The exploration company hit high-grade copper-antimony samples at its Fiery Creek project in Queensland, with its share price jumping on massive volume. Also, Petratherm’s stock soared after it discovered titanium-rich heavy mineral sands in South Australia, while other movers-and-shakers this week were Locksley Resources and Enova Mining.

Horizon Minerals has signed a significant new joint venture deal aimed at developing and mining two open pits at its Phillips Find gold project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region in a bid to cash in on record high prices for the precious yellow metal. The deal with BML Ventures is underpinned by a plan to produce 15,000 ounces of gold from the site.

Red Metal says its latest step-out drill program has confirmed two huge, parallel magnet rare earths zones at its Sybella project near Mount Isa in Queensland, highlighting the impressive resource potential at the site. The company’s latest assays featured strong shows for all four magnet rare earths –neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium – and infill drilling is now a key priority.

ChemX Materials has received a $250,000 boost to help drive the commissioning of its high-purity alumina pilot plant in WA and plans to use the first part of its expected Federal Government research and development (R&D) rebate as security for the funding. A further $191,000 is also due in the coming weeks as the company ramps up the commissioning of its high-tech development.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Golden Deeps. The exploration company struck high-grade copper-zinc at its Havilah project in NSW. Osmond Resources’ shares also bounded higher after the Melbourne-based company acquired a rare earths and heavy minerals project in Spain, while other movers-and-shakers this week were Energy Metals and Killi Resources.

The race is still on for companies trying to crack the exploration code within Western Australia’s rugged Albany-Fraser Orogen in the ongoing mission to reproduce the area’s renowned – and only – Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper find. Despite some firms claiming to have defined the geological silver bullet they believed would shoot them to fame, the search for the elusive prize continues.

Lycaon Resources has engaged a renowned geophysical expert to help make its Stansmore project that sits in Western Australia’s West Arunta region the next cab off the niobium rank to follow other nearby recent success stories. Both WA1 Resources and Encounter Resources captured the market’s attention after identifying niobium and rare earths mineralisation associated with a carbonatite intrusive in the same region.

Local rare earths explorer ABx Group and TSX-listed Canadian firm Ucore Rare Metals have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to forge a binding offtake agreement for the supply of a mixed rare earths carbonate –enriched in the valuable dysprosium and terbium metals – sourced from the former’s Deep Leads project that sits 45km west of Launceston in northern Tasmania.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … MC Mining. The South African-focused coal producer inked a US$90 million cash injection into its coal operations. Also, Actinogen Medical received renewed support upon revealing analysis showing its Xanamem therapeutic to effectively treat depression, while other movers and shakers this week were Kalina Power and Felix Gold.

Horizon Minerals has kicked off mining activities at its recently-approved Boorara gold development operation that sits adjacent to Northern Star’s massive Super Pit mine in the regional WA city of Kalgoorlie. Management last month gave approval for the mining of four open pits containing 1.24 million tonnes of ore grading 1.24g/t gold for 49,500 ounces and says it has already kicked the plan into action.

Surefire Resources has executed a joint co-operation agreement with WA’s Mid West Ports Authority to define the best pathway forward for exporting magnetite product from the company’s Victory Bore operation. Management’s aim is to secure port access for 1.25 million tonnes per annum to be shipped to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), where the ore will be processed into a suite of valuable products.

Higher silver and zinc prices have led Horizon Minerals to dust off the mothballed Nimbus project that sits adjacent to its flagship Boorara gold operation, some 17km from Kalgoorlie in WA’s Eastern Goldfields region. The company has set a big exploration target to chase in a drilling campaign planned for next year as it looks to ramp up its resources for an upcoming feasibility study.

Aurumin is preparing to launch into a drilling campaign to expand its gold inventory and potentially find economic iron mineralisation at its range of projects around Western Australia’s historic Mid West town of Sandstone. The company has a 946,000-ounce gold resource at its projects and recently retrieved 320 pulp samples to be assayed for the iron it identified from rock-chip sampling.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … antimony. The grey metal was behind significant share price jumps for Larvotto Resources and several other ASX-listed companies. Also, Dundas Minerals jumped 188 per cent on news of finding solid gold up to 9.5g/t in re-assayed samples, while other movers and shakers this week were MTM Critical Metals and First Lithium.

Novo Resources has produced a suite of high-grade gold assays after an intensive reassessment of core from past drilling at its Belltopper project in Victoria – just 50km south of Agnico Eagle’s world-class Fosterville mine. The company says its re-assaying of 11 historic diamond drillholes has confirmed multiple mineralised intercepts across several priority target corridor zones prospective for gold and other “in-demand” minerals.

King River Resources has punched 68 reverse-circulation (RC) holes for 7998m into its Tennant Creek East and Kurundi projects that sit near the town of Tennant Creek in Australia’s Top End. The $2 million drilling campaign has been designed to also test a range of new targets generated from an intensive geophysics program that was completed last year.

Reach Resources says it has secured the vital heritage clearance that will allow it to launch a drilling program at its Wabli Creek niobium-rare earths project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region. The company now plans to target a series of highly-prospective areas at its ground after recently revealing several high-grade assays from rock chips that were taken directly from outcropping granitic bedrock.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … LiveHire. Its share price jumped 95.83 per cent on news of it entering a bid implementation agreement for an all-cash takeover offer priced at 4.5 cents per share – an impressive 75.8 per cent premium to its 30-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP). Other movers and shakers this week were Artemis Resources, LTR Pharma and Noxopharm.

Australia’s Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) has given its approval for a powerful Japanese consortium consisting of Sumitomo Metal Mining and Mitsubishi Corporation to join forces with Ardea Resources for the development of the Goongarrie Hub operation within the latter’s giant Kalgoorlie Nickel Project (KNP) in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. A joint venture (JV) agreement was signed by the three parties in April this year.

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. Bulls N’ Bears takes look at some of those companies which have received both a timely cash injection and a share price boost up to recent highs.

Buru Energy has locked in a local drilling company to drill two oil wells in Western Australia’s onshore Canning Basin that form the centrepiece of the company’s farm-in joint venture with Sabre Energy. The campaign is set to test the promising Rafael Shallow and Mars exploration wells and binding drill rig hire agreements are to be executed shortly to enable drilling to kick off in September-October.

Terrain Minerals plans to test its promising Wildflower gold project in Western Australia later this month, with an air-core drill program for 41 holes comprising about 2100m. Drilling will test the company’s two priority targets, Wildflower and Cota, where previous drilling and soil sampling produced encouraging results that management is keen to pursue at the project that sits within WA’s Murchison gold province.

A compelling prefeasibility study (PFS) for Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove gold-antimony project in New South Wales shows the operation will spit out an EBITDA of $652 million during a seven-year mine life. Using conservative pricing estimates, the company also revealed a post-tax NPV of $157 million, a post-tax IRR of 50 per cent and a maiden ore reserve of 606,000 ounces at 6g/t gold-equivalent.

Terrain Minerals is poised to launch a multi-mineral exploration mission at two projects in Western Australia after bolstering its bank balance with a timely $1.045 million raise from sophisticated and professional investors. The raise, including $102,000 from executive director Justin Virgin, smashed its original $750,000 target out of the park as investors scrambled to be involved in the company’s upcoming exploration plans.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Killi Resources. Its share price jumped 262.5 per cent on the back of several stunning rock-chip assays that returned grades of 238 grams per tonne gold and 5.4 per cent copper. Other movers and shakers this week were Augustus Minerals, Moab Minerals and Clara Resources.

Strickland Metals has kicked its drilling program into overdrive by marching a second diamond drill rig into its Horse Well gold camp that is part of the company’s Yandal project, sitting about 85km north-east of Wiluna in Western Australia. A combined three rigs are now punching the drill bit into four prospective targets with the financial assistance of a State Government grant.

White Cliff Minerals has unearthed widespread visible iron oxide-copper-gold and uranium-silver mineralisation during the company’s initial field program at its promising Great Bear Lake project in northern Canada. The swag of targets discovered include outcropping copper-uranium-cobalt-silver mineralisation and several off-the-charts uranium readings from a handheld scintillometer. Management also revealed that a CAD$168,000 (AU$183,000) Canadian Government grant has been received to further exploration activities.

American West Metals says it likes what it sees in visual sulphide hits at the company’s Storm copper play in Canada after unveiling results of 16 holes drilled at its Cyclone deposit and Lightning Ridge prospect. Management completed 4453m of reverse-circulation drilling as it aims to upgrade and extend the Cyclone and Chinook deposits and define resources at its Lightning Ridge and Thunder prospects.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Infini Resources. Its share price jumped nearly 226 per cent on the back of a slew of lab-busting soil-sampling uranium results that showed grades so high that they have been dispatched back to the lab for another round of analysis. Other movers and shakers this week were Waratah Minerals, AML3D and Wellard.