Doug Bright

Askari Metals has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% of Rift Valley Metals which owns a gold portfolio of five tenements enclosing 460 square kilometres of highly prospective ground in Ethiopia. The company’s landholdings are within the Adola Greenstone Belt in the under-explored southern segment of the Arabian-Nubian Shield, about 350km south of Ethiopia’s capital of Addis Ababa.

Javelin Minerals has completed a maiden 22-hole reverse circulation drilling program at its recently acquired Eureka gold project, 54km north of Kalgoorlie in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. The 2779m campaign was planned to confirm and possibly expand the existing 2.45Mt JORC-compliant resource, which averages 1.42g/t gold for a contained 112,000 ounces of gold. About 62,000 ounces are in the indicated category.

Great Southern Mining has assayed 3m at 2.55g/t gold from 33m, including 1m at 6.48g/t gold, in the final results from a February RC drilling program at its Golden Boulder East trend at its Duketon project in WA. The hole included a separate 2m hit going 1.81g/t gold from 42m. A second hole probed 1m assaying 1.02g/t gold from 53m and 2m at 1.42g/t gold from 60m.

Latitude 66’s KSB project in Finland is a key part of a wide-scale, European Union-funded geophysical and geological exploration and innovation program hunting for new critical mineral resources. The imminent $9M UNDERCOVER project aims to increase Europe’s raw materials production and will include the Kuusamo Schist Belt, which hosts Latitude’s flagship project.

This edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits singles out an exceptional recent hit. Patriot Battery Metals’ latest caesium discovery in Quebec, Canada, includes a best hit of 5m at 13.2% caesium oxide, while another hole produced a top grade in 1.1m at 26.61% caesium oxide.

Image Resources has shipped its first heavy mineral concentrate from its new Atlas project in the Dandaragan shire, 170km north of Perth, under an existing off-take agreement used for its previous Boonanarring project. The company shipped a nominal 10,000 tonnes of wet HMC from the port of Geraldton last week, just two months after commissioning the plant.

GreenTech Metals has hailed significant results from its first two diamond drill holes at its Whundo volcanogenic copper-zinc project south of Karratha, including 7.14m at 1.46% copper and 1.23% zinc from 277.16m. That intercept from the company’s unmined Austin conductor target includes 6.3m going 1.84% copper and 1.4% zinc from 278m, including 3.45m assaying 2.42% copper and 2.41% zinc from 278m.

Askari Metals’ recent trawl through a historical exploration database at its Uis project in Namibia has identified significant tin, tantalite and rubidium mineralisation within its licence area. The review reveals “exceptionally high” tin, tantalum and rubidium responses from a 492-sample rock chip database, with assays including 3.17% tin oxide, 5226ppm tantalum pentoxide and 0.87% rubidium oxide.

St George Mining plans to start a maiden drill program within weeks focussing on expanding a 40.64Mt rare earths resource estimate from early April for its Araxá project in Brazil. The company’s mineral resource estimate for the venture came in at 41.2Mt and 0.68 per cent niobium pentoxide and 40.6Mt and 4.13 per cent total rare earths oxides.

Ardea Resources has completed a 287-hole infill reverse circulation drilling program to support potential resource classification upgrades at its vast Goongarrie Hub nickel project, 5km south of Menzies. The company drilled 186 holes at its Big Four prospect for 10,238m, while 101 holes were put in at Scotia Dam for 6332m. Ardea has sampled a total of 16,570m of vertical holes at 2m intervals over their full depths.

Aurumin Limited's first RC drilling program, along with pulp re-sampling of old holes, has thrown up some high-grade iron hits at its Central Sandstone project in WA’s Mid West region, including a best 10m at 62% iron. The 2000m drilling campaign across two of Aurumin’s three granted mining leases was co-funded as part of private company Newcam Mineral’s due diligence before exercising its option to enter a joint venture with Aurumin.

Neometals has responded to the current heady gold prices and somewhat lukewarm battery metals market with a strategic re-evaluation of its Barrambie gold project in WA’s Murchison region. The company says it has identified “a compelling opportunity” to use its in-house expertise, infrastructure, strategic position and existing Barrambie exploration target to bring a gold prospect to a decision to mine status in the second half of 2026.

American West Metals has entered into a partnership and funding agreement for the development of its 2200-square-kilometre Storm copper project in Nunavut, Canada, which will underpin the project’s long-term future. The binding agreement with Ocean Partners Holdings includes an US$2M (A$3.32M) private placement, provision of up to 80% of initial capital for project development and Ocean Partners’ offtake of 100% of the project’s copper and silver production.

Aurumin has launched a 1250m reverse circulation drilling program at the 64,700-ounce Gwendolyn gold deposit in its Johnson Range project, between Southern Cross and Sandstone. The validation and infill campaign is the first drilling undertaken since 2013 at the 803,000-tonne, 2.51g/t resource and, in the current heady gold price market, it has the potential to prove up an impeccably timed resource development opportunity.

Aurum Resources will kick off a maiden diamond drill program this month at its newly acquired Boundiali South tenement in Cote d’Ivoire to pursue some big hits from previous reverse circulation drilling, including a 20m intercept at 10.45 grams per tonne (g/t) gold. With government approvals on track, Aurum sees no further impediment to future exploration or obtaining mining rights for the prospect.

Novo Resources will launch a 2000m reverse circulation drilling program this month at Tibooburra in northwestern NSW to test high grade gold results from soil and rock chip geochemistry and other exploration. Recent surface sampling at the Clone prospect produced results of 89.6g/t and 41.9g/t gold in mullock around old workings and 31.4g/t and 10.4g/t gold from quartz vein outcrop along a 700m strike.

St George Mining has delivered a maiden resource estimate for its Araxa carbonatite-hosted niobium and rare earths deposit from the world’s premier niobium-producing region in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The estimate comprises a globally significant deposit containing 280,000 tonnes of niobium pentoxide and 1.7 million tonnes of total rare earth oxides, which are both in high global demand.

Meeka Metals has installed its newly acquired 750kW per hour ball mill at its 1.2-million-ounce Murchison gold project development, 50km north of Meekatharra in the Murchison Goldfields in Western Australia. The ball mill is arguably the heart of the processing plant, and its installation is sure to be celebrated, although it is but one item in Meeka’s dizzying inventory.

Aurum Resources has taken a key step towards the establishment of an open pit mining operation at its Boundiali project in Cote d’Ivoire following the appointment of local specialist consultancy firm Envitech to undertake an environmental and social impact study of the venture. The study will cover five deposits within the company’s BD, BM and BST (Nyangboue) licences, which make up three of the company’s four tenement areas.

Strickland Metals has added 143,400 ounces of gold to the combined mineral resource for its Horse Well camp, boosting its resource to 4.68 million tonnes at a respectable 1.94 grams per tonne for 291,500 ounces. Combined with the 108,900 ounce Dusk ‘til Dawn deposit, the update lifts the total Yandal project inferred resource to an imposing 8.17 million tonnes at 1.52 g/t gold tonne for 400,400 ounces of gold.

Strickland Metals has reinforced its drilling capacity at its Rogozna gold-base metals project in southern Serbia with the addition of a fifth rig, which has already begun work at its Obradov Potok prospect. Coincident multi-element gold-arsenic soil and an induced polarisation anomaly with surface hydrothermal alteration were identified at the 4sqkm prospect, which is 3.5km southwest of the company’s 5.3-million-ounce gold equivalent Shanac gold resource.

Aurum Resources has spectacularly ticked another box in a recent string of gold hits at its Boundiali project in Cote d'Ivoire, with an 83m best run assaying 4.87g/t gold from 106m at the company’s BD Target 1. Two runs in Aurum’s primary 83m intercept jagged 6.29m at 34.94g/t gold and 8m at 14.81 g/t gold.

BMG Resources will accelerate its exploration efforts at the company’s Bullabulling and Invincible gold projects in WA, motivated by high gold prices and recent nearby acquisitions by two big-name mining investors. Both projects contain favourable gold mineralisation in big structures, which they share with other significant projects being advanced by Mark Creasy and Tim Goyder.

Greentech Metals has entered into binding agreements for two of its non-core exploration licences and a single prospecting licence, which will allow the company to focus on its nearby Whundo copper project. The adjoining tenements include one prospecting licence that is yet to be granted and enclose a total 930ha. The deal allows buyer Errawarra Resources to consolidate prospective ground around its 363ha Elizabeth Hill silver mine lease.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has completed a maiden reverse circulation drilling program to test its recent Lighthorse gold discovery at the company’s Pinjin project, 140km northeast of Kalgoorlie. KalGold drilled 16 holes along three 100m-spaced lines for 2446m to a maximum downhole depth of 222m. The laboratory assays are now being fast-tracked.

Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits examine some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX this week, including Axel REE’s 8m hit going 13,604ppm TREO from 55m at its Caladao project in Brazil. Other interesting intercepts were reported by Resouro Strategic Metals from its Tiros project in Brazil and Caspin Resources’ Bygoo tin project in NSW.

Novo Resources is set to kick off a maiden air core drilling program before month’s end to test a promising part of the Sholl Shear in its Balla Balla gold project in WA’s West Pilbara region. The program will target structurally complex zones in and near the shear. The ancient fertile structure is one of four main fault and shear zones that make the region ripe for exploration.

Aurum Resources has scored another big hit from its Boundiali project in Côte d'Ivoire, intercepting 9m at 24.61g/t gold from 221m, including 4m at 54.64g/t from 222m. The 4m hit includes 1.3m going 156.61g/t gold. The discovery was made in one diamond hole put into the company’s BM Target 3. A second hole intercepted 2.68m assaying 10.94g/t gold from 45.7m, including 1.68m running 16.88g/t.

Red Metal’s first scout diamond drill hole at its Bluebush silver-lead-zinc prospect in northwest Queensland has delivered 73m at 9g/t silver, including a 12m hit at 19g/t silver. The runs include base metal hits, with the 73m interval assaying 990ppm lead and 256ppm zinc from 301m and the 12m assaying 2446ppm lead and 780ppm zinc from 362m.

Larvotto Resources has bought a homestead and wedding venue near its Hillgrove antimony-gold project in NSW to comfortably house and support a growing permanent workforce. Larvotto will pay $3m in cash plus $600,000 in shares for the 95-bed property. The company aims to start production at the mine in early 2026.

Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits this week examines some notable intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Rox Resources’ hit in Western Australia of 6m at 19.08g/t gold from 220m, including 3m at 36.87g/t from 221m. Koba Resources also reported good results at its Yarramba uranium project in South Australia and Ausgold Limited struck gold at its Katanning gold project in WA’s Wheatbelt.

Strickland Metals has launched a 50,000-metre diamond drilling program, the biggest yet at its Rogozna gold and base metals project, in the giant Tethyan Metallogenic Belt in southern Serbia’s Raška district. The campaign aims to expand the existing combined 6.69-million-ounce gold equivalent resource at Rogozna and if possible, improve grades and iron-out grade variation and spatial distribution in its resource models.