Announcements

Augustus Minerals has expanded its push into PNG, home to multiple elephant sized mineral deposits, with an EL application covering 1906 sq km in the prospective Vanapa River region, 35km north of Port Moresby. The move follows a recent site visit by management, where local artisanal miners were extracting decent amounts of alluvial gold within the application area, part of the 2300km long New Guinea Metallogenic Belt.

The Bulls N' Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… antimicrobial waste warrior Zoono Group, which peaked 280 per cent higher after inking a deal with Africa's biggest packaging giant for its shelf-life extender. ReNerve announced its regenerative nerve-cuff had been green-lit across the US DoD's military hospitals and veteran wards driving its stock price skywards while Stealth Group shares also shone after the company bolted on a $22m hardware buying empire to create a Bunnings-busting wholesale beast. And copper-gold explorer Havilah Resources locked in a $240m deal with Sandfire to fast-track its Kalkaroo monster into production.

Perth-based Horizon Minerals has struck a binding heads of agreement to sell its 100 per cent-owned non-core Lake Johnston nickel project in Western Australia to emerging explorer Forrestania Resources for a total consideration of $35 million which includes a $30m cash component. The deal, expected to settle by the end of January, remains subject to Forrestania securing the funding via a capital raise, also includes Horizon receiving $5m in Forrestania shares.

Reach Resources has kicked off a 5000-metre reverse circulation drill program at its Murchison South gold project near Paynes Find in Western Australia. The work is centred around the company's flagship Blue Heaven deposit, where it already holds a handy resource of 681,000 tonnes at 2.8 grams per tonne gold for 61,300 ounces of relatively shallow gold.

Middle Island Resources has struck a multi-metal jackpot with a rich mix of gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc at its historic Bobija mine in Serbia. Channel sampling from the pit floor delivered standout hits including 8.25g/t gold and 499g/t silver across four channels. The results mark the company's first major exploration success in the Western Tethyan belt and set up a strong platform for drilling.

Corazon Mining has lodged a strategic tenement application to expand its Two Pools gold project in WA's Gascoyne region, targeting a hidden northeast extension of its high-grade Two Pools gold mineralisation. The project features historical high-grade gold intercepts, with one hole delivering 12m at 8.89g/t gold from 79m including 3m at 34.25g/t gold from 80m.

Siren Gold has unearthed several old workings and taken samples of outcrops in a first pass field program at its Queen Charlotte antimony and gold project in NZ along strike from historical antimony mines. The company has identified a mineralised strike potential of 8kms within a 12km long shear zone in New Zealand's south island. Hangingwall and footwall reefs offer a parallel doubling of potential.

American West Metals has expanded its North American footprint by commencing trading on the OTCQB Venture Exchange under the ticker AWMLF. The move gives US investors direct access to the company behind Utah's West Desert critical minerals project which holds the nation's largest indium resource and has growing gallium potential, positioning it at the heart of America's minerals supply chain revival.

Thunderbird Resources is on the hunt for large gold-antimony deposits in New South Wales and has prioritised its exploration focus on ground within several of Australia's most noteworthy orogenic belts. The company pivoted its exploration efforts this year to focus on gold-copper-antimony and recently jumped at the chance to lock-in its now-flagship Springfield gold deposit, part of the Slashers Flat project near Gulgong in NSW.

Novo Resources has nailed strong gold and antimony results from exploration programs across the company's projects about a sling-shot from Northern Star Resources' world-beating Hemi gold operation in the Pilbara region of WA. The company's rock-chip sampling program at its Teichman area returned eye-opening gold grades of 77.5 grams per tonne and 51.4g/t. An impressive total of 11 samples returned greater than 10g/t gold.

Video technology company Atomos Ltd, has turbocharged its sales and projected earnings for the current financial year after continued strong demand for its Shinobi and Ninja video product ranges. In its latest trading update, improvement to the company's financials were further boosted by its updated marketing strategy, which targets digital marketing, direct-to-customer and retail media platforms.

NeuroScientific Biopharmaceuticals has reached another clinical milestone, with a fourth Crohn's disease patient now receiving its patented StemSmart stem cell therapy for the chronic bowel disease under Australia's Special Access Scheme. The company says data from the real-world program will directly inform the design of its upcoming phase two trial, slated to begin in the second half of 2026.

Meeka Metals has delivered another batch of high-grade gold intercepts from its Turnberry South deposit in the producing Murchison gold project, further reinforcing near-mine resource growth and extending the Stage 1 open pit beyond its initial two-year mine life. Standout results include 8m at 14.79g/t gold from 44m in the best hole which features a welcome 2m core going 53.05g/t gold.

Terrain Minerals' latest induced-polarisation survey has kicked-up a suite of potential gold targets within large chargeability zones stretching more than 800 metres at its Wildflower prospect, part of the wider Smokebush project about 350 kilometres north of Perth. The company plans to spin the drill-bit in January next year to test three new prospects across three large-scale structures revealed in the survey.

Aurum Resources recent diamond drilling has delivered an intercept of 5m assaying 11.07g/t gold from 200m depth among other promising high-grade gold intercepts from its ongoing 100,000m drilling program at the company's 2.41 million ounce Boundiali gold project in West Africa. The infill and extensional campaign is targeting resource expansion and confidence upgrades at the company's BDT2 deposit.

The Bulls N' Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Mont Royal Resources, after it exploded back from merger purgatory with a Canadian rare-earths relisting. Mount Ridley Mines doubled down on gallium glory revealing new management for Australia's largest gallium resource that was found hiding in untested historic drill hole results. HitIQ crunched a Monash University deal for its concussion detection mouthguards and XPON Technologies flipped cash-burn into black-ink bliss from its recent marketing acquisition.

Neometals Limited has delivered a stellar set of early metallurgical results from the company's Ironclad gold deposit, part of its Barrambie project, achieving up to 98 per cent overall gold recoveries alongside gravity recoveries as high as 71 per cent. The results point to a simple, low-risk processing route and mark a major leap forward for the company's revived gold push in Western Australia's Murchison region.

Altech Batteries says batteries utilising similar technology to its sodium-nickel-chloride batteries deployed in South Africa up to 15 years ago have exhibited failure rates of just 0.6% to 1.5%. The company says those rates blitz the failure rates of lithium and lead-acid batteries.

Novo Resources has jagged numerous high-grade gold rock chips at its Tibooburra project in northwest New South Wales, grading up to a punchy 39.9g/t at its Pioneer North prospect. The company says a string of double-digit gold assays have lit up its undrilled Pioneer prospects, highlighting numerous targets for maiden drilling.

Great Southern Mining has lit up its Duketon Gold Project in Western Australia with shallow, high-grade hits peaking at 23.9 grams per tonne gold across a 4.5km strike at its Amy Clarke prospect. The discovery sits just 8km from Regis Resources' Garden Well mill, adding another promising chapter to the company's growing Laverton-area gold portfolio.

Larvotto Resources has locked in PYBAR Mining Services to drive a four-year underground development campaign at its Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales. The deal covers 20km of decline and lateral work across the Metz, Garibaldi and Clarks Gully zones, marking another major milestone as the company accelerates towards production in 2026.

Thunderbird Resources has kicked off its first grid-based soil sampling exploration program at its 100 per cent-owned Rockvale gold-antimony project in New South Wales. The initial program is focussed on sampling at the Achill prospect, which lies 13km along strike and within the Hillgrove-Chandler fault corridor extending from Larvotto Resources' flagship Hillgrove gold-antimony mine.

Rio2 Limited has hit a major funding milestone after receiving the final US$50 million instalment from Canadian-based Wheaton Precious Metals, completing a US$175 million financing package for its Fenix Gold project in Chile. The payment clears the way for the company to push hard on mine construction at one of the Americas' biggest undeveloped oxide heap-leach gold deposits.

Octava Minerals is set to start the drill rods spinning with a 2000m diamond drilling program at its Tasmanian Federation project after uncovering overlimit indium above 500ppm, alongside standout zinc, tin, silver and copper grades from rock chips at the Sweeney's prospect. The company aims to test unmined sulphide zones in one of Australia's most promising polymetallic districts.

Green360 Technologies' eco-friendly partial cement replacement product known as “Eco-Clay” and made largely from kaolin waste streams has passed a series of verification tests with the University of Melbourne assessing that it meets Australian standards. Eco-Clay is a high-reactivity calcined kaolinite or metakaolin that can replace up to 40% of Portland cement in concrete.

The Bulls N' Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Mount Ridley Mines, which unearthed a monster 24,584-tonne gallium resource from its WA clay rare earths project. Eden Innovations cashed in on AI data centre fever, Whitebark Energy breathed new life into its Warro gas behemoth with giant dry gas-zone revelations and Pivotal Metals pocketed $5.4m to drill Quebec's copper-nickel veins as the red metal hits record highs.

Meeka Metals has struck multiple, high-grade ore topping 300 grams per tonne gold at its Andy Well project in WA – the company's first underground mine at the Murchison project in WA. The underground development began in July, with the high-grade ore now feeding the plant and pushing October output toward 3800 ounces as the company adds a third jumbo continuing its ramp toward seven levels in ore.

Norfolk Metals is re-assaying old copper core for gold at its Carmen project in Chile as it seeks to verify historic drill results and exploit a new zone that is sporting visible copper outcrops. The project is in Chile's copper-rich Atacama region where fresh targets are now emerging in the nearby Higueritas Belt.

Rio2 Limited is entering the home straight at its flagship Fenix Gold project in Chile's Atacama Region, with mine construction now 63 per cent complete and the first gold pour locked in for January next year. The company remains on budget to develop one of South America's largest heap leach gold projects, marking a defining chapter in its rapid transformation from explorer to producer.

Thunderbird Resources is approaching the final verdict on its Slasher Flats gold acquisition in Central NSW, with the Springfield gold deposit emerging as a leading contender for early drilling. The company says the existing known high-grade hits are likely just a slice of a much bigger system that is still begging for the drill bit at Springfield. With historically limited shallow drilling having already delivered thick, near-surface gold, Thunderbird says its prospects are likely to continue to considerable depths.

Aurumin Resources has launched a 7,400m multi-rig drilling blitz at its Sandstone project to upgrade and expand resources ahead of Brightstar's PFS next year. Funded by $6m in asset sales, the program targets Shillington, Two Mile Hill, McIntyre and Old Town Well, with diamond drilling to gather geotechnical data for mine design.

When four thieves scaled the Louvre for France's crown jewels, Dollar Bill couldn't help spotting a market parallel. From Pilbara Minerals' Altura buy to Wildcat's lithium punt, Larvotto's $3m purchase of Hillgrove and Hawk's Resources scandium move just last week, Australia's juniors keep proving the best deals don't always wear a heavy price tag. All it takes is a bit of nerve, timing and paperwork.