Announcements

Lycaon Resources has completed a crucial heritage survey for its multi-element Stansmore carbonatite project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region, marking a significant step towards drilling. The clearance relates to three priority drill targets at the company’s Stansmore, Volt and Ions targets where it is chasing niobium, rare earths and iron oxide copper-gold and it is now eyeing a drilling program later this year.

A surface rock chip sample revealing 137.7 grams per tonne gold and 10.6 per cent copper at Latitude 66's Peräpohja Schist Belt Project (PSB) project in northern Finland has provided management with a tantalising new glimpse into what treasures may lie beneath. The company says its latest results have affirmed multiple ice flow gold-copper mineralisation trends extending up to 2km.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some of the notable drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including Santana Minerals’ impressive 48m slice at 5.8g/t gold from 167.3m in New Zealand. We also take a close look at other interesting drill hits from last week as reported by Predictive Discovery, Venture Minerals and DevEx Resources.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … the ASX itself. The ASX 200 hit an all-time high of 8083.7 points, indicating to investors that there may just be green shoots and blue skies ahead. Small-cap companies that ran hard during a promising week included DGR Global, Labyrinth Resources, Miramar Resources and Stelar Metals.

Buxton Resources’ mission to deliver battery anode concentrate material from its Graphite Bull project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region has gained momentum after recent drilling hit multiple new zones of high-grade graphite. The company says substantial graphitic core zones are visible in the first hole from the new campaign as its confidence builds in relation to its chances of delivering significant resource growth.

GreenTech Metals has knocked off the first 1743m of a planned 2200m reverse-circulation drilling program to test the Austin, Shelby and Ayshia targets at its Whundo copper-zinc project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The first phase of the program was designed to test the company’s unexplored Austin and Shelby targets and for possible extensions of its Ayshia deposit – all associated with fixed-loop electromagnetic geophysical anomalies.

Quantum Graphite and its joint venture partner Sunlands Energy are a step closer to securing a US$300 million funding solution to fuel their quest aimed at feeding high-purity graphite into the American economy. The partnership has confirmed it has received a letter of interest regarding the significant financing commitment from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM).

White Cliff Minerals says it has now uncovered four visible iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) systems during the company’s initial field program at its promising Great Bear Lake project in northern Canada. One of the four hydrothermal system discoveries has been dubbed the “Cleaver” target and, according to management, it has a gossanous zone so extensive that it is identifiable via satellite.

Legend Mining has reignited its search for nickel and copper at the Octagonal prospect within Western Australia’s rugged Fraser Range, launching a new electromagnetic survey following a four-month bad weather delay. The company has confirmed the program at its Rockford project is now firmly back on track and will explore a strong conductive zone on the eastern flank of the prospect.

Aurumin has unmasked what it says is a “real” high-grade iron ore discovery with the potential for significant scale at its flagship Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company has confirmed high-grade rock chip assays up to 67 per cent iron in banded-iron formations within a discontinuous strike of about 6km at the site.

Latitude 66 has unveiled 20 new gold-copper targets at its Peräpohja Schist Belt (PSB) project in Finland as it ramps up efforts to prove the potential for a lookalike to its nearby flagship operation in the Scandinavian nation. Management says geophysical surveys, geological mapping and rock sampling at PSB suggests similarly significant mineralisation to its Kuusamo Schist Belt (KSB) play.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has extended a prospective gold strike at its Pinjin project in Western Australia to 21km after being granted a new 3.5-square-kilometre parcel of contiguous ground at the site that sits 140km north-east of Kalgoorlie. The ground is centred about 3.75km south along strike from the company’s Wessex target and about 8km north along strike from its Kirgella Gift and Providence gold prospects.

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.

Buxton Resources has kicked off Aboriginal heritage surveys at its 100 per cent-owned greenfield Centurion prospect in Central Australia as it seeks clearance to fuel its aim to discover a significant iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposit at the site. The critical surveys are being carried out by members of the Parna Ngururrpa and Ngurra Kayanta traditional owner groups that hold the cultural authority over the land.

Altech Batteries says cells for its “Cerenergy” sodium chloride battery prototypes have shown “higher-than-expected” energy capacities during a testing program at several Fraunhofer IKTS facilities in Germany. The company has today confirmed it has completed the fabrication, assembly and initialisation of all 240 cells for the first prototype at its pilot plant and expects to mount the finished modules into a full “BatteryPack” next week.

ABx Group has polished off a 37-hole air-core drilling campaign that explored a previously-untested north-west area of its Deep Leads rare earths project sitting 45km west of Launceston in northern Tasmania. Previous success at ABx’s high-grade Deep Leads target has led it to interpret the area as prospective for rare earths and the latest drilling has yielded 316 samples that have been sent for analysis.

Meeka Metals has secured a greater-capacity ball mill than envisaged in its definitive feasibility study in May for its Murchison gold project in WA, paving the way for significantly enhanced economies of scale. The company says the $318,000 purchase reduces its DFS mill capex by 75 per cent, lifts processing capacity by 30 per cent to 640,000 tonnes per annum and increases ore processing options.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some of the notable drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including Encounter Resources’ 46m at 3.1 per cent niobium pentoxide from 60m to hole end at 106m. We also take a close look at other interesting drill hits from last week as reported by Future Battery Minerals, Riversgold and Spartan Resources.

With its phase one ponds at 60 per cent capacity, Galan Lithium says its stocks at the Hombre Muerto West project in Argentina have grown to 2800 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent. With the project’s construction stage reaching 40 per cent completion, the company has also today confirmed that is has moved closer to selecting potential offtake and funding partners for the operation.

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.

Middle Island Resources has kicked off its first round of drilling for the year, with three deep diamond drillholes to test three iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) targets at its Barkly “super project” in the Northern Territory. The program entails three holes targeting depths between 600m and 650m, constituting the company’s maiden testing of the Wilma, Pebbles and Dino IOCG prospects within its Georgina project.

After pocketing $5 million in new money, Larvotto Resources is on the cusp of launching a 5250m exploration drilling program to infill and extend its Clarks Gully gold-antimony resource that sits just 4.7km north-west of its Hillgrove Mine in NSW. The measured and indicated Clarks Gully resource contains 266,000 tonnes at 3.8 per cent antimony and 2g/t gold, or 8.40g/t gold equivalent.

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.

Ora Banda Mining has supercharged its gold production ambitions, setting a new target of 150,000 ounces in FY26 following the board’s final investment decision to push on and develop its new Sand King underground mine in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. The pivotal move cements Sand King as the company’s second underground operation at its Davyhurst gold project that lies 120km north-west of Kalgoorlie.

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.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining is planning to kick off an air-core drilling program at its Pinjin project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields next month to follow up an April campaign that hit zones running up to 3.07g/t gold. The program will centre on the company’s Wessex target at the project that sits on the eastern flanks of the prospective Laverton Tectonic Zone, about 140km north-east of Kalgoorlie.

Radiopharm Theranostics has kicked off the first phase of clinical trials testing its “RAD 204” treatment aimed at beating the most common type of lung cancer – non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) – after dosing its first patient in New South Wales. The first in-human trial at the Wollongong Hospital has been designed to assess the safety and tolerability of the company’s innovative radiopharmaceutical therapy.

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.

GreenTech Metals has reinforced evidence for three major lithium trends within its Kobe and Osborne tenements in Western Australia’s Pilbara region following an infill geochemical soil sampling program. The campaign has confirmed continuity of the Kobe South lithium anomalism that is well-defined through a 5.5km east-to-south-east-trending corridor, with maximum responses in the range of 200ppm to 467ppm lithium oxide.

Buxton Resources is aiming to get back in the black – the black-coloured carbon at its Graphite Bull project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region, that is – when it kicks off a new diamond drill program to explore deep geophysical targets in the hope of expanding its existing resource numbers. The company’s two diamond drillholes have been designed to target potentially significant extensions of its graphite mineralisation.

Initial geochemical results from 260 regional stream samples at Gold Mountain’s Down Under project in Brazil have thrown up anomalous rare earths responses from a combined area of about 80 square kilometres. The company says the results indicate good potential for ionic-adsorption clay (IAC)-hosted rare earths deposits and ultra-high-grade, hard-rock monazite-hosted mineralisation featuring niobium, uranium and scandium.

In a bold bid to unveil Namibia’s onshore resource treasures, 88 Energy has launched a major 2D seismic acquisition program for its petroleum exploration licence 93 (“PEL 93”) within the Owambo Basin's uncharted Damara system. The ambitious initiative that covers 18,500 square kilometres of largely-unexplored territory, represents a pivotal milestone for both the company and the region, with an eye to unlocking new oil discoveries.