Announcements

Aspiring mineral producer Lithium Universe has snapped up the global rights to an innovative microwave technology designed by Macquarie University in Sydney, to simplify the separation of silicon and valuable metals in solar photo-voltaic (PV) panels. The company has entered a binding agreement to acquire Macquarie-owned New Age Minerals, which holds the exclusive licensing agreement to use and commercialise the new-age recycling technology.

Horizon Minerals has opened the cash floodgates from mining and processing gold-bearing ore from the company’s two cash-generating mines, under separate toll treating arrangements in WA’s renowned Goldfields region. Under its watchful eye, Horizon has witnessed a stream of cash pouring through its doors as the hauling and processing of ore achieves a continuous steady state.

Estrella Resources has deployed the heavy-duty diamond rig to build on a recent high-grade massive manganese discovery at its Ira Miri prospect in Timor-Leste. The company says it has uncovered further significant new supergene manganese outcrop at the project some 350m north of its discovery hole and believes it to be a direct continuation of the discovery.

Empire Energy Group – under its new name Beetaloo Energy Australia - has kick-started hydraulic stimulation activities at the company’s 3.3km-long Carpentaria-5H horizontal well in the Northern Territory’s massive Beetaloo Basin. The company plans to run more than 60 stimulation stages along the longest horizontal well in the Beetaloo sub-basin and expects the program to take four weeks.

The takeover battle for ASX and Toronto-listed Xanadu Mines has intensified after Chinese giant Zijin Mining, a 15.7 per cent shareholder and JV partner in the company’s Mongolian Kharmagtai copper and gold project, accepted Bastion Mining’s 8c-a-share offer. Zijin’s backing has boosted Bastion’s stake in Xanadu to 29.67 per cent, combining its existing 12.5 per cent holding with recent acceptances and puts it in a strong position to take control.

Aguia Resources has locked in a $4 million loan from a government-owned Brazilian bank to refurbish its leased processing plant and kick-start mining operations at the company’s Tres Estradas phosphate project. The 20-year loan will cover an initial $118,000 capital expenditure required to kick-off mining activities and fund the estimated $1.97M needed to bring the plant up to speed to process an expected 100,000 tonnes annually.

Aurum Resources’ Boundiali gold project in Cote d'Ivoire keeps on keeping on, with its latest results including a 66m run assaying 1.07g/t gold from 33m at its BDT1 deposit on the key gold trend in its BD ground. That intercept includes 21.73m assaying 1.01g/t gold from 39m and 29m going 1.46g/t gold from 69m. The latest holes have some exceptionally long runs showing persistent gold traces.

Javelin Minerals has zeroed in on a suite of highly prospective, undercover gold and copper targets at its Coogee West project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, setting the stage for high-impact drilling in the September quarter. The company’s latest geophysical review, run by Core Geophysics, has peeled back the layers at Coogee West to reveal a compelling treasure map of five high-priority anomalies lurking beneath shallow alluvial cover.

Octava Minerals has received promising early-stage results from CSIRO tests of a low-cost bioleaching process of ore samples from its Byro rare earths and lithium project in WA’s Gascoyne region. The stage one testwork focused on identifying, enriching and adapting microorganisms that can process the Byro ore. Stage two tests are underway to see which adapted cultures best extract critical and battery metals from the project’s polymetallic samples.

Aguia Resources has kicked off drilling at its Santa Barbara gold project in Colombia, with early results revealing mineralised quartz veins just 40m below existing workings. Its first hole hit a 0.7m thick quartz vein at 107.4m depth, showing visible sulphides, including pyrite, sphalerite and galena – all typically linked to gold. The company’s geological model is holding up, and assays are now pending.

Latitude 66 has uncovered a 2.5km gold-cobalt-copper corridor at its K6 prospect in Finland, extending south from its 650,000-ounce K1 gold deposit. A maiden reverse circulation program delivered 12 holes for 315m, hitting broad mineralised zones, including 2m at 0.27g/t gold, 0.13% cobalt and 0.35% copper from 4m. The results suggest K6 may sit on the edge of a much larger system.

Middle Island Resources’ review of data from its fully owned Ridgelands project in Queensland has produced a walk-up target area where 1980s exploration revealed enticing rock sample assays to 14.6g/t gold. The old data also reveals soil-gold anomalism above 0.05 parts per million to a peak of 5.66g/t gold, while shallow reverse circulation drilling attained a best intercept of 10m at 1.15g/t gold.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runners of the Week is… Icetana Limited, after the AI solutions provider partnered with global robotics developer SoftBank. Resolution Minerals snapped up a US critical and precious minerals project in Idaho and Highfield Resources bounced back on hopes its mammoth Muga potash project in Spain could soon get developed.

Lindian Resources has topped up its coffers with a double shot of cash totalling just under $1.65 million from the exercise of 10M unlisted options at $0.12 per share for $1.2M and a $448,753 R&D refund. The federal Research and Development Tax Incentive Program refund is for Lindian’s process development and metallurgical testwork conducted to improve beneficiation at its massive Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi.

Larvotto Resources has struck bonanza gold at its Hillgrove project in NSW, with drilling at its Eleanora-Garibaldi prospect delivering up to 111.27g/t gold equivalent. The standout hit came within a 4.1m intercept, grading 28.08g/t gold equivalent from 119m. The results are part of a 9200m diamond drilling blitz across its Eleanora-Garibaldi and Golden Gate prospects as the company pushes to boost resources ahead of plant construction.

American West Metals is charging into exploration season at its flagship Storm copper project in Nunavut, Canada, with the drill bit primed for a bevy of deep, high-grade copper targets at the sprawling project. Drilling is set to kick off shortly as the company simultaneously rolls out a regional mobile magneto-telluric survey to test for deeper copper sulphide targets across the 110km copper belt.

Meeka Metals has kicked off its much-anticipated plant commissioning, navigating a decisive moment when ore is first fed into the plant, paving the way for first gold from its gravity circuit later this month. Meeka’s commissioning team is onsite at the company’s Murchison project, 50km north of Meekatharra, working with the construction and processing crews to ensure everything is fault-free and at or coming up to specification.

St George Mining has launched a major drilling assault on its giant Araxá rare earths project in Minas Gerais, Brazil, with the company deploying three drill rigs for a substantial 10,000-metre, three-month program. The campaign will be carried out alongside a high-resolution airborne magnetic survey and aims to significantly expand the project’s recently unveiled major maiden resource.

Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits examines some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Sunshine Metals’ one-ounce-per-tonne gold hit from 41m, which included 2m at 3.9 ounces per tonne gold. Other interesting drill hits from last week were reported from Variscan Mines’ Udias lead-zinc mine in northern Spain and PVW Resources’ Capao Bonito rare earths project in Brazil.

Ora Banda Mining has nailed high-grade gold hits at the company’s Davyhurst project in WA’s Goldfields from an infill drilling program at its Riverina deposit and exploration drilling at its Waihi and Little Gem prospects. Multiple hits exceeded 100g/t gold at Riverina, including 1m at 129.5g/t, 4.3m going 24.6g/t, with a pumped-up 0.3m slice grading 229g/t, and 4.7m running at 12.5g/t with a 0.5m section returning 108g/t.

Meeka Metals continues to expand its shallow high-grade oxide gold zones immediately south of its stage one Turnberry Central open pit at its Murchison gold project, 50km north of Meekatharra. The company’s best intercept of 30m assaying 1.09g/t gold from 29m, including 9m at 2.45g/t gold, follows a 10m run at 5.2g/t gold from 37m, including 2m going 23.23g/t gold reported last month.

Dateline Resources has scored another major political win for its Colosseum rare earths project in California after US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum labelled its revival as “pivotal” for national mineral security. Speaking on Fox News, Burgum, chairman of the National Economic Development Council, backed the Trump administration’s push to ramp up domestic mineral production and reduce reliance on foreign rare earth supplies.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is… Eclipse Metals. Its share price surged after unveiling a beefed-up rare earths resource in Greenland. Bryah Resources share price ran on a major shareholder’s plans for a boardroom revolt, Bastion Minerals is readying up for a JORC-compliant resource reveal and Codeifai Limited received a $570,000 kick into its kitty to help drive growth of its SaaS technology revenue.

Ora Banda Mining has flagged a 35% jump in annual gold output to 95,000 ounces at its Western Australian Davyhurst project. However, the company will fall just short of its 2025 guidance of 100,000 ounces due to mill upgrade delays. The June quarter production is forecast to rebound to 24,500 ounces. All-in sustaining costs are set to hit $2600 per ounce or 4% above the company’s guidance.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining will run high-resolution geophysics across about 9.5 square kilometres enclosing prospective sites at its Pinjin gold project, 140 kilometres north-northeast of Kalgoorlie. The company plans to launch the sub-audio magnetic survey in mid-June to better define sub-surface geological structures and mineralised zones mainly under extensive surface cover.

Dateline Resources has been cleared for take-off in the United States by upgrading its listing to the OTCQB Venture Market as American interest heats up in the company’s flagship Colosseum rare earths and gold project in California. Dateline’s shares will trade under the ticker DTREF. The uplift from the Pink Sheet market means US investors can trade the stock in local currency during US market hours.

Encouraged by a surging gold price, GreenTech Metals has identified significant gold associated with the copper in a review of more than 50,000 historical samples from its Whundo copper-zinc project in WA’s West Pilbara. The review of more than 1195 holes has uncovered a best intercept of 1m at 64.7g/t gold from 47m at the south end of a 2km-long mineralised trend. The findings could open the door to near-term production.

Lindian Resources has made significant strides towards opening its flagship Kangankunde rare earths mine in Malawi. The company says it is running ahead of schedule as it looks to swiftly bring the low-cost critical minerals project into production. Haul roads and a solar farm for the project are underway and Lindian has filled five key positions to progress the site into its next development phase.

American West is about to launch a new drilling campaign in Utah targeting a suite of US-listed critical metals, including copper, gallium and molybdenum. The company’s West Desert project already holds the United States’ largest undeveloped indium resource and remains open in multiple directions.

Thunderbird Resources has struck a deal with Canadian-listed Mustang Energy, granting Mustang the right to earn up to 80 per cent of the company’s Cluff Lake North and Surprise Creek uranium projects in Canada. Mustang must spend up to $3.3M per project to reach full earn-in. Thunderbird will retain a 2 per cent royalty and free-carried interest and can now focus on its exciting NSW gold-antimony assets.

Aguia Resources’ homegrown phosphate products have matched or outperformed top imported fertilisers in Brazilian field trials, at a fraction of the cost. The company’s Lavratto and Pampafos products rivalled premium MAP and Moroccan phosphate in crop yields and Lavratto came out with top soybean results. Priced at $200–230/t, Aguia’s fertiliser appears to offer a game-changing, cost-effective solution for Brazil’s phosphate-dependent agriculture.

Red Metal is poised to unlock the vast mineral potential of its Queensland copper-gold projects, thanks to $400,000 in collaborative drilling grants from the Queensland Government. The funds are set to spearhead the company’s proof-of-concept drilling at two highly prospective iron oxide-copper-gold projects at its Gulf and Three Ways prospects.