Announcements

Estrella Resources has made a landmark discovery in its maiden exploration program in Timor-Leste, intersecting a thick 6.45m zone of massive manganese oxides just 1.35m below surface at its Ira Miri prospect. In what marks the first modern metallic minerals drillhole sunk in the country, Estrella’s initial diamond hole confirmed high-grade manganese mineralisation right from the outset, which is still open at 7.8m depth.

Lithium Universe is on the hunt for a minimum 10 years’ worth of spodumene supply from local producers to feed its future Canadian lithium refinery, which it expects to kick-start the conversion of the battery mineral at the refinery in 2028. The company is seeking a large supply to help lock in its required project finance, having reached a final investment decision earlier this year for the project to kick into gear.

Dual-listed Dateline Resources’ share price has gone ballistic in the US, after the company’s latest modelling showed its Colosseum gold project in California is surrounded by a huge felsite-breccia pipe complex. The company will run new geophysical surveys in June to stack up evidence for new drilling targets for gold resource growth and to potentially delineate a rare earths ore body for the project.

Meeka Metals expects to pour its first gold in the coming weeks, having recently passed key plant pre-commissioning milestones at the company’s expanded Murchison gold project. Meeka now has an energised and refurbished processing plant after it commissioned an onsite power station and has expanded its accommodation village so that its open pit and underground mines can work concurrently.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears' ASX Runners of the Week is… Eden Innovations, after it broke into the clean high-rise building sector and announced record concrete additive sales. Focus Minerals shot up thanks to a juicy $250 million cash gold project sale, InFocus Group unveiled a blockbuster $5M deal to become the exclusive tech partner for a Taiwanese gaming guru and market darling Dateline Resources had another roaring run.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has locked in a 75 per cent stake in its highly prospective Pinjin gold project near Kalgoorlie, completing the first milestone of its farm-in agreement over the project. The company has sealed the deal with a $1.65 million all-cash settlement for the project, which incorporates its Kirgella Gift and Providence mineral resources, alongside its promising breakout Lighthorse discovery and Wessex gold prospect.

Meeka Metals continues its indomitable run of high-grade, shallow, open-pittable gold numbers from its flagship Murchison gold project near Meekatharra in Western Australia, with 10m at 5.20g/t gold, including 2m at 23.23g/t. That headline hit began at 37m downhole depth in Meeka’s latest resource expansion drilling program, south of its Turnberry Central stage one oxide pit design.

Estrella Resources has launched Timor-Leste’s first modern metallic mineral exploration by drilling its maiden hole at the Ira Miri manganese prospect. In a JV with Murak Rai Timor and CoreSearch, Estrella has mobilised a man-portable rig from Dili to Lautem. The program includes 3000m of diamond and 20,000m of RC drilling across two phases, targeting manganese within the Noni Formation.

Javelin Minerals has kicked off its Eureka drilling campaign near Kalgoorlie in style, hitting broad zones of shallow oxide gold to the south and a high-grade shoot to the north of the project’s historic pit. Best results include 26m at 1.36g/t and 2m at 7.37g/t. The company says follow-up drilling could pave the way for a rapid restart of gold production.

ASX-listed Green360 Technologies has achieved a world-first by transforming red mud - one of mining’s most toxic by-products - into a high-performance, low-carbon cement. The mud is blended with kaolin in a proprietary mix that slashes emissions and environmental risk while matching the strength of traditional concrete. The company says the product exceeds international standards for safety and performance.

Terrain Minerals’ Larin’s Lane gallium-rare earths project is fast advancing, with studies now underway as part of a WA industry and government-funded research project that ultimately aims to develop a reliable supply of REEs in the state. The Larin’s Lane collaboration will also offer insights into the economics of emerging REE extraction techniques and the potential for strategic mineral by-products, which could benefit WA.

Toro Energy has supercharged the project financials for its Lake Maitland uranium project near Wiluna in WA, unveiling an updated scoping study forecasting a low-cost, long-life mining operation. The latest numbers paint an encouraging picture for a standalone operation, improving an historic net present value by 9 per cent to a hefty $908 million, while slashing the project’s payback period to 1.5 years.

Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits examines some notable drill intercepts recently revealed on the ASX, including White Cliff Minerals’ 58m hit of 3.08% copper and 13.3g/t silver at its Canadian Rae project. Other interesting drill hits were reported from Benz Mining Corporation’s Glenburgh project in Western Australia’s northwest and from Koonenberry Gold’s Enmore gold project in New South Wales.

Lindian Resources is building momentum at its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, with funding offers from Gerald, Ecobank and others in play. Site works are underway, a monazite offtake deal is in place, and ANSTO has begun test work on downstream options. An optimised feasibility study shows Kangankunde could become a global rare earths supply chain enabler - and soon.

Titanium Sands Limited has locked in its Mannar Island heavy mineral sands project for a final push towards production, after the Sri Lankan government extended its four key exploration licences. The retention paves the way for the company to complete ongoing environmental studies and brings it closer to securing the all-important industrial mining licence for its high-grade mineral sands deposit.

Aurum Resources has added two new contiguous permit applications to the southern part of the company’s extensive tenement holdings, which make up its 1.6-million-ounce Boundiali gold project in Cote d'Ivoire. The strategic acquisition, covering 316 square kilometres, extends the overall width of Aurum’s current southern targets to about 52km and could help the company further expand its rapidly growing existing mineral resource.

Strickland Metals has nailed more high-grade gold with hits of 4m at 10.1g/t and 8m going 6g/t from a first hole in a recent drilling program at the company’s Gradina prospect, part of its huge 7.4-million-ounce gold-equivalent Rogozna project in southern Serbia. The results from the deposit’s northern end extend the known high-grade mineralisation across 1km of strike and 900m vertically.

Dateline Resources has delivered a stunning run, surging nearly 3760 per cent since January to hit 8.5 cents earlier today and officially claiming 10-bagger status in under a month. And the momentum keeps building. The company has uncovered fresh geochemical clues at its Californian Colosseum gold project, pointing to hidden breccia pipes and suggesting the 1.1M-ounce gold system could be far larger than previously thought.

Horizon Minerals has locked in a $30 million raise at 4.3 cents per share, aiming to bolster the company’s finances to complete refurbishment studies on its Black Swan processing plant in WA and fund new drilling programs. The funds raised from local and offshore institutional investors will support drilling and engineering studies for Black Swan, prior to an expected influx of cash from its two gold mining operations.

Titanium explorer McLaren Minerals has completed a phase one drilling program of 192 air core holes for 4067 metres, targeting its high-value McLaren titanium sands project in Western Australia’s Eucla Basin. The program identified extensions of prospective sediments outside the limits of historic resources in three key zones. The biggest southern zone measures about 2600m wide and averages 10m thick, up to 15m maximum.

A geophysical survey at Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales has unearthed a series of promising new drill targets beneath and along strike of known mineralisation at its Clarks Gully prospect. The company says the induced polarisation and resistivity survey showed a strong correlation with historically mined antimony and gold zones, validating the geological model and delivering a greenlight for an upcoming drilling program.

Aurumin Limited has bagged high-grade hits in its first drilling program since 2013 at its Johnson Range project in the WA Goldfields, with a top hit of 6m grading 16.5g/t gold from 65m. The result includes 3m assaying 32.1g/t gold, with 1m at 76.1g/t gold, putting a shine on the company’s infill and validation program at its current 64,700-ounce Gwendolyn resource.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Oceana Lithium, after a capital raise to fill its coffers ahead of base metals testing in WA’s Gascoyne region. Zoono Group signed an exclusive packaging deal with UK majors, MetalsGrove Ltd ran on belated appreciation of its new Côte d’Ivoire gold projects, and Raiden Resources reported eight-from-eight shallow, high-grade gold hits from its emerging Bulgaria project.

Dateline Resources’ share price surged as high as 5.6c this week - not far from the coveted 10-bagger status - after the company recalibrated its scoping study gold price assumptions to US$2900 (A$4460) per ounce for its US-based Colosseum gold project. The key price adjustment delivered a whopping 134% jump in net present value for the project from US$235 million to US$550M.

Estrella Resources has inked a landmark deal that could see up to 500 million tonnes of limestone exported from Timor-Leste over five years, targeting South East Asia’s surging industrial minerals demand. The binding agreement with Indonesian group PT Raka Energi Mandiri grants exclusive rights to market and sell Estrella’s high-grade, calcite-rich limestone from its extensive Timor-Leste tenements.

Strickland Metals has turned up the heat at its Yandal gold project in WA’s northern Goldfields by expanding a key gravity survey to chase down a string of new intrusion-related gold targets across a juicy 19-kilometre stretch of prospective ground. The move follows the company’s recent discovery of IRG-style mineralisation near its Dusk ‘til Dawn gold camp and could set the stage for a new pipeline of high-impact drill targets.

Aurum Resources continues its stellar run of quality gold intercepts from its Boundiali project in Cote d'Ivoire, nailing a best hit in the latest results of 34 metres assaying 2.32 grams per tonne gold. The hit, from 56m depth in the company’s BDT1 target, includes 9m at an average grade of 5.44g/t gold. A second-best result delivered 48m going 1.27g/t gold from 73m, including 8m running 3.11g/t gold.

Thunderbird Resources has nabbed high-grade gold up to 19.3 grams per tonne and 4.12 per cent antimony in rock chip grab samples from initial exploration work at its Rockvale and Kookabookra projects in northeastern NSW. The Rockvale project is within shouting distance of Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove gold-antimony operation, which hosts the nation’s largest antimony resource.

Terrain Minerals has kicked off a 17-hole, 3350m RC drilling blitz at its Lightning and Monza prospects in Western Australia’s Murchison goldfields. The 20-day campaign follows hot on the heels of high-grade hits earlier this year and aims to define and expand mineralised zones across the two parallel gold structures. Assay results are expected in about eight weeks, feeding into a maiden resource targeted for mid-2026.

American West Metals will start its 2025 exploration program at its Storm copper-zinc project on Somerset Island, in Canada, within weeks. The company aims to further define recent high-grade copper discoveries and rapidly grow the region’s mineral resource potential. Only a fraction of Storm’s 110km-long fertile copper belt has so far been tested by a drill bit.

In a significant step for the company, lab tests have confirmed Green360 Technology’s new high-reactivity metakaolin is well suited for producing low-carbon cement and low-carbon, high-performance structural concrete. The company produced metakaolin samples from its kaolin resources and deposits that exceed the quality benchmarks of other metakaolin products currently available in Australia.

Aguia Resources has fired up the diamond rigs at its high-grade Santa Barbara gold project in Colombia with a 25-hole, 2500m program designed to unlock a potentially huge discovery in the system’s rich mesothermal vein network. The company will also pepper the existing stockwork to clear a path for expanded underground production and set the stage for a maiden JORC resource towards the end of the year.