Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Ora Banda Mining has bolstered its balance sheet by locking in a $50 million revolving credit facility with two Australian banks and hedging 100,000 ounces of gold via a put option at $4400 per ounce. The two-year funding agreement has supercharged the company’s war chest to more than $100m, including a $58m bank balance, and provides the company with the financial clout to achieve production of 150,000 ounces in WA next year.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Industrial Minerals. The company had no news this week, instead its share price ran up on speculation about its high-purity quartz projects and tariffs pricing. Base metals explorer Litchfield identified two big sulphide-bearing targets for drilling, fintech group InFocus announced a stablecoin deal with a Seychelles tech provider GBO and TG Metals acquired an advanced gold asset in WA.

Meeka Metals’ reverse circulation drilling west of its current Turnberry South stage one open pit design has nailed a string of gold runs with a best intercept of 21m at 5.13g/t gold, including 5m going 15.65g/t. The top intercept was obtained from 51m. With most other hits from less than 83m downhole, the new shallow high-grade zone will likely justify westward expansion of the pit design.

Aguia Resources has locked in $1.5 million in fresh capital after completing a placement of 40 million shares at 3.8 cents each, setting the stage for an aggressive drilling campaign at its high-grade Santa Barbara gold project in Colombia. The new cash will support expansion of the company’s gold processing plant to 50 tonnes per day, kick off a comprehensive drilling program and cover general working capital needs.

ABx Group is examining its options to monetise its bauxite projects - the biggest gibbsite-type bauxite deposits in eastern Australia - to capitalise on increasing bauxite prices and supply shortages. The company is in talks about potential offtake deals, direct investment and asset purchases and is also updating its resource figures and mine studies to support the earliest possible start to production.

Strickland Metals has jagged a massive 7.5-kilometre intrusion-related gold system next to its 109,000-ounce Dusk ’til Dawn gold deposit which is part of the company’s wider Yandal project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. Strickland spent several months pouring over new geophysics and geochemical analysis of the area before overlaying the findings with historic exploration data.

St George Mining has kicked off a major downstream processing study at its high-grade niobium-rare earths project Araxá in Brazil, aiming to fast-track the project into production following completion of its acquisition last week. Metallurgical programs are already underway and are soon to be accompanied by a substantial drilling campaign scheduled to begin this month.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has wasted no time gearing up the rigs for follow-up drilling at its exciting Lighthorse gold discovery, part of the company’s Pinjin project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. The 16-hole reverse circulation drilling program will test fresh rock beneath a shallow, wide area of mineralisation - interpreted as a horizontal supergene blanket - to chase up potential sources of uber-high-grade gold.

Quantum Graphite and its JV partner Sunlands Energy have received a big federal government tick that will help develop the companies’ graphite hub on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. The hub will support the biggest commodity-focussed graphite supply chain between Australia and the US, centred around Quantum’s flagship Uley 2 graphite project and using Sunlands’ associated manufacturing, logistics and inventory management facilities.

Strickland Metals may be on the cusp of a major porphyry discovery after its diamond drill rig intercepted a whopping 493m intercept of 0.14 g/t gold from 223m at its Jezerska Reka prospect, part of the company’s Rogozna gold and base metal project in Serbia. Assays revealed a 412m section grading 130ppm copper from 300m, ending in gold and copper mineralisation at 700m depth.

Reach Resources’ latest drilling program has confirmed the company’s gold model with mineralisation intersected in every hole, validating historical results at the company’s Murchison South gold project, near Paynes Find in WA’s gold-rich Murchison region. The company now plans to optimise pit shells targeting the shallow, higher-grade, narrow-vein gold encountered within the project’s low-grade mineralised envelopes.

American West Metals’ preliminary economic assessment has knocked out a whopping $1.33bn revenue number for a 10-year mine with a net cashflow of A305m at its flagship Storm Copper project in Canada. The study is targeting 10.3mt of resource at 1.3 per cent copper and 3.7g/t silver to produce 487,000t of 17 per cent copper concentrate. With a low A$76m capex and a A$238m NPV, the project will pay for itself within three years.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Wide Open Agriculture. The company surged on news its high-protein lupin isolate had received approval for export into China. Pacific Edge received a stamp of approval for its bladder cancer diagnostics test, Forbidden Foods and its oat milk range received on-market buying from major shareholder Steve Smith, and Olympio acquired a Canadian gold project in a major mining postcode.

Altech Batteries is cleaning up its corporate structure by offering to buy the remaining minority stakes in its CERENERGY and Silumina Anodes projects from German-listed subsidiary Altech Advanced Materials. The $23.3m all-scrip deal increases Altech’s ownership to 75 per cent of CERENERGY and all of Silumina Anodes, strengthening its control over the company’s advanced salt battery technology

Meeka Metals is pushing ahead with open pit mining activities at its flagship Murchison gold project in WA. The company’s mining contractor has commenced work well ahead of schedule, a 2m lift of its southern tailings storage facility is underway and process plant expansion works are advancing rapidly. The company expects to achieve a first gold pour mid-year.

Ora Banda Mining has continued its smooth transition to become a high-grade underground miner, with its Sand King underground ramping up production and over-delivering on gold returns from its Davyhurst project in Western Australia. The company says it has successfully processed its first batch of Sand King ore, with both the reconciled gold grade and metal recovery exceeding expectations at the recently opened underground mine.

Thunderbird Resources has completed a review of historical exploration data uncovering high-grade assay samples up to 49.8 grams per tonne gold and 4.1 per cent antimony at its newly acquired Rockvale and Kookabookra projects near Armidale in New South Wales. Four of the tenements, covering 358 square kilometres, form the Rockvale project and are strategically positioned near Larvotto Resources’ exciting Hillgrove gold-antimony project.

Novo Resources is pushing ahead on multiple exploration fronts across Australia ahead of drilling at its John Bull and Tibooburra gold projects in NSW, while ex-tropical cyclone Zelia throws a temporary spanner in the works with flooding at its Karratha and Balla Balla gold projects in WA. Drilling across all projects is slated for next quarter as the gold price continues to push all-time highs.

Strickland Metals has identified two new compelling targets near its 108,900-ounce Dusk ‘til Dawn gold camp with the potential for the targets to represent the core of a much larger gold system. The company is also planning to soon reveal an updated mineral resource at its Horse Well gold camp, both part of the wider Yandal project in WA.

Aurum Resources has uncovered more high-grade gold outside the 1.59-million-ounce resource boundary at its Boundiali gold project in Côte d’Ivoire, intercepting 12m of gold running at a staggering 22g/t. The intercept from 145m downhole was the first assay of four holes drilled at the company’s BD Target 3 for 678m and features bonanza grade sections of 2m at 35.59g/t and 7m of 27.5g/t gold.

Estrella Resources has jagged a rich deposit of transported alluvial manganese at its Soru prospect within the company’s Lautém manganese project in Timor-Leste, with visual grades running as high as 95pc. The manganese may have leached from the surrounding hills due to erosion to form a supergene deposit before breaking up and creating a tertiary deposit of boulders and rock fragments across the hillside and in the local creek systems.

Ora Banda Mining has posted a blistering half-year result, raking in record revenues of $186.4 million, up 94 per cent on last year, from its Davyhurst gold project in Western Australia. The company, which is sitting on a $57.8m cash pile, saw surging production and cash flows last year. It sold 47,824 ounces of gold in the six months to December.

Suvo Strategic Minerals’ low-carbon concrete joint venture with PERMAcast has scored its first binding MOU with a WA-based wind farm developer. It plans to construct and install 3GW onshore and 2GW offshore capacity, deploying up to 500 turbines that each require more than 1000 cubic metres of concrete. The JV partners have a right to first refusal on the supply deal subject to a successful pilot program.

Horizon Minerals has poured its first gold bar from ore mined at the company’s Phillips Find project amid a strong gold price environment, which has seen the precious yellow metal rise by 11pc this year. The ore was hauled to the nearby Greenfields mill from its project that sits 45km west of Coolgardie, near the famous gold mining town of Kalgoorlie.

Assays from metallurgical drilling at Octava Minerals’ Byro rare earth elements and lithium project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region have backed up previously defined high-grade mineralisation. A hit from two 100-metre holes reached as high as 500ppm total rare earth oxides, 375ppm lithium oxide and 523ppm vanadium pentoxide over a 50m intercept.

Aguia Resources has nailed down a 10-year binding lease agreement to process organic phosphate from its Três Estradas project near Caçapava do Sul in southern Brazil’s agricultural heartland. Aguia will operate the plant at a monthly cost of BRL$163,000 (A$43,000) and a BRL$5m (A$1.4m) one-off payment to the owners. Aguia has an option to extend the lease for a further 10 years. First production is slated for later this year.

Aurum Resources has struck more high-grade gold at its Boundiali project in Côte d'Ivoire, with hits of up to 8m at 8.23g/t gold outside the known resource. Results from 3079m of drilling across 12 holes at Target 3 have extended mineralisation by 380m, pushing the strike to 1.9km - well beyond the 950m already included in the 1.59-million-ounce global resource.

After a week of market elation and ASX all-time highs, this week saw the index experience a serious pullback as banks and miners alike were left with nowhere to hide.

Image Resources has landed first production of heavy mineral concentrate at its Atlas project, 170 km north of Perth, marking a key step in the company’s plan to expand its mineral sands footprint and achieve planned revenue growth by mid-2025. The mine achieved its first production during early-stage commissioning this month. Despite bushfire evacuations last year, accelerated construction has since kept the project on schedule with initial forecasts.

Aurumin Ltd has wrapped up a 54-hole reverse circulation program at its Central Sandstone project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The holes were designed to test a clutch of iron-rich prospects key to a proposed exclusive option agreement with private entity Newcam Minerals. A successful joint venture deal could provide Aurumin with $7m in project funding.

Reach Resources’ share price surged 29pc this morning to 1.8 cents, up some 125pc on this time last week, after the company unveiled initial drilling results from its Murchison South gold project in Western Australia. The first two reverse circulation drill holes intersected shallow high-grade gold, including an impressive 41m section grading 2.01g/t.

Chariot Corporation has secured strategic West Australian lithium and gold assets by obtaining seven tenements in the Southern Cross greenstone belt, a world-class lithium and gold address. Chariot swooped in after a series of relinquishments by other gold and lithium explorers over the past two years, taking advantage of a countercyclical opportunity. The company says it has successfully leveraged the strategy elsewhere.