Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

The Bulls N' Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… European Metals which bagged a $645 million Czech government cheque for its monster Cinovec lithium project. Its stock soared 150% on Friday. Synertec Corp inked a deal with Shell QGC for its zero-emissions Powerhouse battery system, Enlitic became one of only two global vendors for Philips' $40 billion radiology empire and Latitude66 parachuted into the Laverton goldfields with an earn-in and a rig already drilling at its newest gold tilt in WA.

Corazon Mining has cleared a major hurdle at its exciting Two Pools gold project in Western Australia's Gascoyne region, with its two core tenements receiving formal government grant. The green light means the company can push full steam ahead with on-ground work and it has already finalised the design of an early-2026 diamond drilling program.

Estrella Resources has upped the exploration tempo in Timor-Leste after a fresh geophysical survey at its Ira Miri manganese project lit up three high-grade subsurface targets sitting between just 5 and 25 metres below surface. The anomalies line up cleanly with previous drilling that returned manganese oxide zones up to 80 per cent, giving the company a new batch of priority shots for its 2026 field season.

Aurum Resources has swelled its coffers to $40 million after offloading 2.89m Canadian-listed Montage Gold shares for $23 million, banking a 102% profit on stock it received only months ago. With a pre-feasibility study underway at the company's Boundiali gold project and major resource updates looming across its broader gold portfolio in Côte d'Ivoire, the cashed-up explorer is gearing up for a major drilling and study blitz in 2026

Neometals has delivered tantalising early gold assays of up to 21.88g/t gold from a recently completed reverse circulation drilling campaign at its wholly owned Barrambie gold project. The drill bit nailed two impressive gold intercepts, which hint at untapped potential in the Barrambie greenstone belt, 80 kilometres northwest of Sandstone in WA's prolific Murchison region.

Terrain Minerals has kicked off a major RC drilling assault across its high priority Lightning and Wildflower gold and silver targets in Western Australia's Murchison gold province. The company says it will drill deeper and along strike of existing stand-out intercepts, potentially leading to a maiden resource at Lightning, slated for mid-next year. Terrain has also identified multiple gold targets extending over 800 metres at its Wildflower project associated with coincident structures highlighted by geophysics.

Altech Batteries has locked in the final engineering design for its next gen sodium-nickel-chloride battery system clearing the last major hurdle before its first production next year. The company says its 400-volt units are set to roll off the line at partner AMPower's manufacturing facilities, before heading straight to Dutch gas pipeline facilities and industrial plants. The batteries are a much safer storage alternative to tradition lead-based and lithium-ion batteries.

After kicking the ball out of the park in the last lithium boom with its Mt Marion lithium mine, Neometals has backed up the truck for another tilt at what many believe is an impending 3rd lithium boom. The company has locked in a 60-day exclusive option to access a portfolio of inactive oil and gas wells in Utah's Paradox Basin to fast-track evaluation of lithium- and potassium-rich brines that might be lurking below.

Octava Minerals has landed some exceptional high-grade indium results up to 860ppm in re-analysed rock chip samples from its Sweeney's prospect at the company's Federation copper-zinc-silver project in western Tasmania. A fixed-loop electromagnetic geophysical survey has illuminated strong sulphide connectivity at the prospect, paving the way for imminent diamond drilling.

Gold-focused explorer Corazon Mining has locked-in a strategic partnership with the local Marputu Aboriginal Corporation to secure access to the promising Two Pools gold project in the Gascoyne region of WA. The newly-signed land access agreement delivers a win-win outcome for both firms, with Corazon moving to fast-track the heritage clearance required to launch into a diamond drilling program at the site early next year.

Aguia Resources has appointed Tim Hosking as the company's new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, following the resignation of William Howe as Managing Director and CEO. The leadership change comes at a pivotal moment for the multi-commodity explorer, with its flagship phosphate operations in Brazil on track for first production in Q1 2026 and efforts intensifying to revive the company's gold assets in Colombia.

Altech Batteries has inked a non-disclosure agreement with a major global EV battery maker for a confidential collaboration to evaluate Altech's proprietary Silumina battery anodes. Altech has shipped samples of its alumina-coated silicon to China for evaluation, while preparing coatings on partner-supplied graphite. Latest tests demonstrate 83% capacity retention after 1000 charge–discharge cycles, following addition of only 5% of Altech's Silumina anodes to a standard graphite anode.

St George Mining has unveiled another batch of eye-catching rare earths and niobium assays from its giant Araxá project in Brazil, with thick zones of ultra-high grades outside the existing resource. The system remains open in all directions, with three rigs drilling 24/7 and more samples in the lab. The growing footprint is shaping Araxá as one of the Western world's standout critical-minerals discoveries.

Estrella Resources says it is on track to unearth a monster 500m tonne limestone resource at its Werumatamata project in Timor Leste after drilling logged large sheets of valuable mineralisation up to 87m thick. The company says the average width logged within the limestone blanket at the project is 55m and it also encountered an unexpected bonus in the form of calcite intersected beneath the target zone, potentially hinting at significant additional tonnes than first thought.

Chariot Corporation has executed a binding agreement with Continental Lithium to establish small-scale lithium mining operations across its four Nigerian lithium projects. The three-phase plan will transform selected artisanal workings into formal lithium production operations, targeting early cash flows through toll or onsite processing and existing Chinese buyer interest. Continental will operate on-ground while Chariot will arrange funding and offtakes. Mining operations will run parallel with regional exploration to identify new lithium resources.

Horizon Minerals is nearing the end of open-pit mining at its Phase 1 program at Phillips Find and its Boorara gold projects near Kalgoorlie in WA's Eastern Goldfields. With strong stockpiles built and first gold already flowing from both operations this year, Horizon Minerals is well down its path of transition from developer to consistent gold producer.

The Bulls N' Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Alvo Minerals, which ploughed the first-ever diamond hole into its Brazilian copper project only to pull out 13m of fat visual copper sulphides just 40 m from surface. 3D Energi struck a potential gas monster thanks to partner ConocoPhillips drilling offshore in Victoria. McLaren Minerals supersized its already huge ilmenite sands resource by 90 per cent and Zuleika Gold banked a handy $48 million litigation knockout from Catalyst Metals over its contested Plutonic gold ground.

Lindian Resources has kicked off construction of its Tipume accommodation village at the company's world-class Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, representing an important development milestone. Kangankunde is a world class rare earths project that boasts 1000m mineralised drill intersections going well over 2 per cent total rare earths oxides. Australian critical minerals processor Iluka has already put its hand up for the offtake.

Meeka Metals has struck shallow high-grade gold south of the Andy Well underground mine in WA's Murchison district with a best hit of 4m at 27.82g/t gold, including 2m at 54.43g/t, extending the mine's Wilber Lode 450m further south. The latest intercepts lie directly along strike from the current southern ore development drives on the Wilber Lode, where on-reef development faces are reportedly running well ahead of the average reserves grade.

Soil sampling by Augustus Minerals has defined soil gold anomalism near Leonora in WA over a 1.2km x 0.6km footprint, with peak values ranging up to 44.1ppb. The high-grade core of the anomalism appears to be surrounded by a halo of lower but still significant soil values in the range of 2.7-9.3ppb gold, possibly associated with a lithological boundary.

Middle Island Resources has outlined an extensive lead-zinc target in Serbia after its first soil-sampling program at the historic Tisovik lead mine returned a widespread anomalism. The company says the mineralisation remain open to the north where sampling lines near the projected strike of the “Tisovik limestone” - the same geological unit that historically produced exceptional lead grades during multiple mining phases dating back to the 1930's.

Larvotto Resources has unveiled a prospective and potentially lucrative third revenue stream at its Hillgrove gold-antimony project in NSW, with metallurgy delivering 90 per cent tungsten recovery adding another highly strategic resource to its inventory. The news follows recent assays from its Freehold prospect that delivered broad, high-grade antimony-gold zones alongside surprise tungsten grades, the company has begun painting the picture of a new tungsten system with some serious economics legs.

Aurum Resources has delivered more bonanza-grade gold hits, including a stunning 3.1 metres at 70.78 g/t gold from its drilling program at the company's 2.41 million ounce Boundiali project in West Africa. The intercept is part of a broader 5.10m intercept at 43.13g/t gold from just 112.9m that lies outside Aurum's current gold resource estimate for its 16.2 million tonne BMT3 deposit.

Dateline Resources has delivered a set of thumping gold hits at its Colosseum project in California with broad, consistent mineralisation uncovered beneath and within the current pit shell. The results support a major upgrade to the company's resource base, reinforcing confidence in the geology and giving fresh momentum to its bankable feasibility study as it moves the historic mine closer to a modern restart.

Moonlight Resources is preparing to step onto the ASX with a $10 million float designed to fast-track a maiden resource at its Clermont gold project in Queensland while exploring a vast rare earths and uranium frontier in the Northern Territory. With strong technical leadership, inherited datasets and drill-ready targets, the company is positioning itself to ride the gold and critical minerals wave.

Red Metal Ltd says it has made a major breakthrough in metallurgical testing of its rare earths ore from the company's Sybella project in Queensland that will result in less impurities and higher grades. The company has managed to replace the standard two-stage impurity removal process with a simple Ion exchange process that will lower costs and increase purities.

ASX listed Neometals has welcomed the backing of the Government of Finland which will contribute a €48.7M (A$86.8M) grant towards the building of a vanadium recycling plant in the Finish port of Pori. The plant will recycle vanadium industrial waste streams using technology developed by Neometals which owns 86% of the €400M project and a 2.5% royalty over it.

Terrain Minerals is getting set to launch a 4500m reverse circulation drilling program at its 100%-owned Lightning gold-silver prospect in WA's Murchison, targeting a maiden JORC resource by mid-2026. The 21-hole campaign aims to extend known high-grade zones, test new magnetic targets and will probe a potential repeat discovery at Lightning, with first assays due mid-February.

American West Metals has geochemically mapped a monster 4km-long copper anomaly at its Storm project on Somerset Island in Canada, confirming another parallel structural corridor to its known high-grade deposits. The new Chevron prospect, along with fresh sulphide hits at Squall, Tornado and Cyclone, is rapidly defining a district-scale opportunity across the Midway–Storm–Tornado corridor in Nunavut's Arctic copper fields.

Larvotto Resources has come out swinging at its Hillgrove project in NSW, with first pass diamond drilling at the Freehold prospect delivering broad, high-grade antimony-gold zones alongside a surprise tungsten hit. The early numbers confirm continuity along multiple lodes and hint at the rise of a new underground mining hub just 1.2km from the company's existing processing plant.

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.