Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

The Bulls N' Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Great Dirt Resources, after a fresh $1.446 million placement to industry insiders woke up its manganese projects in northern New South Wales. EMC Gold Corp surged on permitting hopes for its monster Salave gold project in Spain, MetalsGrove ran on no news, just early boots-on-ground work at its Côte d'Ivoire gold project, European Resources ran on diamond drilling from its Korsnäs rare earths project in Finland delivering hits like 27m at 3767ppm total rare earth oxides.

Horizon Minerals has delivered a timely boost to its gold credentials, lifting its total mineral gold inventory by 6.5 per cent to a chunky 1.88 million ounces. A buoyant gold price has allowed the company to redraw its economic lines, capturing a swathe of lower-grade ounces and strengthening the development runway for its Kalgoorlie-centred Black Swan gold processing hub.

Brazil has rolled out the welcome mat for St George Mining's Araxá project, locking in sweeping tax exemptions that could materially lower development costs for what is shaping up as a globally significant niobium and rare earths play. With state government backing, pilot plant plans in train and a world-class resource already defined, Araxá looks set to emerge as a cornerstone asset in Brazil's critical minerals ambitions.

Dateline Resources has reported strong step-out drilling results at its Colosseum project in California. Best hits included 150m at 1.39g/t gold from surface, featuring a 55-metre section grading 2.83g/t gold. The hole targeted the northeast extension of the North Pipe breccia system beyond the current mineral resource boundary and ended in mineralisation, confirming the system remains open at depth.

BMG Resources is set to kick off a major 10,000m diamond drilling resource expansion program this month at its Abercromby gold project, 30km southeast of Wiluna in WA's eastern goldfields. The program is primarily aimed at expanding the existing 518,000 ounce gold resource estimate at the project and will be the first significant drilling at the project since the definition of the maiden resource estimate in 2023.

Novo Resources has dusted off its Belltopper gold project in Victoria after boosting its exploration target to between 2.1 and 3.1 million tonnes of high-grade resources running 6.7 to 8.9 grams per tonne gold. The company says it has now outlined between 460,000 and 880,000 ounces of high-grade gold, with the upgraded figures accelerating plans for follow-up exploration in the world-class Bendigo goldfields.

Early drilling results from Estrella Resources' Werumata limestone project in Timor-Leste have pointed to a bounty of clean, high-purity limestone, with intersections up to 55 metres thick, averaging a rich 84 per cent calcium carbonate. The broad, consistent intersections support the company's push towards its objective of defining an inferred mineral resource of at least 500 million tonnes from the interpreted large-scale calcite deposit.

Lindian Resources has kicked off stage two resource definition drilling at its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, targeting a significant upgrade in resource confidence. The campaign is designed to convert between 20 and 40 million tonnes from the inferred category to the indicated class. This work will support mine planning and potential production growth, helping extend the life of one of the world's largest undeveloped rare earths deposits.

Dalaroo Metals has enlisted rare earths industry pioneer Greg Barnes as a special advisor for its Greenland critical minerals project amid plans to pursue a secondary listing on the US Venture market. Barnes is best known for founding two of Greenland's most significant rare earths projects, the Kvanefjeld deposit and the Tanbreez project.

The latest geochemical results from Novo Resources' Wyloo gold-silver-antimony project in WA's southern Pilbara have confirmed multiple targets, paving the way for the company's first drilling of the project. Recent work has significantly upgraded the Wyloo SE prospect, where a confirmed polymetallic vein system carrying silver, antimony, arsenic, zinc and lead warrants early testing.

Exceptional metallurgical test results from Reach Resources' Murchison South gold project in Western Australia, showing up to 97 per cent recoveries, have confirmed that its proposed ore is free-milling, relatively soft and highly amenable to conventional gravity and cyanide leach processing. The results have demonstrated that the material is ideal for third-party toll milling or ore purchase agreements at nearby facilities.

Dateline Resources is homing in on what could be the deeper heart of its Colosseum gold and rare earths project in California after a suite of new geophysical surveys lit up the ground beneath the old pits. With gravity, magnetics, radiometrics and earlier IP data now converging, the company is about to put the theory to the test with diamond rigs.

Lindian Resources has ordered critical long-lead processing equipment for its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, strengthening construction certainty as site activity accelerates. The company is now working on multiple fronts, with major milestones locked in for 2026 and first concentrate targeted for November, positioning Kangankunde as a future globally significant rare earths producer.

Xpedra Resources has secured final NSW Government approval for its proposed maiden drilling program at its fully-owned Springfield gold deposit near Gulgong, about 210km northwest of Sydney. The drill rig is set to mobilise in the coming weeks once it completes its current task, with a mid-to-late February start, marking the first drilling program at the project since 1999.

The Bulls N' Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Solstice Minerals, after it uncovered blockbuster high-grade copper-gold hits at its Nanadie project in WA. Alma Metals surged on huge copper intercepts and scale at its Briggs project in Queensland, contracting group RBR Group jumped after the Mozambique LNG got a green light for the restart of construction, with 4000 workers back on site and First Au raised $5.6 million to follow up fresh high-grade hits at its Gimlet gold project in WA.

Estrella Resources is ramping up manganese extraction at its Ira Miri project in Timor-Leste after intersecting the targeted manganese horizon during pit excavation. With production underway, stockpiling on track and discussions advancing with international offtake partners, the company is closing in on delivering a 30,000t market sample and the country's first mineral export under its new Mining Code.

St George Mining's Araxá project in Brazil is starting to look like the gift that keeps on giving. Fresh drilling has punched out more thick, high-grade rare earths and niobium from surface. The results have reinforced the project's status as one of the standout carbonatite-hosted critical minerals plays in the Western world and strongly hint that a much bigger resource may be taking shape.

Corazon Mining has uncovered a whopping 4km gold anomaly at its Two Pools project in Western Australia after a comprehensive review of historical drilling and soil geochemistry. The work highlighted extensive shallow mineralisation, multiple high-priority targets and significant upside ahead of a maiden drill campaign scheduled for early 2026.

Aurum Resources has delivered fresh high-grade drill results from its Boundiali gold project in Côte d'Ivoire, extending mineralisation at depth and along strike. The results support an imminent resource update and underline the scale and continuity of the system as the company advances toward pre-feasibility studies this year.

Dalaroo Metals has ramped up its West African gold push, kicking off field mapping and drill targeting programs at its Bongouanoa project in southeast Côte d'Ivoire. The in-country geological team is now boots on the ground, advancing detailed structural mapping along key shear corridors, while early stakeholder engagement is building a solid foundation for operations.

Larvotto Resources has continued to rack up gold and antimony tonnes at its Hillgrove project in New South Wales, this time confirming broad zones of high-grade gold-antimony-tungsten across multiple lodes at its expanding Freehold exploration prospect. The 4300m diamond drilling program targeted depth extensions of historically mined old workings, with the company confident its results now validate the system's scale and depth persistence.

Terrain Minerals has kicked off diamond drilling at its wholly owned Smokebush gold and silver project, about 350km north of Perth, in WA's prospective Yalgoo mineral field. The program plans to target the company's new Lightning prospect and is aimed at firming up geological information to support the company's proposed maiden JORC mineral resource estimate slated for the second quarter of the year.

Xpedra Resources has handed the keys to a seasoned mine builder just as the drill bit prepares to bite into its promising Springfield gold deposit in New South Wales. With chunky historical hits from surface and a 25-year exploration hiatus, the company is betting fresh leadership and fresh holes can turn a forgotten play into a modern Australian gold story.

BMG Resources has landed a $2.5 million placement at 2.1 cents per share, backed by cornerstone investor Tribeca Investment Partners - an internationally recognised firm specialising in high-growth resources plays - along with European strategic participants and strong retail support. The raise will fuel an expanded exploration push across the company's WA gold portfolio and comes amid today's 29.17 per cent share price hike.

Ora Banda Mining has grabbed a saddlebag of outstanding high-grade drilling intersections, with a best hit of 14 metres assaying 18.5 grams per tonne gold. The results also included 12 metres grading 21.5 grams per tonne gold. The find points to a 7-kilometre corridor containing multiple high-grade mineralised shoots, enhancing surface mining opportunities near the company's Davyhurst Mill in Western Australia.

Dalaroo Metals has identified a strong zirconium–hafnium correlation at its Blue Lagoon critical minerals project in Greenland, confirming a zircon-dominated heavy mineral system. The results support a sedimentary heavy mineral sands model, low-cost gravity separation potential and materially de-risk both exploration and future development pathways at the project.

Horizon Minerals has generated another quarter of strong cash flows from gold sales, banking $23.3M from 3689 ounces sold, while ending the period with a healthy $37.5M cash balance and 14,300 ounces of contained gold in stockpiles. The robust quarterly came amid record-high gold prices and featured the safe completion of open-pit mining at the company's Boorara and Phillips Find open pits.

The Bulls N' Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Apollo Minerals, which dusted off the historic high-grade Salau tungsten mine in France with a fresh five-year permit. Terra Metals unleashed a monster PGM sulphide hit at Dante in the Musgraves with a whopping 4m at 6.71g/t PGE3, sparking comparisons to South Africa's Bushveld monsters and Nagambie Resources inked a juicy JV with the $2.2 billion gold-antimony producer Alkane Resources on Australia's highest-grade antimony-gold play.

Gold Fields is gearing up to re-start drilling at Great Southern Mining's extensive Edinburgh Park project in north Queensland, chasing the kind of large-scale gold systems that built some of the state's biggest mines. With multiple targets already showing the right geological fingerprints and encouraging results from one target so far, 2026 is shaping up as a pivotal year in this heavyweight exploration joint venture.

Ora Banda Mining has signed off on $63 million in key investments to crank up capacity across processing, mining and camp infrastructure at its fully-owned Davyhurst project in WA's goldfields. The centrepiece is a $10 million commitment to advance the proposed three-million-tonne-per-year standalone processing plant from its definitive feasibility study towards front-end engineering design.

Octava Minerals has begun a maiden drilling campaign at its Byro critical minerals project in WA's Gascoyne region, targeting black shales prospective for rare earths, lithium and vanadium. The program follows strong bioleaching recoveries and coincides with improved acquisition terms, sharpening the pathway toward defining a large, low-impact critical minerals system.

Meeka Metals has notched up another robust quarter at its Murchison Gold mine in Western Australia, lifting output to 9174 ounces while generating $23.9 million in cash, to take its holdings to $67.4 million. All-in sustaining costs came in at $2365 per ounce, underpinned by an average realised gold price of A$6275 per ounce on 7953 ounces sold for $49.9 million in revenue.