Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Lindian Resources is fully permitted to begin the construction, mining and mineral processing steps at its massive Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi after receiving a permit to extract ground water at the site. The giant African operation currently holds 261 million tonnes at an impressive grade of 2.19 per cent total rare earth oxides, including 5.7 million tonnes of contained TREO in the inferred category.

Quantum Graphite has completed a detailed airborne electromagnetic survey over its Uley tenure on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula. The company is on a quest to boost its current Uley 2 resource of 6.3 million tonnes at 11.1 per cent total graphitic carbon for an inventory of 697,000 tonnes of the critical battery mineral.

Strickland Metals is ready to put its WA gold hunt into overdrive, as it prepares to drill a multitude of high-grade gold targets at its highly prospective Yandal project, about 85km north-east of the town of Wiluna. The company’s liquid assets are impressive, with $54 million in cash and Northern Star shares available to fund its exploration programs.

ASX-listed Gold Mountain is looking to significantly increase its rare earths holdings in the Brazilian State of Bahia after securing 41 new tenement applications covering more than 800 square kilometres. Dubbed the “Ronaldinho” project, the new applications cover ground adjacent to tenements held by the Gina Rinehart-backed Brazilian Rare Earths.

Oil and gas explorer 88 Energy has recorded the first successful oil flow to surface from its Alaskan projects with testing at the Upper Slope Fan System of its Hickory-1 well confirming the discovery of light oil. Testing produced a peak gauge flow rate of more than 70 barrels per day of light oil at the well which forms part of the company’s greater Phoenix project within the onshore oil section of Alaska’s north slope.

The Northern Territory’s onshore Beetaloo basin is thought to be harbouring almost biblical-scale gas deposits and ASX-listed Empire Energy is in the vanguard of those seeking to prove its commercial viability. The company is now teeteringly close to pushing the button on an investment decision to start flowing gas commercially out of the basin – a move that could revolutionise the Australian gas industry.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Osteopore. Its share price surged more than 1060 per cent after announcing a deal to sell its regenerative bone implant technology into Singaporean and Vietnamese markets. Osteopore joins fellow market movers and shakers this week Allup Silica and Many Peaks Minerals.

Allup Silica’s shares soared by more than 300 per cent today after confirmation that silica sands from the company’s Sparkler project near Albany in WA will be suitable for the solar panel industry and high-tech manufacturing. Allup also tabled some stellar results from its Cabbage Spot project near Wyndham showing grades up to 99.4 percent silica. Its stock touched 13c from its close yesterday of 2.9c.

Estrella Resources has officially been granted exploration tenure of more than 500 square kilometres in Timor-Leste making history as one of the first companies to receive exploration rights in the country. The nation is looking to build its industry in this resource-rich part of the world and ASX-listed Estrella is the first through the gate.

Novo Resources has boosted its recent gold drilling results by re-assaying larger sample sizes from its WA Nunyerry North project, using modern high-tech multi-pot photon-assays, due to the nature of its coarse-gold. The improved results highlight several significant intersections, including 6m at more than 6 grams per tonne at the project it has in joint-venture with the Creasy Group.

Xanadu Mines has kicked off a hydrological drill program at its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia as it prepares to deliver its upcoming preliminary feasibility study into the operation. Management says data from the program will be compiled into a hydrology database for use in site water balance for the final Kharmagtai PFS design, which is assessing ultimate growth of up to 40 million tonnes per annum processing throughput at the operation.

Galan Lithium has lifted the resource estimate for its 100 per cent-owned Argentine Hombre Muerto West lithium project to 8.6 million tonnes contained lithium carbonate equivalent at 859 mg/l lithium. The significant increase, the fourth since March 2020, amounts to an 18 per cent uplift in tonnes alongside another uptick in grade improving what was already one of the highest grade brine estimates in the country.

ABx Group’s latest assay results have further expanded the rare earths zone at its Deep Leads-Rubble Mound project in northern Tasmania, showing mineralisation enriched in the valuable heavy rare earths, dysprosium and terbium. The company says the results prove the site west of Launceston retains the highest proportion of the two elements of any clay-hosted rare earths resource in Australia.

Lithium Universe has settled on Bécancour Port within the city of Bécancour in Quebec, Canada is its preferred import facility for delivering spodumene to its proposed battery grade lithium carbonate refinery just 2.5kms away. Just last month the company secured a prime location for its proposed refinery after executing an option agreement to purchase a commercial property in the area.

American West Metals is looking to expand its already solid mineral resource at its Storm copper project in Canada with a high-powered electromagnetic survey set to deliver priority drill targets at the site. Earlier this year, the company unveiled a maiden resource for its operation on Somerset Island in the Canadian province of Nunavut of 17.5 million tonnes at 1.2 per cent copper and 3.4g/t silver after just one season of resource drilling.

Si6 Metals has unveiled clay-hosted rare earths hits from surface sampling at its joint-venture Caldera project in the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil, in addition to discovering further nickel-copper-cobalt at its Maibele North deposit, part of the company’s base and precious metals play in Botswana. Si6 will now kick-off an auger drill campaign at Caldera to test for higher-grade rare earths mineralisation at depth.

Xanadu Mines has kicked off a 5000m diamond drill campaign at its Red Mountain project in Mongolia with a focus on the discovery of shallow high-grade gold, porphyry copper-gold and copper sulphide lodes. The operation’s Target 33 prospect has been highlighted as a priority after previous drilling returned impressive results with a 40m section grading 1.06 grams per tonne gold from 26m including a 10m section at 3.7g/t from 50m.

White Cliff Minerals’ review of historic datasets for its Radium Point project in Canada has highlighted multiple high-grade uranium-copper-gold-silver targets including 14.15 per cent uranium oxide. The project forms the northern half of the approximately 2,900 sq km licence area held by the company which says results exceed its expectations and that the targets will be assessed in the upcoming 2024 field program.

ChemX Materials has pulled in $1.1m from sophisticated investors to help fund the completion of its High purity alumina pilot plant in Perth. The company will also look to raise another $500k from shareholders in an SPP and ChemX directors will kick $65,000 into the raise. The company’s HPA pilot plant is already 80 per cent complete.

Javelin Minerals has identified a large uranium target at its Stakeyard Well prospect that forms part of its larger Mt Ida operation in WA following a comprehensive data review of all its existing projects. Management says the review highlighted a strong anomaly that extends across a package of ground 28km in length by an average 3.3km width where historical air-core drilling revealed positive uranium results.

St George Mining has increased the strike at its Destiny clay-based rare earths project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region by 3km after air-core drilling at the site delivered solid results of up to 3160ppm TREO. The company returned thick and near-surface assays from 13 AC holes with highlights showing an 18m section grading 1919ppm TREO from just 18m including 3m reaching the peak 3160ppm TREO result from 30m.

Askari Metals is preparing for a flood of results from a major trenching campaign after submitting 2000 samples for analysis at its Namibian Uis lithium project. The company says it has now completed mapping and sampling of priority pegmatites on its north-easternmost exploration permit at Uis where it targeted four key pegmatites with 135 trenches for a total of 7269m of trenching. It is now working to generate additional targets.

Venus Metals is on a roll with the first drill campaign at its Deep South prospect within its Youanmi project in WA’s Murchison hitting lithium paydirt. High-grade lithium pegmatites were intersected at both the East and North zones, with strong tantalum enrichment also recorded. The best grade recorded in the maiden campaign came in at a significant 2.89 per cent lithium oxide.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Lord Resources. Its shares hiked more than 135 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers ADX Energy, Universal Biosensors and Lion Energy.

Gold Mountain says it has identified widespread granitoid and related rock types known to possess a strong potential to host rare earths minerals throughout its Down Under project in Brazil. The company says it has found many examples of leucogranites and charnockite rocks in five of its new tenements within the project where it is undertaking exploration stream geochemistry and other sampling.

Larvotto Resources is closing in on an international financing package worth US$8 million (AU$12.1 million) to help develop its Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales. The company has signed a non-binding term sheet with Xcelsior Capital and Wogen that will provide it with a pre-payment loan for the life of the Hillgrove mine and a working capital loan.

Altech Batteries has revealed a compelling set of numbers for its planned Cerenergy battery project in Germany, with its DFS forecasting a NPV of €169 million and annual revenue of €106 million generating EBITDA earnings of a juicy €51million per annum. The company says capital cost estimates of €156 million and a steady-state payback period of 3.7 years add to the project’s appeal.

Fuelled by little more than a curious mind and a well-stocked cellar, Dollar Bill has turned his gaze towards the role battery inventories played in the bursting of the lithium bubble – and the potential for recovery. It seems clear that battery manufacturers played a key part in both inflating and then bursting the bubble and now may be poised to inflate it again.

Buxton Resources is engaged in a fourth Aboriginal heritage survey at its Graphite Bull project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region in a bid to further expand the area covered by its previous agreements to about 3 square kilometres. The company undertook similar surveys in 2013, 2014 and 2022 as exploration of the area around its original 2014 inferred 4-million-tonne graphite resource has expanded.

Galan Lithium has continued to ramp up its Hombre Muerto West lithium chloride project in Argentina, with evaporation in its first pond continuing, a second now filling up and construction of a third well underway. The company says the first pond already contains about 500 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, with production planned to start in the first half of next year.

Aurum Resources has expanded the golden footprint at its Boundiali gold project in the West African country of Côte D’Ivoire after snapping up an adjoining tenement that features an advanced exploration permit area. The 167.34sq km Boundiali South ground, now formerly owned by Turaco Gold, has previously thrown up solid gold hits including 20m at 10.45g/t from 38m.

The fight over AVZ Minerals’ mega-lithium deposit in the DRC conjures up images of the whacky Cantina bar scene in Star Wars where all the characters have two heads or three arms and an armoury of weapons to wield. A recent court ruling, however, has reset the playing field in AVZ’s favour as the dominoes start to fall against the dark forces seeking to spirit away its extraordinary lithium deposit.