Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Askari Metals has secured two additional exploration concessions at its Yarrie lithium project in the prolific Pilbara region of Western Australia – and in proximity to Pilbara Minerals' globally-renowned Pilgangoora lithium resource. The company says the acquisitions represent a significant milestone and it now plans to launch further exploration works at what it describes as a “highly-anticipated” project.

This week's Bulls N' Bears top ASX runner is … Avira Resources. Its share price rose more 100 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers DiscovEx Resources, Volt Power Group and Singular Health Group.

Gold Mountain is set to kick-off rare earths exploration this month at its Down Under project in Brazil, along strike from and flanking ground hosting Brazilian Rare Earths' massive 510.3-million-tonne resource. Management says its drilling will be guided by a local geologic consultant, who will assess radiometric and magnetic data in conjunction with satellite imagery to define prospective areas begging to see the drill bit.

Javelin Minerals has renewed the exploration licences for its Husky and Malamute projects in New South Wales for an additional three years after getting the green light from the State's resources regulator. The Perth-based explorer considers both projects to have excellent prospectivity for scandium and rare earths, in addition to precious, base and battery metals.

The United Kingdom Government has shown its confidence in Triangle Energy Global, offering it a North Sea license containing five prospects with at least 269 billion cubic feet of gas, along with multiple shallow leads. The acreage bolsters Triangle's global portfolio as the company matures plans to drill two wells in the onshore Perth Basin this year.

Chariot Corporation has hit the ground running at its Black Mountain lithium project in Wyoming, with the first three holes drilled delivering initial hard rock results peaking at 3.09 per cent lithium oxide. The company says all three holes intersected high-grade spodumene mineralisation, confirming the potential of the lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite swarms at the United States-based project.

Lindian Resources is taking aim at upgrading a significant portion of its massive Kangankunde rare earths deposit in Malawi to the high-confidence indicated category ahead of a feasibility study due this quarter. The deposit's 261 million tonnes grading 2.19 per cent TREO currently sits in the inferred category and the company hopes to make an eyebrow-raising maiden ore reserve statement as part of its study.

Buxton Resources says a second diamond drillhole into the Dogleg prospect it shares with IGO in Western Australia's West Kimberley region has thrown up a 2.89m hit going 4.17 per cent nickel and 0.83 per cent copper from 233.63m. The hole drilled by IGO, Buxton's ASX 100-listed joint venture partner, also reported 0.14 per cent cobalt in the same intercept.

Buxton Resources' growing union with mining giant IGO has set up the company for a big 2024, with the latter pumping in $579,000 to help fund a new exploration campaign at their Copper Wolf joint venture project in Arizona. It comes on the back of a busy financial quarter where Buxton also advanced its Graphite Bull and Quick Shears projects in Western Australia.

AVZ Minerals has increased the resource at its Manono project in the Democratic Republic of Congo to an extraordinary 842 million tonnes at 1.61 per cent lithium oxide, representing a massive 47 per cent rise. The remarkable resource expansion comes after the company generated results from a 53-hole diamond drill campaign across 15,684m along strike from known mineralisation at its Roche Dure deposit.

Software provider K2fly says cost management remains its major focus as the company's latest financial report today revealed a remarkable 14th consecutive quarter of annual recurring revenue growth. The ARR was at $8 million in the past quarter, up 16 per cent compared to the previous corresponding period (PCP) and revenue was at $3.4million, up 21 per cent from the PCP.

Venture Minerals has engaged resources-focused advisory company Argonaut PCF to undertake a strategic review of the Riley iron ore mine in Tasmania following increased interest due to high iron ore prices. The company believes it is in a position to consider its options after its offtake agreement with Prosperity Stell lapsed and the iron ore price rose to more than $220 per tonne in December.

Lycaon Resources is nearing heritage survey completion at its West Arunta Stansmore project as it prepares for drill-testing of its modelled 3D magnetic targets for carbonatite-hosted niobium-copper-gold mineralisation. WA1 Resources' tier-one Luni discovery that sits 90km to the south and has a drill intercept of 30m at 4.7 per cent niobium oxide, highlights the world-class discovery potential of the West Arunta region of central Australia.

DiscovEx Resources says three reverse-circulation drillholes for 702m completed recently within its Sylvania project near Newman in Western Australia intersected banded iron mineralisation grading up to 48.2 per cent iron. The maiden drilling program was undertaken by Rio Tinto Exploration under the terms of DiscovEx's Sylvania iron ore option agreement with the company. The longest intercept was 88m going 34.5 per cent iron.

A cashed-up Image Resources is focused on relocating its mining and ore processing operations to its wholly-owned Atlas project in Western Australia's North Perth Basin after making significant progress with approvals. Atlas is a high-grade mineral sands mine containing 5.5 million tonnes of ore reserves at 9.2 per cent total heavy minerals (HM) and 96 per cent contained HM in the proven category.

Buru Energy rounded out the past financial quarter with no debt and $18.4 million in the till as it prepares to drill an appraisal well at its 100 per cent-owned Rafael gas field in WA's Canning Basin. The company is eyeing a final investment decision in the second half of next year and first gas production in the last half of 2027.

Buru Energy rounded out the past financial quarter with no debt and $18.4 million in the till as it prepares to drill an appraisal well at its 100 per cent-owned Rafael gas field in WA's Canning Basin. The company is eyeing a final investment decision in the second half of next year and first gas production in the last half of 2027.

Xanadu Mines has hit paydirt with results from its most recent drilling at the Kharmagtai project in Mongolia it shares with China's Zijin Mining Group. The company says it has expanded the new, higher-grade copper-gold mineralised zone at its White Hill deposit and doubled the mineral resource grade at its Golden Eagle prospect – and now believes it may be onto a significant copper-gold system.

Perth-based petroleum producer and explorer Triangle Energy finished the past quarter with $5.24 million in the bank as it homes in on the onshore North Perth Basin, where it will drill for oil this year. The company is currently producing crude from its Cliff Head field off Dongara, with that operation netting it $15 million as part of a sales deal with Pilot Energy.

Venus Metals Corporation says it has discovered petalite mineralisation assaying up to 4.6 per cent lithium oxide in multiple pegmatites at its Deep South prospect at Youanmi in Western Australia's Murchison region. Petalite is an important ore mineral of lithium and the new pegmatite discoveries comprise several small outcrops up to about 60m across that are scattered through a 450-square-metre footprint.

American West Metals has unveiled a maiden mineral resource for its Storm project in Canada of 17.5 million tonnes at 1.2 per cent copper and 3.4g/t silver after just one season of resource drilling. The JORC-compliant estimate holds 205,000 tonnes of copper and 1.9 million ounces of silver at the operation on Somerset Island in the Canadian province of Nunavut.

Minerals exploration and development company GreenTech Metals has suddenly found itself next to a new power-play among lithium giants right next door to its own developing West Pilbara lithium project in Western Australia. Significant corporate activity is targeting the region, including global lithium giant SQM's joint venture (JV) with Novo Resources and separately, SQM and Hancock Prospecting's $1.7 billion bid for Azure Minerals.

Auric Mining has recorded multiple high-grade intercepts from grade control drilling at its Munda gold project near Widgiemooltha in Western Australia's Goldfields region, including a 1m hit at a stunning 184.6g/t gold. The company has drilled 351 holes to complete the campaign, with assays already received from 244 holes sunk representing about 70 per cent of the program back from the laboratory.

Cashed up and ready to drill – Legend Mining has $14 million in the bank and is preparing to dive into a bag of targets at its Rockford project in Western Australia's Fraser Range. The company is looking for magmatic nickel-copper, volcanogenic massive sulphides hosting zinc, copper and silver and structurally-controlled gold in ground that has recently returned some tantalising geophysical hits.

The Nunuvut Planning Commission has given White Cliff Minerals the go-ahead to kick off exploration at its Coppermine project in Canada, where it will follow up on high-grade historical copper results. The company says it marks a major step in the permitting process and allows it to appoint contractors for this year's exploration initiatives in the Canadian province of Nunavut.

Alma Metals has revealed a new 32.8m diamond drill hit of 0.78 per cent copper mineralisation across the contact between the granodiorite intrusion and enclosing volcanics at its Briggs project in Queensland. The hole tested the south-eastern margin of the Briggs Central resource zone and management says it further validates its concept of elevated copper grades in the near-surface zone straddling the two rock types.

Infinity Lithium is charging ahead with fieldwork at its San José lithium project in Spain as it prepares to lodge an exploitation concession application for the operation with local authorities. The company says its recent work will support its environmental impact assessment that will form part of its application to mine and process the 111-million-tonne orebody grading 0.61 per cent lithium oxide.

Aurum Resources has appointed experienced African gold miner Caigen Wang as its new managing director as the company works-up the shallow, wide gold-bearing orebody at its Boundiali project in Côte d'Ivoire. Wang is no stranger to maturing African gold discoveries, taking Tietto Minerals from a market cap of about $30 million to nearly $700 million at its Abujar gold mine, also in Côte D'Ivoire.

Buxton Resources' 100 per cent-owned Graphite Bull Project in WA's Gascoyne region has ticked another milestone with testwork confirming its product is suitable for the manufacture of lithium-ion battery anodes. The testwork verified that uncoated purified spherical graphite (uPSG) made from Graphite Bull deposit concentrate exceeded the 350 mAh/g charging values considered to be ‘good' for uncoated graphite achieving charging values as high as 370 mAh/g.

Bookbuilds & Banter with Boz: WA State Manager of Shaw and Partners Davide Bosio waxes lyrical about the lessons learnt from the twentieth century's most successful day trader Jesse Livermore in Reminiscences of a Stock Operator. Livermore was once considered to be one of the richest people in the world and is generally thought to be the pioneer of day trading.

Surefire Resources has developed a “breakthrough” metallurgical process which has yielded extraction rates of 91 per cent vanadium and 88 per cent titanium from its Victory Bore magnetite concentrate in WA's Midwest. The company says its provisionally patented technology alleviates the need for standard vanadium industry pre-treatment processing and will be incorporated into its developing Victory Bore operations where its economic, operational and environmental benefits will be evaluated.

Octava Minerals will pick up the Byro rare earths and lithium project in WA's Gascoyne after agreeing to purchase 100 per cent of the shares in private company Byro Mining. The conditional agreement will see Octava undertake due diligence on two exploration licenses at the project which has some tantalising historic exploration hits from drill cuttings peaking at 388ppm lithium oxide and 501ppm total rare earth oxides.