James Pearson

In a masterclass of timing, Octava Minerals will start a 3000m drill program next week at its Yallalong antimony project, 220km from Geraldton, WA, just as the metal price hits an all-time high of $30,000/t. The campaign will initially target the Discovery and Central zones which have already secured heritage clearance, while the company also completes a geophysical survey.

In a well-timed deal, US-listed Uranium American Resources is set to snap up three U.S. uranium projects with existing resources for US$8.5m in cash and scrip, providing a potentially quick pathway to production. With demand for uranium as a clean energy source increasing and the price trading around US$85 a pound, Uranium American’s pivot looks to be well timed.

Strickland Metals has nailed a third new gold and base metals discovery in four years after unearthing a new discovery from wildcat drilling at its Kotlovi prospect, just 350m west of the Medanovac deposit at the company’s Rogozna project in Serbia. The best number of the new batch of wildcat drilling results is 40m at 2.6 g/t gold from 558m.

Great Southern Mining and Gold Fields Ltd have found a huge, 2km-wide induced polarisation target, potentially a big porphyry gold-copper system, lurking at their Edinburgh Park project in Queensland. The buried structural geological feature is coincident with a grab bag of other exciting geological indicators including positive soil samples, rock chips going over 10 g/t gold and sulphides outcropping at surface.

Surefire Resources has kicked off a new, two-phase drill campaign, starting at its Yidby gold prospect in WA’s mid-west region, followed by a maiden drill program at the company’s nearby Phat Boy copper project. The 2500m, 12-hole reverse circulation program will test nine newly identified targets recently revealed after a review old geophysical data, along with structural interpretations from available diamond-core and drill-chip relogging.

Aguia Resources will lease, rather than build, a 100,000tpa phosphate processing plant in Southern Brazil, fast-tracking expected production to mid-2025 and sidestepping a multi-million-dollar capex bill. With an up-front cost of A$1.3 million, the 10-year lease will incur a A$43,000 monthly rental, equating to just A$5.13 a tonne.

Triangle Energy Global has locked in Silver City Drilling’s Rig 24 for a March spud of its Becos-1 wildcat well in West Australia’s Perth Basin targeting up to 21 million barrels of oil. The well will reach its main targets, at a depth of between 700- 800m with a chance to hit an additional reservoir on its way to an eventual depth of 1140m.

Strickland Metals has launched phase two metallurgical testing to test metal recoveries before locking down processing flowsheets from its Shanac deposit, part of the company’s Rogozna gold and base metals project in Serbia, after bulk samples arrived at ALS Laboratory in Perth. The 400kg sample, made up of core from Shanac is now under the supervision of Macromet, a specialist mineral processing consultant.

Octava Minerals is preparing to kick off a gravity and seismic program ahead of a drilling campaign at its Yallalong project 220km northeast of Geraldton in Western Australia in the hunt for antimony. Following earlier mapping and rock-chip sampling, the company will conduct detailed geophysical surveys aimed at identifying shear zones and rock boundaries, key indicators for unearthing mineralised fluid pathways.

88 Energy has wrapped up a successful 2D seismic program across its petroleum exploration licence in Namibia’s Owambo Basin with initial analysis picking up significant subsurface structures. The company will soon begin crunching the processed data in collaboration with joint venture partner Monitor Exploration and look to produce an independent prospective resource estimate by April next year.

It feels like Groundhog Day after Strickland Metals served up yet another massive drill hit from its Serbian copper-gold Medenovac prospect within the company’s Rogozna project. The latest drill campaign has thrown up a significant 223m intersection grading 1.7g/t gold equivalent from 179m including 43m at 4.6 g/t gold equivalent from 357m. The mineralisation now strikes for 150m.

Meeka Metals' Murchison gold project, 50km north of Meekatharra, is ahead of schedule with its 136-man camp and haul road nearing completion, targeting a mid-2025 first gold pour. And with 88 of the 136 accommodation rooms now fully commissioned, Meeka has importantly, created the opportunity to save some valuable time by ensuring space for the expanding workforce on-site.

Led by a refreshed management team including the return of prodigal son and founder, managing director Jeromy Young, video technology innovator Atomos has posted a remarkable 72.5 per cent year on year improvement in gross profit margin. The company has also confirmed a six per cent lift in sales growth over the previous corresponding period driven by strong uptake of its revamped Ninja and Shinobi II core products.

An airborne survey flown by White Cliff Minerals has uncovered multiple big copper targets at its Hulk prospect, part of the company’s Rae copper project in Canada’s Nunavut Territory. The three conductors align with a recent rock chip assay picked up as part of a maiden survey, which came in at 1.65 per cent copper.

Aguia Resources has finally won a longstanding court battle, clearing the path to first production in 2025 at its Três Estradas phosphate project in southern Brazil. A lawsuit filed in 2021 by the Federal Public Prosecutors Office with the support of local ranchers sought to block a processing license that had been granted to the Aguia in 2019, following environmental approval.

Image Resources has locked in a US$20 million offtake pre-payment from Shantou Natfort Zirconium and Titanium Co, its key Chinese heavy minerals concentrate partner. The deal will provide funding to support the construction of the company’s 100%-owned Atlas mineral sands project, 170 kilometres north of Perth. Drawdown should occur in two tranches of US$10 million each in November and January.

Buxton Resources has nailed a record 124m drill hit at 16.6 per cent total graphitic carbon at its Graphite Bull project, 300km east of Carnarvon, WA. The hole, drilled as part of a 29-hole reverse circulation program, intersected the monster hit at a depth of just 44m and has extended the strike of Graphite Bull by an extra 240m outside the existing resource.

Strickland Metals has punched out more good hits at its Horse Well gold project near Wiluna in Western Australia. The latest assays have increased the strike length by 260m to more than 1.6km at the Marwari prospect while at the Bronco prospect, two new high-grade zones have been unearthed.

Larvotto Resources has kicked off a major diamond drilling program at its 100 per cent-owned Hillgrove gold-antimony project in New South Wales in a bid to expand the known mineral resource. The company is looking to target “near mine” areas and is hoping to follow up on a stella prior drill hit of 31m grading a whopping 65 g/t gold.

ASX-listed Radiopharm Theranostics has partnered with US-based BAMF Health for a phase 2b trial in the US to test its “F18-RAD 101 radiotracer”. The innovative treatment targets the fatty acid synthetase, which is a protein over-expressed in brain tumours but absent in healthy cells. It uses a molecule combined with the F18 isotope to enhance tumour detection and treatment precision.

A magnetic survey by Carnaby Resources has found a major conductor at the San Quentin prospect beneath outcrops of up to 6.7 per cent copper at its Greater Duchess JV with Latitude 66 in Queensland. The prospect is near the 4.2 million tonne Nil Desperandum deposit and and boast some 800m of outcropping copper mineralisation that is yet to be drilled.

Red Metal Ltd says its giant 4.8 billion-tonne rare earths deposit at its Sybella project near Mt Isa in QLD is a globally significant discovery. In revealing its maiden inferred mineral resource estimate, the company also pointed to a shallow section of the deposit at surface that is weathered granite and therefore potentially amenable to low-cost heap-leach processing.

Image Resources has targeted a mid-2025 start to heavy mineral concentrate production at its Atlas project, 170km north of Perth, after securing essential water licences to accelerate construction. The milestone has now offered a clear timeline for renewed cash flows - expected to be $62m pre-tax over two years - almost two years after shutting down the successful Boonanarring project, located 100km south of Atlas.

In a stunning business turnaround, Ora Banda Mining has set a quarterly production record, delivering 24,327 ounces of gold at a grade of 3.4 grams per tonne from its Davyhurst project in Western Australia’s renowned Goldfields region. The company’s cash reserves jumped 81 per cent to $48.7 million, while its share price surged 15 per cent to a 77c high today on strong trading volume.

Latitude 66 says it has unearthed high-grade gold and copper mineralisation at its Visna and Petaja prospects in northern Finland and has also worked up multiple new exploration targets before wrapping up a successful summer fieldwork program at its Peräpohja Schist Belt (PSB) project. The company is now planning further mapping at Visna before the exploration season closes down for winter.

Estrella Resources has jagged what the company says is its biggest-ever manganese outcrop in Timor-Leste – a massive supergene zone discovered 500m south of its Samalari prospect during ongoing mapping efforts. The recent find is particularly important due to the sheer scale of the manganese-iron oxides-rich outcrop that has been traced across a 1.7km strike and ranges between 2m and 6m in width.

ASX-listed Radiopharm Theranostics has joined forces with a renowned global radiopharmaceutical manufacturer to produce its cancer-fighting treatment that targets commonly over-expressed protein in human tumours. The company’s agreement with Canadian-based AtomVie Global Radiopharma has been cemented via Radiopharm Ventures – a joint venture it shares with the highly-regarded MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Texas in the United States.

With the antimony market booming and setting the share market alight, Bulls N' Bears has gone looking for the next critical metal shouting out for attention from new technologies – and it could be tungsten. Driven by demand in the industrial, renewables and defence sectors – and a shrinking supply – the alloy-hardening metal could soon join the chorus of critical minerals that are making all the noise.

Aurum Resources is on the cusp of becoming a bigger shark in the West African gold pond after circling fellow ASX-listed Mako Gold with an all-scrip bid at a whopping 112 per cent above the market price. Mako’s share price surged nearly 80 per cent on the back of the news that would create a major African gold explorer with cash reserves of AU$20 million.

Legend Mining is priming the drill bit for the Magnus prospect within at its Rockford project in WA after picking up four highly-conductive plates using its advanced high-powered fixed-loop electromagnetic survey. The most significant plate, with conductance measuring up to 5000 siemens, sits at the edge of a gravity anomaly and 550m below the deepest drilling to date, hinting at an undetected, but mineral-rich target.

Carnaby Resources has identified its undrilled San Quentin prospect as a new copper target, with rock-chip grades going up to 6.7 per cent at the Greater Duchess project it shares with Latitude 66 in Queensland. Sitting 2km to the south-east of the JV’s Nil Desperandum copper discovery near Mount Isa, management says San Quentin is showing 800m of outcropping mineralisation.

On a massive turnover of more than 105 million shares, White Cliff Minerals' stock surged more than eight per cent today after the company revealed multiple copper rock-chip samples grading more than 50 per cent from its Rae project in Canada’s Nunavut territory. The maiden field program confirmed large-scale, high-grade copper occurrences at both the company’s Rocket and Thor prospects.