Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has completed a maiden reverse circulation drilling program to test its recent Lighthorse gold discovery at the company’s Pinjin project, 140km northeast of Kalgoorlie. KalGold drilled 16 holes along three 100m-spaced lines for 2446m to a maximum downhole depth of 222m. The laboratory assays are now being fast-tracked.

Canadian-listed Rio2 Limited has secured a US$25m prepayment from a US-based precious metals investment firm, Wheaton Precious Metals International, under a precious metals purchase agreement with Rio2’s Fenix Gold project in Chile’s Maricunga belt. Rio2 views the funding as a strong endorsement of its development strategy and a key milestone in its push to bring the mine into production by year’s end.

Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits examine some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX this week, including Axel REE’s 8m hit going 13,604ppm TREO from 55m at its Caladao project in Brazil. Other interesting intercepts were reported by Resouro Strategic Metals from its Tiros project in Brazil and Caspin Resources’ Bygoo tin project in NSW.

The latest drilling blitz at McLaren Minerals’ titanium project in WA’s Eucla Basin has revealed thick new intercepts of heavy mineral-rich sands coupled with an unexpected groundwater discovery and confirmation of an in-ground gypsum source. The campaign is focussed on infill drilling within a previously identified mineral sands strandline about 40km west of Balladonia. McLaren expects to wrap up the 6000m air core drill program by mid-April.

Larvotto Resources continues to pull in good results from the company’s high-grade Hillgrove gold antimony project in NSW, with big hits that included 0.6m at a stunning 183.5g/t gold equivalent from 493m. Four diamond rigs have now completed more than 8400 metres of drilling at its Bakers Creek and Eleanora-Garibaldi prospects, hinting at new rich mineralisation near existing underground infrastructure.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Tlou Energy. It says share sellers are gone, and the Botswana energy firm is back to business as usual. Renewable solutions group GreenHy2 announced a tech contract with a leading Euro supplier, Besra recouped some share price losses as it focussed on its substantial Bau gold project and Trek found glimmering visual gold in drilling core samples as the gold price cracked US$3000 an ounce.

Novo Resources is set to kick off a maiden air core drilling program before month’s end to test a promising part of the Sholl Shear in its Balla Balla gold project in WA’s West Pilbara region. The program will target structurally complex zones in and near the shear. The ancient fertile structure is one of four main fault and shear zones that make the region ripe for exploration.

Great Southern Mining has jagged high-grade gold with an eye-opening intercept of 1 metre grading 70.94 grams per tonne gold within a 5m section of 14.57g/t gold from 41m at its Duketon gold project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. The company's 3678-metre reverse circulation drilling campaign to test earlier identified shallow mineralisation kicked off in January and is now complete.

Neometals has unveiled the first assay results from its maiden reverse circulation drilling campaign at its Barrambie gold project in WA, breathing new life into an historic high-grade gold region that’s been dormant for decades. An initial 11-hole program was carried out at the company’s Ironclad and nearby Mystery North prospects, confirming gold mineralisation aligned with historical data, ahead of a planned mineral resource estimate later this year.

Management at Canadian-listed Rio2 Ltd has put the band back together to repeat its prior success at Peruvian gold mine, La Arena. Rio2 has a similar looking massive heap leach gold operation in Chile that is about to spring into production. Initially, its 4.8m-ounce Fenix gold mine is forecast to pump out 91,000 ounces of gold a year for the first 12 years at an uber-low cost of US$1250 per ounce.

Aurum Resources has scored another big hit from its Boundiali project in Côte d'Ivoire, intercepting 9m at 24.61g/t gold from 221m, including 4m at 54.64g/t from 222m. The 4m hit includes 1.3m going 156.61g/t gold. The discovery was made in one diamond hole put into the company’s BM Target 3. A second hole intercepted 2.68m assaying 10.94g/t gold from 45.7m, including 1.68m running 16.88g/t.

Thunderbird Resources has expanded its gold footprint in NSW, lodging an application for a strategic 118-square-kilometre expansion to its Kookabookra gold project immediately to the east. The company is doubling down on its gold presence in the state, suggesting that Kookabookra could host an intrusion-related gold system – similar to the kind of deposits that’s delivered multi-million-ounce gold hauls at places such as Fort Knox in Alaska and Kidston in Queensland.

Red Metal’s first scout diamond drill hole at its Bluebush silver-lead-zinc prospect in northwest Queensland has delivered 73m at 9g/t silver, including a 12m hit at 19g/t silver. The runs include base metal hits, with the 73m interval assaying 990ppm lead and 256ppm zinc from 301m and the 12m assaying 2446ppm lead and 780ppm zinc from 362m.

Strickland Metals has kicked off a ground gravity survey across its massive 7.5km intrusion-related gold system at the company’s 108,900-ounce Dusk ‘til Dawn gold camp, which is part of its wider Yandal project in WA. The gravity survey will allow for improved modelling of the intrusive gold system and help pinpoint upcoming drill testing.

Larvotto Resources has bought a homestead and wedding venue near its Hillgrove antimony-gold project in NSW to comfortably house and support a growing permanent workforce. Larvotto will pay $3m in cash plus $600,000 in shares for the 95-bed property. The company aims to start production at the mine in early 2026.

Lindian Resources has bolstered its leadership team with Robert Martin leaping into the hot seat as the new executive chairman and Teck Lim joining as CFO, as it drives its Malawi rare earths project forward.

Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits this week examines some notable intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Rox Resources’ hit in Western Australia of 6m at 19.08g/t gold from 220m, including 3m at 36.87g/t from 221m. Koba Resources also reported good results at its Yarramba uranium project in South Australia and Ausgold Limited struck gold at its Katanning gold project in WA’s Wheatbelt.

Junior explorers such as E79 Gold Mines, Caprice Resources and Thunderbird Resources have seen a significant spike in their share price when betting on a nearology play near a recent or historical discovery. E79’s share price surged from its February 6 close of 1.9c to hit a high of 5.4c on February 19 in the two weeks after a neighbour announced a greenfields gold discovery.

Image Resources has kicked off heavy mineral concentrate transport from the company’s new Atlas mineral sands mine in WA’s Mid West region, by trucking its first batch to Geraldton ready for shipping. Process commissioning at Atlas began early last month and is ahead of schedule, the company says. Throughput rates are up to 80 per cent of the design capacity and the plant is operating at 95 per cent of its capacity.

Altech Batteries has secured the necessary environmental and construction permit to build the company’s Cerenergy GridPack production facility in Saxony, Germany, and can now focus on locking in pr

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Wide Open Agriculture. Its share price ran on sales of its lupin protein to Europe, Latin America and Australia. South African helium producer Renergen announced maiden commercial sales of its liquid helium, Resolution Minerals acquired three antimony/gold projects on Australia’s east coast and Metal Powder debuted on the ASX on its metal powder process technology.

Metallurgical test work by Strickland Metals on the Palomino deposit at its Horse Well gold camp in Western Australia’s northeastern goldfields has notched up whopping gold recovery rates of up to 88.6 per cent. Using six composite rock samples from the deposit, the study found the gold mineralisation is highly amenable to the normal processing techniques of three-stage crushing, followed by gravity and cyanide leach processing.

Ora Banda Mining has again struck gold, with a stellar set of high-grade intercepts at its latest discovery, Little Gem, south of its Riverina gold camp, outside Kalgoorlie. The company is gushing over its latest results from a drilling program exhibiting thick, rich lodes of gold. The results have sparked an immediate 16-hole follow-up campaign to pepper a 4.7km gold trend emerging south of its flagship Riverina mine.

GreenTech Metals has jagged enticing visual intersections at its Whundo copper-zinc project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region from the first two diamond drill holes in a 4000m stage two program. The holes intersected thick zones of massive and semi-massive sulphides. The tantalising results from the company’s Shelby and Austin targets confirm down-plunge continuation of mineralised shoots at the project.

Strickland Metals has launched a 50,000-metre diamond drilling program, the biggest yet at its Rogozna gold and base metals project, in the giant Tethyan Metallogenic Belt in southern Serbia’s Raška district. The campaign aims to expand the existing combined 6.69-million-ounce gold equivalent resource at Rogozna and if possible, improve grades and iron-out grade variation and spatial distribution in its resource models.

Terrain Minerals is busy pursuing three gold projects, including two in WA’s Mid West region and a newish gold project in Queensland, along with gallium, rare earths and nickel-copper plays on the go in WA. It is currently planning new drilling campaigns for the three gold targets.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining is gearing up for an expanded air core drilling campaign to test for extensions to its recent Lighthorse gold discovery at the company’s Pinjin project in WA’s renowned Laverton gold region. The upcoming drill program will aim to stretch the impressive discovery’s footprint by nearly 2.5km, with drilling planned for up to 1.4km to the north and 1km to the south of the mineralised zone.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits examines some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Mithril Silver and Gold’s 4.95m intercept in Mexico assaying 20.5g/t gold and 1833g/t silver. Variscan Mines’ San Jose Mine in Spain and Redcastle Resources’ Queen Alexandra project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields also reported some interesting drill hits.

Latitude 66 Limited will this month launch a major 9000-metre air core drilling campaign at its fully owned Edjudina gold project, near to Kalgoorlie Gold Mining’s exciting new high-grade gold discovery. The program will target multiple gold anomalies identified through previous geochemical testing, geophysical surveys and historical drilling in WA’s Eastern Goldfields and aims to unlock the site's full potential.

Ora Banda Mining has bolstered its balance sheet by locking in a $50 million revolving credit facility with two Australian banks and hedging 100,000 ounces of gold via a put option at $4400 per ounce. The two-year funding agreement has supercharged the company’s war chest to more than $100m, including a $58m bank balance, and provides the company with the financial clout to achieve production of 150,000 ounces in WA next year.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Industrial Minerals. The company had no news this week, instead its share price ran up on speculation about its high-purity quartz projects and tariffs pricing. Base metals explorer Litchfield identified two big sulphide-bearing targets for drilling, fintech group InFocus announced a stablecoin deal with a Seychelles tech provider GBO and TG Metals acquired an advanced gold asset in WA.

Meeka Metals’ reverse circulation drilling west of its current Turnberry South stage one open pit design has nailed a string of gold runs with a best intercept of 21m at 5.13g/t gold, including 5m going 15.65g/t. The top intercept was obtained from 51m. With most other hits from less than 83m downhole, the new shallow high-grade zone will likely justify westward expansion of the pit design.