Michael Philipps

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runners of the Week is dominated by biotechs, with two showing big gains for punters. Line honours go to… Regeneus Ltd. Its share price surged 220 per cent after completing a merger deal with Cambium Medical Technologies. Regeneus joins fellow biotech Acrux Ltd and Perpetual Resources, both of which also kicked the ball out of the park this week.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

St George Mining says it is now one of the biggest landholders in Western Australia’s Ravensthorpe region after it was granted an additional two exploration licenses to increase the size of its Myuna Rocks project by 273sq km. The company has identified a slew of new lithium targets in a more than 50km prospective corridor along strike from Allkem’s Mt Cattlin mine.

Oil explorer 88 Energy has officially kicked off operations at its Hickory-1 well in Alaska, with bore preparations complete ahead of perforation and flow-testing, which is expected to be completed this month. Management says that data will provide the crucial first steps on the path to development for its greater Phoenix project that sits on the onshore oil section of Alaska’s north slope.