Michael Philipps

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears top ASX runner is … Kula Gold. Its share price rose 100 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers Tali Digital, Bioxyne and Venture Minerals.

Ora Banda Mining’s Sand King deposit near Kalgoorlie is firming as the preferred site for its second underground gold mine following significant high-grade results from its first-phase drill campaign. Assays from the first 17 holes sunk at the operation produced grades considered favourable for underground mining after drilling extended the mineralised system to 1km of strike and 300m below surface.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Strickland Metals has kicked off drilling at its Earaheedy and Yandal projects in WA’s Pilbara region with a rig already operating on-site to focus on the company’s large-scale Rabbit Well base metals prospect. Management says a 6000m reverse circulation drill program has been designed at Rabbit Well to map out the mineralisation and geology of the target in preparation for follow up diamond drilling.

Auric Mining has hit the ground running in 2024 with toll mining set to recommence at its Jeffreys Find gold mine near Norseman in Western Australia as soon as March following a successful finish to last year. The company produced more than 9740 ounces during two mining campaigns with joint venture (JV) partner BML Ventures in 2023, returning a total gold revenue of $29.28 million for the first stage of the two-year project.

Ora Banda Mining has increased gold production and the head grade from its Davyhurst plant in WA’s Goldfields region for the third consecutive quarter while lifting its gold sales by 15 per cent. According to its December quarterly report, the company produced 16,340 ounces at a head grade of 2.1 grams per tonne and sold 15,387 gold ounces from its Davyhurst operations for the three-month period. All-in sustaining costs reduced by 15 per cent compared to the previous quarter.