Andrew Duffy

Gold Mountain has found thorium anomalies – which may indicate high-grade rare earths – in four areas up to 250m wide within its Brazilian ground after tests with a new state-of-the-art hand-held spectrometer. The results from the Ronaldinho project area peaked at about 640 counts per second thorium. Management says the hits are similar to those from known rare earths grading more than 4 per cent TREO.

Estrella Resources’ hunt for manganese in Timor-Leste is heating up, with recent grab samples from riverbeds going as high as 58.4 per cent manganese at the company’s newly-coined Dasidara prospect. Management says geological reconnaissance across its 503.7 square kilometres of ground has defined mineralisation through 30km of strike length as proposals to kick off trenching and drilling are maturing.

Aurum Resources’ diamond drilling efforts at the company’s Boundiali gold project in West Africa’s northern Côte d'Ivoire have continued to deliver big gold hits – this time 74m grading 1g/t from 167m. The latest set of assays included a 1m high-grade chunk going 24.73g/t as Aurum chases shallow mineralisation at depth with three diamond rigs to support a maiden mineral resource estimate for later this year.

Buxton Resources is dialling in on geophysical anomalies it believes may be iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) ore deposits as it prepares for fieldwork at its 100 per cent-owned Centurion project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region. Neighbouring tenements have thrown up significant rare earths enrichment, including niobium, at WA1 Resources’ Luni and Pachpadra carbonatite discoveries – and they have no shortage of head-turning assays.

Si6 Metals has expanded its Brazilian footprint, snatching 300 square kilometres of new ground prospective for rare earths in the State of Minas Gerais. The newly-acquired turf, dubbed the Pimenta project, sits in the north-east of the State and has thrown up some head-turning radiometric anomalies over 26km of untested strike. It adds further ground to the Brazilian JV it shares with Foxfire Metals.

ChemX Materials says it is on the cusp of producing high-purity alumina at scale using its patented “HiPurA” processing technology at its 24-tonne per year pilot plant south of Perth in WA. The company has already achieved 1kg per day production at 99.99 per cent purity at microplant scale and is planning to boost that number to a daily 100kg in pilot – a 100-fold increase.

Battery materials recycler Neometals has earned a promotion from the United States’ over-the-counter “Pink Sheets” market to now be eligible to trade on the top tier – the OTCQX Market Group’s “Best Market”. It means US investors can now get behind the West Perth-based company with more confidence as the Best Market qualification is underpinned by strict financial criteria regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Lithium Universe is positioning itself to fill what it believes will be a 700,000-tonne per year lithium carbonate gap in the mammoth North American electric vehicle market by establishing its own refinery in Canada. With experts and analysts all around the world predicting a vibrant third wave for the lithium market, the company’s plan is to sit at the centre of the cyclone.

Resource definition drilling is underway at Everest Metals Corporation’s Mt Edon critical mineral project in WA’s Mid West region in a bid to firm up the existing rubidium exploration target to mineral resource status. The target is between 3.2 and 4.5 million tonnes with a grade of 0.23 to 0.35 per cent rubidium – numbers the company hopes to swell in its looming maiden mineral resource estimate.

88 Energy has earmarked the middle of this year to begin shooting a 200-line-kilometre 2D seismic survey over 10 prospective oil and gas closures picked up by airborne gravity data in Namibia’s Owambo Basin. Management says the closures are also supported in part by existing 2D seismic data, in addition to soil gas sampling that validates the existence of a hydrocarbon-producing source rock.

Aurum Resources has revealed a glimmering suite of wide gold hits from a recent diamond drilling campaign at its Boundiali project in West Africa’s Côte d'Ivoire – peaking at 90m going 1.16g/t from 143m. The new assay collection also includes 59m at 1.42g/t gold from 68m with 13m at 3.92g/t and 23m at 1.36g/t from 293m featuring a 5m chunk going a solid 3.32g/t.

Gold Mountain has run the rule over its Wabag project in Papua New Guinea, with a data overhaul uncovering the core of at least three porphyry systems that may host substantial copper-gold deposits. The company says the review suggests there may be multiple centres of porphyry-style mineralisation through 7km of strike in an arc parallel to the direction of its main copper anomalies.

Askari Metals’ latest auger drilling campaign has revealed encouraging total rare earth oxides hits as high as 4505ppm at its 100 per cent-owned Red Peak project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region. It comes just a week after its neighbour Krakatoa Resources set the ASX alight with a 130 per cent share price jump after it discovered a new niobium-rare earths target.

Phase one drilling at Chariot Corporation’s Black Mountain hard rock lithium project in Wyoming has wrapped up, with all holes hitting highly-fractionated pegmatites and high grades expected to soon emerge. Buoyed by the fractionated nature of the drill intercepts, the company is prepping the drill bit for phase two efforts to follow grades as high as 1.12 per cent lithium oxide from the first three holes.

Meeka Metals says a $180,000 WA Government grant is a glowing endorsement for its 100 per cent-owned “kilometre-scale”, gold-rich Circle Valley project near Esperance in Western Australia’s deep south. Previous drilling at the project has thrown up impressive gold drill hits as high as 16m at 1.5g/t drilling is scheduled to begin in the second half of this year.

Si6 Metals will assume a more commanding role in its Brazilian critical minerals joint venture with Foxfire Metals after lifting its stake in the partnership to a 70 per cent interest in any future licences – up from its 50 per cent share in the existing 10 licences. It signifies Si6’s commitment to its already massive Brazilian ground-holding, which is prospective for rare earths and lithium.

Novo Resources will kick off 4km of RC drilling next week to follow up on high-grade gold hits reaching up to 6m at 6.12g/t at its Nunyerry North prospect, about 150km south-west of Port Hedland in Western Australia. Results from the company’s maiden drill program turned heads, with other intercepts running as high as 11m at 2.52g/t from 22m including a 6m chunk at 4.19g/t.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Osteopore. Its share price hiked up more than 478 per cent to join mining movers and shakers Base Resources, Orion Minerals and Rincon Resources.

Image Resources has revealed a compelling prefeasibility study for its 100 per cent-owned Yandanooka mineral sands project north of Perth in Western Australia, showing an annual EBITDA of $277 million for more than eight years and a capital payback of just 15 months. The project is modelled to produce 1.04 million tonnes of heavy mineral concentrate during its 8.2-year mine life.

Perth-based explorer Estrella Resources has uncovered another manganese prospect in Timor-Leste, with pXRF grades from float going as high as 27.9 per cent manganese. The company’s new Sauro prospect sits just 12km south-east of its Lalena prospect that just last week threw up pXRF results from grab samples going up to 57.2 per cent and 48.1 per cent manganese.

Si6 Metals has detailed plans to kick off its third drilling program in Brazil’s renowned “Lithium Valley”, with 20 auger holes to be plunged as the company homes in on lithium and rare earths soil anomalies going as high as 103ppm lithium and 710ppm TREO in the Padre Paraiso prospect area. The area has proven to be highly-prospective for lithium and rare earths.

Triangle Energy will be hunting a 279Bcf resource in ground south-east of Geraldton in WA’s Mid West when it launches drilling for oil and gas at its Booth prospect in the onshore Perth Basin in late June. The Booth-1 well is expected to cost less than $1.5 million and will be followed by the Becos-1 well as the search for hydrocarbons intensifies in the region.

Strickland Metals has entered the lucrative Serbian gold game after acquiring the Rogozna project that already boasts a whopping resource of 5.44 million JORC-compliant ounces of gold equivalent. The company says advanced exploration targets at Rogozna offer near-term growth, with diamond drilling outside of the existing resource going as high as a staggering 352m at 2.1 grams per tonne gold equivalent from 240m.

Empire Energy will pay down its US debt to Macquarie and put a bit over A$3m in the tin to chase gas in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo basin after offloading its US oil and gas assets for about A$14 million. The company is poised to take on the Australian east coast gas supply dilemma with its Beetaloo ground modelled to generate a project net present value for phase two of $2.5 billion and $14.5 billion for phase three.

ABx Group’s ambition to produce aluminium fluoride for the aluminium smelting industry have been given a shot in the arm with new testing showing 88 per cent fluorine recovery from aluminium smelter waste – the best result to date from its bath pilot batch reactor in New South Wales. The company says learnings from the latest round of testing will be incorporated into the design of its upcoming continuous pilot plant.

DiscovEx Resources will takeover a private company that has racked up a 650,000 ounce gold resource in Finland in addition to Europe’s second largest undeveloped cobalt resource. It also has some stellar exploration hits including a 22m intersection grading 98 g/t gold. The Finnish turf is currently owned by Australian company Latitude 66 Cobalt, which the DiscovEx board proposes to acquire by way of an off- market takeover.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears top ASX runner is… Resource Mining Corporation. Its share price rose more than 213 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers LBT Innovations, Task Group Holdings and Arafura Rare Earths.

Toro Energy says it has expanded its uranium and vanadium resources at its Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede deposits near Wiluna by lowering the cut-off grade and creating new pit designs in light of the commodity’s booming global prices. The company says it is now using a 100ppm cut-off grade to bring it in line with its peers and to allow the expansion of resource envelopes.

Javelin Minerals has revealed two significant board moves, adding well-known corporate finance executive Brett Mitchell and experienced geologist Pedro Kastellorizos as it prepares for more drilling in New South Wales. The company says Mitchell, who has more than 25 years of experience in the equity and venture capital markets, will take the reins as executive chairman. Kastellorizos will be a non-executive director.

Valor Resources is set to kick off its hunt for uranium in Canada’s world-renowned Athabasca Basin using an airborne electromagnetic survey – a proven technique in identifying nearby deposits of the silvery-grey metal. Results from the survey at the Cluff Lake project are expected in the second half of this year and will guide a drilling program planned to begin in the September quarter.

Aurum Resources has uncovered high-grade gold in a diamond drilling program at its Boundiali project in in Côte d’Ivoire, with assays showing a headline 4m interval grading an eye-catching 22.35g/t from 226m. But the standout intersection was not sitting solo, with other results including 5m at 4.73g/t from 53.5m including 1.1m grading a healthy 20.35g/t and 16.64m at 1.45g/t from 56.26m including 10.4m going 2.11g/t.

88 Energy is poised to start flow-testing two reservoir zones in its Hickory-1 well in Alaska as it takes aim at upgrading its prospective resources to the higher-confidence contingent category. The company says both zones showed strong hydrocarbon indicators during drilling and have a combined gross, unrisked best technical prospective resource estimate of 358 million stock tank barrels of oil.