Michael Philipps

Buxton Resources has nailed a massive 405.38m intercept at 0.7 per copper equivalent from 608.38m during its maiden drill program testing porphyry mineralisation at its Copper Wolf project in Arizona. The impressive intersection sits below a previous drillhole that returned 83.76m grading 0.9 per cent copper equivalent from 527.91m, which the company says results in an aggregate section of about 485.85m going 0.73 per cent.

Infinity Mining rock-chip sampling has extended the pegmatite strike length of its recently-renamed Woody prospect in WA’s Pilbara region from 1.5km up to 5.7km, with a peak result of 2.9 per cent lithium oxide. The company collected 98 samples from the site, with 12 assays showing results above 1 per cent lithium oxide from outcropping pegmatites and 30 displaying visible spodumene or lepidolite.

American West Metals has pumped up the mineral resource at its West Desert project in Utah with nearly 24 million ounces of indium and 119,000 gold ounces and says it has the only indium deposit in the United States. The updated JORC resource adds to the existing 1.3 million tonnes of zinc, 49,000 tonnes of copper and 10 million ounces of silver at the project.

ChemX Materials has shifted its focus from its micro-plant operation to the design and delivery of the company’s high-purity alumina pilot plant after achieving 99.996 purity using its “HiPurA” process. It is now on track for first commissioning in next year’s first quarter and with the purity capability consolidated within the design, the next stage of development is the procurement of longer lead items.

Quantum Graphite has outlined an internal rate of return of almost 50 per cent and a net present value of more than $497 million following a financial update of its Uley 2 graphite project in South Australia. The independent assessment identified that doubling the mill throughput up to 1.2 million tonnes a year would lift production up to 100,000 dry metric tonnes of flake graphite.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears profiled ASX runner is … Compumedics. Its shares more than doubled this week to join fellow movers and shakers in Alterity Therapeutics, Lanthanein Resources and Global Oil & Gas.

Xanadu Mines has tabled a staggering resource estimate upgrade for its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia, jumping to 1.3 billion tonnes with 3.4 million tonnes of contained copper and 8.5 million gold ounces. The updated estimate represents a 12 per cent increase in tonnes, a 15 per cent surge in contained copper and a 9 per cent jump in contained gold.

Galan Lithium is on schedule for initial production at its Hombre Muerto West lithium project in Argentina by the first half of 2025, with construction of its first evaporation pond now 65 per cent complete. Pond liners have arrived on-site and installation is set to begin this month, ahead of filling the pools in next year’s first quarter.

Surefire Resources has unveiled a pre-tax net present value of $1.7 billion for its Victory Bore vanadium project in WA’s Mid West region following the release of a prefeasibility study into the operation. The company is predicting a 42.2 per cent pre-tax internal rate of return, a mine life of 24 years with a payback of 2.4 years and a capital cost of $767 million.

Estrella Resources has secured a prized position in what is emerging as a new mineral frontier after the Timor-Leste Government granted the company three highly-prospective new mining concessions. The acquisition of the concessions gives the company access to an area of 121.5 square kilometres in a region known to host more than 200 mineral occurrences including gold, copper, manganese, silver and chromite.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears profiled ASX runner is… Plenti Group. Its shares more than doubled this week to join fellow runners Intelicare, Euro Manganese and LBT Innovations.

Lindian Resources is assessing a low-cost trial mining campaign planned for early next year at its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, while a process plant tender package is also being finalised. Mined material will be stockpiled, with the results of the trial set to be used to assess drill and blast fragmentation requirements, in addition to material handling productivity.

The first $4.7 million chapter has been written in Auric Mining’s remarkable money story at its humble Jeffreys Find gold mine near Norseman in Western Australia that many others would have ignored. Auric has produced more than 9700 ounces during two mining campaigns with joint venture partner BML Ventures, returning a total gold revenue of $29.28 million for the first stage of the two-year project.

Galan Lithium says it has received several partnership approaches for offtake and strategic financing for the second-phase development of its Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project in Argentina. The interest follows a phase-one offtake and financing agreement with mining giant Glencore, with management saying the volume of direct enquiries highlights the strength of the long-term lithium market.

White Cliff Minerals believes its Lake Johnston South project is highly-prospective for spodumene-bearing pegmatites following a review into the operation west of Norseman in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. Lake Johnston South consists of 13 exploration licenses totalling 1874 square kilometres adjacent to and along strike from recent large-scale discoveries of spodumene-bearing pegmatites by Charger Metals and TG Metals.

Ora Banda Mining has added significant momentum to its drive towards producing 100,000 ounces of gold annually by 2025 after intersecting the first ore from its Riverina underground’s Main Lode, some four weeks ahead of schedule. The company expects to mine a lode grade of 10g/t gold at Riverina as part of its “Drive to 100” campaign.

Aurum Resources is set to take its gold search to a new continent after signing a binding agreement to acquire PlusOr Global, which holds the rights to earn into the Boundiali gold project in Côte d’Ivoire. The project on the southern coast of West Africa covers two contiguous granted exploration permits within Côte d’Ivoire's prospective Boundiali greenstone belt.

Quantum Graphite believes more than doubling its mill throughput up to 1.2 million tonnes a year at its Uley 2 project in South Australia will lead to improved economics, following an independent assessment. The study by Lycopodium Minerals also looks into increasing production at the operation from 55,000 dry metric tonnes of flake graphite up to a maximum of 100,000 dry metric tonnes.

American West Metals has confirmed outstanding grades of 38.2 per cent copper and 30.87 per cent zinc from geochemical sampling at the Tempest prospect that forms part of its greater Storm project in Canada. The results came from surface gossan rocks at the underexplored site, which have been mapped for more than 4km and are about 40km south of copper targets drilled earlier this year.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears profiled ASX runner is… Chariot Corporation. Its shares doubled this week to join movers including Pure Resources, Sunshine Metals and Roots Sustainable Agricultural Technologies.

ASX-listed Gold Mountain has identified a series of lithium anomalies from stream-sediment sampling at its Logradouro project in Brazil, where the company has mapped 250 pegmatites across its two-tenement site. Management says the sampling results indicate the presence of lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatites within the operation, with soil sampling set to follow up on selected anomalies to define drill targets.

Gold Mountain is aiming to more than double the size of its Green River copper-gold project in Papua New Guinea after lodging an application for a 552sq-km tenement adjacent to a previous 501sq-km application. Management says high-grade copper-gold and lead-zinc rock-chip samples have been found in the tenements by previous explorers, with target areas for follow-up exploration already identified.

Aruma Resources says it has uncovered the presence of a high-grade gold-bearing structure in the latest phase of drilling at the company’s Salmon Gums project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields region. Assay highlights returned a 5.9m intercept grading 10.5 grams per tonne gold from 38.4m, including 2.6m going 9.85g/t gold from 38.4m and 0.85m at an impressive 40.9g/t gold from 43.4m.

ChemX Materials has received more than $900,000 through a research and development tax incentive rebate payment for developing its high-purity manganese and alumina projects during the past financial year. Administered by AusIndustry and the Australian Tax Office, the rebate is available for companies investing in research and development programs aimed at sustainably producing critical minerals for the future.

Chimeric Therapeutics expects a phase-1B clinical trial into its “natural killer” cell therapy for newly-diagnosed patients with acute myeloid leukemia to be open for new enrolments before the end of the year. The study, which has received investigational new drug clearance from the USFDA, is designed to enrol up to 20 patients who are not eligible for intensive chemotherapy or allogeneic stem cell transplant.

ABx Group has pumped its mineral resource estimate up to 52 million tonnes at 817 parts per million TREO after management completed a block model for its Deep Leads-Rubble Mound rare earths deposit in Tasmania. The company says the resource model is based on data from 407 drill holes across the resource area and covers 39 per cent of the identified mineralised outline.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears profiled ASX runner is… Kula Gold. Its share price jumped more than 184 per cent to join other impressive companies including MetalsTech, Firebrick Pharma and Cooper Metals.

After completing a massive infill and extension campaign at its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia, Xanadu Mines has shifted its focus to new discoveries outside the site’s current mineral resource. The company is now operating three diamond drill rigs at Kharmagtai, with four deep holes planned to target mineralisation below its biggest deposit identified to date at White Hill.

Galan Lithium has secured a binding offtake agreement with mining giant Glencore for the supply of up to 100 per cent of lithium products from phase-one production at its Hombre Muerto West project in Argentina. As a sweetener to the deal, Glencore has offered to provide a secured financing prepayment facility for US$70 million (AU$107 million) up to US$100 million (AU$154 million), subject to conditions.

Infinity Lithium has taken another step forward with its proposed San José lithium project in Spain after the Cáceres Local Government deemed the operation compatible with local urban legislative requirements. The project, near Cáceres in the Extremadura region, boasts one of Europe's leading JORC-compliant hard-rock lithium deposits, with a total indicated and inferred resource base of 111 million tonnes at 0.61 per cent lithium oxide.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears profiled ASX runner is … Imugene. Its share price jumped more than 212 per cent to join other impressive companies including Krakatoa Resources, TechGen Metals and GreenTech Metals.

Estrella Resources has confirmed the presence of a slew of multiple stacked, fractionating pegmatites during field work at its Carr Boyd project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. The company says the outcropping pegmatites can be traced for a few hundred metres before going beneath the cover again and a follow-up works program of mapping and sampling is already underway.