Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Lithium Universe has approved a final investment to progress its Bécancour lithium refinery in Canada and will now aim to secure US$549m (A$862m) in funding for the project, which has a net present value of US$718m (A$1.128b). The project is expected to generate EBITDA of US$148m from annual revenue of US$383m with a 3.9-year payback based on current price assumptions.

McLaren Minerals has launched an air core drilling campaign at the company’s flagship McLaren titanium sands project in Western Australia’s Eucla Basin. The program aims to refine resource estimates, expand high-grade titanium mineralisation and enhance confidence in the 280-million-tonne resource. A key priority will be to collect 5 tonnes of sample material for metallurgical testing at IHC Mining’s laboratory in Queensland.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has etched out an under-explored 13km corridor along strike at its freshly minted Lighthorse gold discovery and is fast-tracking drilling to test the full extent of its prospective gold system. The company set tongues wagging and its share price bolting earlier this month when it pulled up a clutch of impressive intercepts including 17m running at 4.81 g/t.

Javelin Minerals is about to launch a 2500-metre reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at its newly acquired Eureka gold project, 50km north of Kalgoorlie in WA. The company has a program of works submitted and an RC rig secured through a drill-for-equity deal with TopDrill. The program, to target high-grade lodes, is expected to begin in early March and will take about three weeks.

88 Energy has sealed a deal with US partner Burgundy Xploration, signing a two-phase farmout participation agreement for its Phoenix oil and gas project in Alaska. The Texas-based Burgundy will tip US$39m (A$61.3 million) into the kitty to fully fund future works programs, including drilling a horizontal well and production testing in return for a 75 per cent stake.

Larvotto Resources’ plans to run a dry tailings stacking process at its Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales have been approved by the NSW planning and infrastructure department. The company decided to move away from a conventional wet slurry tailings dam because the dry storage solution offered significant low-cost design and eco-friendly benefits given Hillgrove’s nature, scale and current infrastructure.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is… Caprice Resources. The company’s share price rocketed after unveiling gold results at its Island Gold project in the Murchison. EV Resources and its ultra-high-grade molybdenum in Peru surged thanks to China’s export bans, Scorpion acquired yet more Murchison hot property and Latitude 66 is returning to test its high-grade gold projects in Northern Finland.

Neometals has scored another tranche of funding to advance its vanadium recovery operation in Finland. EIT RawMaterials will throw in an additional €0.494m (A$818) in grant funding, following an earlier €0.5m investment late last year to increase its minority shareholding in a Scandinavian special purpose vehicle to 2.2 per cent.

BMG Resources is poised to ramp up drilling at its Abercromby gold project near Wiluna in Western Australia, with phase one results expected any day and phase two drilling scheduled to begin next month. With the first-round results from December’s 1076m diamond drilling campaign expected imminently, BMG is confident that visual observations suggest the project’s existing 518,000-ounce gold resource is set to grow.

King River Resources has revealed a set of eye-catching assay results up to 26 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from shallow drilling at its Kurundi gold project near Tennent Creek in the Northern Territory. The phase 2 drilling program at Kurundi consisted of 36 RC holes for 2,472m designed to look for new mineralised structures and extensions up to 1.5km from the main workings at Kurundi.

Suvo Strategic Minerals has locked away a game-changing five-year renewal of its key hydrous kaolin offtake agreement with Chaozhou Chengcheng Industrial Co, doubling sales to the Chinese industrial powerhouse. The take-or-pay agreement, valued at $6.56 million before delivery costs, has increased volumes from 4275t of the company’s hydrous kaolin in the previous three-year agreement to 8750t under the new deal.

Latitude 66 is gearing up for an innovative exploration initiative at its flagship Kuusamo Schist Belt gold-cobalt project in Finland, with plans to deploy reverse circulation drilling for the first time in the region. The company has locked in an agreement to trial the RC technique this March at its K6 prospects, which lie just 1km south of its existing 650,000-ounce gold and 5840t cobalt mineral resource.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining will fast-track a follow-up reverse circulation drilling program after earlier this week revealing the impressive Lighthorse gold discovery at its Pinjin project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. An RC rig will target deeper host rock after earlier air core drilling hit a rich supergene zone. The latest drilling is set to begin in early March.

Ora Banda Mining has uncovered a new gold discovery – along with another set of blockbuster results from deep drilling at its Riverina mine in Western Australia. The results will also extend the deposit’s mine life. The company’s depth extension drilling campaign has continued to intersect high-grade gold for more than 300m below its current mine plan, further extending the life of mine at the company’s ever-refining Davyhurst operation.

Amid a surge of investor interest in its flagship Malawi rare earths project, Lindian Resources is advancing its financing options with a new hire to work on an existing deal and recommend further solutions. Experienced finance advisor Henk Ludik will progress a non-binding agreement Lindian has in place with US-based Gerald Group, and identify, review and recommend more funding solutions.

Carnaby Resources hit shallow, high-grade copper of up to 4.9pc and gold grading as high as 2.8g/t from just 22m depth at its Burke and Wills prospect, part of the Greater Duchess JV with ASX-listed Latitude 66 in Queensland. All 10 drill holes intersected mineralisation, helping to define deposit geometry and test extensions. Latitude holds a 17.5pc free-carried interest in the project.

St George Mining has secured $8 million in backing from leading global mining engineering firm Shandong Xinhai Mining to fast-track the development at its high-grade Araxá niobium-rare earths project in Brazil. The company has formed a major strategic partnership with the engineering and construction services giant through an agreement that includes an engineering, procurement and construction contract over Araxá.

Lithium Universe has partnered with a research-focussed Canadian engineering school, Polytechnique Montreal, to drive innovation in lithium processing in the country and increase local expertise in battery metals to improve its supply chain. The initial five-year deal, outlined in a memorandum of understanding, will focus on three key areas: industry education, curriculum development and R&D collaboration.

Horizon Minerals has launched its second gold mine, kicking off ore processing at its Phillips Find project, 45km northwest of Coolgardie in WA. Mining at the Newminster and Newhaven pits is well underway, with more than 800,000m3 of material now shifted to the ROM pad. The first 40,000t have been trucked to FMR Investments' Greenfields mill, where processing will begin next week on a two-week turnaround.

Estrella Resources has received some stunning assay results from rock chip sampling from two in-situ supergene manganese discoveries at its Lautém project in Timor-Leste, with grades up to a striking 58.6 per cent manganese. Bulk determinations for detrital material accumulated on valley floors average a whopping 40.1pc manganese.

Askari Metals has pumped up its gold resource by 28pc to 82,700 ounces grading 1.2g/t at its Burracoppin project in the WA Wheatbelt, winning over market punters who pushed up the price earlier today by more than 100pc. Due to a booming gold price, the company says it has fielded significant enquiries for the project, which sits 20km east of Merredin.

Uranium American Resources is making a strategic pivot from its gold-silver focus in the US State of Nevada under its old Tonogold Resources shingle, with a rebrand reflecting the company’s greener uranium and vanadium focus. The company last year acquired three low-risk west-central US projects known for their historic uranium and vanadium production, which are also close to relevant mines and processing plants.

Red Metal’s latest infill drilling program has unearthed thick intersections of valuable magnet rare earths at the Kary zone within the company’s Sybella project, 20km from the Queensland mining town of Mount Isa. Multiple long intervals up to 162m thick containing the four magnet metals were encountered from surface or shallow depths from the infill drilling, with many holes ending in mineralisation.

Lithium Universe has inked a non-binding memorandum of understanding to exclusively supply a key cement additive to Canada’s biggest cement manufacturer, Lafarge Canada. Aluminosilicate is made up of silica, aluminium oxide and ferric oxide and will be a secondary byproduct from the lithium carbonate production circuit at Lithium Universe’s planned Bécancour refinery in Quebec.

This edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits examines some notable drill intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Tanami Gold’s Central Tanami project in the Northern Territory, which intersected 3.80m at 268.34g/t gold from 317m. James Bay Minerals’ Independence gold project in Nevada, Lode Resources’ Montezuma antimony project in Tasmania and Titan Minerals’ Dynasty gold-silver project in Ecuador also reported interesting drill hits.

Javelin Minerals has struck high-grade gold and copper in a maiden drilling program at its Coogee project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, 20km northeast of Kambalda, hitting grades of up to 65 grams per tonne gold and 8.5 per cent copper. The 2921m drilling program has extended the strike beyond one kilometre, expanding the resource northward and at depth.

The Supreme Court of Western Australia has given the much-anticipated $30 million scheme of arrangement between Kalgoorlie-based Horizon Minerals and Poseidon Nickel the final tick of approval. The deal paves the way for Horizon to pick up Poseidon's 422,000-tonne contained nickel resource and its mothballed Black Swan nickel processing plant 40km east of Kalgoorlie which the company says would cost $150 million to replace.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining’s share price rocketed today to touch 8.9c for a weekly gain of 456pc after a new gold discovery at the company’s Pinjin project, within WA’s renowned Laverton gold region. The new Lighthorse gold zone returned assays of 17m grading 4.81g/t from a depth of 48m and 4m at 4.72g/t from 52m.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is… Kalgoorlie Gold Mining. The company’s share price rocketed after a new discovery at its Pinjin gold project in WA. OzAurum Ltd found more gold at its Eastern goldfields WA project, AusQuest Ltd got another boost after confirming its Peruvian copper find and EQ Resources got a lift from China restricting exports on tungsten-related products.

Toro Energy has tweaked the planned pit design at its Lake Maitland uranium and vanadium project near Wiluna in Western Australia. After recently updating its resource, the company is pushing full steam ahead with plans to complete a scoping study update aimed at justifying the deposit as a standalone mining operation.

Lindian Resources has signed a milestone works contract for an access road and civil works at its Kangankunde rare earths project, saying the deal shows the strength of the Malawi-based project. The US$1.3m contract is the first to be awarded to advance the project and includes primary highway access, internal access and other site works.

Aurumin Ltd and potential joint-venture partner Newcam Minerals have kicked off drilling for iron ore at the Central Sandstone project in WA’s Mid West. The two companies sealed a deal last October providing Newcam with a six-month option on the iron ore rights at the site. The companies will jointly fund the costs of the drill program.