Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Gold Mountain has defined several new drill targets at its Down Under project in Brazil following the completion of extensive scout stream sediment sampling and 85 line kilometres of radiometric surveying. While 800 stream sediment samples have been collected to date, only 25 per cent of the results have been returned, with about 61 of them revealing strong potential for high-grade, monazite-hosted rare earths-niobium-uranium-scandium mineralisation.

Thunderbird Resources has confirmed it has settled on a drilling contractor as it prepares to launch into a new campaign next month at its Hidden Bay uranium project in northern Saskatchewan in Canada. The program at the operation that sits about 20km to the south-east of the prolific Rabbit Lake Mine, is expected to comprise five diamond drillholes for a total of about 2400m.

Mining technology business K2fly has delivered a 20 per cent boost to its annual recurring revenue, with new sales and contract renewals driving the key performance metric from $7.5 million in the fourth quarter of FY23 to $9 million in the fourth quarter of FY24. Cash receipts from customers of $4.6 million also jumped by 28 per cent during the same period.

Aurum Resources says it has obtained outstanding gold leach results exceeding 93 per cent recovery in recent metallurgical testwork on 50 samples from its Boundiali BDT1 target in Côte D’Ivoire, West Africa. Samples selected for 24-hour cyanide bottle-roll leach tests were drawn from diamond core at various stages of oxidation and across a range of gold grades expected in routine open pit mining.

In a significant move poised to bolster the immediate direction of its multi-mineral pursuits, White Cliff Minerals has secured well-known mining mogul John Hancock as a strategic advisor to its board. The company has engaged the son of Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart as it gears up for a substantial expansion of its project portfolio during the next year.

Triangle Energy’s hunt for onshore oil and gas at its Booth prospect in Western Australia’s North Perth Basin has stepped up a gear, with spudding of its Booth-1 well anticipated at the end of this month and drilling expected to begin in about 10 days. The company is targeting a vast 279 billion cubic feet resource at Booth.

Lycaon Resources has completed a crucial heritage survey for its multi-element Stansmore carbonatite project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region, marking a significant step towards drilling. The clearance relates to three priority drill targets at the company’s Stansmore, Volt and Ions targets where it is chasing niobium, rare earths and iron oxide copper-gold and it is now eyeing a drilling program later this year.

A surface rock chip sample revealing 137.7 grams per tonne gold and 10.6 per cent copper at Latitude 66's Peräpohja Schist Belt Project (PSB) project in northern Finland has provided management with a tantalising new glimpse into what treasures may lie beneath. The company says its latest results have affirmed multiple ice flow gold-copper mineralisation trends extending up to 2km.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some of the notable drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including Santana Minerals’ impressive 48m slice at 5.8g/t gold from 167.3m in New Zealand. We also take a close look at other interesting drill hits from last week as reported by Predictive Discovery, Venture Minerals and DevEx Resources.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … the ASX itself. The ASX 200 hit an all-time high of 8083.7 points, indicating to investors that there may just be green shoots and blue skies ahead. Small-cap companies that ran hard during a promising week included DGR Global, Labyrinth Resources, Miramar Resources and Stelar Metals.

Buxton Resources’ mission to deliver battery anode concentrate material from its Graphite Bull project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region has gained momentum after recent drilling hit multiple new zones of high-grade graphite. The company says substantial graphitic core zones are visible in the first hole from the new campaign as its confidence builds in relation to its chances of delivering significant resource growth.

GreenTech Metals has knocked off the first 1743m of a planned 2200m reverse-circulation drilling program to test the Austin, Shelby and Ayshia targets at its Whundo copper-zinc project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The first phase of the program was designed to test the company’s unexplored Austin and Shelby targets and for possible extensions of its Ayshia deposit – all associated with fixed-loop electromagnetic geophysical anomalies.

Quantum Graphite and its joint venture partner Sunlands Energy are a step closer to securing a US$300 million funding solution to fuel their quest aimed at feeding high-purity graphite into the American economy. The partnership has confirmed it has received a letter of interest regarding the significant financing commitment from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM).

White Cliff Minerals says it has now uncovered four visible iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) systems during the company’s initial field program at its promising Great Bear Lake project in northern Canada. One of the four hydrothermal system discoveries has been dubbed the “Cleaver” target and, according to management, it has a gossanous zone so extensive that it is identifiable via satellite.

Legend Mining has reignited its search for nickel and copper at the Octagonal prospect within Western Australia’s rugged Fraser Range, launching a new electromagnetic survey following a four-month bad weather delay. The company has confirmed the program at its Rockford project is now firmly back on track and will explore a strong conductive zone on the eastern flank of the prospect.

Aurumin has unmasked what it says is a “real” high-grade iron ore discovery with the potential for significant scale at its flagship Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company has confirmed high-grade rock chip assays up to 67 per cent iron in banded-iron formations within a discontinuous strike of about 6km at the site.

Latitude 66 has unveiled 20 new gold-copper targets at its Peräpohja Schist Belt (PSB) project in Finland as it ramps up efforts to prove the potential for a lookalike to its nearby flagship operation in the Scandinavian nation. Management says geophysical surveys, geological mapping and rock sampling at PSB suggests similarly significant mineralisation to its Kuusamo Schist Belt (KSB) play.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has extended a prospective gold strike at its Pinjin project in Western Australia to 21km after being granted a new 3.5-square-kilometre parcel of contiguous ground at the site that sits 140km north-east of Kalgoorlie. The ground is centred about 3.75km south along strike from the company’s Wessex target and about 8km north along strike from its Kirgella Gift and Providence gold prospects.

Terrain Minerals is poised to launch a multi-mineral exploration mission at two projects in Western Australia after bolstering its bank balance with a timely $1.045 million raise from sophisticated and professional investors. The raise, including $102,000 from executive director Justin Virgin, smashed its original $750,000 target out of the park as investors scrambled to be involved in the company’s upcoming exploration plans.

Buxton Resources has kicked off Aboriginal heritage surveys at its 100 per cent-owned greenfield Centurion prospect in Central Australia as it seeks clearance to fuel its aim to discover a significant iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposit at the site. The critical surveys are being carried out by members of the Parna Ngururrpa and Ngurra Kayanta traditional owner groups that hold the cultural authority over the land.

Altech Batteries says cells for its “Cerenergy” sodium chloride battery prototypes have shown “higher-than-expected” energy capacities during a testing program at several Fraunhofer IKTS facilities in Germany. The company has today confirmed it has completed the fabrication, assembly and initialisation of all 240 cells for the first prototype at its pilot plant and expects to mount the finished modules into a full “BatteryPack” next week.

ABx Group has polished off a 37-hole air-core drilling campaign that explored a previously-untested north-west area of its Deep Leads rare earths project sitting 45km west of Launceston in northern Tasmania. Previous success at ABx’s high-grade Deep Leads target has led it to interpret the area as prospective for rare earths and the latest drilling has yielded 316 samples that have been sent for analysis.

Meeka Metals has secured a greater-capacity ball mill than envisaged in its definitive feasibility study in May for its Murchison gold project in WA, paving the way for significantly enhanced economies of scale. The company says the $318,000 purchase reduces its DFS mill capex by 75 per cent, lifts processing capacity by 30 per cent to 640,000 tonnes per annum and increases ore processing options.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some of the notable drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including Encounter Resources’ 46m at 3.1 per cent niobium pentoxide from 60m to hole end at 106m. We also take a close look at other interesting drill hits from last week as reported by Future Battery Minerals, Riversgold and Spartan Resources.

With its phase one ponds at 60 per cent capacity, Galan Lithium says its stocks at the Hombre Muerto West project in Argentina have grown to 2800 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent. With the project’s construction stage reaching 40 per cent completion, the company has also today confirmed that is has moved closer to selecting potential offtake and funding partners for the operation.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Killi Resources. Its share price jumped 262.5 per cent on the back of several stunning rock-chip assays that returned grades of 238 grams per tonne gold and 5.4 per cent copper. Other movers and shakers this week were Augustus Minerals, Moab Minerals and Clara Resources.

Middle Island Resources has kicked off its first round of drilling for the year, with three deep diamond drillholes to test three iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) targets at its Barkly “super project” in the Northern Territory. The program entails three holes targeting depths between 600m and 650m, constituting the company’s maiden testing of the Wilma, Pebbles and Dino IOCG prospects within its Georgina project.

After pocketing $5 million in new money, Larvotto Resources is on the cusp of launching a 5250m exploration drilling program to infill and extend its Clarks Gully gold-antimony resource that sits just 4.7km north-west of its Hillgrove Mine in NSW. The measured and indicated Clarks Gully resource contains 266,000 tonnes at 3.8 per cent antimony and 2g/t gold, or 8.40g/t gold equivalent.

Strickland Metals has kicked its drilling program into overdrive by marching a second diamond drill rig into its Horse Well gold camp that is part of the company’s Yandal project, sitting about 85km north-east of Wiluna in Western Australia. A combined three rigs are now punching the drill bit into four prospective targets with the financial assistance of a State Government grant.

Ora Banda Mining has supercharged its gold production ambitions, setting a new target of 150,000 ounces in FY26 following the board’s final investment decision to push on and develop its new Sand King underground mine in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. The pivotal move cements Sand King as the company’s second underground operation at its Davyhurst gold project that lies 120km north-west of Kalgoorlie.

White Cliff Minerals has unearthed widespread visible iron oxide-copper-gold and uranium-silver mineralisation during the company’s initial field program at its promising Great Bear Lake project in northern Canada. The swag of targets discovered include outcropping copper-uranium-cobalt-silver mineralisation and several off-the-charts uranium readings from a handheld scintillometer. Management also revealed that a CAD$168,000 (AU$183,000) Canadian Government grant has been received to further exploration activities.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining is planning to kick off an air-core drilling program at its Pinjin project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields next month to follow up an April campaign that hit zones running up to 3.07g/t gold. The program will centre on the company’s Wessex target at the project that sits on the eastern flanks of the prospective Laverton Tectonic Zone, about 140km north-east of Kalgoorlie.