Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

American West Metals has vowed to uncover new zones of copper mineralisation at its Storm project on Canada’s Somerset Island after kicking off this year’s exploration and resource definition drilling program. The initial RC campaign will also further explore the resource potential at the company’s Thunder prospect where last year’s drilling jagged a 48.6m copper intercept going 3 per cent copper.

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.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears top ASX runner is … Dalaroo Metals. Its share price rose more than 182 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers Nimy Resources, Adherium and Firebrick Pharma.

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.

A second drill rig has rolled onto Strickland Metals’ Yandal project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields region to target high-grade gold intercepts from last year’s reconnaissance drilling program that pulled up 39m averaging 6.1g/t, including a 7m core running at 22.2g/t of the precious yellow metal. It is back to business for Strickland after it yesterday confirmed the acquisition of a giant Serbian gold project.

Empire Energy Group says it has received binding commitments to raise a hulking $46.8 million from new and existing institutional shareholders, including two United States-based oil and gas heavyweights. The company will be extremely well-funded after the raise and will use its new “cash stash” to drill a 3km-long development well at its Carpentaria pilot project in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Sub-basin.

Meeka Metals has unveiled a 60 per cent boost for its St Anne’s gold resource in Western Australia’s Mid West region, increasing to 40,000 ounces at more than 3 grams per tonne. The resource forms part of the company’s 1.23 million-ounce Murchison gold project that sits in the area bearing the same name, about 650km north of Perth.

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.

Thunderbird Resources has assembled a surprising array of interesting-looking uranium and lithium targets in some of the hottest mineral territories in the world, including Canada’s Athabasca uranium basin. The Athabasca basin is remarkable for its average uranium grades of about 2 per cent and its massive-scale deposits – and Thunderbird appears to have picked the eyes out of it.

Gold Mountain has revealed encouraging anomalous lithium results from a stream sediment sampling program carried out at its Campo Formoso project in Brazil. The company says six strongly and nine moderately anomalous samples were returned from an area overlying a granite body considered to be of similar age and setting to the prospective Jaguar pegmatite to the north.

Everest Metals Corporation has identified 10 big uranium and base metal geophysical anomalies within its 100 per cent-owned Georgina and Amadeus projects centred on Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Management has moved swiftly since securing its Top End exploration package last year and has engaged a speciality geophysical company to model and interpret existing geophysical data over the Georgina and Amadeus operations.

Askari Metals has tabled a maiden resource of 1.32 million tonnes running at 1.52 grams per tonne gold at its flagship Burracoppin project in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region, some 20km to the east of Merredin. The defined resource includes mineralised zones across multiple deposits and Askari notes that there is potential for significant resource expansion between the lodes, with additional possible down-dip extension.

Terrain Minerals is preparing to stare directly into a Nova-style “eye” magnetic feature at its Lort River project, with a detailed airborne electromagnetic survey slated to kick off early next month. The company identified the intriguing feature just eight weeks ago and is wasting no time in refining the target, which displays stark similarities to IGO’s Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper-cobalt deposit in Western Australia’s prospective Albany-Fraser Belt.

Lycaon Resources has secured a crucial tick of approval from WA’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister to kick off exploration at its Stansmore project in the West Arunta region – near WA1 Resources' notable niobium discovery. The highly-coveted mining entry permit paves the way for the company to land boots on ground, with a heritage survey planned before it plunges the drill bit into alluring magnetic anomalies.

Aurumin is looking to join the ranks of Western Australia’s coveted million-ounce gold club after completing its latest reverse-circulation drill program at its Central Sandstone project, 520km north-east of Perth. Drilling was completed for 38 holes and tested seven new open-pit targets, as part of the company’s bold push to extend its current 946,000-ounce gold resource.

88 Energy has delivered a second light oil surface flow discovery peak of 50 barrels per day from the SMD-B reservoir within the Hickory-1 well at its Phoenix project in Alaska – importantly, with little to no measurable associated gas flow. The SMD-B discovery follows hot on the heels of a deeper reservoir in Hickory-1 that previously surface flow-tested 70 barrels per day of light oil.

Venus Metals’ hunt for lithium at its Penny East project in Western Australia’s Mid West region – within ground initially secured for gold and base metals prospectivity – has revealed encouraging soil geochemical results. The company says it identified an anomalous area measuring about 800m by 600m, while a second 800m-wide anomaly is open to the north. Further soil sampling and shallow drilling is planned.

Estrella Resources is off and running at its Lautém manganese, copper and gold project in Timor-Leste (formally East Timor), with preliminary geological reconnaissance works identifying a 27 km manganese trend with serious grades up to almost 61 per cent. The company is undergoing systematic geological mapping and sampling at its newly granted 504 square kilometre land package after managing to lock down one of the first ever exploration licences in the mineral rich province.

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.

The world’s largest iron ore and nickel producer, Brazilian powerhouse Vale, has contracted Perth based ASX-listed company K2fly to supply its unique mining software across 69 of its sites for at least three years. The deal will add almost half a million dollars a year to K2fly’s all important “annual recuring revenue” figure that many software as a service companies are judged on.

Everest Metals is aiming to sure up the resource at its Revere gold project in WA’s Mid West with a 36,000 tonne bulk sampling campaign however the sample will be put through a mobile plant to produce gold. The program has been designed to convert the current exploration target of between 2.5 and 4.1 million tonnes grading between 1 and 2.5 grams per tonne gold into a JORC resource.

ASX-listed Toro Energy has revealed proposals to spin out its portfolio of non-core nickel, gold, and base metal assets in Western Australia to focus solely on uranium. Projects flagged for the spin out into a new IPO include Toro’s wholly owned Dusty Nickel Project 50km east of the town of Wiluna and the Yandal Gold and Base Metal Project.

Middle Island Resources is onto several new iron-oxide-copper-gold and sediment-hosted base metals targets from gravity survey data at its Barkly project close to Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. Modelling of detailed geophysical data collected in 2023 over eight priority targets has detected several density anomalies with shapes and sizes that may represent sizeable mineral deposits.

Lindian Resources has rolled out another round of dazzling wide, high-grade rare earth hits at its giant Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi with a resource upgrade due by the end of the month. The African operation already hosts a massive 261 million tonnes at an impressive grade of 2.19 per cent total rare earth oxides, including 5.7 million tonnes of contained TREO in the inferred category.

Image Resources has taken a key step towards the development of its Atlas mineral sands project in Western Australia after no formal objections were lodged for the implementation of the company’s development proposal. The outcome could speed up the group’s return to mining by several months, with the process now moving towards final ministerial approval.

White Cliff Minerals is gearing up for a bumper 2024 as its hunt for a smorgasbord of metals builds up steam. Planned works include diamond drilling at its recently acquired Radium Point uranium, gold and copper project in Canada where rock chip results from historical works include an eye-catching 14.15 per cent uranium, 22.72 per cent copper and 8.28 grams per tonne gold.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runners of the Week is dominated by biotechs, with two showing big gains for punters. Line honours go to… Regeneus Ltd. Its share price surged 220 per cent after completing a merger deal with Cambium Medical Technologies. Regeneus joins fellow biotech Acrux Ltd and Perpetual Resources, both of which also kicked the ball out of the park this week.

Bulls N’ Bears takes a look at the listed companies that have enjoyed share price explosions on the back of 16-year high uranium prices. With lithium taking a breather, the uranium renaissance has filled a gap as demand for uranium to power a clean-energy future pushed the commodity’s fortunes and propelled it to US$106 per pound earlier this year.

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.

Ora Banda Mining continues to deliver impressive results at its Riverina underground mine near Kalgoorlie with diamond drilling returning high-grade hits including 1.6m at a whopping 105.4 grams per tonne gold. The company is making steady progress with the underground operation and its share price has been riding a wave since August last year from about 8c to 30c as it looks implement its detailed mine plan.