Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Fuelled by little more than a curious mind and a well-stocked cellar, Dollar Bill has turned his gaze towards the role battery inventories played in the bursting of the lithium bubble – and the potential for recovery. It seems clear that battery manufacturers played a key part in both inflating and then bursting the bubble and now may be poised to inflate it again.

Buxton Resources is engaged in a fourth Aboriginal heritage survey at its Graphite Bull project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region in a bid to further expand the area covered by its previous agreements to about 3 square kilometres. The company undertook similar surveys in 2013, 2014 and 2022 as exploration of the area around its original 2014 inferred 4-million-tonne graphite resource has expanded.

Galan Lithium has continued to ramp up its Hombre Muerto West lithium chloride project in Argentina, with evaporation in its first pond continuing, a second now filling up and construction of a third well underway. The company says the first pond already contains about 500 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, with production planned to start in the first half of next year.

Aurum Resources has expanded the golden footprint at its Boundiali gold project in the West African country of Côte D’Ivoire after snapping up an adjoining tenement that features an advanced exploration permit area. The 167.34sq km Boundiali South ground, now formerly owned by Turaco Gold, has previously thrown up solid gold hits including 20m at 10.45g/t from 38m.

The fight over AVZ Minerals’ mega-lithium deposit in the DRC conjures up images of the whacky Cantina bar scene in Star Wars where all the characters have two heads or three arms and an armoury of weapons to wield. A recent court ruling, however, has reset the playing field in AVZ’s favour as the dominoes start to fall against the dark forces seeking to spirit away its extraordinary lithium deposit.

With the till topped up to the tune of $3.2 million, courtesy of a sweet, new JV deal with budding producer Delta Lithium, Reach Resources has landed boots on ground at its Wabli Creek niobium-rare earths project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region. The company has at least 16 compelling anomalies to ground-truth, with recent soil geochemical surveys indicating niobium, rare earths and lithium mineral systems.

Toro Energy is poised to launch drilling at its Wiluna uranium-vanadium play in Western Australia in a bid to provide sufficient ore samples to feed its upcoming pilot plant that is expected to begin operating in the next quarter. The company’s aim is to generate sufficient drill-core to provide a bulk sample of 20 tonnes to the pilot plant that is being designed in Perth.

Metallurgical testwork on samples from Surefire Resources’ Yidby gold project in Western Australia’s Murchison region alludes to almost 70 per cent more gold than previously reported by the company. And it is a timely finding for Surefire as the gold price continues to glitter, trading last week at a stunning all-time Australian high of $3308 per ounce.

Larvotto Resources says it has turned up abundant coarse grains of visible gold in its first diamond-core drilling at the Hillside gold-antimony project in New South Wales, with assays expected next month. The 2036m of drilling at the historic Bakers Creek Mine at Hillside chased extensions of previously-reported high-grade gold-antimony mineralisation of up to 525g/t gold from the project’s Little Reef lode.

Tests conducted by rare earths metallurgical specialists ANSTO Minerals have validated Red Metal’s breakthrough leach results using chip samples from its new Sybella discovery near Mt Isa in North Queensland. Red Metal says ANSTO’s supplementary findings back up its phase-one testwork that showed high recoveries and low impurities using low levels of acid consumption for both valuable magnet and heavy rare earth oxides.

The potential for one of Radiopharm Theranostics’ treatments to fight cancer while protecting a patient’s kidneys from excessive radiation has been showcased to the world’s leading image science specialists in Portugal. A symposium was told that adding a succinylated gelatin to radiotherapeutics, such as the company’s “RAD 301” and “RAD 302” treatments, could better protect kidneys against the negative effects of accumulated radioactivity.

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.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining says a review of its Kirgella Gift and Providence gold prospects has revealed similarities to Ramelius Resources’ 1.4-million-ounce Rebecca project, suggesting shallow open pit potential. The project analogy has led to the modified modelling of potential ore zones to distinguish lower-grade, but important gold envelopes enclosing shallow, high-grade zones, with the goal of adding ounces and enabling simpler bulk mining.

The Environmental Protection Authority has given Image Resources conditional approval to push ahead with the development proposal for its Atlas mineral sands project in Western Australia’s North Perth Basin. The company says that while the recommendation for its 100 per cent-owned project will now undergo a three-week review period, it believes it is now a matter of “when”, not “if” Atlas will proceed.

Infinity Lithium has secured a new 35-year lease on land that now expands the footprint of its San José project in Spain, following a new deal struck by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Extremadura New Energies. The company says its second major acquisition of rights and access to land that will be home to its processing facility is a milestone that provides long-term leasehold over 11 hectares.

ABx Group has expanded the rare earths zone at its Deep Leads-Rubble Mound project in northern Tasmania, with new drill hits showing mineralisation enriched in the valuable heavy rare earths, dysprosium and terbium. The company says its latest drilling proves that the site west of Launceston retains the highest proportion of the two elements of any clay-hosted rare earths resource In Australia.

St George Mining says it is now one of the biggest landholders in Western Australia’s Ravensthorpe region after it was granted an additional two exploration licenses to increase the size of its Myuna Rocks project by 273sq km. The company has identified a slew of new lithium targets in a more than 50km prospective corridor along strike from Allkem’s Mt Cattlin mine.

Aurumin has bolstered its financial position at its Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, with a refreshed “drill-for-equity” agreement coming hot on the heels of it closing out on a convertible note. The company’s rekindled deal with drilling contractor Topdrill will give management crucial choice and flexibility to increase drilling while preserving its cash.

Larvotto Resources has identified multiple new copper-gold-cobalt drill targets following a recent induced-polarisation geophysical survey at its Mt Isa project, adjacent to the historic town of the same name in north-west Queensland. The company is now planning reverse-circulation and diamond drilling at three main targets in the tough and hilly terrain across its prospective project area.

A recent share price hike for White Cliff Minerals has triggered a cash bonanza for the company after it today confirmed $4.33 million worth of options had been exercised on the back of its rally from recent lows. Touching as low as 0.9c to start the new year of trading, the share price rose to as high as 1.9c after it grabbed new Canadian ground.

Strickland Metals says ongoing re-evaluation work at its Horse Well project in the Western Australian desert shows its Palomino and Clydesdale prospects could be part of the same system and could even extend into its Marwari deposit – just 250m east of Palomino. The company says Palomino and Clydesdale exhibit shallow, high-oxide grades in initial drilling, but are untested along strike, down-dip and down-plunge.

Shares in Aurum Resources jumped more than 30 per cent this morning after it recorded a whopping 73m intercept going 2.15g/t gold from 172m at its Boundiali project in the West African nation of Côte d'Ivoire. The impressive drill hit contained several high-grade sections, with highlights showing a 4m segment grading 18.63g/t gold from 185m including 1m at a staggering 72.11g/t from 188m.

Oil explorer 88 Energy has officially kicked off operations at its Hickory-1 well in Alaska, with bore preparations complete ahead of perforation and flow-testing, which is expected to be completed this month. Management says that data will provide the crucial first steps on the path to development for its greater Phoenix project that sits on the onshore oil section of Alaska’s north slope.

Buxton Resources says samples from its Sun Devil and Aztecs prospects in Arizona have revealed geochemical signatures indicating the sites lie above the main copper molybdenum-enriched zone of a typical porphyry system. The 87 rock chip samples yielded results of up to 3.08 per cent copper, 156ppm molybdenum and 9.34g/t silver, strongly indicating the potential for a copper-porphyry target to exist at depth.

Reach Resources has linked up with emerging developer Delta Lithium, signing an earn-in and JV agreement on its Morrissey Hill and Camel Hill projects in Western Australia’s prospective Gascoyne region. Delta will pay Reach a non-refundable $3.2 million and can earn an initial 51 per cent interest by spending $3 million on exploration within the first two years.

Terrain Minerals has unveiled what it believes are the early signs of a significant rare earths discovery, with high-grade gallium as an added bonus, at its Larin’s Lane project in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The company says the first results from its drilling at the project last December include gallium oxide grades of up to 57 grams per tonne.

Galan Lithium has expanded its holdings near the world-class Greenbushes mine to 315 square kilometres after it received an exploration licence for a new tenement less than 30km south of the Western Australian lithium operation. Adding more than 40sq km to its current Greenbushes South project, the company says its latest acquisition contains historical tin workings associated with lithium-bearing pegmatites.

King River Resources has revealed promising geochemical anomalism at its Providence target that lies along strike from a highly-regarded copper operation in the heart of Australia’s Northern Territory. The company says the anomalism could be related to the style of Tennant Minerals’ Bluebird-Perseverance deposit that has thrown up results including 61.8m at a grade of 2.3 per cent copper.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears top ASX runner is… Macro Metals. Its share price rose more than 166 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers Immuron, Sultan Resources and Dynamic Metals.

St George Mining has launched a new drilling mission designed to better define the rare earths footprint at its Destiny project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields, where it has previously jagged up to 5125ppm TREO. Maiden drilling results at Destiny showed rare earths mineralisation in near-surface clay zones up to 42m thick throughout a 7km-long zone that remains open in all directions.

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.

Lindian Resources has delivered more shallow and high-grade hits from drilling at its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, including a monster 19m section at 3.77 per cent total rare earth oxides from surface. The company recently completed its third-phase infill campaign at the operation, aiming to define a significant portion of its inferred mineral resource into an indicated category.