Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Aruma Resources appears to have landed a decent fish after nailing higher-grade rare earths drill hits and samples at its Salmon Gums project, about 200km south of the regional town of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. The company says one surface sample produced the highest recorded rare earths grade to date in the emerging Esperance ionic clay region.

Xanadu Mines says oxide leach testwork on ore from its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia has highlighted the potential to conduct commercialised processing and generate significant early cash. The company says leaching tests on the shallower oxidised portion of the project’s mineral resource delivered positive metallurgical extraction results of up to 93 per cent copper and 46 per cent gold.

Aurumin is primed and ready to get back to the drill rig at its Sandstone gold project in Western Australia’s Mid West region after closing out on the final $1.07 million owing on a convertible note. The company says it will immediately exploit its financial freedom with a firm commitment to getting its Sandstone project back to “pouring gold bars”.

Channel sampling at Larvotto Resources’ Hillgrove gold-antimony project in NSW has delivered sparkling assays going as high as 63 grams per tonne gold, 13.82g/t silver and more than 30 per cent antimony. Management says the impressive results highlight the high-grade nature of the operation, while samples from the 1.5-million-tonne historical tailings facility recorded gold grades exceeding the average of many operating open pit mines.

BMG Resources has applied for two additional exploration licences adjoining its granted Dragon project in Western Australia’s West Arunta region – an emerging world-class niobium-rare earths district. It says data reviews have identified several areas where strong magnetic features are located next to major faults, which can be interpreted as being highly-prospective for potential carbonatites and represents priority niobium-rare earths exploration targets.

Surefire Resources has strengthened its growing ties with Saudi Arabia after signing a new agreement designed to assist in development and investment for its Victory Bore vanadium project in WA’s Mid West. The non-binding agreement with Saudi-based RASI Investment allows both parties to explore a joint venture or co-developer structure to assist in potential downstream processing facilities for offtake from the project.

Strickland Metals says it has connected its Bronco and Konik gold prospects to form one big structure at its Horse Well play near Wiluna, making a bulk-tonnage target with a high-grade surface oxide zone. The company says it has made the crucial interpretation on the back of re-evaluating historic Bronco data in conjunction with its own geological information following its Konik discovery.

DiscovEx Resources has stretched its Hercules prospect to a whopping 7km of anomalous gold found in soil after a sampling program at its Edjudina project, about 200km north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The extensional program completed north of the Hercules target produced multiple higher-tenor results within the broad anomalous zone, adding to several prospective targets already identified at the project.

Lindian Resources has backed up positive recovery results from testwork on ore from its giant Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi with concentrate grades ranging between 55 per cent and 68 per cent TREO. The company’s latest metallurgical test results confirm achievable recoveries of 70 per cent TREO, in line with results delivered in April last year.

Xanadu Mines says it has recorded early metallurgical recoveries of up to 98 per cent copper and 95 per cent gold from rougher flotation testwork on ore from its Kharmagtai project in Mongolia. Management says the results are in line with or better than previous scoping study assumptions and show a potential value uplift in final prefeasibility study (PFS) recoveries.

Radiopharm Theranostics says a new six-patient study shows its terbium-based treatment has superior potential to tackle prostate cancer than lutetium following a head-to-head assessment of the rare earths metals in its therapies. Management says the results from tests on patients with metastatic “castrate-resistant” cancer vindicate its development of next-generation, terbium-based radiotherapies for the treatment of the often deadly condition and other advanced cancers.

Javelin Minerals has revealed two significant board moves, adding well-known corporate finance executive Brett Mitchell and experienced geologist Pedro Kastellorizos as it prepares for more drilling in New South Wales. The company says Mitchell, who has more than 25 years of experience in the equity and venture capital markets, will take the reins as executive chairman. Kastellorizos will be a non-executive director.

Chariot Corporation says it has significantly expanded its flagship Black Mountain tenure in Wyoming, adding 218 contiguous new claims to mark a whopping 206 per cent increase for its lithium project area. The company’s new “BMX” claims almost enclose its original holdings, adding a strategic margin of between 1200m and 1600m around all but a 1500m-long section of State land on its north-west boundary.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears top ASX runner is … Nyrada. Its share price rose more than 672 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers Volt Power Group, Enova Mining and WhiteHawk.

Valor Resources is set to kick off its hunt for uranium in Canada’s world-renowned Athabasca Basin using an airborne electromagnetic survey – a proven technique in identifying nearby deposits of the silvery-grey metal. Results from the survey at the Cluff Lake project are expected in the second half of this year and will guide a drilling program planned to begin in the September quarter.

Aurum Resources has uncovered high-grade gold in a diamond drilling program at its Boundiali project in in Côte d’Ivoire, with assays showing a headline 4m interval grading an eye-catching 22.35g/t from 226m. But the standout intersection was not sitting solo, with other results including 5m at 4.73g/t from 53.5m including 1.1m grading a healthy 20.35g/t and 16.64m at 1.45g/t from 56.26m including 10.4m going 2.11g/t.

Radiopharm Theranostics says it has dosed its first pancreatic cancer patient in the initial phase of a study aimed at providing doctors with an enhanced screening process for the lethal and aggressive disease. The clinical trial is for the company’s patented “RAD301” radiopharmaceutical technology that is designed to detect lesions in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and create better health outcomes.

Infinity Mining has topped up its total gold resource inventory to 63,000 ounces with the addition of a maiden 2700-ounce gold resource estimate from its Great Northern project at Leonora in Western Australia. The company has 10 mineral tenements in the Leonora district and is developing a portfolio of gold resources, with its eye on an initial 500,000-ounce target.

88 Energy is poised to start flow-testing two reservoir zones in its Hickory-1 well in Alaska as it takes aim at upgrading its prospective resources to the higher-confidence contingent category. The company says both zones showed strong hydrocarbon indicators during drilling and have a combined gross, unrisked best technical prospective resource estimate of 358 million stock tank barrels of oil.

After selling the Millrose gold project for $61 million last year, Strickland Metals says its latest gold drill hits at its Celia South prospect out in the WA desert show geological potential for a similar operation. The company says results from maiden reconnaissance air-core drilling at the Warburton Mineral Field site include grades of up to 8.6 grams per tonne gold.

Ora Banda Mining has discovered a new high-grade lode system at its Sand King deposit near Kalgoorlie, with the first exploration hole at the site delivering a 16m hit grading 5.6g/t gold from 145m. The hole extends mineralisation at the prospect to the north by 100m as Sand King continues to firm as the company’s preferred option to host a second underground gold mine.

Everest Metals Corporation is scaling up its Mt Edon critical mineral project in WA’s Mid West region after securing Edith Cowan University’s mineral research arm to help develop an innovative rubidium extraction process. The pair’s new research agreement will represent a key stage towards developing the dual-mineral deposit that sits about 350km from the town of Geraldton.

Classic Minerals has its sights set on production at its Lady Ada and Lady Magdalene gold deposits in Western Australia after tabling a mining lease application for the Forrestania tenements that contain the two projects. Once approved, the licence will allow the company to mine all the gold resources at Lady Ada and Lady Magdalene, which currently hold a combined 311,050 ounces.

With uranium prices soaring globally, Toro Energy has reconfirmed its commitment to constructing its Lake Maitland pilot plant to test ores from three uranium-vanadium deposits within a radius of 110km south-west of Wiluna in Western Australia. The company says its recently-commissioned pilot plant will test improved beneficiation and hydrometallurgical circuits that it has developed from its bench-scale research.

Galan Lithium says it has set the evaporation process in motion at its Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project in Argentina, with the earthworks and lining of its first pond officially complete. The company is targeting first-phase lithium chloride production at the operation in the first half of next year and continues to tick off key infrastructure milestones.

American West Metals is set to launch a new drill attack and smash into an exploration and resource expansion program at its Storm copper play on Somerset Island, within the Canadian territory of Nunavut. After recently boosting its cash holdings by $10 million, it expects the drill program to begin next month, with about 22,000m of reverse-circulation and diamond drilling planned.

White Cliff Minerals has contracted Expert Geophysics to complete an airborne geophysical survey over its entire Coppermine project in the Canadian province of Nunavut as soon as next quarter. The company says the campaign will use mobile magnetotellurics to image subsurface resistivity and it is expected to highlight and define structural trends to optimise future drill targets.

This week’s profiled ASX runner of the week is… APM Human Services. Its share price rose more than 73 per cent to join Way2Vat, 29 Metals and Australian Mines.

Gold Mountain says it has put its foot on a big chunk of ground it believes to be prospective for rare earths and niobium in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais, with 20 new tenements covering 388sq km. The tenure comprises four groups disposed across a tract of country surrounding and within an 80km radius of the world’s biggest niobium mine in the Araxá region.

Classic Minerals appears set for a significant financial boost as it pushes towards production at its Kat Gap gold project after executing a binding term sheet with an international fintech for an initial US$10 million. The agreement with Swiss-based AuResources also provides for the advance of a further US$50 million in five tranches of US$10 million each.

Aurum Resources has bolstered its African diamond drilling fleet with a new, more powerful rig to help the company unlock a maiden gold resource estimate for its Boundiali gold project in Côte d’Ivoire this year. The three-rig drilling fleet will deliver an impressive 30,000m of core as the company takes aim at deep gold mineralisation beneath and adjacent to artisanal mines at the project.

Some old-fashioned detective work has set Terrain Minerals on a pathway to try and emulate Sirius Resources’ 2012 discovery of the hulking Nova-Bollinger deposit in WA’s Fraser Range. Terrain says its search through old geophysical records identified an intriguing “eye-shaped” feature near its ground similar to the one that led to the Nova-Bollinger base metals discovery – just 300km to the north on the same geological structure.