Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Toro Energy has moved quickly to take advantage of the recent price spike in global uranium prices announcing plans to freshen up a previously released scoping study over its Lake Maitland project eyeing off the possibilities of what the current 16-year high price above US$100 a pound could mean for the prospects of its uranium project near Wiluna in WA.

Meeka Metals has extended its positive run of gold hits during the final seven infill holes drilled at its St Anne’s prospect with a 31m section grading 1.11grams per tonne gold from 31m including 4m at 4.66g/t gold. St Anne’s has an estimated mineral resource of about 277,000 tonnes at an average grade of 2.8g/t gold for a contained 25,000 ounces of gold and forms part of the company’s Murchison gold project about 30km north-east of Meekatharra.

Venture Minerals has wound up stage one resource drilling at its 40 sq km, large-scale, clay hosted Jupiter rare earths prospect, 80km south-west of Mt. Magnet in WA’s Mid-West region. The project previously threw up some eye-watering results including 32m at 1629ppm TREO from 22m including 16m at 2397ppm TREO and a further 2m at an eyebrow-raising 7367ppm TREO from 36m.

Non-executive director of BMG Resources John Prineas will replace Greg Hancock as the non-executive chairman of the company as it kicks off a search for a new MD to develop its 500,000-ounce gold find near Wiluna. The move follows the resignation of Managing Director Bruce McCracken and will see Mr Hancock remain on the board as an independent non-exec director.

Infinity Mining has tabled a maiden resource estimate of 60,300 ounces of gold and an exploration target estimate for its Central Goldfields project in WA’s Leonora gold district. The exploration target points to the scale of potentially discoverable mineralisation in just two of the company’s prospects and is between 116,000 and 592,000 ounces of gold with a significant grade range of between 2.2 and 3.7 grams per tonne gold.

Toro Energy’s Wiluna uranium project may grow with the addition of ore from two of the company’s 100 per cent owned satellite deposits now being assessed as part of an extension study. Ore from the company’s Lake Way and Centipede-Millipede deposits, which are about 70km west of the project’s main Lake Maitland deposit, may add to the project’s already impressive financial metrics that predict a $100m a year EBITDA for 17.5 years.

American West Metals has appointed current non-executive director and 40-year mining veteran Dan Lougher as non-executive chairman of the company. Lougher has a track record of developing and operating large-scale base and precious metals assets in Australia, North America, Africa and Europe and will oversee American West as it looks to develop its potentially massive Storm copper project in Northern Canada.

Larvotto Resources has finished a metallurgical auger drill program to determine just how much gold, tungsten and antimony was left behind in tailings from mining campaigns dating back to the eighties at its Hillgrove project in NSW. Encouragingly, old records show gold averaging 1.34 grams per tonne and plenty of tungsten was shipped into the 1.4m tonnes of tailings during historic antimony mining.

Vanadium magnetite concentrate from Surefire Resources Victory Bore project will potentially be shipped to Saudi Arabia where it will be processed into vanadium-titanium-magnetite end products under a new agreement to be thrashed out between Surefire and Saudi based Ajlan & Bros Mining and Metals Company. The deal will also likely involve Ajlan investing directly into Victory Bore.

White Cliff Minerals has added 3300sq-km to its Canadian portfolio after securing the Radium Point multi-element project in the Northwest Territories province that takes in several historical mining operations. The company is focussed on iron-oxide-copper-gold-uranium deposits and silver mineralisation in the area that hosts the historical Eldorado, Echo Bay and Contact Lake mines.

In the next Bulls N’ Bears instalment on what made stocks jump in 2023, we look at how ClearVue Technologies bucked the trend of how big share price movers were mainly companies that stare at the ground for a living. It proved that staring through solar power-generating windows can also move the market when it hit a high of 66 cents in November.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears top ASX runner is… Kali Metals. Its share price rose up some 256 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers Culpeo Minerals, Jupiter Energy and Singular Health Group.

Alma Metals has expanded the Briggs, Mannersley and Fig Tree Hill joint venture it shares with Canterbury Resources in central Queensland after grabbing two new exploration permits adjacent to the project. The JV ground includes the Briggs porphyry copper-molybdenum deposit that contains an inferred mineral resource of 415 million tonnes at 0.25 per cent copper and 31ppm molybdenum.

While 2023 saw explorers flock to the James Bay region of Quebec in Canada, a host of ASX-listed companies set their sights further north to the province of Nunavut to hunt for gold, copper and critical minerals. With Quebec becoming a little too popular, several hopefuls decided to roll the dice in the cold, but far less crowded province of Nunavut.

Senior geologists from giant Chinese battery raw materials supplier Huayou Cobalt have made a snap visit to Namibia to assess Askari Metals’ trenching and channel sampling progress at its Uis lithium project. Huayou, a major supporter and key strategic and technical partner of Askari, is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of about US$12.8 billion (AU$19 billion).

New seismic data has revealed that Triangle Energy may be sitting on a gushing 36 million barrels of oil and 535 billion cubic feet of gas as best-estimate prospective (P50) resources in the North Perth Basin. The company plans to drill-test two of its 12 new prospects that hold part of the volume, with wells kicking-off in the first half of this year.

Buxton Resources has discovered an extension to the porphyry copper-molybdenum system at its Copper Wolf project in Arizona that is not a part of the nearby JV it shares with mining giant IGO. The new “Wolverine” prospect gave up rock chip samples going as high as 14.1 per cent copper and 1160 parts per million molybdenum, suggesting the potential for a fertile porphyry system below.

In the next Bulls N’ Bears instalment on what made stocks jump in 2023, we look at Buxton Resources’ blistering start to last year with a 169 per cent share price jump on the back of graphite drill hits in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region. It went from 10.2c in early January to 27.5c the following month … and there was still more to come.

Mercedes Benz has put in a $30.7 million purchase order for Neometals’ JV company Primobius to build a hydrometallurgical “hub” to complete the motoring giant’s new lithium-ion battery recycling plant in the German town of Kuppenheim. The order continues a growing relationship between Primobius and Mercedes and includes the fabrication, installation and commissioning of the innovative plant.

Larvotto Resources says new testwork shows it can simply and efficiently upgrade rare earths samples from its Eyre multi-element project in Western Australia’s Goldfields region by using a hydrometallurgical cyclosizer. AC drilling last April at Eyre’s Merivale South prospect returned impressive total rare earth oxides results of up to 1.26 per cent, or 12,611ppm, including 3787ppm magnetic rare earth oxides.

Everest Metals Corporation has placed its foot firmly on strategically important new ground, with the acquisition of two new exploration licenses and an application for a third at its Revere gold and base metals project, 90km north-east of Meekatharra in Western Australia’s Mid West region. The acquisitions more than double the area of the company’s existing tenure in the area.

Galan Lithium is making impressive progress with the construction of its wholly-owned Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project in Argentina, with its first evaporation pond almost complete and liner installation underway. Filling the initial pond is expected this quarter, with the evaporation process for the operation – the first major step of the company’s long-term production schedule – set to begin in the coming months.

In the second Bulls N’ Bears instalment on what made stocks jump in 2023, we look at how some bonanza hits at American West Metals’ Storm Copper project in northern Canada blew up a share price gale. The company’s stock bulged from just 4.3 cents in March to hit a high of 37.5c on August 10 – a rise of more than 772 per cent.

Si6 Metals has received the green light from shareholders to acquire a 50 per cent share in four Brazilian projects covering 10 exploration licenses and form a joint venture with seller Foxfire Metals. The purchase will see the company pick up the half share in tenements covering 17,000 hectares across three Brazilian States prospective for lithium, rare earths, gold, base metals and platinum group elements.

Chariot Corporation has vowed to break out from a freezing Wyoming winter and polish off its diamond drilling campaign at Black Mountain, following its scheduled halt for the Christmas holiday season. Management says that since beginning its phase-one program in mid-November, it has drilled six diamond-core holes for a total of 652m of triple-tube HQ core and results are expected this month.

Analytical results from Askari Metals’ Uis lithium project in Namibia have turned up lithium oxide grades going as high as 2.91 per cent in its southern licence and 1.92 per cent in its northern licence. Tantalum oxide grades of up to 339ppm and 757ppm were returned from the north and south licences, respectively, accompanied by a best tin oxide hit of 0.52 per cent.

Larvotto Resources has lit up a slew of new drill targets at its Mt Isa copper-gold-cobalt project in Queensland after collecting more than 6200 samples from a geochemical soil sampling program last year. Key areas highlighted for further exploration include the Ballara Saddle, Portal Creek, IXL and Psamathe targets, with a geophysical induced-polarisation survey already underway.

What made share prices rise in 2023? Bulls N’ Bears will take a look in the next few days, starting with Ardea Resources. Its stock jumped 162 per cent in a busy four days during the middle of last year on the back of a mineral resource upgrade and a mammoth prefeasibility study for its Goongarrie Hub nickel-cobalt deposits in Western Australia’s Goldfields region.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears top ASX runner is … Orion Equities. Its shares rose more than 250 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers Pan Asia Metals, MTM Critical Minerals and Calima Energy.

While some companies slow down at the end of each year, Valor Resources spent December building its lithium and uranium portfolio and also added a cool $1 million to its coffers through a successful placement. The first move it made in the last month of 2023 was entering into an exclusive option agreement to pick up three lithium projects in the Canadian province of Ontario.

Following the sale of its Mt Dimer asset, Aurumin has wasted no time in making good its promise to home in on its Sandstone gold play, with the addition of a new tenement containing three historic gold mines. The mines produced 197 tonnes grading 10.58g/t gold for 67 ounces, 376 tonnes at 27.45g/t for 331 ounces and 82 tonnes at 5.92g/t for 15 ounces, respectively.

Lithium Universe has laid the foundation for a targeted assault with the drill bit at its Apollo lithium project in Quebec having completed soil sampling, airborne magnetic surveys and related fieldwork, with the rods expected to start turning early in the new year. The fieldwork included 666km of mapping and sampling traverses, with 209 rock chip samples being collected over much of the company’s 240 square kilometre Apollo permit area.