Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

The Spanish Government has boosted Infinity Lithium’s coffers with a cash-ringing endorsement of $31 million for its 75 per cent-owned San José lithium project as the limelight intensifies on the battery metal’s supply chain. The grant funding was awarded to company’s wholly-owned Spanish subsidiary, Extremadura New Energies, which plans to develop an underground mine at the deposit.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears profiled ASX runner is … Imugene. Its share price jumped more than 212 per cent to join other impressive companies including Krakatoa Resources, TechGen Metals and GreenTech Metals.

In an exclusive interview with Bulls N’ Bears, international stock-trading entrepreneur Jim Mellon has opened up on a remarkable business life that now includes a major shareholding in Australia’s Dart Mining. From the university halls at Oxford to buying $2 million worth of share vouchers on the streets of Russia in just one day, Mellon has an extraordinary tale to tell.

Twigger’s Tales (aka Argonaut Deputy Chair Liam Twigger) talks “corporate governance” and the brow-furrowing list of boxes the modern day non-executive director has to tick before the shareholder even gets a look in.

Battery materials recycler Neometals says purification testwork on its pilot proprietary “ELi” lithium production process removes more than 97 per cent of brine feed-source impurities, creating a solution suitable for electrolysis. The company says the level of purification in the clean brine solution meets the specification required for the electrolytic stage in its majority-owned and trademarked ELi process.

Lycaon Resources has set a new focus on what it believes is a “fertile nickel copper system” at its Bow River project in Western Australia’s East Kimberley region after diamond drill samples threw up visible nickel-copper sulphides. The company says results from a third of its latest samples showed more than 300ppm nickel, with peaks of 742ppm nickel and 744ppm copper.

Estrella Resources has confirmed the presence of a slew of multiple stacked, fractionating pegmatites during field work at its Carr Boyd project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. The company says the outcropping pegmatites can be traced for a few hundred metres before going beneath the cover again and a follow-up works program of mapping and sampling is already underway.

Bookbuilds and Banter with Boz (aka Shaw and Partner’s WA State manager Davide Bosio) draws on his years of capital-raising experience and deal-making in Perth to talk billionaires and battery metals as he laments the ultimate killer of the deal – time.

Global battery industry giant Shanghai Jayson New Energy Materials has become St George Mining’s biggest shareholder after grabbing $3 million worth of the West Perth-based lithium explorer’s shares. The company says the significant investment will enable it to better explore its portfolio of hard-rock lithium projects in Western Australia, with a priority focus on the flagship Mt Alexander operation.

Brightstar Resources has mined the first ore at its Selkirk deposit that forms part of the company’s Menzies gold project, with 1500 tonnes of ore at 3.01 grams per tonne gold stockpiled and ready for processing. Mining is being undertaken by Goldfields-based BML Ventures, which is part of a 50:50 joint venture with Brightstar to mine the Selkirk deposit.

ASX-listed Lithium Universe has decided on the perfect location for its 16,000-tonne per annum lithium carbonate refinery to service its Eastern Canadian lithium processing hub after assessing more than 20 prospective sites. The company appointed heavyweight engineering firm, Hatch, to undertake a comprehensive study for the design and location of the refinery in the Canadian State of Quebec.

Drilling and geophysical surveys at Venture Minerals’ new Jupiter prospect in Western Australia’s Mid West region has revealed the strong possibility it may contain a clay-hosted and deep intrusive rare earths resource that warrants early follow-up drilling. The diversified metals explorer says air-core drilling results include a hole that intersected 28m at 2246ppm total rare earth oxides in clays.

Infinity Lithium has splashed out a stunning EBITDA of US$16.7 billion (AU$26 billion) for its San José project in Spain in an updated scoping study that outlines a 26-year mine life and annual production of 33,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide. The company’s new study shows a post-tax net present value of US$2.87 billion (AU$4.47 billion) and an internal rate of return of 21.3 per cent.

Newly ASX-listed Chariot Corporation has embarked on an initial diamond drill program to hunt for hard-rock, pegmatite-hosted lithium oxide at its flagship Black Mountain project in central Wyoming. The company is well positioned as the biggest landholder of lithium exploration assets in the United States and has a wealth of prospective ground spread through Wyoming and the Nevada-Oregon area.

ABx Group has launched the operation of its new pilot batch reactor in a world-first process to produce hydrogen fluoride from bath, a fluoride-rich waste product from aluminium smelting, at its technology centre in NSW. The company and its subsidiary, Alcore, believe the process they have developed could have great potential for Australia, which currently imports all of its aluminium fluoride.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has stretched the boundaries of its Pinjin project, 140km east of Kalgoorlie, after securing a new license from the Western Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety. The company has also lodged applications for two further tenements at the operation where it nailed gold hits last month including multiple intersections running between 10m and 15m wide and grading more than 5g/t.

Australian battery materials producer Neometals says its joint venture partner Primobius has produced industry-leading quality in trial production of battery-grade nickel sulphate from recycled lithium-ion batteries. The company believes the development, using Primobius’ patented technology, has immeasurable implications for sustainability through the recycling of expired batteries, which have largely unchanged components that can be recovered and turned into new batteries.

Infinity Mining will ramp up its search for a joint venture partner at its Hillside project, 50km south of Marble Bar in Western Australia, after unveiling new nickel assays with headline hits of 135m at 2189ppm from 64m and 95m at 2197ppm from 254m. Other significant results include 107m at 1727ppm from 235m, 52m at 1761ppm from surface and 16m at 2150ppm from 123m.

White Cliff Minerals has orchestrated a stunning pivot away from its WA lithium and rare earths focus by steering into a high-grade copper hunt at one of the world’s fastest-growing mineral hotspots, Canada. The company has secured a swathe of ground in the Canadian province of Nunavut after an agreement with a private party for 61 mineral claims covering 80,500 hectares at Coppermine River.

ABx Group has revealed plans to launch back into its hunt for rare earths in the Tasmanian bushland with a follow-up drill campaign at its Wind Break prospect before turning back to Deep Leads-Rubble Mound. The Wind Break drilling will be co-funded dollar-for-dollar by Mineral Resources Tasmania up to a maximum of $70,000 in the eighth round of the State’s Exploration Drilling Grant Initiative.

Everest Metals has signed a memorandum of understanding with Edith Cowan University to collaborate on rubidium extraction tests on samples from its Mt Edon lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite project near Paynes Find in Western Australia. The company has been developing a path to unlocking a rubidium-lithium resource since drilling identified high-grade zones of up to 0.51 per cent rubidium oxide and 0.94 per cent lithium oxide.

88 Energy has certified an additional 250 million barrels of oil equivalent in its best estimate of gross contingent reserves within the basin floor fan reservoir at its Phoenix project in Alaska. The maiden resource for the reservoir interval – the deepest hit by the Hickory-1 well in March – provides a project boost ahead of flow testing shallower reservoirs in the well early next year.

Titanium Sands is a significant step closer to securing a mining licence for its $545 million Mannar Island heavy mineral sands project in Sri Lanka after landowners affected by the operation signed land access agreements. The company describes the agreements as a milestone moment that takes it further towards completing its environmental impact obligations at the site.

American West Metals continues to record impressive hits at its Storm project in the Canadian province of Nunavut, with a peak result showing a 1.5m intercept at a whopping 8.3 per cent copper from 54.9m. The hit was found within a 24.4m section grading 1.1 per cent copper from 48.8m and also contained 6.1m going 2.8 per cent copper from 54.9m.

Buxton Resources’ burgeoning union with mining giant IGO has struck a positive new chord after the latter’s first diamond drillhole at their joint venture project in Western Australia’s West Kimberley region confirmed high-grade massive nickel sulphides from 179.06m depth. Headline results include 13.24m at 4.35 per cent nickel from 177.34m, with 5.6m at 7.47 per cent nickel from 179.08m.

GreenTech Metals has launched a 1500m diamond drill campaign at its Osborne joint venture project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region, just as a trio of mining heavyweights have sunk their teeth into a notable neighbour. With nearby Azure Minerals attracting significant recent investment from Hancock, MinRes and SQM, GreenTech’s share price jump today may not be such a big surprise.

Strickland Metals’ share price has renewed a wild rise that has seen a 446 per cent jump in just eight months as it flew more than 59 per cent today on intriguing news at its Marwari gold play near the Western Australian town of Wiluna. The company now has all of its diamond and RC drill rigs focussed on exploring the potential of Marwari.

Altech Batteries says a definitive feasibility study shows it will be able to pump out 20 per cent more power than expected at its proposed Cerenergy sodium chloride solid-state grid battery plant in Germany. Through technical design optimisation, alongside lead engineering company Leadec and joint venture partner Fraunhofer, Altech believes it will now be able to produce 120 of its 1MWh “GridPacks” per year.

Perth-based Triangle Energy and joint venture partner Athena Exploration have been offered five Cragganmore gas field blocks estimated to contain some 527 billion cubic feet of gas in the North Sea’s West of Shetlands province. The blocks are next to 16 others in two gas fields offered to petroleum giant Shell and have produced gas from two prior wells drilled in 2012.

Chimeric Therapeutics says it is a step closer to unlocking treatment hope for patients suffering from the world’s deadliest form of brain cancer after dosing its first patient as part of a phase-1B trial. The new trial comes on the back of positive survival results in the previous phase of testing as the company continues to tackle the devastating glioblastoma condition.

Askari Metals’ is poised for follow-up work at its Springdale project in New South Wales after a second reconnaissance rock-sampling program turned up gold grades up to 56.7 grams per tonne, with the top 20 samples averaging 12.34g/t. The company says the program turned up granite-hosted and structurally-controlled gold mineralisation related to local intrusives, faulting and shearing.

A technical review of Octava Minerals’ Talga project in Western Australia’s Pilbara region has revealed fractionation typical of LCT pegmatites and stellar gold grades in soil samples of up to 5.45 grams per tonne. The company says the study, conducted by CSA Global, has uncovered a previously unrecognised target zone for pegmatites of more than 100 square kilometres.