Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

ASX-listed Aurumin has entered a competitive ballot process to expand its footprint around the company’s flagship Sandstone operations with a number of the 15 tenements up for grabs located in the adjacent area. The ballots in the Sandstone area are a result of compulsory partial surrenders required by Section 65 of the Mining Act 1978 and contain applications from several parties including tenements adjacent to the Central Sandstone project and north of Youanmi.

White Cliff Minerals has concluded a maiden 49-hole, 1861m air-core drilling program at its Hines Hill rare earths project in WA’s Wheatbelt region. The campaign follows the discovery of a pair of potentially mineralised magnetic features and the return of soil sample results grading up to 550 parts per million total rare earth oxides.

Multi-metals explorer Conico has confirmed anomalous levels of copper, nickel, gold and platinum group elements at its Ryberg project in Greenland after receiving assays from its latest drill campaign. A total of 11 diamond drill holes were completed across four prospects during the Greenland field season, targeting a host of elements at the company’s Sortekap, Miki, Cascata and Pyramid prospects.

ASX-listed Classic Minerals is forging ahead with earthworks for its tailings storage facility after its Kat Gap project in WA’s Goldfields received the green light from the State regulator earlier this month. The final approvals bring Classic a step closer to its goal of evolving from explorer to producer and it’s going full-steam ahead for a prompt completion of that journey.

Infinity Mining has wrapped up its maiden RC drilling campaign at its Tambourah South lithium prospect south west of Marble Bar with visible lepidolite and spodumene spotted in 18 of the 21 holes sunk for 1812m. In total 41 individual pegmatite intervals were logged varying from 1m to 35m in width. Most contained the visual lithium minerals lepidolite and spodumene.

Aurumin has increased its potential gold footprint by entering into a binding heads of agreement with Westar Resources to purchase the historical Birrigrin mining centre, 70km north of its Sandstone operations. The Birrigrin tenements contain 39 mapped shafts dating back to the early 1900s with recorded production grades up to 196 grams per tonne gold, however the site remains largely untested at depth by drilling.

Diversified metals company ABx Group has tabled a maiden 3.94 million tonne rare earths resource at its Deep Leads – Rubble Mound channel area within its northern Tasmanian portfolio. The inventory offers an average total rare earths oxide grade of 918 parts per million and ABx expects the asset’s footprint to balloon from more drilling next year.

On the back of a promising auger drilling program and electromagnetic survey, minerals explorer Emu NL is spinning the drill bit in its maiden RC campaign at its Viper project in WA’s South West. Viper comprises a 45sq km lease about 8km north-east of Jerramungup and Emu’s campaign will comprise 600m of shallow drilling to a maximum depth of 150m.

Aruma Resources’ latest foray with the drill bit at its Mt Deans project in WA’s Goldfields has come up trumps after latching onto more high-grade lithium and rubidium within lepidolite-rich pegmatite veins. Assay results from the first two holes in the 21-hole program returned 7m at 2.03 per cent combined lithium-oxide and rubidium-oxide.

ASX-listed explorer Infinity Mining has beefed up its portfolio with the acquisition of a 250 square kilometre land parcel prospective for gold and lithium in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The company says several tenements within the package are contiguous to its Tambourah South lithium project where a recent rock chip sampling program returned grades of up to 2.6 per cent lithium oxide.

Medical technology company Radiopharm Theranostics says new data released by Imperial College London from a phase 2 trial it conducted on the company’s F-18 Pivalate radiotracer adds weight to its belief the product can be used to monitor brain cancer – a potentially huge market because up to 40 per cent of cancer patients develop metastatic cancer in the brain.

Godolphin Resources has identified new mineralisation at its Yeoval copper-gold prospect near Orange in NSW after a review of historical drill core pulled by a previous explorer in 2008. The company says its review of a pair of legacy samples unveiled visible copper sulphide mineralisation outside of the operation’s existing 12.8 million tonne resource.

Melbourne-based Radiopharm Theranostics has reached an agreement with Australia's Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation for the supply of a vital ingredient required for its fight against cancer. The ingredient is a short-lived radioactive isotope called non-carrier-added lutetium-177, or Lu-177, that has promising properties for treating certain cancers. Lu-177 will be used in an upcoming trial of patients with lung cancer.

The next big discovery will be the focus of this week’s RIU Resurgence Conference where a host of ASX-listed companies will promote their activities to an investor audience across a two-day event in Perth. Hosted by Vertical Events, this year’s presentations include a diverse group of ASX-listed companies with a variety of portfolios from emerging battery technologies to the latest in resources exploration around the world including lithium, gold, rare earth elements and more.

Subiaco-based mining software provider K2fly has signed Mineral Resources to a three-year contract worth $1.75 million. The deal will cover Mineral Resources’ iron ore and lithium operations and it comes hard on the heels of K2fly expanding its work with another tier 1 miner, Rio Tinto. The company’s software products aim to support clients’ ESG issues.

American West Metals has unveiled a suite of new targets at its Copper Warrior project in Utah, USA after completing an induced polarisation survey at the site. The company says one of the anomalies tips the scales at 850m x 570m and returned grades as high as 3.3 per cent copper in geochemical sampling.

Further flow rate pump test results from Galan Lithium’s Hombre Muerto West lithium brine project in Argentina are believed to support the company’s ambitions to ramp-up pilot plant production to 4ktpa lithium carbon equivalent. With work progressing at a breakneck pace on multiple fronts, Galan is set to ring in the new year by delivering on its definitive feasibility study by the end of the first quarter.

With a positive mining study Coda Minerals has unveiled a viable pathway to steady-state production of 2.5 million tonnes per annum at the company’s Elizabeth Creek copper project in South Australia. The mining assessment forms part of a broader scoping study and is centred around underground mining of the project’s cornerstone Emmie Bluff copper-cobalt deposit whilst also proposing open pit extraction at satellite deposits to rapidly achieve nameplate production.

Software business K2fly has been contracted by Rio Tinto for another of its mining packages, the resources giant signing on for its Reconciliation Module in a three-year deal worth $360,000. It’s the first sale of the product to any tier 1 miner and the sixth software solution the Subiaco-based company has sold to the global diversified company.

55 RC holes plunged across the northern bank of CZR Resources’ Robe Mesa iron ore project in WA’s Pilbara region have delivered the highest grades of direct shipping ore mineralisation at the operation to-date with an average of 56 per cent iron. The company says the northern extension sits outside of the operation’s current 37.5 million tonne resource and underlines the venture’s development upside.

Askari Metals has kicked off a phase 1 3500m RC drilling campaign at the company’s recently acquired Uis lithium, tantalum and tin project in Namibia, Africa. The initial phase is part of an overall 10,000m campaign designed to test high-grade lithium rock chip results of up to 3.1 per cent lithium oxide. The main target area will be less than 2.5km along strike from an operating battery metals mine.

Geochemical assays have confirmed a significant gold intersection for Toro Energy about 80m north of where the company originally hit massive nickel sulphides at its Dusty project near Wiluna in WA. Diamond drilling struck a 4m intersection at 1.4 grams per tonne gold from 188m including a 2m hit going 2.2 g/t from 188m. The company says the latest result confirms the gold prospectivity of the site.

ASX-listed Venture Minerals has got the drill bit spinning at a new, high-priority rare earth and tin target at its flagship Mount Lindsay project in Tasmania after discovering a 1200m long soil anomaly at the site. The company has coined the prospect “Cruncher” and says it is laden with elevated doses of praseodymium and neodymium, materials critical in the construction of electric vehicles and wind turbines.

Tambourah Metals has identified further potential LCT-type pegmatites after analysing hyperspectral data from the company’s Russian Jack lithium project in WA’s Pilbara region. The analysis has lit up a number of features in similar orientations to known pegmatites at the project. In addition, Tambourah’s newly identified features lie within the Bonney Downs Monzogranite that is part of the Split Rocks Supersuite which is known for hosting pegmatites.

ASX-listed cell therapy innovator Chimeric Therapeutics has secured an exclusive global licence from a leading American research university for a promising cancer-fighting treatment. The treatment centres on “natural killer” cells that occur organically in the human body and can recognise and kill cancer cells. Chimeric says the treatment continues to show promise after a clinical phase 1 trial earlier this year.

Buru Energy is looking to end the year on a high following a flurry of activity across its WA-based oil and gas portfolio over the past few months including a successful November crude oil lift of 73,000 barrels which added $3.8 million to its bottom line. The deal marks the company’s third and final delivery for the year for a total exported volume of roughly 220,000 barrels.

After a round of infill drilling Blackstone Minerals has confirmed high grades of up to 4.3 per cent nickel, 4.73 per cent copper and 18.2 grams per tonne platinum group elements at the company’s Ta Khoa nickel project in Vietnam. The assays come from the company’s recently completed campaign of resource definition drilling at the project’s King Snake massive sulphide vein deposit.

ASX-listed Terrain Minerals is set for an exploration blitz across its wholly owned Lort River project near Esperance where the company is chasing clay-hosted rare earth elements. The company has engaged Cube Consulting to assist with a strategic exploration plan as Terrain looks to define a maiden resource at the site as soon as possible.

Estrella Resources has signed an offtake and ore processing agreement with Glencore subsidiary Murrin Murrin Operations for 2000 to 4000 tonnes of bulk metallurgical sample from its 5A nickel mine near Kambalda. The company says a positive process outcome from the bulk metallurgical sample will give Estrella a strong base from which to fully develop the 5A nickel mine using simple pit cutback methods.

ASX-listed Neometals has completed pre-feasibility study for production of titanium and iron-vanadium concentrate at its wholly owned Barrambie titanium and vanadium project near Sandstone, Western Australia. Results from the study confirm the viability of commercialising the project with the potential to supply in excess of 500,000 tonnes per annum of high-quality supply constrained ilmenite in the first 10 years of the project.

White Cliff Minerals has commenced a high-resolution magnetic and radiometric survey at its Yinnetharra lithium and rare earths project about 100km north-east of the Gascoyne Junction in WA. Previous rock chip sampling at the site has returned grades of up to 924 ppm total rare earth oxides and the in-progress geophysical campaign is aimed at refining and generating new targets at the site.

Shares in ASX-listed mineral explorer Emu surged 60 per cent during intraday trading after it lodged applications to extend its prospective Condingup project to an overall tenement area of 734 square kilometres. The company has also applied for another three new tenement packages in the broader area totalling a further 304 square kilometres. The latest land grab will substantially increase Emu’s exposure to rare earths by capturing more of the prospective Booanya granites.