Public Company News

Altech Batteries says cells for its “Cerenergy” sodium chloride battery prototypes have shown “higher-than-expected” energy capacities during a testing program at several Fraunhofer IKTS facilities in Germany. The company has today confirmed it has completed the fabrication, assembly and initialisation of all 240 cells for the first prototype at its pilot plant and expects to mount the finished modules into a full “BatteryPack” next week.

ABx Group has polished off a 37-hole air-core drilling campaign that explored a previously-untested north-west area of its Deep Leads rare earths project sitting 45km west of Launceston in northern Tasmania. Previous success at ABx’s high-grade Deep Leads target has led it to interpret the area as prospective for rare earths and the latest drilling has yielded 316 samples that have been sent for analysis.

Meeka Metals has secured a greater-capacity ball mill than envisaged in its definitive feasibility study in May for its Murchison gold project in WA, paving the way for significantly enhanced economies of scale. The company says the $318,000 purchase reduces its DFS mill capex by 75 per cent, lifts processing capacity by 30 per cent to 640,000 tonnes per annum and increases ore processing options.

In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some of the notable drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including Encounter Resources’ 46m at 3.1 per cent niobium pentoxide from 60m to hole end at 106m. We also take a close look at other interesting drill hits from last week as reported by Future Battery Minerals, Riversgold and Spartan Resources.

With its phase one ponds at 60 per cent capacity, Galan Lithium says its stocks at the Hombre Muerto West project in Argentina have grown to 2800 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent. With the project’s construction stage reaching 40 per cent completion, the company has also today confirmed that is has moved closer to selecting potential offtake and funding partners for the operation.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Killi Resources. Its share price jumped 262.5 per cent on the back of several stunning rock-chip assays that returned grades of 238 grams per tonne gold and 5.4 per cent copper. Other movers and shakers this week were Augustus Minerals, Moab Minerals and Clara Resources.

Middle Island Resources has kicked off its first round of drilling for the year, with three deep diamond drillholes to test three iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) targets at its Barkly “super project” in the Northern Territory. The program entails three holes targeting depths between 600m and 650m, constituting the company’s maiden testing of the Wilma, Pebbles and Dino IOCG prospects within its Georgina project.

After pocketing $5 million in new money, Larvotto Resources is on the cusp of launching a 5250m exploration drilling program to infill and extend its Clarks Gully gold-antimony resource that sits just 4.7km north-west of its Hillgrove Mine in NSW. The measured and indicated Clarks Gully resource contains 266,000 tonnes at 3.8 per cent antimony and 2g/t gold, or 8.40g/t gold equivalent.

Strickland Metals has kicked its drilling program into overdrive by marching a second diamond drill rig into its Horse Well gold camp that is part of the company’s Yandal project, sitting about 85km north-east of Wiluna in Western Australia. A combined three rigs are now punching the drill bit into four prospective targets with the financial assistance of a State Government grant.

Ora Banda Mining has supercharged its gold production ambitions, setting a new target of 150,000 ounces in FY26 following the board’s final investment decision to push on and develop its new Sand King underground mine in Western Australia’s Goldfields region. The pivotal move cements Sand King as the company’s second underground operation at its Davyhurst gold project that lies 120km north-west of Kalgoorlie.

White Cliff Minerals has unearthed widespread visible iron oxide-copper-gold and uranium-silver mineralisation during the company’s initial field program at its promising Great Bear Lake project in northern Canada. The swag of targets discovered include outcropping copper-uranium-cobalt-silver mineralisation and several off-the-charts uranium readings from a handheld scintillometer. Management also revealed that a CAD$168,000 (AU$183,000) Canadian Government grant has been received to further exploration activities.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining is planning to kick off an air-core drilling program at its Pinjin project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields next month to follow up an April campaign that hit zones running up to 3.07g/t gold. The program will centre on the company’s Wessex target at the project that sits on the eastern flanks of the prospective Laverton Tectonic Zone, about 140km north-east of Kalgoorlie.