Public Company News

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Lord Resources. Its shares hiked more than 135 per cent to join fellow movers and shakers ADX Energy, Universal Biosensors and Lion Energy.

Gold Mountain says it has identified widespread granitoid and related rock types known to possess a strong potential to host rare earths minerals throughout its Down Under project in Brazil. The company says it has found many examples of leucogranites and charnockite rocks in five of its new tenements within the project where it is undertaking exploration stream geochemistry and other sampling.

Larvotto Resources is closing in on an international financing package worth US$8 million (AU$12.1 million) to help develop its Hillgrove antimony-gold project in New South Wales. The company has signed a non-binding term sheet with Xcelsior Capital and Wogen that will provide it with a pre-payment loan for the life of the Hillgrove mine and a working capital loan.

Altech Batteries has revealed a compelling set of numbers for its planned Cerenergy battery project in Germany, with its DFS forecasting a NPV of €169 million and annual revenue of €106 million generating EBITDA earnings of a juicy €51million per annum. The company says capital cost estimates of €156 million and a steady-state payback period of 3.7 years add to the project’s appeal.

Fuelled by little more than a curious mind and a well-stocked cellar, Dollar Bill has turned his gaze towards the role battery inventories played in the bursting of the lithium bubble – and the potential for recovery. It seems clear that battery manufacturers played a key part in both inflating and then bursting the bubble and now may be poised to inflate it again.

Buxton Resources is engaged in a fourth Aboriginal heritage survey at its Graphite Bull project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region in a bid to further expand the area covered by its previous agreements to about 3 square kilometres. The company undertook similar surveys in 2013, 2014 and 2022 as exploration of the area around its original 2014 inferred 4-million-tonne graphite resource has expanded.

Galan Lithium has continued to ramp up its Hombre Muerto West lithium chloride project in Argentina, with evaporation in its first pond continuing, a second now filling up and construction of a third well underway. The company says the first pond already contains about 500 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, with production planned to start in the first half of next year.

Aurum Resources has expanded the golden footprint at its Boundiali gold project in the West African country of Côte D’Ivoire after snapping up an adjoining tenement that features an advanced exploration permit area. The 167.34sq km Boundiali South ground, now formerly owned by Turaco Gold, has previously thrown up solid gold hits including 20m at 10.45g/t from 38m.

The fight over AVZ Minerals’ mega-lithium deposit in the DRC conjures up images of the whacky Cantina bar scene in Star Wars where all the characters have two heads or three arms and an armoury of weapons to wield. A recent court ruling, however, has reset the playing field in AVZ’s favour as the dominoes start to fall against the dark forces seeking to spirit away its extraordinary lithium deposit.

With the till topped up to the tune of $3.2 million, courtesy of a sweet, new JV deal with budding producer Delta Lithium, Reach Resources has landed boots on ground at its Wabli Creek niobium-rare earths project in Western Australia’s Gascoyne region. The company has at least 16 compelling anomalies to ground-truth, with recent soil geochemical surveys indicating niobium, rare earths and lithium mineral systems.

Toro Energy is poised to launch drilling at its Wiluna uranium-vanadium play in Western Australia in a bid to provide sufficient ore samples to feed its upcoming pilot plant that is expected to begin operating in the next quarter. The company’s aim is to generate sufficient drill-core to provide a bulk sample of 20 tonnes to the pilot plant that is being designed in Perth.

Metallurgical testwork on samples from Surefire Resources’ Yidby gold project in Western Australia’s Murchison region alludes to almost 70 per cent more gold than previously reported by the company. And it is a timely finding for Surefire as the gold price continues to glitter, trading last week at a stunning all-time Australian high of $3308 per ounce.