Doug Bright

American West says historical mine dumps at its West Desert project in Utah carry significant critical metals grades, including peak assays of 1807g/t silver, 176.5g/t gold, 1010g/t tellurium and 2.26 per cent copper, alongside other base metals, while rock chip sampling has also extended the mineralised footprint. The company is currently running a 5000-metre diamond drilling campaign on the project.

Dalaroo Metals has begun a 4400-sample soil geochemical program at the Goldridge prospect within its Bondoukou project in Côte d'Ivoire. The program is targeting a 9 km-long gold corridor to identify multiple drill targets, with soil assay results to guide follow-up trenching and scout reverse circulation drilling.

Peninsula Energy has restarted uranium precipitation and dried yellowcake production at its Lance project in Wyoming after replacing and commissioning agitator assemblies in its precipitation tanks. The nameplate capacity of the central processing plant remains unchanged at 2.0 million pounds per year and the company's 2026 guidance is unchanged at between 0.4 and 0.5 million pounds of uranium oxide.

Novo Resources is gearing up to drill its Wyloo antimony project in WA's Pilbara later this month, after finalising the A$6.2-million phase one tranche of an A$8.2M March placement, with A$2M still to come in tranche two. Drilling will kick off with 2500m of reverse-circulation holes at Wyloo, before moving to maiden drilling at Cronus, follow-up aircore drilling at Balla Balla and then its Teichman project, targeted for September.

Terrain Minerals is closing in on a maiden gold resource at its Lightning prospect in WA, with drilling at Smokebush rapidly building the geological picture as the company edges towards a defining milestone. The company is also advancing gallium and rare earths at its Larin's Lane prospect and drilling for rare earths at Lort River near Esperance, setting up a busy run of assays and updates.

St George Mining's Araxá drilling in Brazil has delivered its thickest intercept yet, headlined by 178.7 metres at 4.34 per cent total rare earth oxides and 0.75 per cent niobium pentoxide from surface. More long, high-grade hits continue to stack up, supporting a scoping study for a potential niobium operation and adding serious momentum to resource growth.

St George Mining has signed a memorandum of understanding with Boston Metal to test Boston Metal's molten oxide electrolysis process for producing ferroniobium at the Araxá project in Brazil. The process could simplify conventional refining steps, lower costs and cut carbon emissions, with rare earths also potentially concentrated in slag, thereby reducing onward processing costs.

MetalsGrove Mining has upgraded its Fifty-Five prospect at the Zuénoula project in West Africa, after soil sampling returned a remarkable peak soil gold value of 583ppb gold in a 3.3-kilometre-long section of a more extensive northeast-trending structural corridor. The regional sampling program has outlined seven prospects across the permit, with further infill and step-out sampling planned alongside regolith mapping and high-resolution LiDAR interpretation, ahead of drill targeting.

American West has kicked off a 5000m diamond drilling program at its West Desert project in Utah, USA, chasing multiple high-priority indium and gallium targets beyond the company's existing resource footprint. The program will test for high-grade indium-copper-silver-gold skarns in the company's Goldilocks Zone, Apex-style gallium targets along the Juab Fault and other gravity and magnetic geophysical anomalies similar to those at its West Desert resource.

Neometals Limited has delivered a compelling exploration update from its Barrambie gold-silver-copper project near Sandstone in WA's Mid West region. Newly received silver assays from drilling of the historic Rinaldi copper mine have strengthened the company's case for a coherent primary hydrothermal copper-silver system. The strong positive correlation between silver and copper downhole indicates that silver is genetically linked to a primary copper sulphide mineralising system and not just a surface effect.

MetalsGrove Mining is emerging as a focused West African gold explorer, with early soil sampling and mapping defining multiple targets at its Zuénoula project in Côte d'Ivoire. The project forms part of a larger 1315-square-kilometre landholding along a highly prospective Birimian greenstone belt, where the company is steadily moving towards drill ready targets.

Lindian Resources has brought its Tipume accommodation camp online at its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, enabling workforce mobilisation and removing a key logistics constraint as construction ramps up. The camp underpins Lindian's push toward first rare earths production targeted for Q4 2026.

Aurum Resources has secured firm commitments for a $28.8M placement at a premium price of 60 cents per share, anchored by Perseus Mining's $23.69M investment for a 9.9 per cent stake. With cash expected to top $60M, Aurum will push ahead with a Boundiali feasibility study and a 130,000-metre drilling program across its Boundiali and Napié gold projects in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa.

Neometals Limited has locked in a controlling stake of Utah Brine Corporation, gaining low-cost exposure to a lithium and potash brine opportunity in the Paradox Basin in Utah, USA. The venture has exclusive access to 24 inactive oil and gas wells for sampling and test work. Neometals will fund up to US$2 (A$2.82) million over three years.

Neometals has completed five reverse-circulation holes for 495m at the historic Rinaldi copper prospect within its Barrambie project, near Sandstone in WA's Mid West. Early results have confirmed primary copper sulphides 70m below surface, including the key copper ore minerals bornite and chalcopyrite. Early results from only 10 per cent of the submitted samples include 7m at a respectable 1.72 per cent copper from 82m depth.

Neometals Limited has delivered a positive scoping study for its Ironclad deposit at the company's fully owned Barrambie gold project in WA, pointing to a fast toll-milling run of up to 11,000 ounces of gold from an estimated 220,000 tonnes of ore at a grade of 1.8g/t. The study found that a proposed 50:50 mining services JV could fast-track mine development, with a kick-off in Q1 2027.

Dalaroo Metals has defined a high priority 2.5 kilometre drill target at its Bondoukou gold project in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa. Geological mapping and surface sampling have returned gold values up to 17.95g/t gold and point to a large, structurally controlled Birimian style gold system ahead of drilling.

Corazon Mining has struck a deal with IGO Ltd to expand its Plutonic-Marymia gold footprint, lifting the company's contiguous landholding to 537 square kilometres. The agreement hands Corazon historic exploration data, including non-public De Beers work and opens up an underexplored greenstone corridor ripe for modern sampling and geophysics.

Meeka Metals is preparing to install a wash plant, extra crushing circuit and Steinert multi-sensor ore sorter at its Murchison gold project near Meekatharra to lift its plant throughput from 600,000 to 800,000 tonnes per year and provide a higher-grade ore feed to the mill. The $6 million upgrade is expected to be commissioned in the September quarter.

NeuroScientific Biopharmaceuticals has taken a major step towards scaling up its StemSmart stem cell therapy by launching its first manufacturing run with Australian cell therapy specialist Q-Gen. The milestone signals the start of transferring the company's patented production process to a clinical-scale facility capable of supplying future trials and potentially, commercial demand.

MetalsGrove Mining has launched surface mapping, rock chip sampling and high-resolution LiDAR ground imaging to home in on drill targets at its Zuénoula gold project in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa. The company expects the work to wrap up by the end of March, producing high-resolution digital terrain models and imagery to define historic prospects, refine structural interpretation, understand gold dispersion and prioritise future drilling targets across the project.

Estrella Resources has received the final assays from its 2025 drilling at the Werumata limestone project in Timor-Leste. The Baucau limestone averaged 83 per cent calcium carbonate and Batu Putih chalk averaged 77.5 per cent carbonate, values which would support a range of industrial acid-neutralisation uses. Bulk density work is underway ahead of a maiden mineral resource estimate targeted for mid-April.

Horizon has wrapped up its latest mining phase at Boorara, retaining a hefty 460,000 tonnes of stockpiled ore containing 14,200 ounces of gold that will serve as the initial feed for the commissioning of its planned Black Swan processing hub in mid-2027. The move is designed to de-risk the mill start-up, while pre-production planning is also underway for an early-2027 Boorara mining restart.

Quantum Graphite says partner Sunlands Pure Group has signed an MOU with Oman's Al Buraimi Governorate for a planned, large-scale graphite refinery on a 240-hectare site in Buraimi, 60km from the nation's Sohar Port. The agreement recognises Quantum as the exclusive flake graphite supplier and flags a further update on funding and downstream arrangements within two weeks.

Terrain Minerals has kicked off 1500 metres of aircore drilling at its Lort River project near Esperance, targeting clay-hosted rare earths. The program was prompted by a standout 8m intercept 12 months ago, which assayed 4037 ppm total rare earth oxides, with peak one-metre results of almost one per cent TREO, including highly anomalous grades of magnet rare-earth elements.

Triangle Energy has signed a joint study agreement with an Indonesian institution for an offshore exploration area in Indonesia, overseen by the nation's Directorate General of Oil and Gas. The six- to eight-month study is expected to cost about US$300,000 and, once completed, will give Triangle priority rights to negotiate a production-sharing contract. The company says the area is unexplored and prospective for gas and oil.

St George Mining has inked a Memorandum of Understanding with a Brazilian fine chemicals specialist to assess processes for separating cerium and lanthanum from its Brazilian Araxá rare earths concentrates. With cerium and lanthanum making up the bulk of Araxá's rare earths mix, the company says removing them could boost its more valuable neodymium-praseodymium and other heavy rare earths concentration to boost its product value.

MetalsGrove Mining has added another promising piece to the exploration puzzle at its Zuénoula permit in Côte d'Ivoire, identifying a second gold target from early-stage soil sampling. The new anomaly stretches for kilometres along a favourable structural trend and sits just north of the company's previously defined Central Area. Samples have been consigned to Bureau Veritas' laboratory in Abidjan for fire assay, with results due mid to late March.

Corazon Mining has inked a diamond drilling contract with K-Drill for its wholly owned Two Pools gold project in Western Australia. The maiden program covers four holes for 1,000 metres, including a 400-metre test of a 300-metre north-west extension. Heritage and Program of Work approvals are complete, with drilling due to start once the final heritage report is received.

St George Mining has encountered more thick, high-grade rare earths and niobium intercepts from surface at its giant Araxá project in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil. New assays from 16 diamond holes have confirmed strong continuity and depth persistence, including up to 160.65m at 3.74% total rare earth oxides and 0.54% niobium pentoxide.

Horizon Minerals has pocketed another $10 million from its Phillips Find joint venture after completing mining and five toll-treatment campaigns. The project has processed 225,988 tonnes at 2.02g/t gold for 14,095 ounces of gold from five toll treatment campaigns, with more cash expected next month after final reconciliation. Horizon says the funds have strengthened its balance sheet as the company progresses its Black Swan processing hub plan.

Neometals Limited has upgraded the Ironclad gold resource at its Barrambie gold project in Western Australia's Mid West from 13,000 ounces to 285,000 tonnes at 1.6g/t gold for 15,000 ounces, with 86 per cent of the gold now in the higher-confidence indicated resource category. The update will bolster completion of Neometals' planned scoping study targeted for this month and support mine planning and approvals.