Doug Bright

Larvotto Resources has kicked off underground mining at its 100%-owned historic Hillgrove gold-antimony project near Armidale in New South Wales, marking a major milestone in the restart of operations, which have been largely dormant since 2016, following a collapse in antimony prices. Mining contractor PYBAR Mining Services has mobilised equipment and personnel to site, with development works now underway

Neometals has received a third round of funding support for its Finnish Vanadium Recovery project in Pori, with EU-sponsored EIT RawMaterials committing an additional €1.5 million for technical work. The backing follows a recent €48.7 grant from the Finnish government and underlines growing institutional support for the low‑carbon project.

Peninsula Energy has begun acidification at header house 14, a gateway to its MU-4 deposit, part of its flagship Lance uranium project in Wyoming, USA. The process, which is expected to last about three months, marks a critical step towards initial production. Upon reaching the target acidity, uranium-rich fluids will be redirected to the Lance central processing plant for processing into yellowcake.

St George Mining has delivered its thickest high-grade intercept to date at the company's 100 per cent-owned Araxá rare earths and niobium project in Minas Gerais, Brazil. One vertical diamond drill hole returned a massive run of 139.45m assaying 4.05 per cent total rare earth oxides and 0.55 per cent niobium pentoxide from surface.

Middle Island Resources has wasted no time putting an experienced hand on the tiller, appointing seasoned explorer and company builder Peter Spiers as chief executive officer. With more than three decades across discovery, development and corporate growth, Spiers steps in just as the company's Serbian assets begin to deliver the kind of results that can change a junior's trajectory.

Estrella Resources has delivered another set of exceptional assay results assaying up to 58 per cent manganese from its Ira Miri prospect in Timor-Leste, confirming the project as an emerging high-grade sedimentary manganese system. The company's drilling has returned multiple intervals above 50 per cent manganese with low impurities, including standout manganese results of 58.02 per cent in one hole and 55.1 per cent in a second.

Lindian Resources has taken complete control of its Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi by making an early payment of the final US$10 million tranche to acquire the remaining 33 per cent of the project from Malawian vendor, Rift Valley Resource Developments Limited. The transaction now takes the company to 100% ownership of the project, well ahead of the original July 2026 final payment deadline.

Rio2 Limited is acquiring the Condestable copper-producing mine in Peru for a total of US$217 million (A$327M), instantly transforming the company from a single-asset Chilean gold developer into a diversified Latin American precious-and-base-metals producer with immediate cash flow. Under the deal signed with private owner Southern Peaks Mining, Rio2 will pay an initial sum of US$180 million (A$271M) on closing, with a further US$37 million (A$56M) in deferred payments between 2027 and 2030.

Pilot Energy is in the final stages of a farm-out process for its wholly-owned WA-481-P gas exploration permit, with offers from short-listed parties due to close before the end of the month. The company's 8605 square kilometre offshore tenure extends between Cervantes and Geraldton and is the biggest Commonwealth offshore exploration license in Australia, embracing 130 graticular blocks in shallow water along Western Australia's Mid West coast.

St George Mining has delivered its thickest-ever high-grade rare earths and niobium diamond drill hit in the short but spectacular history of the company's 100%-owned Araxá project in Brazil, boring through a staggering 115.65m from surface. Latest assays confirm the carbonatite host system is not only enormous but continues to grow in scale, continuity and quality, with the new results set to drive a substantial resource upgrade in 2026.

Larvotto Resources has bought and taken delivery of Canadian-based Elemission's game-changing ECORE automated core scanning system. The new technology will make the company's NSW Hillgrove antimony-gold project the only operating mine site in Australia equipped with on-site laser ablation and atomic emission spectroscopy capability. The ECORE system delivers near real-time, high-resolution multi-element geochemistry and quantitative mineralogy.

Chariot Corporation has reported high-grade lithium oxide of up to 5.96% in first-pass rock chip sampling at its Fonlo and Iganna projects in southwest Nigeria, confirming the existence of fertile lithium-caesium-tantalum pegmatite systems and highlighting the country's growing appeal to Australian explorers. The company says the assays from six rock-chip samples, ranging between 2.66 per cent and 5.96 per cent lithium oxide, have showcased the potential for high-grade lithium-bearing pegmatites at both projects.

Terrain Minerals has successfully converted multiple prospecting licences to a mining lease which will secure its exploration and planned mining activities in the area for 30 years. The newly granted mining lease will firmly cement Terrain's presence in the prospective extreme northwest of its Smokebush project tenement area, about 350 kilometres north of Perth and 65 kilometres west of Paynes Find in WA's Murchison region.

Reach Resources has secured its prospective Jacamar gold prospect in the company's Murchison South gold project in WA with a recent mining lease grant centred less than 1 kilometre southeast of Payne's Find. The northern boundary of the Jacamar lease is about 1km south of the company's 61,300 ounce Blue Heaven gold resource, with both deposits lying on the major Primrose Fault, thought likely to be a mineralisation controlling structure.

Altech Batteries has completed a full board overhaul, with new leadership focussed on turning its Cerenergy batteries and Silumina Anodes technologies from technical successes into commercial reality. The Cerenergy development supports a definitive feasibility study, a Standard and Poor's “Dark Green” credit-rating and proven non-combustible safety, while the Silumina anodes pilot plant is shipping alumina-coated silicon samples, which deliver up to 55 per cent higher energy density and over 1000 cycles in independent tests.

Larvotto Resources has secured an exclusive option to acquire the Blockade mine, a successful historic copper operation surrounded by the company's existing Mt Isa tenements in northwest Queensland. The 152.7 hectare Blockade lease, 41km east-northeast of Mount Isa, initially fed silica flux to the Mt Isa Smelter before Mt Isa Mines exploited high-grade copper ore from a shallow oxide pit in the 1980s.

Corazon Mining has cleared a major hurdle at its exciting Two Pools gold project in Western Australia's Gascoyne region, with its two core tenements receiving formal government grant. The green light means the company can push full steam ahead with on-ground work and it has already finalised the design of an early-2026 diamond drilling program.

Neometals has delivered tantalising early gold assays of up to 21.88g/t gold from a recently completed reverse circulation drilling campaign at its wholly owned Barrambie gold project. The drill bit nailed two impressive gold intercepts, which hint at untapped potential in the Barrambie greenstone belt, 80 kilometres northwest of Sandstone in WA's prolific Murchison region.

After kicking the ball out of the park in the last lithium boom with its Mt Marion lithium mine, Neometals has backed up the truck for another tilt at what many believe is an impending 3rd lithium boom. The company has locked in a 60-day exclusive option to access a portfolio of inactive oil and gas wells in Utah's Paradox Basin to fast-track evaluation of lithium- and potassium-rich brines that might be lurking below.

Octava Minerals has landed some exceptional high-grade indium results up to 860ppm in re-analysed rock chip samples from its Sweeney's prospect at the company's Federation copper-zinc-silver project in western Tasmania. A fixed-loop electromagnetic geophysical survey has illuminated strong sulphide connectivity at the prospect, paving the way for imminent diamond drilling.

Aguia Resources has appointed Tim Hosking as the company's new Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately, following the resignation of William Howe as Managing Director and CEO. The leadership change comes at a pivotal moment for the multi-commodity explorer, with its flagship phosphate operations in Brazil on track for first production in Q1 2026 and efforts intensifying to revive the company's gold assets in Colombia.

Altech Batteries has inked a non-disclosure agreement with a major global EV battery maker for a confidential collaboration to evaluate Altech's proprietary Silumina battery anodes. Altech has shipped samples of its alumina-coated silicon to China for evaluation, while preparing coatings on partner-supplied graphite. Latest tests demonstrate 83% capacity retention after 1000 charge–discharge cycles, following addition of only 5% of Altech's Silumina anodes to a standard graphite anode.

Chariot Corporation has executed a binding agreement with Continental Lithium to establish small-scale lithium mining operations across its four Nigerian lithium projects. The three-phase plan will transform selected artisanal workings into formal lithium production operations, targeting early cash flows through toll or onsite processing and existing Chinese buyer interest. Continental will operate on-ground while Chariot will arrange funding and offtakes. Mining operations will run parallel with regional exploration to identify new lithium resources.

Horizon Minerals is nearing the end of open-pit mining at its Phase 1 program at Phillips Find and its Boorara gold projects near Kalgoorlie in WA's Eastern Goldfields. With strong stockpiles built and first gold already flowing from both operations this year, Horizon Minerals is well down its path of transition from developer to consistent gold producer.

Lindian Resources has kicked off construction of its Tipume accommodation village at the company's world-class Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, representing an important development milestone. Kangankunde is a world class rare earths project that boasts 1000m mineralised drill intersections going well over 2 per cent total rare earths oxides. Australian critical minerals processor Iluka has already put its hand up for the offtake.

Meeka Metals has struck shallow high-grade gold south of the Andy Well underground mine in WA's Murchison district with a best hit of 4m at 27.82g/t gold, including 2m at 54.43g/t, extending the mine's Wilber Lode 450m further south. The latest intercepts lie directly along strike from the current southern ore development drives on the Wilber Lode, where on-reef development faces are reportedly running well ahead of the average reserves grade.

Soil sampling by Augustus Minerals has defined soil gold anomalism near Leonora in WA over a 1.2km x 0.6km footprint, with peak values ranging up to 44.1ppb. The high-grade core of the anomalism appears to be surrounded by a halo of lower but still significant soil values in the range of 2.7-9.3ppb gold, possibly associated with a lithological boundary.

Aurum Resources has delivered more bonanza-grade gold hits, including a stunning 3.1 metres at 70.78 g/t gold from its drilling program at the company's 2.41 million ounce Boundiali project in West Africa. The intercept is part of a broader 5.10m intercept at 43.13g/t gold from just 112.9m that lies outside Aurum's current gold resource estimate for its 16.2 million tonne BMT3 deposit.

ASX listed Neometals has welcomed the backing of the Government of Finland which will contribute a €48.7M (A$86.8M) grant towards the building of a vanadium recycling plant in the Finish port of Pori. The plant will recycle vanadium industrial waste streams using technology developed by Neometals which owns 86% of the €400M project and a 2.5% royalty over it.

Terrain Minerals is getting set to launch a 4500m reverse circulation drilling program at its 100%-owned Lightning gold-silver prospect in WA's Murchison, targeting a maiden JORC resource by mid-2026. The 21-hole campaign aims to extend known high-grade zones, test new magnetic targets and will probe a potential repeat discovery at Lightning, with first assays due mid-February.

Perth-based Horizon Minerals has struck a binding heads of agreement to sell its 100 per cent-owned non-core Lake Johnston nickel project in Western Australia to emerging explorer Forrestania Resources for a total consideration of $35 million which includes a $30m cash component. The deal, expected to settle by the end of January, remains subject to Forrestania securing the funding via a capital raise, also includes Horizon receiving $5m in Forrestania shares.

Corazon Mining has lodged a strategic tenement application to expand its Two Pools gold project in WA's Gascoyne region, targeting a hidden northeast extension of its high-grade Two Pools gold mineralisation. The project features historical high-grade gold intercepts, with one hole delivering 12m at 8.89g/t gold from 79m including 3m at 34.25g/t gold from 80m.