James Pearson

Aurum Resources has tightened its grip on fellow West African gold explorer Mako Gold, boasting an 86.77 per cent ownership stake and setting the stage for the final act. Having already declared its off-market takeover bid as unconditional, Aurum has now upped the stakes by branding its bid “Best and Final,” signalling a determination to close the deal.

Thunderbird Resources has scooped the services of industry veteran George Ventouras as executive chairman in a shift the company says is a strategic move to accelerate an ambitious exploration agenda at its Rockvale and Kookabookra antimony-gold projects in New South Wales. Ventouras has stepped into his new role following the resignation of former executive chairman, George Bauk.

The share price of Meeka Metals soared to a record high of 10.2 cents today after unveiling a set of stunning gold hits from its drilling at St Anne's, part of the company's flagship Murchison gold project in Western Australia. The results included a jaw-dropping 10m section grading 52.79 grams per tonne (g/t) gold within a broader 23m intercept running at 26.73g/t.

In a move that brings St George Mining a step closer to becoming a key critical metal producer, the company has raised $20 million in a placement to new and existing investors. The funds will be used to finalise its acquisition of the high-grade Araxá niobium-rare earth (REE) project in Brazil, adjacent to CBMM's world-leading operations in Minas Gerais, with settlement now due in March.

Aguia Resources is fast approaching first gold pour at the company's ultra high-grade Santa Barbara gold project in Colombia as it ramps up the mine and its processing plant to treat 50tpd of ore for the shiny yellow metal. The first 25 tonnes of ore has now been mined and loaded into a series of agitator tanks in preparation for the carbon-in-leach solution.

As Meeka Metals moves towards first mining in March, it has jagged more high-grade gold at its Murchison project in WA with 1m at 154.5g/t gold in 6m intercept at 26.47g/t from its ongoing infill RC drilling. Management says the findings have reinforced the company's confidence in its open pit production strategy, with the first gold pour scheduled for late June or early July.

This week's Bulls N' Bears Runner of the Week is… 5E Advanced Materials, up 86 per cent following a booming price for its dual listed shares on Nasdaq and as it focuses on becoming a vertically integrated and global boron producer. On home turf, Lycaon Resources also stunned the market with a coup of epic proportions landing industry veteran, Tony Rovira, who has joined the company's ranks as a non-executive director.

Lycaon Resources shares soared 66 per cent to 15c a share after the company bolstered the board and its bank balance by locking in former Azure Minerals managing director Tony Rovira as a new non-executive director of the company. The well-regarded mining veteran has also agreed to invest $360,000 in Lycaon through the issue of four million new shares at 9c a share.

88 Energy has banked a US$1 million payment from its joint venture partner, Texas-based Burgundy Xploration, as part of an outstanding US$4 million cash call, now due in February. The funding is supporting the ongoing development of the company's massive Phoenix petroleum development in Alaska. Burgundy has reiterated its intention to provide full carry costs to earn an additional working interest in the project.

This week's Bulls N' Bears Runner of the Week is… icetana. The video analytic solution provider inked a three-year Malaysian security deal for 1 Utama, Malaysia's largest shopping mall which saw its shares peak more than 100 per cent higher during the week. Patriot Lithium also had a nice time in the sun following a transformative deal to buy into the highly prospective Zambian Kitumba copper project while a huge cheer went up for Mesoblast after it landed FDA approval for its cell therapy treatment. There was also Black Dragon taking out the silver… but we'll get to that.

Ora Banda Mining has extracted first ore at its new WA Sand King underground gold mine, just four months after opening the portal. Full-scale mining is set for March, with 60,000 ounces of gold per year expected by mid-year. The Sand King mine is a key piece of the company's ambitious Drive to 150 plan, aiming to produce up to 160,000 gold ounces annually by mid-2026.

Meeka Metals' infill drilling at its WA Murchison project has revealed high-grade gold at the Turnberry and St Anne's prospects, boosting plans to expand its production schedule. The key results at Turnberry included 9m grading 16.83g/t gold, including 5m at an eye-catching 29.02g/t gold while at St Annes the best hits included 11m grading 13.01g/t gold, with a sizzling 4m section running at 30.66g/t gold

Aurum Resources has unveiled spectacular gold intercepts at its Boundiali gold project in northern Côte d'Ivoire with one 1.19m hit grading 277.54 g/t gold from 31m depth at its BM prospect. The drilling program included 76 diamond drill holes at the Boundiali BM and BD prospects, covered more than 21,700m of drilling and delivered a plethora of high-grade finds.

Novo Resources has options to buy two exceptionally high-grade, drill-ready gold projects in New South Wales, including the John Bull prospect that has walk-up drilling targets in an area with seven historical shafts including one sunk in the mid-1880s. Novo said the acquisitions align with its strategy of identifying standalone projects that could host at least one million ounces of gold.

88 Energy has reinforced its position on Alaska's North Slope after securing four new, highly promising petroleum leases adjoining the existing 10 blocks it already holds at the company's Project Leonis grounds. Seismic data revealed the discovery of significant oil potential at the new prospect, which covers 43 square kilometres and contains a sizable target up to 102m thick.

Meeka Metals has posted a massively improved definitive feasibility study that places its Murchison gold project in WA firmly on the road to almost doubling its total free cash flow to $1 billion over the mine's expected 10-year lifespan. It also outlined a 31% boost in reserves and a 40% rise in production to 544,000 ounces over the decade with peak annual sales reaching 76,000 ounces in year five.

Novo Resources has picked up a new gold and base metals exploration play in WA's Pilbara region by locking up a 1520-square-kilometre land package near Onslow that is littered with evidence of historical mining. The two-part move involves pegging six new tenements together with securing an option on a 70 per cent interest in the nearby Cane River project held by a private company.

88 Energy has pinpointed no less than 10 independent hydrocarbon leads after doing the initial interpretation of newly acquired 2D seismic data across its PEL93 exploration licence in the Owambo Basin, Namibia. The findings, conducted by exploration program operator Monitor Exploration has reconfirmed substantial closed-in structures right across the southern area of the lease, previously picked up in geophysical survey.

Strickland Metals' Gradina prospect in Serbia is showing all the hallmarks of a company maker. One lode is now within 150m of surface where it is still open and mineralised to at least 603m. Single drill holes have intersected three separate lodes with seriously big widths and impressive grades and it looks like it still has more to give.

Latitude 66 will sell its Sylvania gold project in WA's Pilbara region to gold producer Capricorn Metals for $1.5m worth of Capricorn shares, potentially two or more $750,000-milestone payments and a 1% royalty. The deal is designed to help Latitude 66 fund its promising Finnish gold-cobalt project by unlocking value from what it says is a “non-core” asset.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has picked up a key tenement that joins its western landholdings at its Pinjin gold project near Kalgoorlie with its eastern tenements, creating one contiguous holding. It will pay fellow ASX-listed company Solstice Minerals 2.8 million of its shares, with a deemed value of $70,000 for the tenement and Solstice will also pick up a 1 per cent royalty.

Novo Resources surged 60% to touch 14.5c in intraday trading after the market got a good look at the value of its shareholding in unlisted Canadian miner San Cristobal. Novo offloaded 38% of its holding in San Cristobal for $11.5m, valuing the remainder of its shareholding in the private company at $19m. Novo now has $16.7m in the bank.

Lithium Universe has inked a strategic chemical supply deal with Quebec-based logistics company Servitank which the company believes will improve the operational efficiency of its proposed Canadian Bécancour lithium refinery project. The partnership will bring much needed expertise in chemical logistics and supply chain optimisation to the project, positioning Servitank as a key partner of the company.

After months of preparation, Lycaon Resources has kicked off a highly anticipated maiden drilling campaign at the Stansmore prospect within its West Arunta project in WA. The program will target a high-priority magnetic anomaly, which the company says could be a niobium-rare earths carbonatite, an iron oxide copper-gold orebody or an intrusion-related gold deposit.

Larvotto Resources has unveiled some stunning drill results from the Clarks Gully deposit, part of its Hillgrove gold and antimony mine in New South Wales, including 20m grading 8.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold equivalent and 6m at 17.2 g/t gold equivalent. The expanding deposit, which is rich in antimony, is rapidly promoting itself as a candidate for near-term feed to frontload early cash flows.

Larvotto has consummated an offtake deal with Wogen Resources for antimony from its NSW Hillgrove mine with a $6.1m prepayment that comes on the back of $8m worth of options being exercised to fast-track exploration and complete the project's DFS. Larvotto has been a market darling this year with its stock peaking during the year at a 1218 per cent premium to its low in February.

After a stellar run with the drill bit Latitude 66 is set to wrap some updated financials around its exciting KSB gold-cobalt project in Finland where it is aiming for a standalone development with scalable options. The company has appointed Como Engineers to run a scoping study based on the existing resource that will also allow it to scale easily if the resource can be grown.

Gold Fields Ltd and a number of financial institutions in addition to management and directors of Great Southern Mining have all piled into a $2.5m capital raise that will see Great Southern fire up its WA gold search. $153,000 was committed to by Great Southern directors and management subject to shareholder approval at a general meeting early next year, in the placement priced at 1.7c.

Latitude 66's Kuusamo Schist Belt gold-cobalt project in Finland will participate in a EUR €5 million (A$8 million) geophysics research scheme funded by the European Union that will focus on deep mineralisation. The initiative aims to focus efforts on three key regions that include Lattitude's project area, together with areas of the Iberian Pyrite Belt in Portugal and the Kalahari Copper Belt in Namibia.

Javelin Minerals has kicked off maiden drilling at its brownfields Coogee gold-copper project near Kambalda where it is looking to drill test a curious magnetic anomaly discovered near an old open pit. The drilling contractor, Topdrill, will accept shares in Javelin instead of cash for its drilling work that involves a two-phase reverse circulation program.

Estrella Resources' trial of induced polarisation technology at its manganese project in Timor-Leste has proved highly responsive and will be a critical tool for identifying supergene mineralisation. The trial was designed to run a survey line across ground Estrella could see was likely to host supergene mineralisation and then, by pairing up the results with visual observations, confirm the exploration method as valid.

Altech has locked in a second offtake agreement, this time with Reflau, a renewable energy project in Germany, to supply it with 158MWh of storage energy capacity over 5 years from its salt powered batteries. Only a few days ago Altech revealed it has received interest to fund its manufacturing facility in Germany.