Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

AVZ Minerals has laid claim to having the world's biggest hard-rock lithium deposit after pumping up the resource at its Manono play in the DRC to a whopping 574 million tonnes at 1.63 per cent lithium oxide. It comes on the back of tabling a maiden resource for its Carrière de L'Este pegmatite of 173 million tonnes at 1.58 per cent lithium oxide.

Terrain Minerals has identified traces of sulphides and alteration in samples in a maiden drilling program at the company's Larin's Lane deposit in Western Australia's Mid West region after plunging 101 drill holes for 6611m. The company says the campaign within its 100 per cent-owned Smokebush project was aimed at testing the bedrock under previously-defined copper, nickel and gold anomalies at the prospect.

The first look at Buru Energy's Rafael well three-dimensional (3D) seismic cube shows data quality improvement and confirms the structure as a significant gas and condensate resource – with step-out prospectivity. Management says it can already see the reservoir and top-seal intervals in a structure similar to that mapped on historic two-dimensional data. The final volume is due by the end of February.

Si6 Metals has added further impetus to its highly-prospective Botswana precious and base metals play, with its latest drill program striking high-grade silver and copper and exciting visual nickel sulphides. The company's three projects in the southern African country provide a compelling mix of in-demand metals that are all expected to play a big role in the future clean-energy transition.

Lithium Universe says a study into its lithium carbonate refinery at its burgeoning Québec processing hub suggests it should produce a final lithium carbonate product grading between 99.5 and 99.9 per cent. The refinery is rated to 16,000 tonnes per annum, with an assumed feed grade of 5.5 per cent lithium oxide. Hatch has completed the study and a construction site has been selected.

Novo Resources will join forces with SQM Australia after the latter agreed to pay $10 million for a 75 per cent interest in five of the former's lithium-nickel tenements in Western Australia's West Pilbara region. The two companies will create the “Harding Battery Metals” joint venture, with the deal also including an option over additional tenements held by Novo in the Pilbara.

ASX-listed Larvotto Resources is looking at a major transitional change from mineral explorer to producer after confirming it had picked up the Hillgrove gold-antimony project in NSW for a song. The company acquired the 1.4-million-ounce gold equivalent operation after entering into a binding term sheet with the administrators of former owner Red River Resources for a purchase price of less than $6 per ounce.

Meeka Metals says it has gathered high-grade gold results from 10 infill air-core drillholes at its St Anne's resource target about 30km north-east of Meekatharra, including a 7m hit at a grade of 3.51g/t gold with 2m going 9.84g/t. The company says the results are supported by other high-grade intercepts in adjacent holes, including 1m at 13.45g/t gold.

King River Resources is set for a big 2024, with 20,000m of drilling planned for 12 priority targets at its Tennant Creek gold project in the Northern Territory after running an extensive geophysics campaign this year. The company has set aside $2.5 million for the program, which includes 17 reverse-circulation (RC) holes already completed for 2790m at its Providence prospect.

A Strickland Metals decision to lock its full focus on its Marwari target at Yandal in Western Australia is paying almost immediate dividends, with new high-grade gold hits including 24m at 7.4g/t from 29m and a second hole yielding 3m at 8.9g/t gold from 71m. The company says the 24m intersection also contained a 5m slice going 28g/t gold.

Aruma Resources has produced its best rare earths grades to date from its Saltwater project near Newman in Western Australia, with rock-chip assays as high as 1777.5ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO) and soils as high as 1092.5ppm. The company says the area continues to reveal a major volcanogenic massive sulphide system hosting multi-commodity enrichment that will be tested by drilling next year.

This week's Bulls N' Bears profiled ASX runner is … Arrow Minerals. Its shares tripled this week to join fellow movers and shakers Battery Minerals, West Cobar Metals and Sigma Healthcare.

88 Energy has expanded its footprint in Texas after agreeing to pick up an interest in Permian Basin production and development assets with best-estimate reserves of 0.68 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE). The ground has nine producing wells that pumped out 6200BOE gross in 2022 – with an estimated net profit for the project of about $300,000.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has grabbed 38.5 square kilometres of highly-prospective new gold ground east of Kalgoorlie in WA – and it sits just 1800m away from shallow gold hits at its Kirgella Gift and Providence targets. The new permit has not been subjected to in-depth historic exploration, but is on a major tectonic feature that also hosts Ramelius Resources' 1.4-million-ounce Rebecca gold project.

Everest Metals has determined a JORC-compliant rubidium-lithium exploration target at its Mt Edon project in WA's South Murchison region, but says more work is required to quantify the geological system. The company has today outlined a resource target range of between 3.2 and 4.5 million tonnes, with potential grades going 0.23 to 0.35 per cent rubidium oxide and 0.08 to 0.12 per cent lithium oxide.

Buxton Resources has nailed a massive 405.38m intercept at 0.7 per copper equivalent from 608.38m during its maiden drill program testing porphyry mineralisation at its Copper Wolf project in Arizona. The impressive intersection sits below a previous drillhole that returned 83.76m grading 0.9 per cent copper equivalent from 527.91m, which the company says results in an aggregate section of about 485.85m going 0.73 per cent.

ABx Group says three runs of its new bath reactor under standard process conditions have removed more than 90 per cent of fluorine from test samples and is producing hydrogen fluoride gas from each batch. The company says metal sulphate samples from the process have been sent for analysis to confirm yields, with results expected next month.

Infinity Mining rock-chip sampling has extended the pegmatite strike length of its recently-renamed Woody prospect in WA's Pilbara region from 1.5km up to 5.7km, with a peak result of 2.9 per cent lithium oxide. The company collected 98 samples from the site, with 12 assays showing results above 1 per cent lithium oxide from outcropping pegmatites and 30 displaying visible spodumene or lepidolite.

Everest Metals is on the hunt for potential ore-grade gold and base metals mineralisation in an area of about 22 square kilometres at its Revere project in Western Australia's Mid West region following an initial drilling program. The company interprets the results as evidence of proximity to potentially significant styles of mineralisation such as base metal sedimentary exhalative deposits and possible orogenic gold.

American West Metals has pumped up the mineral resource at its West Desert project in Utah with nearly 24 million ounces of indium and 119,000 gold ounces and says it has the only indium deposit in the United States. The updated JORC resource adds to the existing 1.3 million tonnes of zinc, 49,000 tonnes of copper and 10 million ounces of silver at the project.

BMG Resources' second round of drilling at its Bullabulling project near Coolgardie in Western Australia has nailed high-grade gold hits up to 4m at 10.12g/t in shallow drilling and confirmed stacked, lithium-rich pegmatites with a best slice of 4m at 0.56 per cent lithium oxide. The company says it highlights its discovery potential in a “world-class Australian lithium and gold region”.

ChemX Materials has shifted its focus from its micro-plant operation to the design and delivery of the company's high-purity alumina pilot plant after achieving 99.996 purity using its “HiPurA” process. It is now on track for first commissioning in next year's first quarter and with the purity capability consolidated within the design, the next stage of development is the procurement of longer lead items.

Reach Resources says it has seen multiple thick, stacked pegmatites in reverse-circulation (RC) cuttings within the same rock package that hosts Delta Lithium's Malinda and Jamesons projects to the east and west. The company says it has now completed 57 RC holes for 5282m at its Morrissey Hill lithium project in Western Australia's Gascoyne region, with the majority intersecting pegmatites.

Rock chips from Askari Metals' 100 per cent-owned Barrow Creek rare earths and lithium project in Australia's Northern Territory have come back as high as 11,610 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO). Other rock chips assayed at 2507ppm and 2446ppm TREO, correlating with historic rock chips that went as high as 4553ppm, 2143ppm, 1243ppm, 1235ppm and 1091ppm TREO.

Gold Mountain's stream sediment sampling has identified anomalous lithium in four of its five Juremal licences in Brazil and has defined targets for follow-up soil sampling to home in on the sources of the anomalies. The company says the three best stream targets are associated with west-flowing tributaries originating at or beyond the eastern boundaries of its easternmost block of licences.

Quantum Graphite has outlined an internal rate of return of almost 50 per cent and a net present value of more than $497 million following a financial update of its Uley 2 graphite project in South Australia. The independent assessment identified that doubling the mill throughput up to 1.2 million tonnes a year would lift production up to 100,000 dry metric tonnes of flake graphite.

This week's Bulls N' Bears profiled ASX runner is … Compumedics. Its shares more than doubled this week to join fellow movers and shakers in Alterity Therapeutics, Lanthanein Resources and Global Oil & Gas.

Xanadu Mines has tabled a staggering resource estimate upgrade for its Kharmagtai copper-gold project in Mongolia, jumping to 1.3 billion tonnes with 3.4 million tonnes of contained copper and 8.5 million gold ounces. The updated estimate represents a 12 per cent increase in tonnes, a 15 per cent surge in contained copper and a 9 per cent jump in contained gold.

Meeka Metals has bolstered the 685,000-ounce resource at 2 grams per tonne gold at its Turnberry deposit in Western Australia's Murchison region after delivering another round of high-grade oxide gold from 18 holes of infill drilling. The company is now pushing hard to finalise its development-ready status for next year in order to kick off mining.

A GreenTech Metals rock-chip sampling campaign has nailed new lithium hits along an east-west-trending, 2.5km-long pegmatite zone at its Kobe trend in Western Australia's Pilbara region, with the best results ranging from 1.01 to 2.31 per cent lithium oxide. The company says the results demonstrate the local persistence of high-grade lithium along the western part of the Kobe trend.

Legend Mining's mission to conquer WA's mighty – but patience-testing – Fraser Range has taken a positive new twist, with geophysical data defining three conductors possibly related to nickel and copper. The conductors, identified during a maiden high-power fixed loop electromagnetics survey over the company's entire “Octagonal” intrusive complex in the past three months, have positive drill intercepts with visual sulphide mineralisation identified in core.

Recent RC drilling at Kalgoorlie Gold Mining's Providence prospect in Western Australia's Goldfields region has turned up promising gold grades from just 20m depth, with broad runs of lower, but supportive grades prompting thoughts of open-pit mining. Management says the similarity of mineralisation to its adjacent Kirgella Gift prospect – and a possible plunge intersection between the two plots – may provide thicker or higher-grade zones.