Latest news with #OD6
Sydney Morning Herald
2 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Runners of the Week: OD6 Metals, Mount Ridley Mines, ActivePort & ETM
Bulls N' Bears' ASX Runner of the Week is Aussie rare earths renegade OD6 Metals, which joined the critical minerals chorus this week with a transformational saleable product produced at its mammoth clay-hosted Splinter Rock rare earths project near Esperance on Western Australia's south coast. The company unveiled a high-quality mixed rare earth carbonate product, which comes in at a promising 56 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO). It has also produced a mixed rare earth hydroxide at about 59 per cent TREO. The company produced the rare earths with the help of industry leader ANSTO using a much-simplified scalable heap leach process, which will drastically reduce the operational costs and capex of its final clay processing facilities. OD6 says its new plant flowsheet will slash hydrochloric acid use from 37.12 kilograms per tonne to 7.12kg/t, while boosting recoveries to an impressive 79 per cent TREO. By ditching costly tank leaching for a heap leach pad, the company has eliminated complex steps such as clay washing, using energy-intensive filters and recycling about 80 per cent of its acid, which is its most costly operational input. OD6 says its product should fetch a premium thanks to its high percentage of the magnet rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. It also has ultra-low levels of impurities uranium and thorium. The company's share price rocketed 250 per cent on Wednesday and Thursday to peak at 10.5 cents from last week's 3c close, fuelled by a massive $5 million in stock traded. OD6 will now court off-take partners across North America, Europe and Asia for its massive 682 million tonne resource at 1338 parts per million (ppm) TREO. With the talk of price floors and a massive slashing in costs at Splinter Rocks, OD6 has catapulted itself back into the Australian rare earths fray, closing the week in a trading halt ahead of raising funds for a renewed clay hosted rare earths push at its monster WA project. MOUNT RIDLEY MINES LTD (ASX: MRD) Up 250% (0.2c – 0.7c) Snagging silver this week is OD6's Esperance neighbour, Mount Ridley Mines, which rode the rare earths coat tails of its dazzling big brother in the region to see its share price also surge 250 per cent on the week. Mount Ridley's stock rose from 0.2c per share last week to a high 0.7c on Thursday. Given Bulls N' Bears doesn't do draws, and on the basis of it releasing no news, Mount Ridley took a backseat to the OD6, which is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the complex chemical processing department. Mount Ridley's eponymous project is just a stone's throw from Splinter Rock and hosts its own smaller, but still considerable, 168-million-tonne clay-hosted resource grading at 1201ppm TREO. The company says mineralisation at the project is highly analogous to OD6's clays and that previous hydrochloric acid leaching tests positions it as a dark horse to compete on the same field as its more advanced sibling. Mount Ridley kicked off its own capital raise on the week, spelling out a $830,000 raise and rights combo to advance its metallurgical testwork with ANSTO, mirroring OD6's heap leach innovations. The project's proximity to Splinter Rock and shared geological traits have given it a second chance at life. For now, this Esperance underdog is riding the sector's tailwinds, but with the world eager to get its hands on a Western rare earths supply, there looks to be plenty of upside left in this $3 million market cap minnow. ACTIVEPORT GROUP LTD (ASX: ATV) Up 200% (1.1c – 3.3c) Charging late to claim the final podium place on Bulls N' Bears Runners is AI solutions co-ordinator Activeport Group, after it launched Australia's first private cloud superhighway Private-Cloud Connect. The fibre service offers variable bandwidth for private cloud operators and demand inflow, allowing it to deliver a flexible premium service at a reduced cost. Private-Cloud now hosts three big customers DigiCo, Equinix and NextDC, which are tapping into Activeport's software-orchestrated network for secure and scalable connectivity. With the Australian artificial intelligence market projected to hit $22 billion by 2030, at a staggering 17 per cent annual growth rate, Activeport says its platforms are cornering a market niche linking private businesses to high-powered data centres. The market certainly lapped it up, with pundits piling into the stock on Thursday's ASX announcement. The company's share price rocketed to close the week at 3.3c today, up 200 per cent from 1.1c last week, on more than $9 million in stock traded. The company's ability to scale for heavy workloads, such as data migrations, while optimising daily operations costs has got the sector talking. Activeport's rapid customer uptake signals it as a strong market fit, allowing Private-Cloud Connect to leverage Australia's growing colocation infrastructure. The company's early dominance has its eyeing partnerships to scale its network into Asia and beyond. With the ASX buzzing over tech innovators, some Aussie darlings are seemingly showing their metal. ENERGY TRANSITION MINERALS LIMITED (ASX: ETM) Up 180% (5.5c – 15c) Closing out the Runners list this week is another rare earths hopeful in Energy Transition Minerals (ETM), which last week strategically scooped up its Penouta tin-tantalum-niobium mine in Galicia, Spain, for €5.2 million (A$9.2m) through an insolvency process. Surprisingly, that wasn't why the company's share price was running. Despite its promising new project, a feature story on Channel Nine's 60 Minutes program on Sunday really got ETM's stock going. Company management rather cheekily suggested on air that there were billions to tens of billions of dollars' worth of value in the ground at its Kvanefjeld rare earths project in southern Greenland, which is owned through an ETM subsidiary. This was followed by a quick retraction followed on Monday, but the company's share price was already humming. It shot from 5.5c to 15c intraday on a massive $13 million in stock traded. As the 60 Minutes' segment highlighted, Greenland is now and has long been opposed to mining, which might be why ETM added its Penouta project to the fold last week. The tin mine looks an absolute steal and has a shot at operating in the near term. Its existing infrastructure includes a new 1-million-tonne per annum gravity processing plant, which is primed for a restart, pending Spanish regulatory approvals. Acquired at a steep discount from its €28 million ($49.5 million) historical cost, Penouta's sunk capital and recent operation has ETM saying it offers a low-risk bet in a promising tin market experiencing its own supply squeezes. Penouta has a 1.1-billion-tonne rare earths resource, which complements its near-term cash flow potential. Additionally, ETM is freshly cashed up to navigate the project's regulatory approvals process and any permitting hurdles. One thing's for sure, if it can use its Spain proceeds to pull off its mammoth mine in Greenland, ETM will be on its way to becoming a powerhouse rare earths provider on a global scale.
The Age
2 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Runners of the Week: OD6 Metals, Mount Ridley Mines, ActivePort & ETM
Bulls N' Bears' ASX Runner of the Week is Aussie rare earths renegade OD6 Metals, which joined the critical minerals chorus this week with a transformational saleable product produced at its mammoth clay-hosted Splinter Rock rare earths project near Esperance on Western Australia's south coast. The company unveiled a high-quality mixed rare earth carbonate product, which comes in at a promising 56 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO). It has also produced a mixed rare earth hydroxide at about 59 per cent TREO. The company produced the rare earths with the help of industry leader ANSTO using a much-simplified scalable heap leach process, which will drastically reduce the operational costs and capex of its final clay processing facilities. OD6 says its new plant flowsheet will slash hydrochloric acid use from 37.12 kilograms per tonne to 7.12kg/t, while boosting recoveries to an impressive 79 per cent TREO. By ditching costly tank leaching for a heap leach pad, the company has eliminated complex steps such as clay washing, using energy-intensive filters and recycling about 80 per cent of its acid, which is its most costly operational input. OD6 says its product should fetch a premium thanks to its high percentage of the magnet rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. It also has ultra-low levels of impurities uranium and thorium. The company's share price rocketed 250 per cent on Wednesday and Thursday to peak at 10.5 cents from last week's 3c close, fuelled by a massive $5 million in stock traded. OD6 will now court off-take partners across North America, Europe and Asia for its massive 682 million tonne resource at 1338 parts per million (ppm) TREO. With the talk of price floors and a massive slashing in costs at Splinter Rocks, OD6 has catapulted itself back into the Australian rare earths fray, closing the week in a trading halt ahead of raising funds for a renewed clay hosted rare earths push at its monster WA project. MOUNT RIDLEY MINES LTD (ASX: MRD) Up 250% (0.2c – 0.7c) Snagging silver this week is OD6's Esperance neighbour, Mount Ridley Mines, which rode the rare earths coat tails of its dazzling big brother in the region to see its share price also surge 250 per cent on the week. Mount Ridley's stock rose from 0.2c per share last week to a high 0.7c on Thursday. Given Bulls N' Bears doesn't do draws, and on the basis of it releasing no news, Mount Ridley took a backseat to the OD6, which is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the complex chemical processing department. Mount Ridley's eponymous project is just a stone's throw from Splinter Rock and hosts its own smaller, but still considerable, 168-million-tonne clay-hosted resource grading at 1201ppm TREO. The company says mineralisation at the project is highly analogous to OD6's clays and that previous hydrochloric acid leaching tests positions it as a dark horse to compete on the same field as its more advanced sibling. Mount Ridley kicked off its own capital raise on the week, spelling out a $830,000 raise and rights combo to advance its metallurgical testwork with ANSTO, mirroring OD6's heap leach innovations. The project's proximity to Splinter Rock and shared geological traits have given it a second chance at life. For now, this Esperance underdog is riding the sector's tailwinds, but with the world eager to get its hands on a Western rare earths supply, there looks to be plenty of upside left in this $3 million market cap minnow. ACTIVEPORT GROUP LTD (ASX: ATV) Up 200% (1.1c – 3.3c) Charging late to claim the final podium place on Bulls N' Bears Runners is AI solutions co-ordinator Activeport Group, after it launched Australia's first private cloud superhighway Private-Cloud Connect. The fibre service offers variable bandwidth for private cloud operators and demand inflow, allowing it to deliver a flexible premium service at a reduced cost. Private-Cloud now hosts three big customers DigiCo, Equinix and NextDC, which are tapping into Activeport's software-orchestrated network for secure and scalable connectivity. With the Australian artificial intelligence market projected to hit $22 billion by 2030, at a staggering 17 per cent annual growth rate, Activeport says its platforms are cornering a market niche linking private businesses to high-powered data centres. The market certainly lapped it up, with pundits piling into the stock on Thursday's ASX announcement. The company's share price rocketed to close the week at 3.3c today, up 200 per cent from 1.1c last week, on more than $9 million in stock traded. The company's ability to scale for heavy workloads, such as data migrations, while optimising daily operations costs has got the sector talking. Activeport's rapid customer uptake signals it as a strong market fit, allowing Private-Cloud Connect to leverage Australia's growing colocation infrastructure. The company's early dominance has its eyeing partnerships to scale its network into Asia and beyond. With the ASX buzzing over tech innovators, some Aussie darlings are seemingly showing their metal. ENERGY TRANSITION MINERALS LIMITED (ASX: ETM) Up 180% (5.5c – 15c) Closing out the Runners list this week is another rare earths hopeful in Energy Transition Minerals (ETM), which last week strategically scooped up its Penouta tin-tantalum-niobium mine in Galicia, Spain, for €5.2 million (A$9.2m) through an insolvency process. Surprisingly, that wasn't why the company's share price was running. Despite its promising new project, a feature story on Channel Nine's 60 Minutes program on Sunday really got ETM's stock going. Company management rather cheekily suggested on air that there were billions to tens of billions of dollars' worth of value in the ground at its Kvanefjeld rare earths project in southern Greenland, which is owned through an ETM subsidiary. This was followed by a quick retraction followed on Monday, but the company's share price was already humming. It shot from 5.5c to 15c intraday on a massive $13 million in stock traded. As the 60 Minutes' segment highlighted, Greenland is now and has long been opposed to mining, which might be why ETM added its Penouta project to the fold last week. The tin mine looks an absolute steal and has a shot at operating in the near term. Its existing infrastructure includes a new 1-million-tonne per annum gravity processing plant, which is primed for a restart, pending Spanish regulatory approvals. Acquired at a steep discount from its €28 million ($49.5 million) historical cost, Penouta's sunk capital and recent operation has ETM saying it offers a low-risk bet in a promising tin market experiencing its own supply squeezes. Penouta has a 1.1-billion-tonne rare earths resource, which complements its near-term cash flow potential. Additionally, ETM is freshly cashed up to navigate the project's regulatory approvals process and any permitting hurdles. One thing's for sure, if it can use its Spain proceeds to pull off its mammoth mine in Greenland, ETM will be on its way to becoming a powerhouse rare earths provider on a global scale.
West Australian
2 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
Runners of the Week: OD6 Metals, Mount Ridley Mines, ActivePort & ETM
The ASX has another scorcher, with equities again reaching new highs. Materials stole the show on a positive week Down Under and the beleaguered lithium and rare earths sectors led the charge. Perth-based lithium giant Pilbara Minerals saw its share price surge nearly 22 per cent on news that global battery heavyweight CATL had closed some of China major mines. Australian employment data came back better than expected, cracking a low 4.2 per cent unemployment rate with 25,000 jobs added last month. The positive numbers were mostly due to population figures decreasing -and not because Australians are having fewer babies. The solid numbers slashed hopes for a September rate cut to a mere 35 per cent, and unfortunately, United States data also came back with higher-than-expected inflation. This led to the inevitable 'this is not a time for investors to panic but rather focus on fundamentals' calls from the wealth management big wigs. Anything to keep the funds in their pockets and our fees turning over, I guess. The real fireworks this week – and over the month - came from the white-hot Aussie critical minerals sector, in particular, rare earths. After Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King last week suggested floating price floors to rival the US's US$110 a kilogram neodymium and praseodymium benchmark, Australia's rare earths stock continued their tear to taking out three of the top four spots in this week's Runners list. And blue chips Lynas Rare Earths and Iluka Resources both saw their share price rise more than 50 per cent on the month. However, this week's Runner of the Week was taken out by a recently dormant rare earths giant lingering near Western Australia's south coast. OD6 METALS LIMITED (ASX: OD6) Up 250% (3c – 10.5c) Bulls N' Bears' ASX Runner of the Week is Aussie rare earths renegade OD6 Metals, which joined the critical minerals chorus this week with a transformational saleable product produced at its mammoth clay-hosted Splinter Rock rare earths project near Esperance on Western Australia's south coast. The company unveiled a high-quality mixed rare earth carbonate product, which comes in at a promising 56 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO). It has also produced a mixed rare earth hydroxide at about 59 per cent TREO. The company produced the rare earths with the help of industry leader ANSTO using a much-simplified scalable heap leach process, which will drastically reduce the operational costs and capex of its final clay processing facilities. OD6 says its new plant flowsheet will slash hydrochloric acid use from 37.12 kilograms per tonne to 7.12kg/t, while boosting recoveries to an impressive 79 per cent TREO. By ditching costly tank leaching for a heap leach pad, the company has eliminated complex steps such as clay washing, using energy-intensive filters and recycling about 80 per cent of its acid, which is its most costly operational input. OD6 says its product should fetch a premium thanks to its high percentage of the magnet rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. It also has ultra-low levels of impurities uranium and thorium. The company's share price rocketed 250 per cent on Wednesday and Thursday to peak at 10.5 cents from last week's 3c close, fuelled by a massive $5 million in stock traded. OD6 will now court off-take partners across North America, Europe and Asia for its massive 682 million tonne resource at 1338 parts per million (ppm) TREO. With the talk of price floors and a massive slashing in costs at Splinter Rocks, OD6 has catapulted itself back into the Australian rare earths fray, closing the week in a trading halt ahead of raising funds for a renewed clay hosted rare earths push at its monster WA project. MOUNT RIDLEY MINES LTD (ASX: MRD) Up 250% (0.2c – 0.7c) Snagging silver this week is OD6's Esperance neighbour, Mount Ridley Mines, which rode the rare earths coat tails of its dazzling big brother in the region to see its share price also surge 250 per cent on the week. Mount Ridley's stock rose from 0.2c per share last week to a high 0.7c on Thursday. Given Bulls N' Bears doesn't do draws, and on the basis of it releasing no news, Mount Ridley took a backseat to the OD6, which is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the complex chemical processing department. Mount Ridley's eponymous project is just a stone's throw from Splinter Rock and hosts its own smaller, but still considerable, 168-million-tonne clay-hosted resource grading at 1201ppm TREO. The company says mineralisation at the project is highly analogous to OD6's clays and that previous hydrochloric acid leaching tests positions it as a dark horse to compete on the same field as its more advanced sibling. Mount Ridley kicked off its own capital raise on the week, spelling out a $830,000 raise and rights combo to advance its metallurgical testwork with ANSTO, mirroring OD6's heap leach innovations. The project's proximity to Splinter Rock and shared geological traits have given it a second chance at life. For now, this Esperance underdog is riding the sector's tailwinds, but with the world eager to get its hands on a Western rare earths supply, there looks to be plenty of upside left in this $3 million market cap minnow. ACTIVEPORT GROUP LTD (ASX: ATV) Up 200% (1.1c – 3.3c) Charging late to claim the final podium place on Bulls N' Bears Runners is AI solutions co-ordinator Activeport Group, after it launched Australia's first private cloud superhighway Private-Cloud Connect. The fibre service offers variable bandwidth for private cloud operators and demand inflow, allowing it to deliver a flexible premium service at a reduced cost. Private-Cloud now hosts three big customers DigiCo, Equinix and NextDC, which are tapping into Activeport's software-orchestrated network for secure and scalable connectivity. With the Australian artificial intelligence market projected to hit $22 billion by 2030, at a staggering 17 per cent annual growth rate, Activeport says its platforms are cornering a market niche linking private businesses to high-powered data centres. The market certainly lapped it up, with pundits piling into the stock on Thursday's ASX announcement. The company's share price rocketed to close the week at 3.3c today, up 200 per cent from 1.1c last week, on more than $9 million in stock traded. The company's ability to scale for heavy workloads, such as data migrations, while optimising daily operations costs has got the sector talking. Activeport's rapid customer uptake signals it as a strong market fit, allowing Private-Cloud Connect to leverage Australia's growing colocation infrastructure. The company's early dominance has its eyeing partnerships to scale its network into Asia and beyond. With the ASX buzzing over tech innovators, some Aussie darlings are seemingly showing their metal. ENERGY TRANSITION MINERALS LIMITED (ASX: ETM) Up 180% (5.5c – 15c) Closing out the Runners list this week is another rare earths hopeful in Energy Transition Minerals (ETM), which last week strategically scooped up its Penouta tin-tantalum-niobium mine in Galicia, Spain, for €5.2 million (A$9.2m) through an insolvency process. Surprisingly, that wasn't why the company's share price was running. Despite its promising new project, a feature story on Channel Nine's 60 Minutes program on Sunday really got ETM's stock going. Company management rather cheekily suggested on air that there were billions to tens of billions of dollars' worth of value in the ground at its Kvanefjeld rare earths project in southern Greenland, which is owned through an ETM subsidiary. This was followed by a quick retraction followed on Monday, but the company's share price was already humming. It shot from 5.5c to 15c intraday on a massive $13 million in stock traded. As the 60 Minutes' segment highlighted, Greenland is now and has long been opposed to mining, which might be why ETM added its Penouta project to the fold last week. The tin mine looks an absolute steal and has a shot at operating in the near term. Its existing infrastructure includes a new 1-million-tonne per annum gravity processing plant, which is primed for a restart, pending Spanish regulatory approvals. Acquired at a steep discount from its €28 million ($49.5 million) historical cost, Penouta's sunk capital and recent operation has ETM saying it offers a low-risk bet in a promising tin market experiencing its own supply squeezes. Penouta has a 1.1-billion-tonne rare earths resource, which complements its near-term cash flow potential. Additionally, ETM is freshly cashed up to navigate the project's regulatory approvals process and any permitting hurdles. One thing's for sure, if it can use its Spain proceeds to pull off its mammoth mine in Greenland, ETM will be on its way to becoming a powerhouse rare earths provider on a global scale. Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact:
News.com.au
4 days ago
- Business
- News.com.au
Resources Top 5: Critica confirms Jupiter as Australia's largest magnet rare earth clay-hosted resource
Multiple MREO zones at Jupiter contain neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium Testwork identifies potential to produce gallium as a by-product at Leliyn graphite asset OD6 has produced high-quality MREC and MREH from Splinter Rock REE project Your standout small cap resources stocks for Wednesday, August 13, 2025 Critica (ASX:CRI) In what it considers to be a step-change in understanding the value potential of its flagship Jupiter rare earths project in WA, Critica has confirmed the project to be Australia's largest and highest-grade clay-hosted magnet rare earth resource. The step-change comes as magnet rare earth oxides (MREO) are critical for high-performance permanent magnets used in EVs, wind turbines, electronics, medical devices and defence systems. Although accounting for only a small fraction of total TREO content, industry commentary frequently notes that the MREOs can contribute the vast majority, in the order of 85% or more, of total basket value at prevailing market prices, making them among the most strategically sought-after rare earths globally. Investors also recognise the value creation potential of MREOs with CRI shares increasing 34% to 2c and more than 62m shares exchanged. Building on a July 2025 heavy rare earth oxide (HREO) review, Critica identified multiple higher-grade MREO zones containing neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, the four rare earths essential for the magnets. This work was based on the February 2025 resource estimate of 1.8Bt of ore at a grade of 1700ppm total rare earth oxides calculated a little over 18 months after Jupiter was discovered. At a 400ppm MREO cut-off, Jupiter contains 640 Mt at 490 ppm MREO and 2,100 ppm TREO within the broader resource. The maiden TREO resource established Jupiter as Australia's largest and highest-grade clay-hosted rare earths deposit and the MREO resource adds value, highlights Jupiter's scale and its concentration of high-value magnet REEs that support long-term demand from sectors including EVs, wind turbines, medical and defence. 'This is a turning point in the Jupiter story. The size of the resource has always been compelling, but this updated analysis confirms that Jupiter also has quality, with significant quantities of neodymium, praseodymium, terbium and dysprosium,' Critica's CEO Jacob Deysel said. 'What sets Critica apart is our approach. Rather than rushing toward an end product at all costs, we are systematically and innovatively advancing our metallurgical plan. 'We are applying a smarter, more targeted strategy, starting with a beneficiation stage that has upgraded high-value REEs into a small-volume stream while rejecting ~95% of the mined mineralised mass. 'This approach has the potential to deliver a significant advantage compared to projects requiring full-volume leaching. By removing this stream early, we are improving our pathway to more efficient processing and potential economic benefits, reducing the volume of material requiring chemical processing.' Kingsland Minerals (ASX:KNG) A testwork breakthrough has identified the potential to produce high-value gallium as a by-product from Kingsland Minerals Leliyn asset, Australia's largest graphite deposit, and resulted in shares reaching 15c, an improvement of 15.4% on the previous close. Mineralogical testing has established muscovite mica as the principal host of gallium within the Leliyn graphitic schist, with biotite mica a secondary host. This work has been verified by CSIRO analysis. Kingsland Minerals managing director Richard Maddocks said this marked an important development in the company's strategy to unlock value at Leliyn. 'Now we know what mineral hosts the gallium, we can work towards producing a gallium concentrate,' he said. 'It is anticipated that once a gallium concentrate is produced, additional work will assess the viability of extracting gallium and/or gallium compounds from the concentrate. 'It should be noted that gallium production will not be considered in the Leliyn scoping study due for release later in the September quarter,' he added. Kingsland has already completed an exploration target for gallium at Leliyn and plans to publish a maiden gallium JORC resource later in 2025. Gallium is a soft metal with a melting point near room temperature (30°C) and is a critical component in semiconductors, optical-electronic devices, solar panels and several military applications. Classified as a critical mineral in Europe, America and Australia, its market is projected to grow from US$2.45b in 2024 to US$21.53b by 2034. It isn't mined as a primary ore but is typically produced as a by-product of bauxite and zinc cores. OD6 Metals (ASX:OD6) OD6 Metals has produced high-quality mixed rare earth carbonate (MREC) and mixed rare earth hydroxide (MREH) from Splinter Rock REE project in WA and reached a 6-month high of 5.9c, a lift of 68.6% on the previous close. What makes the results more significant were the low impurities and high payability potential. The results were from heap leach liquor via metallurgical testing conducted by the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). MREC of ~56% TREO was produced via a simplified and scalable heap leach and impurity removal process flowsheet while MREH of ~59% TREO was also produced utilising the same process but using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to precipitate the saleable product. 'This is a significant milestone for OD6 and reinforces Splinter Rock's potential to become a competitive and scalable producer of high-value rare earth products,' MD Brett Hazelden said. 'Our innovative processing pathway – using a combination of nanofiltration, ion exchange and impurity control - has enabled us to produce a high-quality, low-impurity MREC and MREH product that meets or exceeds global benchmarks.' Bayan Mining and Minerals (ASX:BMM) As progress is made at the US projects of Bayan Mining and Minerals the company reached a 12-month high of 13c, a 51.2% increase on the previous close. Comprehensive exploration is progressing at Desert Star project in a prospective REE corridor in California's Mojave Desert. A total of 65 rock chip samples and 30 heavy minerals concentrate samples were submitted to ALS Laboratory in Reno for REE and multi-element analysis as well as gold fire assays with results expected shortly. At Desert Star North exploration is advancing 3km north of the 1.1Moz Colosseum gold mine. The claims are also along the same regional corridor as the Mountain Pass REE mine. Twenty one rock chip samples and 46 heavy mineral concentrate samples were also submitted to ALS with results expected in September. A desktop review of existing geophysical datasets from both projects is underway, leveraging high-resolution airborne magnetic, gravity and radiometric data along with satellite imagery to refine targets. At Bayan Springs South project in Nevada a second phase of fieldwork was completed and assays are anticipated within two weeks. Lion Energy (ASX:LIO) While there was minimal work on Lion Energy Port of Brisbane Green Hydrogen joint venture in the June quarter as a joint development strategy is refined, progress was made at the oil and gas operations in Indonesia. At the hydrogen project the JV received initial EPC cost estimates and continues to develop a strategy to optimise project costs. Hydrogen offtake discussions remain contingent on short-listing an EPC contractor and finalising development-cost assumptions. In Indonesia, production continued at Seram PSC in which Lion holds 2.5%. Gross quarterly production totalled 70,883 bbls of crude oil with Lion's share being 1,772 bbls. LIO also continued engagement on an East Seram PSC farm-in to secure funding for drilling Bula Karang prospect which is scheduled for Q2 of 2026. 'In the East Seram PSC, we continued to progress the high-graded Bula Karang prospect, which we view as a significant play opener,' chairman Tom Soulsby said. 'Across the hydrogen JV, our focus remains squarely on optimising development costs through rigorous EPC cost and risk management.'
