The Small Ordinaries rose 0.30% to 3,479.2 on Thursday, outperforming a weaker resources sector and tracking the broader market’s gain. While a pullback in major iron ore miners and a dip in Telstra weighed on the ASX 200, small-cap action was buoyed by fresh exploration moves and technology breakthroughs.
News flow is light on Friday morning, but early highlights include Asian Battery Metals expanding near its flagship Mongolian project and American Rare Earths hitting a processing milestone in the US.
Asian Battery Metals locks in nearby copper-gold project
Asian Battery Metals PLC (ASX:AZ9) has secured an exclusive option to acquire the Maikhan Uul copper-gold project in southwestern Mongolia, just 8 kilometres from its flagship Oval Cu-Ni-PGE discovery. The volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS)-style deposit sits under a mining licence valid to 2045 and has historical drilling to 215 metres confirming multiple mineralised zones, including a 2015 foreign resource estimate of 5.0 million tonnes at 0.58% copper and 0.16 g/t gold (non-JORC).
In a parallel move, the company has been awarded a new 3,327-hectare exploration tenement south of its Yambat Project, covering part of a regional magnetic high thought to extend key intrusive zones. Initial exploration, including IP geophysics, is slated for later this year.
American Rare Earths produces first Halleck Creek oxide concentrates
American Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:ARR, OTCQB:ARRNF) has reported the first production of both heavy and light rare earth oxide concentrates from its Halleck Creek allanite-based ore. The work, undertaken by the University of Kentucky under the US Department of Defense’s DARPA EMBER program, yielded 97.1% pure heavy rare earth oxide and 96.4% pure light rare earth oxide.
The results mark a key technical step for Halleck Creek, demonstrating that high-purity oxides can be produced from its ore and highlighting the potential of the SynBREE consortium’s biotechnology flowsheet as an alternative REE separation method.