The S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries closed modestly higher yesterday, rising 15.40 points or 0.41% to 3,809.10, although the index remains under pressure over the past week, down almost 5%. Against that mixed small-cap backdrop, several junior miners delivered company-specific updates that helped cut through broader market volatility. You can read about the following and more throughout the day.
Terrain Minerals Ltd (ASX:TMX, OTC:TMXAF, FRA:T4Y) has started diamond drilling at its 100%-owned Smokebush Gold & Silver Project, around 350 kilometres north of Perth, marking another step toward defining a maiden JORC Mineral Resource targeted for mid-2026. The initial program comprises four diamond holes designed to deliver critical density and geological data at the Lightning Gold & Silver discovery, where RC drilling is nearing completion following 21 holes for about 4,500 metres. Further RC drilling is planned at the Wildflower prospect, where 13 holes will test priority IP targets beneath gold-in-soil anomalies that share geological similarities with Lightning. The recent grant of a Mining Lease over the Lightning tenement further strengthens Terrain’s position as it advances toward resource definition.
UBS has warned of persistent supply risk in Queensland's metallurgical coal market due to recent severe weather.
Weekly coal shipments had recovered to 4.9 million tonnes in the last week of January, or 20% above the long-run average, but UBS estimates around 4 million tonnes of supply were already disrupted.
NextSource Materials Inc. (TSX:NEXT, OTCQB:NSRCF) said it has signed a non-binding letter of intent with Japan’s Hanwa Co Ltd and the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) for a potential investment of up to $30 million in the first phase of its proposed battery anode facility in the United Arab Emirates.
The Canadian-listed graphite producer said the parties are considering a project-level investment through a jointly owned special purpose vehicle that could result in Hanwa and JOGMEC holding up to a 15% equity stake in the Abu Dhabi facility once initial Phase 1 funding is completed. The investment could be made in one or more stages, subject to definitive agreements.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has lifted interest rates for the first time since November 2023, delivering a widely anticipated 25 basis point increase following its first policy meeting of the year.
The move takes the official cash rate from 3.6% to 3.85% and is expected to add about $100 a month to repayments on a $600,000 mortgage.
Corrosion is one of those industrial realities that rarely makes headlines but quietly drains enormous value from the global economy. By some estimates, corrosion costs amount to around 3.4% of global GDP each year — roughly US$4 trillion — largely through the degradation of steel infrastructure protected by industrial coatings.
Protective coatings are the first line of defence across sectors ranging from energy and transport to mining and heavy industry. Despite the economic stakes, one crucial part of the coatings lifecycle has changed very little over the past few decades: how performance is assessed once corrosion begins.
CuFe Ltd, Emmerson Resources Ltd and Tennant Minerals Ltd have secured $600,000 in matched grant funding from the Northern Territory and Federal Governments to progress a feasibility study into a multi-user minerals processing facility in the Tennant Creek region.
The funding, awarded to the Tennant Creek Copper Alliance (TCCA) — formed by the companies and announced in October 2024 — will support a study examining the potential establishment of a critical and other valuable minerals processing plant designed to service multiple users and provide a pathway toward development of the alliance members’ existing and future mineral resources in the area.
Galileo Mining Ltd has confirmed new zones of shallow palladium-platinum-gold mineralisation at its 100% owned Norseman project in Western Australia, following a December 2025 reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign targeting priority prospects near the Callisto deposit.
Results from drilling at the Mission Sill prospect have validated earlier aircore geochemical anomalies, delivering broad intercepts of anomalous Platinum Group Elements (PGE) across multiple drill sections. These outcomes further support the prospectivity of geological settings analogous to those hosting the existing Callisto palladium-platinum-gold-rhodium-nickel-copper resource.
Premier1 Lithium Ltd will begin drilling at its high-priority Mt Kersey gold prospect at the Yalgoo Gold Project in Western Australia after completing the 100% acquisition of the project.
The company is set to start a 3,700 metre reverse circulation (RC) program targeting Mt Kersey, located east of the 100%-owned Wadgingarra prospect, which hosts a maiden inferred resource of 150kt at 2.7g/t gold for 13,000oz contained gold.
Rhythm Biosciences has taken another step towards commercialising its ColoSTAT blood-based colorectal cancer test, securing a multi-year manufacturing agreement with US-based Quansys Biosciences to supply reagent kits at commercial scale.
The agreement provides Rhythm with ISO13485-certified manufacturing capacity to support both the ColoSTAT Access Program and a broader commercial rollout, while reducing scale-up and quality system risks following 2 years of collaborative assay development between the groups.