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.
MustGrow Biologics Corp. (TSX-V:MGRO, OTCQB:MGROF, FRA:0C0) has announced positive results from a two-year field trial program testing its mustard-derived organic biocontrol product, TerraMG, on approximately 100 acres of canola across the Canadian Prairies.
The trials, conducted through MustGrow’s marketing and distribution subsidiary NexusBioAg, evaluated TerraMG’s effectiveness in suppressing clubroot (Plasmodiophora brassicae), a soil-borne parasitic disease that affects canola and for which no registered control products currently exist.
Millennial Potash Corp (TSX-V:MLP, OTCQB:MLPNF, FRA:XOD) has appointed Jack Scott as senior vice president, project development, a move aimed at bolstering the company's finance and infrastructure capabilities for its Banio Potash Project in Gabon.
Scott will focus on project financing, development of potash transportation infrastructure, and securing offtake agreements in support of Millennial's ongoing definitive feasibility study (DFS).
M2i Global Inc (OTC:MTWO) and Volato Group announced on Tuesday that Nimy Resources has initiated its first shipment of high-grade gallium ore from Western Australia to the United States under their collaboration agreement.
The companies said the material will be distributed to selected defense industrial base companies and academic institutions for analysis to determine refining processes suited to their requirements. The shipment is tied to Nimy’s Mons Project in Western Australia, which hosts a near-term gallium resource reported under the Australasian Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) code, alongside rare earth elements.
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.
Nextech3D.AI (CSE:NTAR, OTCQX:NEXCF, FRA:1SS) announced that its Krafty Lab platform has expanded to support international in-person enterprise event delivery and has signed a Tier 1 enterprise starter agreement with a multinational universal bank and financial services company.
The company said the agreement includes a pilot program of three in-person events across three countries, with a broader global rollout planned for the third quarter of 2026. Nextech3D.ai described the deal as an initial step that could lead to multi-region, long-term enterprise contracts.
Virtuix Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:VTIX) said on Tuesday it has integrated an AI-driven 3D reconstruction technique known as Gaussian splatting into its Virtual Terrain Walk (VTW) system, a move the virtual reality company says could significantly speed up the creation of realistic battlefield simulations for defense training.
The Austin-based company, which develops full-body virtual reality systems, said the technology allows real-world environments captured with 360-degree cameras to be rapidly transformed into high-fidelity, photorealistic 3D worlds. What previously took weeks or months to build can now be completed in a matter of hours, Virtuix said.
Hydrogen Utopia International PLC shares traded higher in Tuesday's early trade after it detailed an indicative business model for producing sustainable aviation fuel from waste plastics in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The company said the illustrative model sets out a proposed route using plasma-assisted waste-to-syngas, gas clean-up and Fischer-Tropsch upgrading. The model assumes around 200,000 tonnes per year of mixed waste plastics.
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.