The S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries (XSO) finished Friday at 3,550.50 points, down 19.80 points or 0.55% for the session.
Despite the weaker finish, the small-cap benchmark remained positive over the past five trading days, gaining 18.70 points or 0.53%.
It's been a solid start for news flow to kick off the new week, as resources companies remained firmly in focus, with uranium, gold and tungsten explorers reporting project acquisitions, new discoveries and drilling progress across Australia, Africa and the United States.
Atomic Eagle rebuilds uranium portfolio with Madaouela
Atomic Eagle Ltd (ASX:AEU, FRA:6QZ0) has agreed terms of a mining convention with the Republic of Niger to re-establish its interest in the Madaouela Uranium Project, adding a large-scale uranium asset to its existing Muntanga Project in Zambia.
Madaouela hosts a historical foreign mineral resource estimate of 116.5 million pounds of U₃O₈ at 1,282 parts per million, including 96.9 million pounds in the measured and indicated categories and 19.6 million pounds inferred. Combined with Muntanga’s 58.8-million-pound JORC resource, the deal would give Atomic Eagle a two-project uranium development platform across Africa.
Alkane uncovers new high-grade Cuffley zone
Alkane Resources Ltd (ASX:ALK, OTC:ALKEF) has identified a new high-grade gold-antimony zone within the Cuffley Lode at its Costerfield operation in Victoria, alongside additional drilling success in the deeper Sub-KC domain.
The company drilled 23 holes between the historical Cuffley north and south high-grade panels, identifying a new grade pod in an area previously thought to be low grade because of a cross-cutting fault. A further 17 holes targeted Sub-KC, returning additional high-grade infill intercepts, while the newly identified Cuffley zone is accessible from existing infrastructure and is being incorporated into the mine schedule.
Pilbara Gold expands Mt York drilling to 60,000 metres
Pilbara Gold Ltd (ASX:PGL) has reached the halfway point of its 2026 drilling campaign at the 2.1-million-ounce Mt York Gold Project in Western Australia’s Pilbara, with the program expanded from more than 50,000 metres to 60,000 metres.
Drilling is targeting extensions at depth, supporting plans for a large open-pit operation and increasing resource confidence ahead of a maiden reserve estimate. Pilbara Gold is targeting an updated mineral resource estimate in early 2027 and a pre-feasibility study around mid-2027, with managing director Dr Peter Turner pointing to wide zones of sulphidic banded iron formation around the Monster Zone beneath Main Hill as a key focus for upcoming work.
Lightning confirms high-grade tungsten at Warby
Lightning Minerals Ltd (ASX:L1M, FRA:YZ1) has reported further high-grade tungsten results from Phase 2 rock-chip sampling at its 100%-owned Warby Tungsten Project in North Queensland, around 25 kilometres north of Mount Surprise.
Five of six samples returned grades above 1.00% tungsten, with assays peaking at 5.46% tungsten. The results confirm the high-grade mineralisation identified during Phase 1 and provide further support for Lightning’s systematic evaluation of the project.
Resolution confirms near-surface gold discovery in Idaho
Resolution Minerals Ltd (ASX:RML, OTCQB:RLMLF, FRA:NC3) has confirmed a near-surface gold discovery at Golden Gate South within its 100%-owned Horse Heaven Antimony-Tungsten-Gold-Silver Project in Idaho, with gold intersected in all three diamond holes reported so far.
The standout hole, HH-GG26-003C, returned 305.7 metres at 0.64 g/t gold from surface, including higher-grade intervals such as 17.25 metres at 1.19 g/t gold. Other holes returned 32.6 metres at 0.49 g/t gold from surface and 49.5 metres at 0.58 g/t gold from surface, with the results extending known gold mineralisation by at least 2,000 metres from Golden Gate North to Golden Gate South. Further assays remain pending.