Latest Economic Assessment News

AusQuest has materially expanded its Cangallo copper-gold discovery in Peru, but the exploration push came with a larger loss, a sharp rise in cash outflows and an auditor warning that further funding is likely within 12 months. The company ended FY2026 with $6.35 million in cash after a $10 million placement.

Infinity Metals has reported a sharply smaller FY2026 loss as it shifts its exploration focus towards the United States and Australia. The pivot follows rejection of its San José mining licence application, a A$2.25 million placement and a growing portfolio of early-stage copper, molybdenum and tin targets.

DPM Metals has extended its Brevene Porphyry South discovery with long, high-grade gold-copper-molybdenum intercepts, including 716.6 metres at 3.30 g/t gold equivalent. Mineralisation now reaches the Chelopech mine concession and remains open in several directions and at depth.

Olympio Metals has started a roughly 1,500-metre maiden diamond drilling program at its Jacknife silver project in Idaho, targeting mineralisation linked to more than 3.2 million ounces of historical silver production. The campaign is significant, but the company must still verify old data before it can establish a JORC-compliant resource.

QMines is spending $2.388 million on two freehold properties that remove a key access constraint over the Botos deposit near Mt Chalmers. The acquisition clears the way for modern drilling, but the deposit remains an untested conceptual opportunity rather than a defined resource.

Lefroy Exploration is considering folding the high-grade portion of its Burns deposit into the Mt Martin Scoping Study, broadening the development case while pushing delivery into the December quarter. At Lucky Strike, a newly granted licence removes one hurdle but several approvals still stand between the mine and a targeted early 2027 restart.

FireFly Metals has turned a year of aggressive drilling into a substantially larger, higher-confidence Green Bay resource, backed by an August PEA and fresh funding. The next test is execution: feasibility, permits, construction decisions and the capital required to build a mine.

Taruga Minerals has identified a new northeast-trending gold-copper zone at Uaroo Ridge in Western Australia, led by a rock chip grading 1.4g/t gold and 4.3% copper. The result expands the prospect’s exploration footprint, but remains an early-stage surface sampling result with no drilling or resource estimate.

Morella has established a maiden 5.44 million tonne Inferred resource at Mt Edon containing approximately 8,300 tonnes of rubidium oxide. The estimate gives the project scale, but commercial value still depends on recovery, purification and a viable product route.

Australian Vanadium will pay $500,000 in cash, issue $1.25 million of shares and transfer a royalty to regain control of non-vanadium mineral rights at its Gabanintha project. The deal simplifies the project’s ownership structure, but the newly recovered nickel, copper and gold potential remains unproven and outside the current development case.

Red Metal’s Sybella project has moved closer to a development decision after heap-leach testing delivered strong rare earth extractions with low impurity levels. The company also reported a $19.17 million FY2026 profit, although most of that result came from the accounting gain tied to its Maronan Metals restructuring.

Empire Resources has identified rare earth oxide and phosphate mineralisation across three Yuinmery prospects, with new archived-drilling results reaching 1,712.5ppm TREO+Y. The early-stage opportunity now depends on additional assays, follow-up drilling and proof that the material can be upgraded economically.