The sheer scale of Caravel’s namesake copper project in Western Australia and strong outlook for the red metal are reason enough for Canaccord Genuity to initiate coverage on the company (reports Stockead).

Cygnus has added to its lithium exploration ground in the James Bay region of Quebec, Canada, outlaying about C$700,000 cash and issuing nearly 7.5 million shares in staged transactions for two options (reports MiningNews).

The huge potential of Nimy Resources’ (NIM) base metals project in WA has been highlighted by the outstanding results of the latest geophysical survey, which has identified 21 compelling anomalies (reports Stockhead).

Explorer RareX has released the first of two planned resource updates for its Cummins Range project in Western Australia’s Kimberley region (reports MiningNews).

Junior explorer Bellavista Resources has kicked off a diamond drilling program to test “compelling” targets at the Brumby zinc-silver-copper project, 130km southwest of Newman in Western Australia (reports MiningNews).

Evion’s planned Panthera Graphite Technology expandable graphite plant in India is now fully funded to production after the joint venture secured a highly-favourable US$2.1m loan (reports Stockhead).

Chalice Mining says a chunk of one of Australia’s biggest undeveloped nickel sulphide discoveries is officially up for grabs after a major upgrade in the size of the Gonneville deposit just outside Perth (reports The Australian Financial Review).

Pilbara Minerals chief Dale Henderson says Albemarle’s willingness to pay a 63 per cent premium for control of Liontown Resources highlights lithium’s long-term scarcity value and emboldened him to spend $560 million expanding his Australian mines (reports The Australian Financial Review).

If any confirmation was needed that metals are the new oil, it could be found at the FT Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne. At a meeting of traders, where energy and agricultural markets have historically taken centre stage, metals found themselves the centre of attention (reports MiningNews).

Kingsland has highlighted the potential of its Leliyn project to host a significant flake graphite deposit over 20km of strike with the delivery of an Exploration Target (reports Stockhead).

Shares in Kairos Minerals are poised to triple as the company grows its already-substantial WA gold inventory and ramps up lithium exploration, according to a new report from Resolve Research (reports Stockhead).

Coda Minerals says its Elizabeth Creek copper and cobalt project in the heart of South Australia’s copper mining belt would cost $577m to build and would generate more than $5.7bn over its life (reports The Australian).

Andrew Forrest talks a lot about fixing climate change and cleaning up the world’s oceans, but it seems his main mission in life is to frustrate BHP (reports The Australian Financial Review).

BHP and IGO are emerging as the front-runners to counter a $760 million takeover bid for Mincor Resources from Andrew Forrest’s Wyloo Metals (reports The West Australian).

Stavely Minerals (ASX: SVY) is moving forward with a significant new phase of exploration activity at its wholly-owned Stavely copper-gold project in western Victoria following an extensive review of regional and near-resource discovery opportunities last year (reports Small Caps).

Garimpeiro sent out the wrong message last year when he suggested it was a smart idea to pick up gold developers on the cheap to cash in on the market re-rating that would occur on first production being achieved (reports Barry FitzGerald on Stockhead).

Sunstone could soon have greater insight into the true scale of the T2 porphyry target within its El Palmar project with the start of drilling to test the geophysical anomaly (reports Stockhead).

Volkswagen is putting on hold a planned battery plant in Eastern Europe and prioritising a similar facility in North America after estimating it could receive €10 billion ($16 billion) in US incentives (reports Bloomberg).

Tim Goyder-backed Minerals 260 has refused to give up on its ambition to get on the ground in the emerging Gascoyne rare earth and lithium space after an aborted attempt last year (reports MiningNews).

The gold producers have been blaming all sorts of factors for what was a truly disappointing December quarter production effort. Diesel costs, skill shortages, general inflation, bad weather . . the list goes on (reports Barry FitzGerald on Stockhead).