A mix of global institutional, corporate and sophisticated investors has agreed to pump additional funds into Centaurus Metals to support advancement of the Jaguar nickel project in Brazil (reports MiningNews).

Battery Age has started summer fieldwork to identify and prioritise targets for drilling at its Falcon Lake lithium project in Ontario, Canada, with mechanical stripping now underway (reports Stockhead).

Yet another miner in search of success in Canada’s James Bay region has set its sights set on a stock market listing, with the eponymously named James Bay Minerals rattling the tin for up to $6 million as part of an initial public offering (reports The West Australian).

Chalice Mining has hit wide high-grade copper-platinum group element mineralisation roughly 900m down-plunge of its world-class Gonneville resource, north of Perth (reports MiningNews).

There is nothing quite like the steely glare of an exploration boss who says you will be talking to him again soon (reports Barry FitzGerald on Stockhead).

Boss Energy (ASX: BOE) is celebrating the arrival onsite of the first set of NIMCIX loading and elution columns for the new Ion Exchange (IX) circuit, a key milestone at its Honeymoon Uranium project in South Australia (reports Small Caps).

Exploration often gets pushed to the side when you’re a big mining developer but for advanced junior stocks, the discovery phase is where the real opportunity lies (reports Stockhead).

And fellow James Bay lithium explorer Cygnus is set to join the resource party soon after. Plus, Gascoyne Gold’s valuation seems to leave much upside. 

By Barry FitzGerald

Another 0.25% increase in the U.S. benchmark interest rate to a 22-year high of 5.5% was the biggest event in an exceptionally busy few days on financial markets this week with all eyes now on the Reserve Bank of Australia to see if it follows.

By Tim Treadgold. 

Nimy Resources (ASX: NIM) has hit rare earths and base metals in a newly-identified 4.5km corridor at its Mons project in Western Australia (reports Small Caps).

By Small Caps. 

Kingsland has good reason to believe that it will be able to convert part of the Exploration Target at its Leliyn graphite project into a maiden resource after drilling continued to return extremely wide, high-grade intersections (reports Stockhead).

DevEx has launched a foray into exploring for Kambalda-style nickel sulphide mineralisation after reaching an agreement to earn into the Highway project in Western Australia (reports Stockhead).

After finishing up a winter program of 16 drill holes, 92 Energy (ASX: 92E) is already planning to get the rigs working again next month (reports Small Caps).

With King of the Hills now operating above peak capacity just more than a year after pouring first gold, Red 5 has set guidance of 195,000-215,000 ounces in the 2023-24 year for the mine near Leonora (reports The West Australian).

Bill Beament’s Develop will not move forward in the tender process for the underground mining contract for Liontown Resources’ A$900 million Kathleen Valley lithium development (reports MiningNews).

Chalice Mining has received “strong interest” from partners eager to join it in developing the prospective nickel producer’s promising Gonneville project (reports The West Australian).

JPMorgan Chase sees an opportunity in gold ahead of a likely US recession, predicting prices will push past $US2000 an ounce by year-end and hit fresh records in 2024 as interest rates start to fall (reports The Australian Financial Review).

Boss Energy (ASX: BOE) has reported a “highly productive” quarter which saw it move closer to its target of achieving first uranium production before year end at the re-started Honeymoon project in South Australia (reports Small Caps).

From explorers like Kingsland to developers like Evion and producers like Syrah, the natural graphite sector is expected to roar back at the expense of its synthetic cousins. Plus, Rio gobbles a stake of graphite-rutile group Sovereign and Minerals 260 eyes lithium drilling in WA.

By Barry FitzGerald.

Confession time. It always precedes annual reporting season and arrived on cue this week with IGO first to admit to an almighty blooper when it wrote off close to $1 billion, or almost 75%, of what it paid last year for nickel miner Western Areas.

By Tim Treadgold.