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Interest rate pressure continued to dominate the top end of the stock market this week, along with recession speculation and China’s economic slowdown, but in the lower reaches sentiment was saved by solid exploration and discovery news.

Just as silver has been dubbed the poor man’s gold so has graphite been described as poor man’s lithium, though an eye-catching discovery which doubled the money of investors in Kingsland Minerals (ASX: KNG) could put a gloss on graphite’s tarnished reputation (reports Tim Treadgold on Small Caps).

By Tim Treadgold on Small Caps.

Shares in Simon Lil’s Nimy Resources have had a canter on the back of a potentially promising lithium play called Mons north of Southern Cross in Western Australia (reports MiningNews).

RareX’s recasting of its flagship Cummins Range project from a rare earths (REE) play into a hybrid phosphate-REE development with the fertiliser being first off the rank has two advisory firms applauding the decision (reports Stockhead).

New World Resources believes the historical Javelin VMS project could host viable satellite targets for trucking ore to the Antler processing plant nearby (reports Stockhead).

As quickly mobilised spot volumes become scarce, speculators could use the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (SPUT) to push yellowcake prices sharply higher, say Leigh Goehring and Adam Rozencwajg (reports Stockhead).

Red 5 continues to increase production at King of the Hills near Leonora while accommodating planned mill and crusher maintenance shutdowns (reports The West Australian).

Kingsland has bolstered its confidence in the potential of the Leliyn graphite project in the NT after receiving highly promising results from an EM survey (reports Stockhead).

Cygnus Metals (ASX: CY5) has revealed a significant clay-hosted rare earths discovery in Western Australia today, with initial assays from drilling at the Bencubbin project showing the discovery contains a significant percentage of high-value, potential magnet creation rare earths (reports Small Caps).

Rox Resources is gearing up for a big year of exploration at its Youanmi gold project near Mt Magnet, with the junior explorer hoping high-grade drilling results to the south could turn it into the next Bellevue Gold (reports The West Australian).