The junior explorer re-listed on the ASX in February with a $6.5 million public offering and immediately hit the ground running at its Falcon Lake lithium project in Ontario, conducting site visits in the area and landing a drilling permit for its maiden program at the project.

This came alongside an expansion of BM8’s management team and the establishment of a Canadian office to take on the “rapid” exploration of Falcon Lake. During the March quarter, Nigel Broomham joined the company as General Manager of Exploration, bringing with him more than a decade of experience in the battery metals sector.

BM8 in early March signed on Rodren Drilling to conduct a maiden drilling program at Falcon Lake.

The company committed $1.6 million to operating and exploration work over the March quarter, meaning it had $4.5 million still in the bank at the end of March to keep moving forward with its drilling plans.

While BM8 plans to put the bulk of this funding toward Falcon Lake, the company plans to commit around $1.3 million in 2023 to exploration work across its three other secondary projects: Bloom Lake, also in Canada; King Tut, in Argentina; and Bleiberg, in Austria, in which BM8 is currently working to earn an 80 per cent interest.

The company said each of these was a “premium” asset in a tier-one location.

Shares in Battery Age Minerals closed 4.29 per cent lower to 33.5 cents on Thursday afternoon.

The company on Monday said bench-scale leaching testwork over concentrate material from the Bitterwasser project showed up to 82.1 per cent leachability of lithium using organic acid and 93.3 per cent leachability of lithium using sulphuric acid.

Arcadia CEO Philip le Roux said these tests, conducted at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, confirmed the lab-scale work the company had previously completed.

“The results confirm recovery of lithium using both sulphuric and a specific organic acid,” Mr le Roux said.

Arcadia said while the organic acid showed lower leachability, it indicated a “significantly” reduced recovery of contaminants such as magnesium and calcium in the leachate.

“It is encouraging that the organic acid resulted in a low recovery of magnesium and calcium given these metals are known to be detrimental to the further refinement of lithium carbonate and the production of a battery-grade product,” Mr le Roux said.

“The results will assist us in conducting further testwork towards the possible production of a lithium carbonate product.”

Arcadia said a trade-off study was currently underway to compare the commercial use of sulphuric and organic acids, though the chemical composition of Bitterwasser clay leachate using organic acids already compared “favourably” to leachate from similar operation in the Clayton Valley of Nevada.

AM7 plans to complete a mineral resource upgrade for lithium clay from Bitterwasser before the end of June.

Shares in Arcadia Minerals closed 2.33 per cent lower at 21 cents on Monday afternoon.

Through the all-scrip offer, Ramelius is eyeing control of the 1.7-million-once Lake Roe gold project near Kalgoorlie.

Ramelius — a gold producer with a $1 billion market cap — has offered Breaker shareholders one RMS share for every 2.82 BRB shares held.

This prices BRB shares at 40 cents a pop — a neat 41 per cent premium to Breaker’s three-day volume-weighted average price (VWAP) and a 30.5 per cent premium to its 90-day VWAP.

With the RMS offer implying an undiluted equity value of $130.7 million for Breaker, the BRB board has unanimously recommended shareholders accept the bid in the absence of a superior offer.

Further, major Breaker shareholders Electrum and Paulson — who collectively own 19.92 per cent of the company — have signed pre-bid acceptance agreements to accept Ramelius’ offer within five days of opening.

Breaker’s Lake Roe project neighbours Ramelius’ Rebecca project, and Breaker CEO Sam Smith said the merger was a “logical and sensible combination of assets”.

“For Breaker shareholders to swap their Breaker shares for Ramelius shares at an attractive premium and retain full exposure to the upside at Lake Roe is compelling,” Mr Smith said.

“Further, the opportunity for Breaker shareholders to fortify their interests in Lake Roe and diversify their interests, and their opportunities, by joining with one of Australia’s leading and profitable gold producers is compelling and rewarding for our shareholders.”

Investors have been slow to respond to today’s takeover news. Breaker shares were unchanged at 29 cents while Ramelius shares were trading at $1.13 at 11:11 am AEDT.

The sale comes as part of a wider simplification plan for Link.

The superannuation record-keeping tech company said as part of the sale, LC Financial would pay an initial €20 million upfront upon the completion of the deal, a €5 million deferred payment within 12 months, and a €5 million earn-out fee based on BCM’s performance within the first two years after the sale.

Link said its liquidity position remained “strong”, and it would use the proceeds from the BCM sale to sell down debt.

“After the completion of the sale of its BCM business, Link Group’s pro-forma leverage ratio will remain in the guidance range of 2x to 3x, consistent with Link Group’s target capital structure,” the company said in a press release.

Link re-affirmed its recent 2023 financial year guidance, predicting operating earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to be up between 10 and 12 per cent compared to the previous financial year.

LC Financial CEO Paul Burdell said the BCM business was “highly regarded” in its sector and complementary to the existing group of companies under the LC umbrella.

“We have the desire, skill and determination to help the BCM leadership team to create a best-in-class, global mortgage and loan servicer,” Mr Burdell said.

“BCM has an excellent roster of banking and investor clients in Ireland, the UK, Italy and the Netherlands and we are confident that they will continue to provide an outstanding service.”

Shares in Link were up 0.99 per cent to $2:04 at 10:11 am AEDT.

The results come from the first five holes drilled at the the project’s Dordie Far West (DFW) prospect, nearby where Mincor Resources (MCR) found anomalous nickel in the late 2000s.

Dynamic’s drilling work struck a 15-metre intersection at 1.86 per cent nickel from 27 metres downhole, including a six-metre zone at 2.4 per cent nickel. Other results include 15 metres at 1.11 per cent nickel from 30 metres and 12 metres at 1.58 per cent nickel from 48 metres.

The company said the nickel widths and grades compared “favourably” with historical drilling, confirming and enhancing the potential for mineralisation in the area.

“Returning thick and high-grade nickel intersections from our first five holes is an outstanding result from our maiden drill program at DFW,” Dynamic Manager Director Karen Wellman said.

“This is an excellent start to our first exploration campaign, and we will prioritise our follow-up drill program, with an aim to further extend these intercepts at the Widgiemooltha project.”

The company said it had four fully-permitted drilling programs scheduled to run across Widgiemooltha during the first half of 2023.

Additionally, Dynamic has made plans to submit one-metre samples from three-metre composite intercepts in the DFW area for further assaying. The company will use the results from these smaller samples to update the geological model at the prospect to plan the next phase of drilling.

Meanwhile, an aircore rig is currently drilling at Dynamic’s Lake Percy project in WA, with the company hoping to obtain fresh rock samples for geochemical analysis in areas of interest for nickel mineralisation.

DYM shares are up 57.14 per cent to 22 cents at 11:04 am AEDT.

The results come from a 2022 extensional drilling campaign at the Yin ironstone complex in the project area and includes high ratios of neodymium and praseodymium to total rare earth oxides (TREO).

Some of the top assays from the drilling work included a 23-metre hit at 1.28 per cent TREO from 115 metres, along with an 11-metre zone at 2.28 per cent TREO from 120 metres. Other findings included four metres at 3.92 per cent TREO from 125 metres.

Dreadnought said it plans to use these results to update the current Yin mineral resource of 14.36 million tonnes at 1.13 per cent TREO.

DRE Managing Director Dean Tuck said these results were “as expected” and continued to demonstrate the scale potential of the Yin region.

“We look forward to having the additional rigs on site and to recommence the first pass, wide-spaced C1-C7 carbonatite drilling,” Mr Tuck said.

Dreadnought is looking to continue its exploration work in the area, with a new RC rig and diamond rig scheduled to arrive at the site before the end of March. The RC rig will focus on wide-spaced drilling across the C1-C7 carbonatites in the area, while the diamond rig will help support further resource upgrades and metallurgical testwork.

The company is still waiting on assays from 66 holes drilled at the C1-C5 carbonatites in 2022, which are due in March.

Shares in Dreadnought Resources were down 4.41 per cent to 6.5 cents at 10:30 am AEDT.

The company plans to raise the funds through a $12 million private share placement and a $2 million share purchase plan. All new shares will be priced at 14.5 cents — a 12.1 per cent discount to Talon’s last closing price on March 1.

Talon Managing Director Coby Hauser said this capital raise would fully fund the company’s share of final development and operating costs for the Walyering gas project, which it owns in a 45/55 split with Strike Energy (STX).

“Walyering is expected to be WA’s next onshore gas producer and will be a low-cost, low-carbon-intensity project that is well placed to meet WA’s growing industrial gas demand,” Mr Hauser said.

“Although we undertook an extensive debt funding process and received credit approved terms from providers, the board has decided to undertake an equity raise as it provides the greatest certainty to fund and accelerate upcoming exploration commitments and more importantly offers the flexibility to utilise cashflows and explore various ways togrow value for Talon shareholders.”

Alongside its Walyering costs, Talon said it would put the funds towards further exploration in the Perth Basin, including farm-in costs of a recently-acquired permit.

Meanwhile, the company said it had launched a strategic review to optimise the value of its 33 per cent interest in the Gurvantes XXXV project in Mongolia. This could include a de-merger or another type of transaction.

TPD shares closed 9.1 per cent lower at 15 cents on Friday afternoon.

The results, which come from drilling work completed in October and November last year, confirmed regular intercepts grading above 1.2 per cent lithium oxide, with several intercepts returning “very high-grade” results of between 3.2 per cent lithium oxide and 4.3 per cent lithium oxide.

Some of the best results include a 7.3-metre intercept at 1.59 per cent lithium oxide in one hole and an 8.06-metre intercept at 1.2 per cent lithium oxide in another. In this second hole, lithium grades reached up to 3.28 per cent.

Critical Resources plans to incorporate all of the new results into an upcoming maiden mineral resource for the Mavis Lake project.

Managing Director Alex Cheeseman said the “consistent” new results built upon the “emerging picture of mineralisation” at the project.

“These latest results follow recent metallurgical test work, where raw material from Mavis Lake was converted to a high-grade, low-impurity concentrate,” Mr Cheeseman said.

“Our coordinated program of activities at Mavis Lake continues to gather pace. We remain squarely focused on unlocking the development potential of Mavis Lake.”

The company said the planned Mavis Lake resource estimate would be underpinned by the 19,500 metres of drilling it completed over 2022. Assay results are still pending from drilling work done in December and over 2023 so far.

Looking ahead, the company now plans to continue drilling and metallurgical testwork at Mavis Lake, with baseline technical and environmental studies underway to support the preparation of a scoping study for the project.

The company is still waiting on assay results from 39 drill holes at Mavis Lake.

Shares in Critical Resources were trading at 4.9 cents at 10:01 am AEDT.

Allegro has offered 55 cents per share for full control of Slater and Gordon in an off-market takeover.

The SGH board has unanimously recommended shareholders accept the offer, provided an upcoming independent expert report deems the takeover price fair and reasonable.

The company said coming under Allegro’s ownership could result in a “stable capital base and a supportive operating environment” for the company.

“The board and key management personnel believe Allegro’s investment in Slater & Gordon will bring together a hands-on Australian investor focussed on a growth-oriented partnership with one of Australia’s leading consumer law firms built on social justice values,” SGH Chairman James MacKenzie said.

“Slater & Gordon shares are highly illiquid. The offer is all-cash and provides certainty of value for shareholders.”

The Allegro offer comes with a 50.1 per cent minimum acceptance condition from SGH shareholders.

Allegro Founding Partner Adrian Loader said the company was “excited” to partner with the Slater & Gordon team.

“Allegro has significant experience investing in purpose-led professional services organisations such as Slater & Gordon and looks forward to working with its strong team of lawyers whom we are keen to retain, support and incentivise,” Mr Loader said.

Slater & Gordon shares were up 6.19 per cent to 60 cents at 12:19 pm AEDT.

Under the offer, eligible shareholders can buy two new BME shares for every three shares already held, with the new shares to be priced at 2.5 cents – a 37.5 per cent discount to BME’s last closing price of 4 cents on February 17, and a 39.6 per cent discount to the company’s five-day volume-weighted average price.

Shareholders who take up their full entitlement will be given the chance to apply for additional new shares at the same price under a shortfall offer.

Black Mountain first flagged its intent to buy the Half Moon prospect for US$2 million (A$2.9 million) in late January. According to the company, the prospect comprises eight operating wells and leases in the northwestern corner of the US Delaware Basin.

Black Mountain plans to fund the buyout fully from the proceeds of its entitlement offer. Further to this, the company will put a portion of the new cash towards its work to commercialise its flagship Valhalla natural gas project in the Canning Basin region of Western Australia.

The entitlement offer is renounceable, meaning shareholders who do not wish to take up their entitlement can sell their rights on to another person.

The offer will open on February 28 and is expected to close on 9 March, 2023

Shares in Black Mountain Energy were down 20 per cent to 3.2 cents at 10:40 am AEDT.

The company said the initial test results from the wells, which lay on the border of Alberta and British Columbia, have exceeded company expectations compared to a 2019 testing program.

The Calima 2 well tested at a maximum constrained rate of 6.3 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d), with a condensate production rate of 248 barrels of oil/million cubic feet (bbl/mmcf). In 2019, the maximum rate was 22 bbl/mmcf, though CE1 said the increased rate reflected flush production, and the stabilised rate would likely be lower.

Calima 2 averaged 102 bbl/mmcf during the test compared to the average production of 22 bbl/mmcf in 2019.

Meanwhile, the Calima 3 well flowed up to 5.25 mmcf/d, with 8.4 bbl/mmcf of condensate.

This means the combined peak flow rate of both wells was over 11.5 mmcf/d. CE1 produced more than 3500 bbls of condensate during testing, which it said it was selling at a premium to West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices.

The company noted, however, this was wellhead condensate only and excluded anticipated natural liquid gas (NGL) to be recovered in future gas processing.

Calima Energy CEO and President Jordan Kevol said the company was “very pleased” with the results from the extended well tests so far.

“Further desktop evaluation of the data will be undertaken to determine type curves, production yields reserve modelling and various development scenarios,” Mr Kevol said.

“The strong gas flows and liquid yields underpin our confidence in this project and support our ongoing field development planning and financing endeavours.”

The flow testing is expected to continue for the next three to ten days, after which point the wells will be shut down to gather downhole pressure build-up data.

Meanwhile, CE1 said it would begin construction work on a pipeline connecting the Calima 2 and 3 wells to the nearby Tommy Lakes infrastructure “shortly”. Tommy Lakes lies to the north of Calima’s wells and offers the “closest, most cost-effective” tie-in to processing facilities and regional pipeline networks, according to the company.

Shares in Calima Energy are up 3.7 per cent, trading at 14 cents at 2:55 pm AEDT.

The step-out drilling intersected “significant” spodumene-bearing pegmatites, with logging of the drill core from the new South Zone holes showing high concentrations of spodumene over lengths greater than six metres.

CRR said results from the South Zone included 6.8 metres of spodumene-bearing pegmatite from 72.4 metres downhole, 9.45 metres of pegmatite from 111.85 metres, and 6.45 metres of pegmatite from 208 metres.

Meanwhile, drilling from the Mavis Lake Main Zone continued to intersect thick intervals of spodumene-bearing pegmatite.

These results extend the known mineralisation of the Main Zone down dip, remaining open at depth.

Critical Resources said it would incorporate its new drilling results into a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) for Mavis Lake.

Managing Director Alex Cheeseman said the identification of the new zone to the south had the ability to “significantly” increase the scale potential of the project.

“These results reinforce the company’s commitment to conduct comprehensive, large-scale drilling programs throughout 2022 and continuing in 2023,” Mr Cheeseman said.

“We look forward to further developing our understanding of the mineralisation at Mavis Lake and adding these results to our pending mineral resource estimate.”

As it prepares for its MRE, Critical Resources is undertaking baseline technical and environmental studies and assessments to support the preparation of a scoping study for Mavis Lake.

Meanwhile, the company is awaiting assays from samples collected from over 50 individual drill holes, including samples generated from drilling in late 2022.

Shares in Critical Resources were up 8 per cent to 5.4 cents at 11:50 am AEDT.

Newcrest confirmed the offer on February 6, under which the US buyer would fork out 0.38 Newmont shares for each Newcrest share on offer. For reference, Newmont shares were at around US$48 (A$68) at the time, while Newcrest shares were trading at around $24.

However, the Newcrest board on Thursday morning said this price undervalued the company, given its portfolio of “long-life tier-one” gold and copper assets, its increasing copper exposure, and its “high-quality” development pipeline.

In any case, the ASX’s biggest gold miner has kept the door open for a revised bid from Newmont, opening up some of its books to its NYSE counterpart to see if access to non-public Newcrest information could help sweeten the deal.

Newcrest announced its rejection of the bid in tandem with its latest half-yearly financial report, which highlighted a profit after tax figure of US$293 million for the six months to the end of December 2022 — marginally lower than the US$298 million posted over the same period the year before.

The company said it remained on track to reach its FY23 guidance following the “solid” first-half performance.

The Newcrest board has declared an interim dividend of 15 US cents per share and a special dividend of 25 US cents for the half-year, both fully franked.

Shares in Newcrest Mining last traded at $24.31 on Wednesday afternoon.

The AI specialist upsized its planned placement due to strong demand from institutional, sophisticated, and professional investors, including a “prominent Australian family office” that “cornerstoned” the cap raise.

Unith will now issue 136 million new shares at 3.3 cents to raise the funds — a 15.3 per cent discount to its last trading price on February 8.

The company said it also planned to launch a $500,000 share purchase plan to give retail investors the chance to subscribe for up to $30,000 new shares at the same price as the placement.

Unith CEO Idan Schmorak said the company was “incredibly pleased” with the demand for the placement.

“Interest continues to grow in conversational AI globally, and Unith is strongly positioned at the forefront of the industry, with our unique proprietary technology to benefit from this growing demand,” Mr Schmorak said.

“The company is now well-funded to continue progressing our development and commercialisation activities, which will focus on building scalability into our business model and further enhancing our technological edge.”

The 2023 launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot has taken the world by storm, with the AI-based platform helping users write essays, create social media blogs, complete maths equations, and even code.

Unith said it would use the funds from the capital raise to develop ChatGPT-driven conversational AI features into its Talking Head platform. The company said this would improve its software efficiency on the end-user side and remove friction from the client side, allowing for easier onboarding on the platform.

The company will also put the funds towards accelerating the development of the Talking Head platform, increasing sales capacity, driving sales and marketing initiatives, and general working capital.

Unith’s Talking Head tech is designed to provide a way for businesses to use AI to onboard and educate customers, upsell products, handle complaints, and more — all with a digital avatar and AI voice to improve the customer’s experience.

Shares in Unith were down 5.13 per cent to 3.7 cents at 1:55 pm AEDT.

The company entered the trading halt on Thursday morning citing the planned capital raise, though it has not yet revealed the details of the raise.

At this stage, shares will resume trade by market open on Monday morning, by which stage Unith plans to have announced how much it seeks to raise and how it will go about raising the funds.

The company is fresh off a major rebranding in late-2022 when it changed its name from Crowd Media to Unith to better reflect the ongoing development of its “clean, commercial and agile” conversational AI technology.

The company’s core Talking Head technology is designed to humanise chatbots and improve business-human interactions.

Through its tech, Unith hopes to provide a way for businesses to use AI to onboard and educate customers, upsell products, handle complaints, and more — all with a digital avatar and AI voice to improve the customer experience.

The company said in an investor presentation on Thursday it was integrating into the tech a deep knowledge base, AI-generated, contextualised real-time conversation, and accessibility on any platform.

Unith has not yet specified exactly where it plans to direct the funding boost once its capital raise is complete.

Shares in Unith last traded at 3.9 cents on Wednesday afternoon.

The news sent the company’s share price soaring in early trade on Thursday morning.

Argenica said that in an in-vitro study conducted by Austria-based contract research organisation QPS, ARG-007 was shown to “significantly” inhibit the aggregation of human recombinant Amyloid-Beta (Abeta), which is thought to be one of the main causes of Alzheimer’s.

In the study, three different concentrations of ARG-007 were used, and Argenica found that at 16 hours after administration, a 25-micron dose of ARG-007 reduced Abeta aggregation by over 50 per cent compared to vehicle controls.

The study showed that the smaller 2.5-micron and 7.5-micron doses also resulted in major reductions in Abeta aggregation 16 hours post-administration.

Argenica Managing Director Liz Dallimore said this was “extremely” encouraging data and showed a potential new indication for ARG-007.

“It is well recognised that Abeta aggregation in the brain plays a key role in initiating Alzheimer’s Disease, and therefore a safe therapeutic drug that can reduce Abeta aggregation is a huge opportunity,” Dr Dallimore said.

The in-vitro study results were obtained using a cell-free Abeta aggregation assay model, and the company said it would now move on to animal studies to begin to assess the efficacy of ARG-007 in Alzheimer’s Disease.

The company has engaged QPS to undertake the animal study in 5xFAD mice — a model of familial Alzheimer’s Disease.

Argenica said the global Alzheimer’s therapeutics market was valued at US$4.04 billion (A$5.8 billion) in 2021 and was expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 16.2 per cent from 2022 to 2030

Shares in Argenica Therapeutics were up 28.4 per cent to 52 cents at 11:37 am AEDT.

The results come from its first tranche of metallurgical testwork, which the company said was deliberately limited to basic heavy liquid and magnetic separation processes.

From this work, CRR delivered concentrate results of up to 6.42 per cent lithium oxide with “extremely” low impurities. The company said this showcased the potential for Mavis Lake to produce premium-quality concentrate

Critical Resources Managing Director Alex Cheeseman said today’s results highlighted the growing potential and the “significant opportunity” for the development of Mavis Lake.

“Metallurgical test work is a key step in advancing Mavis Lake along the development pathway,” Mr Cheeseman said.

“The results show that the high-grade mineralisation at Mavis Lake readily converts to high-grade, low-impurity concentrate. Concentrate with this type of specification commands a premium in the market.”

The company said it now intended to continue its metallurgical testwork to explore the potential of lithium liberation from Mavis Lake feed material. This work will potentially include heavy liquid separation at finer crush sizes and the flotation of middlings and tailings.

Further, CRR has commenced permitting to allow bulk sample collection, which it intends to complete during the Canadian summer. The bulk samples will be used for further extensive testwork programs aimed at optimising and testing future flowsheet designs.

The results of the metallurgical test work will form the basis of a scoping study currently slated for completion in mid-2023

Shares in Critical Resources were up 5.36 per cent to 5.9 cents per share at 10:41 am AEDT.

The company on Thursday morning said it had received non-binding proposals from 14 leading banks and financial institutions for the traditional debt funding component of its overall project development financing package.

According to De Grey, most of the potential lenders indicated a traditional debt funding capacity of around $800 million based on De Grey’s September 2022 pre-feasibility study for the Pilbara-based project.

For reference, the study estimated pre-production capital costs for Mallina of $1.05 billion, though the project was estimated to produce enough gold to pay this back within two years.

De Grey Chief Financial Officer Peter Canterbury said the company had been “heartened” by the “strong” response from lenders to its request for traditional financing proposals.

“A range of indicative proposals have been received from highly regarded financial institutions which have significant experience in the mining sector,” Mr Canterbury said.

“The company feels confident that it can deliver an attractive funding package for the development of the project, subject to a final investment decision by the De Grey board.”

He said over 2023, De Grey would further assess and progress various debt, equity and other funding options for Mallina, with the project financing process to conclude in the second half of 2023.

In this vein, De Grey has appointed an independent technical consultant to support the financing process as the company works to complete a definitive feasibility study (DFS) for Mallina by mid-2023.

Shares in De Grey Mining last traded at $1.42 on Wednesday, February 8.

The distribution agreement comes with a minimum sales target of $11 million over its initial three-year term, which CJ Patel needs to hit in order to retain its exclusivity over the product range.

Fiji Kava said CJ Patel was the largest distribution company in the South Pacific, representing some of the world’s best-known FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) brands.

The 17 countries covered under today’s deal represent a sizeable chunk of FIJ’s target market, including Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor.

Fiji Kava CEO Anthony Noble said Taki Mai had strong and growing brand recognition in Fiji and with Pacific Island communities internationally.

“CJ Patel is the ideal distribution partner for Taki Mai,” Mr Noble said.

“Having now modernised and cyclone-proofed our supply chain in Fiji, we are confident that our Fijian operations will be able to support the big growth projected by the CJ Patel team for Taki Mai which equates to more than $11 million in the first three years.”

Meanwhile, CJ Patel COO Vishwa Sharma expressed excitement about the partnership and the company’s commitment to driving the distribution of the Taki Mai brand.

“Our philosophy has always been to build on brands to make them number one,” Mr Sharma said.

“With Fiji Kava and the Taki Mai brand, we are fully and wholly committed to driving distribution within our customer base across all our territories.”

If CJ Patel meets its sales target within the three-year timeframe, the two companies may extend today’s deal by a further three years. If not, Fiji Kava has the right to scrap the agreement.

Shares in Fiji Kava have spiked 33.33 per cent to trade at 1.2 cents at 12:23 pm AEDT.

The test is designed to evaluate a woman’s risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer from either hereditary genetic mutations or from more common familial or sporadic cancers.

The test combines GTG’s GeneType platform with other clinical risk factors to provide a risk assessment result from a single saliva sample.

GTG CEO Simon Morriss said this new risk test was one of the company’s “most important” contributions to the advancement of population-based genetic testing.

“We are moving beyond rare cancer-susceptibility genetics,” Mr Morriss said.

“We can look for the needle in the haystack, but we are also able to look at the haystack itself. Our non-invasive risk assessment test will address cancer risk at a population health level.”

According to Genetic Technologies, many women are not properly screened and diagnosed for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome (HBOC) due to limited clinical criteria.

The company said in a recent study of over 6000 women, of the 38 HBOC carriers, half would not have qualified for testing based on traditional clinical criteria, meaning their higher risk of cancer would not have been identified.

The new GTG test integrates the detection of the 13 major “actionable” breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes into the GeneType test platform, resulting in a higher classification rate of women at elevated risk compared to traditional clinical tools.

The test will target women over 30 years of age in the general population who are at a higher risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer — not just those with rare genetic mutations.

GTG said the risk assessment test would be clinically validated and have appropriate regulatory approval.

The company will first launch the new test in the US, and it will be showcased at the BRCA 2023 Symposium in Montreal in early May.

Shares in Genetic Technologies were up a whopping 167 per cent to 0.8 cents at 1:27 pm AEDT.