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The assay results – released by SGS Geosol – showed ore from Campo Grande contains refinery-grade extractable alumina and low reactive silica, consolidating earlier results which included gallium intercepts up to 106.5 grams per tonne gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) and bauxite intervals up to 42.1% of aluminium oxide (Al₂O₃).

This confirms that the project’s bauxite meets the standard for processing in a refinery via the low-temperature Bayer process, which is the industry standard for alumina production from gibbsite-rich ores.

SGS Geosol assessed this by placing samples through alkaline digestion under heat and pressure to mimic Bayer circuit parameters.

Equinox managing director Zac Komur said the results highlighted the value of Campo Grande – which is located in Brazil’s Bahia region – given the presence of these critical minerals.

“Recent results confirm the presence of refinery-grade bauxite, elevated gallium, and rare earth elements within the Campo Grande Project area,” he said.

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Of key importance, Mr Komur added, is the timing: “This project is along a key critical minerals trend in Brazil, at a time of increasing market focus on secure and independent sources of alumina and strategic metals.”

EQN shares rose on the news to trade at around 8.6 cents each.

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The data showed high-grade gallium close to the surface, and included intercepts such as 74 metres at 93.26 grams per tonne (g/t) gallium oxide (Ga2O3), 1.56% total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 72m, including 14m at 202.79g/t Ga2O3 from 89m, with the highest grade in all assays intersected within this interval at 310.46 g/t Ga2O3, 5.68% TREO from 97m to 98m.

Alongside this was the intercept 53m at 72.79g/t Ga2O3 and 1.02% TREO from surface, including 12m at 145.07g/t Ga2O3 from 25m.

Adding to excitement about the prospectivity of this region is the fact that only around 40% of it – including the target areas of Nathace and Tundulu Hills – has been drill-tested.

The gallium is also open at depth, and despite some of the higher Ga2O3 responses occurring within saprolite clays from surface to 30 metres there is also the presence of this mineralisation within fresh rock at deeper levels (from 72 to 146 metres down), with deeper gallium potential yet to be pursued through assaying.

This commodity itself has increased in demand, driven by its importance to the electronics and semiconductor industries, with much of the demand for raw gallium met by China, which is the dominant producer.

DY6 has also been progressing metallurgical test work connected to the Tundulu project, with a select bulk sample being used to determine whether its mineralisation is suitable for production of a separate rare earth and phosphate concentrate. This work – which is being undertaken by Auralia Metallurgy in Perth – will be followed by further testing, and announced in due course.

DY6 has been trading at 4.2 cents.

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The MRE for the project, which is in WA’s midwest, is now 247.5 million dry metric tonnes at 520 ppm total rare earth oxide plus gallium oxide at 26 parts per million.

This addition significantly boosts the project’s value, Victory says: North Stanmore now contains seven critical metals which fall under Chinese export restrictions, including heavy rare earths like gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, and yttrium; light rare earths like samarium, and strategic byproducts gallium and scandium.

Gallium – which has a market price of $770 per kilogram – is particularly important for the manufacture of AI chips and semiconductors, as well as quantum computing, defence systems, LEDs, and solar panels.

China’s tight global supply makes this an important one for Victory, since it is one of the only companies in Australia that has a declared gallium oxide resource.

Beyond this, CEO and executive director Brendan Clark said this MRE update was an important step for the company – but not one that would change everything completely.

“Our focus remains on developing a world-class heavy rare earth project, but the ability to recover Gallium concurrently through our recovery process without additional complexity significantly enhances the value proposition,” he said.

“The addition of Gallium to the MRE is an incredible bonus, not a dependency.”

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Mr Clark added: “Gallium is a strategic technology metal with growing global demand; its inclusion as a by-product positions Victory as an even more attractive partner for downstream and offtake discussions.”

Victory has been trading at 41.5 cents through early Thursday.

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The gallium was in the form of gallium trioxide (Ga2O3), with the review revealing previous intersections such as 23 metres at 168g/t Ga2O3, 0.72% copper, 0.54% vanadium, 53.97% lead, and 1.8g/t Ag from four metres.

Where high-grade gallium appears in these intersections – in association with copper, vanadium, lead, silver, germanium, and antimony – occurs from near the surface to depths of 50 metres, and is associated with an uncovered “saprolite zone” which also hosts vanadium, copper, lead and silver.

This zone is open to the east and west with potential for expansion through drilling.

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Additionally, Golden Deeps has also found a bulk sample excavated from the surface which featured 102g/t Ga2O3, 8.75 Cu, 1.7% Pb, and 27g/t Ag. Following this, the company is now pursuing metallurgical test work to find out how antimony, gallium, and germanium recoveries can be optimised.

GED has been trading at 1.9 cents on Wednesday.

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The New Norcia project is within the Darling Rangle Bauxite Mineral Field, around 25 kilometres north of Julimar West. Western Yilgarn has since applied for an Exploration Licence over this territory, aiming to delineate its mineralisation, starting from historical aircore drilling and surface sampling data.

“We are extremely pleased with securing the New Norcia Project as it provides further scalability and excellent potential to increase the bauxite tonnage and grade through further exploration and metallurgical test work,” Western Yilgarn director Mr Kastellorizos said after the market release.

The former includes nine metres (m) at 95.83 grams per tonne (g/t) Ga2O3 (gallium oxide) from surface; two metres at 134.3 g/t Ga2O3 from surface; and six metres at 110.24 g/t Ga2O3 from surface.

The project also has a suite of high-grade vacuum and aircore drilling results, including seven metres at 50.39% Total Al2O3 (aluminium oxide), 29.83% Available Al2O3 and 3.4% Reactive SiO2 (silica) from surface; and five metres at 42.39% Total Al2O3, 33.2% Available Al2O3 and 5.5% Reactive SiO2 from surface.

Historical high-grade surface sampling from 2010 includes rock chip sample of 50.4% Total Al2O3 and 8.39% SiO2; 48.7% Total Al2O3 and 6.2% SiO2 from sample.

“The location of the current resource is within trucking distance of a multi-user railway at a time of record alumina and bauxite prices,” Mr Kastellorizos said.

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“The extensive bauxite zones have the potential for additional resource growth along strike and depth, concentrating to the west and south of the current tenure. Western Yilgarn will be planning the next phase of drilling in the project’s untested zone with a view of expanding the current mineralised footprint.”

WYX shares have been trading at 3.6 cents this Wednesday.

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In the wake of the invasion, uncertainty and tension saw the latter push up to a price of $120 per barrel, and this period was followed by a spate of sanctions against Russia – chiefly targeting oil, gas and coal – from the United States, Canada, the European Union and other Western entities.

(This tendency has continued too, with the EU this week signing off on its 16th sanction package, which includes bans on the provision of services and technology that could facilitate completion of Russian LNG or crude oil products.)

In a general sense, the war prompted conversations about the need for countries to ensure their supply chains are both strong and diversified.

This is then augmented by the headwinds from recent U.S. tariff policies.

But Donald Trump’s recent interventions in international diplomacy concerning the war have introduced another topic into the chat: Ukraine’s richness in critical minerals, which the U.S. President wants to get his hands on.

The idea echoes early pronouncements from Trump that the States could acquire Greenland, an autonomous territory in the kingdom of Denmark rich in uranium, rare earth minerals, and iron ore.

After that, he moved his sights to the benefits that could be yielded from Ukraine in return for U.S. military aid. Initially, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected a proposal that would have handed over half of the country’s critical mineral assets to the United States.

But after meetings which began over the weekend, it appears that Ukraine’s leaders have agreed to a deal which would enable the joint development of the country’s assets in return for strengthened relations with, and military support from, the United States.

According to media reports, the deal is set to be formalised on Friday, with Zelenskyy planning to fly to Washington for this purpose.

For much of its history, Ukraine was known for its contribution to agriculture: Unsurprisingly, given it accounts for a third of the globe’s most fertile land, with wheat, maize, and sunflower oil being some of its main exports in this sector.

But the country also holds 5% of the world’s mineral resources, including 20,000 deposits of 116 different types, of which only 15% (or 3,055) were active. Of the active deposits, 147 were metallic; 4,676 non-metallic.

More specifically, Ukraine has been noted for its supply of rare earth metals, titanium, lithium, beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium, zirconium, graphite, apatite, fluorite, and nickel.

Titanium – a metal essential for the aerospace, medical, automotive and marine industries – is a particularly attractive commodity for the U.S., and Ukraine holds the world’s largest reserves and was a key supplier to the military sector before the invasion began.

Alongside this is lithium – a commodity whose fortune has fluctuated in recent years, as oversupply in China led to a price plunge, although this is a situation expected to correct itself in the next year or so, as supply wanes again.

Ukraine is home to one of Europe’s biggest confirmed reserves of the metal (at an estimate of 500,000 tonnes), including the Shevchenkivske field and the Kruta Balka block.

Since these are in regions close to the conflict – Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia respectively – their exploitation has not been possible for several years.

The country is also the fifth largest producer of gallium – an increasingly sought-after metal, whose price rose significantly last December due to Chinese export restrictions – in addition to supplying 90% of neon gas which is essential to the U.S. chip industry.

As nations vie to secure the materials critical for the ‘electrification of the globe’ and clean energy transition, Trump’s intentions in Eastern Europe may be ethically questionable, but not surprising.

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This development – made at MTM’s lab in Houston, Texas – makes it one of the top contenders among companies finding sustainable ways to recover these critical metals.

And, given the reliance of many industries on Ga and Ge sourced from China, this development comes at a fairly critical time too given the current geopolitical environment regarding tariffs.

One of the key factors underpinning recent testing is a partnership with New York-based Indium Corporation (a major supplier of refined specialty technology metals) which has enabled MTM to source high-value feedstock for these tests.

This strategic partnership is expected to open the door to commercialisation, through MTM’s access to critical materials.

Managing director and CEO Michael Walshe said these results went beyond expectations.

“We’re thrilled with FJH technology’s versatility across multiple metals, and the latest test results for ultra-high-value technology metals couldn’t be timelier given the current geopolitical landscape,” he said.

“Ga & Ge are indispensable to semiconductors and defence applications, yet their supply chains remain highly vulnerable due to overwhelming dependence on imports—particularly from China.

“MTM’s proprietary process offers a commercially viable, environmentally friendly solution to secure domestic supplies of these strategic materials, creating a major economic opportunity for the company.”

MTM has been trading at 21.5 cents.

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The company reviewed previous diamond drilling at the deposit – which is part of Renegade’s larger Yukon base metals project – finding intercepts such as 45.9 metres at 43.5 grams per tonne (g/t) Ge, 12.5g/t Ga, 9.4% Zn in one hole; and 4.5 metres at 48.0g/t Ge, 15.8g/t Ga, 6.4% Zn, 22.6% Pb, 56.8g/t Ag in another.

The percentage of gallium went up to 28.6g/t in another intercept.

Alongside this, flotation metallurgical testing has shown recoveries of 71.3% Ge – yielding a concentrate of 150g/t – is possible for ore from this deposit.

Renegade is now turning to potential re-analysis of past drill samples, looking particularly for these two critical defence metals.

Chairman Robert Kirtlan said that finding germanium and gallium at Andrew was a significant event for the deposit, adding that previous exploration methods could have underestimated the amounts of germanium there.

“These defence metals, particularly Germanium, are rare, very expensive and are some of the most important and sought after of the advanced electronic materials,” he said.

“During the last phases… at the Andrew deposit, an Aqua Regia analysis method was used.

“This method is very good at determining the Zn-Pb-Ag concentrations but unfortunately it has the potential to vastly underestimate the germanium grade. At the time of analysis, germanium was not the critical defence metal that it is now. As such, it was not an exploration focus.”

Renegade shares last traded at 0.02c after a 40% gain.

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The company entered a binding agreement to take on the Prophet River project from Broadstone Resources Corporation, with a consideration which includes CAD$130,000, the issuing of 133,333,334 Rapid shares, and 40M options with an exercise price of 1.5 cps and an expiry of three years from issue date.

The cash offering is to be within 15 days of the proposed transaction’s completion.

Prophet River comprises 21 square kilometres of territory, including the historic Cay mine.

Previous exploration at the play – cited above – included 21 drilled holes with bulk sampling taken from two zones.

These bulk samples included some of the highest germanium values globally recorded, highlighting the significance of this asset, and with China banning the export of this and gallium – also a key critical mineral – the importance of securing such resources for use in the technology sector, semi-conductors, fibre-optics, solar cells, magnets, batteries, andLEDs have been underlined.

Managing director Martin Holland said Prophet River was a desirable asset to have in Rapid’s portfolio.

“The Rapid Lithium Board sees this acquisition as very timely given China’s recent announcement that it is banning exports of gallium, germanium, and antimony to the U.S.,” he said.

“China’s dominant position in the global supply of these minerals, accounting for 98.8% ofrefined gallium and 59.2% of refined germanium production, means that sources outsideChina will be in high demand.

“The location of the assets is also complementary to Rapid’s U.S. lithium assets as thethe company seeks to become a key supplier of critical minerals in the future.”

Rapid shares have risen following the news, and at 11:51 AEDT, they were trading at 0.6 cents – a rise of 20% since the market opened.

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On Tuesday, China’s Ministry of Commerce announced it would be banning the export of a suite of critical minerals – including gallium, germanium and antimony – to the US. These three are minerals key to the manufacture of multiple products, from military equipment to semiconductors, as well as having a general industrial purpose.

The announcement was both a ramp-up of Beijing’s previous restrictions on commodities central to the tech industry, but also a response to Washington’s decision the previous day to add to its restrictions on the export of advanced chips to China.

In terms of the former, one can track back to October 2023, when China placed tight regulations on the sale of graphite products, which play a central role in the manufacture of car batteries. This followed an announcement in July of that year, that exporters from the country would have to apply for special licences to export gallium and germanium to the United States.

Regarding the latter, we have the US government’s announcement on Monday that they would add to restrictions on chip-making equipment going to China, including the export of high bandwidth memory (HBM) chips – which play a key role in high-end applications such as AI training – plus 24 other chipmaking tools and three software tools.

Shipments of chipmaking equipment from Singapore and Malaysia to the US were also restricted, and Washington added140 Chinese companies to a list of those banned from trading with US firms.

US officials said their goal was to hinder China’s development of advanced AI, and weaken its production capabilities in relation to semiconductors used for high-tech products.

The latest series of explosions in the ‘tech war’ between the two countries has the potential to seriously disrupt the supply chain for critical minerals, impacting Australian-listed companies which are building their businesses around critical minerals products.

This includes Golden Deeps Ltd (ASX:GED), which since 2023 has been exploring the potential for high-grade gallium and germanium at its Nosib discovery in Namibia, and Battery Age Minerals Ltd (ASX:BM8), which is seeking germanium (as well as lead and zinc) at its Bleiberg project in Austria.

It remains to be seen where the tech war may go.

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The campaign will see company CEO Nigel Broomham and chief geological advisor Dr Simon Dorling undertaking infield geological works, including reconnaissance geological traverses to boost mapping efforts and the collection of surface samples, assessment of scale, and establishment of drilling targets.

When it comes to drill targets in particular, BM8 is building on its integration of more than 100 years historical geological data, with this confirming the presence of mineralisation-hosting stratigraphy and also highlighting areas with historical mining evidence.

And of course, keeping in mind that Bleiberg is a historical and world-class mining district: with the historic mine of the same name being known as one of the largest producers of germanium in the world while it was in production, and the area hosting some of the highest grades of this mineralisation, as well as gallium grading between 90 and 110 grams per tonne.

With the prices of both these minerals growing significantly in the past 12 months – as a result of supply chain disruptions, increased demand and market speculation – BM8 believes now is the time to strike, as the Bleiberg project has grown in strategic significance.

Germanium’s price has increased 97.34% since the beginning of 2024, while gallium’s has risen 37% in the same time.

BM8 CEO Nigel Broomham commented said the maiden field work was an important milestone for the company.

“We are excited to announce the upcoming field campaign at our Bleiberg Zinc Lead-Germanium Project, which marks a crucial step in our exploration efforts,” he said.

“By leveraging over a century of historical geological data, we are not only validating our drill targets but also positioning ourselves to tap into the significant opportunities presented by the rising prices of zinc, germanium and gallium.

“Our team is committed to optimising our drilling strategy and maximising explorationoutcomes, and we believe the Bleiberg area, with its rich history, holds tremendous potential for both our company and our stakeholders.”

Battery Age Minerals has been trading at has been trading at 10.5 cents.

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