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The goal of this expansion – which will see the Phase Two program increased from 2000 metres to 4,000 metres of diamond drilling – will be to grow the current mineralised footprint along strike while also going after priority targets within a wider three-to-four kilometre anomalous corridor.

Phase Two drilling was originally designed to refine structural controls to enable better targeting of potential high-grade feeder zones.

Also behind the decision to expand is Raiden’s meeting of the investment criteria for a 75% ownership in the Vuzel Project, with the company having a pathway to obtain 90% ownership through the definition of a JORC resource.

Managing director Dusko Ljubojevic said the signs that had emerged from previous drilling made this expansion an obvious but important step. “Our decision to expand the Phase Two drilling program by a further 2,000m of diamond drilling is in direct response to the highly encouraging results reported to date,” he said.

“Every hole reported from the Vuzel project has returned gold mineralisation, including numerous high-grade intercepts.”

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“Based on the results and our geological understanding to date, the mineralised system appears extensive, near surface and horizontal to sub-horizontal. These characteristics present an opportunity to rapidly and cost-effectively advance exploration, in alignment with our corporate strategy.”

RDN has been trading at 0.6 cents.

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In April, the European Union designated Vittangi as a strategic net-zero project, and this agreement adds to this, with Nyobolt confirming Talnode-C as a valid feedstock for its proprietary fast-charging battery technology.

Under the terms of the agreement, Nyobolt will commit to buying around 3,000 tonnes of Talnode -C at a fixed price over 4 years – beginning on 13 May 2025, and with the initial supply coming from Talga’s Electric Vehicle Anode (EVA) demonstration plant in Luleå.

The rest will be taken from the commercial Anode Refinery in Luleå, planned for construction to commence in 2026 subject to FID (final investment decision).

The systems developed by Nyobolt are being applied to an increasing number of settings, including high-performance and heavy-duty vehicles, AI warehouses and data centres. Establishing strong supply chains to facilitate this is an increasing priority, with the company securing more than $150 million in contract value.

Talga Group CEO Martin Phillips said this was another breakthrough step in development of the Vittangi project and its valuation.

“This Agreement marks a significant milestone in Talga’s mission to deliver sustainable, high-power anode materials to the global battery market,” he said.

“The Agreement also underpins the start of commercial sales, and follows extensive qualification and validation in exciting high-power applications that are subject to high growth market demand.”

Talga shares have shifted up since the news, and at 11:36 AEST, they were trading at 47.5 cents – a rise of 9.2% since the market opened.

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The ramp-up’s scope includes a new region with additional historic drill intercepts, boosting the project’s potential for sediment-hosted copper deposits, specifically Kupferschiefer type.

The expanded project comprises two key parts: the extension of the original Tannenberg exploration licence (Tannenberg 1) for another three years and the deployment of a new exploration licence (Tannenberg 2), covering 1,628 km2, also valid for three years, with the prospect of a further extension.

GreenX holds a 90% interest in the project through an earn-in agreement and has attracted attention from BHP, which selected it as one of eight early-stage exploration projects for its 2025 BHP Xplor program.

Funding from this collaboration is being used to accelerate the geological exploration and concept development, including work in the newly expanded licence area.

The new area has already revealed positive drill results, including intercepts of 0.69m at 3.1% Cu and 31.7ppm Ag from 378m depth, and 2.2m at 0.9% Cu and 23.1ppm Ag from 378m.

GreenX CEO Ben Stoikovich says the similarity between the newly expanded area and the Kupferschiefer-style geology found in the historically significant Richelsdorf mining district.

GreenX has highlighted an extensive work program for this year, including the relogging and reassaying archived core, conducting airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys, and collecting additional geophysical and gravity data to further refine exploration targets.

Greenx Metals has been trading at 74.5 cents at the time of writing.

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The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth has named Talga’s intended plant – the Luleå Anode Refinery – as one of the first Strategic Projects recognised under the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA).

This bolsters the centrality of this project within the EU’s plans to build a resilient and autonomous net-zero industry.

The classification also has several benefits, including national priority status under NZIA regulation – which aids in speeding up the administrative process and expedited permitting, plus priority when it comes to dispute resolution.

Additionally, the project will receive Net-Zero Europe Platform engagement, providing Talga with access to support with uniform NZIA implementation, and advice when it comes to financing and investor matchmaking.

There’s also access to EU funding in support of clean tech and industrial decarbonisation.

Talga Group CEO Martin Phillips said Talga was very pleased to have been recognised this way as it continues working towards more Talnode production.

“The designation of both our natural graphite mine and battery anode manufacturing as EU Strategic Projects affirms our credentials in sustainable innovation and highlights Talga’s pivotal role in powering the supply chain for anode and Europe’s clean energy future,” Mr Phillips said.

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Talga’s wider Vittangi project aims to produce 19,500 tonnes per annum of Talnode, anatural graphite battery anode material taken from Talga’s 100% owned natural graphite resources in Sweden.

Talga shares have been trading at 43 cents today.

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The DFS was built around production of 1.4 million tonnes per annum through open-cut mining, for a yield of 3,405 tonnes of contained tin per year, in the form of tin ingot.

This is expected to run for a mine life of 12 years, with a life of mine (LOM) all-in-sustaining-cost (AISC) of US$15,000 per tonne of tin metal.

The capital costs are now estimated at €149 million (A$260M), including a 10.4% contingency. With the study assuming a LOM tin price of US$30,000/t, it has confirmed a pre-tax ungeared net present value of A$270M, a pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 26%, and a payback period of 2.7 years.

Alongside this, Elementos told investors the maiden ore reserve for Oropesa was estimated at 15.9Mt at 0.36% tin, with this being based on a previously published mineral resource estimate of 19.6Mt at 0.39% Sn.

Development activity for the project – which is built around a vertically integrated mine-to-metal smelting operation – continues to progress, with Environmental and Mining Licence permit applications recently lodged.

“I would like to congratulate the Elementos/Wave International team, the specialist consultants and the Spanish contractor community on the production of this top-class definitive feasibility study,” chairman Andy Greig said.

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“My fellow directors and I have undertaken a deep-dive review of this work product, and I am pleased to report we’ve found the DFS to be of great substance; prudently conservative; comprehensive and robust.”

Elementos shares moved up today for a 3.4% gain in value.

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This is a win in terms of recognition, with the project now highlighted as significant for Europe’s efforts to secure a battery minerals supply chain – and it boosts Talga’s plans for securing finance to develop Vittangi Anode further.

Vittangi Anode is set to produce 19,500 tonnes per annum of Talnode-C, a natural graphite battery anode material derived from the natural graphite resources in Sweden, with the project benefitting from having a low emission footprint, vertical integration of the mine-to-anode supply chain, and a resource base that supports expansion to more than 100,000 tonnes.

This status under the CRM Act will provide several direct benefits for Talga and Vittangi Anode; project financing is a central aspect. To that end, the company will receive support from a subgroup of the CRM Board which coordinates EU and national, private, and public financial institutions to reach the end stage of financing.

Expedited permitting is also set to benefit from this status, with approvals likely to be progressed more smoothly and timelines being increasingly de-risked.

Ongoing engagement with relevant parties – customers, strategic investors and debt providers – will be supported by this recognition as well.

CEO Martin Phillips said reaching this milestone was a recognition of the project’s wider value. “The Strategic Project status validates Talga’s natural graphite mine and our vital role in sustainable battery materials,” he said.

“Graphite is critical to the lithium-ion battery industry and an increased EU capacity to extract and produce battery-grade graphite is essential for Europe’s resilience and competitiveness.

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“We look forward to engaging with new opportunities under the CRMA to deliver Europe’s first fully integrated active anode supply.”

Talga has been trading at 42 cents heading into Wednesday trade.

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Rhetoric accompanying these levy threats has been equally uncompromising, with many leaders finding themselves the target of a Trumpian talking-to about how their country may have exploited the goodwill of the U.S. and its economy.

On Wednesday (U.S. time), it was the turn of Irish taoiseach Micheal Martin – meeting Trump and his deputy J D Vance for the annual meeting before St Patrick’s Day – who was scolded about Ireland snapping up American pharmaceutical companies.

Similarly, Australia has recently been accused – this time by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick – of apparently “dumping” excess aluminium on the U.S. market. This is being used as the justification for 25% tariffs hitting imports of the metal, in addition to steel, which rolled out in Week 11.

But perhaps the most standout (and head-scratching) example is the U.S.’s northern neighbour, Canada, which is being slapped with the same 25% tariffs on its steel and aluminium production as well as an across-the-board levy (another 25%) on all Canadian goods flowing into the U.S.

The latter was announced almost as soon as Trump came into office, with the President saying he would be targeting Canada and Mexico jointly in response to drugs – particularly fentanyl – coming into the U.S. from north and south.

Of course, this garnered a reaction, plus a series of retaliatory actions which indicated the economic and political relationship between the countries was souring.

On March 10, Ontario Governor Doug Ford announced electricity normally flowing from the province into three U.S. states – Michigan, Minnesota, and New York – would be hit with a 25% surcharge to answer Trump’s metals tariffs.

This prompted a threat by the President to push the latter to 50%, before a compromise was eventually reached between Ford and U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that will facilitate a rollback of the electricity charges. Levies of 25% against Canadian metals still went ahead on Wednesday, March 12.

The previous day, Trump suggested the best way to resolve the issue would be for Canada to become the 51st state. “This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear,” he said.

It’s difficult to overstate how irrational Trump’s approach seems to be – not only his threats against the Canadian economy, but also the language wrapping it – given the integrated relations between the two in previous years.

Energy is a great place to start, with Canada and the U.S. being each other’s largest trade partner in this sector, among which is an established, nearly century-long trade in electricity underpinned by an integrated grid.

In the past two decades, reliance has been increasingly one-way, with the U.S. importing more electricity than it exports; this affects 22 states. According to Canadian nonprofit media organization Narwhal, the province of Ontario is responsible for providing $700 million worth of electricity – that is, power to 1.5 billion homes.

Professor Wesley Widmaier – from Australian National University (ANU)’s Department of International Relations – believes the tensions between the two can be compared to a personal relationship.

“There are some cases where just like in a relationship, you can say something to your partner where it changes everything,” he said.

“Trump’s ill-considered rhetoric about annexing Canada has affected what could be a lasting change like relations between the two sides, the two people.

“I was just in the U.S., and many Canadians are quite angry and offended, and that affects people where they live.”

Professor Widmeier said Canada was just one country which had been hit with uncertainty over its working relationship with the U.S. going forward.

“In the context of Europe, he’s called Article 5 into doubt by seeming to side with the Russians against Ukrainians on foreign policy,” he said.

“For Australia, I don’t think we’ve reached that point yet, I don’t think he’s engaged in any really egregious rhetoric that would change people’s views of the United States on the ground, so we can play that game of biding and waiting to see to what extent Trump himself pulls away from some of these policies.

“But it’s led to a reconsideration and in some places a deep questioning.”

Certainly, when it comes to Canada, the trade war doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon, with the country promising to match the U.S. “dollar for dollar” in response to the 25% metal tariffs which came in on Wednesday, announcing levies against $30 billion worth of imports from the country – that is, its own 25% tariffs against American steel, computers, and sports equipment.

Professor Widmeier said when it came to geopolitical engagements around defense, Donald Trump had returned to some longstanding preoccupations – particularly that of the U.S.’ allies relying too much on it – but had delivered these very differently.

“Burden sharing has always been an issue between the U.S. and the Europeans: it goes back to the Kennedy administration in the 1960s,” he said.

“What’s different this time – and it goes back to Trump’s statements from his first term – a suggestion that if NATO allies aren’t paying their 2% or whatever the exact amount is, that the US might consider not protecting them.

“It’s taking what was an iron-clad alliance and changing it to something transactional.

“So again, before Trump, if the Russians invaded Lithuania, Estonia, or Latvia, the U.S. – and NATO – would respond quite seriously. You have to think that that might not happen now.”

Professor Widmaier said it was plausible this was what the US President was aiming for long term: Particularly given the support he’d received in states most affected by the free trade, and Chinese dominance in manufacturing.

“Free trade creates winners and losers, protectionism creates winners and losers,” he said.

“To the extent that Trump has a constituency – ‘Build American Manufacturing’ states, the blue wall, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, – they all want to bring those jobs back.

“To the extent that he’s pressuring companies to build factories in the States and that would bring jobs back to the States, it’s not implausible.

“Would that be a rational economic policy? Is that the best allocation of goods and services? No. So there’d be many more losers than there’d be winners.

“The case for free trade is the winners compensate the losers and everyone’s still better off. The problem is for the last 50 years, the losers from free trade have gone pretty uncompensated, and that’s one of the reasons for Trump’s rise.”

Undoubtedly one of the main things to say about Trump’s tariff policy, and the back-and-forth reactions it’s provoked, is that world markets have so far been taking a significant hit thanks to economic uncertainty.

Here in Australia, the ASX200 has experienced four consecutive weekly declines on the back of Trump’s levy threats, and Wall Street has experienced a similar downturn. Professor Widmaier said this would be an issue the President could not ignore.

“I can tell you, when I talk to people back in the United States, stock market swoon has gotten a lot of people’s attention,” he said.

“Americans have their retirement funds tied up in 401K accounts – which are bundles of stock market investments – so when people see the stock market go down, they see their retirement savings go down, and Trump is aware of this.

“And meeting – as he did recently – with the business executives round table, one can imagine this explains a bit of his erratic back and forth kind of reactions.”

The White House has commented that some short-term pain might be necessary for Trump’s trade plan to be realised. And this could be strategic.

“When he’s warning people, when he’s suggesting that a recession is likely, that’s a little more esoteric for people,” Professor Widmaier said.

“And there’s a saying in politics, ‘get your recession out of the way early’.

“Dick Cheney, when the Bush administration back in 2000 took power, Cheney was very quick to declare that the US was likely to head into a recession, because that’s a recession you can blame on the outgoing guy, and 4 years is a long time, so people aren’t going to remember it, they want to get it out of the way.”

He added that while many were talking about the potential impact of tariffs on inflation, there was not likely to be a direct effect, although the instability brought on by constantly shifting policy was something to watch.

“When people say that tariffs are going to cause inflation, I’m sceptical to the extent that these price increases are sector-specific, one-off price increases,” Professor Widmaier said.

“A one-off increase in prices because of a tariff on a particular good – if it doesn’t become embedded in people’s expectations – will not cause prolonged inflation.

“If there are constantly increasing tariffs, where he’s got 25%, then 50%, and cyclical tariffs, and things start to feed on themselves, yes that will be inflationary.”

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Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. – then led by Joe Biden – was one of several countries which provided military, humanitarian, and financial aid to Ukraine in addition to military intelligence.

But much of this hangs in the balance in the wake of the Oval Office meeting, in which President Trump – long noted for his closeness to Russian leader Vladimir Putin – accused Zelensky of not quite being sufficiently grateful for U.S. support, and told him he was “gambling with World War Three.”

Vance followed by asking, “Have you said ‘thank you’ once this entire meeting? No.”

Departing the White House, Zelensky went to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London for a summit there on 2 March to discuss how European nations – alongside Canada – could contribute to Ukraine’s defence during the war.

But questions remain: What this support will look like long term, how these countries might configure themselves around the U.S. if it cuts off support to Ukraine – and how that country might avoid such a consequence.

Making things right with Washington certainly seems to be on Zelensky’s agenda: A few days after his confrontation with Trump and Vance, he used social media platform X to express regret about how things had gone, and underline his commitment to diplomatic engagement around the war.

“Our meeting in Washington… did not go the way it was supposed to be,” he wrote. “It is regrettable it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”

Zelensky added Ukraine was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” stating he’s willing to work under Trump to secure this.

Crucially, he said he was still willing to sign a deal with the United States for the proposed development of Ukrainian critical minerals, which had been on the agenda of his meeting at the White House the previous week.

It is not yet clear whether these overtures would be enough to overturn Trump’s suspension of all aid to Ukraine, nor a more recent announcement that claimed the sharing of military intelligence was also on hold.

The latter was announced by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and followed by comments from CIA Director John Radcliffe on what Zelensky needed to do to reverse the policy.

Radcliffe claimed Trump “had a real question about whether President Zelensky was committed to the peace process, and he said, ‘Let’s pause, I want to give you a chance to think about that.'”

One of Trump’s major claims amid these tensions is that the United States has taken on an “unfair burden” – compared to European countries in particular – when it comes to providing support to Ukraine.

And if analysis is confined to military spending alone, this is certainly the case.

According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a Germany-based research body scrutinising global issues, the U.S. contribution to military aid in the past three years is the equivalent of €64 billion, compared to €62 billion from European donors.

However, the trend is reversed when it comes to financial and humanitarian aid, with European sources allocating €70 billion to the US’ €50 billion. This also means the European contribution is higher overall.

Indeed, in a news report published as recently as February 14, the Kiel Institute argued “European donors have been the main source of aid to Ukraine since 2022, especially when it comes to financial and humanitarian aid.”

Altogether, it estimated Ukraine has received €267 billion of aid in the past three years, amounting to €80 billion a year. Of that, 49% was defined as military aid, 44% was financial support, 7% was humanitarian aid.

The Kiel Institute also suggested Trump’s election would be likely to keep U.S. contributions behind those of Europe after being overtaken by the latter in mid-2023, with European governments under pressure to step up their support initiatives.

Also noted was an increasing trend of collaboration between European nations for the provision of military weaponry, including the U.K.-led International Fund for Ukraine which combines contributions from multiple countries to buy military equipment for Ukraine, with a total allocation of €1.6 billion.

The majority of military aid across all donors had been sourced from existing arsenals, but more recently, weapons came to be sourced direct from industry.

While Trump’s decision to cut off military funding and the provision of intelligence to Ukraine present a significant setback for the eastern European country, it appears several of its other allies are intent on formulating a plan for its defense even beyond a peace deal.

At the March 2 summit – called by Starmer – the leaders of 18 countries, mostly in Europe, developed a four-point plan to reassure Ukraine of their support.

These included a pledge to continue providing military aid to the country, alongside economic pressure on Russia; a call for Ukrainian sovereignty to be recognised in any future peace talks; calls to boost the country’s defence capabilities even after peace was reached, to stave off a possible invasion; and agreement to form a ‘coalition of the willing’ to secure long term peace for Ukraine.

After the summit, which had been called just a week earlier, Starmer underlined the significance of this moment, and the decisions needing to be made, saying: “We are at a crossroads in history.”

While stating in the future, Europe might have to do the heavy lifting when it came to support of Ukraine – something which in the British case could involve “boots on the ground and planes in the air,” he acknowledged any agreement would need support from the U.S. – and has to include Russia.

Additional U.K. support was announced after the summit, comprising a £1.6 billion package of export finance to buy more than 5,000 air defence missiles, which would be built in Belfast.

This will add to an already announced loan of £2.2bn loan for more military aid, which has been backed by profits taken from frozen Russian assets.

With French President Emmanuel Macron, Starmer has also been progressing diplomatic efforts to secure peace, with both leaders separately telephoning Zelensky and Trump to finalise a deal in coming weeks.

No matter what happens next though, it will be a busy, and tense, few weeks ahead.

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The €553 million transaction comes during a busy period of upgrades at the 85,000 square metre centre – described as ‘one of the strongest and best-performing destinations in Prague’ – where an extension of 9,000 square metres is to be added in 2026, including new retail, dining and leisure facilities.

As a result of the transaction, the involved parties will commence a long-term joint venture, with Upvest and RSJ Investments able to acquire a further 24% stake in the next two years (based on the appraisal value at that time).

The transaction will be completed with an implied offer price of €553M, and the asset – which will continue to be managed by URW – has been financed with a green mortgage loan of up to €268 million; the largest syndicated commercial real estate loan in the Czech market since 2023.

The loan will be partly used to finance the ongoing extension.

URW has been trading at $6.20.

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The project’s total area now sits at 7,062 hectares, comprising a REE-vanadium mineralised belt of rocks across Jokikangas and Honkamäki.

Historical (diamond) drilling at the site has pulled up encouraging results for hafnium, niobium and REEs, including 0.50 metres at 7,556 ppm (parts per million) TREO (total rare earth oxides) and 940 ppm hafnium from 22.6 metres; and 0.30 metres at 10,445 ppm TREO and 1,160 ppm hafnium from 32.8 metres.

Prospech is looking ahead to reviewing and sampling drill core from 81 more historical drill holes, focusing on hafnium, niobium, yttrium, scandium and tantalum.

Managing director Jason Beckton said the company had been keeping an eye on the price of niobium and hafnium in relation to Jokikangas – with hafnium recently hitting more than US$4,800/kg, an increase of more than 220% since 2021.

“We acknowledge the significant impact of recent price increases in hafnium and niobium on the potential development of the Jokikangas project,” he said.

“Prospech geologists are organising a program to sample diamond drill core preserved by the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) to further assess the project’s potential.

“Iron-hosted, zircon-rich zones containing hafnium are visibly present at Jokikangas. These zones have been defined but the drill core remains largely unsampled for these critical elements.”

Prospech has been trading at 2.7 cents.

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The sale is to be facilitated through a binding, conditional share purchase agreement (SPA), with the buyer Norge Mineraler – an exploration company and subsidiary of U.K.-based Norge Mining Ltd.

MRC has been planning a divestment of Skaland since November, with the sale to free it up to focus instead on the Munglinup Graphite Project in Western Australian and downstream active anode plans in Australia more generally.

According to the SPA, the US$11.75M purchase price will comprise a non-refundable exclusivity fee of US$250,000 (already received), a refundable deposit of US$1M, and US$10.5M to be paid at completion.

Norge Mineraler will take on all liability exposure in the project – except intercompany loans – while MRC will be restricted from competing with the business of Skaland in Norway for three years.

MRC CEO Scott Lowe said the deal represents an important milestone and turning point for the company.

“The aim of this deal is to transform MRC into a much simpler, more focused company with a clearer path to value growth,” he said.

“Selling Skaland will allow MRC to strengthen its balance sheet and concentrate entirely on the Munglinup graphite project in Western Australia and the downstream active anode project.

“The Company’s streamlined business strategy will be to advance and develop these two excellent projects and take advantage of the global focus on critical and battery minerals that includes graphite.”

MRC has been trading at 2.6 cents.

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Sonic has entered binding agreements to take on LADR – whose cash and debt free Enterprise Value (EV) has been set at €423 million – with the deal revolving around the issue of ordinary shares in Sonic Healthcare with a maximum value of €222 million; the balance will be paid in cash.

LADR was founded in 1945 and has been owned by the Kramer family since. It’s now in its third generation under the family.

The lab group employs more than 2,800 full-time staff with its central laboratory located in the town of Geesthacht, to the East of Hamburg. It also has a presence in Poland.

The acquisition’s upside is based on the strength of LADR – expected to post a CY 2024 revenue of around €370 million (approximately A$610 million) – and the cultural and operation alignment between it and Sonic – especially synergies in areas such as procurement, laboratory overlaps, specialised testing, logistics, equipment maintenance and the supply and distribution of medical consumables.

Executives from both LADR and Sonic Healthcare Germany will play important roles in integrating operations, and LADR’s Prof. Jan Kramer – CEO and Medical Director – plus Dr. Tobias Kramer (Medical Director – Infection Prevention and Control) and Mr. Thomas Wolff (CFO) have all agreed to long-term, ongoing employment with Sonic.

Sonic Healthcare has been trading at $28.57.

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Altech’s main focus is the planning, design and construction of a 120-megawatt-hour (MWh) plant in Germany to produce the CERENERGY modular energy storage batteries – whose technology has been innovated by joint venture partner, Fraunhofer IKTs.

Crucial to this technology is the use of table salt, which facilitates construction of a battery without lithium, copper, cobalt, graphite or manganese elements; a battery which – unlike the regular lithium-ion type, can tolerate a wide range of temperatures, and last for 15 years.

On this basis, the company argues that SCSS batteries will be the grid battery storage of the future.

On October 1, Altech told investors that it had completed a first prototype of the CERENERGY battery, which had been installed in Fraunhofer IKTs’ test laboratory in Dresden, and was undergoing daily testing, with early results indicating its ability to maintain exceptional thermal stability – an important measure for evaluating high-capacity energy storage systems.

Also being assessed at the lab were CERENERGY’s efficiency, stability and overall performance under real-world conditions.

Since then, Altech’s main moves to develop the project have been around funding, starting with a share placement earlier this month which enabled it to raise $4 million by issuing 66,666,667 ordinary shares at 6 cents each.

Part of the funding was plugged into development of a longer-term financing strategy and bank due diligence for CERENERGY, with the first stage of this announced on November 22.

An important milestone was the development of an ‘invitation document’ which German subsidiary Altech Batteries GmbH (ABG) sent out to various financial institutions to check their interest in providing debt funding for the project, with several expressing enthusiasm.

Altech CEO and managing director Iggy Tan said he was pleased with the outcome.

“We recently appointed a debt advisor – one of the top accounting firms in Germany – which a lot of experience in funding these types of green projects and an extensive network of banking contacts,” he said.

“The process has been about onboarding these debt advisors and we have now completed an investment document which we call the ‘teaser’ and have also established a project data room for the due diligence process.

“The teaser has gone out to 10 investment banks in Europe, including two venture debt funds and the positive news is the feedback is very positive. These banks have come back and indicated they would be interested in the debt funding side of this project.”

Dept funding was only the first stage in a three-stage process, Mr Tan said, adding that after that came the grant component and finally equity funding.

“With regard to the grant component, there’s a lot of money in the EU as well as Germany looking to help projects like ours in the green transition,” he said.

“In the coming months, we’ll report the outcomes of these grants.”

Regarding equity funding, Altech planned to invite a strategic partner to join them in the project, and then sell them a minority interest.

This would provide two key advantages, according to Mr Tan.

“There will be an injection of funds to the project immediately, and we can use that to order long lead items for the project,” he said.

“And secondly, we’re looking for the strategic partner to add value to the whole process of establishing this first 120 MW plan as well as the future giga factories.”

Preferred partners for this would include large utility groups, data centre operators, investment funds and corporations that are heavily involved in the green energy transition.

With a definitive feasibility study (DFS) ticked off earlier in the year, and the success of the CERENERGY prototype also pointing to a positive future for the project, Altech has also made some prime moves when it comes to offtake arrangements.

“What we’re trying to do is get the first five years of our project sold so that it will help the funding process,” Mr Tan said.

“We announced recently (in September) the first offtake of 30 MW per annum to a company called ZISP (Zweckverband Industriepark Schwarze Pumpe). This is essentially the industrial park that we exist in, and they have EU funds to convert the power in that path to renewable energy from coal fired power.

“They have funds available and their project is to start converting the renewal power to renewable energy and as part of that they need grid storage batteries. So essentially they’ve signed up for 30 megawatts per annum for five years and we’re in the process of getting more offtake.”

Altech has been trading at 4.8 cents.

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Earlier this year, Bastion added 8 additional properties to its portfolio in Sweden, which at that time already included the Gyttorp area no. 100 property, which is prospective for REEs, copper, gallium and germanium.

Analyses of mineralisation at these new properties showed them to have the same skarn style as Gyttorp, with initial evaluation indicating the magnetite skarn to be developed in calcareous horizons.

The similarity to Gyttorp was indicated though the REE and copper grades, which included up to 18.5% Total Rare Earth Elements (TREE) plus Yttrium, and up to 24% copper found inpXRF analyses associated with magnetite skarns.

These skarns are found throughout the new properties, with widespread copper in the magnetite and REE mineralisation in the surrounding tremolite-actinolite alteration in multiple locations.

Executive chairman Ross Landles said the early-stage exploration work was providing good guidance when it came to developing plans for drilling.

“The REE mineralisation in the newly granted properties is of the same skarn style as at Gyttorp, with similar high-grade results,” he said.

“Given the extensive property holding along the REE Line, we will continue to conduct sampling and mapping across the properties, in order to establish the areas with thehighest REE and Cu grades and the greatest thickness and length of mineralisation.

“This will allow us to rank the project areas and decide which is the highest priority for drilling.”

Bastion shares spiked higher on the news, and at 11:13 AEDT, they were trading at 0.7 cents – a rise of 16.67% since the market opened.

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Altogether, 307 samples were taken across 25 historical drill holes which had been completed at Korsnäs – in the country’s southwest – from the 1950s to 1970s.

Results included 11.4 metres at 13,383 ppm TREO from 102.7 (NdPrO2 3,982 ppm), including 4.0 metres at 32,831 ppm TREO from 106.7 metres; and 17.4 metres at 9,798 ppm TREO from 0.0m (NdPrO 3,087 ppm), including 3.0 metres at 48,465 ppm TREO from 11.4 metres.

Managing director Jason Beckon said the high grades of these particular REEs boded well for the project.

“Korsnäs keeps delivering standout results, with recent recognition of high grade zones rich in critical Heavy Rare Earth Elements (HREEs) like dysprosium (Dy) and terbium (Tb),” he said.

“While Korsnäs is primarily a carbonatite-associated deposit known for valuable magnet REEs such as neodymium (Nd) and praseodymium (Pr), the presence of significant Dy and Tb mineralisation is a major advantage.

“These heavy REEs are crucial for producing high strength magnets which hold up under high temperatures and perform reliably in demanding applications like electric vehicles, wind turbines and high-efficiency motors.”

Prospech is trading at 3.2 cents – a rise of 14.29% since the market opened.

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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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The Melbourne-based Vinyl has bought up Serenade’s assets – including its UK subsidiary – through a Business Deed Sale which began with a $800,000 upfront scrip payment which is to be followed by a scrip earn-out of $1.5 million based on P&L targets.

Shareholders in Serenade received $800,000 worth of Vinyl shares (valued at $0.09739) under the agreement, and will receive a further $1,500,000 in shares if the combined business of Vinyl.com and Serenade hit a revenue target of $4,000,000 and EBIT of $500,000 in the 12 months following the deal’s completion.

The deal will bring Vinyl access to physical and digital collectibles related to more than 200 global artists, include the Gallagher brothers of Oasis, Muse, Sum 41, Twnety One Pilots and Thirty Seconds to Mars.

Serenade has also developed commercial partnerships with more than 100 record labels including Warner Music Group, Beggars Group, Concord, Glassnote, FUGA and PIAS.

Vinyl has also been drawn to Serenade’s strong performance with its NFC-enabled Smart Formats offering, which had recorded 56% month-on-month growth since launching in January 2024, with this including sales of more than 12,000 units in the first half of the year.

The agreement has also seen a number of central Serenade employees join Vinyl, including CEO Max Shand, who is working full-time with Vinyl to lead Serenade, and also help to rapidly accelerate the Vinyl.com business, expanding its product offerings into physical and digital collectables whilst launching into additional markets.

Vinyl Group CEO Josh Simons said the acquisition was an important development for the company.

“Max Shand has built Serenade into a business with significant potential, and through our acquisition of the platform, we’ll put the resources into Serenade to allow it to reach that potential,” he said.

“Vinyl Group is, at its core, a tech business and this was a great opportunity to expandour tech offering. We look forward to welcoming Max and other key members of the Serenade team to Vinyl Group.”

Vinyl shares rose on the news, and at 14:35 AEST, they were trading at 10 cents – a rise of 3.09% since the market opened.

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The deposit is part of the wider 5.4 million-ounce Rogozna gold project, with the intercept in question revealing the strongest gold mineralisation ever found there, indicating potential for Shanac – itself carrying a resource estimate of 4.6 million ounces – to be extended.

The intercept – in totality yielding 89.7 metres at 4.0g/t gold from 244.5 metres, including 24.1 metres at 10.5g/t from 296.2 metres – was picked up through the first hole drilled at Shanac, which is one of four skarn-hosted gold and base metals deposits within Rogozna.

The hole was drilled approximately 200 metres from Shanac’s southern end, targeting a zone of strong gold and copper mineralisation hosted within magnetite skarn defined byprevious drilling.

Multiple, geologically distinct zones comprising gold and base metal mineralisation were found.

Strickland Managing Director Paul L’Herpiniere said the results from only one hole were phenomenal.

“Our strategy for Shanac has been to target the higher-grade zones of the deposit to upgrade the 4.6Moz Au Eq inferred resource,” he said.

“Not only did we discover the highest gold grades ever encountered at the RogoznaProject, but we also encountered extensive copper-gold mineralisation further down the hole, with an ~109m long interval containing 1.3g/t Au with 0.4% Cu, including multiple zones of massive chalcopyrite, with assays up to 11% Cu.

“Perhaps the most important aspect of these new results is that they are validating our geological model for the controls on high-grade mineralisation at Shanac: this is a very large deposit and it is only now that, with the start of closer-spaced drilling, we are defining what we refer to as the ‘Central Domain’.”

He added that the company would shortly carry out follow up drilling on the target discovered through drilling of this first hole, which has been shown to be a thick, high-grade gold zone.

Strickland has been trading at 10 cents, a rise of 3.09% since the market opened.

Identifying 34 critical materials together with 17 strategic ones, the Act established a framework for how these materials should be accessed in the future: with 10 percent of supply to come from local extraction, 40 percent to be processed in the EU, and 25 percent to be taken from recycled materials.

The ruling has placed a spotlight on companies who are on the hunt for these minerals within the European Union, many of whom are finding innovative ways to secure supplies quickly, through various development initiatives.

And perhaps the most watched are those seeking to pin down resources of lithium: a material central to production of electric vehicle batteries, but which is also contributing to news flow as due to China’s dominance as the main global producer, and other jurisdiction’s attempts to overcome this, even as the market is in oversupply mode.

The price of lithium dropped below the 100,000 Chinese yuan per tonne mark in December, a two-year low influenced by a continuing reality of surplus and has since then crawled around a tight range just above the line. At the same time, Beijing announced plans to double output over the next ten years, while both the EU and US have hit back with large tariffs targeting Chinese EV producers and seeking to control their own supply of lithium.

The EU’s second-largest hard rock lithium deposit is the one being developed by Infinity Lithium Corporation (ASX:INF) in Spain’s western Extremadura region. As a testament to its potential, Infinity’s San Jose project – which has now reached an advanced stage in its permitting process – was last week nominated as a project of regional and national significance by the Extremadura government.

On June 13, the company announced it had submitted documents for an Exploitation Concession Application (ECA) to the local government, which would enable mining in this jurisdiction. Progressing through this stage had entailed developing a project exploitation plan for mining and processing, as well as a rehabilitation and restoration plan and environmental impact assessment.

Following the government’s review of these, the application will move to a further stage, of public consultation.

“The detailed submission was prepared in anticipation of the confirmation of a viable lithium resource at San Jose and the advancement through Stage 1 of the process,” said Infinity’s general manager of Corporate Affairs Justin Samulski.

“The next 6-12 months will involve continuing to collaborate with the regional authorities and local stakeholders as we progress through the final stages of the permitting process.

“As we advance the technical aspects of the project, planning and consideration for the construction of a pilot plant has been ongoing as has the next stages of engineering with progressions towards a DFS (definitive feasibility study).”

Mr Samulski said that as Infinity confirms the viability of the San Jose project, the team was bolstered by the benefits of its size and location, its advanced status as a previously mined brownfields project, and as the region’s pressing demand for lithium.

“Extremadura is fortunate to host one the EU’s largest lithium deposit,” he said.

“It is an enormous resource that just happens to be in a region that is going to need a large amount of lithium chemicals in the very near future.”

In order to best approach this need, Infinity is planning to build a lithium chemicals conversion plant adjacent to the mine site.

“Given the nature of the resource it made sense to build the conversion facility on-site in order to keep transport distances and costs to a minimum, deliver a world class and sustainable project in line with European and local requirements, whilst retaining the strategic control of an end lithium chemical product that is critical for the automotive industry in Europe,” Mr Samulski said.

“This is compounded with geopolitical considerations and security of supply in localised value chains, and recent EU elections have highlighted an increasing focus within the EU on national interests.

“However, it is also a big opportunity for the local region of Extremadura as the project will bring with it large scale and long-term employment opportunities in a place which has not had such opportunities historically.”

Mr Samulski said the local government in Extremadura had already begun seeking investment in future industries such as renewable energies and electrification.

 “This has been evident with their handling of permitting for Envision’s gigafactory which occurred in rapid time, the signing of an MoU with Chinese cathode maker Hunan Yuneng for the construction of a cathode factory in the capital of Extremadura, and the hosting of an international forum on electrification in which many of the world’s largest contributors were invited to see what Extremadura has to offer,” he said.

“In short, Extremadura can realise their ambitions for a lithium-ion battery value chain that is cornerstoned through the availability of lithium in Europe.

“It is clear, the region is aligning its future to developing a localised lithium-ion battery value chain.”

Mr Samulski added that as the European Union seeks to prioritise local critical minerals supplies, San José had the potential to contribute to the region’s critical minerals market and economic landscape.

“The geopolitical landscape in Europe has clearly changed over the last couple of years and the European Commission has realised it needs to take control of its own destiny to protect its industrial sovereignty,” he said.

 “Given the limited number of European battery material and in particular lithium projects as it stands, and the large volumes of critical raw materials the region will require, Europe needs to get behind all of its domestic projects as it will need unattainable volumes of lithium chemicals from domestic supplies (where reasonable) to come to fruition to meet its goals.

“San José is a long life and low operating cost integrated lithium refining project that can produce approximately 33,000tpa (tonnes per annum) of battery grade lithium hydroxide which can contribute towards the region’s battery grade lithium chemical requirement.”

Another lithium-focused company based in Europe is Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd (ASX:VUL), which has devised a unique way to extract the mineral from natural hot brines in Germany, while also yielding geothermal energy from the same brines.

This energy could then be used to provide hot water and steam for local businesses in the Rhine Valley region, and Vulcan’s executive chair Dr Francis Wedin said this process had already begun.

“We are actually producing geothermal power at the moment commercially: from an ASX perspective, I think we’re one of the few pureplay sort of renewable energy producers at there at the moment,” he said.

“We run an ORC (organic ranking cycle) plant to produce power from the hot brine that comes up from the surface.”

In April, Vulcan announced that it had begun production from its Lithium Extraction Optimisation Plant (LEOP) in Landau, showing a consistent rate of 90 percent lithium extraction – in addition to a top extraction grade of 95 percent from the plant.

This milestone also made it the first company to produce lithium from a local source in Europe.

Dr Wedin said the choice of Germany – and specifically the Rhine Valley – had played an integral role in the success of its Zero Carbon Lithium Project.

“We wanted to decarbonize lithium production, which meant building a low cost, low carbon or zero carbon lithium operation,” he said.

Finding brines that were naturally heated, and which contained high levels of lithium salts, made this process much easier, in addition to knowing that the brine resource in question would last for many years.

“And while there are locations all around the world that have similar features, the Upper Rhine valley had all of these characteristics,” Dr Wedin said.

“In addition, you know the infrastructure was already there, so there are already plants and wells there, some of which we’ve acquired already.”

Having moved through a crucial development stage with the rolling out of production from LEOP, Vulcan is now steaming ahead to securing finance, reporting in May that it had reached the final financing stage for its project, indicating that ‘Tier 1 banks’ had reported interest, including the European Investment Bank and other major export banks.

The company has also been reporting investor interest closer to home, with Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting (HP) buying up €12.5M (A$20.3M) worth of shares in early June, boosting HP’s overall percentage to 7.5 percent, and thus becoming Vulcan’s second largest shareholder.

In other parts of the continent, the drive to move into the lithium space has seen the development of joint ventures such as the one involving France’s Imerys – a company focused on production and processing of industrial minerals – and British Lithium, which has been mining the resource in Cornwall.

In June 2023, the two companies announced a JV – through which Imerys would gain an 80 percent stake in British Lithium – focused on extracting lithium carbonate from an open-pit granite mine in Cornwall, with production to begin five years later (2028).

 At the time of signing, British Lithium was the first company to discover a significant lithium resource in the UK, while Imerys had extensive expertise in mining and infrastructure in the Cornwall region.

Since then, the joint venture has developed Europe’s only integrated lithium pilot plant, and is now moving into the prefeasibility stage, looking towards a production profile of 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year.

Crucially, through this and its EMILI project in France – located in the Beauvoir Kaolin Quarry – Imerys is set to become the largest integrated lithium producer in Europe, representing more than 20 percent of the announced European lithium output by 2030.

The Imerys British Lithium JV has gained approval from the UK government under the latter’s National Security Investment Protocol, with the expectation that it will reduce this country’s (and the European Union’s) dependence on imports of critical minerals, and support both regions in reaching climate change goals, as well as creating the first fully integrated regional electrical vehicle value chain.

Production began at the plant to produce lithium chloride (LiCl) product at the plant, with early results indicating the product to be consistently over 90 percent – and sometimes reaching 95 percent – in terms of the grades of lithium being extracted.

This is done through an adsorption-type direct lithium extraction (A-DLE) unit, a method tested in Vulcan’s lab and pilot plant operations.

Managing director and CEO Cris Moreno said the production start was an important moment for the region’s development of a battery market supply chain.

“This significant milestone marks a pivotal moment in Vulcan’s journey towards revolutionising domestic lithium raw material supply for Europe’s Battery industry,” he said.

“Vulcan’s LEOP facility is equipped with world-leading technology designed to showcase the efficiency of our A-DLE process and environmental benefits, whilst training our commercial production team in a pre-commercial environment as we build the Phase One commercial plant.

“We look forward to providing further updates on our Central Lithium Electrolysis Optimisation Plant (CLEOP) as we aim to produce Europe’s first fully integrated lithium battery chemicals from our own domestic resource, and also to providing updates on Phase One of the Zero Carbon Lithium™ Project, including financing, in the coming months.”

Vulcan was up in early trade at $2.86.