In Case You Missed It: Rare earths on the rise, and coal seam gas pilot spudded

Stockhead’s In-Case-You-Missed-It highlights today’s most interesting small cap stories that might have slipped beneath your radar.
Below is a wrap of the top 20 performing stocks, by percentage, who made announcements today.

ICYMI Leader Board

Code	Company	Price	% Today	Market Cap
ASR	Asra Minerals Ltd	0.009	29%	$10,082,710
BTE	Botalaenergyltd	0.125	25%	$13,610,000
EMD	Emyria Limited	0.1	25%	$24,667,945
PEX	Peel Mining Limited	0.13	24%	$60,980,626
VKA	Viking Mines Ltd	0.011	22%	$9,227,326
JAY	Jayride Group	0.13	18%	$22,400,158
CXU	Cauldron Energy Ltd	0.007	17%	$5,709,412
YPB	YPB Group Ltd	0.0035	17%	$2,230,384
TPC	TPC Consolidated Ltd	5.79	14%	$57,848,571
ATP	Atlas Pearls Ltd	0.055	13%	$20,751,951
GSS	Genetic Signatures	0.5	12%	$63,815,668
AUC	Ausgold Limited	0.038	12%	$78,068,801
BMN	Bannerman Energy Ltd	2.3	12%	$310,051,960
LYN	Lycaonresources	0.24	12%	$8,367,531
MRZ	Mont Royal Resources	0.24	12%	$17,693,411
LDR	Lode Resources	0.145	12%	$13,881,939
CF1	Complii Fintech Ltd	0.039	11%	$19,311,009
HXG	Hexagon Energy	0.01	11%	$4,616,243
LM1	Leeuwin Metals Ltd	0.31	11%	$12,539,800
PEC	Perpetual Res Ltd	0.021	11%	$11,659,650

Asra Minerals (ASX:ASR) continues to progress initial metallurgical test work on the Yttria clay-hosted rare earths deposit, part of the Mt Stirling project near Leonora, WA.

Botala (ASX:BTE) has successfully spudded the first of four coal seam gas pilot production wells that will determine the commercial flow potential of its Serowe project in Botswana.

Emyria (ASXS:EMD) has secured firm commitments from new and sophisticated investors to raise $2 million (before costs) through an oversubscribed placement.

The Review of Environmental Factors (REF) for Peel Mining’s (ASX:PEX) Mallee Bull exploration decline project, part of its South Cobar project, has been approved by the NSW Resources Regulator.

Viking Mines (ASX:VKA) hit significant vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) intercepts at its Fold Nose deposit, such as 42m at 0.74% V2O5 (>0.5%) from 79m, including 17m at 0.80% V2O5 (>0.8%) from 83m and 8m at 0.99% V2O5 (>0.8%) from 108m.

Scanner tech group YPB Group (ASX:YPB) says J F Houston Holdings, an entity associated with the executive chairman, has agreed to extend a further new unsecured loan facility of $500,000 – on top of its $2m placement announced in March.

Biotech Genetic Signatures (ASX:GSS) submitted a 510(k) application to the US FDA, seeking regulatory clearance to market its EasyScreen Gastrointestinal Parasite Detection Kit in the US.

Ausgold (ASX:AUC) delivered a resource increase at its Katanning gold project in WA, bringing it to 3.04Moz (98Mt at 1.06g/t) – with Measured and Indicated of 2.42Moz.

Lycaon Resources (ASX:LYN) has intersected over 13m of nickel-copper sulphides in the first 800m-deep diamond hole at Bow River, indicating the potential for “economic sulphides” in a large, >1km long gravity anomaly.

And Mont Royal Resources (ASX:MRZ) flagged that outcropping spodumene-bearing pegmatites have been identified in the south-west of the property with two outcrops of spodumene-bearing pegmatites (30m2 and 45m2 ) 16m apart at its at its Bohier and Léran projects – in Canada’s James Bay lithium hotspot.

MINING & EXPLORATION

Hastings Technology Metals (ASX:HAS) has appointed a new CEO to lead the company into production at its at its world class Yangibana rare earths project in WA.

Clay rare earths front-runner Ionic Rare Earths (ASX:IXR) says the massive Makuutu project in Uganda has additional resource growth potential after new drilling intersected some of the highest grades to date.

Maiden diamond drilling at MTM Critical Metals’ (ASX:MTM) Pomme rare earth element (REE) and niobium project in Canada is off to a great start with widespread visual mineralisation pointing to a ‘very large’ +2sqkm mineralised system.

Fresh IPO Lithium Universe (ASX:LU7) has launched straight into on-ground exploration work at the Apollo project in Canada’s prolific James Bay region following the completion of early permitting and field preparation.

Silver Mines (ASX:SVL) has struck a native title agreement in relation to a parcel of Crown land within the Bowdens silver project, enabling further progress at what is the largest undeveloped silver deposit in Australia and one of the largest in the world.

New drilling results, including a highlight of 6.5m at 2.56% nickel, indicate continuous high-grade nickel sulphides over a 2km (and growing) trend at Leeuwin Metals’ (ASX:LM1) William Lake project in Canada.

Diablo Resources (ASX:DBO) has started a 9 hole, 1,200m drilling program at its exciting Devil’s Canyon gold-copper project, located along US’ Carlin Trend which has produced more than 195Moz of gold.

Summer drilling at American West Metals’ (AX:AW1) Storm project on Somerset Island in Canada has returned “outstanding” near surface high-grade results ranging from 1.3% to a whopping 42.8% copper.

Extensional drilling outside the mine plan at Black Cat Syndicate’s (ASX:BC8) Paulsen’s gold mine continues to hit high-grade gold up to 223g/t.

Several new high-grade gold and silver resource growth targets have been confirmed at Titan’s (ASX:TTM) 3.12Moz Dynasty project in southern Ecuador with most results returning grades over 20 g/t gold.

Maiden drilling is underway at the greenfields Highway project, where Taiton Resources (ASX:T88) believes it is on the trail of a large mineral system.

And Miramar Resources’ (ASX:M2R) executive chairman Allan Kelly says initial diamond drilling at Whaleshark hit bedrock copper, providing the most significant evidence for IOCG mineralisation since the project was first highlighted by WMC the 1990s.

EVERYTHING ELSE

BPH Energy’s (ASX:BPH) investee company Cortical Dynamics has achieved a major milestone, securing US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its flagship tech the Brain Anaesthesia Response Monitor or BARM system version 1.

LAST ORDERS

Latin Resources (ASX:LRS) has been added to the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Global Small- Cap Index.

And Adavale Resources (ASX:ADD) received total applications from eligible shareholders of approximately $261,302 for its entitlement offer to fund exploration at the Kabanga Jirani Nickel Project in Tanzania.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Asra Minerals, Botala, Peel Mining, Lyacon Resources, Hastings Technology Metals, Ionic Rare Earths, MTM Critical Metals, Lithium Universe, Silver Mines, Leeuwin Metals, Diablo Resources, American West Metals, Black Cat Syndicate, Titan, Taiton Resources, Miramar Resources, BPH Energy, Latin Resources and Adavale Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.