White Cliff Minerals Limited (“WCN” or the “Company”) (ASX: WCN; OTCQB: WCMLF) is pleased to announce it has received firm commitments to raise approximately A$14.4m (before costs) through the issue of 384,615,398 new, fully paid ordinary shares in the Company. Utilising the “flow-through shares” provisions under Canadian tax law 307,692,321 shares will be issued at an issue price of A$0.0403 per share representing a 38.9% premium to WCN’s last trading price of A$0.029 (14 May 2025) for a total of A$12.40m (Flow-Through). Additionally, the Company has received firm commitments to raise $2 million (before costs) through a share placement to new and existing sophisticated and professional investors (Placement). 76,923,077 shares will be issued under the Placement at $0.026 per share, being a 10.3% discount to the Company’s last closing price before trading halt.

• Capital raise cornerstoned by the Company’s Strategic Advisor, John Hancock and his private family office, Astrotricha Capital SEZC.
• The capital raise was significantly oversubscribed and the Company received investment from a number of new Australian, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singaporean financial institutions as well as existing institutional and sophisticated shareholders
• Funds will be used to expand and accelerate drilling and exploration activities at the Company’s Rae Copper Project with drilling set to recommence from mid-July
• Drilling activities will include both reverse circulation and diamond drilling, providing the Company flexibility in its targeting approach
• Aerial and downhole geophysics are to be undertaken to further refine drill targets across the Rae Copper Project
• Following encouraging visual results, the Company expects to update shareholders on further assays results for holes 5, 6 and 7 at Danvers, expected to be received over the coming weeks

”The successful completion of this capital raise is a testament to the quality of our Rae Copper Project and the confidence that investors have in our exploration strategy. The ability to access the less dilutive flow through funds at a circa 40% premium is a huge advantage and value accretive for shareholders. Further, John Hancock and his Astrotricha Capital Family Office cornerstone position in the raise, along with the support of other high net worth investors introduced by Astrotricha, reflects their shared vison for the future of WCN and underpins the Company’s development plans for the Rae Copper Project.

The outlook for copper prices remains robust and the Company is poised to ramp up exploration efforts as we capitalise on its strong financial position following this raise, in addition to the ongoing conversion of WCNO options. Following recent high-grade results, this upcoming drilling at Danvers will lay the foundation for a maiden exploration target at the project over the coming period. We are very excited about the potential to delineate a material resource around the immediate drilling area at Danvers and to potentially encompass additional deposits along the regional 7km + strike.

In parallel, drilling will commence at the major sedimentary hosted copper target at Hulk. The pre collars that we have completed at Hulk sit only about 50mtrs above the target horizon and with diamond rigs planned to arrive in the coming months at which time we plan to drill all project areas and deliver on the potential for an additional major copper discovery at our Rae Project.”

Troy Whittaker – Managing Director

“Starting out as a Strategic Advisor to WCN with an initial invested stake, I have now become the Company’s largest shareholder and am pleased to see another well executed and strongly supported capital raise at a premium to the share price. The WCN focus has been on minimising existing shareholder dilution whilst attracting strategic investor capital to accelerate exploration and at the same time, securing the Company’s financial position for the longer term. There is now global investor interest in WCN’s prospects and I look forward to further upcoming drill results.”

John Hancock – Strategic Advisor to WCN

Click here for the full ASX Release

Astute Metals NL (ASX: ASE) (“ASE”, “Astute” or “the Company”) is pleased to report assay results from the first of six holes completed as part of its highly successful April 2025 diamond drilling campaign at the 100%-owned Red Mountain Lithium Project in Nevada, USA. Drill-hole RMDD003 has returned three high- grade intersections of lithium mineralisation:

• 32.4m @ 3,260ppm Li / 1.74% Lithium Carbonate Equivalent¹ (LCE) from 57.2m, including an internal high-grade zone grading 8.6m @ 5,060ppm Li / 2.69% LCE from 67.7m;
• 13.8m @ 1,330ppm Li / 0.71% LCE from 39.6m; and
• 23.3m @ 1,610ppm Li / 0.86% LCE from 94.4m to End-of-hole.

Key Highlights

• Outstanding lithium mineralisation returned in assays for diamond drill-hole RMDD003, which intersected:
  • 32.4m @ 3,260ppm Li from 57.2m, including 8.6m of ultra high-grade mineralisation @ 5,060ppm Li from 67.7m;
  • 13.8m @ 1,330ppm Li from 39.6m; and
  • 23.3m @ 1,610ppm Li from 94.4m to end-of-hole
• RMDD003 marks the highest-grade lithium intercept recorded to date at Red Mountain.
• Mineralisation successfully extended 630m north of previous northernmost intersection in hole RMDD002.
• Hole ends in lithium, with mineralisation remaining open down-dip to the east and along strike to the north.
• Assays pending from five other recently completed drill- holes.

To hear CEO Matt Healy discuss this ASX Release click here

The thick zones of lithium mineralisation encountered in the northernmost drill-hole at Red Mountain highlight the increasing scale of the project, with strong lithium mineralisation now intersected in all drill- holes spanning a north-south strike extent of over 5.6km and surface sample geochemistry indicating further potential to the north, south and west of the current drilled extents7, 9 (Figure 3).

Of particular significance in hole RMDD003 is the high-grade nature of the mineralisation. The nearest drill-hole is RMDD002, which intersected 32.1m @ 2,050ppm within a broader 86.9m intersection at 1,470ppm Li from 18.3m. The high-grade zone in RMDD002 has persisted north to RMDD003, and increased in grade significantly to over 3,000ppm lithium.

Assays are pending for the other five holes drilled as part of the April diamond drilling campaign.

Astute Chairman, Tony Leibowitz, said:

“Our 2025 exploration campaign is off to a fantastic start, with exceptional assays returned for the first step-out diamond hole, RMDD003. We are impressed by the thickness and grade of the mineralisation, with the high-grade intercept returned from this hole showing that the previously identified high-grade zone extends for a considerable distance to the north.

“This provides further indication that Red Mountain is unfolding as a lithium discovery of significance in North America. With mineralisation now defined by drilling over a strike length of almost 6 kilometres, we are looking forward to seeing what the remaining drill-holes will deliver. The information obtained from this round of drilling should put us on a clear trajectory to advance Red Mountain towards a maiden JORC Mineral Resource Estimate later this year.”

Background

Located in central-eastern Nevada (Figure 4) adjacent to the Grand Army of the Republic Highway (Route 6), which links the regional mining towns of Ely and Tonopah, the Red Mountain Project was staked by Astute in August 2023.

The Project area has broad mapped tertiary lacustrine (lake) sedimentary rocks known locally as the Horse Camp Formation². Elsewhere in the state of Nevada, equivalent rocks host large lithium deposits (see Figure 4) such as Lithium Americas’ (NYSE: LAC) 62.1Mt LCE Thacker Pass Project³, American Battery Technology Corporation’s (OTCMKTS: ABML) 15.8Mt LCE Tonopah Flats deposit⁴ and American Lithium (TSX.V: LI) 9.79Mt LCE TLC Lithium Project⁵.

Astute has completed substantial surface sampling campaigns at Red Mountain, which indicate widespread lithium anomalism in soils and confirmed lithium mineralisation in bedrock with some exceptional grades of up to 4,150ppm Li^2,8 (Figure 3).

A total of 13 RC and diamond drill holes have been drilled at the project for a combined 1,944m, prior to this current drilling program. These campaigns were highly successful, intersecting strong lithium mineralisation in every hole⁹.

Scoping leachability testwork on mineralised material from Red Mountain indicates high leachability of lithium of up to 98%, varying with temperature, acid strength and leaching duration, and proof of concept beneficiation test-work has indicated the potential to upgrade the Red Mountain mineralisation^10,11.

Results

Hole RMDD003 successfully intersected three zones of lithium mineralised clay-bearing mudstones and sandstone, separated by narrow zones of unmineralised rocks (Figure 1). The intersections are as follows:

• 13.8m @ 1,330ppm Li / 0.71% LCE from 39.6m to 53.4m;
• 32.4m @ 3,260ppm Li / 1.74% LCE from 57.2m to 89.6m; and
• 23.3m @ 1,610ppm Li / 0.86% LCE from 94.4m to End-of-hole (117.7m).

The best grades were developed in the most clay-rich zones (Figure 2). An internal very high-grade zone of 8.6m returned a grade of 5,060ppm Li, with a maximum single sample grade of 5,660ppm Li from 69.2-70.7m (227-232ft), which is the drill sample with the highest lithium grade achieved to date at the project.

Click here for the full ASX Release

Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN), one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, has announced an investment in Stablecorp to bring QCAD — a Canadian dollar-denominated stablecoin — to Canadians.

The announcement was made in Toronto at the Blockchain Futurist Conference, where it was presented during a fireside chat by Lucas Matheson, Canada country director at Coinbase, and Alex McDougall, CEO of Stablecorp.

The pair positioned the launch as part of a global shift toward stablecoin integration and digital financial innovation, underscoring Canada’s unique opportunity to carve out a leadership role in the emerging digital currency ecosystem.

‘Stablecoins are probably the topic to draw this year in crypto, for a lot of good reasons,” said Matheson.

“When you look at volume around the world for cryptocurrencies, stablecoins currently account for about 70 percent of all volume in cryptocurrency, while maintaining about 10 percent of the market cap.”

Matheson pointed out that governments around the world, from the US to the UK, are moving quickly to legislate and define these assets as legitimate payment instruments. He stressed that Canada needs to be part of that conversation.

Stablecorp’s QCAD is not new to the scene. McDougall noted that the company has been working since 2020 to create a homegrown stablecoin that reflects Canada’s economic standing. Despite the US dollar’s dominance in the global stablecoin market, McDougall believes the Canadian dollar has a compelling case to make.

“The Canadian dollar trades over C$400 billion a day in foreign exchange. Over C$3.6 billion of goods cross the American border, back and forth every day,’ he told audience members. “There’s over C$316 billion in international central bank reserve currencies, and that’s up to C$65 billion over 2024 — the Canadian dollar quietly kicks ass.’

The Coinbase-Stablecorp partnership aims to fill this void by integrating QCAD into use cases ranging from simple peer-to-peer transactions to institutional finance and global trade. Matheson explained that Coinbase’s backing will bring the reach, trust and compliance capabilities needed to scale QCAD nationally and internationally.

Their discourse also revolved around real-world applications. McDougall described QCAD as a solution that dramatically lowers costs and increases speed in cross-border and domestic payments.

He pointed to practical examples already being piloted, such as Brazilian students paying Canadian tuition fees using QCAD, and Filipino workers receiving remittances via seamless FX-to-stablecoin pipelines.

In both cases, traditional banking systems are circumvented in favor of instant, lower-fee digital rails.

The stablecoin, McDougall added, also opens new doors for small business financing. Canadian businesses will soon be able to draw international lines of credit that settle in QCAD in real-time, with FX baked into transactions, a feature traditional banks currently do not offer. He also highlighted use cases in global telecommunications billing, where cross-border carrier settlements, a US$5 billion annual burden, could be simplified via programmatic stablecoin payments.

Even more futuristically, he envisions QCAD being critical infrastructure for Canada’s artificial intelligence ambitions.

“From just simple everyday things like sending money around and taking that power back, all the way to having these fully automated global webs of commerce — stablecoins are the building blocks for every single one of those,” he said.

Despite the momentum, both Matheson and McDougall acknowledged that Canada’s regulatory environment has not kept pace with innovation. Unlike jurisdictions such as the US and UK, where stablecoins are being defined through legislation as distinct asset classes, often as e-money, Canada remains entangled in a fragmented regulatory landscape.

“Our challenge is that we have 13 different provincial securities regulators, each approaching crypto through the lens of securities law,” said Matheson. “That’s led to a square peg, round hole problem.”

The lack of a unified federal framework has made it difficult for firms like Stablecorp to fully operationalize a compliant and scalable stablecoin solution. However, the panelists hope this may be changing with a cabinet shakeup.

With the QCAD rollout and further announcements expected in the coming weeks, the pressure now shifts to Ottawa to match private sector ambition with public policy action.

Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Here’s a quick recap of the crypto landscape for Friday (May 16) as of 4:00 p.m. UTC.

Get the latest insights on Bitcoin, Ethereum and altcoins, along with a round-up of key cryptocurrency market news.

Securities Disclosure: I, Giann Liguid, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.