Small Cap Watch: Alkane lifts gold resource, St George hits record-thick Araxá intercept, Janus secures Frankfurt listing and more...

The S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries slipped modestly on Tuesday, with the index easing 3.8 points, or 0.11%, to close at 3,322.8.

The small-cap benchmark has declined 20.5 points, or 0.61%, over the past five trading sessions, reflecting a subdued stretch for the junior end of the Australian market.

Despite the softer index performance, company news remains active, with resource upgrades, drilling results, quarterly production figures and international expansion initiatives providing several points of interest for investors. You can read about the following and more throughout the day.

Alkane lifts Storheden gold resource

Alkane Resources Ltd (ASX:ALK, OTC:ALKEF) has reported further exploration success and an updated mineral resource estimate for the Storheden deposit at its Björkdal operation in northern Sweden.

Storheden is about 700 metres north of the Björkdal mine, where recent drilling has intersected gold-bearing quartz veins across a 2.7-kilometre strike length and to a depth of 464 metres.

Mineralisation remains open in all directions.

Alkane completed 16 extensional diamond drill holes at Storheden between January and March 2026, intersecting high-grade mineralisation within target zones identified through earlier campaigns.

The drilling has also improved the company’s understanding of the lithostructural controls on gold-bearing quartz veins, defining geological units that will form targets for future exploration.

Updated modelling incorporating drilling completed during 2025 and 2026 has increased confidence in the deposit, introduced an indicated resource category and lifted both the grade and total contained gold.

Storheden now hosts an indicated resource of 1.07 million tonnes grading 2.51 g/t gold for 87,000 ounces, alongside an inferred resource of 1.85 million tonnes at 2.11 g/t for 125,000 ounces.

St George hits record-thick Araxá intercept

St George Mining Ltd (ASX:SGQ, FRA:S0G, OTC:SGQMF) has delivered what it described as some of the strongest assay results recorded so far from diamond drilling at its wholly owned Araxá Rare Earths and Niobium Project in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

The latest results include a record-thick mineralised intercept of 207 metres from surface, reinforcing the scale and continuity of the project’s near-surface mineralisation.

Multiple intersections exceeded 150 metres in thickness, while high-grade rare earths and niobium were encountered from surface.

Notable results included 20 metres grading 12.65% total rare earth oxides from surface and 43 metres at 1.35% niobium pentoxide from surface.

St George executive chair John Prineas said the near-surface position of the high-grade material could provide a meaningful development advantage for a potential open-pit operation.

“The multiple thick intercepts from surface – many more than 150m thick – speak to the large volume of high-grade mineralisation at Araxá,” he said.

“What is probably even more exciting is the very high-grade mineralisation near-surface. This is the material that will be mined in the initial years of a potential open-pit operation.”

Prineas said the limited overburden could reduce pre-strip requirements and avoid the complexity and higher costs associated with underground mining.

Janus Electric secures Frankfurt listing

Janus Electric Holdings Ltd (ASX:JNS) has expanded its international investor reach after its shares were admitted to trading on the Open Market quotation board of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

The secondary listing is expected to increase Janus’ exposure to European institutional and retail investors as the company builds its profile in the low-emission heavy freight transport sector.

Janus has also appointed German capital markets advisory firm Dr Reuter Investor Relations to support communications and investor engagement across Germany and continental Europe.

The company is developing technology that converts heavy-duty diesel trucks to electric power using exchangeable batteries and charging infrastructure designed to minimise fleet downtime.

The Frankfurt listing follows growing international interest in technologies aimed at reducing emissions from long-haul road transport.

D3 Energy expands helium resource base

D3 Energy Ltd (ASX:D3E, OTCQX:DNRGF) has reported a material increase in the scale of its certified helium resources during the June 2026 quarter, strengthening a portfolio spanning South Africa and Australia.

The certification of maiden contingent and prospective resources at ER386 by Sproule ERCE increased D3’s combined South African 2C contingent helium resource by 65% and its 2U prospective helium resource by 94%.

The ER386 acreage is positioned along the same Virginia and Ventersburg fault corridor that supports the company’s existing reserves at ER315.

Since the end of the quarter, D3 has also secured certification of maiden prospective resources at the Hydrohelix and Cootanoorina prospects within PEL121 in South Australia.

Managing director and chief executive David Casey said the certification represented an important first step in quantifying the potential of the company’s Australian permits.

D3 has also commenced drilling at Nooitgedacht, the first of two planned wells in the northwestern portion of ER315.

The program is designed to extend the company’s reserve base around 40 kilometres north of Bloemskraal and gather data to support the conversion of additional exploration areas into production rights.

“With helium supply chains still under acute pressure due to ongoing events in the Middle East, D3 now holds certified helium resources on two continents, both of which are outside traditional supply centres,” Casey said.

The company’s priorities for the remainder of 2026 include drilling, seismic acquisition, securing an initial production right in South Africa’s Free State, progressing offtake discussions and advancing Hydrohelix toward drilling.

Greatland beats FY26 production guidance

Greatland Resources Ltd (AIM:GGP, OTC:GRLGF, FRA:G8G, ASX:GGP) has delivered a strong June quarter, producing 79,100 ounces of gold and 3,573 tonnes of copper while outperforming its full-year 2026 production and cost guidance.

Quarterly all-in sustaining costs came in at A$2,312 per ounce of gold.

Full-year production reached 328,987 ounces of gold and 14,594 tonnes of copper at an all-in sustaining cost of A$2,179 per ounce.

The result exceeded Greatland’s FY26 guidance of between 260,000 and 310,000 ounces of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of A$2,400 to A$2,800 per ounce.

Greatland finished the period with A$1.289 billion in cash, providing substantial financial capacity to fund operations and future growth initiatives.

Operational performance was supported by record open-pit material movements and ore mined during the quarter, while gold recoveries remained strong at 86.8%.

Safety performance also improved, with no lost-time injuries recorded during the quarter. The company’s 12-month moving average lost-time injury frequency rate stood at 0.2, while its total recordable injury frequency rate was 4.5.