In afternoon trade, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is on course to start the week with a solid gain. At the time of writing, the benchmark index is up 0.6% to 7,153.1 points.

Four ASX shares that are climbing more than most today are listed below. Here's why they are pushing higher:

Argosy Minerals Limited (ASX: AGY)

The Argosy Minerals share price is up over 6% to 66.5 cents. This is despite there being no news out of the lithium producer. Though, as we covered here earlier, the team at Canaccord Genuity is tipping Argosy Minerals' shares to rise strongly in 2023. It has a speculative buy rating and 85 cents price target on them.

Block Inc (ASX: SQ2)

The Block share price is up almost 4% to $100.02. This follows a strong session for the payments company's NYSE listed shares on Friday night. Investors were flooding into the tech sector amid hopes that US interest rates won't rise as much as feared.

Essential Metals Ltd (ASX: ESS)

The Essential Metals share price is up 39% to 48 cents. Investors have been buying the lithium explorer's shares after it accepted a takeover offer from Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia. This is a joint venture owned by lithium giants Tianqi Lithium and IGO Limited (ASX: IGO). Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia has tabled a 50 cents per share offer, which values Essential Metals at $136 million.

Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX: RSG)

The Resolute Mining share price is up 9% to 24 cents. This follows another solid rise in the gold price on Friday night. This was triggered by optimism that interest rates won't rise as much as forecast, which would be good news for gold as higher interest rates reduce the appeal of gold. The S&P/ASX All Ordinaries Gold index is up 2.3% today.

The post Why Argosy Minerals, Block, Essential Metals, and Resolute shares are storming higher appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

There's electricity in the air this morning as a handful of ASX lithium shares bask in the excitement of recent acquisition developments.

At the time of writing, the broad S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is enjoying a green start to the week — rising 0.99% to 7,179.7 points. The sector feeling the most love so far today is materials, catching a 0.66% boost with the Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) share price being the odd one out.

However, four ASX lithium shares are making some of the biggest waves today. Let's explore the exact details behind the moves.

IGO makes a $136 million offer for growth

An ASX lithium giant, IGO Limited (ASX: IGO), has made it clear this morning it is looking for additional lithium resources.

As previously reported, the $10.8 billion Australian miner — in conjunction with its joint venture partner Tianqi Lithium — has offered 50 cents per share to acquire Essential Metals Ltd (ASX: ESS).

Following the announcement, shares in Essential Metals have sprung to life, jumping nearly 38% to 47.5 cents apiece. Meanwhile, IGO shares are being pushed 1.9% to the upside today, now trading hands at $14.28.

The $136 million deal would value the Pioneer Dome Project owner at a 45% premium to its Friday closing price.

Mineral Resources doubles down on gas

A release by Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN) on Friday afternoon confirmed it had taken a 16.35% stake in Warrego Energy Ltd (ASX: WGO). The Mineral Resources share price is catching a 3.1% rally today, lifting to $86.14.

Notably, MinRes's financial interest in Warrego comes amid a bidding battle for the gas exploration company. Gina Rinehart's Hancock Group has been duking it out with Strike Energy to try and secure a winning bid on Warrego.

While Mineral Resources is mostly known for its mining services, iron ore, and lithium businesses, it also dabbles in energy. In fact, the investment in Warrego follows a $403 million off-market takeover bid of Norwest Energy NL (ASX: NWE) made in December.

ASX lithium share buying up projects

Barely a month into its listed life and Patriot Lithium Ltd (ASX: PAT) is already looking to spread its wings. Shares in the lithium explorer are up 5.3% today after announcing the acquisition of three prospective land packages in Ontario.

According to the release, the land totals 909sq km in the greenstone belts of the Archean Superior Craton of Ontario. These include the Gorman Project, the Forester Project, and the Birkett Project.

The post 4 ASX lithium stocks moving and shaking on Monday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

At the time of writing, the lithium explorer's shares are up 40% to 48.5 cents.

As you can see below, this is the highest level the Essential Metals share price has traded at since October.

Why is the Essential Metals share price rocketing higher?

Investors have been scrambling to buy the company's shares this morning after it accepted a takeover offer from Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia.

Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia is a joint venture lithium business owned by lithium giants Tianqi Lithium and IGO Limited (ASX: IGO).

According to the release, the parties have entered into a scheme implementation agreement that will see Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia acquire 100% of Essential Metals for 50 cents per share in cash via a scheme of arrangement.

This represents a 45% premium to the Essential Metals share price at Friday's close and values the company at $136 million on a fully diluted basis.

The Essential Metals board of directors has unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the scheme, and each director intends to vote their shares in favour of the scheme. This is in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to the independent expert's report

Why acquire Essential Metals?

Essential Metals is a lithium exploration company which owns 100% of the Pioneer Dome Project in Western Australia.

It is one of only 14 JORC compliant spodumene lithium resources in Australia, with a defined JORC resource of 11.2 Mt @ 1.16% Li2O. The company also holds several other interests in early-stage exploration projects across lithium, nickel and gold.

IGO's acting CEO, Matt Dusci, explained the rationale for acquiring the company. He said:

Both IGO and TLC are committed to progressing and growing our lithium joint venture business. The ESS transaction provides an opportunity to accelerate lithium exploration to bring new resources to production. It also complements the significant growth opportunities within the TLEA [Tianqi Lithium Energy Australia] business which include the continued expansion of the Greenbushes operation, the successful ramp up Train 1 of the lithium hydroxide facility at Kwinana and progressing towards the financial investment decision for Train 2.

We look forward to supporting TLEA with future work programs over the ESS assets, as the joint venture seeks to bring new resources to production to address the market deficit of raw materials critical for clean energy transition.

The post Why is ASX lithium share Essential Metals exploding 40% today? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

In morning trade, the lithium explorer's shares were up as much as 6.5% to 56.5 cents.

The Essential Metals share price has since pulled back but remains 2% higher at 54 cents currently.

Why is the Essential Metals share price charging higher today?

The catalyst for the rise in the Essential Metals share price has been the release of an update on the Pioneer Dome Lithium Project.

According to the release, the company's ~9,000m resource extension drilling programme commenced in mid-May with four reverse circulation (RC) pre-collars completed to date and the diamond rig expected on site in June.

After which, diamond drilling is expected to commence shortly after, with the first drill core from the down-plunge interpreted pegmatite zone of the Cade deposit expected to be available by end-June.

Drilling is ultimately expected to be completed by mid-August, subject to rig scheduling and drilling productivity rates.

In addition, the company advised that assays from the exploration and metallurgical diamond drill programme completed in the March quarter are now expected by mid-June instead of the end of May. Metallurgical test work will commence upon the receipt of these assays.

All in all, management expects these activities to underpin an update and likely expansion of the lithium mineral resource estimate (MRE) for Pioneer Dome and the commencement of a scoping study in the December quarter.

Essential Metals Managing Director, Tim Spencer, commented:

We are working hard to maintain our timelines, notwithstanding the bottlenecks and delays being experienced with drill rigs and assays due to the exceptionally high levels of activity in the WA resource sector. Despite these challenges, the pivotal resource expansion program is underway and gathering momentum.

The MRE extension drill programme, together with assays from the drilling completed earlier this year and the upcoming metallurgical test work programmes, have the potential to rapidly transform Essential from lithium explorer to developer.

The post Essential Metals share price jumps on lithium update appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Key points

• The Essential Metals share price is up 16% this afternoon, trading at 47 cents
• The gain follows the release of the company's quarterly report
• Within the report, the company outlined its exploration activities and strong cash position

The Essential Metals Ltd (ASX: ESS) share price is surging on Friday after the company released its activities and cash flow report for the December quarter.

At the time of writing, shares in Essential Metals are swapping hands for 47 cents. That represents a 16.05% gain on the company's previous close.

Essential Metals share price gains on strong financial position

• Last quarter, the company received assay results from the Dome North project
• It also began another drilling campaign at Dome North
• It had $9 million cash on hand at the end of the quarter
• Finally, it worked to divest a Canadian asset

Over the quarter just been, Essential Metals received assay results from a 5,934m reverse circulation drill program completed at the Dome North lithium project in Western Australia earlier last year, with the best results found at the Cade Deposit.

Additionally, another 13-hole diamond drill program began at the project in December.

Finally, the company completed a baseline environmental survey – part of its activities to prepare Dome North for development.

Also over the quarter, Essential Metals received $400,000 from Australian Nickel Company as a milestone payment in accordance with the Blair–Golden Ridge Nickel Farm-in/Joint Venture.

As of 31 December, the company had $8.99 million of cash in the bank and no debt. That's enough to fund it for another 12 quarters of similar activities.

What else happened during the quarter?

The company also worked to sell its 51% interest in Canada's Mavis Lake lithium project last quarter.

The asset was sold to Critical Resources Ltd (ASX: CRR). Though, the sale wasn't finalised until after the quarter's end.

It saw Essential Metals walk away with $750,000 in cash – 50% withheld for Canadian tax purposes – and 34 million Critical Resources shares calculated at 2.2 cents each.

Right now, the Critical Resources share price is around 10 cents.

The Essential Metals share price gained 8% after the company announced the divestment in mid-October.

What's next?

The company is currently continuing the 13-hole diamond drill program at Dome North. That's expected to be completed in mid-February.

Additionally, it recently began a 30-hole air-core drilling program to follow up on anomalism from the previous program at Dome North.

Essential Metals share price snapshot

This year has been particularly good to the Essential Metals share price.

It has gained a whopping 135% since the final close of 2021. It is also 176% higher than it was this time last year.

The post Here's why the Essential Metals (ASX:ESS) share price is leaping 16% today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Key Points

• Essential Metals shares are surging in afternoon trade following an update on its Pioneer Dome lithium project
• The project is "highly prospective" for lithium and is located in WA
• Essential has signed a new drilling contract to complete a drilling program at the site
• Essential Metals shares have surged 149% in the last month.

Shares in mineral explorer Essential Metals Ltd (ASX: ESS) are surging 19% higher today following a company announcement on its 100%-owned Pioneer Dome lithium project.

According to Essential Metals, the Pioneer Dome Project is located in the core of Western Australia's lithium corridor in the Eastern Goldfields, approximately 130km south of Kalgoorlie.

Essential Metals shares have surged 149% in the last month.

What did Essential Metals announce?

The company advised that air-core drilling will follow up on "open or unexplained anomalism" generated from the August 2021 drill programme at Dome North, located in the Pioneer Dome project.

Essential Metals says the Pioneer Dome project is "highly prospective for lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) mineral systems" and includes the Dome North Lithium Mineral Resource of 11.2 million tonnes at 1.21% lithium.

It has also signed a new drilling contractor to complete the 13-hole diamond drilling (DD) programme that commenced last year. The company says a drill rig is now on-site and is on track to complete the drill programme by mid-February.

Specifically, the DD programme is targeting "near-surface (oxide/transition) mineralisation at both the Cade and Davy deposits to obtain samples for bulk density measurements and for confirmatory metallurgical test work".

An environmental baseline survey was also completed and the final report is currently pending. The company stated that "no particularly sensitive flora or fauna were identified" in its report.

With respect to financials, capital expenditures and operating costs for a 1.6 mililon tonnes per annum (Mtpa) concentrator plant have "been received" and will be utilised as a part of a scoping study that is planned to commence by mid-2022 (pending drill assays and metallurgical test results).

Management commentary

Speaking on the announcement, Essential Metals Managing Director, Tim Spencer said:

The more we learn about Dome North, the more excited we are about its future. While we advance the Dome North Resource in terms of testing its extent and improving its confidence level by in-fill drilling and further metallurgical test work, we are continuing with high-quality exploration in and around the Resource as well as across our entire 450km2 of Project tenure.

The Essential Metals share price has now soared 295% in the past 12 months and has gained another 107% in the last week of trading alone.

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Below, we take a look at the asset sale announcement from the ASX lithium and gold explorer that looks to be driving investor interest.

What asset sale was reported?

The Essential Metals share price is rocketing after the company reported it will divest its 51% interest in the Mavis Lake Lithium Project, located in Canada.

Essential Metals' Joint Venture partner International Lithium Corporation, is also divesting its interest, giving 100% of the project to Critical Resources Ltd (ASX: CRR) under an Option Agreement. The Critical Resources share price is up 12.90% at time of writing.

According to the release, the divestment will realise $1.6 million in cash and shares, along with $1.5 million in cash that's linked to certain milestones for Essential.

Critical Resources will pay $175,000 for the right to acquire 100% of the Mavis Lake Lithium Project. If it elects to go through with the deal, it will pay $1.5 million in cash and 68 million in Critical Resources shares, valued at 2.2 cents per share. That's significantly below the current 3.6 cents per share.

Essential Metals and International Lithium Corporation will share the proceeds equally.

Additionally, the Essential Metals share price could be getting a lift from the report that milestone payments totalling $3 million may be received subject to the definition of a lithium resource at the project.

Commenting on the divestment, Essential Metals' managing director, Tim Spencer said:

The strong interest in lithium has allowed Essential and ILC to monetize an early-stage, non-core asset on favourable terms. Retaining upside exposure via a shareholding in Critical Resources means we will benefit from any success the Critical Resources team has in advancing Mavis Lake.

We will continue to focus our efforts on the company's first-class West Australian lithium and gold projects.

Spencer said rapidly advancing the company's Pioneer Dome Lithium Project in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields was the highest priority.

Essential Metals share price snapshot

The Essential Metals share price is up an impressive 150% year-to-date. By comparison the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) has gained 12% so far in 2021.

Over the past month, Essential Metals shares have lost 9%.

The post Why the Essential Metals (ASX:ESS) share price is surging 8% today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The Essential Metals Ltd (ASX: ESS) share price is rocketing, up 29% at the time of writing. It had earlier been up by more than 40%.

Below, we take a look at the ASX resource explorer's latest lithium results that look to be driving investor interest.

What lithium results were reported?

The Essential Metals share price is surging after the company reported positive assay results at its 100% owned Pioneer Dome Lithium Project, in Western Australia.

According to the release, 4 reverse circulation (RC) holes returned "excellent lithium assays and widths" from the Cade Deposit. Essential Metals said the high lithium tenor encountered in the drilling indicates there likely has been minimal depletion of lithium near the surface.

Results from the 4 holes included:

• 21m @ 1.08% Li2O from surface
• 24m @ 1.29% Li2O from surface
• 15m @ 1.06% Li2O from 47m
• 26m @ 1.46% Li2O from 51m

Commenting on the results driving the Essential Metals share price, managing director Tim Spencer said:

These assay results once again reinforce that the Dome North area hosts a high quality resource with the potential to be mined with minimal overburden. We now need to undertake further drilling and metallurgical test work to advance the project towards development in parallel with more exploration. We will announce the program details as soon as we can finalise the various practicalities and contractors.

The company said it intends to release the results of all the assays from its drilling program towards the end of October.

Essential Metals is planning to start a diamond drill campaign in November to increase its understanding of the area, providing metallurgical test work samples for its Davy and Cade Deposits.

The company is also working on securing a mining lease and conducting the required environmental and hydrology studies to get the project "development ready".

Essential Metals share price snapshot

With today's intraday gains factored in, the Essential Metals share price is up an impressive 150% so far in 2021. That compares to a year-to-date gain of 10% posted by the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO).

Over the past month, Essential Metals shares are down around 20%.

The post Essential Metals (ASX:ESS) share price rockets 29% on lithium update appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The Essential Metals Ltd (ASX: ESS) share price is plummeting on news of its recent drilling campaign.

The company has announced its Dome North drill program doesn't appear to have found any lithium-mineralised pegmatite.

At the time of writing, the Essential Metals share price is 17.5 cents, 20.45% lower than its previous closing price.

Let's take a closer look at today's announcement from the exploration and mining company.

Essential Metals' worrying announcement

The Essential Metals share price is plunging on news of the company's Pioneer Dome Lithium Project.

The update was filled with optimism about the project's future development but the market's sentiment might be lingering on its lack of spodumene.

Essential Metals noted, "geological logging of the drill chips does not indicate the presence of visual spodumene".

However, the company doesn't expect to receive assay results from its Dome North drill program until early-to-mid-October.

While the findings have seemingly disappointed the market, the company said they're important for future targeting of pegmatites in and around the underexplored Dome North Resource.

Further, Essential Metals is planning a new phase of drilling for the final quarter of 2021 in hopes of upgrading the project's Cade and Davy deposits. Currently, the deposits are 'inferred' and the company wants to boost them to 'indicated'.

Though, the company noted that diamond drill rigs are hard to come by right now. It's doing what it can to secure the needed drill rigs.

It is also undertaking studies needed to receive regulatory approvals and advance the project's technical and financial studies.

These include scoping studies, surveys of flora and fauna and groundwater sources, and preparations for a mining lease application.

Essential Metals expects the studies will be finished by December and a mining lease will be granted in 6 to 12 months.

Essential Metals share price snapshot

Despite today's notable dip, the Essential Metals share price has been performing well on the ASX lately.

It is currently 118% higher than it was at the start of 2021. It has also gained 25% since this time last year.

The post Essential Metals (ASX:ESS) share price tumbles 20% on lithium update appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.