East Star Resources is combining advanced copper assets with major industry partners and large-scale exploration potential across Kazakhstan — with an increasingly important difference: much of the heavy development spending could be funded by somebody else.

Blencowe Resources has delivered further successful battery testing for Orom-Cross graphite, opening potential markets spanning US military batteries, grid storage and data centres. Crucially, the programme could create a higher-value sales route for spheroidisation rejects representing approximately 30% of end product from its planned downstream beneficiation facility.

Central Asia Metals has delivered an outstanding first half, with EBITDA up 89%, profit before tax more than tripling and free cash flow almost trebling to $46.8 million. Record copper prices and improving operations have allowed CAML to increase its interim dividend by 78% to 8p per share, while its proposed Cygnus acquisition could add a substantial new copper growth engine to an already highly cash-generative business.

Talon Resources is moving faster at Eagle Lake, bringing its maiden drilling campaign forward from Q4 and expanding the programme from 1,000m to 1,375m following encouraging Phase 1 gold results. With 11 holes now planned across four priority targets, site preparation complete and rig mobilisation expected within two weeks, Eagle Lake is approaching its first systematic drill test.

New mineralised zones and a significant undrilled continuation of Kalayi's high-grade tin trend suggest Rome Resources could have considerably more exploration upside beyond the resource currently being finalised.

European Green Transition and Mendell Helium operate in very different growth markets, but both have publicly stated ambitions to become dividend payers. SmallCapPix looks at the sector tailwinds, investment cases and operational milestones that could turn those ambitions into reality during 2027. Dividend investing and nano-cap investing rarely appear in the same sentence. Investors generally buy the smallest companies on AIM for capital growth, accepting that cash will be reinvested into exp