The S&P/ASX 200 Resources index rose 6.4% in February, outperforming the ASX 200, which was up 2.1%.

Given the war in Ukraine and a potential interest rate rise in the US, markets are likely to remain volatile this month.

In Australia, the Western Australian border is due to reopen on Thursday, March 3.

While most miners welcome the opportunity to bring in skilled workers, the peak of COVID-19, likely within the next three weeks, is likely to cause disruptions.

There's still plenty happening in the mining sector.

There's multiple gold takeover battles in play, which could come to a head this month, with Focus Minerals, Carawine Resources, Nex Metals Exploration and private gold explorer Bullseye Mining all in play.

A handful of WA gold explorers/developers are expected to upgrade resources, including Bellevue Gold and Saturn Metals.

Bellevue is already building a mine and said last month that the latest results from its namesake project should increase the 1 million ounce reserve.

"Consistency of the high grades being returned both within the existing resource and via the extensional drilling remains an impressive aspect of the project and bodes well for future upgrades to the project scale," Canaccord Genuity analyst Tim McCormack said.

"Underground drilling has been targeting growth of the current reserve, and based on the results to date, will likely translate to improved mine life and production rates over the LOM of the project compared to those released in the feasibility study."

Saturn's looming upgrade of its 944,000oz Apollo Hill resource is expected to take the project over 1Moz.

Outside gold, Azure Minerals is due to report the maiden resource for its Andover nickel-copper project in the Pilbara by late month.

Global Lithium Resources has flagged a resource update for its Marble Bar project this month.

Heavy Minerals expects to report a maiden resource for its Port Gregory garnet project, which has an exploration target of 3.5-3.5Mt of garnet, late in the month.

Tietto Minerals is due to report an updated resource estimate for its Abujar project in Cote d'Ivoire after some eye-watering hits in recent weeks.

Just two weeks ago, Caravel Minerals confirmed that the prefeasibility study for its namesake WA project would be ready by the end of March.

Mali explorer Chesser Resources is due to release a scoping study for Areas A and D of its Diamba Sud project.

Siren Gold is aiming to complete a scoping study on its Reefton gold project in New Zealand, while Entech has been engaged to complete a resource estimate for Alexander River.

Lithium producer Allkem is due to complete a strategic review of its growth options this month.February was a slow month for new listings, with just four companies floating.

Omnia Metals Group will kick off the March listings tomorrow, with Many Peaks Gold, Stelar Metals, Pinnacle Metals, Norfolk Metals, Pure Resources, Far East Gold, Lord Resources and International Graphite all expected to debut this month.