Resources Top 5: Gold boss buys more shares, copper junior shines on nearology fervour

Managing director Stephen Baghdadi buys 690,000 Dateline Resources’ shares worth ~$18,000 on market
Cooper Metals up +20% after neighbour Carnaby makes another copper discovery at Greater Duchess
Alchemy Resources uncovers potential lithium system in WA

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Wednesday February 2.

DATELINE RESOURCES (ASX:DTR)

Managing director Stephen Baghdadi bought just under 690,000 DTR shares worth ~$18,000 on market, which increases his total shareholding to ~26.1 million.

That’s a vote of confidence in the company, which owns the mothballed Gold Links gold mine in Colorado, and the 813,000oz Colosseum gold-rare earths project in California.

Labour issues, tussles with contractors, and delays to plant commissioning forced the company to suspend operations at Gold Links late 2022, following a short-lived production run.

It is now looking for partnerships or joint ventures “to secure the future operations of Gold Links, without Dateline Resources having to make any further capital contribution”.

There are several parties that are interested, Baghdadi said in December.

Previously mined Colosseum will be the major focus of exploration in CY2023, with an eight-hole drilling program planned for the next three months to find depth extensions the resource.

344,000oz was produced from Colosseum between 1988-1993 before mining ceased due to a low gold price environment.

Colosseum is also less than 10km from the Mountain rare earths mine.

In August, DTR uncovered multiple REE drill targets including a 2km-long monster about 1km from the Colosseum open pit. Drill planning is underway.

The $17m capped stock had ~$1.6m in the bank at the end of December.

Dateline share price chart

COOPER METALS (ASX:CPM) & CARNABY RESOURCES (ASX:CNB)

It’s been a white-knuckle ride for copper-gold explorer CPM since listing on the ASX late 2021 at 20c per share.

Nearology fever took hold after punters realised CPM’s flagship Mt Isa East project in QLD was ~10km from Carnaby Resources’ (ASX:CNB) company making Nil Desperandum IOCG discovery, part of the wider Greater Duchess project.

The CPM share price peaked at ~62c early 2022, before deflating in the back end of the year.

Today, CNB announced an exceptional 39m at 5.2% copper, 0.5g/t gold at the Mount Hope prospect, which it calls “a significant new high grade copper gold discovery”.

$175m capped CNB, which plans to drill 40,000m across Greater Duchess in 2023, is up ~14% in early trade.

CPM is up 20%.

CPM is having reasonable success next door at Mt Isa’s King Solomon prospect, which was drilled three times in 2022.

Mineralisation has now been traced for around 650m along strike, with higher grades in three interpreted plunging shoots down to 170m deep.

Highlights from recent drilling include 17m @ 1.7% Cu and 0.38g/t Au from 49m, including 4m @ 6.2% Cu and 1.31g/t Au.

These shoots remain open at depth, the company says. It also has a bunch of targets yet to be tested adjacent to Mount Hope.

$12m capped CPM had $3m in the bank at the end of December.

Cooper and Carnaby share price charts

ALCHEMY RESOURCES (ASX:ALY)

A gravity survey has uncovered an “extensive system under cover” at ALY Hickory lithium prospect, part of the Karonie project in WA.

Karonie is a stone’s throw from Global Lithium’s (ASX:GL1) 32.7Mt Manna deposit.

A larger gravity and drone magnetics survey will kick off imminently to map the interpreted pegmatite swarm over a 5.4km by 1.6km area.

The $20m capped explorer had $5.9m in the bank at the end of December.

Alchemy share price chart

DISCOVERY ALASKA (ASX:DAF)

(Up on no news)

This gold minnow enjoyed a solid rerate after converting to the Church of Lithium mid 2022.

It rapidly gave back those gains in the latter half of the year when early drilling results at the Coal Creek prospect, part of the Chulitna project in Alaska, didn’t meet expectations.

In the subsequent Sept quarter report DAF said it remained focused on proving up a maiden lithium resource at Coal Creek.

Chulitna is also prospective for a bunch of other metals, including gold, silver, tin, and copper.

Meanwhile, the company is “actively working to identify and review additional new projects that may complement [its] current activities”.

The $6m capped stock had $1m in the bank at the end of December.