Resources Top 5: AusQuest soars on Peruvian copper discovery

AusQuest leads on wide copper and gold drill intersections in Peru
Nimy gains on no news though presentation reiterates its class-leading gallium intersections
Accelerate unveils gold strategy with acquisition of Kanowna East near Kalgoorlie

Your standout small cap resources stocks for Thursday, January 23, 2025.

AusQuest (ASX:AQD)

AusQuest led the pack on the ASX today with the announcement of a major South American copper discovery, soaring close to 200%.

Maiden drilling at its Cangallo project in southern Peru had returned multiple wide intercepts of copper and gold mineralisation.

Two reverse circulation holes returned assays of 348m grading 0.26% copper and 0.06 parts per million gold from a down-hole depth of 6m and 188m at 0.28% copper and 0.07ppm gold from 214m.

Importantly, the mineralisation starts from near surface and remains open in all directions, demonstrating the potential for defining a shallow copper oxide resource.

Speaking to Stockhead, managing director Graeme Drew said the successful holes were drilled in an area that had never seen any drilling before.

“We have shallow mineralisation that could be an open cuttable resource, we have copper oxides, which have the potential to be amendable for lower cost heap leaching, though at this stage it is still early to tell,” he added.

“We have results from six more holes to come in, so over the next few weeks we will get a better picture of what is there.”

“Either way, we have just scratched the surface of this target. We have a large caldera-type structure, which you can see on satellite imagery, and that’s anywhere from several square kilometres up to 10-20km2 possibly.”

That Cangallo is close to significant infrastructure, being just 25km east of the town of Chala and 10km from the coast, adds to its potential for development as a low-capital copper play.

Nimy Resources (ASX:NIM)

While Nimy Resources technically had no news out today, it did put out a presentation that no doubt reminded investors that drilling at Block 3 within its Mons project in WA had returned high-grade intervals of gallium.

This drilling returned multiple intervals of >100ppm gallium including a top result of 72m at 117ppm Ga2O3.

It isn’t the first time this week that it has seen gains either, with the company having to answer a speeding ticket on Monday.

Investors have likely cottoned on to gallium’s value seeing as it is used in semiconductors and exports from major producer China have been curtailed as part of a trade war with the US.

The gallium market has also been forecast by Research and Markets to rise from US$2.45bn in 2024 to US$21.53bn by 2034 due to rising demand and limited supplies.

Accelerate Resources (ASX:AX8)

Accelerate motored this morning after unveiling its new gold strategy in Kalgoorlie, underpinned by the acquisition of a 70% stake in the Kanowna East gold project from Metal Hawk.

Besides sitting just 25km from the Super Pit and 9km from the Kanowna Belle gold mine, Kanowna East also hosts targets identified from historical data including drilling that returned results such as 4m at 17.7g/t gold and 8m at 4.5g/t gold.

Should a commercially viable resource be defined, the company will have the option to quickly bring the project into production through low-cost toll treatment given its proximity to no less than 10 process plants within a 75km radius.

Former De Grey Mining senior geologist and now AX8 chief executive officer Luke Meter said the acquisition is a strategic move into an area which it considers to be highly prospective for potential Tier 1 gold discoveries.

“Accelerate plans to actively drill the significant gold targets we have defined to date and expand our exploration in this area. With gold prices at record highs in Australia, it is time to play to the strengths of our team in this commodity and create value in the near term,” he added.

The company has also applied for a licence over 5km of highly prospective strike along the Scotia-Kanowna dome near Kanowna Belle.

G11 Resources (ASX:G11) and VHM (ASX:VHM)

(Up on no news)

G11 Resources holds the Wilandra copper project in NSW that covers a 75km belt with outcropping copper-zinc-silver-gold mineralisation and is prospective for VMS and structurally controlled copper-rich base metals mineralisation.

In early November 2024, the company reported drill assays with results such as 9.3m at 1.42% copper, 0.98% zinc, 0.11g/t gold and 3.79g/t silver from a down-hole depth of 341.2m within a VMS zone.

Down-hole electromagnetic surveying also increased confidence that this mineralisation forms part of a continuous zone of massive sulphide of over 1km of strike and up to 500m dip extent.

Meanwhile, VHM was up on no news, though it did officially receive endorsement from the Victorian Minister for Planning Sonya Kilkenny for its Environment Effects Statement at the Goschen rare earths and mineral sands project on Wednesday.

The company is now working on mining licence approval, work plan submissions and engineering plans with the expectation of starting construction late this year.

First production would then occur in the second half of next year with plans for an initial 1.5Mtpa project before ramping up to 5Mtpa over a three-year period.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While VHM is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.