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ASX Resources Quarterlies: Strong results for range of stocks
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It’s quarterlies season again as the ASX market announcements page becomes increasingly flooded with earnings lodgements and operations updates.
To save you the trouble of trudging through it all, we’ve wrapped up the highlights from some of the reports that caught our eye.
During the September quarter, the company kicked off initial drilling at the Anak Perak prospect within the Woyla Contract of Work (COW) area in Indonesia – the first drilling to be conducted within the Woyla COW since initial exploration by Barrick in 1997.
Notably, at the Wonogiri Project, metallurgical testwork on samples of epithermal type mineralisation from south of Randu Kuning deposit have shown high gold recoveries of 96%.
About 75% of the contained gold is gravity recoverable gold, which FEG says suggests rapid and low-cost recovery is possible for this type of gold mineralisation.
In Australia, drilling at the Hill 212 Gold Project commenced, and at the Mount Clark West property, assay results were received for 214 soil samples collected from the tenement area.
The results are consistent with elemental zonation typical of mineralised porphyry systems.
FEG also completed a 21 line kilometre MIMDAS geophysical survey at Mount Clark West, with the results expected to help identify specific drill targets.
The company completed a maiden resource for its Sala zinc-silver project in Switzerland during the quarter, of 9.7Mt at 4.5% zinc equivalent, containing 311,000t of contained zinc, 15Moz of silver and 44,000t of lead.
Importantly, this includes a high grade core from surface of 4.5Mt at 6% zinc equivalent, containing 8.5Moz of silver and 201,000t of zinc, making Sala the largest active undeveloped zinc-silver-lead deposit in a country which already has a significant operating polymetallic base metals mining industry.
Alicanto is planning a multi-pronged exploration program this quarter to further grow the resource base at Sala. The company had cash in hand of $2.9m at 30 September 2022.
FME highlighted multiple new exploration targets for sulphide-rich (nickel, copper, gold, cobalt and PGM) zones outside of the already decent 6.9Moc mineral resource estimate at its Panton PGM-Nickel Project in WA.
An approved programme of works (PoW) and a drilling contractor have now been secured for the initial ~3,000m drill programme, which commenced this month.
FME has also been progressing a scoping study on the existing MRE and looking into hydrometallurgical processing routes.
During the reporting period the company secured nearly $7 million in additional funding via two separate Placements and an oversubscribed Share Purchase Plan, and finished the quarter with approximately $7.6 million in cash.
RC drilling at Cosmo’s flagship Mt Venn Project intersected additional wide sulphide intervals in all holes drilled during the quarter, extending known mineralisation to the north, south and down-dip of previous drilling.
Notably, the company finalised a Land Access Agreement with the Native Title Party at Narragene (previously referred to as Mt Venn North) during the quarter, an area which has seen no on-ground exploration for more than 15 years.
Almost half the historical holes completed recorded grades greater than 0.2% copper including historical hole MVRC010, which intersected 4m at 1.3% copper and 0.7% nickel from 33m – and was never followed up despite it intersecting the highest nickel grades drilled in the Mt Venn Igneous Complex.
A Ground EM (MLEM) survey is underway covering the Minjina prospects, along with other high priority copper-nickel targets at Mt Venn and Eastern Mafic, with the aim of follow up RC drilling in the current quarter.
At the end of the quarter, the company had a cash balance of $2.2 million.
DMC completed ground geochemistry and ground geophysics surveys at the Fraser Range Project (FRP) during the September quarter, with assay results pending.
The surveys were over a number of high priority target areas which the company is confident are consistent with potential for buried nickel-copper-cobalt mineralisation. Results will be followed up by diamond drilling.
Soil geochemistry was also completed at the Ravensthorpe nickel project, with three priority areas chosen for follow up exploration.
Plus, the company also picked up a new project during the quarter in Fraser Range.
Cash on hand as the end of the quarter was $3,446,476.
FEG, AQI, FME, CMO and DMM share prices today:
Gold production for the quarter was 59,935 ounces of gold equivalent with sales of 58,794 ounces gold and 246 tonnes copper at an average gold sales price of $2,502/oz and AISC of $2,052/oz.
SLR said production is weighted to H2 across the portfolio with higher grade scheduled at both Western Australian assets (Deflector South West and Tank South) and scheduled introduction of new underground mining fleet into the Sugar Zone mine, particularly following the receipt of permit amendments for higher mining and processing rates during the quarter.
SLR said the operating environment continues to be challenging with skilled labour availability, absenteeism, and constrained supply chains impacting all operations at various stages throughout Q1. SLR said it will continue to respond to the operating climate to preserve margin over ounces, particularly given the multiple feed sources available at its Western Australian operations.
Silver Lake maintains its FY23 sales guidance of 260,000 to 290,000 ounces at an AISC range of $1,850 to $2,050 per ounce. However, the company said FY23 guidance detailed that challenges posed by the prevailing operating climate present an elevated risk to guidance when compared with previous years.
During the September quarter the emerging mineral processing technology company announced the Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Training Centre for the Global Hydrogen Economy as an industry partner.
The project aims to fast-track lab validation as well as pilot testing and develop a potential commercialisation pathway for the CO₂ conversion process advanced by Zeotech’s technology.
The Toondoon Kaolin Project acquisition was settled following approval by shareholders, while fit-out of the company’s office and lab facility at Brisbane Technology Park started in September. The refurbished premises will help grow internal research capability and increase sample production capacity.
ZEO, Covalent Lithium Pty Ltd, and University of Queensland gathered at Curtin University, alongside other Resources Technology and Critical Minerals University Trailblazer participants, to undertake planning and workshop sessions for the forthcoming Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer program.
ZEO also raised $2,209,930 by way of a placement to non-related party investors which will be applied to progressing its high-grade Toondoon kaolin project, funding its landfill methane control research program with Griffith University, and support fit out of the office and lab facility at BTP.
The manganese stock said hydrometallurgical test work program is ongoing, with initial leaching test work delivering very positive results of up to 97% Mn extraction in four hours.
Following positive results from the hydrometallurgical program, FRB started work on a battery-grade high-purity manganese sulphate scoping study.
The company said the importance of manganese within battery cathodes (both NMC and LFP chemistries) continues to grow.
FRM received firm commitments received for $3.5 million placement from sophisticated and professional investors.
The company is well-funded to accelerate development of Oakover. Proceeds will fund the completion of metallurgical test work, environmental surveys, ongoing exploration and relevant development studies.
FRM started an 82-hole, 2,828m infill drill program subsequent to quarter end. The program was delivered on time and under budget. Drilling was completed at Karen and Jay-Eye, with a focus on extending the current 10-year life-of-mine through converting Inferred Resources to an Indicated status.
AGY continued to fast-track its development strategy at its flagship Rincon Lithium Project in Argentina, and progressed exploration works at the Tonopah Lithium Project in Nevada, USA.
AGY said the Rincon 2,000tpa Li2CO3 operation development had 97% of development works complete.
Commissioning works were 81% complete and successfully producing primary lithium. Steady-state lithium carbonate production operations are scheduled during the next quarter.
Resource expansion and production well drilling works is progressing. The target is to materially expand current JORC indicated resource, and increase project mine-life and future annual production capacity.
The company said continued positive lithium market sentiment is supporting Argosy’s multi-project development and production strategy.
The company has cash reserves of ~$34 million at September 30, 2022.
MCR said despite challenging operating conditions in WA early in the quarter, ramp-up activities are gaining momentum at the Kambalda Nickel Operations (KNO), with mined ore tonnes up by 33% QoQ.
Mined ore tonnes set to increase substantially as additional mining fronts become available. Cassini ore development continues to accelerate ahead of first stoping in the December quarter.
FY23 production guidance came in at 8kt-10kt of nickel-in-concentrate, representing the first full year of operational ramp-up at KNO.
The Southern Operations (Cassini) accommodation village is now operational, ahead of schedule.
Initial Ore Reserve has been completed for the LN04a discovery at the Golden Mile. Exploration continues to focus on the Golden Mile exploration zone (both LN04a and Durkin North extensions), drilling highlights include, ULG-22-114 – 3.0m @ 12.2% Ni.
Management succession plan announced, with Gabrielle Iwanow to commence mid-November as Mincor’s new MD and CEO, succeeding David Southam, who stepped down earlier in the quarter. Cash at bank of $54.8 million was recorded at the quarter-end.
SLR, ZEO, FRB, AGY & MCR share prices today:
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Far East Gold, Alicanto, Future Metals, Cosmo Metals, DMC Mining and Zeotech are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
