Garimpeiro headed out of lockdown during the week to catch up with some mining-types for lunch.
The idea was to hit them up for some ideas about junior mining stocks to watch in the next six months.
Garimpeiro thinks they had some good ideas. But as the lunch stretched to more than six hours, the stocks mentioned were lost in the fog.
So Garimpeiro goes it alone this time. The last time Garimpeiro compiled a list of stocks to watch was on July 3.
There were five of them – Rumble (ASX:RTR), Antipa (ASX:AZY), Predictive Discovery (ASX:PDI), Galan (ASX:GLN), and New World Resources (ASX:NWC).
Had $1,000 been invested in each of the five it would have become $7,043 (before costs), an increase of 41% in about five months.
As Garimpeiro’s favourite broker would say, you don’t get returns like that at the State Bank.
As a warning, Garimpeiro does not make recommendations and always warns that investment in the juniors is high-risk.
Rather than listening to what he has to say, anyone looking to have a punt on an exploration stock is best advised to seek expert advice that is appropriate to their circumstances.
It was the lithium boom (Galan) and exploration success (Predictive and Antipa) that underpinned the five-month gain, with offsetting losses on Rumble and New World.
Predictive was the big winner, with its shares rising from 9.1c on July 3 to 23c this week.
Galan was not far behind with a run from 94.5c to $1.53. Antipa rose from 4.2c to 5.6c.
The two losers in the imaginary July 3 portfolio, Rumble and New World, were down from 52c to 38.5c and 9.1c to 7.5c, respectively.
In the new portfolio, Garimpeiro waves goodbye to Predictive, New World and Galan. Their stories continue to appeal, it’s just that the portfolio needs a refresh. Garimpeiro is holding on to Rumble and Antipa, and adding Azure (ASX:AZS), Red Dirt Metals (ASX:RDT), and MinRex (ASX:MRR).
RUMBLE (ASX:RTR) 38.5c: The price fall since July 3 should be expected as Rumble sets about completing the hard yards in confirming the Tier One credentials of its Earaheddy zinc-lead-silver discovery.
The company continues to generate newsflow beyond Earaheedy thanks to its pipeline of projects strategy.
The Munarra Gully prospect near Cue is one to watch. Some early drilling returned visual copper mineralisation but if the assays come back with gold as well, it will be off to the races.
ANTIPA (ASX:AZY) 5.6c: Garimpeiro still can’t go past this one because of the scale and smartz of its exploration in the Paterson province of WA looking for the next Telfer, Havieron or Telfer.
The company has been growing the scale of its 100% owned gold/copper projects and the likes of Rio Tinto, Newcrest and IGO are funding big-spending exploration joint venture projects on joint venture ground.
AZURE (ASX:AZS) 35.5c: Was a 60c stock at the start of the year but has weakened off for no good reason as far as Garimpeiro can tell.
Its 60:40 Andover nickel-copper project with Mark Creasy is working on the first resource estimate from a likely collection of discoveries.
Also has a gold leg which will come in to its own in the new year with drilling planned at the Barton project in the Kookynie district, and target definition work at Turner Creek near De Grey’s 6.8 million ounce Hemi discovery.
RED DIRT METALS (ASX:RDT) 70.5c: You’ve got to like the name. The Perth crew have liked this one for a while and have driven it to 70.5c a share on the strength of its Mt Ida project near Menzies in WA.
It was picked up from Ora Banda Mining in September for all of $11m, ostensibly as a gold project. But lithium is now the main focus and recent drilling has confirmed the presence of pegmatites.
Gets talked about as the next Liontown. Too early for that as Liontown is now a $3.5 billion company as it sets about developing its world-class Kathleen Valley project. But definitely one being talked about.
MINREX (ASX:MRR) 2c: That’s more like it, a 2c stock with a market cap of $12.5m. It is adding a lithium leg in the Pilbara to its gold/copper projects in NSW and in the East Pilbara.
It has has been picking up some interesting ground up near Pilbara Minerals’ (ASX:PLS) Pilgangoora operation, and Mineral Resources’ Wodgina operation. Both are Tier One operations. PLS is the pure lithium and now has market cap of $7.7 billion.
That MinRex has gravitated to that part of the world is no surprise. Veteran geologist and MinRex director George Karageorge walked Pilgangoora for PLS when it was nothing more than a prospect.