Resources Rising Stars Summers Series kicks off in Brisbane on Thursday 1st February. Pic via Getty Images
Mining
It has been a challenging few years across the financial markets, but 18 resources companies largely focused on the gold, copper and uranium spaces are set to remind investors why there is still plenty of value to be unlocked in the near term.
Tomorrow’s Resources Rising Stars Summer Series, the first investor event of the year, will see 18 companies present their upcoming exploration plans and market outlooks in Brisbane on 1 February.
Organised by Perth-based boutique investor relations consultancy Read Corporate, the one-day conference is designed to bring investors face-to-face with the management teams behind new and exciting exploration, development and mining projects.
Acknowledging the pain some investors have endured in recent times, Read Corporate managing director Nicholas Read says the safe spaces seem to be copper and gold, two commodities several of the presenters have exposure to.
“The uranium sector is also enjoying a great run at the moment after being in the wilderness for a long time, with the price recently pushing through US$100/lb,” he says.
“That’s good news for uranium stocks like 92 Energy, which recently announced a three-way merger just before Christmas with ATHA Energy and Latitude Uranium to create a much larger, well-funded uranium explorer focused on the Athabasca region.”
92 Energy (ASX:92E) was one of the first movers in the uranium-rich Athabasca, a region accounting for 20% of the world’s uranium supply.
It’s also home to some of the highest-grade uranium deposits globally including NextGen Energy’s (ASX:NXG) Rook 1 project – the largest development-stage uranium project in Canada – boasting a resource of 209.6Mlb of U3O8 contained in 2.18Mt grading 4.35% U3O8.
But ATHA holds the largest cumulative exploration package in the Athabasca Basin with 3.4 million acres, along with a 10% carried interest in claims operated by IsoEnergy and NXE.
Opening the program at the Resources Rising Stars Summer Series, 92E managing director and CEO Siobhan Lancaster will update the audience on significant milestones achieved in the merger as well as ATHA’s move to apply to list its share on the TSX Venture Exchange.
“The company is riding the wave,” Read says.
“They’ve had a decent uplift in value over the last few weeks on the back of that so it’s definitely a stock to watch.”
On the copper front, its hard to miss Firefly Metals (ASX:FFM) following their acquisition of the ~40Mt Green Bay copper-gold project in Canada, Read says.
First drilling results were received earlier this month, paving the way for a resource update with hits such as 46m at 4.6% copper and 1.2g/t gold.
“Although the copper price hasn’t moved much yet, there’s a lot of people who are very optimistic about the space with copper set to be in deficit this year,” Read says.
The powerful crew behind Bellevue Gold’s (ASX:BGL) mining success – Steve Parsons, Ray Shorrocks, Michael Naylor and Kevin Tomlinson – are now on a mission for a Bellevue-like payday via FFM.
First drilling from the new underground platform at the project is expected to kick off shortly with two drill rigs on site.
Another company out of the Parsons stable is Mitre Mining Corporation (ASX:MMC).
The explorer is in the process of acquiring the Cerro Bayo silver-gold project in Chile with a big, inferred resource (3.82Mt at 206g/t for 24.7Moz silver equivalent) and processing plant tied to it.
Legacy Minerals (ASX:LGM), another Resources Rising Stars first-timer, will present on their recent farm-in and joint venture agreement with S2 Resources (ASX:S2R) at the Glenlogan project in NSW’s Lachlan Fold Belt.
Gold Hydrogen (ASX:GHY), owners of the Ramsay project in South Australia’s Gawler Craton, will discuss how they’re tapping into the potential of hydrogen as an environmentally sustainable fuel, not by manufacturing it but by extracting it from the ground.
“They’ve just finished drilling two wells before Christmas which returned hydrogen concentrations of up to 86% purity associated with very high helium concentration as well,” Read says.
“It’s a fascinating story which seems to resonate with investors because it’s a bit different with hydrogen being a topical area in the commodity space at the moment.
“Their positive results will no doubt lead into resource estimates and next stages of development further down the track.”
A bunch of high-growth gold explorers from Astral Resources (ASX:AAR), to Kin Mining (ASX:KIN), Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR), and Sunstone Metals (ASX:STM) will also outline their insights and discuss how they plan to get their projects further along the development pathway.
Spartan has been one of the standouts in the junior gold space over the past 12 months, with its market capitalisation surging to over $400 million on the back of the spectacular high-grade Never Never gold discovery in WA.
“We’ve got 300 investors registered already, hopefully people will be back from holidays refreshed and happy to look at a few hot opportunities,” Read says.
“The event will be live-streamed so if you’re not in Brisbane, you can tune in online.”
The Resources Rising Stars Summer Series will take place in Brisbane on Thursday 1 February from 8:00am to 5:00pm at the Sofitel Brisbane Central hotel.
Attendance is free, but registration is essential.
Visit www.resourcesrisingstars.com.au/events to sign up for the event, or find details on how to watch the presentations online.
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