Resources Top 3: Gallium makes more headlines, M&A maestros have a new gold project to play with

Gold50’s Golconda gallium project in Arizona could be well placed as US hunts for own sources of supply
Enegex acquires Rocky Ridge, a 6.5km-long lightly explored gold target
Enegex run by the same team that sold Apollo Consolidated for ~$200m to Ramelius Resources

ENEGEX (ASX:ENX)

ENX has new exploration ground at its Perenjori project in the West Yilgarn, the same neighbourhood as Chalice Mining’s (ASX:CHN) 560Mt Gonneville project, the monster Boddington copper-gold mine, and the Greenbushes lithium operation.

Its newly granted exploration licence covers Rocky Ridge, a 6.5km-long gold target defined by elevated gold anomalism at surface and promising shallow drill results, including 7m at 2.52g/t to end of hole.

This hints at a source in the underlying bedrock, says the company.

It is planning initial on-ground exploration “in the coming weeks”.

For the last few years this unassuming and tightly held WA explorer has been doing all the inexpensive early work (sampling, geophysics, just walking around looking at rocks) to prove up targets across its massive 1500sqkm landholding.

It is run by the same team that sold Apollo Consolidated for ~$200m to Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS), which won an entertaining back-and-forth tussle with Gold Road (ASX:GOR) for control of the junior in 2021.

GOLD50 (ASX:G50)

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G50’s main game isn’t gold. It’s gallium, an obscure metal which hit headlines after world’s largest producer China announced export controls last year.

The US is desperately looking for its own sources of supply.

The U.S. May Have Just Scored A Win Against China In The Battle Over A Key Mineral https://t.co/SRHDy1gnhN

— HuffPost (@HuffPost) March 21, 2024

Used in semiconductors, 5G networks, rare earths magnets, and various military applications, gallium was paying US$755.80/kg in January 2024, up from US$640.80/kg in January 2023.

G50’s Golconda project in Arizona — historically mined for lead and zinc — “matured from brownfield exploration to new discovery” after mid-2023 drilling pulled up a highlight 109m at 40.5g/t gallium from 129m.

The project is also right next door to a major porphyry copper deposit.

Planning for phase 2 drilling is now underway.

RONIN RESOURCES (ASX:RON)

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The late 2021 IPO hit the bourse with the Vetas (thermal coal) and Santa Rosa (gold) projects in Colombia.

With Colombia relegated to the proverbial bottom drawer due to “ongoing socio-political instability” and a lack of success at Santa Rosa, the company is now running the ruler over new projects to play with.

Its recently acquired, early stage Hornby Lake lithium project is 15km west of Frontier Lithium Inc’s (Frontier) (TSXV:FL) PAK and Spark lithium projects in Ontario, Canada.

RON has commenced planning a 2024 field program, it said mid-February.