Resources Top 4: ASX juniors pump on rare earths and copper

American Rare Earths receives US$10.7m grant for 2.3bn-tonne REE mine in Wyoming
Terra Metals is going gangbusters in West Musgrave right next door to BHP’s huge Nebo-Babel development
Renegade Exploration is proving up what it believes could be another Ernest Henry

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Thursday June 27.

American Rare Earths (ASX:ARR)

A $10.7m exploration grant from the State of Wyoming has been approved for American Rare Earths’ Cowboy State Mine REE project.

The Cowboy State Mine is on the lips of many North American investors and OEMs, as it’s purported to be one of the largest REE deposits on the planet, weighing in at 2.34 billion tonnes at 3196ppm TREO.

Funds are planned to be used for further exploration work, a pilot processing plant, feasibility studies and economic assessments.

Confidence in the deposit is high, especially considering the $123m market-capped explorer recently rejected a US$400m buyout from a group of investors based in California.

A recent scoping study highlighted a base case 3Mtpa processing operation, yet so far – and this is in the early doors testing phase mind you – ore from the deposit has been successfully preconcentrated to just 3.5% TREO at a 12:1 upgrade ratio.

It’s a bigger deposit, yet lower than Lynas’ Mt Weld, which is mined at an 8.3% TREO.

Interestingly, ARR is a major shareholder in fellow ASX REE explorer Godolphin Resources (ASX:GRL) , which is continuing exploration at the Narraburra project in NSW.

Shares in the explorer jumped up almost 15% on the news in early trade today, yet have settled 5% higher than open at 25.5c per share at the time of writing.

Renegade Exploration (ASX:RNX)

(Up on no News)

Proving up its Cloncurry IOCG copper project in northwest QLD, Renegade has obviously caught the eyes of investors after last week releasing its Gold Coast Investor Presentation that highlighted “stunning” sulphide and oxide results.

It’s spruicked the project to have similarities to the Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) owned world-class Ernest Henry copper-gold mine and has three deposits to target: Mongoose West, Mongoose Deeps and Mt Glorious.

Hits of 27m at 2.2% copper have been returned from recent drilling at Mongoose Deeps as the explorer looks to build upon its current 3.1Mt at 0.55% copper resource with ongoing drilling campaigns.

Drilling of Mongoose West is ready to kick off and follow-up drilling of Mongoose Deeps is anticipated to start in August.

READ: Micros with Majors: Renegade Exploration’s partnership with one of the world’s leading miners

The $19.2m market-capped penny stock has tripled in value since March, including 23% today, trading at an intra-day high of 1.6c.

Sheffield Resources (ASX:SFX)

Mineral sands producer Sheffield has increased production and shipment rates at its 50% owned Thunderbird mineral sands mine in WA with Chinese partner Yansteel.

The mine produces concentrates of zircon and ilmenite suitable for smelting or titanium manufacturing and mined production rates have increased to 825,000t for the month of June, equating to ~55,000t of ilmenite and 13,000t of zircon concentrate.

That’s a sizeable 20% increase quarter-on-quarter. It’s come about from modifications to the dry mining unit, which have improved productivity, Sheffield says.

Exec chair Bruce Griffin says he’s pleased with the step change in mine performance in June, with project vehicle Kimberley Mineral Sands now ahead of the expected ramp up timeline.

“Together with continued strong performance from the process plant and expected record export volumes in June 2024, the June performance provides a strong basis for sustained positive operating cash flow starting from the September 2024 quarter,” Griffin says.

Shares in Sheffield were up 24.2% at 38.5c, before falling back to 36c for a 16% gain.

Terra Metals (ASX:TM1)

(Up on recent news)

Just a 15km jog from BHP’s (ASX:BHP) enormous $1.7bn 390Mt Nebo-Babel mine development, Terra Metals has caught the eye of insto’s with its copper-PGE reefs at its Dante project – which is showing shallow mineralisation that’s easy to mine.

It’s pulled up hits of 5,6 and 7m containing up to 0.4% copper with high grades of PGEs, vanadium and titanium near the surface in the emerging West Musgrave mining district.

The company reckons it’s a mirror image of the Bushveld Province in South Africa which has some of the world’s largest, longest running (100+ years) and most profitable PGE, copper, nickel, gold, vanadium and titanium mining operations on the planet.

“Our recent copper-platinum group element sulphide discovery at the Dante Reefs is the first of its kind in Australia,” TM1 CEO Thomas Line says.

“The Dante Reefs are mapped to outcrop for at least 42km of strike across the Dante project, with most remaining undrilled.”

After getting firm commitments from investors for $6m at 6c per share so it can accelerate drilling at Dante, shares in the small cap have rocketed another 18.6% so far today trading at 18.6c.

“Proceeds from the placement will now allow us to accelerate our plans to grow and develop this exciting discovery,” Line says.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Terra Metals, Godolphin Resources and Renegade Exploration are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.