Resources Top 4: Cheap lithium juniors and a Stellar tin hit

Michael O’Keeffe-backed Mont Royal commences lithium exploration in Canada
Kairos to start 7,000m drilling program at Roe Hills lithium project very soon
Stellar reports “outstanding” tin drilling results at Severen, the largest deposit at 7.6Mt Heemskirk project

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday July 31.

MONT ROYAL RESOURCES (ASX:MRZ)

(Up on no news)

The man behind this Canadian lithium-base metals explorer, Michael O’Keeffe, knows how to make money.

He was central in the sale of coal play Riversdale Mining to Rio Tinto for $4bn (a great deal for O’Keeffe and his fellow investors, but not so much for RIO).

READ: As M&A premiums soar, let’s cast our eyes over some of history’s s**ttest mining deals

More recently, he sold Canadian coal project developer Riversdale Resources to Gina Rinehart for $600m.

While O’Keeffe has stepped down from the MRZ board to focus on his other companies, Champion Iron (ASX:CIA) and Burgundy Mines (ASX:BDM), he still retains a substantial +7.5% shareholding.

“Mont Royal sits with a portfolio of exciting exploration projects in Quebec,” he said in March.

“I remain confident in the company’s exploration strategy across base, precious and critical metals commodity suite and consider the company highly leveraged to exploration success.”

MRZ’s focus is the newly acquired Northern Lights lithium projects – Bohier and Eastmain-Léran — in Quebec, Canada, where a three-week soil/rock sampling program kicked off late July.

Results will be used to delineate drill targets “and commence an immediate drilling program to follow up observations and data from the field”, MRZ says.

Canadian wildfires continue to impede exploration in the Wapatik project area in James Bay.

The $15m capped stock is up 30% in 2023. It had $2.2m in the bank at the end of June.

KAIROS MINERALS (ASX:KAI)

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KAI is up 60% since emerging WA lithium producer Global Lithium (ASX:GLI) acquired a 10.5% stake in the junior via ~$4m placement.

The deal, first announced late June, was done at a 6% premium to KAI’s last closing price on June 26.

This was followed by a $6.5m entitlement offer, leaving $60m capped KAI cashed up to pursue exploration on its portfolio of gold and lithium projects across the state.

$480m capped GLI is particularly interested in KAI’s underexplored Roe Hills lithium project, which abuts GLI’s 32.7Mt Manna resource near Kalgoorlie.

The company plans to launch into a 7,000m RC drilling program at the Black Cat, Crystal Palace and Blue Jay prospects at Roe Hills at the end of the next week.

“But I’ve told the exploration manager to start planning for more drilling,” KAI managing director Peter Turner says.

“If we hit spodumene pegmatites – which we hope are there – then we will be straight in there with a diamond rig.”

STELLAR RESOURCES (ASX:SRZ)

SRZ has reported “outstanding” tin drilling results at Severen, the largest deposit at the company’s flagship Heemskirk project (7.6Mt @ 1.1% Sn).

Hole ZS162 returned a highlight 20m @ 1.16% Sn from 312m – the sixth-best significant intercept ever at Severn, SRZ says.

“The outstanding results from recently completed hole ZS162 are amongst the best on record at Severn and include a significantly higher-grade and thicker intercept of the upper ore zone in southern Severn than predicted by the current Mineral Resource model, highlighting a potential high-grade zone within the upper (202) ore zone in southern Severn,” exec director Gary Fietz says.

“These results finish off a highly successfully Phase 2B drilling campaign at the Severn deposit and are expected to contribute significantly to increasing the Heemskirk Tin Project Indicated Mineral Resource Estimate.”

The updated resource is scheduled for late August. A Pre-Feasibility Study on Heemskirk is planned for H2 2023.

The $15m capped minnow is up 30% year-to-date. It had $1.6m in the bank at the end of March.

RESOURCE BASE (ASX:RBX)

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Aussie rare earths explorer RBX recently acquired the early stage Wali and Ernst Lake projects, a proverbial stone’s throw from Patriot Battery Metals’ (ASX:PMT) newly announced +100Mt lithium resource in the James Bay district of Quebec.

The deal will cost the company CAD$300,000, 6m shares and a 2% royalty on any future production, as well as 8m performance shares “upon the achievement of diamond drill results with at least 20m intercept at 1% lithium (LiO2) at either of the projects on or before 31 December 2024”.

Earlier this year RBX reported a maiden 21Mt @767ppm resource at the Mitre Hill clay rare earths project on the Victoria/South Australia border.

The excellent results in leach adsorption test work – in line with or superior to other projects in the district — has confirmed the Mitre Hill resource is of an ionic nature, the company says.

Project studies and growing the resource further are now the focus, it says.

The $13m capped stock is up 80% year-to-date. It had $1.6m in the bank at the end of June.