Resources Top 4: Copper junior spikes 70pc, investors keep pouring cash into Canadian lithium

Share price of quiet copper-gold explorer Metal Bank spikes in early trade to highest point since February, on no news
Narryer inks deal to buy 5 early-stage lithium projects in Canada
Maiden drilling at Miramar’s Whaleshark iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) project in WA to kick off at end of the month

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday July 17.

METAL BANK (ASX:MBK)

(Up on no news)

The share price of this quiet cobalt-copper-gold explorer today spiked on volume to its highest point since February, on no news.

Stockhead has contacted the company for comment which, with any luck, will be a headline-grabber. The company has previously reported that it is pursuing copper and base metal assets in the Arabian/Nubian Shield.

MBK is led by Inés Scotland, the former Rio Tinto operative who injected a trailblazing copper project called Jabal Sayid in Saudi Arabia into a sleepy explorer on the ASX called Citadel Resources in 2007.

Four years later, the once penny dreadful Citadel was taken over by Equinox (since acquired by Barrick) for a cool $1.3 billion.

MBK also has a portfolio of Australian projects, including Millennium (copper-cobalt-gold), 8 Mile, Wild Irishman and Eidsvold (all gold) in QLD, and Livingstone (gold) in WA.

The flagship 51% owned Millennium project contains an 8.4Mt @ 1.23% CuEq resource across granted mining leases “with significant potential for expansion”, the company said in April.

Livingstone (75% owned) contains a small 71,000oz gold resource, while the remainder are earlier stage projects.

The $11m capped stock is down 10% year-to-date. It had $3m in the bank at the end of March.

NARRYER METALS (ASX:NYM)

Investors continue to pour money into speculative Canada lithium plays.

Minnow NYM is the latest to dip a toe, inking a deal to buy five early-stage lithium projects in the James, Bay, Abitibi and NW Ontario regions.

Pontax East, Le Moyne, Walrus Island, Eades and Hailstone are down the road from established heavier hitters like Patriot Battery Metals (ASX:PMT), Winsome Resources (ASX:WR1), Power Metal (TSX-V:PWM), and Green Technology Metals (ASX:GT1).

An early-stage sampling program will kick off later this month/early August.

NYM is paying the vendor 5m shares (worth ~$800,000 at current prices), 2.5 options (@30c), and a 1.5-2.5% net smelter royalty.

The $5m capped stock, which listed on the ASX last year, is flat in 2023. It had $1.7m in the bank at the end of March.

MIRAMAR RESOURCES (ASX:M2R)

Maiden drilling at M2R’s Whaleshark iron-oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) project in WA will kick off at the end of the month.

IOCGs can be deep but tremendously large, simple-to-process concentrations of copper, gold and other economic minerals.

These are company makers, in other words.

Whaleshark has potential to host a significant IOCG deposit like Evolution Mining’s (ASX:EVN) Ernest Henry, or BHP’s (ASX:BHP) Carrapateena or Prominent Hill, exec chairman Allan Kelly says.

“Since commencing work at Whaleshark in mid-2021, we have defined a robust IOCG target which has been further validated by the recent successful EIS application,” Kelly says.

“IOCG deposits can be very large, and potentially very valuable, meaning exploration success at Whaleshark would have a very significant positive impact on our company valuation.”

The $6m capped stock is down 30% year-to-date. It has ~$2.5m in the bank.

MANTLE MINERALS (ASX:MTL)

The explorer formerly known as Caeneus Minerals is prepping a 15km, 250 hole aircore drilling campaign immediately north of De Grey’s (ASX:DEG) legendary Hemi deposit in the Pilbara.

Aircore drilling is required to get underneath the thin layer of transported cover, which acts to conceal potential deposits.

The fully funded program at Roberts Hill will kick off later this year once heritage and environmental approvals are received.

“We’re very focused on getting back to drilling for gold at Roberts Hill, we are immediately north of De Grey’s discovery of 10.6M ounces of gold and our ground is vastly under explored in comparison,” MTL boss Nick Poll says.

“Any potential deposit is going to be concealed by over 5m of covering sediments and surface soil sampling was inconclusive, so geophysics and aircore drilling are the most effective methods we will have, to make a discovery.

“The Mantle team has done its homework and developed a comprehensive view of our geology and drilling targets from geology and geophysics.

“We think our rocks are related to Hemi’s rocks, so we’re excited about getting back out into the field to test our targets later this year.”

The $7m capped stock is down 40% year-to-date.