Resources Top 4: FL1 on flames with 2.79% Li2O hit as Rimfire also heats up

First Lithium hits up to 2.79% Li2O at Blakala
AG8 rises on quartz-based silica
FY24’s biggest riser Rimfire in the gains once again

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Thursday, August 22. Prices accurate at time of writing.

First Lithium (ASX:FL1)

FL1 has identified very high-grade lithium within the main pegmatite in the remaining two holes from Series 2 drilling at its Blakala project in Mali, with notable intersections of 41m at 1.91% Li2O from 81m and 29.7m at 1.66% Li2O from 115.2m, including 6.6m at 2.79% Li2O from 138.2m.

The explorer intersected pegmatite bands of up to 10m-wide between the western and main pegmatite bodies, while confirming significant depth and strike continuity of the main pegmatite.

The junior’s now carrying out extension mapping and trenching at Blakala along with mapping and trenching on the Gouna licence.

Results come as FL1 continues to progress work on a maiden resource for Blakala and the Malian Government initiates actions for implementing the amended Mining Code as part of the licence renewal process. It is one of three prospective hard rock lithium assets in the West African country, a group led by Ganfeng Lithium’s world class Goulamina deposit, which is expected to enter production this year.

London-listed Kodal is also hoping to bring its Bougouni project into production in Q4 this year. Its market cap of around $200m, compares to FL1’s of a touch under $10m after the move up today.

FL1 was up 36% to trade at 13c at 12.45pm AEST.

Rimfire Pacific Mining (ASX:RIM)

(Up on no news)

The best performing small cap for FY2024 in percentage terms, with a meteoric gain of 460%, RIM has been fuelled by scandium hits at its Fifield project in the East Lachlan Ford Belt, ~70km northwest of Parkes, NSW.

While still early doors, the success it enjoys could draw the attention of Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), which paid $21m for a project just 10km north in April last year. That one holds the potential to become the world’s largest standalone scandium project, a commodity Rio initially moved into because it’s a by-product of its titanium dioxide production at the Sorel-Tracy plant in Quebec, Canada.

Scandium is rarely in the limelight, but the lightly traded critical mineral is valued for use in lightweight, high-strength aluminium alloys in aviation, baseball bats, lacrosse sticks, bicycle frames and metal halide lamps.

A maiden resource is expected this quarter at the Murga North and Melrose prospects.

RIM’s story isn’t all about scandium at Fifield though.

The company is currently carrying out diamond drilling at the Bald Hill cobalt-copper prospect at the Broken Hill project to test for extensions to previous high-grade intersections such as 125m at 0.13% cobalt from 198m.

Drilling will also test a very strong magnetic anomaly, interpreted to be a potential extension to the previously demonstrated Bald Hill cobalt and copper mineralisation.

Elusive WA prospector Anton Billis, the key figure behind WA gold producers Rand Mining and Tribune Resources, has a stake of more than 9% in Rimfire.

Rimfire’s scandium exploration activities at Fifield are funded by the company’s exploration partner Golden Plains Resources, the ownership of which is subject to a legal dispute currently before the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Stocks in the rising star have pumped almost 10% to swap at 5.7c a share – now up 470% for the past 12 months.

Australasian Metals (ASX:A8G)

A8G owns the Dingo Hole quartz-silica project in the NT.

A round of due diligence at Dingo Hole, which could deliver product into the high-purity quartz silica market, has grabbed 18 samples across the tenure that have shown low levels of deleterious elements with an average silica content of 99.95%.

Aluminium, lithium and tin often co-exist within silica deposits, and can mess up processing. Good news for A8G though, because these elements have been found to be at extremely low levels.

Dingo Hole has an exploration target of 10.4-42.6Mt at a post-leached SiO2 grade of 99.37-99.85%.

A8G is aiming to see if Dingo Hole can achieve the ‘4 nine’ (99.99%) or ‘5 nine’ (99.999%) purity levels – which A8G says is its next step in proving up the resource.

Purity levels are important to lower processing costs and widen use in high-tech products such as semiconductors, optical fibres and solar panels.

Only a few deposits have the potential to meet purity benchmark IOTA and even tighter IOTA8 standards which the ASX junior is aiming for.

A8G MD Dr Qingtao Zeng says the quality of the raw material from the field has exceeded expectations in terms of purity.

The company’s tech team will conduct further sampling and plan for a drill program as it reaches towards a mineral resource estimate for Dingo Hole.

“Now [that] our team has narrowed down the challenges of further refining of our quartz, we can look to identify specific high-end applications of this material with well documented data.”

The company has initiated discussions with potential partners for production and processing of the project’s silica.

Shares in the explorer are up 20% in early trade and have risen >70% in the last month to trade at 12c.

Castle Minerals (ASX:CDT)

Gold hunter CDT has been going hard at its flagship Kpali project in Ghana, where a 1106m drilling campaign has just been completed, where intercepts of up to 6.03g/t were intercepted previously.

That’s just phase one of a broader 3500m RC campaign being conducted across the tenure.

Kpali has confirmed shallow, high-grade gold mineralisation over an 850m strike and down to 100m below ground in the fertile Birimian terrane, which hosts several major gold deposits, including the State-owned 5.2Moz Konkera-Batie West deposit.

Hits included 22m at 2.85g/t Au from 87m, including 7m at 6.03g/t Au from 90m, 5m at 4.53g/t Au from 99m and 16m at 3.23g/t Au from 9m.

Results from phase one of the new round of drilling are due out next month.

Shares have spiked today, with the $5m market-capped minnow rising 33% to trade at 0.4c.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While First Lithium is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Note: An earlier version of this article referred to Golden Plains Resources as “Billis’ Golden Plains Resources”, which is incorrect.