• Besra appoints veteran explorer Matthew Antill to lead Jugan, shares rocket
  • Stelar runs into 27% copper at Baratta
  • Gateway banks $14m worth of cash and Brightstar shares with Montague East sale

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Thursday August 1. Prices correct at time of writing.

 

Besra Gold (ASX:BEZ)

Veteran mine developer Matthew Antill has been appointed to lead BEZ’s flagship 970,000oz Jugan gold project, part of the company’s broader 3Moz Bau gold field in East Malaysia.

Antill comes with quite the pedigree, having had senior roles at Lafayette Mining Philippines, Rox Resources’ Radio Hill, Citic Pacific’s Sino Iron project and Saracen Metals’ Thunderbox mine.

More importantly, he’s got a wealth of experience working in Malaysia in the mining sector – commencing and commissioning multiple open pit mines.

The timing couldn’t be better, as BEZ is leading up to a definitive feasibility study (DFS) for Jugan – pivotal for commercial development.

Current infill drilling is looking to get ounces into the higher confidence measured and indicated categories ahead of the DFS to give it more attractive production metrics. So far it’s returned a top assay of 7m at 6g/t gold from 90m.

What’s more immediately interesting though, is the construction of the Jugan pilot plant, which will trial various batch processing methods to find out the most economical way of proving up the Bau gold field.

The pilot plant will churn through 50 tonnes per today in testing and further infill drilling is being planned.

News of Antill’s appointment was welcomed in trade today, as BEZ shares shot up 41.6% to swap at 8.5c at the time of writing.

 

 

Gateway Mining (ASX:GML)

Gold rights at GML’s Montague East project are being gobbled up by serial small-deposit gold miner Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR), with the junior set to cash in to the tune of $14m.

As part of the deal, BTR will salvo $5m cash straight to GML and give it $7m-worth of shares, with a further $2m shares deferred – while retaining all non-gold minerals rights within the tenement group.

 

Source: GML.

 

“Our shareholders retain exposure to the exciting, value-creating exploration opportunities that present across the broader tenement group – including the emerging magmatic nickel-copper sulphide discovery opportunity we have reported recently,” GML MD Mark Cossom says.

Immediate focus will be to continue copper-nickel-PGE exploration at its Flametree and Montague Range targets with a menagerie of drilling options (AC, RC and diamond drilling programs).

The explorer says it’s also going to progress early-stage exploration at several exciting new gold targets on the Montague West group of tenements, where historical gold intersections of up to 4.5g/t have been found.

Shares are up 8.7% to 2.5c on trade today.

 

 

Stelar Metals (ASX:SLB)

SLB has found a new primary copper sulphide mineralisation and some copper-rich gossans at its Baratta project in South Australia.

The key, underlying detail there is that the company ran into a 27% high-grade copper rock chip – through sampling and assay work.

Those grades are very preliminary, mind you, as rock chips are often found at surface and do not have a great bearing on proving up a potential deposit below.

It has found multiple mineral horizons, though – and warrants further investigation and, as SLB notes, it could lead to similar mineralisation in the prolific Central African Copper Belt, which accounts for about 20% of global production.

Whatever’s happened, investors have poured in decent volume and raised its share price by 18% to 7.2c.

 

 

Cazaly Resources (ASX:CAZ)

(Up on no news)

Serial ‘what is it doing now?’ explorer CAZ is back, with… surprise surprise, a niobium project.

It said in its quarterly it has approvals for diamond drilling at its Carb Lake REE-Nb project in Ontario and is mobilising geos to the tenure to get drill targets prepped.

It might just be on to a winner with this one, though, as it comes with pretty much drill-ready targets for the junior to sink its teeth into.

Handheld pXRF readings showed best results of up to 0.6% niobium, 1.49% neodymium, 0.42% praseodymium and 4.34% cerium.

The junior is presenting at this year’s Diggers and Dealers mining forum in Kalgoorlie, WA, next week.

Shares are up over 30%, perhaps pending the excitement around what they’re going to have to show at the event, heavily traded to sit at 2.8c.

 

 

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Besra Gold is a Stockhead advertiser at the time of writing, 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.

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