Resources Top 4: Investors pounce on antimony as Vertex jumps on Reward

Iltani leaps on 17.3% antimony hit at Herberton
Vertex up ahead of Reward mine restart
Anson cleared for lithium-brine waste disposal at Green River

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Monday, August 26. Prices accurate at time of writing.

Iltani Resources (ASX:ILT)

ILT has coffered up the antimony credentials of its Herberton project in QLD with a site visit to the Antimony Reward prospect.

The focus is on exploration permit EPM 27168, ~45km from Herberton and 25km from its flagship Orient silver-indium project.

With the antimony (Sb) price increasing to US$24,500/t due to heightened demand and recently announced Chinese export restrictions, the explorer reckons it’s a good time to revisit historical data that showed very high grades of the material.

“The high-grade antimony mineralisation drilled in 2008 returned up to 17.3% Sb and is open down dip and along strike, representing a compelling drill target,” ILT MD Garner says.

“We are examining potential drill targets with the aim of aligning drilling at Antimony Reward with the next phase of drilling planned for our nearby Orient Silver-Indium project, which will be a more cost-effective use of our resources and save on mobilisation and demobilisation costs.”

Shares are up almost 30% for the $10m market-capped junior today to trade at 29c.

Vertex Minerals (ASX:VTX)

(Up on no news)

In the prolific Lachlan Ford Belt in NSW, VTX is in an advanced position to restart its Reward gold mine, which will add early production and saleable ounces for developing its portfolio of projects in the region.

The largest piece of reef gold ever – the 286kg Holtermann-Beyers nugget – was found at this location in 1872.

Last heard, the ressie junior raised $3.77m at a 5% discount to the then five-day VWAP at 8c a share earlier this month. And after pouring its first gold bar it’s now fully-funded to start pumping out bullion through Reward’s gold plant which is currently being refurbished.

VTX is targeting a small part of the bigger 225,200oz at 16.72g/t Hill End gold system with an eye to start production by the end of this year.

Shares in VTX are up over 60% in the last month and have shot up 13.64% today to trade at 12.5c.

Anson Resources (ASX:ASN)

Lithium-brine developer ASN has been granted an Underground Injection Control (UIC) application for Class V wells to dispose of the processed brine at its Green River lithium project in Utah.

This will enable the company to re-inject the spent brine from its Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) processing plant back into subsurface formations.

This is in line with ASN’s plan to drill new disposal wells, at the time of construction of the production plant, for the injection and disposal of the spent brine from its lithium extraction process as part of the development of the project into production.

The junior’s also progressing work at its Ajana zinc project, where it’s found high-grade critical minerals such as gallium, indium and germanium, with values up to 67g/t Ga, 44g/t In, 40g/t Ge and 20,020g/t Ba.

The interpreted anomalies from historical soil sampling programs and geological mapping are being used as a basis for follow-up drilling programs.

Shares in ASN have risen 11% to trade at 11c a share at time of writing.

Poseidon Nickel (ASX:POS)

A pivot by POS is showcasing gold potential at its Black Swan and Lake Johnston projects.

Some 17 rock chip samples recently collected from Black Swan have confirmed gold mineralisation in bedrock units located close to some of the recently announced gold nugget discoveries, with a best rock chip returning 1.25g/t.

The results confirm gold occurs both in the mineralised quartz veins and the surrounding host rock, with trends corresponding with interpreted secondary structural corridors emanating NNE off the larger north striking Mt Monger Fault to the east.

“Today’s rock chip assay results are an important step forward given the potential source of the recovered gold nuggets has now been identified and these auriferous shear zones are located well within our tenement package,” POS CEO Brendan Shalders says.

“To progress the gold targeting along these prospective shear corridors, the company completed a wide-spaced reconnaissance soil sampling program last week across the entire landholding at Black Swan, which will be assayed for the full suite of elements.”

Widespread soils were shown to contain anomalous gold hits at Lake Johnston and the junior says the next steps will be to test core samples and kick off first-pass drilling.

Shares in the explorer are up 33% today, trading at 4c.

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