- Indiana could be ~US$70m richer following successful litigation against Tanzania
- OD6 says flagship Splinter Rock project is emerging as one of the ‘largest and highest-grade clay-hosted rare earth projects in Australia’
- Drilling – delayed by flooding — is now due to start in August at Lycaon’s Bow River nickel-copper project
Here are the biggest small cap resources movers in early trade, Tuesday July 18.
INDIANA RESOURCES (ASX:IDA)
Exploration minnow IDA could be ~US$70m richer after the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, part of the World Bank, ordered Tanzania to pay US$109.5m ($160m) for the unlawful expropriation of the Ntaka Hill nickel project (IDA ~62% ownership) in 2018.
It’s been a tough slog to get to this point for IDA, which is now focused on rare earths and gold exploration in South Australia.
Once considered investment-friendly, the east African nation of Tanzania stunned ASX resource plays in July 2017 with sweeping changes to its Mining Act.
As part of these changes, Indiana had its Retention Licence for its advanced Ntaka Hill nickel sulphide project cancelled by the Tanzanian government.
IDA chose Litigation Capital Management (LCM), a firm listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange, to fund the multi-year litigation process.
LCM, which only get paid in the event of a successful claim, are used to winning. By the end of 2019 the firm had funded 205 cases over 21 years – 87% of these were profitable.
“They are one of the highest profile, most successful litigation funding firms in the world,” Indiana exec chairman and major shareholder Bronwyn Barnes said in 2021.
“That sometimes gets lost on people – they don’t back claims they don’t research fully, and don’t expect to win.”
Will Tanzania pay up though? IDA and team are now moving “to the enforcement phase”.
The $40m capped stock is up 80-100% in early trade Tuesday.
OD6 METALS (ASX:OD6)
OD6 says its flagship Splinter Rock project is emerging as one of the largest and highest-grade clay-hosted rare earth projects in Australia after unveiling a 344Mt @ 1,308ppm TREO maiden resource.
The resource comes less than one year after first drilling, which has defined a handful of near surface, 60m to 70m thick mineralised clay basins.
This is Australia’s largest and highest-grade clay hosted resource, defined from under 5% of the target area, OD6 says.
A 188-hole, 10,000m drill program commenced June 2023 to grow the resource further and identify high-grade, ‘sweet-spot’ REE zones.
The $15m capped stock is down 15% year-to-date, but comfortably up on its mid 2022 IPO price of 20c per share. It has ~$3.5m in the bank.
LYCAON RESOURCES (ASX:LYN)
Drilling – delayed by flooding — is now due to start in August at the Bow River nickel-copper project in WA’s East Kimberley region.
“Bow River is an extremely compelling nickel-copper magmatic sulphide prospect which ranks as a standout target in the Kimberley, with similarities to Panoramic’s Savannah mine and I’m extremely excited to be able to drill this very soon,” LYN technical director Tom Langley says.
The 2014 discovery of ‘Savannah North’ resource at depth at Savannah, 60km away, effectively quadrupled the Ni-Cu-Co resource, highlighting the prospectivity Bow River “given its analogous geological setting”.
Meanwhile, land access negotiations are “proceeding well” at the Stansmore Nb-REE project in the West Arunta region, the company says.
The $10m capped stock is flat year-to-date. It had $2.7m in the bank at the end of March.
AKORA RESOURCES (ASX:AKO)
AKO says its Bekisopa project in Madagascar is shaping up “as one of the highest-grade iron ore projects in the world”.
The Bekisopa Southern Zone now includes 5.54Mt @ 60.35% fe of direct shipping ore (DSO) following a recent resource update.
DSO tonnes along the Bekisopa 6km strike is now 9.14Mt, excluding the high-grade outcrop, the company says.
“It is very encouraging to report upgraded DSO tonnes and grade from last year’s infill drilling campaign,” AKO boss Paul Bibby says.
“These 5.54 million tonnes will be the mined tonnes for a lower processing capital and operating cost DSO startup.”
Beneath the weathered DSO Eastern zone is a high-grade magnetite iron mineralised zone of 34Mt at 45.3% iron “that could become the focus of an economical Green Steel concentrate production start-up”.
A recently completed scoping study was light on detail but did show Bekisopa “to have high potential for further study due to its high grades, low impurities, positive processing characteristics and robust economics”.
The $17m capped minnow is flat year-to-date. It recently raised ~$2.7m via entitlement offer and placement.