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Resources Top 5: A $200m iron ore equity funding package and ‘fantastic’ gold hits
Mining
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- A $200m equity financing deal backs the development of the Hawsons Iron Ore Project
- Midas Minerals receives “fantastic” high-grade gold results from Weebo
- And a signed lithium hydroxide MoA
Here are the biggest small cap winners in early trade Wednesday, December 22.
HAWSONS IRON (ASX:HIO)
HIO is soaring this morning on the back of news that is has signed a A$200m equity financing Put Option Agreement with United States investment group LDA Capital Ltd.
This enables Hawsons to access additional funding for the development of its high-grade iron ore project near Broken Hill in New South Wales over a four year period.
Executive chairman Bryan Granzien welcomed LDA Capital’s support: “It is a strong signal to capital markets that we have a credible global funding option in place to assist the development of our world-class Hawsons Iron Project.”
Hawsons, previously named Carpentaria Resources, is in the middle of a bankable feasibility study (BFS) which is targeted for completion in December 2022.
The ~$153m market cap company upgraded the resource of its iron ore project by 9% in indicated resources back in October to 132 million tonnes and 18% in inferred resources to 268Mt.
It had $34m cash in the bank at the end of the September quarter.
Hawsons’ selling point is its mooted 70% grade iron ore product, 5% above the highest common premium index, the 65% fines. If feasible it could garner ultra-high premiums on top of benchmark prices (62% index) and be ideally suited to green steelmaking technology.
MIDAS MINERALS (ASX:MM1)
This small cap made its way out of a trading halt this morning with maiden drilling results up its sleeve from the Weebo Gold Project in Western Australia’s famed Goldfields.
Drilling focused on the Ockerburry, Scone Stone, and Otto prospects located along strike and within close proximity to Northern Star Resources’ (ASX:NST) Thunderbox Mine and Otto Bore gold deposit.
Midas said the results — which included 2m at 12.5 g/t gold from 54m within 6m at 4.4 g/t gold from 54m, and 1m at 18.2 g/t gold from 44m within 3 metres at 6.7 g/t gold from 43m — point to a “potentially significant gold system.”
Executive director Nick Katris said: “To have hit such significant gold mineralisation in the first drill program at Weebo is a fantastic result and testament to the potential of this portion of the Yandal greenstone belt.”
A total of 103 aircore drill holes totalling 8237m were completed and 22 reverse circulation holes totalling 2559m on 30 wide-spaced drill traverses – over a 7km strike.
All but one of the RC holes reported to date have assays greater than 1 g/t gold, Katris said.
With A$6.7m cash in the bank as at the end of September, the company is well-placed to carry out exploration activities in Q1, 2022 where it intends to follow up these results with a larger drill rig capable of penetrating deeper into bedrock.
EUROPEAN LITHIUM (ASX:EUR)
European Lithium is up after agreeing to pursue a cooperation and offtake partnership with Traxys to develop its Wolfsberg Lithium Project in Austria.
The multi-tiered non-binding memorandum of agreement (MoA) means EUR will work with Traxys to negotiate commercial terms for a product offtake or marketing agreement for EUR’s lithium hydroxide as well as any by-products.
Traxys has been granted exclusivity until the end of the first quarter of 2022 to finalise the agreement.
EUR chairman Tony Sage said this marked another key milestone for the company and will “add to recent developments” at the project.
MOHO RESOURCES (ASX:MOH)
Nickel explorer Moho gained 10.17% this morning after it announced a tenement immediately next to Poseidon Nickel’s (ASX:POS) Black Swan mine had been granted.
The tenement adjoins the southern boundary of the Black Swan Nickel Operation and is an important component of Moho’s Silver Swan North Project where it is targeting gold and nickel sulphide mineralisation.
The initial work program for 2022 will be focused on target generation prior to EM surveys and drilling.
Moho’s board is chaired by Terry Streeter, a well-known West Australian businessman known for his role building Jubilee Mines and Western Areas, two juniors who rose to become takeover targets with a combined value of more than $4 billion.
GREAT WESTERN EXPLORATION (ASX:GTE)
(Up on no news)
GTE is up 10.71% today with no news. On December 13 it announced it had intersected broad zones of hydrothermal alteration within pyritic black shale at the Thunder copper-gold target in Western Australia.
The target is about 112km from Sandfire’s (ASX:SFR) Degrussa copper-gold operation and is interpreted to be an an analogue to the DeGrussa deposit.
Great Western said at the time around 11 RC holes had been completed for 1452m to test the EM anomaly at Thunder and the ultrafine + soil anomalies.
Samples have been sent to the LAS Laboratory for multi element analysis and assays are expected in February 2022.
