Resources Top 5: A few big gold hits set the ASX alight this morning

AUN hits 344m at 1.29g/t gold in first diamond hole at Central Sandstone Gold Project
MI6 delivers an ‘outstanding’ new gold intersection at its Zest prospect near Julimar
KWR reels in 5m at 4.8g/t gold from 113.3m – its first significant diamond drill core gold intersection at Lake Goongarrie

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Monday July 11.

AURUMIN (ASX:AUN)

WA goldie AUN has hit a thick 344m at 1.29g/t gold in its first diamond hole at the Central Sandstone Gold Project, where drilling is hoping to both extend and better define the existing inferred underground mineral resource estimate of 14.2Mt at 1.1g/t gold for 500,000oz at Two Mile Hill.

The Central Sandstone Project, some 12km south of the township of Sandstone between the mining towns of Mt Magnet and Leinster, comprises granted tenure cover 112km and two mining licences.

AUN managing director Brad Valiukas says the company is ‘very happy’ with how Sandstone is progressing.

“We have been expanding our tenement footprint, looking for new deposits and advancing the Mile Hill underground deposit with deep holes,” he says.

“This is a great result from our first hole at Two Mile, which we see as a key part of the project going forward.”

AUN is awaiting further results with the fourth diamond drillhole and program now completed.

The ~$17.2m market cap company gained some 43% on the news this morning and had $3.68mn cash in the bank at the end of the March quarter.

MINERALS 260 (ASX:MI6)

This Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) spinoff, focused on the Moora Gold-Nickel-PGE Project near the Julimar mineral province, has made an ‘outstanding’ new intersection of 13m at 3.3g/t gold at its Zest prospect.

Although assays are pending for another 126 aircore holes across previously defined geochemical anomalies on the Moora and adjacent Koojan JV Project, MI6 says this hit continues the company’s success in identifying significant mineralised zones.

This massive hit is located only 55m down dip of a recent intersection recording 12m at 2g/t gold and 1.4% copper.

With $25.5m cash in the bank, MI6 is in a strong cash position to maintain exploration momentum with a 10,000m–15,000m planned RC program.

NOW READ: Liontown spinout MI6 enjoys explosive first day

KINGWEST RESOURCES (ASX:KWR)

Exploring for gold underneath salt lakes is tough, which is probably why so many remain under-explored — regardless of how prospective they are – but this morning KWR hit its first ‘significant diamond drill core’ gold intersection within the Sir Laurence mineralised system at Lake Goongarrie.

The 5m at 4.8g/t gold from 113.3m intersection also included 2.3m at 9.4g/t gold – confirming not only the geological model but the size and gold grade potential at the project as well.

KWR CEO Ed Turner says this hole is on the extreme western limit of the known bedrock gold mineralisation and demonstrates the potential to continue to grow Sir Laurence.

“The gold intersection remains open to the west, southwest and northeast at Target 1,” he says.

Exploration targeting will continue to be reviewed as new results come in.

Shares in KWR jumped as much as 50.85% on this news.

The ~$21.2m market cap company had ~$3.22m cash in the bank at the end of the March quarter.

SANTANA MINERALS (ASX:SMI)

Chaired by high profile mining personality Norman Seckold, Santana’s main game is the ‘Bendigo-Ophir’ Project in New Zealand, where it has just announced a 2-million-ounce global inferred gold resource platform.

Resource extension drilling since September 2021 has focused mainly on the Rise and Shine (RAS) deposit, which has resulted in a six-fold increase in RAS inferred resources and a three-fold increase in overall global RAS shear zone resources.

SMI executive director Dick Deevers said the execution of the company’s plan to ‘follow the gold’ has paid off handsomely.

“This is a substantial upgrade in our MRE, both in a large increase in inferred contained ounces of gold at our lower cut-off grade and the definition of a substantial tonnage of higher-grade mineralisation at the higher cut-off grade of 1.5g/t gold,” he says.

“We have really opened up the prospect of future underground mining of the deeper parts of the RAS deposit if RAS continues further down plunge which our geological model suggests it should.”

The $100m market cap company shot up ~20% on the news this morning.

R3D RESOURCES (ASX:R3D)

The former failed public relations firm reskinned as a copper-gold-zinc-silver explorer via its mid 2021 takeover of Tartana Resources.

Meet R3D, where the new focus is to advance its small copper sulphate project in Queensland into production in the second half of 2022.

Shares in the company shot up on news of its first diamond core hole hitting a 12m intersection of sphalerite dominant (zinc sulphide) massive and semi-massive sulphides downdip of previous drilling.

The next hole – TDH25 – is set to test at least a further 65m below the current intersection, and if it is successful, both intersections will contribute to a maiden JORC resource currently being estimated at the Queen Grade Zinc Project.