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Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Friday June 24.
Get me a hanky, because lithium stocks are surging today for the first time in an age. Possibly because the automaker Stellanis’ has committed to a “world first” $76m investment into Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL).
You can read all about that deal here.
Of the lithium-facing stocks on Stockhead’s list, 66 are up, 18 are down and 44 are flat in morning trade, Friday.
It’s the greenest day the beleaguered sector has enjoyed in a while, with the rebound led by Vulcan (naturally), and fellow mine developers Arizona Lithium (ASX:AZL) and Lake Resources (ASX:LKE).
Other mid-cap project developers like Ioneer (ASX:INR), Sayona Mining (ASX:SYA) and Argosy (ASX:AGY) aren’t far behind.
Miners Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) and Allkem (ASX:AKE) were up ~8% and 4%, respectively.
On the small cap front early gains were spearheaded by Xantippe Resources (ASX:XTC) and Alchemy Resources (ASX:ALY).
Former goldie XTC is now all-in on lithium after locking in a deal to buy the 3,000ha ‘La Sofia’ tenement next door to Lake Resources’ (ASX:LKE) advanced ‘Kachi’ project in Argentina.
XTC says there’s potential for development of a district scale lithium brine project, with further ground acquisitions being considered.
Meanwhile, the ALY share price has been bouncing all over the joint on some pretty impressive volumes since it found multiple lithium anomalies at its 111,100oz ‘Karonie’ gold project late April.
The 1,200sqkm Karonie is 8km along strike and within contiguous tenure to Global Lithium Resources’ (ASX:GL1) ‘Manna’ lithium deposit (9.9Mt at 1.14% Li201), but has never been explored for lithium.
(Up on no news)
AHN is focused on the ‘Byro’ project in WA, which includes iron ore, copper, PGE, and graphite targets.
In late May, resource drilling kicked off to upgrade the old ‘FE1’ magnetite iron ore resource to JORC 2012 standards – a must have for ASX listed explorers.
Two drill rigs are onsite to complete reverse circulation (RC) pre-collars followed by diamond core through the ore body. Assays are pending.
“This work is an important step to complete the indicated MRE [mineral resource estimate] and move forward to development of the Company’s FE1 Project Feasibility Study, (PFS) within 2022,” AHN says.
The $17m market cap stock – which relisted on the ASX November last year following a period in bourse purgatory — is up 90% in 2022.
It had $1.3m in the bank at the end of March.
In March WMG identified five major, potentially nickel-rich conductors at the flagship ‘Mulga Tank’ project in WA.
These include the appropriately named ‘Mulga Monster’, which is 1km long and 1km wide.
A maiden 10 hole program is now well underway, with WMG yesterday announcing the completion of another three drillholes.
On of these, MTD016 — drilled as follow-up a historical hit of 0.25m at 3.8% Ni, 0.7% Cu and 0.7g/t PGE — showed the most frequent occurrence of visible nickel sulphides to date “with seven remobilised nickel-copper sulphide veins observed between 276m to 284m”.
“Hole MTD016 was designed to follow up on historical hole MTD006 and encountered similar high-grade remobilised nickel-copper sulphide veins, though more frequently occurring and perhaps closer to a source,” WMG managing director Caedmon Marriott says.
“The hole was cased and will be tested with DHEM looking for off-hole targets that could be the source of the remobilised sulphides.
“This looks to be an interesting and highly prospective area of the project.”
Visible nickel sulphides have now identified in four of the first six holes over a wide area and range of exploration targets.
Promising stuff.
Along with Mulga Tank, recently listed WMG holds another six gold exploration projects including ‘Melita’, which is also prospective for copper-lead-zinc and sits near the Kookynie district in WA’s goldfields.
Kookynie is home to a number of large gold projects including the 1.6Moz Ulysses project run by Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD).
The $5m market cap stock is down 30% year-to-date. It had $4.2m in the bank at the end of March.
HFR is one big step closer to building Europe’s next big potash mine, ‘Muga’ in Spain, after it received the licence for the construction of the project mine gate and the declines from local authorities.
Muga is a unique, low capex project, HFR says, with shallow mineralisation with no aquifers above it there is no need to build a shaft.
There is quality and readily accessible infrastructure already in place in the region and importantly, Muga is in the heart of a European agricultural region which has a clear deficit in potash supply.
Add to that, issues with Russia, which –alongside its satellite state Belarus — account for as much as 40% of the global supply of key fertilisers.
“The grant of this construction licence in Aragón for the mine gate and the declines arrives at a time when the project and its financing are well advanced, and the geopolitical situation demands the start of Muga as soon as possible,” CEO Ignacio Salazar says.
“This is a pivotal milestone for the project which allows us to start the construction of Muga in the next few days with the initial works around the mine gate.
“While we start construction, the Company will focus on completing the financing and finalising the licencing process in Navarra.”
The $308m market cap stock is up 4% year-to-date.
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