• QX finalises lithium project acquisition ahead of schedule
  • Mexico-based zinc producer Consolidated Zinc sells 100% of 2022 production
  • Newly listed Lykos Metals and iTech Minerals surge in early trade

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Friday October 22.

 

QX RESOURCES (ASX:QXR)

Gold focused QX has officially acquired a lithium project in the Pilbara, the hard rock capital of the world.

The explorer exercised an option to buy the ‘Turner River’ lithium project early, in advance of the due diligence period lapsing.

This reflects QXR’s confidence in the project’s prospectivity, it says.

QXR will also acquire the adjoining tenements for an extra $6000, which brings the total tenement position at Turner River from 45sqkm to 84sqkm.

“Following the recent site visit and after further reviews of the project’s geology and the surrounding prospects, we have taken the decision to not only exercise the Turner River option early but to expand our tenement holdings in the area by applying for some adjoining ground which looks equally as prospective,” QXR chairman Maurice Feilich says.

That recent site visit identified contained “numerous pegmatite dykes”. Encouraging start.

“Further site visits are planned, and we look forward to keeping shareholders updated on progress here and with respect to the ongoing work in Queensland,” Feilich says.

The $18m market cap stock is up 200% over the past month.

QXR share price chart

 

CONSOLIDATED ZINC (ASX:CZL)

Miners across the ASX are reaping record profits as prices soar.

Small Mexico-based zinc producer CZL is no different.

It has now sold all of its high-grade, high-quality zinc concentrates from the recently refurbished ‘Plomosas’ mine for 2022.

The buyer Industrias Penoles — one of the world’s leading refiners of zinc and the largest global refiner of silver — will process the concentrates at its Mexican smelter, 600km away.

CZL is currently ramping up to 4,500t per month throughput from 9,000t of ore processed during the last quarter (~3,000/t per month).

In Q2, the $8.3m market cap company eked out a $195,000 profit before tax on the sale of 632t zinc and 158t lead in concentrate.

Cash costs for zinc produced were $1US.30/lb for the quarter, and $US1.18 year-to-date.

Zinc currently sells for over $US1.60/lb.

$18m market cap CZL is up 100% over the past month, and 20% year-to-date.

CZL share price chart

 

METAL TIGER (ASX:MTR)

LSE listed MTR is a resources sector investor which joined the Aussie bourse in May.

Right now, it hold stakes in companies like growing copper miner Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) (3.4%), African base metals explorer Cobre (ASX:CBE) (21%), and Southern Korean gold explorer Southern Gold (ASX:SAU) (19.1%).

It also has a 50.1% stake in copper play Kalahari Metals (Cobre owns the rest), which has just kicked off drilling at the ‘Endurance prospect’ in Botswana.

“Following the successful exploration vectoring results from the most recent round of drilling at KML’s Endurance Prospect and extensive geophysical depth-conductor modelling of potential copper-silver mineralisation trap sites, work on the planned 2,350m, 8 drill hole, programme has now commenced,” Metal Tiger chief exec Michael McNeilly says.

“We look forward to sharing further updates as the work progresses.”

$73.6m market cap MTR is down 9% over the past month.

Its investments – Sandfire, Cobre and Southern Gold – are -4%, -31% and +18% over the same period.

MTR share price chart

 

ITECH MINERALS (ASX:ITM) & LYKOS METALS (ASX:LYK)

These two explorers have made solid gains since listing on the ASX yesterday.

Lykos, the brainchild of Adriatic Metals (ASX:ADT)  cofounder and Aussie-Bosnian national Milos Bosnjakovic, listed on the ASX following an oversubbed $12m IPO.

Bosnjakovic sifted through about 50 projects in Bosnia & Herzegovina with Lykos managing director Mladen Stevanovic “and cherry-picked three of the best”.

These polymetallic projects – Sockovac, Sinjakovo, and Cajnice — have a long history of mineral discovery and extraction but remain almost completely unexplored since the early 1970s.

iTech raised $7m to explorer he Eyre Peninsula kaolin project in South Australia.

A review of historical data confirms that thick intervals of high purity kaolin are present from surface at the ‘Ethiopia’ prospect.

The review also found elevated levels of cerium in clay-rich intervals, an indicator that ionic adsorption clay rare earth elements may be present.

This type of mineralisation is rarely found outside of China and is generally considered to be some of the cheapest and most readily accessible sources of heavy rare earths.

Lykos and iTech are currently up 85% and 30%, respectively, on their IPO prices.

ITM, LYK share price charts

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