• Resampling of old drill core returns several remarkable hits — like 58m @ 2.73% copper — for Redbank Copper
  • Graphite play Triton joins the European Battery Alliance
  • Australian Mines (nickel, cobalt), Mandrake (nickel, copper, PGEs) and Queensland Pacific Mining (nickel) up on no news

Here are the biggest small cap resources movers in early trade, Thursday April 29.

 

TRITON MINERALS (ASX:TON)

The advanced graphite play has become the latest ASX stock to join the European Battery Alliance (EBA), which ostensibly provides access to stakeholders across the EU supply chain.

Membership also provides access to capital and business development opportunities.

Triton hopes to complete financing and kick off construction at its 60,000 tonnes per year Ancuabe graphite project in Mozambique this year.

“Triton’s graphite is ideally suited to the battery markets and it is fundamental that the company builds partnerships within Europe, a significant future market for electric vehicles,” interim boss Dave Edwards says.

“The EBA provides access to a network of more than 600 stakeholders from the public and private sectors covering the entire supply chain and provides the company with access to capital as well as business development opportunities.”

 

REDBANK COPPER (ASX:RCP)

What a great time to be in copper, with prices pushing through 10-year highs earlier this week.

The explorer – which is targeting big copper deposits in the Northern Territory’s McArthur River Basin — is up 120% since it was resurrected from ASX purgatory (aka suspension) September last year.

Resampling of 50-year-old drill core has returned several remarkable hits, like 58m @ 2.73% copper, 3m from surface.

Several of these copper intersections have been recorded at targets that will form part of Redbank’s exploration plans this year.

 

QUEENSLAND PACIFIC (ASX:QPM)

(Up on no news)

The battery-focused nickel company recently appointed veteran mining engineer Jim Simpson to the board as it advances the TECH project towards development.

Simpson is current exec director at silver project developer Peel Mining (ASX:PEX), which follows a stint at Aurelia Metals (ASX:AMI), which he grew from $20m minnow to $800m mid-tier gold and base metals miner.

QPM, which is knee-deep in a project Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) – the most advanced of the studies prior to final investment decision – is up +330% year to date.

 

MANDRAKE RESOURCES (ASX:MAN)

(Up on no news)

Drilling will kick off sometime this quarter at the highly prospective Newleyine PGE-Ni-Cu target, 30km from Chalice’s exciting Julimar discovery.

In March, Mandrake said it would be the first company to drill a Julimar-style EM target following the Chalice discovery in early 2020.

Drilling will test three bedrock anomalies that could be “the response of massive sulphides consistent with Julimar-style PGE-Ni-Cu mineralisation”.

Drilling is also due to start at the underexplored Berinka gold project in the NT sometime in April/May.

The stock is up 950% over the past year.

 

AUSTRALIAN MINES (ASX:AUZ)

Once a market darling, Australian Mines has – so far — struggled to regain traction alongside the wider battery metals cohort.

Its main focus is the development of the mammoth Sconi nickel-cobalt-scandium project in North Queensland.

Over the last quarter AUZ continued to progress negotiations on offtake from Sconi with a range of potential partners, including global car and battery manufacturers.

“Our potential offtake partners appear acutely aware that Sconi, when fully developed, will be a lowest cost-quartile producer of electric vehicle battery materials in the world, with a project life in excess of 30 years,” managing director Benjamin Bell says.

“Additionally, Sconi’s characteristics of having operations in the Tier 1 jurisdiction of Australia; a demonstrated production capability; a track record of creating quality battery materials and a fully auditable and ethical supply chain make the project even more attractive to our potential offtake partners.”