Resources Top 5: A new lithium play, 2021’s hottest exploration IPO, and drilling the ‘Mulga Monster’

Riversgold picks up rock chips grading up to 2% lithium during an initial site visit to the ‘Tambourah’ project
Western Mines preps to drill nickel target called ‘Mulga Monster’
One of the hottest IPO’s of 2021, cobalt stock Kuniko, has continued to perform strongly in 2022

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday March 22.

RIVERSGOLD (ASX:RGL)

The explorer has picked up rock chips grading up to 2% lithium during an initial site visit to the ‘Tambourah’ project in the Pilbara region of WA.

Ore grade for hard rock mines is usually around 1-1.5% lithium.

It’s a solid start — these rock chips are from one 200m section of what is potentially a 26km-long mineralised corridor at Tambourah, RGL CEO Julian Ford says.

“We are fortunate to have access to a substantial database of modern geophysical data for the Tambourah Project and our strategy is to fast-track exploration by leveraging this knowledge base and the easy access afforded by the gazetted Marble Bar road,” he says.

“More material news flow is expected as the Company builds out its lithium strategy and I look forward to updating shareholders.”

A follow up reconnaissance trip will kick off next week, targeting along strike extension and additional priority target areas.

RGL only announced the acquisition of Tambourah earlier his month as part of an all share, 4 project deal with private co EV Minerals.

Tambourah is the project RGL seems most excited about.

“The exciting thing about these pegmatites [at Tambourah] are that they remain untested by drilling as historical exploration focused on gold and copper albeit never followed up,” Ford says.

The pivot to lithium from gold has paid off for RGL, which is now up 140% year-to-date.

The $18m market cap stock had $469,000 in the bank at the end of December, and recently launched a ~$2m cap raise at 1.7c per share.

Riversgold (ASX:RGL) share price today

WESTERN MINES GROUP (ASX:WMG)

(Up on no news)

Earlier this month WMG identified five major, potentially nickel-rich conductors at the flagship ‘Mulga Tank’ project.

These include the appropriately named ‘Mulga Monster’, which is 1km long and 1km wide.

Planning and logistical preparations are well underway for an initial 4,000-5,000m drilling program, the company said March 7.

“These geophysical anomalies haven’t been tested by historical drilling, whilst our geological and geochemical vectoring work, in parallel with the geophysical survey, further supports them as exciting drill targets,” WMG managing director Caedmon Marriott says.

“All preparations for an initial 10-12 hole diamond drilling program are well underway to drill test this project as soon as we can.”

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 $9m market cap stock is up 24% year-to-date. It had $4.5m in the bank at the end of December.

Western Mines Group (ASX:WMG) share price today

WESTAR RESOURCES (ASX:WSR)

(Up on no news)

This industrious WA gold-base metals explorer has drilled 18,814m across its suite of projects since IPOing in December 2020.

It highest priority is progressing ‘Gidgee North’, where the company is scheduled to commence a maiden drill campaign in the next week or so.

9 high-priority VMS targets (Cu-Zn-Pb) have been defined for drilling.

“These are simply exceptional VMS targets, resulting from diligent and systematic exploration at our Gidgee North Project,” WSR managing director Karl Jupp said late Feb.

“The cluster of high-priority targets at the Youno Downs Camp, along with additional blue-sky potential between the Breakaway Bore and Griffin prospects represents an exceptional and rare opportunity in the mature exploration environment of Western Australia.”

The $5m market cap stock is up 10% year-to-date. It had $2.2m in the bank at the end of December.

Westar Resources (ASX:WSR) share price today

TIGERS REALM COAL (ASX:TIG)

(Up on no news)

This small Russia-based coal producer has been hammered in 2022. Thanks Putin.

TIG owns a coal mine over in Russia’s cold far east, a long way geographically from the Ukrainian conflict.

It has enjoyed the advantage of being able to sell coal into the Chinese market, where met coal prices touched a head-spinning US$600/t at one-point last year after Australian exports were booted from the country.

But emerging concerns over the Ukrainian invasion and potential sanctions have weighed on Tigers Realm, sending it shares 30% lower year-to-date.

That loss comes despite TIG posting a 342% increase in after tax profits from a loss of $15.61m in 2020 to a $38m profit in 2021.

Earlier this month chairman Craig Wiggill issued a statement saying production was unaffected by the invasion, but the company’s new coal handling and process plant would likely be delayed due to overseas equipment and service providers’ concerns about travelling to Russia.

The $230m market cap stock had $US24m cash and no bank liabilities outstanding at the end of December.

Tigers Realm Coal (ASX:TIG) share price today

KUNIKO (ASX:KNI)

(Up on no news)

One of the hottest IPO’s of 2021, Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL) spinout KNI gained 325% on its first day, before peaking at a remarkable $3 per share shortly thereafter.

The cobalt-base metals explorer ended the year with a 480% gain, despite losing ground over the latter part of the year.

Why the manic gains? No one really knows, but its ability to preserve and build on its share price in 2022, sans FOMO, is a good sign going forward.

Earlier this month it received permission to drill the ‘Skuterud’ cobalt project in Norway, starting from the first week of May.

The 7-hole, 2,800-meter drilling campaign will hit three highly prospective targets, including two confident cobalt-copper mineralisation targets.

“With most of the world’s cobalt metal supply controlled by China and around 60% currently sourced from the Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”), along with Russia being the world’s second largest producer of cobalt, there is a prevailing threat to security of supply for European battery manufacturers,” KNI CEO Antony Beckmand says.

“The danger to EU industry posed by a reliance on non-domestic supplies has been laid bare with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In response, the EU announced plans for energy independence from Russia by 2027 and an acceleration of a transition to renewables.”

This will require more cobalt and other battery metals ethically sourced, responsibly developed and from a secure supply source in Europe, for Europe, Beckmand says.

“There are already a number of cobalt refineries in Scandinavia, but they will need a domestic supply of cobalt concentrate,” he says.

“Kuniko has an enormous opportunity with the Skuterud Cobalt Project in Norway, and we are delighted to have had a rapid positive response to our drilling permit application from the Norwegian Directorate of Mining.

“We have three strong targets and plan to develop this important project as fast as possible to help meet Europe’s growing need for a domestic supply of cobalt.”