• Andromeda recovers ground after poorly received project DFS sparked 50% fall in the share price
  • Cobre (copper), Gladiator (uranium), Enterprise (lithium), and Odessa (diamonds) up on no news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Friday April 8.

 

COBRE (ASX:CBE)

(Up on no news)

In 2020, this hard drilling explorer acquired a swathe of ground in the Kalahari Copper Belt (KCB) in Botswana.

The KCB is regarded as one of the most prospective areas globally for copper exploration, with a number of copper-silver deposits currently under development by Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) and also Cupric Canyon Capital.

If fact, CBE is right next door to SFR’s 60,000 tonnes per year Motheo copper mine, which is currently at the pointy end of construction.

CBE also holds a substantial 14.43% shareholding in newly listed Armada Metals (ASX:AMM), exposing them to any of AMM’s upside (and downside).

AMM has 2,991sqkm of ground in the Nyanga Province, Gabon which includes several drill-ready nickel-copper targets like ‘Libonga North’, ‘Libonga South’ and ‘Matchiti Central’.

With over US$10m spent on exploration to date, Armada plans to hit these targets hard with drilling over the next two years.

$15m market cap CBE is flat year-to-date. It had $3.8m in the bank at the end of December.

 

ODESSA MINERALS (ASX:ODE)

(Up on no news)

ODE, one of only three diamond companies on the ASX, relisted in January after raising $6 million through an IPO priced at 2c a share.

Odessa has a bunch of WA projects located between the historic Argyle and Ellendale diamond mines including ‘Aries’, which it calls “the largest and most diamondiferous kimberlite in WA”.

Geophysical data indicates a system 3km-5km long and 900m deep from surface that is “comparable to the footprint of the Argyle lamproite system”.

A drill program is planned to test diamond occurrences at surface and at depth.

The $5.6m market cap stock is down 15% year-to-date. It had $4.6m in the bank on listing.

 

ENTERPRISE METALS (ASX:ENT)

(Up on no news)

In Feb, ENT reported “elevated lithium results” in soil sampling at the Matheson pegmatite, part of the ‘Bullfinch North’ project in WA.

This peggie (lithium host rock) was first mapped in 1939 but gold has always been the focus of exploration in the area, ENT says.

Eleven of 16 shallow soil samples collected returned lithium values equal to or greater than 50ppm, ENT says. Four results were above 60ppm.

It is generally considered that +60ppm lithium in soils associated with LCT pegmatites is significant, it says.

A bigger sampling program is now being planned.

ENT, which holds an option to purchase 100% of Bullfinch North, is known as a project generator.

That means it partners with other (usually more cashed up) companies to help pay for exploration across its portfolio of projects — spreading the risk, and the reward.

Here’s why project generators are favoured by famous investor Rick Rule.

ENT currently has JVs with Constellation Resources (ASX:CR1) (nickel, copper, PGE, cobalt), and Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) (copper, zinc, gold), both in WA.

Earlier this week, CR1 started a 4 hole, 750m drilling program at the McPherson nickel-copper prospect (ENT free carried 30% interest) in the Fraser Range of WA.

$18m market cap ENT is up 180% year-to-date. It has about $2m in the bank.

 

ANDROMEDA METALS (ASX:ADN)

The former market darling has recovered some ground after a poorly received project DFS released earlier this week sparked a 50% fall in the share price.

Former market darling Andromeda Metals (ASX:ADN) was obliterated after a definitive feasibility study (DFS) — the most advanced of all studies — on the ‘Great White’ kaolin project in South Australia did not live up to expectations.

Its planned halloysite-kaolin products are to be used in high grade porcelain, ceramics, nanotechnology, hydrogen storage, carbon capture, with research ongoing into new applications like slow-release fertilisers and construction.

But internal rate of return, a measure of the profitability of a project, plummeted from 175% in the prefeasibility study (PFS) to 36% in the DFS.

Initial capital expenditure increased from $28m to $93.8m.

In a conference call Friday, ADN managing director James Marsh called the negative response a “misunderstanding in the market”.

Here’s how Marsh tackled some investor concerns over the DFS.

 

GLADIATOR RESOURCES (ASX:GLA)

(Up on no news)

GLA has two key uranium projects in Tanzania, Minjingu and Mkuju.

On March 11, it appointed a specialist mining team, MSA Group, to accelerate these projects.

The flagship Mkuju project includes the ‘Likuyu North’ deposit and uranium anomalies at Grand Central, Likuyu South and Likuyu North, the company says.

The main game now is updating the resource at Likuyu so it is JORC 2012 compliant – a must have for ASX listed explorers.

Additional targets will be ranked, prioritised, and then systematically explored by auger drilling trenching and drilling.

At Minjingu – which is also prospective for phosphate — a ‘pitting’ program to assist drill targeting is well advanced with 45 exploration pits completed to date.

The $15m market cap stock is down 20% year to date. It had $1.1m in the bank at the end of December.