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Resources Top 5: A sensational ASX debut as lithium, rare earths explorers fire up
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- A fantastic ASX debut thus far for WA iron ore/ copper/ manganese explorer Pantera
- Lithium Energy almost has the approvals required to hit the ground at its ‘Solaroz’ lithium brines project in Argentina.
- Frontier (rare earths), Firefinch (gold, lithium) and American Rare Earths (rare earths) up on no news
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Thursday August 5.
PANTERA MINERALS (ASX:PFE)
It has been a fantastic ASX debut thus far for WA iron ore/ copper/ manganese explorer Pantera, which listed this morning at 11:30am EST.
Its cornerstone asset is the Yampi iron ore project just inland from the WA coast in the Kimberley, some 150km north of Derby.
The company raised $7m from investors at 20c at opened at 45c — an impressive 125% premium.
“Location, location, location… that’s what sets Yampi apart from other projects,” Pantera Minerals chief executive officer Matthew Hansen told Stockhead.
“The project is uniquely located, being right on the coast and less than 5km from a potential deep-water port location.”
The Buccaneer Archipelago which Yampi’s coastal locale straddles is also home to Mt Gibson Iron’s significant, high grade Koolan Island project and Pluton Resources’ Cockatoo Island project.
In the case of Mt Gibson, you’re talking a 30 million tonne iron ore reserve at 64% iron and resources of 68Mt at 63% iron, with 70Mt already mined.
LITHIUM ENERGY (ASX:LEL)
Lithium Energy almost has the approvals required to hit the ground at its ‘Solaroz’ lithium brines project in Argentina.
Upon approvals being received, the newly listed Strike Resources (ASX:SRK) spinout plans to undertake an extensive work program of geophysical surveys and drilling.
Solaroz is next door to some big players, including the current production assets of Orocobre (ASX:ORE) and the advanced lithium brine development project held by Lithium Americas Corporation (NYSE:LAC).
In June, Lithium Energy established a conceptual (theoretical, not real yet) exploration target of 1.5 to 8.7 million tonnes of contained Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE) based on a range of lithium concentrations of between circa 500 mg/L Lithium (Li) and 700 mg/L Li.
Lithium Energy is up 175% on its IPO price of 20c per share.
FRONTIER RESOURCES (ASX:FNT)
(Up on no news)
~$10m market cap Frontier is the latest ASX explorer to dip their toes into ionic clay (IAC) hosted rare earths after acquiring the ‘Murraydium’ project in South Australia.
IAC deposits – like the ones exploited in southern China — are some of the cheapest and most readily accessible sources of heavy rare earths.
Murraydium is in the same neighbourhood as fellow IAC play Australian Rare Earths (ASX:AR3), which is up 155% one month into listed life.
AMERICAN RARE EARTHS (ASX:ARR)
Today, it was announced that long time director Geoffrey Hill bought almost $50,000 worth of shares on market.
This followed a 117% boost to indicated resources at the flagship ‘La Paz’ rare earths project in Arizona yesterday.
Total resource tonnage increased 33.1% to 170.6 million tonnes, while the total rare earths grade increased 5.2% to 391ppm from 372ppm.
Mineralisation remains open, ARR says, “demonstrating the potential for La Paz to be one of the largest rare earths projects in North America”.
FIREFINCH (ASX:FFX)
(Up on no news)
With two very substantial strings in its bow – gold production from ‘Morila the Gorilla’ and near-term development of the Goulamina lithium project – Mali-based Firefinch is on a tear.
The $420m market cap stock is currently up ~145% year-to-date.
Gold-focussed Firefinch will spin out its lithium assets into a separately listed vehicle, which will team up with the world’s largest producer Ganfeng to develop “the world’s next lithium mine of scale” at Goulamina.
Ganfeng, which supplies tier 1 battery players such as BMW, LG Chem and Tesla, will invest $US130m in three tranches for its 50% share of the project.
These funds, together with up to US$US64 million in debt funding to be arranged by Ganfeng, are expected to fund the project into production.
