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Resources Top 5: A ‘sensational’ rare earths discovery, African lithium, and GreenTech up 215% in 2 days
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- Caspin Resources makes probably “the first discovery of significant REE mineralisation in the West Musgrave province” of WA
- Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co finalises $2.5m investment in African lithium explorer Askari
- Minnow GreenTech up 215% in two days since reporting a 19m thick copper zone at Whundo project
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Thursday May 4.
CASPIN RESOURCES (ASX:CPN)
Another accidental rare earths discovery, this time from the veteran mine finders at CPN.
The find came from resampling core from a shallow 2022 aircore program testing a large copper-gold-molybdenum target at Duchess, part of the Mount Squires project.
CPN says this is probably “the first discovery of significant REE mineralisation in the West Musgrave Province” of WA.
Drill hole MSAC0141 is a standout intersection, returning 46m at 7,102ppm TREO with a higher-grade zone of 22m at 12,545ppm (or 1.25%) TREO. Heavy REEs are well represented.
Drill holes also returned significant levels of scandium, molybdenum, lead and zinc, CPN says.
This is early days, though. Only 37 samples from just four holes haver been assayed to date, with additional assays pending.
“This is a sensational discovery given the tiny scale of the assay program,” CPN boss Greg Miles says.
“The company has long recognised the conceptual potential for rare earth mineralisation at the Mount Squires Project, but given the more obvious prospectivity for nickel, copper and gold this potential had not been investigated until now.
“We’ve now made a significant rare earth discovery, of a relatively unique style in Australia, in a province with no previous systematic exploration for rare earths.
“We are barely past the start line on assessing this opportunity.”
An upcoming drill program will test for extensions and obtain samples for metallurgical test work.
CPN was spun out after parent company Cassini was bought by Oz Minerals (ASX:OZM) for the advanced West Musgrave nickel-copper project in 2020.
One of its biggest holders is Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) at 9.2%.
The $35m capped stock is still down 40% year-to-date. It completed a $3.8m placement in April.
ARK MINES (ASX:AHK)
(Up on no news)
This battler emerged from voluntary administration December 2021 with two priority projects in Queensland – ‘Mount Jess’ (copper and iron ore) and ‘Gunnawarra’ (nickel and cobalt).
In March it dipped its toe into rare earths, acquiring the fairly advanced ‘Sandy Mitchell’ project in North Queensland for just $200,000 cash.
A bunch of exploration work has already been done on the project by previous owners, which included state-owned Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC).
This exploration returned very high grades up to 18.4% TREO hosted in sands, which could be panned into a concentrate allowing “low-cost, fast start up, straightforward beneficiation by gravity processing”, AHK says.
The company, which sees opportunity for a quick, low capex development, is already applying for a mining licence.
Drilling is due to kick off this month.
Meanwhile, a maiden JORC resource was completed last quarter for Gunnawarra of 1.341 million tonnes at .53% Ni, 602,000 tonnes cobalt at .066% and 191,500 tonnes of copper at .054%.
The deposit remains open in numerous directions, with further drilling planned “in early 2023”.
The $10m capped stock is up 30% year-to-date. It had $1.8m in the bank at the end of March.
ASKARI RESOURCES (ASX:AS2)
$18bn global battery and cobalt stock Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co has finalised a $2.5m investment in African lithium explorer AS2.
Huayou will subscribe for an initial 4.5m shares at an issue price of $0.55 per share – a big premium to the current price, plus 1.5m options with an exercise price of $0.25/sh.
It intends to grow and then maintain its equity position in the company at 9.9%, AS2 says.
“The satisfaction of the conditions precedent mark the final step for the company before settlement can occur, which is expected to take place in the coming days,” AS2 exec Gino D’Anna says.
“The name Huayou is synonymous with the cobalt and lithium sector not only in China, but globally, and we look forward to welcoming Huayou to the register.”
The cash will be used to explore the flagship Uis lithium project in Namibia, where two separate RC drilling campaigns remain on track for completion in the June quarter.
First drill assays are due “shortly”, the company said late April.
The $25m capped stock is down 20% year-to-date.
COOLABAH METALS (ASX:CBH)
(Up on no news)
CBH has been bouncing around on volume since snapping up lithium ground early May in the popular James Bay region of Quebec, Canada.
The four properties are ~20km from Patriot Battery Metals’ (ASX:PMT, TSX-V:PMET) Corvette project, where PMT is drilling into remarkably thick high grades like 83.7m at 3.13% Li2O.
“We can already see in publicly available satellite images, structures that appear to be intrusive dykes about 10km along strike from Patriot’s Corvette Project,” CBH MD Cam Provost says.
“Early focus for Coolabah’s field work will be determining if these dykes contain lithium.”
CBH also scores a 70sqkm project in neighbouring Ontario as part of the deal, ~70km from Frontier Lithium’s (TSX-V:FL) 58.4Mt @ 1.50% Li2O project.
It will cost 10m CBH shares, plus 5m performance rights when the explorer picks up rock chip samples from any of the projects grading at least 1% Li2O.
That’s worth about $1.5m at the current share price.
CBH is now raising $1m via placement at 10c/sh, a small premium to the last traded price of 9.6c.
The former gold explorer listed in June 2022 with two projects in the Lachlan Fold Belt (NSW) and one in Mount Isa (QLD).
The $4.5m capped stock is up 40% year-to-date but remains substantially down on its listing price of 20c per share.
GREENTECH METALS (ASX:GRE)
(Up on no news)
GRE is up 215% in two days since reporting a 19m thick copper zone at the Austin prospect, part of the wider Whundo project in northern WA.
The whole intercept came back as 9m @ 0.81% Cu and 0.15% Zn from 225m, including:
▪ 15m@ 1% Cu from 226m, including
▪ 6m @ 2% Cu from 226m, including
▪ 1m @ 5.4% Cu from 226m
Whundo already has a combined established 6.19Mt @ 1.12% Cu, 1.04% Zn resource across the project area.
GRE says Austin is a separate mineralising event to the overlying Whundo East resource. Based on the footprint of the conductor, the company reckons Austin could potentially eclipse Whundo East in size.
This new hole also hit bonus gold (2m @ 1.35g/t Au from 178) and cobalt (6m @ 0.073% Co from 226m).
The Whundo and Austin deposits are shaping up to be a significant copper project in WA, says GRE exec Thomas Reddicliffe.
“I am confident we will be able to continue to expand the copper resource from our recently reported ~6Mt,” he says.
“The project also has the additional bonus of gold, cobalt and zinc which are key metals in high demand.”
Further results from the drill program will be reported shortly. Plans are also underway for a wider drilling program to increase the resource.
