• Carnaby’s Nil Desperandum copper prospect seems to be getting “bigger and better” at depth
  • Consolidated Zinc signs offtake for lead concentrates at its Plomosas Zinc Project
  • Zinc play Gibb River Diamonds up on no news 

Here are the biggest small cap winners in early trade, Friday December 17.

 

CARNABY RESOURCES (ASX:CNB)

Carnaby has made what has been described as a “spectacular” copper discovery at the Nil Desperandum prospect, part of the Greater Duchess  project in Queensland.

In its first drill hole testing the ‘NLIP4’  anomaly CNB hit 34m of copper sulphide, including a 24m zone of mostly semi massive copper sulphide.

The high-grade copper intersection in NLDD044 remains completely open at depth and along strike to the southwest, where the plunge of the mineralisation appears to be flattening. Great news.

Managing director Rob Watkins says: “The deposit appears to be getting bigger and better at depth and we are now fast-tracking further IP geophysical surveys to help guide a follow-up drilling program which will commence in Q1 2022.”

The $46m market cap company is up ~40% over the past month. It had $5.2m in the bank at the end of September.

CONSOLIDATED ZINC (ASX:CZL)

This junior zinc play has inked an offtake agreement for the sale of lead concentrates from its Plomosas mine in Mexico to Latin-American company Metco Trading.

Some good news for the company, which recently reported a security incident at the mine.

“A group of armed bandits entered the Plomosas mine, taking the security guard and employees at Plomosas captive and locking them in a sea container,” CZL announced November 22.

“The armed bandits stole approximately 90 tonnes of zinc and lead concentrates valued at ~US$90,000. The Company continues to review the impacts of the theft, which will include a deferral of plant upgrade capital expenditures of up to US$90,000 planned for implementation during Q4, 2021 until Q1, 2022.”

The company said it sold 1,728t of zinc concentrate and 430t of lead concentrate during the September quarter.

The $9m market cap stock is up 7% over the past month. It had $380,000 in the bank at the end of September.

GIBB RIVER DIAMONDS (ASX:GIB)

(Up on no news)

GIB  explores for  gold, manganese, iron and uranium.

Shares are up 21.3% at the time of writing on no news however back in October it made a new zinc-lead discovery at the Iroquois Project (80% Strickland; 20% Gibb River).

The project is right next door to Rumble Resources’ (ASX:RTR) company making ‘Chinook’ zinc-lead-silver deposit in WA.

At the time Strickland said all five holes at the ‘Iroquois’ target hit visual zinc-lead mineralisation.

Highlights include 23m at 5.5% zinc + lead (combined) from 90m depth, including 14m at 4.5% zinc from 108m and 9m at 7% zinc + lead from 135m.

Gibb’s most recent news, however, came at the end of November in regards to the completion of phase-6 aircore drilling at the Edjudina Gold Project in Western Australia.

 

BERKELEY ENERGIA (ASX:BKY)

(Up on no news)

BKY is a uranium company trying to bring the troubled Salamanca Project in western Spain into production. It has been on a run of late on no news, up 47% over the past month.

In late November BKY received formal notification that construction of the uranium concentrate plant as a radioactive facility had been rejected. It plans to appeal.

Last quarter, BKY also kicked off a comprehensive review of known lithium and other battery metals occurrences in Spain and Portugal, “with a view to generating new exploration targets and opportunities in the battery and critical metals sectors”.

With $80m in the bank at the end of September, the $84m market cap stock certainly has the cash on hand to complete a solid acquisition or two.

 

AFRICAN GOLD (ASX:A1G)

(Up on no news)

A1G has projects in Cote d’Ivoire and Mali and back in January high profile investor Tolga said the stock was worth a closer look.

Earlier this month the company hit 12m at 4.48 g/t gold from 38m at the Pranoi prospect within its Didievi Gold Project and made a new gold discovery at GCH2.

Drilling confirmed a series of stacked north striking, sub parallel, mineralised zones with a moderate west dip 12 km to the north of Blaffo Gueto Main.

CEO Glen Edwards said while the shallow historical drilling returned anomalism over more than a kilometre of strike, there still remained at least another 7 targets waiting to be tested.

“It is early days but geology, alteration, structure and grade observed at GCH2 suggest potential to deliver,” he said.