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Resources Top 5: A Vulcan Energy lookalike, tech-savvy copper developer, and Kuniko … again
Mining
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- Pan Asia hopes to follow in VUL’s footsteps, lodging 5 prospecting applications over the geothermal lithium-rich ‘Kata Thong’ project
- Hillgrove trials new tech “to extract high value zones of economic copper ore more quickly” at the Kanmantoo project
- Kuniko – a base metals spinout of lithium stock Vulcan Energy — is still up incredible 1,265% on its IPO price of 20c per share.
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday August 31.
PAN ASIA METALS (ASX:PAM)
‘Geothermal lithium’ – two words which helped turn former $8m market cap explorer Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL) into the popular $1.5bn project developer it is today.
Vulcan wants to produce a ‘carbon negative’ lithium product by pumping deep geothermal brines to surface, using the excess geothermal energy to power its lithium chemical process and export additional power to the grid.
Explorer Pan Asia is hoping to follow in VUL’s footsteps, lodging 5 prospecting applications over the lithium-rich ‘Kata Thong’ project in southern Thailand.
Two of the areas contain geothermal fields which are highly prospective for geothermal style lithium, Pan Asia says.
Kata Thong positions PAM as a potential low to zero carbon emitter via the use of geothermal energy and energy from the nearby 240MW Rajjaprabha hydroelectric power station, Managing Director Paul Lock says.
“The potential for a geothermal style lithium project is strong, with the underlying geothermal system similar to that of Cornish Lithium except that at Kata Thong the granite is exposed at surface with nearby geothermal discharges up to 78oC at surface and a hotter geothermal system modelled to depths down to 2km,” he says.
“We see this as complementary to the [flagship] ‘Reung Kiet’ lithium project where we anticipate estimating a maiden mineral resource in November and a Scoping Study soon after.”
The $10m market cap stock is up 20% over the past month.
EMPIRE RESOURCES (ASX:ERL)
(Up on no news)
Instead of regularly going to market to top up cash reserves – and diluting shareholders in the process – Empire’s investment portfolio ensures it remains well funded for exploration.
These investments include $3.4m worth of shares in miners Dacian Gold (ASX:DCN) (after selling $1.03m worth last quarter) and a royalty payment on gold produced from the Orminex (ASX:ONX) and Horizon Minerals (ASX:HRZ) ‘Penny’s Find’ gold mine joint venture.
Empire will get 5% of gold recovered up to 50,000oz and 2.5% on gold produced above that amount.
A decision to mine is due in the December quarter.
Then there’s Empire’s actual exploration, which is focused on the ‘Yuinmery’ gold-copper VMS project in WA.
2,474m of RC drilling was recently completed at Yuinmery, with results pending “at the end of the quarter”, Empire said July 19.
The $11m market cap stock is up 20% over the last month.
HILLGROVE RESOURCES (ASX:HGO)
The near-term producer is trialling new equipment “to extract high value zones of economic copper ore more quickly” at the Kanmantoo project in South Australia.
Just clap your eyes on this beast:
The South Aussie government awarded a $2m grant to Hillgrove to trial this new underground mining tech developed by earthmoving and mining equipment giant Komatsu.
“… the commercialisation of continuous mining technology has the potential to revolutionise underground mine development by making underground operations safer and more productive, whilst taking a significant step towards zero emission mining,” Hillgrove boss Lachlan Wallace says.
“The development of an underground decline and drill platforms represents an exciting milestone for the Kanmantoo Underground which ultimately brings forward the potential restart of copper production and further reduces what is already a relatively low-cost mine development.”
The $54m market cap stock is up 14% over the past month, and 90% year-to-date.
KUNIKO (ASX:KNI)
(Up on no news)
Punters are still waiting on the ‘dump’ part on this possible pump and dump.
The stock – a base metals spinout of lithium stock Vulcan Energy — is still up incredible 1,265% on its IPO price of 20c per share.
The stock addressed its use of a paid investor relations services provider and various “meme stock promoters” in response to a recent ASX query.
“The company notes that it has engaged a paid investor relations services provider, S3 Consortium Pty Ltd (S3), publishers of Next Investors as fully disclosed in the IPO Prospectus,” Kuniko says.
“S3’s sole services are to write articles based on its review of news publicly released by the company for distribution to its subscribers.”
“The company would like to note that it has no relationship whatsoever with the Telegram group referred to in the AFR news article, or any intraday or meme stock promoters and that it was not contacted by the AFR for comment.”
ENTERPRISE METALS (ASX:ENT)
(Up on no news)
Drill results are on their way, the company says.
Constellation Resources (ASX: CR1) owns 70 per cent of the 558km2 ‘Orpheus’ project in the Fraser Range, with Enterprise holding the balance.
Assay results are pending from an extensive aircore drilling program targeting the 3km-long Ni-Cu-Co-PGE ‘Eyre’ anomaly.
Drill assays are also pending from Enterprise’s ‘Murchison project’, 30km from IGO’s Nova mine.
Big miner Evolution (ASX:EVN) inked a earn-in joint venture agreement with Enterprise over the project on 1 June 2019.
Evolution can earn an 80% interest in the project by spending $6 million on exploration over a four-year period.
