Resources Top 5: Accidental gold hits are the best gold hits

Sierra Nevada strikes 26.7m in maiden drilling at New Pass
Kingwest Resources receives more high-grade drilling results from the Menzies Goldfield
Copper explorers Austral Resources and Hammer Metals up on no news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday December 13.

SIERRA NEVADA GOLD (ASX:SNX)

Goldie SNX listed on the ASX back in May, focused on building a pipeline of precious and base metal discoveries in Nevada, USA.

Its portfolio includes the Blackhawk polymetallic silver-gold epithermal discovery and the Blackhawk porphyry copper-gold discovery.

SNG also has the Warrior, New Pass and Colorback gold projects.

This morning the company hit 26.7m in maiden drilling at New Pass – an intersection 80m down dip beneath the deepest previously mined high-grade vein position the Superior Level 4 which itself is 90m below surface.

“The impressive first results attest to SNX’s belief that New Pass has the potential to host a significant high-grade gold vein system,” SNX says.

“The discovery of two additional veins by this first hole attests to the exploration opportunity of this remarkable project,” executive chairman Peter Moore says.

“We eagerly await further assay results which we expect in Q1 CY2023.”

KINGWEST RESOURCES (ASX:KWR)

A collection of first assays have been received from an infill drilling program at the Stirling and Pericles deposits within KWR’s wider Menzies Gold Project.

KWR executive chairman Greg Bittar says these results confirm the interpretation that the Menzies Project is “primarily a high-grade gold field.”

Standout hits at the previously unmined Stirling deposit include 1m at 108g/t gold from 36m, 5m at 8.49g/t gold from 42m including 1m at 36.69g/t gold from 42m, and 1m at 10g/t gold from 66m.

Bittar believes the development opportunities resulting from a recent independent review of the resources and historic drilling at the Stirling deposit are especially exciting considering its discovery was essentially accidental.

“…It was discovered high up in deep drill holes targeting Lady Shenton remnant resources – this highlights the extraordinary exploration potential across the whole field,” Bittar explains.

These results will now be used to further define the areas of high-grade gold mineralisation and support economic studies as the company works towards restarting mining evaluation.

AUSTRAL RESOURCES (ASX:AR1)

(Up on no news)

Austral’s Anthill Project area lies within the Lady Annie Project in Queensland and is the next mining center that Austral is moving towards production.

For AR1, the key area of focus in Austral’s CY23 copper oxide exploration program is located within the company’s Western Tenement Area (WTA) where rock chip sampling returned assay results of 16.05% copper.

Austral CEO Dan Jauncey says the team is determined to define additional copper oxide and sulphide resources that both extend and increase feed to the Mt Kelly plant and extend Austral’s mine life.

“This discovery process has seen a range of exploration activities progress over 2022 and will hopefully deliver some further outstanding exploration results over coming months,” he says.

HAMMER METALS (ASX:HMX)

(Up on no news)

Another copper explorer riding waves with no news, however on Monday the company announced the intersection of a broad copper sulphide systems at the Pearl prospect within the highly prospective Mt Isa copper-gold portfolio in Queensland.

Broad copper was intersected in most holes over a strike length of some 700m – standout hits including 68m at 0.29% copper and 0.06g/t gold from 31m, as well as 96m at 0.2% copper and 0.03g/t gold from 156m.

The stock is one of Barry Fitzgerald’s ‘cheap copper picks’ on the runway for a 2025 take off.

OD6 METALS (ASX:OD6)

(Up on no news)

Earlier this month OD6 intersected ‘excellent’ high-grade clay rare earth mineralisation with LARGE THICKNESS over extensive areas at its Splinter Rock Project northeast of Esperance in WA.

From the completed 179-hole program, OD6 said grades of up to 3,862ppm total rare earth oxides (TREO) were returned while two additional prospects were defined, in addition to the original four prospects previously reported.

“We are staggered with the scale implied by our exploration at Splinter Rock to date and the potential that is unfolding before us,” OD6 managing director Brett Hazeldean says.

“Our attention now turns to prioritising our six defined prospects for advancement in the next phase of exploration drilling.

“We are working towards delineation of a potential mineral resource estimate that optimises key economic factors such as metallurgical recoveries, acid consumption, depth of the shallow cover, stripping ratio, head grade and mineralised thickness.”