Resources Top 5: Canadian copper discoveries and the Cadillac of lithium acquisitions

Golden State Mining gets its game face on in hunt for Pilbara lithium
American West Metals has made a copper discovery in Canada
Viridis Mining and Minerals still riding high on the back of its Brazilian rare earths acquisition news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Wednesday August 2.

GOLDEN STATE MINING (ASX:GSM)

The WA explorer has confirmed an “aggressive” RC drilling campaign is underway at the Nomad lithium prospect, part of the Yule project in the Pilbara.

The company says that the drilling (up to 2,000m) follows encouraging detailed geophysical surveys.

Furthermore, the company also provided an update on recently completed magnetic and ground gravity surveys, which highlighted significant pegmatite targets. Pegmatites are rocks that can contain lithium.

“Aeromagnetic surveys and a detailed ground gravity survey at Nomad have provided us with exciting lithium targets,” Golden State managing director Michael Moore says.

“The Pilbara region’s Mallina Basin continues to grow from strength to strength for its world class lithium prospectivity and Golden State Mining is glad to have its skin in the game in one of Western Australia’s most exciting jurisdictions with exposure to the world’s critical, battery minerals industry.”

AMERICAN WEST METALS (ASX:AW1)

The $92m-capped copper hunter has revealed a “major discovery” at the Storm project in Canada.

Diamond drilling of a large gravity target has intersected thick intervals of copper sulphides, reports the company.

The two diamond drill holes were punched in 680m apart — the continuity of the mineralised horizon and the size of the gravity anomaly,>5km long and up to 1km wide, suggests that drilling has potentially identified a very large copper deposit, it says.

Assays are pending.

“We are very excited to announce that the diamond drilling has had immediate success and produced spectacular results confirming the presence of a major copper system within the Storm Project,” American West Metals MD Dave O’Neill says.

“These outstanding results are the product of systematic and persistent exploration, and further highlight the quality and huge exploration potential of the landholding.”

OLYMPIO METALS (ASX:OLY)

Olympio has acquired a lithium project in Canada, as (kinda) predicted by Stockhead last week.

We said it would be in James Bay, but the Cadillac project is a touch further south in the rapidly emerging Cadillac-Pontiac lithium camp in Quebec.

“Olympio was attracted to the Cadillac project not only because of the outcropping spodumene-bearing pegmatites at surface, but more importantly in the drilling completed and reported by [TSXV-listed] Vision Lithium,” managing director Sean Delaney says.

“The lithium grades at surface from the channel sampling and in the drill core at depth shows the project has potential for bulk tonnage spodumene mineralisation.”

First pass drilling by Vision returned grades up to 3.14% Li2O.

NEX METALS EXPLORATION (ASX:NME)

A quarterly activities report has been released into the wild from another WA explorer, minnow Nex Metals.

The updates include:

• Ongoing discussions regarding processing of tailings and the establishment of a processing facility at Kookynie.

• An adjourned Warden’s Court decision regarding a case surrounding long-running applications for forfeiture on Yundamindera tenements. This is a case that stems back to 2018, which Nex is still battling to move past.

• Another legal matter – Supreme Court action regarding a joint venture costs claim by Metalicity (ASX:MCT) subsidiary Kym Mining, which is seeking $1.28m. Conferral meetings between Nex and Kym are ongoing.

Guess that’s some sort of clarity/update for investors, at the very least.

VIRIDIS MINING AND MINERALS (ASX:VNM)

Last but not least, Viridis is still riding high on its Brazilian rare earths grab, which hit our headlines yesterday.

Quick recap. That was/is regarding the company’s acquisition a significant ionic clay (IAC) rare earths deposit, located in the Poços De Caldas Alkaline Complex, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

The company has entered into a binding agreement to acquire 100% of the rights to the REEs comprising the Colossus rare earth project, consisting of 41 Licenses (including 2 Mining Licenses) covering 56km2 “within South America’s largest known alkaline complex”.

There are no further official updates from the company today, other than a notice of change of interests of a substantial holder, Bilal Ahmad.