Resources Top 5: Another lithium acquisition, Cannon goes off on $45m takeover offer

Advanced nickel explorer Cannon Resources receives $45m takeover offer
Nickel, lithium explorer St George Mining now up 250% in two months
Balkan Mining and Minerals continues Canadian lithium pivot with new acquisition

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday October 31.

CANNON RESOURCES (ASX:CNR)

The recently listed Rox Resources (ASX:RXL) nickel spinout received a takeover offer from private equity fund, Kinterra Battery Metals Mining.

The 45c all-cash offer – which has support from major shareholders — is a 43% premium to CNR’s last closing price and 58% premium to 30-day VWAP.

However, it is well below the +66c share price peak reached late last year.

The offer values the junior exploration company at about $45m.

The resource at CNR’s flagship Fisher East project, 145km northeast of Leinster in WA’s northeastern goldfields, has grown since listing from 78,000t to 134,000t tonnes of nickel grading 1.8%.

“The (growing) resource base is as big as you will find in a company with a $23 million market, and its proximity to the Leinster line of nickel projects owned by BHP, IGO, and others, gives it strategic appeal,” columnist Barry Fitz said earlier this month.

The deal needs 50.1% minimum acceptance from shareholders to go through.

WESTERN YILGARN (ASX:WYX)

(Up on no news)

The exploration stock formerly known as Pacific Bauxite is now looking for PGEs, gold, lithium, and nickel across a portfolio of six greenfields projects in WA.

It is also interested in rare earths, with the company saying last week that it was “carrying out due-diligence on what looks to be an excellent acquisition for the company which provides a firm foothold in the burgeoning REE segment”.

On 27th October, WYX secured an option until January 2023 to acquire a REE-manganese project in the Gascoyne region for $200,000.

“The company has commenced due diligence and will provide updates to shareholders in due course,” it says.

The $5.35m market cap stock was reinstated to the ASX in May following a $4.5m recapitalisation process.

ST GEORGE MINING (ASX:SGQ)

(Up on no news)

The $50m market cap explorer is now up 250% since announcing the “significant lithium potential” of Mt Alexander in early September.

Maiden drilling for a “large lithium system” is now underway, it said October 25.

The focus will be the Jailbreak prospect, where pegmatites have been mapped at surface up to 20m thick over a 1.7km by 1.4km area.

These outcrops are interpreted to have a similar geological setting to lithium-bearing pegmatites at Red Dirt Metals’ (ASX:RDT) nearby 12.7Mt Mt Ida project, SGQ says.

The combined RC/diamond program will continue though November, with 3,500m planned for this initial phase at Jailbreak.

“This initial phase of drilling will provide St George with an opportunity to potentially make a greenfields discovery within what is emerging as a significant lithium province,” SGQ chairman John Prineas says.

Assays will start trickling in within 4-6 weeks.

ALLUP SILICA (ASX:APS)

(Up on no news)

The market for silica sand — a raw material used in optical fibre, ceramics, refractory materials and glassmaking — is expected to go parabolic over the next few years.

APS listed May this year with a bunch of silica sand exploration projects in WA. It has a strategy of “multiple projects, multiple locations and multiple ports”.

This is based on the coordinated exploration and development of several projects, each with their own port options at Wyndham, Bunbury, Albany, Esperance and now Darwin.

“If successful, this multiple projects, multiple port strategy has the potential to reduce the risks associated with the numerous variables and approvals required to transition from exploration to commercial production,” the company says.

Its maiden play is the high purity Sparkler project near Albany, where a drilling campaign is planned for the current quarter.

It is anticipated that results may become available around the second quarter 2023.

APS also has drill programs teed up at Cabbage Spot in the Kimberley, and Pink Bark near Esperance.

The $3.5m market cap stock is down 50% on its IPO price of 20c per share.

BALKAN MINING AND MINERALS (ASX:BMM)

BMM has secured an option to buy another lithium project in Canada as it continues to diversify outside the troubled jurisdiction of Serbia.

The company deferred a drilling program at the flagship Rekovac project in Serbia after a copper producer operating in country had a worker seriously assaulted and equipment worth over EUR500,000 set on fire.

“Considering the above, the company decided to defer its planned drilling program and conduct an investigation including a full risk review and engaging with government and law enforcement agencies to assess its options moving forward,” it says.

Meanwhile, it is onwards and upwards to the hopefully-less-violent jurisdiction of Canada, where BMM is running the ruler over two lithium projects in Ontario – Gorge and Tango.

864ha Tango is underexplored, the company said today, with only five holes drilled from 1955 to 1957. A bulk sample was also taken from the same period weighing 213.2kg that returned 1.4% Li2O.

Due Diligence field work at Gorge – about 30km away — so far included picking up rocks, which returned grades of up to 6.80% Li2O.

Promising.