Resources Top 5: Argentine-focused lithium stock surges on mining inventory build-out

GLN’s Hombre Muerto West (HMW) project now has a mining inventory totalling more than 2800t of lithium carbonate equivalent
Lowell Resources Fund stock pick USL up 13%
KLI, RNX, GRE up on news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Friday, July 12.

Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN)

GLN is continuing to make strides at its Hombre Muerto West (HMW) lithium brine project in Argentina with the build up of in situ mining inventory now totalling more than 2,800t of lithium carbonate equivalent in the ponds.

First production is now targeted for the second half of 2025 with development being carried out in four stages, the first targeting 5,400tpa LCE.

GLN has re-worked its construction activities at HMW to preserve cash with a view to procuring both a definitive sales agreement and an associated funding package for the project in the short term.

Killi Resources (ASX:KLI)

(Up on no news)

Led by the veteran ex-Cassini Resources team, Killi Resources (ASX:KLI) owns three ‘belt scale’ (large) copper-gold projects: West Tanami (WA), Ravenswood North and Mt Rawdon West (QLD).

Earlier this week KLI delivered assays from surface rock chip sampling at the Kaa target within Mt Rawdon with a standout result hitting 238 g/t gold and 54.5% copper.

The trend now covers 1.8km with high-grade silver and highly anomalous pathfinder elements of antimony, bismuth, mercury and tellurium also confirmed.

“It’s not every day you can walk up to an outcrop and have it return ~8oz of gold in assay,” KLI CEO Kathryn Cutler says.

“These results give us confidence to aggressively continue our exploration programs, with an IP survey and local scale surface mapping currently in progress.”

In November last year the $9.05m market cap stock sold the 103Mt Balfour manganese project to Black Canyon (ASX:BCA) for scrip, making it BCA’s second largest shareholder with a 4.38% stake. KLI retains copper rights over the project.

Unico Silver (ASX:USL)

(Up on no news)

Lowell Resources Fund chief investment officer John Forwood has USL on his radar, which boasts 92Moz of silver equivalent resources at Cerro Leon, up the road from AngloGold Ashanti’s 92Moz gold and 137oz silver Cerro Vanguardia mine in Argentina.

Back in May the $68.7m market cap stock released a 10-15Mt exploration target with a grade range of 175 – 266 g/t silver equivalent, in addition to its existing 16.47Mt resource.

A 10,000m drilling program is in the works for 2024-2025 to test prospects included within the exploration target and build out a globally relevant silver development project with resources beyond +150Moz silver equivalent.

Field activities are also anticipated for Q3 once final drill permits have been received.

Renegade Exploration (ASX:RNX)

(Up on no news)

RNX stumbled upon a large IOCG breccia system at its Mongoose Deeps prospect near the legendary mining town of Cloncurry during deep diamond drilling earlier at its Carpentaria joint venture in northwest QLD earlier this month.

After six months of geophysics, processing, modelling, mapping and planning the company hit the motherlode in 1,600m diamond hole.

A final depth of 1,612m was reached with similarities to Evolution Mining’s (ASX:EVN) Ernest Henry copper mine, only 35km north of Mongoose which boasts one of the largest copper reserves in Australia

The magnetic breccia zone encountered was significantly higher than the modelling suggested, which will enhance future exploration.

Around 400m of core will be cut and assayed for copper, gold and cobalt.

GreenTech Metals (ASX:GRE)

(Up on no news)

Battery minerals explorer GRE confirmed a 5.5km strong lithium trend at Kobe South this week during an extensive soil sampling program.

The Kobe South trend is a western extension of the very strong lithium soil footprint associated with the identified Osborne pegmatite cluster within the Ruth Well and Osborne JV tenements in WA’s Pilbara.

Those tenements are nestled near SQM and Hancock Prospecting’s Andover project, a Tier-1 discovery which transformed one-time exploration minnow Azure Minerals into a $1.7b takeover target this year.

GRE is progressing the Osborne JV with West Pilbara neighbour Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) with additional surveys planned to identify associated pegmatite bodies.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Galan Lithium, Renegade Exploration and GreenTech Metals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.