Resources Top 5: Arrow pivots to West Africa for iron ore while copper news sends these explorers spinning

• AMD will divest its Strickland copper-gold project to focus on West African assets, including its newly acquired iron ore project
• RRR discovers a major new anomaly directly beneath Dianne
• CCV is up on no news, but yesterday’s PFS paints a promising copper picture 

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Wednesday July 13. 

ARROW MINERALS (ASX:AMD)

AMD is the resources champion this morning on news it will divest the Strickland copper-gold project in WA to Dreadnought Resources (ASX:DRE) to focus on its West African assets and it’s picking up the Simandou North iron ore project in Guinea.

The Simandou North Iron Project is an exceptional early-stage opportunity, one that provides Arrow with access to the premium iron belt in West Africa at a time where significant infrastructural improvements are underway.

As Stockheader Emma Davies writes, the project lies at the northern end of the Simandou Range and forms an extension of the stratigraphy that hosts one of the largest undeveloped high-grade iron deposits in the world, including Rio Tinto’s (ASX:RIO) Simandou Project with a total measured, indicated and inferred mineral resource estimate of 2 billion tonnes grading 65.5% iron.

“We are excited to be able to provide shareholders with exposure to this extraordinary opportunity,” AMD managing director Hugh Bresser says.

“Global demand for high-grade iron ore continues to grow and the Simandou Range hosts the world’s largest undeveloped high-grade iron deposits.”

REVOLVER RESOURCES (ASX:RRR)

Revolver is riding high after making a new anomaly discovery directly beneath its high-grade massive sulphide copper ore body at the Dianne project in Far North Queensland’s Hodgkinson Province.

A recently completed nine-hole downhole and seven-line fixed loop surface electromagnetic program in the immediate vicinity of the existing Dianne pit now provides support for the potential of the deeper conductive anomaly.

RRR managing director Pat Williams says modern exploration is yielding some ‘remarkable’ results as the ASX-lister continues to examine around the existing Dianne pit for upside potential.

“We are building on the geological knowledge obtained from the Phase-1 drill program by adding incremental state-of-the-art exploration activities,” he says.

“We are responding to these results by prioritising additional new work now with a view to defining priority drill targets into this anomaly in the next round of drilling due to commence in coming months.”

Revolver is well-funded with more than $8 million in cash to prioritise follow-up work associated with this anomaly.

CARAVEL MINERALS (ASX:CVV)

(Up on no news)

CVV is making some gains on no ASX news today, although yesterday the copper-focused company released a landmark pre-feasibility study on its 2.84Mt Caravel project near Wongan Hills in the WA Wheatbelt.

It promises to be one of the most advanced bulk, low grade copper mines in the world, leveraging technology and its location in the world’s best mining jurisdiction to deliver a key source for the metal dubbed “the new oil” over a long initial life of 28 years.

Key results from detailed technical, environmental, and commercial studies stack up pretty nicely for the future mining operation, especially in a forecast supply gap that could hit 4-10Mt by the 2030s as copper demand increases from ~25Mt to more than 30Mt annually by the end of the decade.

Caravel will boast output of ~62,000t of copper in concentrate, a scale only sparingly seen in mines outside of South America at a C1 operating cost of just US$1.72/lb and AISC of US$2.55/lb.

At an average copper price of US$4/lb that would generate over $17.5 billion in revenue across its near three-decade life of mine and net cash flow of $4.62b, with under a seven-year capital payback, $1.1b pre-tax NPV and internal rate of return of 14.7%.

STELLAR RESOURCES (ASX:SRZ)

Tin prices reached record highs back in March when they hit US$48,650/t before retracting back down around the US$43,000/t mark– a near tripling over the past two years.

Tasmania-focused tin explorer SRZ has released some ‘outstanding’ results this morning from infill holes at the company’s Severn prospect within the flagship Heemskirk Tin Project.

Drill hole ZS148 – the first infill hole completed this year – returned the second-best intersection ever recorded at Severn hitting 34.9m at 1.01% tin from 333m, including 8.6m at 1.66% tin from 333m and 12.7m at 1.19% tin from 355.3m.

SRZ says this intersection is significantly thicker than the currently defined mineral resource interpretation and further delineates a northerly plunging high tin grade in the northern part of the Severn deposit, which will be targeted down-plunge by further drilling.

“The Phase 2A drill program is progressing well, with all results expected to be incorporated into the mineral resource update in October in preparation for a scoping study update in November,” executive director Gary Fietz says.

RIMFIRE PACIFIC MINING (ASX:RIM)

This ~$23.8m market cap company says it will regain full control of the Broken Hill Cobalt Project following notice from Perilya – wholly owned subsidiary of China’s Zhongjin Lingnan Mining – of its intention to withdraw from the Windy Ridge joint venture.

Perilya’s withdrawal will become effective upon fulfilling its rehabilitation obligations during the September quarter, meaning it will hold 100% of the project.

The Broken Hill Cobalt Project is prospective for the discovery of economic critical minerals such as cobalt with several priority targets already identified including the Railway Extension target, which lies directly along strike from Cobalt Blue Holdings’ (ASX:COB) Railway cobalt deposit.

RIM is currently pursuing regulatory approvals to enable commencement of exploration activities on the project.