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Mining
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday February 20.
OKR will raise $5.1m to fund its investment in uranium enrichment tech company Ubaryon, as well as advancing the Tallahassee, Maybell and Athabasca uranium exploration projects.
The placement to institutional and sophisticated investors will be undertaken at 15c per share; a small ~10% discount to the last traded price.
OKR director will also put some skin in the game to the tune of $129,000, subject to shareholder approval.
The cash will allow OKR to complete the recently announced $3.1m investment in private Aussie firm Ubaryon.
According to the World Nuclear Council, most of the about 500 commercial nuclear power reactors operating or under construction in the world today require uranium ‘enriched’ in the U-235 isotope for their fuel.
It is a $US6bn industry, and Russia owns a big chunk of it.
OKR says Ubayron’s next generation enrichment tech uses a unique process that does not require significant temperature or pressure and significantly reduces technical risk and cost.
Proceeds will also be used to advance the company’s portfolio of uranium assets in North America, where drilling is planned at three of the projects in 2023.
“The company looks forward to providing updates in the near term on high impact exploration drilling at its Newnham Lake and Perch projects in the Athabasca Basin, Canada with drilling expected to commence midyear,” it says.
The $33m capped stock is up 50% year-to-date.
Sprott-backed explorer TMR is pulling up more super high-grade gold in drilling at the Elizabeth project in British Columbia, Canada.
These latest results don’t hold a candle to the recent 28.5m at 28.1g/t hit (“one of the best intersections I have seen during a +30-year career,” said boss Jason Bahnsen), but they have uncovered a potentially new mineralised vein set.
“The final drilling results from the 2022 drilling program released today provide further evidence of the extension of the high-grade gold zone associated with the No. 9 Vein to over 250 metres and the Blue Vein to over 285 metres,” Bahnsen says.
“In addition, we are extremely pleased to announce the potential discovery of a new vein set located midway between the SW Vein and the West Vein evidenced by drill hole EZ-22-24 that intersected high-grade gold, 14.3g/t over 1.10 metres.”
The combined 315sqkm Blackdome-Elizabeth project is a high grade past producer.
The Blackdome mine, which produced ~230,000oz at 10.5g/t gold between 1985-1991, includes a fully permitted process plant and associated tailings storage facility.
Elizabeth, ~30km away, is relatively underexplored.
TMR says the high-grade quartz veins at Elizabeth show close geological similarities to the Bralorne-Pioneer system (~30km south), which was mined to a depth of 2,000m and produced more than 4Moz of gold from ~1900 to 1971.
TMR’s drilling program will culminate in a resource estimate in the current quarter.
The $16m capped explorer is up 15% year-to-date. It has $1.1m in the bank at the end of December.
(Up on no news)
LRS has enjoyed steady success at its Salinas lithium project in Brazil over the past couple of years, culminating in a maiden 13.3Mt @ 1.2% Li2O resource for the Colina deposit in December.
The explorer is already looking to build on that resource, with recent drilling at the Colina West prospect — 500m to the west of Colina — confirming the continuity of the thick high-grade spodumene pegmatites.
An eight-rig, 65,000m drilling campaign is planned for 2023 to fast-track resource growth, the company says.
The $285m capped stock is up 30% year-to-date. It had ~$27m in the bank at the end of December.
(Up on no news)
The $9m capped minnow is up 70% in 2023, thanks to a couple of North American rare earths and lithium acquisitions.
Last week, it became the latest in a growing list of ASX explorers to acquire a lithium project in the popular Canadian jurisdiction of James Bay, Quebec.
The Cyclone project is close to significant lithium discoveries at Patriot Battery Metals’ (ASX:PMT) Corvette project and Winsome Resources’ (ASX:WR1) Adina project.
There has been limited historical exploration for lithium at Cyclone, which is also prospective for massive nickel sulphides and orogenic style gold deposits.
The project is immediately adjacent to TSX-listed Sirios Resources’ Aquilon gold property, where drilling is hitting “gold grades that are among the highest ever intercepted in Quebec”, according to Sirios.
Highlights include 834.4 grams of gold per tonne over 1.71m including 3,527.4g/t over 0.40m.
MEG will jump straight into exploration once the deal completes, with a view to establishing drill targets for testing in 2023.
(Up on no news)
Latin Resources spinout SLM listed December 2021 following a $6m IPO, with a focus on three large-scale copper exploration projects in Chile and Peru.
Underwhelming initial exploration results and poor share price performance over the ensuing year culminated in a lithium pivot earlier this month.
The company is now acquiring 22 greenfields lithium exploration licences in Brazil in a similar geological setting to Latin’s Colina deposit, it says.
“Brazil is fast becoming a Tier 1 destination for hard rock lithium explorers and producers alike,” SLM CEO Jason Cubitt says.
“The value to be generated is significant in the short term through building an extensive portfolio of prospective lithium ground in the country to complement our copper exploration assets in Peru.
“Brazil is still very much in its infancy with lithium exploration and offers a junior explorer such as Solis an exceptional opportunity to discover a material asset.
“Having our largest shareholder, Latin Resources, in the country will expedite the commencement of exploration and building of the team needed to advance these projects.”
The dual listed CAD$7m stock has rebounded 75% year-to-date but is still down ~55% over the past 12 months. It has $2.1m in the bank.
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