- EMetals unearths critical minerals including up to 26.67% niobium and 6.68% tantalum in rock chips at Beryl Well
- White Cliff intersects REE zones of up to 1,602ppm TREO at Hines Hill
- Norfolk Metals identifies additional copper at the Roger River project in Tasmania
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Monday January 16.
EMETALS (ASX:EMT)
EMT has unearthed “exceptional” high-grade rock chips at the Beryl Well Project in WA grading up to 26.67% niobium and 6.68% tantalum.
Validating the work completed by previous explorers, the company believes the niobium and tantalum rich material is related to iron mineralisation confined to structural infill zones.
Previous owner Venus Metals reported high-grade rock chip samples in 2016, including 42.8% niobium and 13.1% tantalum.
EMT shares have soared some 36% in morning trade on higher-than-normal volumes, while the stock is up a healthy 50% year to date.
WHITE CLIFF MINERALS (ASX:WCN)
A maiden 49 hole aircore drilling program at the Hines Hill rare earths project intersected zones of up to 1,602ppm TREO, with standout results including 25m at 837ppm TREO from 6m, including 3m at 1602ppm TREO from 6m.
“The Hines Hill project sits on salt affected broad acre farmland, which gives us the ability to work all year round; and with a land access agreement with the landowner, further encouraging results bodes well for progression of the project,” WCN’s Ed Mead says.
White Cliff has also increased the scale of the project to ~576km2 with further drilling planned for the quarter.
NORFOLK METALS (ASX:NFL)
Norfolk kicked off drilling on its third hole at the Roger River project in Tasmania earlier this month.
Today, the company says additional copper has been identified at target A1b, with hole 22RRD-003 presenting discrete zones of native copper from 102m to 137.80m.
“It is very pleasing to see more visual copper at our third drill hole in similar host rock to the first hole,” NFK executive chairman Ben Philips says.
“It is worth noting these holes are approximately 3km apart along the same interpreted fault splay from the main Roger River Fault structure.
“We are currently waiting for the copper screen analysis from the first hole.”
As Norfolk continues to investigate the occurrences of the copper mineralisation, the company may revert to additional geochemistry and geophysical exploration techniques prior to drilling the next target.
NORONEX (ASX:NRX)
(Up on no news)
In Namibia, NRX is exploring over 7,00mkm2 of the under-explored Kalahari Copper Belt which runs from central Namibia to northern Botswana.
The tenements contain ~300km of strike length targeting the key NPF-D’Kar formation contact point where most copper deposits occur on the Kalahari Copper Belt.
At the end of December 2022 the company started diamond drilling the southern limb of the Helm antiform within the Snowball joint venture.
NRX believes the 2,00m program will run into February.
PERPETUAL RESOURCES (ASX:PEC)
(Up on no news)
Silica-sand play PEC is making headway on multiple environmental approval pathways at the flagship Beharra project, south of Geraldton in WA.
On December 15, the company announced a mineral resource upgrade at Beharra.The company says that 90% of the updated MRE is comprised of high quality upper and lower white horizons, which are estimated to include 126.2 million tonnes at 98.6% SiO2, containing:
• Measured: 41.7 million tonnes at 98.7% SiO2, plus
• Indicated: 84.4 million tonnes at 98.6% SiO2.
The entire 137.8 million tonne MRE has been defined above the water table at Beharra, which PEC says “provides a true reflection of the mineable area of the deposit.”