Resources Top 5: Battery metals, gold stocks shine as markets bounce all over the joint

Graphite from Comet’s ‘Springdale’ project perfect for lithium-ion batteries, tests show
Impact uncovers 11 nickel-copper-PGM and 11 lithium targets at Arkun project
Reedy Lagoon officially back in the lithium game

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday September 21.

COMET RESOURCES (ASX:CRL)

The graphite from Comet’s ‘Springdale’ project in WA is perfect for use in lithium-ion batteries, test work shows.

The graphite is also appropriate for ‘jet milling’ – a product which, like battery anode precursor material, can achieve premium pricing in graphite markets.

Additional test work will be conducted to optimise these “already impressive” initial test results, the company says.

“The results from the specialist test programs in Germany are fantastic,” managing director Matthew O’Kane says.

“They confirm graphite material from Springdale has met key battery anode grade benchmarks as well successfully producing high value jet milled product.”

The results greatly increase the prospects for future development of the project, he says.

“We will now assess future work programs, which include work to further optimise the processing of spherical graphite.”

The $16m market cap stock is up 40% over the past month.

IMPACT MINERALS (ASX:IPT)

Soil sampling has dialled in on 11 nickel-copper-PGM and 11 lithium targets at Impact’s Arkun project in WA.

The Arkun project is very poorly explored, with no drilling and no previous lithium exploration at all.

“To have identified 11 targets for nickel-copper-PGM is exciting enough in its own right — but recognising the potential for lithium pegmatites over a very large area is also a significant breakthrough for Impact,” managing director Dr Mike Jones says.

“The recent Julimar Ni-Cu-PGM discovery and also the presence of the Greenbushes lithium-tantalum mine attest to the potential of this part of Western Australia to host world class deposits across a wide variety of commodity metals.”

“Our new results show how poorly explored this region truly is.”

Based on the strength and scale of these new anomalies, Jones is confident that further work at Arkun “will generate numerous targets for drill testing early in 2022”.

$40m market cap IPT is up 50% over the past month.

FIRST AU (ASX:FAU)

(Up on no news)

1500m of diamond drilling will kick off within the next week at FAU’s ‘Snowstorm’ gold project in Victoria.

It will follow up maiden drilling earlier this year which indicated potential evidence of veins carrying gold over 30 g/t.

That’s high grade.

The overall program is expected to be completed over several months, with FAU “providing periodic updates as results begin to flow”.

“The previous drilling results combined with recent field-based exploration has provided First Au with the confidence to deliver strong results with the upcoming program,” the company said last week.

The $12m market cap stock is up 50% over the past month.

REEDY LAGOON (ASX:RLC)

Reedy Lagoon is officially back in the lithium game, a couple of years after mothballing its US brines projects due to poor sentiment and lack of suitable processing methods.

Both those issues are now solved, with lithium sentiment flying and the emergence of ‘Direct Lithium Extraction’ techniques championed by companies like Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL) and Lake Resources (ASX:LKE).

Unlike evaporation ponds, DLE pumps lithium-bearing ground water through a process plant, extracting the lithium while enabling the bulk of the water to be returned into the ground.

RLC is planning follow-up geophysical surveys, including shallow seismic reflection, to better define the lithium-brine targets at both its ‘Alkali Lake North’ and ‘Clayton Valley’ projects.

The $15m market cap stock is up 60% over the past month.

HANNANS (ASX:HNR)

(Up on no news)

This nickel explorer is up 320% since moving into lithium-ion battery recycling earlier this month.

Hannans, with tech developed by majority shareholder Neometals (ASX:NMT), wants to recover high purity metals from scrap and spent batteries in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland – the region with the highest electric vehicle (EV) penetration rates in the world.

Subject to securing a feedstock source, Hannans decision on Stage 1 plant locations are expected 1st Quarter next year.

A decision on a Stage 2 plant – which would refine mineral rich ‘black mass’ into high purity nickel, cobalt, lithium and manganese chemicals – is expected in the 2nd half of 2022.