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Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Thursday September 2.
Is gold sentiment beginning to stir?
Punters are reacting positively to standout gold drilling results, with Great Boulder Resources the latest explorer to make substantial gains.
New assays from ‘Mulga Bill’ – part of the ‘Side Well’ project in WA –have returned “the highest grades yet recorded” including:
The bonanza zone remains open in all directions, the company says.
“Given its location, size and the results we’ve seen to date I think Mulga Bill has the potential to have a plus million-ounce gold endowment,” Great Boulder managing director Andrew Paterson says.
Assays for 9 holes are still to come from ‘Mulga Bill’, with results from the diamond and aircore drilling programs also outstanding.
“These holes were drilled at the start of July, indicating assay results are currently taking 8 weeks to report,” Paterson says.
“We have over 4,000 samples in the pipeline which we’ll be reporting as soon as results are available.”
The $47.5m market cap explorer is up 35% over the past month and 170% year-to-date.
The company is now “well underway” with project development work for the advanced ‘Anthony’ molybdenum deposit in Queensland.
Molybdenum is a certified ‘super mineral’.
It is used with steel to form ultra-high strength steel which, when combined with nickel, forms an alloy that’s highly resistant to both heat and corrosion.
It can also withstand extreme temperatures without significantly expanding or softening, making it useful in military armour, aircraft parts, electrical contacts, industrial motors, and supports for filaments in light bulbs.
Qx reckons there is opportunity to mine and process the previously overlooked 20 million tonne ‘oxide’ (near surface) resource at Anthony.
“Previous work focused on modelling of the higher-grade sulphide ore which is located 60 to 80m below surface with no consideration given to the very large oxide resource present from surface to 70m,” Qx director Roger Jackson says.
“…we believe [the oxide ore] can be mined and processed for potential customers in the chemical and agribusiness sectors.”
“The oxide zone is exposed at surface, and being weathered, it lends itself to low-cost mining and crushing.”
The company is also making solid headway on an up-scaled exploration program across its gold projects following a successful maiden ‘Lucky Break’ drill program.
Highlight hits included 2m at 9g/t, 4m from surface.
“More targets have been identified and we expect to commence work on site in the next two weeks prior to further drilling being undertaken,” Jackson says.
“An update will be provided shortly.”
The $8m market cap stock is up 30% over the past month but down 35% year-to-date.
Fin is expanding the scope of its recently acquired ‘North Onslow Solar Salt Project’ (NOSSP) to include potential green hydrogen production.
The first stage of the project being assessed envisages up to 1Mtpa of high-quality industrial salt production for an integrated chlor-alkali facility.
Surplus high quality industrial salt and SOP will be sold to domestic and international markets.
Sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) is the most valuable component of chlor-alkali production and is a key raw material used in the refining of alumina and the manufacture of paper, textiles, drinking water, soaps and detergents, Fin says.
“Chlorine and hydrogen are also produced via the chlor-alkali process and can be combined to produce hydrochloric acid, a key industrial chemical primarily used in metal refining including for critical minerals and steel production,” it says.
A second stage could significantly expanded renewable energy generation, incorporate desalination into the solar salt production process and produce additional green hydrogen on a larger scale.
“The medium to longer term opportunity is to supply a green hydrogen or derivative product, such as ammonia, once the market demand for such products has been established and it is economically viable,” Fin says.
The $24m market cap stock is up 17.5% over the past month and 57% year-to-date.
(Up on no news)
Of all the critical metals set to benefit from the oncoming flood of demand for electric vehicles, none are expected to get a bigger bump than manganese.
This $31m market cap manganese explorer is now up 45% since dusting off shallow, high-grade hits from old diamond core on Wednesday.
Historical core from the flagship ‘Oakover’ project in WA returned highlight hits like:
“The discovery of these untested, historical drill cores has been a real bonus for us,” Firebird managing director Peter Allen says.
“The results clearly support the previous exploration work carried out and demonstrate significant manganese intercepts that are typically higher than the inferred Mineral Resources estimate carried out previously.”
A 11,500m RC drill program at Oakover is well underway, with 2,928m completed.
Results will start trickling through over the coming weeks, the company says.
(Up on no news)
Exploration continues to gather momentum across several targets in three highly-endowed regions – Julimar (WA), the Lachlan Fold Belt (NSW) and the Alligator Rivers Uranium Province (NT).
The industrious, well-funded explorer is planning a RC drilling campaign at the ‘Sovereign’ nickel-copper-PGE project – right down the road from Chalice’s (ASX:CHN) world class Julimar discovery – in the coming months.
Drilling is also in progress at the ‘Wilga Downs’ gold-base metal project in the Lachlan Fold of NSW, with results expected very soon.
At the ‘Nabarlek’ project – with the Alligator Rivers Uranium Province – a project-wide targeting exercise and field work is underway on multiple prospects.
The $90m market cap stock is up 15% over the past month and 20% year-to-date.
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