Resources Top 5: Bonus lithium confirmed!

Sampling at Corazon’s Miriam nickel project in WA returns high grade lithium
Many Peaks Gold to acquire high grade Canadian rare earths project
Prospech picks up rocks containing up to 4.5% copper, 1785ppm cobalt and 796g/t silver at historical project in Slovakia

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday January 17.

CORAZON MINING (ASX:CZN)

CZN says sampling of recently discovered pegmatite outcrops at the Miriam nickel project in WA have returned “high concentrations of weathered spodumene”.

Lab analysis confirmed the presence of lithium and validated the company’s initial findings, including high grade values of between 1.01% and 1.85% Li2O.

Miriam, which is in the process of being granted, hosts the undeveloped Miriam nickel-sulphide deposit discovered in 1969.

Here, historical drilling defined a ‘core’ deposit 150m long and up to 300m deep, with intercepts including 9.6m @ 5.60% nickel.

The project is ~10km from Coolgardie on the same ultramafic trend as Auroch Minerals’ (ASX AOU) Nepean nickel deposit, CZN says.

“The company plans to undertake detailed exploration to confirm the extent of the lithium mineralisation within the project area, in tandem with the aggressive nickel sulphide exploration program previously proposed for the Miriam nickel-sulphide deposit,” CZN says.

“It is proposed this work will include the testing of unweathered pegmatite(s) with shallow drilling.”

CZN is hitting 2023 at pace.

In December, drilling kicked off at the flagship Lynn Lake nickel-copper-cobalt sulphide project in Canada to expand the already substantial 16.3Mt resource (116,800t nickel, 54,300t copper, 5300t cobalt).

Drill planning is also underway at the Mt Gilmore copper-gold porphyry project in NSW, which also hosts a unique high-grade cobalt-dominant sulphide deposit called Cobalt Ridge.

The $17m capped stock is up 45% in early trade, on larger than normal volumes. It had a very handy $6.1m in the bank at the end of September.

MANY PEAKS GOLD (ASX:MPG)

MPG might be eyeing a name change after acquiring a Canadian rare earths project with up to 9.3% total rare earth oxide (TREO) assay results, at surface.

The explorer – which listed on the ASX March last year with a bunch of Queensland copper-gold projects – says the Odyssey project is host to extensive, untested, and drill-ready high-grade REE occurrences.

Initial work at Odyssey will include sampling to dial in on drilling targets.

“The opportunity identified by MPG to diversify into the critical minerals sector has been secured as part of the company’s ongoing business development activity, focused on delivering future growth by generating a pipeline of projects,” exec chairman Travis Schwertfeger says.

“Our board and management team has significant North American operational and technical experience providing strong synergies for advancing projects in the Tier 1 jurisdictions of both Queensland and Labrador.

“Our team will continue working towards generating depth and diversity for a portfolio of mineral exploration assets to underpin growth and value add to the Company through cost effective mineral exploration and discovery.”

The $10m market cap stock is up 50% on its IPO price of 20c per share. It has about $4m in the bank.

INDUSTRIAL MINERALS (ASX:IND)

(Up on no news)

ND’s portfolio of silica (high purity) sand projects in WA has grown substantially since it listed on the ASX mid 2021.

The most advanced is ‘Stockyard’, where drilling was completed in December to increase the existing 9.6 million tonnes at 98.9% SiO2 resource.

Around the same time exploration drilling kicked off at the Bookara project, while early stage soil sampling work at the Mindarra project returned “exceptional” results including 99.6% SiO2.

“We are very pleased to be progressing resource definition activities at Stockyard, while also advancing exploration and reconnaissance programs at our other high priority projects,” IND managing director Jeff Sweet said December 13.

“The planned addition and upgrade of resources at Stockyard will feed into Feasibility Studies currently underway, while the discovery of low-iron high purity silica sand at Mindarra has added another compelling project to IND’s development pipeline.”

The $12m capped stock is up 65% over the past six months. It had $42.7m in the bank at the end of September.

PROSPECH (ASX:PRS)

The small explorer has picked up rocks containing up to 4.5% copper, 1785ppm cobalt and 796g/t silver from spoil dumps around the historical Svatnodusa mine workings, part of the recently acquired Kolba project in Slovakia.

Historic production at Kolba graded between 2% and 17% copper up until the 1850s, the company says.

Together with a soil sampling program, these new results have extended the target area – which has never been drilled — to 1.8km and counting.

A drilling program will kick off soon.

“Surface sampling is now complete prior to drill planning of this exciting high grade copper-cobalt-silver-nickel target,” PRS managing director Jason Beckton says.

“We have completed 3D collation of historic workings and preparing for drilling in early 2023.

“The Kolba prospect and related Svatodusna prospect present drill targets of historically mined, yet never drilled, critical raw material systems.”

The $3m market cap stock is up 65% over the past month, but down 85% on its December 2020 listing price of 20c per share. It had just $452,000 in the bank at the end of September.

TOUBANI RESOURCES (ASX:TRE)

The Canadian explorer dual-listed on the ASX late November last year with the advanced 3.1Moz Kobada gold project in West Africa.

A feasibility study on the multi-million project in Mali outlined a 100,000oz per annum operation over the first 10 years, delivering a pre-tax NPV of $US506m and an IRR of 45%.

NPV and IRR are a measure of a project’s potential profitability; the higher they are above zero, the better.

+10,000m of drilling kicked off in December to build on the existing resource.