5EA believes it could be the first western company outside RIO to supply boric acid. Pic: Getty Images
Resources Top 5: Boric acid, gold and Greenland round out the year’s news
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- Boric acid would-be-producer 5EA shakes off a speeding ticket
- Copper-zinc, gold and flash joule heating plays see no-news price moves
- Energy Transition Minerals among no-news gainers
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Tuesday, December 31. Prices accurate at time of writing.
5E Advanced Materials (ASX:5EA)
5EA has been hit with a speeding ticket today, to which it noted there was nothing to report.
The company is an interesting play, promising to become the first western company outside Rio Tinto to supply boric acid, an important chemical in fertilisers, smartphones and renewables among other things.
Aside from Rio, which supplies around 30% of global demand from its operations in California’s Mojave Desert, the bulk of supply globally comes from Eti Maden in Turkey.
Its Fort Cady complex in California has delivered its first truckload now of ‘boric acid super sacks’ to a US customer.
Last month the company announced a change in scope to include production of calcium chloride, a by-product that could reduce capex in the mine’s first commercial phase by 15%.
Another $2.2m of cost optimisations are expected to be made next year.
The cost savings are welcome after the company was forced to restructure its lending arrangements last year and announced the resignation of former CEO Susan Brennan in June.
5EA was in the process of negotiating contracts for 25-50% of initial boric acid production from the mine’s first phase.
5EA share price today:
Alvo Minerals (ASX:ALV)
(Up on no news)
Alvo is hunting high-grade copper and zinc at its 7.6Mt at 2% copper equivalent Palma copper-zinc volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) project in Brazil.
A resource update in July estimated the project contains more than 150,000 copper equivalent tonnes.
The update lifted the indicated resources at the C1 and C3 deposits to 3.3Mt at 2.3% copper equivalent or 6.9% zinc equivalent (1% copper, 4% zinc, 0.4% lead, 14g/t silver and 0.03g/t gold).
It also included a maiden resource for the newly discovered C4 deposit of 1.5Mt at 1.8% copper equivalent or 5.5% zinc equivalent (0.2%, 3.3% zinc, 1.3% lead, 28g/t silver and 0.03g/t gold).
The company says the updated resource demonstrates the potential for Palma to emerge as a globally significant volcanogenic massive sulphide district.
Among the major types of copper deposits, VMS accumulations tend to be smaller in tonnage but far higher in grade than bulkier porphyry and iron-oxide copper-gold deposits, and typically have significant base and precious metal by-product credits like zinc, lead, silver and gold.
While diamond drilling is ongoing at Palma, Alvo is also exploring for Rare Earth Elements (REE) and in October reported ionic clays were confirmed at its Ipora project, also in Brazil.
MTM Critical Metals (ASX:MTM)
(Up on no news)
MTM shares hit a fresh high of 24c last week, hitting a 160% year to date for the $92 million capped junior which has surged since it began promoting a minerals processing technology called flash joule heating.
Developed at Rice University in Houston, Texas, the technology is being assessed for its capacity to extract critical minerals from waste including lithium ion batteries, e-waste, coal fly ash and bauxite revenue.
But interest has really spiked since a MoU with New York-listed Indium Corporation in November, that would see it use the tech to process gallium, indium and germanium from scrap.
The big end of town piled in this week, with Pengana Capital Group cornerstoning a $7.5 million, nil-discount raising to instos with a $4m investment.
Jeremy Bond’s Terra Capital also upped its substantial stake in the equity deal.
MTM also announced this month its listing on the OTCQB under the ticker MTMCF.
READ: MTM raises $7.5m from leading institutions to commercialise gallium tech
Peregrine Gold (ASX:PGD)
(Up on no news)
Peregrine, chaired by former Azure Minerals chair Brian Thomas and led by technical director George Merhi, who spent 15+ years as exploration manager for Mark Creasy’s Creasy Group, is also up on no news.
Notably, the company’s largest investor is billionaire prospector Creasy himself, who holds over 11%.
At the Newman gold project the company is chasing a major >1Moz gold discovery, and has been drilling for the past three years over 2000km2 of tenements not far from Capricorn Metals’ Karlawinda gold project.
So far, the Tin Can and Tin Can West discoveries are looking promising, with the later returning 4m at 9g/t Au earlier this year.
The company is also looking for Hemi-style gold at the Mallina project and lithium at the Pilgangoora North project, which is adjacent to and along strike from Pilbara Minerals’ (ASX:PLS) Pilgangoora project.
Energy Transition Minerals (ASX:ETM)
(Up on no news)
You may recall this company was previously Greenland Minerals Limited (ASX:GGG). It has a new, SEO friendly name, but the project hasn’t changed.
The would-be-developer still holds one of the world’s largest under-developed REE-U deposits (11.1 million tonnes of rare earth oxide, 593 million pounds U3O8), the giant Kvanefjeld in southern Greenland, which could supply 15% of the world’s REE requirements and 100% of the EU’s requirements.
The company completed a fairly compelling feasibility study back in 2015, however, the Greenland government has refused its application for an exploitation license after passing the Uranium Act in 2021 which prohibits exploration for or production of uranium above a 100ppm threshold – and Kvanefjeld hosts over 300ppm.
The company commenced arbitration after submitting an alternative exploitation licence application that would have excluded the extraction of uranium and other radioactive elements, which the government also rejected.
Since the board is of the view that getting Kvanefjeld into production is of strategic importance, ETM filed statement of claim with the Arbitral Tribunal seated in Copenhagen against the governments of Greenland and Denmark in 2023.
This year, the company also initiated parallel proceedings against the governments in the Greenlandic and Danish Courts to protect its interests.
The Arbitral Tribunal has ordered that the arbitration proceedings be “bifurcated” (subject to a preliminary phase to determine the jurisdiction of the Arbitral Tribunal over the dispute) leading to a longer than anticipated legal process.
But all eggs are not in the one basket, and while these legal proceedings are underway, ETM is exploring for lithium at its Villasrubias lithium project in Salamanca, Western Spain and the Good Setting and Solo lithium projects in the James Bay region of Quebec, Canada.
