Pic: Schroptschop / E+ via Getty Images
Resources Top 5: Bullish battery metals and gold strike fever
Mining
share
- EMU and Indiana strike high grade gold at their respective projects, shares soar
- Queensland Pacific doubles size of nickel-cobalt project due to offtake demand
- Graphite play Renascor says its tech makes super high grade, battery grade product
Here are your biggest resources winners in morning trade, Monday, February 22.
The busy WA explorer – which has famed resources investor Terry Streeter on the board — hit high grade gold in maiden drilling at the Gnows Nest project.
Significant strikes include 1m at 57.41g/t and 1m at 89.57g/t gold.
Anything above 5g/t is generally considered high grade.
The gold keeps going at both the Gnows Nest and Monte Cristo prospects, with further drilling results and news flow expected over the next six weeks.
“These results provide early and strong encouragement for the potential of a materially large gold deposit emerging at Gnows Nest and could be the catalyst for the company to transition from explorer to producer near term,” EMU chairman Peter Thomas says.
Similarly, the first five holes drilled at Indiana’s ‘Minos’ prospect in WA have pulled super high grade gold up to 84g/t.
Minos – the first of many juicy targets to be tested at Indiana’s district-scale South Australian project – remains ‘open’ in multiple directions.
That means Indiana is still looking for the edges of the deposit.
“It is clear that our targeting work has been successful, and this initial drilling program suggests that the Minos prospect remains open along strike and at depth, so planning for follow-up RC and diamond drilling is underway,” chairman Bronwyn Barnes says.
QUEENSLAND PACIFIC MINING (ASX:QPM)
The battery metals focused nickel-cobalt play will double the size of its TECH project due to strong offtake interest from big battery makers like LG Chem and Samsung.
QPM, which is targeting first production in 2023, says a larger project “will have lower capital intensity and higher margins”.
“We look forward to undertaking the DFS and putting together the required commercial arrangements that we need to make the TECH Project a reality,” chief exec Stephen Grocott says.
“2021 is shaping up as a busy and exciting year for QPM and its shareholders.”
Investors are bullish on graphite explorers at the moment.
There is 10 times more graphite than lithium in a lithium-ion battery, with each EV requiring ~55kg of flake graphite to make the battery anode.
South Australian project developer Renascor is up about 370 per cent so far this year.
It now says testing has confirmed the suitability of its environmentally friendly tech to purify graphite to battery grade, with results up to 99.98 per cent carbon (versus anode industry standard of 99.95 per cent carbon).
(Up on no news)
Last week this struggling exploration stock reversed its fortunes after aquiring an industrial minerals and green hydrogen project in WA’s north west.
Green hydrogen – which burns cleanly and emits water — is the ‘holy grail’ of a net zero emissions future.
Market sentiment is bullish, and Province is now up ~350 per cent since the announcement.
“Green hydrogen will be an increasingly important future energy source, developing alongside the lithium industry,” says project advisor Gavin Rezos.
“Rapid advances in hydrogen fuel cells are now demonstrating that green hydrogen will have a major role to play in the areas of mass transport, shipping, trucking, and eventually in homes, helping the world reach targets of being net zero carbon by 2050.”
