Resources Top 5: Cashed-up Kairos positioned to progress Mt York gold project

Kairos gains on strong cash position as it plans gold drilling at Mt York
G11’s drilling in December quarter returned significant copper-rich massive sulphide intersections
Estrella raises $3.75m through placement of shares priced at 3c

Your standout small cap resources stocks for Friday, January 31, 2025.

Kairos Minerals (ASX:KAI)

Punters obviously found a lot to like in Kairos’ quarterly report for the December 2024 quarter where it noted that it had a tidy $12.36m in the bank with another $10m to come fromPilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) this year.

The company had in the December quarter completed a scoping study demonstrating that its Mt York project in the Pilbara had the potential to be a technically and financially robust gold project.

A proposed 4Mtpa conventional carbon in leach processing plant is expected to produce 657,200oz of over an eight-year mine life at an all-in sustaining cost of $2205/oz.

Using a conservative $3500/oz gold price, this is expected to deliver free cash flow of $574m while net present value and internal rate of return – both measures of profitability – of $410m and 35.7% respectively.

Planning is underway to grow resources by testing Mt York mineralisation along strike and at depth as well as drilling some high-priority greenfields targets.

G11 Resources (ASX:G11)

Another gainer on its quarterly report, G11 reminded the market that wide-spaced drilling at its Peveril-Grasmere project in New South Wales had returned significant copper-rich massive sulphide intersections with elevated gold.

Notable results include 9.3m at 1.42% copper, 0.98% zinc, 0.11g/t gold and 3.79g/t silver from 341.2m and 8.3m at 1.03% copper, 0.61% zinc, 0.07g/t gold and 3.6g/t silver from 327.9m.

Results from the drilling and downhole geophysics increases confidence that the Peveril volcanogenic massive sulphide mineralisation extends over 1km of strike and to 500m depth starting close to surface.

It also confirms the VMS mineralisation returns a distinct electromagnetic signature, the strength of which is related to the width and grade of copper-rich mineralisation.

Estrella Resources (ASX:ESR)

Participants in Estrella’s successful $3.75m placement, which was announced today, have something to cheer about after shares in the company rose to 3.2c.

This is just that little bit higher than the 3c per share price that existing professional/sophisticated investors had paid for the 125 million shares issued under the placement.

Proceeds from the placement will be used primarily to continue exploration efforts and commence a drilling program at the company’s Timor-Leste operations.

In November, ESR made discovered the Ira Miri and Sica supergene manganese zones within granted exploration licences at its Lautém project in the country.

These were made through developments in its exploration model, which blends stratigraphy with the differing mineralisation forms identified within the tenure.

Tartana Minerals (ASX:TAT)

Meanwhile, Tartana gained after reporting in its December 2024 quarterly that it had made significant progress towards its goal of becoming a self-funded explorer/developer.

The company generated revenue of US$506,000 ($803,000) on sales of 192.5t of copper sulphate pentahydrate from its refurbished solvent extraction-crystallisation plant at its namesake copper project.

It noted that there was more than 500t of extractable copper in ponds and heaps on the leach pad and that while production to January 31 has depleted this by ~200t, it still provides an ongoing copper source for production over the next 6-9 months.

Future sourcing of copper for copper sulphate pentahydrate is potentially part of an integrated Tartana open pit development.

The company is also continuing to investigate processing opportunities following positive results from its metallurgical testwork.

Great Divide Mining (ASX:GDM)

(Up on no news)

While the company had no news out today, it noted yesterday that interpretation of LiDAR data it acquired from the Queensland government over its Devil’s Mountain gold project had identified multiple new gold targets.

This had indicated a total of 204 historical mine workings including shafts and adits not previously known to the company.

Devil’s Mountain is ~30km northwest of Gympie and hosts an abundance of mineral occurrences.

Great Divide said the results significantly enhanced its dataset used to identify and prioritise gold targets, validating its strategy of targeting areas of abundant historical workings, then applying modern exploration technologies to those targets.

It will now include ground follow-up of the most significant historical workings, detailed mapping, rock chip and soil sampling then geophysical surveys to confirm drilling targets.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.