• Iceni finds an abundance of gold at 14 Mile Well
  • Hawthorn rides the Rinehart lithium wave
  • Jervois receives US$15m funding from the US Department of Defence for its cobalt

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Friday June 16.

 

ICENI GOLD (ASX:ICL)

Fieldwork at ICL’s Everleigh target within its 14 Mile Well project in the Laverton Greenstone Belt in WA has confirmed the presence of a high-grade gold vein.

ICL said ongoing fieldwork and sampling confirms the presence of mineralisation within the Christmas Gift soil anomaly.

“Multi-element assays from the high-grade outcropping quartz vein with visible gold in the Everleigh target area show a clear geochemical signature for this mineralisation, including Au, Ag, Cu, Hg, W, (Pt) and Pd,” ICL technical director David Nixon said.

Preliminary multi-element assays have shown 16,900 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold, 2,500g/t silver, 426g/t copper, as well as significant mercury, tungsten, platinum and palladium hits.

“The geochemistry includes anomalous platinum and palladium results, which are key components within the signature of the 14UF010 soil anomaly,” Nixon said.

“Fieldwork continues to focus along the length of the soil anomaly in the search for further outcropping veining along strike.”

He said the Everleigh Well target area continues to deliver positive results, where a number of key targets will be prepared for exploration drilling.

The market is backing the positive news, with the $20m market-capped gold junior lifting in share price more than 26% in early trade.

 

 

Jervois (ASX:JRV)

As part of its strategy to shore up a critical minerals supply chain, the US Department of Defense (DOD) is providing US$15m to JRV to help fund its Idaho Cobalt Operations (ICO) mine.

Jervois will use the cash to conduct feasibility studies to expand its current cobalt mineral resource at the RAM deposit and potentially delineate the adjacent Sunrise resource.

As part of the agreement, the funding will also be put towards a bankable feasibility study for a cobalt refinery in the US.

The ICO’s mineral resource is the largest and highest grade confirmed cobalt orebody in the US, and upon commissioning, will be the only primarily cobalt mine in the country.

It has a mineral resource of 3.78Mt @ 0.52% cobalt, 0.84% copper and 0.54g/t of gold.

“In investing in domestic cobalt resources, Industrial Base Policy is building a sustainable, responsible industrial base capable of meeting our future national defense challenges,” DOD’s Dr Laura Taylor-Kale said.

“Investments such as these execute President Biden’s focus on strengthening supply chains for critical minerals for large capacity batteries and are one step in the Defense Department’s strategy for minerals and materials related to batteries.”

Jervois has a current market cap of $150m, and shares flew up today on the back of the news, rising 25%.

 

 

HAWTHORN RESOURCES (ASX:HAW)

(Up on yesterday’s news)

Legacy Iron’s JV partner HAW finds itself party to a lithium handshake between Gina Rinehart’s Hancock and the Indian government and likely couldn’t be happier with the way things have turned out.

Hawthorn stands to receive 10% of any lithium or other minerals produced from Mt Bevan, which will be funded by Hancock.

The agreement is similar to last year’s JV deal it made with Hancock pertaining to iron ore mineral rights on the same tenement.

“The Mt Bevan project is unique and has delivered an outstanding result for Hawthorn shareholders; firstly we have a world-class, well-defined magnetite ore body which sits side by side with a potential new lithium province on the Mt Ida fault and adjacent to Delta Lithium’s (ASX:DLI) own lithium discovery,” HAW MD Brian Thornton said.

“Hawthorn Resources is delighted to welcome Hancock into this next exciting chapter of the Mt Bevan venture.”

Since the news broke, $43m market-capped HAW shares have risen from 9.9c to 16c – up 23% again today in early trade.

 

 

MINBOS RESOURCES (ASX:MNB)

Fertiliser chemical business MNB has signed an EPCM contract to construct its Cabinda phosphate fertiliser plant in Angola.

The project has a mining target of 6.5Mt @30.2% phosphate across a 21-year life of mine, and is targeting an initial production capacity of 150,000 tonnes per annum (tpa), increasing to 450,000tpa.

The US$4.25m contract will see EPC Engenharia provide full service engineering, procurement and construction management for the build.

EPC Engenharia already has people on the ground in Cabinda and previously sent personnel to Cabinda to assess provincial infrastructure and engage with local engineering companies for supply packages.

Work is already underway, with clearing of the project site and perimeter fencing completed last week and earthworks and civils to commence immediately

In February last year, Cabinda was redesigned, resulting in a US$10m cost saving by cutting in half trucking distances from its Cacata phosphate mine.

$87m market-capped MNB’s shares have risen 13.6% on the back of the news today.

 

 

LITHIUM ENERGY (ASX:LEL)

LEL’s maiden drilling campaign at the Corella graphite project has doubled the company’s graphite inventory at its QLD projects.

Assays have delivered an inferred mineral resource of 13Mt @ 9.5% total graphite carbonate (TGC) for 1.3Mt of contained graphite at a 5% TGC cut-off grade.

Corella adds to the Bourke deposit’s JORC indicated and inferred mineral resource of 9.1Mt @ 14.4% TGC for 1.3Mt of contained graphite for a total of 2.6Mt.

On top of that, the explorer says there’s an even higher grade inferred resource of 4.5Mt @ 12.7% TGC for 0.57Mt of contained graphite at a cut-off grade of 10% within Corella’s mineralisation envelope.

LEL also has its eyes set on lithium production at its Solaroz project in Argentina. It’s currently in the middle of a drilling campaign to rapidly advance a maiden resource estimate.

The $87m market-capped explorer’s share price has been steadily going up since the end of April, rising from 52c to 95c, and is up 3.2% in today’s trade.

 

 

While Lithium Energy is a Stockhead advertiser, they did not sponsor this article.

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