• Culpeo Minerals up +90% after hitting 173m grading 1.05% copper
  • Encounter Resources is on Garimpeiro’s list of ‘junior copper stocks to watch’
  • Drilling updates from First AU’s Dogwood porphyry copper project are pending

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday June 6.

 

CULPEO MINERALS (ASX:CPO)

The explorer is up +90% after hitting 173m grading 1.05% copper from 313m depth in drilling at the ‘Lana Corina’ project in Chile.

The drilling also intersected a broad zone of high-grade molybdenum mineralisation — 85m @ 1,367ppm Mo and 0.07% Cu from 486m — which “highlights the presence of a deeper mineralised source of the base metal system … and provides new targets for exploration”, CPO says.

The stock listed on the ASX September 10 with a couple of porphyry projects in Chile — ‘Las Petacas’ and ‘Quelon’ — and only entered into an agreement to acquire 80% of Lana Corina in March.

CPO exploded out of the blocks later that month after hitting the copper motherlode in its very first drillhole at the historical ‘Lana Corina’ project in Chile.

Assay results have now been reported for three holes, all of which have returned significant copper grades over wide intervals.

The $13m market cap stock is up 91% in 2022. It had $3.3m in the bank at the end of March.

 

FIRST AU (ASX:FAU)

(Up on no news)

FAU has three main exploration projects – ‘Snowstorm’ (gold), and ‘Dogwood’ (Porphyry copper-molybdenum) in Victoria, and ‘Mable Creek’ (iron oxide copper gold) in South Australia.

Early last month a 14-hole, 2000m drilling campaign kicked off at Dogwood, where historic drilling in the ’80s and ’90s indicated that a significant copper anomaly was present across a large ~4 x 2km area.

Drilling updates from FAU are pending.

Mid last year the explorer also acquired the early stage Mabel Creek project near the potentially game-changing ‘Emmie Bluff Deeps’ IOCG discovery in the Stuart Shelf region of South Australia.

The $13m market cap stock is up 30% year-to-date. It had $1.7m in the bank at the end of March.

 

FIRETAIL RESOURCES (ASX:FTL)

(Up on no news)

FTL listed mid-April with a portfolio of lithium, rubidium, nickel, cobalt, copper and gold projects in WA and Queensland.

It has some heavyweights on the major shareholder list, including miner Gascoyne Resources (ASX:GCY) and Chinese battery metals investor Jayson.

Jayson is affiliated with CATL, the world’s largest lithium battery cell manufacturer.

FTL is currently trading at a 52% premium to its IPO price of 25c per share.

 

ENCOUNTER RESOURCES (ASX:ENR)

(Up on no news)

ENR is on Garimpeiro’s list of junior copper stocks to watch.

“A technically savvy explorer with prime exposure to the big shift in copper exploration in Australia to the hunt for sedimentary-hosted deposits,” he says.

“Its Elliott copper project in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin has attracted no less than BHP (ASX:BHP) as a joint venture partner, with BHP to earn an interest by spending $25m on exploration.

“Watch for some action on the ground in the second half of the year.”

Garimpeiro also sat up when he saw Encounter’s announcement on its Sandover copper project in the Georgina Basin of the NT where company believes “evidence is mounting’’ it could be on to a big sediment-hosted copper system at the old CRA (now Rio Tinto) property.

“Early-stage stuff but definitely one to watch given the NT’s Geological Survey reckons the upside potential is strong enough to warrant a $100,000 grant to complete a gravity survey at the property in coming weeks,” he says.

The $50m market cap stock is flat year to date. It had $2.7m in the bank at the end of March.

 

INDUSTRIAL MINERALS (ASX:IND)

(Up on no news)

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

The most advanced is ‘Stockyard’, where recent drilling results more than doubled the previously defined footprint.

The High Purity Silica Sand (HPSS) defined by auger drilling now extends over a combined area of almost 7 million square metres to an average depth of 1.05 metres, IND said late May.

“Stockyard represents the first in a pipeline of exciting projects that IND intend to evaluate through low impact and low-cost exploration, enabling a rapid pathway to development and mining of high-purity silica sand for export to the high-growth Asian markets,” the company says.

“Development of the Stockyard Project will form a blueprint for IND’s strategy going forward, with a further 11 HPSS projects set to feature in upcoming exploration campaigns.”

The $20m market cap stock is up 43% year-to-date. It had $3.7m in the bank at the end of March.