• Production resumes at Tombador’s Brazil iron ore mine after road blockades removed
  • Argonaut makes progress in legal action against Zambian government
  • International Graphite, Zeus, Kore Potash up on no news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Monday February 13.

 

KORE POTASH (ASX:KP2)

(Up on no news)

KP2’s main game is the Kola and DX potash projects in the Republic of Congo (RoC), not to be confused with its neighbour, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Kola is a monster project at the pointy end of the development cycle, with financing, offtake and construction talks underway.

But the RoC Government, which wants the process to move a lot faster, isn’t very happy.

“On 19 October 2022, the company announced receipt of correspondence from the Minister of Mines of the RoC expressing discontent with the progress towards construction of the Kola project,” KP2 said in its latest quarterly.

“The letter was received following the arrest and subsequent release, without charge, of two senior employees of the company by the Congolese police.

“Neither the employees nor the company have been informed of the reason for the arrests.”

Dicey. The ~$50m capped dual listed stock is up 80% year-to-date.

It had $5m in the bank at the end of December.

 

ARGONAUT RESOURCES (ASX:ARE)

Some dodgy business also happening over in Zambia, where ARE’s Lumwana West exploration licence was recently cancelled and then granted to another party within 30 days.

ARE is, of course, appealing. The company said today that the High Court made a ruling which compels the Minister who made the original call to decide the appeal within 30 days.

If they don’t?

“PENAL NOTICE: If You the within named Minister of Mines and Mineral Development by your servants or agents, or whatsoever otherwise acting, disobey the whole or any part of this Order you may be held to be in contempt of court and liable to committal to prison or sequestration of your assets.”

At the time of the purported cancellation, the company’s 90% held subsidiary, Mwombezhi Resources, was operating in full compliance with all licence conditions and other regulatory requirements, ARE says.

The fairly advanced 1.7km long Lumwana West copper-cobalt deposit sits between a couple of copper mines owned by majors Barrick and First Quantum.

The company says it had commenced the fast-tracking of a feasibility study into a mining operation before its licence was cancelled and handed “to a recently registered company with no apparent financial or technical capacity”.

Outside the Zambian business, ~$4m capped ARE has endured a calamitous run.

In August, the South Australian Supreme Court revoked an Aboriginal Heritage Act authorisation over the Murdie copper project — putting a halt to exploration plans – while its uranium IPO Orpheus Minerals was withdrawn in December due to lack of interest.

 

ZEUS RESOURCES (ASX:ZEU)

This former Chinese-backed shell relisted on the ASX last week after ~15 months in suspension due to Listing Rule 17.3 – also known as ‘our projects are not adequate to warrant continued quotation’.

Following a cap raise, its focus is now the Lake Way (potash) and Mortimer Hills (lithium, manganese, base metals) projects in WA.

At Lake Way, early-stage drilling returned “encouraging” assays up to 3,340mg/L potassium and 24,000mg/L sulphate (equivalent to 7.4kg/m3 SOP).

Mortimer is next door to Red Dirt’s (ASX:RDT) Yinnietharra/Malinda lithium prospect, where recent drilling pulled up 55.6m at 1.12% Li2O from 94m.

 

TOMBADOR IRON (ASX:TI1)

Production has resumed at TI1’s namesake mine in Brazil after road blockades impeding access to the mine site were removed.

Tombador produces the highest-grade lump ore produced in Brazil, the company says.

In the December quarter TI1 sold 83,900t of high-grade stuff, posting a small loss on revenue of $8.1m.

It still has about $13.9m worth stockpiled (that’s cost of production, not expected sales price) and cash in bank of $16.29m.

That’s after paying a maiden divvy last quarter.

The $50m capped stock is flat year-to-date.

 

INTERNATIONAL GRAPHITE (ASX:IG6)

(Up on no news)

IG6 wants to build an integrated mine and downstream graphite business in WA, with the ultimate goal to produce battery anode material for battery makers.

IG6 has already established a piloting facility (a smaller version of a commercial plant), for the downstream processing of graphite products.

But the longer-term plan is to use its own feed from the recently acquired Springdale project, which has an existing JORC compliant resource of 15.6Mt at 6% graphite, including a higher grade 2.6Mt @ 17.5%.

Springdale graphite has already performed exceptionally in initial Battery Anode Material (BAM) benchmarking tests, the company said last year.

At Springdale, IG6 is drilling to upgrade the existing resource and make it bigger. A revised resource is due in the second quarter.

A revised feasibility study for an expanded commercial scale graphite micronising operation is due to be completed in the March 2023 quarter, providing more impetus for a planned start to commercial operations by 2024.

The $23m capped stock is flat year-to-date. It had $4.8m in the bank at the end of December.

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