• Superior Resources says “very large copper system is emerging” at the ‘Bottletree’ porphyry prospect
  • CZR’s ‘Robe Mesa’ iron ore project now 52% bigger
  • New drilling kicks off at BMG Resources’ high grade ‘Abercromby’ gold project

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Thursday June 2.

 

SUPERIOR RESOURCES (ASX:SPQ)

SPQ says a “very large copper system is emerging” at the ‘Bottletree’ porphyry prospect in QLD, with latest assays returning an impressive 632m of copper mineralisation in one drill hole.

The overall 632m hit was graded at 0.21% copper, 0.03g/t gold, 0.60ppm silver, 18ppm molybdenum from 5m depth, but included a bunch of higher-grade chunks.

It is also on the outer part of the 1.5km by 1km soil copper anomaly at Bottletree. Grades should get higher as drilling dials in on the porphyry core, SPQ says.

“The better-than-expected results returned from BTDD004 are impressive, particularly considering the mineralisation is thought to be some distance away from the interpreted porphyry core where higher grades are expected,” SPQ managing director Peter Hwang reckons.

“To have intersected such a large interval of significant grade copper at this distal part of the interpreted system, provides us with further confidence that we are dealing with a very large-scale copper-gold system.

“The grades and the very large intersectional widths in hole 4 are similar to, or significantly better than those in many recent porphyry copper discoveries in South America, British Columbia and Australia.

“Importantly, the new MIMDAS model has highlighted an extensive one-kilometre-wide chargeability zone to the west of BTDD004, at the location of the interpreted porphyry core.

“Together with the new multi-element soil geochemistry data, we have now identified six compelling porphyry system targets at Bottletree.

A deep drilling program targeting the potential porphyry core is on schedule to commence late next week.

Porphyries are multigenerational monsters responsible for ~60 per cent of the world’s copper, most of its molybdenum, and significant amounts of gold and silver.

Their easy-mining large volumes make up for the low grades, typically between 0.3 per cent to 1 per cent copper equivalent.

$72m market cap SPQ is up 18% year-to-date. It had $4.6m in the bank at the end of March.

NOW READ: Explainer — Why are so many explorers chasing a porphyry payday?

 

 

CZR RESOURCES (ASX:CZR)

CZR’s ‘Robe Mesa’ iron ore project – right next door to Rio Tinto in the Pilbara – is now 52% bigger following a resource upgrade.

The upsized 37.5Mt at 56% Fe resource (62.6% Fe calcined, 55% Fe cut-off grade) allows CZR to increase production from 2Mtpa to 3Mtpa in the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), which is ramping up.

“Our objective at Robe Mesa is to grow the production rate to 3Mtpa and increase mine life,” CZR managing director Stefan Murphy says.

“This in turn is aimed at increasing free cashflow generation and overall financial returns.

“These results will feed into the mine planning and design work now underway.

“At the same time, we are updating our cost model through the DFS, targeting lower transport costs from export locations closer to the Robe Mesa deposit than were considered in the PFS.”

The 2020 PFS envisaged a 2Mtpa project delivering project cash-flows of +$90M over a five-year life of mine.

Drilling will resume within the next two weeks. Diamond drilling will support CZR’s metallurgical program and generate bulk product samples for customer review. RC drilling will focus on infill and extensional drilling, converting Inferred to higher confidence Indicated resources, critical for reporting Ore Reserves.

The Mark Creasy controlled stock is up 80% year-to-date. It had $4.4m in the bank at the end of March.

 

ANAX METALS (ASX:ANX)

A big hit from nickel-copper project developer ANX.

Drilling at ‘Evelyn’, part of the flagship ‘Whim Creek’ project in WA’s Pilbara, has returned a highlight 12m @ 3.63% Cu, 10.0% Zn, 0.98% Pb, 86 g/t Ag and 1.22 g/t Au from 43m depth.

“These assay results are very pleasing and confirm that the Evelyn deposit will provide considerable upside to Whim Creek project outcomes,” managing director Geoff Laing says.

“Metallurgical test work is well advanced and initial indications suggest that Evelyn ore will be highly compatible with the processing flow sheet currently being finalised for both the Mons Cupri and Whim Creek ore deposits.

“It is envisaged that Evelyn ore will feed directly into the Whim Creek development scenario.”

A 2021 scoping study on ‘Whim Creek’ predicted ~11,000tpa copper production (Cueq) over an initial 5-7 years for free cash flow (profits) of ~$291m.

It would cost about $55m to build.

A DFS is due to be released soon and, if that goes well, a final investment decision pencilled in for Q3.

ANX already has $US20m in debt funding locked in from global miner Anglo American, subject to the results of the DFS.

The $41m market cap stock is up 25% year-to-date. It had ~$9m in the bank at the end of March.

 

BMG RESOURCES (ASX:BMG)

New drilling is kicking off at the high grade ‘Abercromby’ gold project in WA.

This big 11,500m program will focus on resource definition at the ‘Capital’ prospect together with follow-up drilling of three large gold anomalies.

It will take about 10 weeks, BMG says.

The fast-tracked program follows some pretty speccy hits announced in April at Capital, including a highlight 31m at 6.18g/t gold.

So far, drilling has more than doubled the mineralised envelope at Capital to 550m long and 520m deep.

The deposit remains open in multiple directions.

“We’re very excited by the success or our recent drilling at Abercromby, as it has paved the way for this rapid follow-up campaign,” managing director Bruce McCracken says.

“These programs will continue to delineate the significant high-grade orebody at Capital as we progress towards maiden resource definition and test the large gold anomalies to the south identified by recent SAM and aircore drilling.

“We look forward to updating investors as our drilling progress continues and results come to hand.”

Abercromby is on the Wiluna Greenstone Belt, one of WA’s most important gold producing regions. The project area neighbours notable discoveries like Northern Star’s (ASX:NST) 10Moz ‘Jundee’ and Bellevue Gold’s (ASX:BGL) namesake high grade project (2.2Moz at 11.3g/t).

$17m market cap BMG is down 15% year-to-date. It had $2.1m in the bank at the end of March.

 

OLYMPIO METALS (ASX:OLY)

Lithium exploration will kick off at the ‘Mulwarrie’ project after OLY found it to be in similar geology to Red Dirt’s (ASX:RDT) nearby ‘Mt Ida’ project.

“Our Mulwarrie project area is hosted in the right geology for a lithium discovery, with Red Dirt’s Mt Ida discovery proving the potential of the region,” managing director Sean Delaney says.

“Whilst the Mulwarrie Project was initially acquired for its strong gold potential, we believe there is also significant potential for economic lithium within the project area.”

Historically, pegmatites have been identified in the project area, however lithium was not the focus of exploration at that time, OLY says.

A program of rock chip sampling, mapping and soils will commence next week.

OLY is a reskinned failed hemp stock called Croplogic, which re-listed as the WA gold, nickel, and lithium explorer late last month. It raised $6m at 20c per share.