Resources Top 5: Evergreen Lithium now up 140pc, promising gold and copper juniors resurgent as sentiment swells

Evergreen Lithium is now up ~140% on its April 11 listing price
Northern Star-backed gold junior PolarX now up 80% over the past month
QLD copper-gold explorer Renegade is also having a blinder, up 100% over the past month

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Friday April 14.

EVERGREEN LITHIUM (ASX:EG1)

Who says the air has gone out of the lithium bubble?

EG1, which has ground surrounding Core Lithium’s (ASX:CXO) new hard rock mine in the NT, is now up ~140% on its April 11 listing price of 25c per share.

Today it reported a new substantial holder in Kim Wainwright, founder of exploration firm Xplore Resources and chair of the Queensland Exploration Council.

Also scooping up an 8.7% stake was Cadence Minerals (AIM:KDNC), an early stage investment and development company which also has/had investments in lithium companies like European Metals (ASX:EMH) and Charger Metals (ASX:CHR).

EG1’s flagship Bynoe lithium project is adjacent to CXO’s ramping up Finniss mine, which has a maiden 3500t shipment ready to go at Darwin port.

It also has a WA lithium project called Kenny, where results of an augur drilling project are due in the next few weeks.

POLARX (ASX:PXX)

(Up on no news)

PXX was certified flavour of the month in December-January after major miner Northern Star (ASX:NST) snapped up a 10% stake.

PXX has two flagship assets: the Humboldt Range gold-silver project in Nevada, and the Alaska Range copper-gold project in south-central Alaska.

The junior scored one of the biggest gold hits of 2022 – which you can read about here – at Humboldt Range’s Star Canyon prospect, which is just ~3km from the currently operating 5Moz Florida Canyon mine.

Some less than stellar follow-up drilling results at Star Canyon announced in February saw the share price fall just as fast.

But this is early days, the project is big, and PXX is still figuring stuff out.

For example, the company – in an attempt to follow these high grades – believes it drilled into a concealed fault structure that offset the depth continuity of the bonanza gold and silver vein.

Which means they may have just missed the good stuff. They also have a bunch of other undrilled targets to test.

A resurgent $27m capped PXX is now up 80% over the past month. It had $2.5m in the bank at the end of December.

RENEGADE EXPLORATION (ASX:RNX)

(Up on no news)

The small QLD copper-gold explorer is having a blinder in 2023, up 110% year-to-date.

In response to a 29 March speeding ticket from the ASX, the company said final results from a 2000m drilling program at the Mongoose copper-gold project near Cloncurry were imminent.

RNX especially “eagerly awaits” the results from three holes which encountered large sulphide zones at depth, but says no assay info has been leaked.

“The company relies on the procedures in place at ALS Mt Isa to ensure confidentiality of client assay results,” it says.

“Internally, the managing director and exploration manager are the first persons in the company to receive assay results.

“When this information has been reviewed it is only distributed to other board members, who are experienced company directors and are aware of their responsibilities under the Listing Rules in relation to information that has not yet been released to the market.”

New drilling has already been booked to start in 4-8 weeks.

Mongoose was part of the 23%-owned Carpentaria Joint Venture (CJV) with mining major Glencore. This year RNX inked a deal to excise Mongoose from the JV, making it sole operator and funder.

The $27m capped stock had $481,000 in the bank at the end of December.

SUNSHINE GOLD (ASX:SHN)

(Up on no news)

The QLD explorer recently started drilling to grow ounces at the shallow 118,000oz Triumph gold project near Gladstone.

SHN believes in the “large scale potential” of Triumph, which is 50-100km from Evolution’s (ASX:EVN) 2.8Moz Mt Rawdon and Aeris’ (ASX:AIS) 2Moz Cracow.

The current resource sits within the 6km long Southern Corridor which is only 20% drilled, it says.

“We are delighted to be testing the large-scale potential at Triumph, with shallow targets being tested in the Southern and Northern Corridors,” SHN MD Dr Damien Keys says.

“Southern Corridor targets include the margins of the host intrusion and southern extensions. Northern Corridor targets include Advance (3m @ 25.0g/t Au).”

First drill results are due this month.

The gold, copper and rare earths explorer also owns Ravenswood West, next to the 9.8Moz Ravenswood, QLD’s largest gold mine.

Drilling here is expected to kick off in the June quarter.

The $13m capped stock is flat year-to-date. It had $2.9m in the bank at the end of December.

FUTURE METALS (ASX:FME)

(Up on no news)

FME’s main game is the 6.9Moz Panton platinum group metals (PGM)-nickel project in northern WA, where met testwork and scoping study activities are underway.

Meanwhile, the company has uncovered a potential nickel sulphide system in previously untested areas around the resource.

“These results now confirm that Panton hosts multiple styles of mineralisation, providing for a potential discovery of a Ni-Cu sulphide deposit within the same intrusion as the existing high grade chromitite PGE reefs,” FME said in February.

The $26m capped stock has recovered well in April so far – up 44% — but is still down 68% over the past 12 months.

It had $5.8m in the bank at the end of December.