It's a good time to drill for gold. Pic: Getty Images
Resources Top 5: Explorers desperate to drill as gold prices ride high
Mining
share
- BMG plans drilling at well placed 518,000oz Abercromby gold project
- Tesoro, G50, Magnetite Mines up on no news
- Metal Hawk raises $2.5 million for gold drilling
Your standout small cap resources stocks for Wednesday, November 13.
BMG RESOURCES (ASX:BMG)
It was only a week ago that $12 million small cap tiddler BMG was in the gains after raising a wad of cash ($1.5m) to progress its 518,000oz Abercromby gold project in WA.
Now it’s on the rise as it gets ready to blow that wad, with DDH1 Drilling contracted to sink diamond holes into the deposit to extend high grade zones at the 1.45g/t resource this month.
Infill drilling is also planned to convert inferred resources to indicated to support development studies.
If you take a look at exactly where Abercromby sits in the Wiluna Goldfields of WA, you can see why BMG is so keen to drill down.
It’s very close to the Wiluna gold mine, but even more interesting is probably its proximity to Northern Star Resources’ (ASX:NST) Jundee and Bronzewing projects.
NST doesn’t operate the Bronzewing plant, but its Jundee operations are still running hard and the Aussie gold giant has demonstrated a keen appetite to eat up smaller resources in its orbit in recent times.
Last year it paid $61 million in cash and shares for Strickland Metals’ (ASX:STK) nearby Millrose project, and $12.5m this year for Solstice Minerals’ (ASX:SLS) Hobbes deposit near the Carosue Dam gold mine.
A programme of work is in place for the Abercromby drill out, after the current and maiden resource was previously compiled over the course of three campaigns at a cost of $8.35/oz, with testwork recently showing the deposit is free milling and amenable to carbon-in-leach processing.
“Following the support shown by investors in the recent capital raising, the team at BMG have moved quickly to finalise arrangements to resume drilling at the Abercromby gold project,” BMG non-exec chair Jon Prineas said.
“The drill programme will focus on expanding high-grade gold zones beyond the existing resource shell, as well as increasing resource confidence by upgrading inferred resources to indicated status.
“The results of the drilling have potential to contribute significantly to resource growth at Abercromby, and to materially boost the potential project economics.”
TESORO GOLD (ASX:TSO)
(Up on no news)
It is but two days since Tesoro Gold, Chilean precious metals explorer, told the ASX there was nothing to see here after a query on a sudden drop in its share price.
Little to explain, either, the bump today which saw the shares rise 20%, though the $37 million capped junior has had a bit of news around in the last few weeks.
In late October, some new hits from the El Zorro project flew onto the bourse including a strike of 924g/t over 0.5m from 78.1m.
That came from within a broader intersection of 46.15m at 11.86g/t gold from 77.15m in the same hole that also intersected 23.65m at 1.73g/t Au from 10.1m deep.
Drilling is still ongoing at the Ternera and Ternera East prospects, looking to further expand and define gold mineralisation.
Ternera already boasts 1.3Moz of gold at a US$1800/oz pit shell, well below current spot levels, containing open pit resources of 32.5Mt at 1.13g/t (1.175Moz) and underground resources of 1.3Mt at 2.64g/t Au (107,000oz).
Speaking on Stockhead‘s Long Shortz last week TSO MD Zeff Reeves said two drill rigs were still at Ternera conducting extensional and infill drilling, with a resource update expected out early next year.
“Our target is to get this deposit to beyond 2Moz and given these sorts of results we’re pretty optimistic we’re going to get there quite quickly,” he said from site in north Chile.
WATCH: Long Shortz with Tesoro Gold: Targeting 2Moz and counting
METAL HAWK (ASX:MHK)
Once a fast-moving nickel explorer, MHK has raised $2.5 million at 20c per share to fund gold exploration at its Leinster South project, where an ‘extensive’ maiden drilling program has been promised.
A heritage survey is scheduled for early 2025 ahead of a maiden drilling campaign at Leinster South where a number of targets have been identified via mapping and geochemical sampling.
They include Siberian Tiger, Tysons and Thylacine, some 1.5km east-southeast of Siberian Tiger, where recent rock chips returned grades of up to 62g/t gold.
None have been drilled historically, but the location is intriguing – some 30km south Leinster in the vicinity of Gold Fields’ Agnew-Lawlers mine.
G50 Corp (ASX:G50)
(Up on no news)
G50 is one of a number of ASX stocks looking to explore for silver in the USA, boasting the Golconda project in Arizona.
The last drilling at Golconda took place in 2023, which unlocked some high grade silver zones with hits including 25.9m at 157g/t Ag and 0.7g/t Au in hole GRC03 and 19.3m at 122g/t Ag and 0.05g/t Au in GRC09.
Drilling is being planned to target these high grade zones and gallium mineralisation at the project, while target generation and drill planning for maiden RC drilling at the White Caps project in Nevada has also been completed.
Golconda was a high grade zinc mine back in World War 1, with the next phase of drilling to target gold, silver and gallium over a 2km strike zone.
“Our recently reported silver intercepts are nothing short of outstanding and complement the significant high-grade gallium halo at our Golconda Project in Arizona,” MD Mark Wallace said in the explorer’s last quarterly.
“The next phase of exploration including extensive RC drilling programs to understand the high-grade gallium, gold, silver and base metal potential at Golconda. We also look forward to drilling the exciting high-grade gold targets at our White Caps Project in Nevada.”
MAGNETITE MINES (ASX:MGT)
(Up on no news)
Also up on no news, Magnetite Mines rose over 14% today but is still sitting on a ~62% six month loss.
The $16m capped iron ore developer has found it hard to garner support from a market turning from small cap bulk metals stocks with the volatility in iron ore prices since hitting an all time high of US$237/t in 2021.
Most recently the market has seen mixed signals for the commodity due to a will they, won’t they narrative around China and its hopes of delivering a ‘bazooka’ stimulus to recharge its ailing economy. It’s running at a touch over US$100/t, perfectly fine prices for majors like BHP and Rio Tinto, but tough for juniors who need to procure billions to develop greenfields magnetite projects.
That’s the type of project Magnetite wants to develop at Razorback in South Australia, a style of iron ore deposit which holds potential to produce high-grade material by upgrading lower grade in situ ore.
That generally garners a premium over standard 62% Fe DSO hematite pricing but comes with much higher capital and operating costs given the beneficiation steps required.
MGT recently announced a heads of agreement with JFE Steel’s JFE Shoji Australia Pty Ltd on a framework for offtake backed funding.
A Q1 2025 timeline has been set to execute definitive agreements, while permitting and Indigenous land use agreement negotiations are also being progressed.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Tesoro Gold is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
Read MoreGold
