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Resources Top 5: Lithium drilling, project acquisitions and a tasty spod shipment are on Friday’s menu
Mining
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- Desoto acquires 1,234km2 of gold prospective land in Guinea
- Lightning Minerals gets lithium drill bit spinning in Brazil
- Piedmont up on earnings presentation and Q4 lithium report
Your stand-out small-cap resources stocks on Friday, February 21, 2025.
Desoto Resources (ASX:DES)
Desoto is turning heads on news of a fresh acquisition in Guinea’s Siguiri Basin, one of Africa’s most historical and prolific mining jurisdictions, yet remains extremely underexplored.
Stocks in the company have maintained their momentum following the announcement on Thursday of the newly obtained land package spanning 1,234km2 and comprising 14 prospective gold projects.
Another three separate gold projects were also purchased in Guinea’s Gaoual gold belt.
“The company has very specific expertise in exploring Guinea,” DES managing director Chris Swallow said.
“The original Predictive Discovery team which made the Bankan discovery in April 2020 consisting of Paul Roberts (ex-managing director), Dr Barry Murphy (ex-chief geologist) and Aime Nganare (ex-principal geologist) will work together again to target more gold discoveries in this highly prospective region,” he said.
PDI and the Bankan deposit have come under the spotlight this month after receiving a cash boost from two heavyweight investors – the Lundin Group family ($45.1m) and Zijn Mining group ($24.1m), increasing their stake in the company.
Bankan, the region’s biggest gold discovery in a decade with 5.38Moz defined to date across NEB and BC deposits, boasts large M&A appeal given Perseus Mining owns 19.9% of the stock.
“A number of newly explored projects in the Siguiri are already yielding impressive drilling results, demonstrating the underexplored nature of this basin.”
Lightning Minerals (ASX:L1M)
Drilling is in motion at Lightning Minerals’ Esperança lithium project in the Lithium Valley region of Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The 2000m campaign is targeting spodumene pegmatites discovered at the site in November last year, which delivered up to 4.04% Li2O and sent shares some 14%.
In parallel to the diamond drilling program, L1M is continuing ground reconnaissance at both the Caraíbas and Canabrava projects, where lithium in soil anomalism up to 429ppm and 320ppm have been identified.
Drill targeting is being evaluated across multiple target areas with plans for further drilling later in 2025.
“As a company we are firmly committed to the lithium thematic and firmly committed to Brazil where we see significant potential moving forwards,” L1M managing director Alex Briggs said.
Reach Resources (ASX:RR1)
Assay results at Reach Resources’ Murchison South gold project returned 41m at 2g/t from surface and 15m at 2g/t gold from 2m on Wednesday as the company continues to validate the historical drilling and resource modelling.
Assays from 12 holes remain pending but Reach said the results from the Blue Heaven deposit have been encouraging so far with some high-grade and shallow gold intervals delivered.
At the end of last year, Mining Plus was employed to conduct an independent review of Murchison South to confirm findings as well as the identification of additional opportunities at the project.
“Mining Plus has recommended that we proceed with a targeted drill program, which we plan to commence in early January 2025,” RR1 CEO Jeremy Bower said.
“The focus will be on several clearly defined mineralised zones, with the aim of isolating high-grade areas that could present low cost, open-pit mining opportunities.”
Sheffied Resources (ASX:SFX)
Shares in the company jumped after Sheffield announced that its operating partner Kimberley Mineral Sands had resumed operations at the Thunderbird mineral sands mine in WA, which is split equally between the two companies.
Operations at the mine had been briefly suspended following Cyclone Zelia that raged through the northern parts of the state earlier this month.
SFX added that forecast ilmenite concentrate production and zircon concentrate production estimates for the March 2025 quarter remain unchanged.
Total zircon shipments for the quarter are expected to range between 55,000t and 70,000t – higher than the previous guidance of 40,000-60,000t – while ilmenite concentrate shipments are expected to remain at 160,000-180,000t.
It had noted on February 20 that the transition to drill and blast is continuing and has resulted in improved digging conditions for the truck waste mining fleet.
A new waste mining contractor has been appointed and has commenced mobilising to site. Additionally, mining and in-pit processing plans continue to be developed to achieve cost reductions and increase throughput rates to the process plant.
The implementation plan, including additional initiatives to maximise throughput at the process plant is being finalised.
