Graphite, gold and nickel stocks were competing for investors' interest. Image: Getty
Mining
Here’s your top ASX small cap resources winners in morning trade Wednesday, February 10.
A two-way supply deal with a Germany-based graphite marketing company lit a fire under Blackearth Minerals’ share price which shot up more than 100 per cent in early trade.
Luxcarbon is a world leader in the marketing of graphite products and concentrate that supplies Ford, Mercedes and Volkswagen, and top chemical companies in Europe.
Blackearth Minerals will take delivery of 25,000 tonnes per year of high-grade graphite concentrate from Luxcarbon, and sell the same amount of the ASX company’s products to European markets.
Blackearth Minerals needs the graphite concentrate as a stop-gap after signing a deal earlier this month with US-based downstream graphite company Urbix.
“The agreement provides a number of great outcomes for Blackearth,” managing director Tom Revy said. “Firstly, it enables us to secure a supply of world class graphite concentrate that can be supplied to Urbix’s operations in the USA and also our own downstream processing facility while we complete the development of our plants in Australia and Madagascar.
“Secondly, Luxcarbon are leaders in the supply and understanding of downstream graphite products and this will assist us greatly.”
Blackearth Minerals is developing its Mainly graphite project in the African country of Madagascar for which a bankable feasibility study is underway.
Luxcarbon will also provide technical advisory services to Blackearth Minerals on the production of downstream products from its proposed facilities in Australia or Madagascar.
Europe has seen significant growth in EV demand driven by a European Union directive that lowered carbon emissions for transport vehicles.
The European EV market has a forecast growth rate of 33 per cent out to 2023 with a predicted market size of 5.3 million units.
Scandinavian countries are leading the way in terms of EV sales, with EVs comprising nearly 60 per cent of all new car sales in Norway in Q1 2020.
The gold and magnesium exploration company jumped 30 per cent without issuing any market update since its December quarterly report in late January.
The explorer has a range of mining projects in the Northern Territory and WA, and a gold and silver project in Ukraine.
Korab Resources is still in talks with trading houses and refractory ceramics producers and other potential buyers for its Winchester magnesium oxide project in WA.
The Winchester project is 70km south of Darwin near the Northern Territory town of Batchelor, and its magnesium deposit is at a shallow depth.
Magnesium has applications in water purification, nickel and cobalt metallurgy, and the production of high-strength and lightweight metal alloys.
Korab is also focused on developing its Batchelor/Green Alligator gold-cobalt-nickel-lead and base metals project in the Northern Territory.
The company has been in talks with third parties about a toll treatment of gold ore stockpiled at the Sundance gold mine near its Winchester deposit.
The WA gold and nickel explorer went higher in early trade without issuing any fresh news since its Monday announcement of a loyalty options offer to shareholders.
Aldoro Minerals shareholders will be able to receive one loyalty option at an issue price of 1 cent per share for every five shares they currently hold to raise $134,000.
The option will be exercisable at a strike price of 30 cents per share or two-and-a-half years after their issue.
Aldoro Minerals is taking steps to de-risk its Narndee nickel and platinum group elements (PGE) project by carrying out a dipole induced polarisation survey in the coming weeks.
The survey is one of the best ways of selecting exploration targets with the most potential to discover a nickel and PGE mineralisation similar to Chalice Mining’s (ASX:CHN) Julimar project in WA.
The company is also exploring for gold at its Penny South project adjacent to Ramelius Resources’ (ASX:RMS) Penny West project in WA’s Youanmi gold mining district.
The explorer took off in early trade after announcing the acquisition of the Bendoc gold project in NSW and a 12-month extension to acquire the Rutherglen gold project to 2022.
The Bendoc deal puts Gladiator Resources in a strong position to take advantage of a rising gold price and the project is in the Lachlan Fold Belt for gold deposits.
Earlier exploration hit a number of gold intersections that indicated a mineralisation for gold over a strike length of 600m at Bendoc.
“At Bendoc, subject to availability of a suitable drill rig, the company proposes to commence its maiden drilling program and at Rutherglen the proposed ground and aeromagnetic program is imminent,” chairman Ian Hastings said.
The Rutherglen gold project has an initial exploration target for gold of between 260,000 and 529,000 ounces.
The gas exploration company moved higher Wednesday on announcing it has signed a drilling contract for its Borba well in the USA’s Northern Sacramento basin in California.
The well is expected to take around one month to drill and is to test seismic anomalies in the interval from 3,200 feet to 9,500 feet in basement rocks.
“The drilling of Borba has been a major goal of the company for the last two years,” managing director David McArthur said.
Borba well has been identified as technically attractive by the company because the California market is under supplied and pays a premium for natural gas, he said.
Xstate Resources has also increased its stake in the Borba well to 33.3 per cent and its partner, Sacgasco (ASX:SGC) has the balance of the equity at 66.6 per cent.
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