Resources Top 5: Graphite miners, high grade gold, and a booming rare earth explorer

First hole into Siren Gold’s Auld Creek gold-antimony prospect hits 20.8m @ 12g/t AuEq
MTM Critical Metals up ~170% since acquiring Canadian rare earths-niobium project late February
Volt restarts production from 70% owned Zavalievsky graphite operation in Ukraine

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday May 8.

SIREN GOLD (ASX:SNG)

SNG is focused on exploring the rich Reefton gold district on the South Island of New Zealand, an area which has already delivered 2Moz across 84 historical mines.

It currently has a global resource of 1.1Moz.

Today it reported the first hole into its Auld Creek gold and antimony prospect has pulled up 20.8m @ 12g/t AuEq.

The drillhole punched through both the Fraternal (deeper) and Bonanza (shallower) shoots, with the aforementioned hit coming from Fraternal.

The hole also intersected 3.5m at 4.3g/t gold at Bonanza.

The thickness and consistency of the first hole at Auld Creek is “very encouraging” and consistent with recent trench results and historical drillholes, SNG says.

Assay results from hole 2 are pending, with drilling ongoing.

Auld Creek – a +700m long soil anomaly — is between the Globe Progress and Crushington mines, which have collectively produced 1.6Moz at 10g/t gold.

The $15m capped stock is down 40% year-to-date. It had ~$2m in the bank at the end of March.

VRC has restarted production from its 70% owned Zavalievsky graphite operation in Ukraine, which was in stop/start mode for much of the last 12 months due to harsh winter weather and the Russian invasion.

As of 5 May 2023, over 700t of graphite concentrate had been produced, including a record daily production of 88 tonnes on 26 April 2023.

Average daily production is 54 tonnes with most of the graphite concentrate produced during the campaign achieving 88-96% purity.

The company plans to complete this current production campaign in mid-May 2023.

VRC is planning an “optimised” campaign cycle of one month production per quarter for the reminder of calendar 2023 “to minimise funding requirements”.

VRC paid US$7.6m for its 70% stake in Zavalievsky in 2021, which makes it one of a handful of ex-China graphite producers globally.

The battered graphite/anode stock has other strings to its bow, including plans to build a natural graphite anode material plant.

Its Bunyu project in Tanzania is also one of the world’s biggest undeveloped greenfield natural graphite projects.

It recently inked offtakes from all stage 1 product from Bunyu and is now advancing discussions with non-bank financiers to fund the project.

The goal is to secure Bunyu funding by the third quarter 2023.

The $50m capped stock is up 20% year-to-date, and down 40% over the past 12 months. It had $5.3m in the bank at the end of March.

MTM CRITICAL METALS (ASX:MTM)

(Up on no news)

The explorer formerly known as Mt Monger is up ~170% since acquiring a Canadian rare earths-niobium exploration project called Pomme in February.

Proceeds from a recent $3m raise will be used for a maiden drill campaign and metallurgical testwork at Pomme, which it bought from TSX listed explorer Geomega Resources for ~$1m in cash and shares.

MTM directors tossed in a collective $70,000 as part of the placement.

The company says Pomme has similar geology to Geomega’s advanced 266Mt Montviel carbonatite REE-Nb deposit, just 7km away.

Just two holes were punched into Pomme back in 2012, but they both returned thick mineralised intersections interspersed with high grade chunks, including a highlight 508.3m @ 0.43% TREO, 413ppm Nb2O5 and 1.48% P2O5, from 73.7m depth.

KULA GOLD (ASX:KGD)

(Up on no news)

In late September, the long-time gold stock announced plans to raise $1.8m to fast-track WA lithium exploration and “assess new opportunities in the sector”.

It now has three main projects: Kirup, Marvel Loch-Airfield and the flagship, Brunswick.

At Brunswick’s DBGM target, ~45km from the world’s largest hard rock lithium mine Greenbushes, a lithium soil anomaly is defined to 1.7km length.

The company has since uncovered historical BHP diamond drill core with pegmatite identified at 73m depth along with 1m @ 51g/t gold from 39m at DBGM.

This hit was never followed, up KGD says.

A “short, focused” scout drilling program is being planned.

The $6m capped minnow is down 50% year-to-date. It had $1.4m in the bank at the end of March.

M3 MINING (ASX:M3M)

(Up on no news)

Drilling kicked off earlier this month at the Edjudina gold project north of Kalgoorlie, designed to follow up promising maiden hits like 12m at 0.84g/t from 68m.

The project is nestled amongst heavy hitters like AngloGold Ashanti, Sumitomo Metal Mining, and Northern Star’s (ASX:NST) 1.3Moz Porphyry and 2.4Moz Carosue Dam operations.

This 3000m aircore program will test the Jump Up prospect for continuation of primary mineralisation along a gold-in-soil anomaly that runs 1.6km further to the southeast.

Following the completion and receipt of assay results, infill drilling will be planned along this corridor “subject to any significant results”.

M3M says met test work is also underway on graphite mineralisation encountered in previous drilling at the Victoria Bore project, which is centred on a historic 32.7% Cu for 62.5t copper mine.

The $5m capped stock is down 10% year-to-date. It had $3.3m in the bank at the end of March.