Resources Top 5: High purity lithium and a couple of Reddit favourites

Anson Resources’ lithium performs better than commercially available product in battery test work
Australasian Gold +60% on high volumes since finalising the acquisition of the ‘Capella’ gold project ealier this week
ASX_Bets favourites Kuniko and Delecta up again in early trade

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Thursday September 9.

ANSON RESOURCES (ASX:ASN)

99.9% purity lithium carbonate — extracted from supersaturated brines at Anson’s ‘Paradox’ project in the US — has performed better than the commercially available stuff in battery test work by Novonix (ASX:NVX).

The test results indicate that Anson’s product has a longer lifespan compared to commercially available battery grade lithium carbonate.

Anson’s lithium hydroxide is demonstrating similar performance to existing commercial products in long-term cycle experiments, which are still ongoing.

“The results from NOVONIX’s test work clearly demonstrates that the lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide produced from the Paradox brines have the necessary specifications that Tier 1 battery makers may require,” Anson CEO Bruce Richardson says.

“The purity of the Anson product provides it with a performance advantage over existing commercial products which is expected to attract lithium-ion producers that are aiming to provide a high-performance product.”

“The results of this test work will be shared with potential offtake partners and potential customers during Anson future marketing campaigns.”

AUSTRALASIAN GOLD (ASX:A8G)

The gold-lithium explorer was up another +40% at the open before it paused trading.

All up, the recently listed $12m market cap stock is +60% on high volumes since finalising the acquisition of the ‘Capella’ gold project in Queensland earlier this week.

Historical drilling at the Capella gold project includes 2m at 32.8g/t Au inside a larger 32m section grading 3.8g/t, 33m from surface.

A8G also made gains late last month after lodging a tenement application in the Mt Peake lithium pegmatite district in Northern Territory.

KUNIKO (ASX:KNI)

(Up on no news)

This popular meme stock more than compensated for yesterday’s 15% loss in early trade today.

The Scandinavian base metals explorer stormed onto the ASX boards with a 325% first day gain in late August, going on to notch up a remarkable 1,260% increase to month’s end.

The stock subsequently addressed its use of a paid investor relations services provider and knowledge of various “meme stock promoters” in response to an ASX query.

It remains well down on its 1 September peak of $3.23 per share, but punters are still waiting on the ‘dump’ part on this possible pump and dump – a 900% gain on its IPO price is nothing to sniff at.

DELECTA (ASX:DLC)

Fellow memestonk Delecta is an ASX_Bets favourite.

The diversified stock sells adult products direct to wholesale customers – a segment which was increasingly profitable in FY21 on revenues of +$16.5m “thanks to the acquisition of new premium suppliers”.

But its main game is gold exploration in the US, with a healthy side of uranium and vanadium.

The company is working to finalise a drilling program at the ‘Speedway’ gold project, and – “given the recent positive sentiment in relations to uranium and vanadium” — is planning geological mapping and rock chip sampling at the ‘Rex’ vanadium-uranium project.

BARRA RESOURCES (ASX:BAR)

(Up on no news)

In late August Barra raised $2.15m to fund aggressive exploration at the Burbanks gold project, where historic underground production totalled 324,479oz at an eyewatering average grade of 22.7g/t gold.

Anything above 5g/t is generally considered high grade.

This gold was scooped from the top 140m, Barra says, with mineralisation remaining ‘open’ at depth within the central mining area.

There has also been limited exploration below 250m and no exploration below 350m. Drilling planning is underway.

Trial mining kicked off in April as part of an exploration and mining JV over the Burbanks project with privately owned miner and processor FMR Investments, which funds all drilling and mining costs.

Mining of the ‘Main Lode’ will be treated as a 12-month trial mining operation, designed to understand the larger orebody and develop underground drilling platforms for ‘step out’ exploration.

The first $8m in profits go into a ‘future fund’ for deep exploration below historic workings, Barra says.

The $23m market cap stock is up 45% over the past month.