Resources Top 5: Impressive IPOs, bold bets and optimal offtakes

Fresh-faced explorer Black Canyon is +60% on May listing price after uncovering widespread outcropping manganese in the Pilbara
Andromeda and 25% JV partner Minotaur ink a 5-year offtake with a large Chinese commodity trader for 70,000tpa of refined ultra-bright high-purity kaolin
Coda (+280%) and Variscan (+360%) keep gaining on recent discoveries

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Thursday June 10.

BLACK CANYON (ASX:BCA)

Fresh-faced explorer Black Canyon is +60% on its May listing price after uncovering widespread outcropping manganese at ‘Flanagan Bore’ in the Pilbara.

The ‘Flanagan Bore’ tenement is part of Black Canyon’s Carawine project, which is subject to a farm-in and joint venture agreement with Carawine Resources (ASX:CWX).

“With one field trip we have be able to reconcile the thick drill intersections ranging 10m to 37m previously encountered at the ‘LR1’ prospect,” exec director Brendan Cummins says.

“After walking the ground and comparing the geology of the LR1 prospect to the new prospects associated with widespread manganese-enriched shale, we are hopeful that the potential thickness of the target manganese horizon may have similar ranges.”

Black Canyon will drill Flanagan Bore in the coming quarter.

BCA share price chart

ANDROMEDA METALS (ASX:ADN) & MINOTAUR EXPLORATION (ASX:MEP)

Investor favourite Andromeda and 25% JV partner Minotaur have inked a 5-year offtake with a large Chinese commodity trader for 70,000tpa of refined ultra-bright high-purity kaolin material.

Kaolin is used in everything — paper, rubber, paint, ceramics, fibreglass, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals are just some notable examples, with about 5kg of kaolin also used in the manufacture of each car.

This contract pricing is higher than the selling price used in Andromeda’s Pre-Feasibility Study of $700/tonne for ceramic grade material and is fixed for the first three years of the contract.

Andromeda plans to start construction at Great White in February next year.

The $520m market cap stock is up ~320% over the past 12 months. $62m market cap Minotaur has gained 160% over the same period.

ADN and MEP share price charts

CODA MINERALS (ASX:COD)

Up on no news

It’s too early to say for sure, but punters are already betting big that Coda and JV partner Torrens Mining (ASX:TRN) have hit the IOCG motherlode in South Australia.

~$100m market cap Coda has gained 280% since announcing 200m of “intense IOCG alteration”, including ~50m of copper sulphides at the ‘Elizabeth Creek’ project yesterday.

Assays are pending.

Iron oxide copper gold ore deposits (IOCG) — like BHP’s Olympic Dam mine or more recent Oak Dam discovery — can be tremendously large, and simple-to-process concentrations of copper, gold and other economic minerals.