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Resources Top 5: Insto snaps up +5pc of up-and-coming iron ore play
Mining
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- Canadian institutional investor First Growth Funds now owns 5.3 per cent of iron ore explorer Magnum
- PVW scores rig, will drill next to Yandal’s recent discovery in Kalgoorlie
- Aguia’s Andrade copper project in Brazil could be a low cost, high return mine development
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Tuesday March 9.
The WA gold explorer will fast-track a near surface sampling program – originally pencilled in for Q2 — after a Kalgoorlie-based augur rig became available.
“The area adjoining our tenements has produced some excellent results in the past 12 months which has encouraged us to commence exploration in this area immediately,” exec director George Bauk says.
Bauk is talking about Yandal Resources (ASX:YRL), which recently hit grades up to 73g/t gold at its ‘Gordons Dam’ project.
This shallow drilling at PVW’s Kalgoorlie project aims to collect samples just below the topsoil layer to help dial in on deeper drilling targets.
PVW is also currently planning the final position of the holes at Leonora for a deeper RC drilling program “which could start as early as next week, subject to the arrival of the drill rig”, Bauk says.
MAGNUM MINING & EXPLORATION (ASX:MGU)
Canadian institutional investor First Growth Funds now owns 5.3 per cent of this up-and-coming iron ore play.
More than $34m has been spent at Magnum’s advanced Buena Vista magnetite iron ore project – located in the US state of Nevada — over the past decade, the company says.
A number of recently discovered high grade ‘zones’ at Buena Vista could lead to accelerated development of a low cost direct shipping ore (DSO) development — which “provides an exciting opportunity for Magnum to benefit from the bullish outlook for iron ore, including the growing recognition that magnetite is the ‘green’ iron ore of the future”.
(Up on no news)
January ASX debutante Torrens rocketed 50 per cent on its first day to 30c per share. It has since faded to ~18c.
The gold and copper play owns the Mt Piper gold project – ~1600km2 of land 30km south-east of Kirkland Lake Gold’s (ASX:KLA) Fosterville gold mine.
Torrens also owns a 49% stake in the Elizabeth Creek copper-cobalt iron oxide copper-gold project in South Australia, under a farm-in agreement with recently listed Coda Minerals (ASX:COD).
An early stage project study and updated resource shows “positive economics” for development of Aguia’s Andrade copper deposit in Brazil.
Results show an impressive 67.1 per cent internal rate of return (IRR) on a 1mtpa copper sulphate (salt) operation over 14 years.
Average earnings before tax would be almost $20m a year – and it would cost just $10m to build the thing.
“Just like our Três Estradas phosphate project, Andrade also has very robust project economics and is another example of Aguia’s ability to secure projects that have low CAPEX requirements, compelling NPVs, and excellent IRRs,” managing director Dr Fernando Tallarico says.
“Our strategy is all about building solid underlying cash flows from multiple projects in the one region, all of which are underpinned by large, multi-generational resources, and Andrade is another such project.”
(Up on no news)
Orminex was one of only ~6 gold stocks which struggled last year.
Its small, loss-making Comet Vale mining operation was mercifully mothballed in September.
In December, Orminex sold 50 per cent of its undeveloped Penny’s Find gold mine for $1.5m to a subsidiary of Horizon Minerals (ASX:HRZ), which will shell out another $1m to fund early development.
The high grade project has a current resource estimate of 248,000t at 7.04g/t gold.
In January, it appointed new chief operating officer Matt Nixon, who most recently worked as mining manager for Australia’s #2 gold miner Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST).
