• New visual results from drilling take ‘Emmie Bluff Deeps’ IOCG discovery “to an entirely new level”
  • Great Western identifies four shallow, drill ready VMS targets
  • Kingwest forms JV to restart mining at the high grade Yunndaga underground gold deposit

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Wednesday October 6.

 

GREAT WESTERN EXPLORATION (ASX:GTE)

The $30m market cap explorer has identified four shallow, drill ready VMS targets with a geophysical signature “that is consistent with an accumulation of sulphides”, Great Western Exploration says.

Volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) deposits are rich in base and precious metals like copper, zinc, lead, gold, and silver.

Because these deposits tend to ‘cluster’ together, VMS camps – like  DeGrussa — can often be mined for a very, very long time.

In early 2009, struggling explorer Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) discovered what would later become the world-class DeGrussa copper-gold mine, rapidly transforming its fortunes from a 4c penny stock into a ~$1bn mining company.

The newly defined anomalies at ‘Yandal West’ in WA are shallow (~55m below surface) and are both conspicuous (clearly visible) and discrete (unconnected). Very VMS-like.

However, due to a historical focus on gold at Yandal West and the Yandal greenstone belt in general, drilling has often been assayed for gold only and not base metals.

That is why none of the 4 high priority EM anomalies have been drill tested, despite being located next to some significant gold occurrences.

Drill planning has now kicked off. Preparation for drilling at the ‘Thunder’ copper-gold target – also a DeGrussa lookalike — are also well progressed for an early November 2021 start.

 

AUDALIA RESOURCES (ASX:ACP)

(Up on no news)

Audalia’s main game is the ‘Medcalf’ vanadium-titanium project in WA, which contains a resource estimate of 31.8Mt at 0.45% vanadium and 8.36% titanium.

Successful pilot scale production in 2020 (a smaller version of the real thing) showed high recoveries of iron, vanadium and titanium.

The explorer is currently chasing environmental approvals, a ‘must-have’ for project construction to go ahead.

The $7m market cap minnow is down 60% year-to-date.

 

CODA MINERALS (ASX:COD)

New visual results from ongoing drilling take the ‘Emmie Bluff Deeps’ IOCG discovery in South Australia “to an entirely new level”, COD chief exec Chris Stevens said today.

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

Thick zones of copper, including a new +300m intercept, highlights the vertically extensive nature of this newly discovered mineralising system, COD says.

“These new results substantially increase the mineralised footprint of the system and show that there is a significant amount of copper present,” Stevens says.

“Our task now is to continue to test the areas of open mineralisation as we seek to extend the copper-rich bornite zones and to further test areas for vertical extension and additional stacked lodes.”

COD and 30% JV partner Torrens Mining (ASX:TRN) are up 184% and 15%, respectively, since the discovery was first announced early June.

 

KINGWEST RESOURCES (ASX:KWR)

Kingwest will join forces with known mine developer FMR Investments to restart mining at the high grade, +80,000oz Yunndaga underground deposit, part of the flagship Menzies gold project in WA.

The 40% KWR, 60% FMR profit share JV will see FMR pay $1m to KWR, plus cover all capital costs and be responsible for all mining, haulage and processing through its mill in Coolgardie.

The JV will cover 180,000 gold ounces or 5 years from the commencement of mining (whichever occurs first).

Yunndaga, comprised of multiple gold ‘shoots’, was last mined underground ~85 years ago to a depth of 600 vertical metres. The Princess May shoot produced 526,000t @ 16g/t Au for 270,000 ounces.

“This is expected to be the first of a number of mining operations at Menzies and to deliver attractive short and medium-term cash inflow to KWR,” chief exec Ed Turner says.

It’s been a month of good news for the gold explorer.

In mid-September it announced a gold discovery under a WA salt lake called ‘Goongarrie’.

Exploring for gold underneath salt lakes is tough, which is probably why so many remain underexplored — regardless of how prospective they are. That is why early results like 3m @ 6.5g/t gold and 3m @ 4.1g/t gold from Kingwest are so important.

“These results support our targeting for a potential major discovery which we have named the ‘Sir Laurence’ Prospect,” CEO Ed Turner says.

$33m market cap KWR is now up 130% over the past month.

 

QMINES (ASX:QML)

The flagship ‘Mt Chalmers’ project in Queensland is already recognised as being one of the highest-grade gold-rich volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VHMS) systems in the world, QML says.

It is still growing. Drilling has now uncovered metal outside of the current inferred resource of 3.9 million tonnes at 1.15% copper, 0.81 g/t gold and 8.4 g/t silver.

New top hits feature a very wide 60.8m at 2.59g/t gold, 0.74% copper, 11.1g/t silver, 1.81% zinc and 0.71% lead, just 6.2m from surface.

Mount Chalmers was mined sporadically between 1898 and 1982 to produce 1.24 million tonnes at 2% copper, 3.6g/t gold and 19g/t silver.

No mining has been undertaken since 1982 and, until recently, the project hadn’t been touched at all since 1995.

The recent listing is now up 50% on its IPO price of 30c per share.