Resources Top 5: IOCG hunters, nickel discoveries, and a copper-gold stock fires on debut

• Cohiba preps deep hole at advanced ‘Horse Well’ IOCG target
• Copper-gold explorer Askari leaps out of the gate on ASX debut
• Auroch dials in on new nickel sulphide target at Nepean

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Wednesday July 7.

COHIBA MINERALS (ASX:CHK)

In the same neighbourhood as  Coda Minerals (ASX:COD) and Torrens Mining’s (ASX:TRN) potentially big discovery at ‘Elizabeth Creek’, Cohiba’s South Australian tenement package “is to be explored aggressively”, the company said late April.

While a recent drilling program at the ‘Horse Well’ project missed paydirt, it confirmed the company was drilling in the right area for a big IOCG discovery.

The explorer is now planning an additional deep hole at Horse Well, as well as drilling at ‘Pernatty C’.

While IOCG mineralisation is a target in the region, Cohiba will primarily focus on the shallower, Zambian Copperbelt (ZCB) style mineralisation at Pernatty C.

METALSTECH (ASX:MTC)

The gold mine developer has completed the sale of a lithium royalty over its assets in Quebec, Canada for $6.65m.

MetalsTech now has $6.8m cash in the bank and is funded for planned exploration and development at its flagship 1.5-million-ounce ‘Sturec’ mine.

A shareholder notice of meeting for the spinout of the lithium assets into new IPO Winsome Resources is expected to be finalised in the coming weeks.

The stock is up 23% year-to-date.

BMG RESOURCES (ASX:BMG)

(Up on no news)

A major follow-up drill program is being planned at the ‘Abercromby’ gold project in WA, where BMG recently hit thick, high grades like 26m at 6.07g/t gold from 192m in a maiden program.

Impressive, but not as impressive as historic intersections like 57.5m at 5.73g/t gold from 80m.

The emerging gold camp remains open in multiple directions, the company says.

Despite this, ~$15m market cap BMG is down 40% year to date.

ASKARI METALS (ASX:AS2)

The explorer has leapt out of the gate on its ASX debut.

The $5.75m raised in Askari’s IPO at 20c per share will be used to explore and develop a portfolio of copper and gold projects in WA and the Lachlan Fold of NSW.

The initial focus of a 2000m drilling program is the ‘Burracoppin’ gold project in WA, where old drilling pulled up hits like 18m at 5.64g/t gold from surface.

AUROCH MINERALS (ASX:AOU)

An electromagnetic (EM) survey has identified a strongly conductive ‘body’ – typical of well-developed massive to semi massive sulphide mineralisation — 1.8km south of the historic Nepean nickel mine.

EM surveys map sub-surface changes in electrical conductivity and are useful tools for finding nickel sulphides.

This high-priority drill target – estimated at 60-100m vertical depth with a strike length of 120m — “will be tested immediately” with three drill-holes ranging between 150-250m depth, Auroch says.

The $53m market cap stock is up 27% in 2021.