Resources Top 5: Is your iron ore drilling too slow? The CSIRO is on the case

CSIRO and Reedy Lagoon team up to supercharge process of defining iron ore resources
Prodigy Gold and IGO in high-grade copper find at Lake Mackay JV
VRX Silica to begin Public Environmental Review process at Arrowsmith silica sands mine

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Wednesday May 26.

REEDY LAGOON CORPORATION (ASX: RLC)

With iron ore prices in and around record high territory – not withstanding the interventions of the CCP – it stands to reason iron ore explorers will be looking for anyway to speed up their approach to market.

Bring on the boffins at the CSIRO.

ASX tiddler Reedy Lagoon Corporation announced this morning a study at its Burracoppin Magnetite Project through the CSIRO Kick-Start initiative to bypass the costly and time-consuming method of estimating resources through drill holes alone.

“Magnetite resources are unlike any other metal in that the quantity of the resource present (i.e. iron) has a linear relationship with both density and magnetisation,” says project leader and CSIRO petrophsyics expert Dr Jim Austin.

“This means the total iron resource can theoretically be determined to relatively high precision using geophysical methods alone.”

Reedy Lagoon has been a lithium and gold explorer but its Burracoppin iron ore project is a different kettle of fish entirely.

It is being marketed as a source of feed for a “green high-purity pig iron” smelter to be located somewhere in WA.

Blue sky thinking? Only time will tell. Reedy shares have soared to their highest point since unveiling the Green pig iron concept in February.

Reedy Lagoon Corporation share price today:

PRODIGY GOLD (ASX: PRX)

It is a good time to be in copper, and high-grade hits are odds-on to pique the interest of investors these days.

Prodigy Gold was in the market long before it was cool, having held its Lake Mackay JV near Alice Springs on a minority basis with ASX-listed major IGO (ASX: IGO) for several years.

It climbed on high grade hits in diamond hole 21PHDD002 including headline grabs of 4.5m at 3.03% copper, 1.78g/t gold and 14g/t silver from 562m and 17.47m at 2.13% copper, 0.21g/t gold and 9g/t silver from 575.23m.

Other results, while less startling have helped the JV grow its ‘Phreaker’ prospect to a strike-length of 650m and vertical depth of 430m.

While the results were never likely to move the needle for the $7b-capped IGO, they gave Prodigy’s Matthew Briggs plenty of reason for cheer.

“We are truly excited by these high grade copper intersections recorded in diamond drilling at the Phreaker Prospect, which confirm thick Cu-Au-Ag mineralisation previously identified in RC drilling,” he said. “Drilling results continue to support our view that Phreaker, along with the surrounding targets, have the potential to host a large mineralised system.”

Prodigy Gold share price today:

VRX SILICA (ASX: VRX)

Silica sands project developer VRX Silica exited a trading halt late on Tuesday to announce the WA EPA will put its Arrowsmith silica sands project 270km north of Perth through a public environmental review.

Not to worry, VRX told the market the decision is consistent with its expectations and timing for the environmental approval process at Arrowsmith North.

Arrowsmith North contains a probable ore reserve of 223 million tonnes at 99.7 per cent silica oxide, with a BFS in 2019 putting a $28 million price on bringing it into production with an initial mine life of 25 years.

VRX Silica share price today:

SIREN GOLD (ASX: SNG)

(Up on no news)

Siren Gold is exploring the rich Reefton gold district on the south island of New Zealand’s west coast, an area which was discovered in gold rush times and delivered 2Moz across 84 historical mines.

Siren’s shares have drifted south since climbing above 80 cents briefly in December last year, but has recently posted promising exploration results at its Big River project, which was mined from the late 1800s until 1942.

That includes drilling results which showed reasonable grades of around 4g/t from from beneath historical workings at Big River.

Siren Gold share price today:

MATADOR MINING (ASX: MZZ)

(Up on no news)

The Ian Murray led gold explorer kicked off a 20,000m drilling blitz at its Cape Ray gold project in Newfoundland, Canada, on Monday.

Drilling will initially focus on the brownfield Window Glass Hill to Angus trend, with Matador saying that this has excellent potential to expand its existing resource of 840,000oz of gold at an average head grade of 2.6g/t gold.

However, the majority of the diamond drilling will test high-priority targets that are all within 15km of the existing resource.

Whether its handy bump of around 15 per cent this morning was a delayed reaction to that news is hard to say, but it has helped the company retrace its steps back north after a drift down from 12-month highs of 55c it saw last September.