Resources Top 5: It's all about gold acquisitions

High-Tech Metals acquires two gold projects from Rox Resources
Olympio seals the deal on an 80% stake at the Bousquet gold project in Quebec
And Zinc of Ireland is up on news from earlier this week of an acquisition in WA’s Gascoyne region

Your standout small-cap resources stocks on Wednesday, February 26, 2025.

High-Tech Metals (ASX:HTM)

High-Tech is acquiring 100% of the Mt Fisher and 51% of the Mt Eureka gold projects from Rox Resources (ASX:RXL) that collectively host 187,000oz of gold at an average grade of 1.65g/t.

This resource has a great deal of certainty with 88,000oz sitting in the higher confidence measured and indicated categories.

There is also tremendous potential to expand resources as the projects cover much of the underexplored Mt Fisher greenstone belt and contains granted mining leases.

HTM will now assess the production and restart potential of the Mt Fisher mine, which had produced 30,000oz gold at 4.3g/t and still has a remaining resource of 34,700oz at 2.32g/t gold.

The projects also include the Wagtail deposit, which had historical production of 2384oz at 66g/t gold.

It sits on an active mining lease and has existing resources of 14,600oz at 7.11g/t gold.

Mining consultants and mine engineers will be engaged immediately to run optimisations across near surface shallow oxide pits that may be amendable to profitable gold mining operations and production.

A review is also being conducted for the exploration upside contained in mineralisation below and along strike from existing shallow open pits.

Once the acquisition is completed, the company will launch a 15,000m aircore, reverse circulation and diamond drilling program.

“The opportunities for serious and sustained growth are exceptional and will position the company as a gold exploration and development business,” chief executive officer Warren Thorne said.

“It will allow us to conduct year-round, high-impact exploration activities with the use of our exceptional technical team.”

Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY)

Olympio Metals has been trimming its exposure at home in Australia, selling off projects in WA in recent months to the likes of Gorilla Gold Mines and Clutch Group.

Now its strategy has been revealed, with the junior explorer emerging from a trading halt with an option agreement in hand to acquire up to 80% of the Bousquet gold project in Quebec.

The site carries with it plenty of promise, located on the Cadillac Break where over 110Moz of gold mineralisation has been found along with plenty of copper, which together with its Dufay gold and copper project some 60km to the west will give the junior around 20km of combined strike.

Located over 24km2 of contiguous tenure and 10km of Cadillac Break strike, the site has barely been drilled since 1947, but is located just 15km west of the 1Moz O’Brien gold project and 15km west of the Bousquet Mining Camp, which contains gold major Agnico Eagle’s 15Moz+ La Ronde mine and Iamgold’s 2.4Moz Westwood.

It already hosts high-grade prospects like Paquin East – historical result of 9m at 16.96g/t Au – which Olympio says has similar high-grade quartz vein systems, with common visible gold, also seen at Radisson’s O’Brien.

“Acquiring the advanced Bousquet Gold Project presents a significant opportunity for Olympio to expand our exposure to one of the world’s premier gold-bearing structures – the renowned Cadillac Break,” MD Sean Delaney said.

“The project is strategically positioned between substantial gold deposits to the east and west, with numerous high-grade gold prospects featuring gold both at surface and in drilling. This makes Bousquet an exceptional exploration target.

“The geological setting and mineralisation style closely resemble the nearby million-ounce O’Brien project, where high-grade gold zones are often associated with visible gold in quartz veining. “The project is next to working gold mines with under-utilised mills (20km by road), with a major highway, railway and hydroelectric power all traversing the centre of the project.

“Bullion are divesting Bousquet to focus on their large Bodo polymetallic project which provides Olympio with this great opportunity to explore in one of the world’s best gold regions.”

Permitting will begin immediately to drill four prospects including Paquin East, looking for a strike extension to the west of known mineralisation. Upfront consideration includes just C$100,000 cash and C$50,000 in Olympio shares, with further payments to be made after the exercise of the option and on the completion of a number of resource estimation milestones.

Assuming expenditure targets are hit, Olympio can exercise the option at various points within eight years of the agreement being completed. It can take 51% ownership by hitting expenditure targets and paying cash and share milestone payments over its first three years.

Zinc of Ireland (ASX:ZMI)

(Up on no news)

Irish exploration company ZMI signed a deal to earn an 80% stake in the Mt Clere project in WA’s Gascoyne region with two beneficial owners of the tenement as well as Berma Prospecting earlier this month.

The two-stage earn-in schedule sees ZMI sole funding the first $1.25m expenditure across a two-year period to earn a 51% interest in the tenement before Stage 2 begins.

During the second phase, ZMI will fund a further $2.5m expenditure over a three-year period to secure an additional 29% interest.

Mount Clere boasts a drill-ready geophysical target, which ZMI believes to be one of the last of its kind in WA.

“This bullseye anomaly, marked by a distinct 400nT magnetic signature and a coincident 2mGal gravity anomaly, mirrors the geophysical fingerprints of major discoveries,” ZMI non-exec chairman Peter Huljich said.

“BHP tried to drill this target in the 1990s but was forced to abandon the attempt due to technical challenges, leaving its full potential untapped.

“Thanks to cutting-edge geophysical advancements, our understanding of this anomaly has dramatically improved,” Huljich said.

“Its scale and characteristics align with globally significant SEDEX and IOCG deposits, such as the world-class Sullivan and Ernest Henry mines.”

Huljich added the company is eager to put drill bits in the ground to unlock Mt Clere’s true potential.

Cannindah Resources (ASX:CAE)

Former Azure Minerals MD Tony Rovira has been appointed to CAE’s board as non-executive director as the company moves into the next stage of development at the flagship Mt Cannindah Queensland copper-gold project.

Mt Cannindah currently holds a from-surface 14.5Mt at 1.09% copper equivalent resource estimated to contain 104,000t of copper, 197,300oz of gold and 6.4Moz of silver.

The project delivered an 83% increase in tonnage during its last upgrade, and first results from ongoing diamond drilling are soon expected to start coming in looking towards the next resource estimate.

Rovira believes there is strong possibility for the current resource at Mt Cannindah to grow.

“Intersections such as 493m at 1.17% copper equivalent from surface are very rare and this suggests that there is potential for Mt Cannindah to be a world class deposit,” he said.

Suvo Strategic Materials (ASX:SUV)

Suvo and its recently incorporated JV with PERMAcast R&D have partnered with a with wind development company to collaborate on a pilot research initiative aimed at lowering the carbon footprint of renewable energy developments in WA.

Wind With Purpose (WWP) is currently engaged in the potential development of large-scale onshore and offshore wind energy projects in WA with plans to install ~3gigawatts of onshore wind and 2GW of offshore wind capacity.

But in order to supply this capacity, WWP will need the construction of 400-500 wind turbines, where the volume of concrete required per foundation with respect to an onshore turbine can exceed 1000 cubic metres.

That’s where Suvo comes in – it entered into a JV with leading Western Australian supplier of precast and prestressed products PERMAcast last year for the delivery of low-carbon geopolymer concrete products and projects to market.

Together the two entities will undertake various on-site mix design trials utilising various industrial by-products which could be manufactured at scale.

Under the MoU, the JV and WWP will collaborate on a pilot research project to evaluate the feasibility of using the JV’s lower carbon concrete products in the construction of the proposed wind turbines.

In particular, it will look at reducing or eliminating the use of traditional Portland cement, which is a significant contributor to global CO2 emissions.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Cannindah Resources and Suvo Strategic Materials are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.