- C29 Metals secures option over two lithium-bearing salars in Argentina
- Maiden drilling for a “large lithium system” is now underway at St George’s Mt Alexander project
- Hammer Metals drills thick copper near Carnaby’s Mount Hope discovery
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday October 25.
C29 METALS (ASX:C29)
The junior explorer has secured an option over two lithium-bearing salars in Argentina’s Salta Province, part of the world renowned South American lithium triangle.
C29 will hit the ground running at the Pocitos projects with a drill team already secured to punch in some maiden reconnaissance exploration wells in December.
The aim is to rapidly establish a JORC compliant resource over this initial due diligence period.
“The Pocitos projects provide a real, potentially rapid pathway to production for the company in a high growth market,” C29 exec director Mark Major says.
“Most of the initial groundwork has been done, with the TEM geophysical surveys highlighting areas of prospectivity.”
Several neighbouring projects are reporting excellent results from reconnaissance and resource definition drilling, Major says.
“We have the required permits in place and the ability to undertake resource drilling as early as December this year,” he says.
“By the end of the option period, the company should be able to complete sufficient due diligence work in order to make a sound assessment of each project’s viability.”
Meanwhile, C29 has signed a non-exclusive licence agreement with Ekosolve tech, a promising direct lithium extraction process which has been in R&D for six years.
Direct extraction technology is nothing new – it’s been used in water treatment for decades – but its use to extract lithium from brines is just now coming into its own.
DLE tech promises to produce cheaper, higher quality, and more environmentally friendly lithium than incumbent processes.
It’s why companies like Lake Resources (ASX:LKE), Vulcan (ASX:VUL) and Anson Resources (ASX:ASN) have it at the heart of their respective projects.
“Ekosolve has been working on their extraction technology on similar brine chemistries for many years,” Major says.
“Working with the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Melbourne, they have had great success with achieving battery grade lithium carbonate using their patent technology on Argentinean brines, which is considered to have low capital requirements compared with other technologies.
“This could be transitional for the company. Our initial due diligence work has been very positive, and we look forward to updating the market as we progress this opportunity for our shareholders.”
$7m market cap C29 is up 30% year-to-date.
ST GEORGE MINING (ASX:SGQ)
The traditionally nickel-focused explorer has rebounded +200% since announcing the “significant lithium potential” of Mt Alexander in early September.
Maiden drilling for a “large lithium system” is now underway, it said today.
The focus will be the Jailbreak prospect, where pegmatites have been mapped at surface up to 20m thick over a 1.7km by 1.4km area.
These outcrops are interpreted to have a similar geological setting to lithium-bearing pegmatites at Red Dirt Metals’ (ASX:RDT) nearby 12.7Mt Mt Ida project, SGQ says.
The combined RC/diamond program will continue though November, with 3,500m planned for this initial phase at Jailbreak.
“This initial phase of drilling will provide St George with an opportunity to potentially make a greenfields discovery within what is emerging as a significant lithium province,” SGQ chairman John Prineas says.
“Prospective pegmatites have been mapped over a wide area within a north-south corridor adjacent to the Copperfield Granite and extending approximately 15km along St George’s tenements.
“This scale, together with the grades we are seeing in the outcrops sampled to date, provides encouragement for the potential for a large lithium system at Mt Alexander.”
Assays will start trickling in within 4-6 weeks.
FIN RESOURCES (ASX:FIN)
(Up on no news)
It has been a quiet year for FIN, which wants to build a ‘zero carbon’ multi-commodity operation at the 905sqkm Sol Mar project in northern WA.
FIN is aiming to use renewable energy (wind and solar) to create a zero-carbon salt project with complementary product streams, like green hydrogen and sulphate of potash (SOP).
A scoping study – the first proper look at the economics of building a project — is underway.
In its June quarter report, the company spoke briefly about “meaningful conversations” with potential SOP, caustic soda and hydrochloric acid customers as well as “discussions with international players” to form a green hydrogen partnership.
The $13m market cap stock is down 20% year-to-date.
RUBIX RESOURCES (ASX:RB6)
(Up on no news)
The recently listed junior has a portfolio of four base metals and gold projects in Queensland and WA.
Its key asset is ‘Paperbark’, 25km from the Century mine held by New Century Resources (ASX:NCZ) in North Queensland.
A small 1,470m drilling program was completed in September to test an anomaly at Paperbark’s Grunter North prospect, with geologists observing visual copper, lead and zinc sulphides in five of the six holes drilled.
Assays are expected throughout Q4 2022, the company said.
RB6 is up 15% year-to-date.
HAMMER METALS (ASX:HMX)
This industrious explorer is drilling to grow a 400,000t copper inventory at its Mt Isa projects in QLD.
Today, the first hole into the South Hope prospect returned 25m at 1.92% via portable XRF.
Samples are now in the lab for confirmatory analysis.
South Hope is just 650m from Carnaby Resources’ (ASX:CNB) Mount Hope prospect, where CNB announced a phenomenal 60m at 3.12% copper hit earlier this month.
“This is a fantastic start to our initial drilling program in the Mount Hope region,” HMX managing director Daniel Thomas says.
“This is the first recorded drillhole at South Hope and the interim XRF analysis confirms the nature of the historical workings and provides an indication of the significant copper potential at this prospect.
“Recent exploration success at the various Mount Hope prospects located nearby upgrades the potential of our targets and we eagerly await follow-up drilling at South Hope in addition to various other promising prospects within our 100%-owned Exploration Licence.”
HMX’s talented team includes director Ziggy Lubieniecki (discoverer of the +6.5Moz Gruyere gold deposit, AMEC Prospector of the Year 2015) and chairman Russell Davis (founder of miner Gold Road Resources – ASX:GOR).
The $60m market cap stock is up 15% year-to-date.