Resources Top 5: Junior gold stocks shining bright as investors flee to safety

Prodigy Gold rejigs Lake MacKay JV with major miner IGO
Turaco Gold hits high grades in drilling
DiscovEx JV partner Carnaby Resources has continued to hit more high copper-gold grades at potential company maker ‘Nil Desperandum’

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Friday, June 17.

WA1 RESOURCES (ASX:WA1)

The recently listed spinout of private project generator Tali Resources has three WA exploration projects — the flagship ‘West Arunta’ plus ‘Madura’ (IOCG) and ‘Hidden Valley’ (nickel, copper, PGEs).

Iron oxide copper gold ore deposits (IOCG) — like BHP’s Olympic Dam mine or more recent Oak Dam discovery — can be huge, and simple-to-process concentrations of copper, gold and other elements like uranium.

A recent soil/rock chip sampling program at West Arunta has also highlighted rare earths anomalism.

Meanwhile, Hidden Valley contains a number of potential intrusive bodies considered prospective for Ni-Cu-PGE sulphides, à la Chalice Mining’s (ASX:CHN) Julimar.

Today, WA1 announced that non-exec director Paull Parker is stepping down due to increasing work commitments as principal technical geologist at copper miner Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR).

Is that the sort of thing that sparks a +40% share price increase? Probs not.

The leadership team still includes non-exec chair Gary Lethridge, who was CFO at the highly successful Jubilee Mines until its $3.1 billion takeover by Xstrata.

“Paull is currently principal technical geologist at Sandfire Resources Ltd and has juggled his day-to-day work commitments to support WA1 through the Initial Public Offering process and beyond,” Lethridge says.

“His contribution, initially as a technical consultant and more recently as a director, has provided an important foundation for the upcoming work programs at all of our projects.”

WA1 is down 15% on its February listing price of 20c per share. It had $4.1m in the bank at the end of March.

TURACO GOLD (ASX:TCG)

This hard drilling Cote d’Ivoire gold explorer is run by Justin Tremain, who led Exore Resources ahead of its ~$80m takeover by Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU).

He also headed Renaissance Minerals before its takeover by Asian gold producer Emerald Resources (ASX:EMR).

Today, new step out drilling results announced from ‘Nyangboue’ — part of the Boundiali project (89% owned) — included a highlight 4m @ 8.34g/t gold from 21m.

This thing is open all over the joint, TCG says, with aircore drilling also hitting a new subparallel, 400m long shallow zone of gold mineralisation immediately north of the prospect.

“These latest results demonstrate the potential to continue to extend mineralisation defined at the Nyangboue prospect, along strike, at depth and from new gold zones at surface,” Tremain says.

Assay results are pending for over 7,000 drill samples across the ‘Eburnea’ and ‘Tongon North’ projects, where drilling is ongoing.

The $30m market cap stock is down 37% in 2022. It remains well funded with ~$10m in the bank at the end of May.

AURUMIN (ASX:AUN)

(Up on no news)

The gold focused explorer-cum-mine developer recently bought the 784,000oz ‘Sandstone’ gold project from troubled Middle Island Resources (ASX:MDI) for $12m in cash and shares.

A mid-2021 study by MDI found the economics of a standalone operation at Sandstone was “marginal” at $2,500/oz.

Ouch. The stock was thumped, naturally.

But AUN sees Sandstone – which includes a processing plant — as a complementary asset to its nearby 64,700oz ‘Johnson Range’ resource, which has been amalgamated into the project.

Drilling campaigns to build resource inventory are ongoing.

The stock is also dabbling in lithium at the ‘Mt Palmer’ project, where first pass drilling recently “intersected multiple pegmatite units with an indication of fertility for lithium”.

The $15m market cap stock is down 20% year-to-date. It had $3.7m in the bank at the end of March.

PRODIGY GOLD (ASX:PRX)

The IGO-managed Lake Mackay JV with explorer PRX 400km north of Alice Springs, was first inked in 2014.

Now, the wider JV (70% IGO) has been restructured to give PRX majority interest in the gold tenements (30% IGO, 70% PRX) while retaining its 30% position in the base metal tenements.

In return, PRX will sole-fund agreed drilling programs which have now commenced “with all JV interests frozen for the duration of these programs”.

Diamond drilling at the ‘Phreaker’ prospect is underway to follow up deep hits like 4.5m @ 3.03% Cu, 1.78g/t Au and 14g/t Ag from 562m, and 17.47m @ 2.13% Cu, 0.21g/t Au and 9g/t Ag from 575.23m.

3,000m of gold drilling for gold has also commenced in two new targets near the ‘Arcee’ prospect, which returned hits like 12m at 3.79g/t gold back in 2019.

The RC drilling programs are expected to take 3-4 weeks to complete.

$6.6m market cap PRX is down 50% year-to-date. It had $4.4m in the bank at the end of March.

DISCOVEX RESOURCES (ASX:DCX)

DCX’s JV partner Carnaby Resources (ASX:CNB) has continued to hit more high copper-gold grades at potential company maker ‘Nil Desperandum’ (17.5% DCX).

“Drilling continues at Nil Desperandum, with additional favourable results outlining a ~800m long zone of coherent mineralisation,” DCX boss Toby Wellman says.

“Of particular encouragement is the southernmost hole, showing significant copper sulphides over favourable downhole widths.”

We are truly witnessing the emergence of two outstanding copper gold discoveries at Nil Desperandum and adjacent discovery ‘Lady Fanny’ (100% CNB owned), CNB managing director Rob Watkins says.

“On top of that we believe the potential for more near-term discoveries is high from the imminent start of drilling at Mount Hope and the extensive Induced Polarisation surveys which have recently commenced targeting the >5km Nil Desperandum corridor,” he says.