Resources Top 5: Lithium minnow spikes +130% on big lithium upgrade

• Arcadia Minerals increases Bitterwasser lithium resources by 560%
• Auking Mining uncovers new copper discovery near established 4.8Mt resource
• Horseshoe (copper, gold, rare earths), Athena (iron ore) and Golden Rim (gold) up on no news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Wednesday August 24.

ARCADIA MINERALS (ASX:AM7)

Arcadia Minerals hit record highs today after boosting resources by +560% to 287,000t LCE at the flagship Bitterwasser lithium clay project in Namibia.

That’s the equivalent to a 1% lithium hard rock resource of 11.6Mt, the company says. Not bad for a $20m market cap stock.

The near surface orebody remains ‘open’, which means AM7 hasn’t found the edges yet.

“This resource is within the first 12m from surface, open at depth and covers only one of the known 14 exposed clay pans in the area, so these factors along with the potential for further pans obscured by mobile Kalahari dunes, have the potential to expand the Bitterwasser lithium resource substantially,” CEO Philip le Roux says.

A large-scale test work program is now underway to find the best way to produce a battery grade lithium carbonate product. Early signs are promising, le Roux says.

“The recently announced Cyclone Test Work and early tests around leachability of the ore using environmentally friendly and low cost lixiviants, suggests the potential of feeding a comparatively competitive leach plant with higher grade material,” he says.

“This will now be investigated through our association with the University of Stellenbosch in producing a bench-scale lithium carbonate product for battery grade use.”

A work program to also explore Bitterwasser for lithium brines is progressing well, the company says, details of which will be announced shortly.

AM7 is the second lithium hopeful to rerate on a resource upgrade this week, after US based Anson Resources (ASX:ASN) lifted its JORC resource by 324% to 788,300t of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE), paving the way for development.

AM7 – which listed mid-2021 at 20c per share – has well and truly erased any 2022 losses to be up 80% year-to-date.

It had ~$3m in the bank at the end of June.

AUKING MINING (ASX:AKN)

More copper!

Emerging copper discoveries are coming thick and fast for ASX juniors.

That’s good news. According to the experts we’re going to need all of it.

AKN says the first nine holes of a 13-hole drilling program have hit “significant” near surface copper mineralisation at the Cosmo prospect, part of the 8.9 million tonne Koongie Park copper-zinc project in WA.

Despite being a stone’s throw (~500m) from the open pittable 4.8Mt Onedin deposit, the Cosmo area has largely been untested by exploration and drilling.

“The discovery at Cosmo, while still at very early stages of an unexplored system, was very encouraging especially due to its proximity to the existing Onedin deposit and its potential to add more resource tonnes to Koongie Park,” AKN CEO Paul Williams says.

Further drilling is now planned at Cosmo before the end of 2022.

The $12m market cap stock is down 11% year-to-date. It had $3m in the bank at the end of June.

GOLDEN RIM RESOURCES (ASX:GMR)

(Up on no news)

The beleaguered West African gold explorer is having a shocker in 2022, down ~63% year-to-date.

Last week, plans to sell the non-core 2Moz Kouri and Babonga gold projects in Burkina Faso for US$15.5m were torpedoed when the buyer withdrew.

GMR “will continue to seek opportunities for these projects”, it says, as well as the 2.4Mt Paguanta copper and silver-lead-zinc project in Chile.

Golden Rim’s focus shifted to its flagship Kada Gold Project in the Siguiri Basin of Guinea in 2020.

“Funds from the sale of Kouri would have enabled more rapid exploration progress at Kada however the company remains committed to bringing exploration success at this exciting project,” it says.

Kouri has a resource of 25.5Mt at 1.1g/t gold for 930,000oz, the majority of which is shallow oxide mineralisation.

ATHENA RESOURCES (ASX:AHN)

(Up on no news)

AHN is focused on the ‘Byro’ project in WA, which includes iron ore, copper, PGE, and graphite targets.

In late May, resource drilling kicked off to upgrade the old ‘FE1’ magnetite iron ore resource to JORC 2012 standards – a must-have for ASX listed explorers.

Assays are pending.

The $15m market cap stock – which relisted on the ASX November last year following a period in bourse purgatory — is up 30% in 2022.

HORSESHOE METALS (ASX:HOR)

(Up on no news)

Last week, a maiden 19-hole, 1,500m drilling campaign kicked off at the Glenloth goldfield project, near Barton Gold’s 1Moz Tunkillia project in the Gawler Craton of South Australia.

A bunch of gold targets are in the crosshairs, as well as Specimen Flat which is prospective for rare earths.

Samples will be routinely submitted to the labs, which have a turnaround time of about six weeks.

The $16m market cap stock is down 35% year-to-date. It had $2.2m in the bank at the end of June.