Resources Top 5: Mamba’s taken flight with a new REE project and Odyssey’s big gold hit

Mamba Exploration signs option agreement to purchase REE rights over four exploration licences in WA
Odyssey hits a beauty 43m at 8.3g/t from 41m at the Highwayzone within the Tuckanarra JV Project
Castle Minerals relases an independent exploration target estimate at the large scale Kambale graphite deposit

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday November 28.

MAMBA EXPLORATION (ASX:M24)

This WA focused gold, nickel and copper explorer has belted out of the gates this morning after entering an option agreement to purchase REE rights over four exploration licences covering an area of 561km2 surrounding Western Australia’s wheatbelt town of Hyden.

Mamba has also applied for an additional five exploration licences covering a total of 755km2, bringing the total area covered by the Hyden Project to over 1,300km.

“Given most clay hosted REO mineralisation tends to be between 800 and 2,000ppm TREO, to have identified a zone of 46,700ppm, or 4.67 per cent TREO in clays from the very limited sampling represents a very compelling target,” M24 managing director Mike Dunbar says.

“The preliminary technical due diligence completed so far has also identified a significant gravity anomaly just to the east of the area of limited REE sampling, which suggests there is significant potential in the area, not just for clay hosted REE deposits but hard rock REE potential as well.”

The ~$6.93m market cap explorer is up 50% on the news at the time of writing and had $2.7m cash in the bank at the end of the September quarter.

ODYSSEY GOLD (ASX:ODY)

Odyssey has hit a beauty 43m at 8.3g/t from 41m at the Highwayzone within the Tuckanarra JV Project in Western Australia’s Murchison region.

It’s full of all the good stuff – thick, high-grade, and shallow.

The company says these results confirm wide intervals of oxide gold mineralisation above the high-grade shoot, providing a major boost to the project’s open pit mining potential.

“This stunning result continues to confirm the extent of wide, high-grade mineralisation which has already been intersected in the adjacent drill holes, again highlighted by this exceptional intercept,” ODY managing director Matt Briggs says.

“The first phase of the planned program has been drilled, with 21 holes now completed. Results are now highly anticipated for the remaining 15 holes, which includes four drill holes in the high-grade part of the shoot.”

This is the first stage of a 7,800m multiphase resource infill and extension RC drilling program planned to prove up thick oxide mineralisation and the high-grade shoot along 300m of strike.

CASTLE MINERALS (ASX:CDT)

CDT is one of Peak Asset Management’s Ali Ukani favourite graphite stocks with its Great Southern Project in Western Australia and Kambale Graphite Project in Ghana.

The company also has exposure to lithium, gold, zinc and lead.

This morning an independent exploration target estimate has been established at Kambale, highlighting the deposit as ‘large scale’ and one that remains open to the north and south.

The exploration target sits 16.82Mt to 50.56Mt at 6.74% TGC and 10.40% TGC.

“Phase 2 test work using samples obtained from the now underway diamond core drilling will assess if a commercial grade concentrate can be produced which would then be evaluated for possible use in the manufacture of electric vehicle battery anodes,” CDT managing director Stephen Stone says.

“A follow-on infill RC drilling program will primarily focus on defining recently confirmed multiple higher grade graphitic zones and will also facilitate a maiden JORC mineral resource for delivery around end-Q1 2023.”

NICO RESOURCES (ASX:NC1)

(Up on no news)

Nico hit the bourse back in January this year and is one of 22 stocks trading above its IPO price for 2022.

The company recently completed 10,192m of reverse circulation drilling at the Central Musgrave Project where the Wingellina portion of the program had been focused on improving the definition of the highest-grade nickel and cobalt zones within the entire resource base.

NC1 says drilling these previously defined high-grade pits is expected to provide data for mine scheduling and should enhance the early stage cashflows of the project.

Completing this program represents a key value input driver for the DFS which will begin in 2023.

Once all data is returned and validated, a resource model update will be completed for the Wingellina deposit.

TECHGEN METALS (ASX:TG1)

Shares in TG1 are up this morning on news assay results from three reverse circulation (RC) drill holes have been received.

The program was designed to test three discrete EM anomalies and intersected strongly graphitic and pyritic shales – which TG1 says explains the source of the EM anomalies.

Drilling was also undertaken down dip and along strike from previous Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM) results where historical intersections included 2m at 1.58% copper and 0.48g/t gold from 8m as well as 6m at 1.26% lead from 32m.

Field mapping and ground truthing is currently being planned to assess areas of anomalous REE rock chip samples, visit thorium and uranium target areas and airborne EM conductors.