Resources Top 5: Mining magnate Nathan Tinkler invests in Canadian coal junior at 70% premium, shares fly

Tinkler will hold 19.92% of $30m market cap met coal project developer Jameson
Trek picks up high grade lithium in rock chips, Canadian lithium stock Winsome up 160% since late October
Alicanto hits multiple zones of massive to semi-massive zinc, lead, copper sulphides, disseminated zinc mineralisation, along with some native silver

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday November 7.

JAMESON RESOURCES (ASX:JAL)

Bouncing back from his unsuccessful takeover attempt of Australian Pacific Coal (ASX:AQC) is magnate Nathan Tinkler, who will snap up $10m in JAL shares at a 70% premium to the 15-day VWAP.

Tinkler, via his companies Oceltip Coal 1 and 2, will hold 19.92% of the $30m market cap met coal project developer.

JAL’s main game is the Crown Mountain steelmaking coal project in Canada, which is currently advancing through the environmental approvals and permitting process.

A 2020 BFS envisaged a “compelling high quality hard coking coal development opportunity” at production cash costs of US$93.17/t and pre-production capital US$351m.

Tinkler says there is a distinct lack of quality steelmaking coal projects that are being developed to meet long term demand.

“The Elk Valley Coal Measures in British Columbia, where Crown Mountain is located, rank alongside the Moranbah Coal Measures in Queensland’s Bowen Basin as two leading sources of premium low-volatile hard coking coal keenly sought by the world’s leading steelmakers,” he says.

“I have followed the progress of the development of Crown Mountain for a number of years and am very satisfied that the Jameson management team has progressed the project to being clearly one of the most advanced steelmaking coal development projects in Canada.

“Having previously worked closely with Ms Hollows and Mr Gray on the successful Middlemount Mine development, I am very confident that the Jameson Board, and the management team in Canada, has the right critical development skills to progress the permitting, financing, and development of Crown Mountain.

“The progress and premium quality of Crown Mountain provides Jameson as an ideal platform for other steelmaking coal development opportunities.”

WINSOME RESOURCES (ASX:WR1)

(Up on no news)

Volatile lithium stock WR1 has been flying all over the joint since announcing a “significant pegmatite intercept” late October at the Adina project in Canada.

All up, 160m of pegmatite was intercepted in drilling below the recently discovered, well mineralised Jamar outcrop at Adina, it said late October.

“While the Company expects the return of assays from the laboratory to take approximately 6-7 weeks, visual inspection of diamond drill core samples from Adina show the pegmatites to be consistent with previously reported surface mineralisation,” it said.

Since then, the $132m market cap stock is up 160%.

In response to a November 2 price query from the ASX, WR1 said: “With this series of encouraging exploration results being made public, there appears to be a recognition that WR1’s market capitalisation is low when compared with many of its peers in the lithium exploration market.”

The 12,000m drilling program currently underway will culminate in a maiden resource at the Adina and Cancet projects in 2023.

ALICANTO MINERALS (ASX:AQI)

The first hole into the Skyttgruvan-Naverberg target — part of the Greater Falun project in Sweden — hit multiple zones of massive to semi-massive zinc, lead, copper sulphides within a broad zone of disseminated zinc mineralisation, along with some native silver.

Skyttgruvan-Naverberg is 3.5km from the historic Falun mine, which produced 28Mt at 4% copper, 4g/t gold, 5% zinc, 2% lead and 35g/t silver.

Falun was one of the great mines of Europe, operating for nearly 1,000 years before it closed in 1992.

Since it closed little to no modern exploration has been undertaken, AQI says.

Results from this hole are due before the end of the quarter. Based on the visual mineralisation seen to date, a second diamond drillhole has commenced to target extensions of the mineralisation system.

“While still early days, to hit multiple zones of polymetallic massive sulphide in our first drill hole at one of our priority targets at the Greater Falun Project is a great result,” AQI managing director Rob Sennitt says.

“This result, along strike from the historic Falun Mine, builds on our thesis that the Greater Falun Project is part of a major mineralised belt that forms part of a significant mining district in the region.

“We have already commenced a follow-up hole to further identify the scope and extent of this discovery.”

BOAB METALS (ASX:BML)

(Up on no news)

BML owns the Sorby Hills project in WA, Australia’s largest undeveloped, near-surface lead-silver deposit with resources of 52Moz silver and 1.5Mt lead.

A DFS – the most advanced on economic studies – is nearing completion in Q4.

A PFS released in 2020 envisaged a 50,000tpa lead, 1,5Mozpa silver operation costing $183m to build.

With average annual EBITDA of $75m over the initial 10-year mine life it would take just 1.6 years to pay back.

Offtake and financing discussions are well advanced, the $50m market cap company said last week.

TREK METALS (ASX:TKM)

TKM is picking rocks chips grading up to 3% lithium at the Tambourah project in the Pilbara region of WA.

The company has now delineated multiple stacked pegmatites outcropping at surface extending over an area of at least 4km2.

These have never been drill tested, TKM says, “highlighting a significant opportunity to make a greenfields lithium discovery”.

“We are looking forward to advancing the project to the next stage with the definition of drill targets and progressing agreements and approvals required to get a rig turning as soon as practicable,” CEO Derek Marshall says.

“Given the extremely strong short and medium term outlook for lithium demand, we intend to elevate this project as a priority focus within our battery metals-focused portfolio.”

TKM has one of the most experienced lithium boards on the ASX in Neil Biddle, John Young and Tony Leibowitz, who took Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) from sub-$10m shell to +$1bn lithium miner in under five years.

The $30m market cap stock is up 50% over the past week.