• E2 Metals hits 16m grading 15g/t gold, 22g/t silver at the new Andrea Sur discovery
  • Drilling at RareX’s Cummins Range project pulls up a “world class intercept” of 109m at 1.6% TREO
  • Santa Fe acquires project in WA, Orion want flagship Prieska copper-zinc project to be ‘Zero Carbon’

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday November 22.

 

E2 METALS (ASX:E2M)

E2M is basking in the glow of a huge gold hit in early drilling at the new ‘Andrea Sur’ discovery, part of the Conserrat project in underexplored Argentina.

The highlight 16m grading 15g/t gold, 22g/t silver intercept came from just 31m depth.

That’s thick, extremely high grade, and shallow – the trifecta for any investor examining precious metals drilling results.

Andrea Sur is now a high-priority drill target, the company says.  Mineralisation is ‘open’ in all directions and can be traced over a 1200m strike length.

“The discovery of high-grade mineralisation at Andrea Sur is important for two reasons: Firstly, it is the westernmost discovery made to date at the Conserrat project, significantly expanding the footprint of this emerging gold and silver district,” E2M managing director Todd Williams says.

“Secondly, it turns a spotlight on adjacent structures that have never been drill tested, such as ‘Andrea’, a prospect that is host to a prominent silica alteration cap geologically similar to those that overlay mineralised epithermal veins elsewhere in the Deseado Massif, such as [major miner] Newmont’s Silica Cap deposit at Cerro Negro.”

E2M spiked hard in November last year after making a “genuine new greenfields discovery” at the Mia prospect — also at Conserrat  — where it intersected an incredible 18m at 47g/t gold and 208g/t silver.

But the hard-working $55m market cap stock has since drifted substantially lower, despite finding continued success with the drillbit. Now E2M looks to be making a comeback, with today’s result propelling it to seven-month highs.

The company had $5.2m in the bank at the end of September.

 

BRIGHTSTAR RESOURCES (ASX:BTR)

(Up on no news)

Previously known as Stone Resources, Brightstar is focussed on its namesake 445,000-ounce gold project in the Laverton region of WA.

It also owns a mothballed 330,000 tonne-per-annum processing plant, which sets it apart from most explorers on the ASX. This could potentially shorten any timeline to production.

The focus right now is growing resources at the 237,000oz ‘Cork Tree Well’ deposit, where drilling results announced earlier this month hit thick, high-grade gold and – unexpectedly – significant nickel.

Highlight results included 12m @ 4.25g/t gold from 131m, as well as 1m @ 1.6% nickel from 41m plus another metre @ 1.99% nickel from 61m in hole BTRRC077.

Because multi-element sampling (nickel results) only occurred every 20m, there’s potential for the nickel to extend between these assayed horizons. Assays are underway on the unsampled intervals, BTR says.

The gold-nickel assay results reported are from the first 26 holes of a 90-hole program, which is nearing completion.

More results should be incoming soon.

The $29m market cap stock is up 16% over the past month. It had $2.3m in the bank in early October.

 

RAREX (ASX:REE)

Latest drilling results from REE’s flagship Cummins Range rare earths project in WA has pulled up a “world class intercept” of 109m at 1.6% TREO. Other highlights include 3m at 10.6% TREO, including 1.8% high value NdPr.

More assays are pending.

These exceptional results are a game-changer for Cummins Range, managing director Jeremy Robinson says.

“The diamond drilling completed towards the end of the year has been geared towards unlocking the potential of the primary zone and showing that we have a potentially much larger and higher-grade project on our hands here,” he says.

“These results strongly vindicate that belief.

“Partial assays from CDX0011 have returned some of the highest grades ever recorded at Cummins Range, including a fantastically high-grade zone grading 10.6% TREO – rarely seen in deposits like this.

“Plus, we have a world-class 103 metre intercept in hole CDX0004, in an area where previous explorers believed the mineralization had been upgraded by weathering processes. Instead, we have a very large zone of primary mineralization, which is a very exciting development for the Project.

“We are looking forward to receiving the balance of the assays and planning our next phase of exploration at this rapidly evolving and growing deposit.”

The $50m market cap stock is up 15% over the past month. It had $3.18m in the bank at the end of September.

 

SANTA FE MINERALS (ASX:SFM)

On Friday arvo — about the time punters were getting into their first beer – sleepy explorer SFM announced a material nickel, lead and zinc project acquisition called ‘Mt Murray’ in WA.

SFM says the small 29sqkm ‘Mt Murray’ project covers a 9km-long zone of polymetallic copper-lead zinc-silver-gold mineralisation, adjacent to a 4.2km x 1.2km magnetic high zone.

This magnetic high could be a mafic-ultramafic intrusive package, prospective for nickel-copper-PGE deposits like Chalice Mining’s (ASX:CHN) ‘Julimar’.

There’s also a high-grade silver-lead target with rock chips grading up to 39.6% lead, 134g/t silver, 0.46g/t gold and 0.1% zinc.

Previous exploration has been light, comprising surface sampling with only shallow minor follow-up drilling, SFM says.

The $10m market cap stock is up 55% over the past month. It had $3.2m in the bank at the end of September.

 

ORION MINERALS (ASX:ORN)

ORN is looking to collaborate on a ‘mega scale’ renewable energy hub, paving the way for its advanced Prieska copper-zinc project in South Africa to be entirely powered by renewable energy.

Access to the Prieska Power Reserve Project could potentially help Orion achieve ‘Carbon Net-Zero’ at the Prieska project, which besides being good for the environment, has the potential to significantly reduce mine operating costs.

Recent bids by South African renewable energy providers returned an average cost of just ZAR0.473 per kilowatt hour, compared with the 2020 base cost estimate of ZAR0.93/kWh2 used in the Prieska Bankable Feasibility Study, the company says.

An initial 12-year operation at Prieska is targeting 22,000 tonnes of copper and 70,000 tonnes of zinc per year. ORN continues to work “behind the scenes” on financing and strategic partnering arrangements.

An Independent Technical Review of the updated BFS is also nearing completion.

Earlier this year the base metals explorer soared after announcing plans to acquire the Okiep copper complex (OCC), also in South Africa.

The $112m market cap stock is up 50% over the past month. It had $14.8m in the bank at the end of September.