Resources Top 5: More ASX clay REErates as falling rare earths prices fail to deter investors

Moho Resources hits clay hosted REE grades up to 1890ppm in maiden drilling the Peak Charles project
Narryer Metals pegs new clay REE project in WA’s Great Southern
Up on no news: Heavy Rare Earths, Astro Resources, Killi Resources

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Thursday April 20.

MOHO RESOURCES (ASX:MOH)

A near 100% gain in early trade for explorer MOH, the latest to rerate on a clay-hosted rare earths acquisition, discovery, or solid set of drill results.

Western companies have next to no experience with this type of rare earths deposit, and the Chinese (who dominate production) keep their hard-earned IP close to their chest.

But we have seen a plethora of discoveries by ASX stocks in recent times, and punters are loving it, despite falling REE prices.

MOH today announced clay hosted REE grades up to 1890ppm Total Rare Earth Oxides (TREO) in maiden drilling at the Peak Charles project, in the clay REE hub of southern WA.

The project is next door to ground held by OD6 Metals (ASX:OD6), which announced bonanza grades up to 6605ppm “with extensive clay thickness of between 20 and 80m” at the Splinter Rock project earlier this week.

“Moho believes the identified target zone of 15 x 12km thus far, with further room for growth across the tenement package, puts the company in a positive position in the REE market in Australia,” MOH MD Ralph Winter says.

Follow up drilling is now being planned, with this maiden 81-hole (av depth: 22m) campaign restricted to road reserves and existing tracks due to limited land access.

The $5.2m capped stock is up 60% year-to-date. It had $365,000 in the bank at the end of December.

NARRYER METALS (ASX:NYM)

Meanwhile, NYM has pegged a new clay REE project in the Great Southern called Corackerup, which adjoins extensive exploration tenure held by Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG).

NYM says Corackerup contains anomalous REEs in basement rocks and clays – “two key ingredients to provide host for ionic clay adsorption (ICA) REE mineralisation”.

Historic drilling pulled up thick intersections in multiple drill holes, including a highlight 114m at 1127ppm TREO and 280ppm MREO (Magnet Rare Earth Oxide) from 4m.

“The two factors that drew Narryer to this area were: 1) that limited historic drilling has shown that gneissic rocks are enriched in REE; and 2) the GSWA mapping and open file EM data, indicates this geological unit to be widespread in the new tenure and has areas of lateritic clay development – an important factor in the hosting ICA REE mineralisation,” NYM MD Gav England says.

“During a recent visit, sampling weathered granite containing 0.3% TREO has been a good start to the exploration.”

NYM will now map clay areas, which will be followed by surface sampling – focused along roadsides for easy access — and drilling.

NYM also has a REE project called Rocky Gully in the Great Southern region, where there is evidence of a “high value” hard rock carbonatite system.

The $3.5m capped stock, which listed on the ASX last year, is down 30% in 2023. It had $2.3m in the bank at the end of December.

HEAVY RARE EARTHS (ASX:HRE)

(Up on no news)

HRE continues to hit thick, high-grade clay REEs at the 28Mt Cowalinya project, also in the Great Southern of WA, including 8m @ 3057ppm TREO from 27m.

159m mineralised intercepts have now been logged in the newly discovered 13sqkm Western Zone, which has the potential “to host a material increase in rare earths resources”, the company says.

Assays are pending from 36 holes. Once received, the process to update the resource will commence.

There are also assays outstanding for 41 exploration holes drilled ~15km from the Western Zone.

These will be excluded from the updated resource estimate, “but may present new rare earth target areas for subsequent definition drilling”.

The $8m capped stock is up 10% year-to-date. It had $3.5m in the bank at the end of December.

KILLI RESOURCES (ASX:KLI)

Now for some non-REE news from KLI, which is drilling its Rocky gold prospect in Queensland.

Rocky, part of the Ravenwood North project, has two targets with a similar ‘signature’ to big gold deposits 43km along strike (Mt Wright and Ravenswood), the company says.

A first-ever drill program late 2022 returned hints of the good stuff, including highlights like 1m @ 3.22g/t Au from 105m, 2m @ 1.58g/t Au from 177m and 7m @ 0.77g/t from 177m.

Five RC holes plus two diamond tails are planned for ~1,300m to effectively test the intrusive targets.

“The drill program has been designed from the results of the processing of the VTEM geophysics which has identified two distinct intrusive targets,” KLI CEO Kathryn Cutler says.

“The first holes completed last year demonstrate we are within a gold mineralised system.

“This program is designed to further test the specific traps for gold mineralisation with the granodiorite.

“The drill program has commenced, and we look forward to reporting the results in the coming months.”

The $2m capped stock – which also owns a REE project next to Northern Minerals’ (ASX:NTU) Browns Range in the WA Kimberley — is down 50% year-to-date. It had $1.8m in the bank at the end of December.

ASTRO RESOURCES (ASX:ARO)

(Up on no news)

In March, the lithium-IOCG explorer stacked the board with Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) alumni and expanded its landholding in Nevada.

Tony Leibowitz, the founding chairman of ASX50 lithium producer PLS, has been appointed to executive chairman in a role which will see him “take a hands-on approach”.

Meanwhile, geologist John Young has been appointed to non-executive director. Young held several key roles at PLS between 2014-2018.

The company also nabbed two new early-stage lithium-in-clay projects named Polaris and Altair, where drill planning is well advanced.

Meanwhile, assays indicate that ARO may have hit the edge of a mineralised IOCG system at the 80%-owned Georgina project in the NT.

Iron oxide copper gold ore deposits (IOCG) — like BHP’s Olympic Dam mine or more recent Oak Dam discovery — can be deep but tremendously large, simple-to-process concentrations of copper, gold and other economic minerals.

The $15.5m capped stock is down 25% year-to-date. It had $2.5m in the bank at the end of December and completed a $4.8m placement in early April.