Resources Top 5: Norfolk Metals gains a whopping +90pc on copper hits

Norfolk Metals discovers ‘native copper’ in its first hole at the Roger River Project
American West hits high-grade copper at the Storm Project in Canada
E-Metals, Bastion Minerals, and Inca Minerals up on no news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners, Thursday November 3.

NORFOLK METALS (ASX:NFL)

This explorer listed on the ASX back in March and owns the Roger River Gold Project in northwestern Tasmania where it has just discovered ‘native copper’ in its first hole.

While estimates of potential gold, copper, and/or other base metal mineralisation is yet to be confirmed, NFL says native copper was observed over discrete zones from 58.50m to 145.40m downhole comprised of disseminated to blebby copper (1-3%) hosted in altered magnetic basalt and within silica-carbonate veins in drillhole 22RRD-001.

“Norfolk’s prospectus stated that the Roger River Fault copper occurrences are poorly understood and would require work; we look forward to exploring this virgin fault via our defined targets,” NFL executive chairman Ben Phillips says.

“The preliminary results from our first drill hole indicate that the fault that splays off the Roger River Fault is fertile and validates the company’s early decision to acquire the recently granted EL17/2021.”

Norfolk Metals is up 32.50% in the past six months and finished the September quarter with ~$4.2m in the bank.

AMERICAN WEST (ASX:AW1)

~$23.7m market cap explorer AW1 is on a rise this morning after hitting high-grade copper at the Storm Project in Canada.

New significant intersections include 19m at 2.08% copper from 58m, including 2m at 15.98% copper from 70m as well as 10m at 2.36% copper from 53m and 7m at 1.08% copper from 79m.

A high volume of near-surface high-grade copper at the 2750N Zone has also been confirmed with mineralisation open to the west along a 1km prospective strike length.

AW1 managing director Dave O’Neill says the drill program has been a huge success.

“In a relatively short program, we have intersected extremely high-grade copper near-surface and likely doubled the volume of mineralisation at the 2750N Zone, and discovered a potential large, new sedimentary copper system below the near surface mineralisation,” he says.

Drill core samples from the 2022 program are being shipped to Perth for further beneficiation test work, to follow-up the initial test work that produced a Direct Shipping Ore product with a grade >53% copper.

EMETALS (ASX:EMT)

(Up on no news)

Rare earths play EMT holds several projects across WA, but it’s the 100pc owned Willi Creek project that looks like EMT’s best bet right now.

EMT has identified some 50km2 of highly radiometric granites – which is geo speak for “good chance of rare earth mineralisation”.

Willi Creek is also located in WA’s Gascoyne region; specifically, from a punter’s POV, about 70km west of Yangibana.

Yangibana is hot for the hottest metals right now (that’s REEs) where its owner, Hastings (ASX:HAS) landed a $110 million raise recently at $4.40 a share to mine it.

If that’s not enough, E-Metals’ prospects are promising enough to lure former HAS geologist Simon Cohell over as technical consultant to lead the charge.

READ: This lucky REE explorer has shanked one straight through the big sticks

BASTION MINERALS (ASX:BMO)

(Up on no news)

Bastion holds the Capote gold project, Cometa Copper-Gold and Garin Gold-Silver Projects in Chile and hopes to identify new assets with a focus on lithium, copper, REE, graphite and nickel.

The company recently appointed Murray Brooker – previous adviser to Allkem and Lithium Power International – to the team as consultant geologist to help drive BMO’s exploration activities forward.

While Chile and Peru together account for about 40% of the world’s copper production, Chile itself is also the second largest producer of lithium.

INCA MINERALS (ASX:ICG)

(Up on no news)

Back in June, Inca’s very first drill hole into ‘Mount Lamb North East’, part of the ‘Frewena’ IOCG-SEDEX project in the NT, hit a down-hole interval of +500m of Iron Oxide Copper-Gold (IOCG)-style alteration and vein/breccia-hosted sulphide mineralisation.

Iron oxide copper gold ore deposits (IOCG), like Olympic Dam, can be tremendously large and simple-to-process concentrations of copper, gold, and other economic minerals.

At the end of October, the company said its second drill hole – FXW220008 – returned a 460m interval of anomalous precious and base metals correlating with silicic, carbonate and magnetite alteration, supporting the potential for a large-scale IOCG/SEDEX discovery.

“Broad intervals of alteration and geochemistry – in addition to large scale geophysical models – underline the tier-one sized opportunity at Mount Lamb,” ICG says.