Resources Top 5: Noronex’s new Namibian copper find excites

Noronex step-out drilling intersects new copper-silver discovery at Fiesta project
Aldoro slapped with ASX price/volume query as investors await assays from Kameelburg niobium drilling
CZR closing in on February 28 deadline for sale of Robe Mesa iron ore project after interminable FIRB delays

Your standout small cap resources stocks for Monday, February 24, 2025.

NORONEX (ASX:NRX)

There are few commodities where new discoveries generate excitement quite like copper, where a major find is likely to put any junior in the cross-hairs of a larger predator.

The latest exuberant share run has come from Noronex, which was up over 30% past 2.30pm AEDT after a ‘major 500m stepout’ caught copper and silver mineralisation at the Fiesta project in Namibia.

Any find in that part of the world is significant. The Kalahari copper belt is the fastest growing new copper district in the world, with its sediments hosting the large Khoemacau and Motheo mines.

The latter is owned by Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) , where Noronex chief geo Bruce Hooper previously worked, leading BD on the acquisition of Motheo owner MOD.

Now a 55,000tpa copper mine, MOD made the crucial T3 discovery with a 51m at 2% copper hit in March 2016, at a time when prices were on the nose.

They’re now flying, briefly touching US$4.80/lb this month.

It’s a great time for NRX to hit 5m at 1.4% Cu and 58g/t silver from 249m and 33m at 0.8% Cu and 31g/t Ag from 265m in hole 25FIERC23 at Fiesta. Diamond drilling has been planned to head deeper, with the strikes coming close to the end of the hole.

“Extending the Fiesta mineralisation by over half a kilometre with such impressive copper and silver results right to the end of the hole is a major step forward in defining the potential size of this system,” Hooper said.

“Our next step will be to undertake diamond drilling to test the full width and style of mineralisation, as well as seeking to further extend the strike as the system remains completely open to the west.”

The exploration has been funded via an earn-in agreement from major South32 (ASX:S32) , showing there’s already strong interest from the big end of town.

NRX is hosting an investor webinar tomorrow, February 25.

Aldoro Resources (ASX:ARN)

(Up on no news)

Despite a lack of any news, Aldoro was smacked with a speeding ticket by the ASX relating to a big increase in its share price with high volumes today.

The company noted in its response that it had on January 20 announced that sampling at its Kameelburg project had confirmed the entire 436m of Line 6 and 126m of Line 4 are mineralised with niobium and appear open in both directions.

Average grades are 0.45% Nb2O5 and 0.42% Nb2O5 at Line 6 and 4 respectively.

It had added then that diamond drilling at the project was progressing well and that assays for the initial four holes were expected to be announced in February, which could account for the interest that punters are showing in the stock.

Making a big niobium find will be hugely lucrative for the company as the metal is increasingly seeing developing uses outside of its traditional use in making high-strength, low-alloy steel.

One notable example is its use as a superconductor material in battery applications where niobium titanium oxide is being explored as a next generation anode material for large scale energy storage.

ARN also suggested in its price query response that a non-commissioned article proving an investment overview that was released by the Hong Kong Mining Club on February 20 might also have played a role.

Cosmos Exploration (ASX:C1X)

Cosmos has started testing synthetic brine at Vulcan Energy Resources’ (ASX:VUL) state-of-the-art testing facility in Germany to refine extraction parameters ahead of future bench and pilot-scale evaluation of brine samples from Salar de Coipasa, Salar de Empexa and Salar de Pastos Grandes projects in Bolivia, which are currently in transit.

Early stage data from this test will assess the performance of Vulcan’s proprietary VULSORB adsorption-type direct lithium extraction technology with the major chemistry of Bolivian lithium brines.

“The commencement of synthetic brine testing at Vulcan’s facility represents a major milestone in our lithium extraction strategy,” executive chairman Jeremy Robinson said.

“This work allows us to finetune extraction parameters ahead of testing our Bolivian brine samples, ensuring we maximise efficiency in assessing the commercial viability of Vulcan’s VULSORB technology.”

C1X has an exclusive option agreement to acquire private Australian-based lithium development company EAU, which owns the three Bolivian projects. The country

Dreadnought Resources (ASX:DRE)

(Up on no news)

Dreadnought is focused on transforming itself into a self-funded explorer by developing its high-grade Star of Mangaroon project, which has an initial resource of 23,300oz of contained gold at an average grade of 12.8g/t, 84% of which is in the higher confidence indicated category.

A scoping study has indicated the project could deliver ~$40m in free cashflow using a $4100/oz gold price.

Besides the target open pit that remains open at depth and along strike, the project also has camp-scale potential with five historical mines and multiple gold workings along structural corridors.

Mining agreements are already granted while Black Cat Syndicate (ASX:BC8) recently bought a $1m equity stake in the company to secure first right to negotiate a gold development agreement for Star of Mangaroon and surrounds.

DRE also holds the Gifford Creek Carbonatite Complex where wide-spaced drilling over a quarter of the 17km long carbonatite has already identified multiple zones of critical metal mineralisation.

CZR Resources (ASX:CZR)

(Up on no news)

While CZR had no news out today, the company had noted on January 24 that it had extended to the deadline for its transaction to sell the Robe Mesa iron ore project to Miracle Iron for $102m to February 28, the end of this week.

By iron ore standards Robe Mesa is tiny, with forecast output of 3-5Mtpa – a rounding error when it comes to the Pilbara’s iron ore production. But the sale has curiously been stuck in foreign investment approval hell for over a year, delaying gratification for shareholders keen on the payout.

CZR is notably majority owned by Mark Creasy, the billionaire prospector whose roles in the Bronzewing, Jundee, Nova and, most recently, Andover discoveries made him WA’s best known solo explorer.

It had noted then that the final material condition precedent for the sale was approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board, which had advised that it was unable to complete its assessment of the application and had requested a further extension to the statutory deadline to February 28.

However, the delay is strange given the sale of the nearby Paulsens East project by Strike Resources (ASX:SRK) to a linked company of Miracle Iron was completed in March last year.

Miracle Iron is owned by Chinese businessman Chuanshui (Frank) Yin – a long-term resident of Australia.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.