Resources Top 5: Oil-to-renewables company, new ASX gold miner, and copper explorer jump early

• Investors applaud oil company Pilot Energy’s transition to a renewable energy company
• Westar Resources performs well after debut this week on ASX and $5m IPO
• Gold explorers Canterbury Resources and Cauldron Energy also did well in early trade

Here are your top ASX small cap resources winners in morning trade Thursday, December 17.

An early winner in ASX Thursday trading is Pilot Energy (ASX:PGY), an oil and gas company that is transforming into a developer of renewable energy.

The company has not issued any fresh news since its annual report on Monday, but its shares reacted well to the change in business model.

Pilot Energy has existing oil production from WA’s Cliff Head offshore field and it has identified new business opportunities in renewable energy sources.

These include the option of developing a renewable energy and hydrogen project in Mid-West WA, and a hydrogen and carbon capture and storage project in South-West WA.

Both locations are attractive for wind power generation due to the relatively high speed of coastal winds along the WA coastline.

“Pilot is well funded to pursue feasibility world-class offshore wind and onshore wind and solar projects supplying the Mid-West and South-West regions with underlying sustaining cashflow from the Royal Energy acquisition,” said the company in its presentation.

The company also said in its presentation that technological advances have dramatically reduced the cost of solar and wind power projects and made them attractive for investment.

Hydrogen is also becoming a low-cost source for power generation with its cost falling below that of coal and natural gas.

Cauldron Energy (ASX:CXU) took off in morning trading without putting out any news. Its last update to the market was a drilling report in mid-November.

The explorer is pursuing a project in Victoria’s Blackwood Goldfield that produced 218,000 ounces of gold between 1864 and 1960.

Gold in the company’s exploration tenements was found to a depth of 60m, but very little mining has occurred below 150m.

The Sultan gold mine is the deepest in the goldfield with production to a depth of 230m below surface and a shaft reaching to 274m in depth.

Cauldron said in a November presentation that its Blackwood gold project contains exceptional prospects and a high potential for early cashflow.

The explorer said it has access to capital markets in Australia and Shanghai, and has experience in narrow, high-grade gold systems.

The Blackwood project is within Victoria’s Bendigo gold zone, which has produced 22 million ounces at 15 grams per tonne gold.

Cauldron Energy has $1m of investments on its balance sheet in ASX companies including iron ore stocks Cape Lambert Resources (ASX:CFE) and FE Limited (ASX:FEL), and European Lithium (ASX:EUR).

Westar Resources (ASX:WSR) gained after its successful IPO that raised $5m and its re-admission to the ASX on Wednesday.

The company has a joint venture agreement with gold miner Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) for its two Southern Cross projects in WA.

Exploration company Westar also has five other gold projects in WA, Opaline Well in the Pilbara, Winjangoo and Coolaloo as its Mt Magnet projects, and Gidgee South and North as its Sandstone projects.

“We saw strong demand in marketing the IPO, including from a number of institutions, and closed the offer within two weeks,” managing director Karl Jupp told Stockhead.

“I believe investors recognised the quality of the assets and that the business had been priced attractively with an enterprise value of only $5 million,” he added.

Shares in Strategic Energy Resources (ASX:SER) picked up speed in early Thursday trade, after a flurry of corporate activity this week.

This included striking an agreement with Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML) for an option to purchase its Benmara copper project in the Northern Territory.

The option was secured for 2.5m of its shares, and Strategic Energy Resources will pay $250,000 in cash if exercised.

Benmara is along strike from the Walford Creek copper-gold-lead-zinc-cobalt deposit on the Northern Territory’s Fish River Fault.

Several mining companies operate in the region including BHP (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO).

“The Benmara project is complementary to our nearby Wollogorang project, which is highly prospective for sedimentary hosted battery metals copper and cobalt,” managing director, Duncan Chessell, said.

Gold explorer Canterbury Resources (ASX:CBY) continued to bask in the glow of its disposal this week of copper and gold projects in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu.

The Vanuatu assets have been acquired by New Talisman Gold Mines (ASX:NTL) as the New Zealand exploration company steps into the Pacific islands.

The assets cover an exploration licence application covering the Navaka or Ora prospect on the island of Espiritu Santo.

Canterbury Resources is choosing to focus on its portfolio of gold assets in Papua New Guinea and Australia.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Resolution Minerals and Westar Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.