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Resources Top 5: Onya KOB – ASX explorer stakes project next to Canada’s only lithium mine, jumps 136%
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- Koba Resources stakes project right next door to Canada’s only operating lithium mine
- WA1 Resources now up ~580% in 2 days on niobium-REE discovery, takes nearby explorer Norwest Minerals along for the ride
- Trek Metals gets excited about its Tambourah lithium project in the Pilbara
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Thursday October 27.
KOBA RESOURCES (ASX:KOB)
Another day, another lithium acquisition, another re-rate.
KOB has staked a project right next door to Canada’s only operating lithium mine, Tanco, which has reserves of 7.Mt at 2.76%.
That’s high grade.
KOB’s 145km2 Whitlock project in Manitoba lies within the Bird River Greenstone belt which hosts several other significant lithium deposits, it says.
They include Separation Rapids (10.2Mt at 1.4%), Donner Lake (3.6Mt at 1.28%) and the historical Irgon mine (1.1Mt at 1.51%) where, despite construction of a 74m shaft and 366m of lateral development, no ore was processed.
Extensive pegmatites have already been mapped at Whitlock, with an initial field program to commence in the coming days.
KOB is a recent IPO spun out of New World Resources (ASX:NWC) to explore and develop its North American copper-cobalt assets.
It has five other projects: the Blackpine, Colson and Panther cobalt-copper projects in the Idaho Cobalt Belt; the Elkhorn cobalt project in the same belt; and the Goodsprings copper-cobalt project in Nevada.
“The addition of a lithium project to our portfolio of high-grade cobalt assets is a logical progression as we continue to focus on battery metals to support the EV revolution and the electrification of the global economy,” KOB boss Ben Vallerine says.
“The extensive pegmatites mapped at surface within our Whitlock Project are very promising.
“A geological team will be on the ground in the coming days to conduct a field program, to investigate and commence sampling outcropping pegmatites.”
After gaining 136% in early trade Thursday the $17m market cap company went into a trading halt pending a “clarifying announcement in relation to today’s announcement”.
WA1 RESOURCES ( WA1)
On Wednesday, the share price of explorer WA1 jumped a barely believable 420%.
It’s up another 35% in early trade Thursday for a cumulative two-day gain (so far) of ~580%.
Amazing. We haven’t seen a two-day leap like this since the heady ‘stay at home and gamble on the market because COVID’ days of 2020.
Yesterday it announced the discovery a niobium-rare earths carbonatite mineralised system at the West Arunta project in WA.
Niobium is a critical mineral mainly used to make steel better, but also has growing uses in lithium-ion batteries, intelligent glass, solar panels, 5G tech, and nuclear energy.
Ferroniobium metal (65% Nb) currently sells for ~US$45,000/t.
WA1’s only drillhole into the P2 target, part of the Pachpadra prospect area, pulled up 54m at 0.62% niobium, 0.18% rare earths and 3.85% phosphorus from 162m.
The 216m-long hole ended in 2m at 1.22% Nb2O5, 0.22% TREO, and 5.73% P2O5.
Those are good numbers.
For reference, there are three major niobium mines in the world; two are very high grade (between 1% and 2.5% ore grade), while the third sits at around 0.5%.
Meanwhile, the Panda Hill niobium project, previously owned by Cradle Resources (ASX:CXX), had an ore reserve grade of 0.68%, while Globe Metals and Mining’s (ASX:GBE) advanced Kanyika project has a resource of 68Mt at a grade of 0.283%.
The fact that WA1’s hole finishes in material grading 1.22% means this thing could be getting better at depth. P2 also extends for 3km and has significant future exploration potential, WA1 says.
There are also other untested anomalies within the project area, which could now represent further targets for this style of mineralisation, Savich says.
NORWEST MINERALS (ASX:NWM)
Feeling the nearology love is $10m market cap explorer NWM, which has a rare earths-lithium-IOCG project ~60km away from WA1 called Arunta West (not West Arunta, don’t get them confused).
In the June quarter the company completed a program of field mapping, rock chip collection, and infill soil sampling.
A staged drilling program across the REE, structural gold and IOCG target anomalies is planned to commence this month.
Great timing.
In a phone call with Stockhead, NWM boss Charles Schaus also said the company was now examining some WA1 discovery lookalikes on its own tenure for priority testing.
Other listed explorers with ground in the area include Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR), whose Aileron project abuts the WA1 discovery, and Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI), which holds a minority 15% stake in some nearby exploration tenements.
SARAMA RESOURCES (ASX:SRR)
(Up on no news)
“The cheapest stocks on the market look like the West African gold explorers [for] those brave punters who want to take a countercyclical investment,” Stockhead columnist Guy le Page said today.
One of these explorers is $27m market cap TSX-ASX listed SRR, which owns the 2.9Moz Sanutura project in southwest Burkina Faso.
Funds from a recent ASX IPO are being used for first major drill program in five years, with 50,000m of mostly extensional drilling planned in the next 12 months.
The gold explorer is led by MD Andrew Dinning, former COO at Moto Gold Mines, which outlined the 22Moz Kibali gold mine in the DRC and flipped it to Randgold (now Barrick) and AngloGold Ashanti for US$600 million in 2009.
READ: The Small Cap +1Moz Gold Club: A Guide, Part 2
TREK METALS (ASX:TKM)
TKM has confirmed the presence of spodumene at its Tambourah lithium project in the Pilbara “within an extensive pegmatite system which has never been drill tested”.
“The Tambourah Project is an exceptional greenfields lithium exploration opportunity, located in the heart of one of the world’s premier mining districts,” CEO Derek Marshall says.
“Despite its Tier-1 location, the Project has never had a single drill hole into it – a remarkable opportunity for Trek!”
TKM is now in the process of defining targets and progressing agreements and approvals to get drill rigs spinning ASAP.
“Given the current and forecasted demand for lithium, we intend to elevate this project as a priority opportunity for Trek within our battery metals focused portfolio,” Marshall says.
TKM also announced today that the court had approved the acquisition of Edge Minerals and its Hendeka manganese project in the Pilbara.
