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Mining
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Friday November 11.
The explorer has picked up surface samples grading up to 12.5% rare earths at Vulcan, part of the Golden Grove North project.
Surface, or geochemical, sampling is one of the first exploration methods used to dial in on the most prospective areas for drilling.
The real proof will come when VMS punches some holes into Vulcan, which has now been prioritised for follow-up work.
A historic hole looking for Volcanic Massive Sulfide style deposits adjacent to Vulcan did hit anomalous (low grade) REEs, “but the hole was not drilled deep enough to test this new target”, VMS says.
“The discovery of very high-grade rare-earth mineralisation at one of our VMS prospects at Golden Grove North, effectively doubles the company’s exposure to the rare earth space, as it follows our recent rare earth discovery at Mount Lindsay,” VMS managing director Andrew Radonjic says.
In September, the company uncovered shallow clay hosted rare earths next to existing tin zones at the flagship 81,000t (of tin metal) Mount Lindsay project in Tasmania.
Maiden drilling is already underway.
Last month it was WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) firing up punters with a large potential discovery; now it is OD6’s turn.
$30m market cap OD6 is currently up 160% since announcing “some of the highest grades and thickest clay-hosted rare earth intersections seen in Australia” yesterday.
The first 65 holes of a completed 179-hole program at Splinter Rock in WA returned grades up to 6,729ppm total rare earths oxides (TREO) across four significant prospects, each 4-7km long and 10m-80m thick.
Assays contain large proportions of magnet rare earths, high value NdPr and heavy REEs.
“The extent and consistency of these shallow, high-grade clays have resulted in four significant prospects being identified that are between four and seven kilometres in width which are open in length, on our 2,579km2 Splinter Rock project,” OD6 managing director Brett Hazelden says.
“Importantly, these drill results validate historic assays, plus they extend the discovery of clay-hosted rare earths across a new drill line perpendicular to the original line.
“This bodes well for future drilling, which we anticipate will significantly grow the known mineralised area.”
Splinter Rock could be a world class asset, Hazelden says.
“The scale of these clays is hard to comprehend when you start talking multiple kilometres in one direction at a thickness of between 10 to 30m,” he says.
“The potential is massive.”
(Up on no news)
Sprott-backed KZR has gold and lithium projects at various stages of exploration and development in WA, Victoria, and NSW.
The 1.6Moz (and growing) Ashburton project in the Pilbara is its most advanced, with an updated resource estimate due out in the current quarter, alongside a project scoping study.
Meanwhile, drilling was completed last quarter across the Dom’s Hill and Marble Bar lithium projects (~4,000m) and the Mallina West gold project (2,500m), also in the Pilbara.
The all-important assays are pending.
Yesterday, the junior explorer announced the upcoming appointment of veteran gold boss Mark Connelly.
Connelly worked for Newmont, one of the world’s biggest gold companies, and was involved in the development and sale of Papillon Resources for ~US$570M, and the ~US$597M consolidation of Endeavour Mining with Adamus Resources.
Connelly is also chairman at WA gold producer Calidus Resources (ASX:CAI), African explorer Chesser Resources (ASX:CHZ) and WA project developer Alto Metals (ASX:AME).
AWV’s main game is the Big Springs project in Nevada, which produced ~386,000oz between 1987 and 1993, when mining ceased due to the gold price environment.
The project is 20km north of the ‘Jerritt Canyon’ gold mine, which has produced over 10Moz since 1981 with a remaining resource of 1.2Moz.
In 2014, a 1Moz JORC resource was established at Big Springs, which included a 415,000oz high grade component (ore grade of 4g/t).
AWV believes there is a lot more to find here. A resource update is now almost complete, including the integration of all drilling carried out since June 2014.
(Up on no news)
GSM is hunting for gold and lithium deposits in the Pilbara.
GSM’s recent exploration efforts at the Yule project have focused on lithium, with its latest campaign uncovering some targets based on the presence of LCT pegmatite pathfinders.
GSM’s increasing confidence in its lithium potential at Yule led it to dub the target area Nomad – an upgrade from its previous moniker ‘Target 2A’.
Priority drilling programs are now in planning for Nomad.
In the meantime, Golden State has turned its attention to the recently acquired Payne’s Find lithium project in the Murchison, where regional geochemical work is underway.
READ: Late on lithium? Here are some explorers with big battery dreams
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