Resources Top 5: Punters are betting on these copper and gold stocks

All five small cap resource stocks are up on no news today
Austral Resources secured $12.8mn in funding on December 23
PolarX shares still surging after Northern Star investment

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade Wednesday, December 28.

AUSTRAL RESOURCES AUSTRALIA (ASX:AR1)

(Up on no news)

On December 23, copper producer AR1 revealed it had locked in A$12.8mn in funding from Secover, a private company controlled by the Harvey Family Office, by way of a finance facility.

AR1 says this funding will help it deal with the temporary shortfall in the Mt Kelly copper cathode plant.

A strategic alliance and payment restructuring agreement was also announced with Thiess, the global mining services provider working at the company’s Anthill Mine within the wider Lady Annie Project in northwest Queensland.

Austral will pay Thiess A$10m in December 2022, with further deferred payments to be met progressively over subsequent quarters, plus A$5 million in new AR1 ordinary shares (25 million shares, priced at A$0.20 each).

POLARX (ASX:PXX)

(Up on no news)

Shares in PXX are up 185% since the beginning of December, and 37.50% on high volumes since announcing Northern Star’s (ASX:NST) $1m investment as part of a recent placement.

The major gold miner (NST) now owns a 10pc shareholding in PXX, which is drilling Star Canyon within the wider Humboldt Range gold-silver project in Nevada.

A May 2022 drill program at Star Canyon returned a highlight 9.1m at 124.4g/t gold and 48.6g/t silver.

GREEN CRITICAL MINERALS (ASX:GCM)

(Up on no news)

The junior explorer formerly known as Chase Mining is focused on building a vertically integrated battery graphite business.

The lynchpin is its recently acquired stake in the 1.1Mt McIntosh graphite deposit in northern WA, progressed for many years by Hexagon Energy Materials (ASX:HXG).

GCM can acquire up to 80% of the project, where over $14m has already been spent on drilling and metallurgical testwork.

“McIntosh graphite is a unique, graphite project with extremely low impurities and exceptional “low cost and high yield” downstream processing attributes with the potential to produce high quality graphite products into a diverse range of premium end-use markets,” the company says.

MACARTHUR MINERALS (ASX:MIO)

(Up on no news)

Macarthur’s is focused on its flagship Lake Giles iron project in WA.

Although MIO shares are on a tear this morning, they remain down for the past 6 months (some 28.57%) due to China’s steel and Covid troubles.

ARMADA METALS (ASX:AMM)

(Up on no news)

Nickel-copper explorer Armada listed on the ASX earlier this year with a large land position covering 3,000km2 in Southern Gabon.

Guy Le Page, director at RM Corporate Finance says this stock is one to watch – its ‘Nyanga Project’ contains a number of drill ready targets and is led by managing director and CEO Dr Ross McGowan, a geologist with more than 20 years’ experience.

In November, the company made another significant step forward in its exploration after identifying more conductors across the project.

McGowan said the natural source audio magnetotelluric (NSAMT) survey delivered ‘better than expected’ results which will directly impact the next drill program.