Resources Top 5: Punters are feasting on this mixed bag of salt, kaolin, lithium, base metals and gold explorers

• Fin Resources announces acquisition, aims to become “major supplier in the lucrative yet stable global salt market”
• Testwork confirms high quality kaolin product at Accelerate’s Tambellup project in WA
• Rumble Resources raises $40m to test “scale and extent” of the major Earaheedy zinc-lead discovery.

Here are the biggest small cap resources movers in early trade, Wednesday April 28.

FIN RESOURCES (ASX:FIN)

Fin is acquiring 80% of a salt exploration project, right next door to an existing successful salt mine near Onslow in northern WA.

The 425sqkm North Onslow Solar Salt Project, located in an established salt producing region, is the subject of a scoping study that is currently being updated.

Results are expected in the third quarter of 2021.

“With abundant solar and wind energy as well as proximity to infrastructure and markets, we hope the project will become a major supplier in the lucrative yet stable global salt market,” Fin Resources director Jason Bontempo says.

ACCELERATE RESOURCES (ASX:AX8)

Kaolin is another commodity popular with punters right now.

It’s used in everything — paper, rubber, paint, ceramics, fibreglass, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals are just some notable examples, with about 5kg of kaolin also used in the manufacture of each car.

Fresh test work confirms potential for a high quality kaolin product at Accelerate’s Tambellup project in WA.

“The company’s 2020 drilling campaign confirmed the presence of near surface kaolin mineralisation,” managing director Yaxi Zhan says.

“Following from the initial success, the company has carried out detailed metallurgical testwork and verified that white kaolin could be extracted from the kaolinised granite by wet screening below 45 microns.

“[The] company will carry out industry standard bulk sample testing in China which will provide valuable information and samples to assist the company with identifying end user specifications and potential markets.”

Plans are also underway to establish a JORC resource estimate.

RUMBLE RESOURCES (ASX:RTR)

Rumble will raise ~$40m via placement at 50c per share to “test the scale and extent” of the major Earaheedy zinc-lead discovery.

“The Placement provides the company with the resources to fully scope the major discovery, including a significantly scaled up diamond core and RC drilling program set to commence over the coming weeks and to begin initial metallurgical test work and other studies,” it says.

The stock is now up 480% over the past month.

LEPIDICO (ASX:LPD)

The lithium play signed a Non-Binding Letter of Intent – which usually comes before a binding deal — for supply of lithium hydroxide and sulphate of potash (SOP), plus other products, from its planned Phase 1 project in Abu Dhabi.

The potential buyer is Bisley, a multinational distributor of industrial raw materials to the ANZ region, South East Asia, the Middle East, the US & Canada.

“The relationship with Bisley fits with the company’s lithium marketing strategy to supply industrial users and lithium-ion battery supply chain manufacturers via direct sales agreements, with a smaller proportion of output allocated to other industrial users and spot market sales via agency agreement to broaden the customer base,” Lepidico managing director Joe Walsh says.

“This approach is designed to both manage offtake risk and establish a customer base that will support Lepidico’s longer term growth plans for a Phase 2 Project.”

WILDCAT RESOURCES (ASX:WC8)

Explorer Wildcat – formerly Fraser Range Metals — has gold projects in a couple of red-hot Aussie jurisdictions: ‘Mt Adrah’ in the Lachlan Fold Belt of NSW, and ‘Bolt Cutter’ in the Mallina province of WA.

Wildcat’s Mt Adrah project in NSW includes a significant gold resource at Hobbs Pipe of 20.5 million tonnes @ 1.1g/t gold for 770,000oz.

There’s also multiple gold prospects that haven’t been systematically explored since the 1980s.

With about $3.5m in the bank at the end of March, Wildcat will start drill testing some highly ranked targets this quarter.