Gary Ablett of the Cats takes a mark during a AFL match between the Footscray Bulldogs and the Geelong Cats played in Melbourne, Australia. (Pic by Stockhead/ Tony Feder/Getty Images)
Mining
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Friday April 21.
Sleepy small cap EQX has inked a deal to acquire the high grade Nimba Alliance iron ore project in Guinea, West Africa.
Extensive work has already been completed at the project, which EQX says was previously owned by an international consortium of major mining companies, including BHP (ASX:BHP).
That includes historical drill hits like 14m at 60.7% fe from surface, plus geophysics, mapping, mineralogy and beneficiation studies, mine engineering, and transport studies.
That’s a lot of data for EQX to play with.
Nimba is also within a cluster of big iron ore projects, including Robert Friedland-backed High Power Exploration’s Nimba project (10km away), Fortescue Metals Group-backed Al Maktoum’s North Nimba project (right next door), and ArcelorMittal’s Tokadeh project in northern Liberia (22km away).
Guinea is also home to the monstrous Simandou project.
Africa has become a focus for major mining house due to low operating costs and the potential for “vast, high-grade discoveries of high-quality iron ore”, EQX says.
“In Guinea, Rio Tinto, Chinese steel giant Baowu and the Guinean Government have reached agreement on a major capital investment associated with the Simandou Project which is set to deliver shared infrastructure to the area worth approximately US$15 billion and is expected to be completed by December 2024, enabling commercial production from mines in the area by 2025,” it says.
“Equatorial considers Central and West Africa, and in particular Guinea, to be the new iron ore frontier.”
The acquisition is set to cost up to 10m EQX shares, worth $1.5m.
The company – led by former rugby player and Resolute Mining (ASX:RSG) boss John Welborn – recently filed a US$1.1bn statement of claim against the Republic of Congo over some dodgy business involving two iron ore projects.
The very tightly held $30m capped stock is up 20% in 2023. EQX had $17.5 million in cash at the end of December.
It would’ve had more but was forced to write off a $14m investment in short-lived WA-based miner Salt Lake Potash (ASX:SO4), which went bankrupt during project ramp up late 2021.
Hitting a new all-time-high today was WA explorer WMG, which is now +430% since announcing a cumulative 693.5m at 0.28% nickel, 128ppm cobalt, 61ppm copper, plus palladium and platinum in one drill hole at its “extensive” Mulga Tank system early April.
A follow up hole (MTD025) intersected “~446m of high MgO adcumulate dunite with multiple occurrences of visible nickel sulphide mineralisation”, the company said April 17.
Assays are pending. Meanwhile, the rig continues to spin as WMG attempts to dial in on the motherlode.
“The source (or sources) of this material remains elusive and it has now been seen over a wide area of the western margin,” MD Dr Caedmon Marriott says.
“Systematic drilling combined with DHEM is likely required to locate it.”
Latin Resources spinout SLM dual listed December 2021 following a $6m IPO, with a focus on three large-scale copper exploration projects in Chile and Peru.
Underwhelming initial exploration results and poor share price performance over the ensuing year culminated in a lithium pivot early 2023.
The company is now acquiring 22 greenfields lithium exploration licences in Brazil in a similar geological setting to Latin’s Colina deposit, it says.
Early-stage work is ongoing in Peru though, with the company now ‘boots on the ground’ to examine recently identified remote sensing anomalies and conduct field mapping at Ilo Este, Cinto and Ilo Norte.
Areas to be identified for potential drilling will lead to submission of environmental permitting applications, it says.
“It’s great to see exploration commencing again in Peru on what I see as a very large and prospective land position,” exec director Matt Boyes says.
“There has been a considerable amount of ground acquired by major copper producers and developers close to and around our Cinto and Ilo projects demonstrating the importance of expanding large land position in what we consider to be a significantly unexplored region within this major copper bearing district.
“I look forward to moving into the next phase of exploration and continuing to add value to our Peruvian assets while we look to grow and advance the Brazilian lithium portfolio.”
The CAD$7.5m stock has rebounded 75% year-to-date but is still down ~44% over the past 12 months. It has ~$2.1m in the bank.
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Dual listed Kincora is exploring the mineral rich Macquarie Arc in NSW, which is considered a world-class copper porphyry district (115Moz gold, 30Mt copper).
It is drilling 13 large scale copper-gold targets across its 2367sqkm portfolio including five at ‘Trundle’, where recent results include 12.5m @ 2.77g/t gold from 77.5m (Dunn’s North), and 8.6m @ 1.21g/t gold, 0.26% copper & 90ppm molybdenum from 65.9m (Dunn’s South),
These maiden assays from Trundle come as Fortescue Metals Group and junior explorer Rimfire Pacific Mining begin drilling right next door.
The CAD$10m stock is up 10% in 2023. It has ~$2.4m in the bank.
READ: The ASX small cap copper explorers next in line to reach mid-tier status
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The exploration minnow flew out of the gates late March announcing wide zones of clay rare earths in 20 of 22 drill holes at its ‘Hyden’ project in the WA Wheatbelt.
Highlights include 54m at 758ppm from surface to end of hole. Each interval contained high grade zones (+1000ppm), with a peak of 3607ppm.
Clay REE orebodies often grade between 700–1500ppm.
“While we are surprised by the width and consistency of the mineralisation, it is also surprising that the mineralisation is so shallow, with little or no surficial cover over the clay mineralisation,” managing director Mike Dunbar says.
“It is also very encouraging that the mineralisation can be traced over the entire extent of the drilling, some 500m x 500m and remains open in all directions.”
Fourteen of the holes also end in mineralisation, suggesting “that there is potential for not only clay hosted mineralisation, but also bedrock mineralisation in the area”, Dunbar says.
M24 has previously said the source of the TREO in the clay could be a nearby hard rock system (either REE pegmatite or a carbonatite).
Additional drilling of another anomaly, 2.5km from the clay target, was completed April 5, with assays due in about four weeks.
The $9m capped stock is up 7% year-to-date. It had $2.2m in the bank at the end of December.
