Resources Top 5: Redcastle's reskin as gold explorer reaps standout results

Redcastle Resources hits highlight 10m @ 29.16g/t gold from 6m
Alchemy Resources has +2,600 lithium and gold samples in lab “with results pending for all batches”
Drilling kicks off at Cobre’s Ngami copper project in Botswana

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Wednesday July 6.

REDCASTLE RESOURCES (ASX:RC1)

RC1 is the latest ASX speccy to be rewarded for standout drilling results.

The gold explorer today announced several high grade and shallow results like 10m @ 29.16g/t from 6m (including 1m @ 250g/t from 11m) at the historical Redcastle project in WA.

Importantly these hits were from a 21-hole ‘step out’ (extensional) drilling program away from old workings and into new areas.

The aim now is to continue the program to extend the strike length of the near surface known mineralisation, and to complete further RC drill holes to test the extent of gold mineralisation at other targets.

Planning for this work has already kicked off, RC1 says.

Initial results from a recently completed auger program are also expected shortly.

The stock formerly known as Transcendence Technologies reskinned and relisted as a gold explorer late last year.

Its namesake project covers ~1,088ha around the historical Redcastle Mining Centre, ~60km east of Leonora. Gold was originally discovered at Redcastle in 1897.

The $4.5m market cap stock is flat year-to-date. It had $4m in the bank at the end of March.

TARUGA MINERALS (ASX:TAR)

(Up on no news)

This explorer is hunting for large copper and rare earths deposits across its South Australian tenure.

Late last month, early-stage augur (shallow) drilling kicked off on some untouched copper and REE targets at the Mt Craig project.

This drilling will be accompanied by high-resolution ground magnetics, geophysical modelling, and mapping in preparation for an upcoming deeper drill program.

The exploration is partially funded by the state government to the tune of $650,000. Bonus.

“The auger can drill down to approximately 14m, meaning that we can obtain indicators of clay-hosted REE deposits as well as concealed copper mineralisation that can’t be seen from the surface,” TAR boss Thomas Line says.

“The targets we have identified are comprised of previously unknown anomalies, discovered by our team, and the ground in these areas has never before been drilled.

“We have applied our own concepts and new data to build these new targets and prioritise them.

“The auger results will assist in guiding RC drilling set to commence in July, during which we will be testing more targets than we ever have before at Mt Craig.”

The $13m market cap stock is up 42% year-to-date. It had $2.6m in the bank at the end of March.

BOADICEA RESOURCES (ASX:BOA)

(Up on no news)

Busy BOA has its hands full with six projects in WA and Queensland: Koongulla (gold, copper), Fraser Range (nickel, copper, cobalt), Bald Hill East (lithium), West Ravenswood (gold, rare earths), Drummond Basin (gold), and Hanns Gully (lithium, tin).

In June, BOA uncovered three large scale lithium anomalies at Bald Hill East in WA. Preparation for drill testing of the targets is in progress, the company says.

This week, a massive sulphide EM target was identified at Fraser Range, also in WA.

The anomaly is highly conductive — within the range of conductivities expected for massive sulphides — and is easily drilled with an estimated depth of ~170m.

BOA has kicked off planning for drill testing the newly named Snowys prospect, which has potential for “Nova style nickel sulphides or Volcanogenic Massive Sulphides (VMS) mineralisation systems”.

The $11m market cap stock is down 31% year-to-date. It had ~$4m in the bank at the end of March.

ALCHEMY RESOURCES (ASX:ALY)

The ALY share price has been lively since the explorer uncovered multiple lithium anomalies at its 111,100oz ‘Karonie’ gold project in April.

The 1,200sqkm Karonie is 8km along strike and within contiguous tenure to Global Lithium Resources’ (ASX:GL1) ‘Manna’ lithium deposit (9.9Mt at 1.14% Li201), but had never been explored for lithium.

Yesterday, ALY said “excellent progress” had been made on its accelerated gold-lithium exploration program, with assays pending for 793 infill soils, 1,471 regional soils, 68 rock chip and 278 RC drill samples.

“The gold drilling, lithium regional soils and lithium infill soils are now complete, and we have over 2,600 samples in the lab with results pending for all batches,” CEO James Wilson says.

“The detailed mapping has identified more pegmatite dykes and chemical zonation within the increased 7.3km x 1.5km target area at Cherry-Hickory-Pecan [lithium anomalies] which remains open under cover.

“Our exploration activities have the potential for considerable opportunities for growth in the near term.”

ALY also has a couple of free-carried JVs (it doesn’t have to pay anything toward exploration) with TSX-listed Superior Gold and copper major Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR).

Its share of the costs will be repaid from profits, it says.

And if that wasn’t enough, ALY also has an advanced HPA and cobalt-nickel project in the portfolio. A strategic review of the project is underway.

The $23m market cap stock is up 70% year-to-date. It had $2.5m in the bank at the end of March.

COBRE (ASX:CBE)

Drilling has kicked off at the Ngami copper project in Botswana, CBE said today.

The program of four diamond holes will test for extensions to encouraging copper and silver mineralisation previously intersected at two separate historical drill targets.

Ngami is near the northern margin of the Kalahari Copper Belt (KCB), where several copper-silver deposits are currently under development by both mid-tier miner Sandfire Resources and Cupric Canyon Capital.

CBE holds 51% (soon to be 100%) in Kalahari Metals (KML), a private UK company which controls ~8,100km2 of tenements within the KCB in Botswana.

This represents the second largest tenure holding in the Botswana portion of the KCB Belt after Sandfire.

Yesterday, CBE announced that board compensation would be slashed to ensure “as much capital as possible flows into the exploration program in Botswana”.

All up, these changes will result in an annualised saving of around $300,000 plus entitlements.

While the CBE board has been pared back, the on-the-ground KML team has been bolstered by several experienced geologists.

They include David Caterall, a geologist with a long history of exploration in the KCB where he has been involved in the discovery of several of the known economic deposits.

Joining him is Thomas Rogers, who was a co-recipient of the 2015 PDAC Thayer Lindsley Award for his role in the discovery of the Kamoa Copper Deposit (DRC), as was Dr Ross McGowan, who was recently appointed to the CBE as a non-executive director.

The $7m market cap stock has bounced back from recent lows but remains down 45% year-to-date. It had $3m in the bank at the end of March.