Resources Top 5: Revamped explorer hits visible gold, hires former Northern Star geology boss as chief mine finder

Lithium minnow MinRex added to Garimpeiro’s imaginary, high-performing five-stock portfolio
Labyrinth hits visible gold, hires former Northern Star geology boss
Scorpion (gold, iron ore, nickel-copper, PGEs), Brockman (iron ore) and Kaili (gold) up on no news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade Monday November 29.

MINREX RESOURCES (ASX:MRR)

(Up on no news)

This lithium-facing minnow was recently added to Garimpeiro’s imaginary, high-performing five-stock portfolio.

The 2.3c, $13.5 market cap stock has just added a lithium leg in the Pilbara to its gold/copper projects in NSW and WA.

“It has been picking up some interesting ground up near Pilbara Minerals’ (ASX:PLS) Pilgangoora operation, and Mineral Resources’ Wodgina operation,” FitzGerald says.

“Both are Tier One operations. PLS is pure lithium and now has a market cap of $7.7 billion.”

“That MinRex has gravitated to that part of the world is no surprise. Veteran geologist and MinRex director George Karageorge walked Pilgangoora for PLS when it was nothing more than a prospect.”

The stock is up 15% over the past month, but down 23% year-to-date. It had ~$2m in the bank at the end of September.

SCN’s main game is the ‘Pharos’ project in WA, which includes the Mount Mulcahy copper-zinc volcanic-hosted massive sulphide (VMS) deposit, but is also prospective for gold, PGEs and iron ore. A real smorgasbord.

In Q4 the company is planning a number of small drilling campaigns to test for gold, as well as PGE-Ni-Cu’s at the high priority ‘Pallas’ target next door to Podium Minerals’ (ASX:POD) advanced ‘Parkes Reef’ project.

The Pharos Iron Ore JV with neighbouring producer Fenix Resources (ASX:FEX) is also planning archaeological and ethnographic surveys of the complete ‘Iron Ridge’ Extension and ‘Ulysses’ targets for early November, prior to planned RC drilling of priority areas.

The $20.5m market cap stock is up 13% over the past month, and 32% year-to-date. It had $1.3m in the bank at the end of September.

BROCKMAN MINING (ASX:BCK)

(Up on no news)

In April, Chinese-owned Brockman and major miner Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN) formed a JV to bring a 25 million tonnes a year Pilbara iron ore hub into production.

$8.5bn market cap Mineral Resources will fund ~$105m worth of initial development works at the ‘Marillana’ and ‘Ophthalmia’ project mine sites, as well as on the transport corridor and port area. The development timeframe was estimated at about three-and-a-half years.

It is part of MIN’s plan to turn from a 20Mtpa miner to a 90Mtpa major in 3-5 years through a series of developments and acquisitions.

Others include buying a stake in the APIJV and paying up to $400 million cash for tiddler Red Hill Iron’s (ASX:RHI) 40% share of the Red Hill Iron Ore JV.

BCK – which puts out about one, maybe two substantial releases per quarter — said that the JV would be carrying out drilling programs and “update baseline environmental studies” during Q4.

The +$400m market cap stock is down 6% over the past month, and 21% year-to-date. BCK It had about $8m in the bank at the end of September.

KAILI RESOURCES (ASX:KLR)

(Up on no news)

This sleepy minnow is looking for gold, cobalt and base metals in WA and the NT.

A tiny 400m drilling campaign has been planned for the ‘Canegrass’ tenement, part of the Yilgarn gold project in WA, to kick off as soon as a driller is available in Q4.

This will be part of a larger 2,000m program planned to be carried after the 400m assessment program, “subject to results interpretation”.

The $4.5m market cap stock is up $6% over the past month. It had $1.2m in the bank at the end of September.

LABYRINTH RESOURCES (ASX:LRL)

In September, this former struggler known as Orminex announced the “transformational” acquisition of a couple of advanced gold projects in Canada, plus a $9.5m cap raise to fund the acquisition and aggressive exploration.

Maiden drill has now hit visible gold at only 23m depth on a previously undefined structure at the ‘Denain’ project. This program will be expanded from initial 1,200m to an additional 3,400m, LRL says.

Maiden underground exploration at flagship ‘Labyrinthe’ gold project will start January next year, the company says.

In other news, Andrew Chirnside — the former geology manager for Northern Star Resources — has been appointed as LRL chief geologist commencing January 2022. What a coup.

“We have set a foundation team that brings considerable and proven expertise in gold mining and exploration,” LRL CEO Matt Nixon says.

“Labyrinth can now confidently and rapidly implement our growth strategy, leveraging off of the exciting recent acquisitions in Quebec and delivering maiden JORC resources for both projects in 2022.”

The $30m market cap stock is down 2.5% over the past month, and up 30% year-to-date.