Resources Top 5: Rugby legends, big brawls and solid hits

• Ex Resolute Mining boss and rugby star John Welborn is now at Equatorial Resources
• Auroch, Red Mountain score impressive hits at their respective nickel and gold projects
• Troubled gold explorer Cassius Mining spikes +250 per cent on no news

Here’s your top ASX small cap resources winners in morning trade Wednesday November 18.

Iron ore explorer Equatorial Resources (ASX:EQX) has ‘scored’ ex-Resolute mining boss John Welborn as its new managing director and chief exec.

Welborn was also a world-class rugby player who represented the Wallabies between 1996-99.

His five year stint at gold miner Resolute (ASX:RSG) saw the company’s market cap grow from less than $200 million to more than $1 billion.

Equatorial is majority owner of the potentially large scale Badondo iron ore project in the Republic of Congo, and also holds a 2 per cent royalty on all future production from the Mayoko-Moussondji iron project.

As at 30 September 2020 Equatorial had $41.2 million in cash and listed investments.

The Horn target continues to deliver impressive nickel-rich massive sulphide intercepts for explorer Auroch Minerals’ (ASX:AOU).

Drilling kicked off late October at the Horn nickel sulphide deposit – part of the Leinster project in WA — aiming to upgrade the historic resource estimate to JORC (2012), a must-have for ASX-listed miners and explorers.

Auroch’s second drill hole at Horn has now pulled up +7m of nickel-rich ‘massive sulphides’ (+80 per cent sulphides) from 143m depth, following on from the thick massive sulphides pulled up in hole one.

The stock is now up +180 per cent over the past six months.

Maiden drilling at Red Mountain Mining’s (ASX:RMX) Mt Maitland project is returning shallow, high grades up to 12.7 grams per tonne gold.

27 holes for ~1,850m have now been completed with assays for the remaining 23 holes still pending.

The 62 sqkm Mt Maitland project produced gold at a high average grade of 19.3g/t gold in the early 1900s.

UP ON NO NEWS:

Troubled gold-limestone project developer Cassius Mining (ASX:CMD) spiked +250 per cent on no news in early trade.

The company is engaged in a legal brawl with the Ghanian government over its Gbane gold project, which is in the same neighbourhood as Cardinal Resources’ (ASX:CDV) 5+ million ounce Namdini resource.

Namdini is the subject of a lucrative bidding war between Russian suitor Nordgold and major Chinese producer Shandong Gold Mining.

Surging nickel-copper play Oakdale Resources (ASX:OAR) is up 800 per cent over the past 6 months.

In August, Oakdale acquired a PGE-nickel-copper project near the regionally defining Julimar discovery, where Chalice Gold Mines (ASX:CHN) has just announced high grades in extensional drilling.