Resources Top 5: Scorpion piques investor interest as copper and gold stand strong

Scorpion Minerals and Southern Palladium on a tear with no news
Argosy up on the release of September quarterly
Lanthanein Resources up on exploration activities underway across the Lady Grey lithium project

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Tuesday, October 29. Prices accurate at time of writing.

Scorpion Minerals (ASX:SCN)

(Up on no news)

SCN shares are on the upswing following the release of its annual report to shareholders comprising key exploration activities undertaken throughout the year to date.

At the Olivers Patch prospect, within the broader Pharos project, SCN discovered gold specimens over a large area close to several historical, shallow gold workings.

The specimen weights varied from around 1g to 40g, indicating the mineralised trend extends for at least 8km along a Northwest-Southeast axis.

A strategic review of gold targets within Pharos is now underway, with planned exploration activity including geological mapping, auger assisted soil geochemistry and follow-up drill testing.

Meanwhile, SCN is firing up copper exploration at the Mt Mulcahy project near Cue in WA, which boasts a measured, indicated and inferred resource of 647,000t grading 2.4% copper, 1.8% zinc, 0.1% cobalt and 20 g/t silver in the South Limb Pod.

The sustained rise in copper prices has resulted in several large groups approaching SCN for potential farm-in deals due to the significant exploration upside.

Mt Mulcahy has a similar geological setting to the Golden Grove mine (60Mt at 1.7% copper with zinc, silver and gold) owned by 29Metals (ASX:29M), just 175km to the southwest.

About 20 un-drilled targets sit along a 135km copper-rich horizon at Mulcahy, where the company is planning to conduct downhole electromagnetic work to look for extensions and characterise the South Limb Pod deposit.

Southern Palladium (ASX:SPD)

(Up on no news)

SPD shares are still catching some wind this morning after the release of the Bengwenyama pre-feasibility study yesterday, which highlighted a NPV of ~US$1.05b and all in sustaining cost of US$800/oz (6E), putting the project in the lowest quartile of the platinum industry cost curve.

Situated on the eastern limb of South Africa’s distinctively endowed Bushveld Complex, extensive metallurgical testing during the PFS phase further de-risked the asset, demonstrating both high and consistent recoveries for both PGMs and chrome.

The project is underpinned by a measured and indicated resource which accounts for 74% of the total planned ore production over the life of mine.

The total resource increased to 40Moz in the last resource update in October, including 7.92Moz at 9.653g/t PGE (6E) in the measured and indicated categories. This represents a notable leap in resource confidence since our initial 18.8Moz inferred resource reported in July 2021.

“Capital costs for the plant and infrastructure have been refined, decreasing by 6% to USD385m and including a 15% contingency,” SPD said.

“The PFS results are compelling and firmly establish Bengwenyama as a Tier 1 PGM asset.

“They confirm the commercial viability of the project, and we are now preparing to progress to a definitive feasibility study (DFS), which is expected to be completed in 2025.”

Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN)

(Up on no news)

No longer thought of as ‘nice deposit, wrong country’, Milei and his cabinet have given Argentina’s long-stagnant resources sector the kiss of life, spurring a wave of global majors to pile into projects.

Both Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) and BHP (ASX:BHP) have now entered the fray, pouring in upwards of $13 billion within the past three months, taking advantage of price bottoms and the Argentine government’s new Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI) scheme that provides attractive tax incentives for foreign companies.

For juniors like GLN, it means its pursuit dogged pursuit of developing its Hombre Muerto West lithium project may just pay dividends, too.

While prices have been in the doldrums, the junior has inked a $40m prepaid offtake deal with Chengdu Cemphys and banked $25m in a cap raise to support the first phase of development at HMW.

The 4000tpa LCE first stage is due to be completed by H2 next year.

Argosy Minerals (ASX:AGY)

AGY has defined a scheduled pathway to deliver the 12,000tpa Rincon project in Argentina, targeting a final investment decision (FID) during H2-2025.

Feasibility and engineering works are currently progressing in conjunction with international engineering consulting services firms Lycopodium and Saxum to support an expedited development schedule towards completing the DFS and achieving an FID.

This is scheduled to support commencing early site works, procuring long-lead items, completing front-end engineering design (FEED), and commencing construction works by the end of 2025.

AGY said this development pathway aligns with securing a funding solution via a strategic partner, with the key milestone of regulatory approval to construct and operate the commercial scale 12,000tpa facility already achieved.

The other key target is the successful completion of the DFS, which will include updated capital and operating cost estimates, and the project delivery schedule.

Lanthanein Resources (ASX:LNR)

LNR is up today on the release of its September quarterly update, outlining stand-out bits and pieces of activities undertaken across the Lady Grey project, adjacent to the historical Bounty gold mine (now Mt Holland), which pumped out 1.3Moz.

The company received the all-clear to drill an exciting target at Lady Grey – a modelled conductor plate under MLEM Line #6, 200m below surface – which coincides with a 75ppb UFF soil gold anomaly plus high-order nickel and copper anomalies.

LNR has also recently completed a close spaced aeromagnetic survey on 25-metre line spacings using an Unmanned Airborne Vehicle (UAV).

The area covered by the survey provides coverage of a gap between two open file aeromagnetic surveys and provides closer spaced coverage over the MLEM Line #1 modelled conductor plate.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Scorpion Minerals, Galan Lithium and Lanthanein Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.