Resources Top 5: Small gold stock raises cash at a 180% premium, share price goes mental

Besra Gold raises $1m via placement at 9c per CDI, a ~180% premium to last closing price
Galileo Mining hits nickel sulphide mineralisation up to 51m thick near Callisto PGE-gold-nickel-copper discovery
Hamelin Gold announces shallow, high-grade discovery at West Tanami project

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday October 10.

BESRA GOLD (ASX:BEZ)

Most placements or raisings are done at a discount to the last share price to attract cash. Not in this case.

Gold project developer BEZ will raise $1m via placement at 9c per CDI — an unusually large ~190% premium to the last closing price.

(Although not as unusual if you look at the ailing share price, which was down substantially year-to-date.)

The subscriber is US-based Quantum, already a big shareholder of $7m market cap BEZ.

BEZ’s 3.3Moz ‘Bau’ gold project in Malaysia also includes an additional 4.9Moz – 9.3Moz exploration target, which is insane for a company of this size.

In August, drilling at the ‘Jugan’ prospect returned thick hits like 64m @ 1.9g/t and 67m @ 1.8g/t from ~140m depth.

Drilling then moved to the 644,000oz ‘Bekajang’ prospect to grow that resource. More assays are pending.

“Quantum has with this placement shown a clear commitment to support our exploration and development strategies at Bau and we welcome their increased investment in Besra,” CEO Dr Ray Shaw says.

“I am very excited with the enthusiasm Quantum has shown for Bau and I look forward to further developing our relationship.”

READ: The Small Cap +1Moz Gold Club: A Guide, Part 1

TNG (ASX:TNG)

This project developer is stacking the board with fresh talent, at the behest of Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) founder and new TNG chairman Neil Biddle.

(Fun fact: Biddle was also founding MD at TNG between 1998-2011.)

Today’s board addition is Rowan Johnston, a mining engineer with over 30 years of experience at companies like Gascoyne Resources (ASX:GCY), Bardoc Gold and Integra Mining.

“Rowan has first-class credentials and strong hands-on operational, technical and commercial experience across the global mining sector, and he represents an excellent addition to the TNG board at this pivotal stage of our regeneration,” Biddle says.

“His project development and operational expertise, his vast contact network and his calm and steady demeanour and clear thinking will be invaluable as we move through this next phase of the company’s development.”

TNG’s mammoth, vertically integrated $852m ‘Mount Peake’ operation expects to produce 6000tpa of vanadium pentoxide – about 3.2% of current world demand – as well as 100,000tpa of titanium dioxide pigment and 500,000tpa of iron fines.

While a $852m capex project is an ambitious undertaking for the $130m market cap company the process is well advanced, with TNG now looking to bed down financing.

GALILEO MINING (ASX:GAL)

One of 2022’s most celebrated finds is getting bigger, with GAL hitting nickel sulphide mineralisation up to 51m thick near the Callisto PGE-gold-nickel-copper discovery in WA.

Four drill holes recently completed 400m north of Callisto intersected thick disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation, GAL says.

Assays are expected in five weeks.

To date, GAL has undertaken scout RC drilling up to 500m north of Callisto with plans to extend this to 1,000m in the current program.

The recent approval of proposed drill programs from the Department of Mines now allows for systematic drilling of the prospective geological horizons up to 3.5km north.

At the same time the diamond drill rig continues to drill down dip of Callisto where the mineralisation is interpreted to continue into Galileo’s tenements.

This is a good start to the first exploration drill program in the area since the discovery at Callisto, managing director Brad Underwood says.

“Our target generation model suggested that the five kilometres north of Callisto are the most prospective and these early drill results strongly support this concept,” he says.

“With no known outcrop, and over five kilometres of prospective strike, we consider that a significant opportunity exists for additional discoveries at shallow depths.”

$265m market cap GAL is up 575% since hitting the motherlode at Callisto in May this year.

HAMELIN GOLD (ASX:HMG)

The small explorer says it has made a high-grade gold discovery at the Hutch’s Find prospect, part of the West Tanami project in WA.

The headline result from the maiden drilling campaign is an impressive 12m at 4.5g/t from 6m depth, which includes a 6m chunk grading 8.1g/t.

This hit is 200m away from an area of historical RC and diamond drilling that also intersected high grade gold, including 10m at 5.4g/t from 123m.

This could all be part of an emerging high grade gold system, managing director Peter Berwick says.

“The West Tanami project contains a suite of multi-kilometre scale near surface gold anomalies that have seen limited deeper drilling,” he says.

“A 2,000 metre RC drill program planned to follow-up on mineralisation at the Camel Prospect is due to commence by the end of October.

“This program has been expanded to include additional drilling at Hutch’s Find targeting extensions to the high grade gold intersected in TLR0001.”

HMG listed late 2021 as a spin-out of Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) with a focus on the remote, mineral rich Tanami Desert.

Majors Gold Fields and Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR) each snatched up a 10% stake on listing, which they have maintained.

The $18m market cap stock is up 18% year-to-date.

CUFE (ASX:CUF)

This small WA iron ore miner also has a copper-gold leg called Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory, where drilling has been focused on growing resources around the 31,500t copper, 130,000oz gold Orlando open pit.

New high-grade results released today show an opportunity to cut back the existing open pit to access the remaining ore, the company says.

Highlights include 13m at 2.82% Cu and 2.59g/t Au from 79m, and 5m at 6.24% Cu and 3.89g/t Au from 99m.

“We have achieved our aims, being confirming the existence of high-grade ore, generating diamond core for metallurgical testwork and obtaining water data for the environmental approval process,” CUF exec Mark Hancock says.

“We will continue to progress activity on all these streams as well as looking into the remaining exploration potential at areas such as Gecko, Goanna and Monitor, all of which has shown potential to host high-grade copper mineralisation in previous drilling.”

The $12m market cap stock is down 57% in 2022.