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Resources Top 5: Smokin’ hot ASX IPOs and a big 2.3Moz resource rise above sea of red
Mining
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- Antipa increases resources 250% to 2.3Moz gold equivalent ounces at ‘Minyari Dome’ project
- Newly listed gold stock Solstice Minerals makes gains in early trade
- Ballymore (gold, copper), Orion (shell), Alice Queen (gold, copper) up on no news
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday May 2.
ANTIPA MINERALS (ASX:AZY)
The explorer has increased resources 250% to 1.8Moz gold, 64,300t copper, 584,000oz silver and 11,100 cobalt at the ‘Minyari Dome’ project in one of WA’s top exploration hotspots, the Paterson Province.
Is 2.3 million gold equivalent ounces large enough to put AZY on the radar of the ounce-hungry major miners right next door?
“The strategic significance of this resource to Antipa is huge, providing us with the potential to deliver a standalone mining and processing operation located in the rapidly advancing tier-one Paterson Province, nestled between Newcrest’s (ASX:NCM) Telfer mine and Rio’s (ASX:RIO) Winu development project, and surrounded by our Paterson Farm-in Project with IGO (ASX:IGO),” AZY managing director Roger Mason says.
Antipa has begun a Scoping Study – the first proper look at the economics of building a project.
Mason says the majority of the 1Moz ‘indicated’ (higher confidence) resource is within 300m of the surface, which provided strong potential for cheaper open pit mining.
“The other exciting resource highlight was the high-grade 1 million gold equivalent ounces at 3.06 g/t gold equivalent, which provides the potential for underground development opportunities,” he says.
AZY expects to resource to get bigger. Minyari Dome is a serious candidate to potentially rival the likes of the nearby 5.5Moz gold and 218kt copper ‘Havieron’ deposit, it says.
“The current Minyari resource delivers ~3,000oz per vertical metre from surface,” Mason says.
“Given Greatland Gold’s recently revised Havieron resource of 5.5Moz of gold is contained over an approximate 1,000m vertical deposit extent (equating to approximately 5,500 oz per vertical metre), and also noting that the Havieron deposit starts below approximately 430m of cover, Antipa believes that there is further substantial growth potential down plunge at Minyari.
“We think there is strong potential to continue to grow this resource through both extensional and greenfields drilling.”
The $175m market cap stock is flat year-to-date. It had $8.7m in the bank at the end of March.
BALLYMORE RESOURCES (ASX:BMR)
(Up on no news)
The explorer, up +60% over the past two trading days, could have some exciting news in the pipeline.
BMR hit the bourse late last year with a portfolio of Queensland gold and base metals projects including ‘Dittmer’ (a historic high-grade goldfield), ‘Ruddygore’ (a large copper porphyry target) and ‘Ravenswood’ (a bunch of drill ready targets in a 17moz gold province).
The company is currently punching deep holes in Ruddygore; a large 1,000m by 300m target corresponding closely with a strong, +500ppm copper-in-soil anomaly and extensive historic workings.
The early signs are positive.
“Drilling to date has encountered broad zones of strongly altered and brecciated granodiorite with extensive quartz-carbonate-pyrite chalcopyrite-sphalerite veining and breccia infill,” BMR said Friday.
Emphasis ours. Chalcopyrite is the most abundant copper ore mineral, while sphalerite is the most important ore of zinc.
Drilling at Ruddygore will continue this quarter with initial drill assay results expected in May, BMR says.
The $21m market cap stock is up 85% year-to-date. It had $3.8m in the bank at the end of March.
ORION METALS (ASX:ORM)
(Up on no news)
This quiet little stock conducted no exploration during the March quarter.
In fact, ORM finalised the sale of its only remaining project for $500,000 during the period, with the focus now on “the acquisition of new assets”.
“To this end, Orion has mandated professional advisors to assist and advise the Company on investment opportunities in mining or exploration assets that are in a more advanced or developed stage as well as any further capital raising that may be required by the Company to support its future activities,” it said last week.
As we’ve said before, the right acquisition can transform a shell company’s fortunes.
The $25m market cap stock is flat year-to-date. It had $328,000 in the bank at the end of March.
SOLSTICE MINERALS (ASX:SLS)
The newly listed Orecorp (ASX:ORR) spin-out has four gold and base metals exploration projects covering 2,620sqkm in WA.
The four projects – Yarri, Kalgoorlie, Yundamindra and Ponton — are all within 250km of WA’s gold mining mecca of Kalgoorlie.
“The tenement holding has been largely under-explored, with modern exploration previously restricted by disjointed tenement ownership and limited funding,” it says.
“Solstice’s ownership consolidation provides an opportunity to apply cutting-edge targeting methodologies using a belt-scale approach.”
Drilling has already kicked off at the advanced ‘Hobbes’ gold target at Yarri, where SLS is prepping a maiden resource.
The stock listed at 20c per share, and with a cash balance of $17m. Hefty.
You can read more about today’s IPOs here.
ALICE QUEEN (ASX:AQX)
(Up on no news)
AQX’s main game is the +500,000oz ‘Horn Island’ gold project offshore Queensland.
It recently uncovered a +3.4km long geophysical anomaly called ‘Jehda 1’ which coincides with gold at surface. The first deep hole into Jedha was drilled late Feb.
“The current geological model and target generation exercise at Horn Island resulting in this first drill hole (22NGD106), is the product of multiple work programs and studies over many years,” the company said last week.
“These have been carried out separately to our resource programs that were focused at the historic pit area, where the company has a mineral resource of ~0.52Moz Au Indicated and Inferred.”
These previous work programs established a ~35km2 hydrothermal footprint and geological model at Horn Island that suggests a large Intrusion Related Gold System (IRGS) “that is increasingly likely to host multiple gold systems”.
The key objectives of this first hole (see below) are to intersect features of the hydrothermal system that contribute to gold mineralisation that will inform subsequent drilling, it says.
The $6.4m market cap stock is down 30% year-to-date. It had about $1.8m in the bank following a recent cap raise.
