- Biggest winner is gold-nickel explorer TOR on no news
- SBR begins nickel exploration at Nepean South in the eastern Goldfields and Sherlock Bay in the Pilbara
- AIS, TKM, and BDM also up
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Thursday July 21.
TORQUE METALS (ASX:TOR)
(Up on no news)
Shares in Perth based and Western Australian gold-nickel focused TOR are on the move.
Nickel exploration recently kicked off across its Domingo and Melchior nickel prospects within the Paris Project, southeast of Kalgoorlie in the gold-rich Boulder Lefroy Fault Zone.
As it stands, this exploration activity consists of a moving loop electromagnetic (MLEM) survey to test for conductive nickel sulphides.
TOR says the results of this survey will aid the company in prioritising targets for follow-up exploration and drilling.
“We anticipate plenty of news flow from this nickel search, and the Paris gold drilling program in the coming weeks,” CEO Cristian Moreno says.
SABRE RESOURCES (ASX:SBR)
SBR has gained some this morning after launching what it describes as an ‘AGGRESSIVE’ nickel sulphide drilling and exploration program at both the Nepean South Project in the eastern Goldfields of WA and the Sherlock Bay Project in the Pilbara.
Drill targeting at both projects is being guided by previous nickel and other pathfinder results (including copper) and detailed geophysical surveys – including magnetics, gravity, and electromagnetics.
Around 2,600m of RC drilling is being carried out to test priority nickel sulphide targets over a 10km strike ultramafic corridor southwest of the Nepean Nickel Mine where past production has reached 1.1 Mt at >3% nickel.
On top of all this, detailed drone magnetics is being flown to define potentially nickel sulphide-bearing komatiites, along with electromagnetic (EM) surveys to identify massive-sulphide targets for further drilling.
“These are exciting times for Sabre and we look forward to updating the market on the results from both Nepean South and Sherlock Bay as they come to hand,” SBR CEO Jon Dugdale says.
AERIS RESOURCES (ASX:AIS)
Copper and gold junior AIS has been focusing its attention lately on the Golden Plateau deposit in southeast Queensland, which executive chairman Andrew Labuschagne describes as being an ‘exciting’ story for investors.
The Golden Plateau deposit is located 1km north from the Cracow mill and AIS says it is a high priority exploration area, one that holds the potential to extend the mine life at Cracow.
More high-grade intersections have been returned, with hits up to 17.9m at 6.3g/t gold including 10.7m at 9.4g/t gold and 1m at 9.2g/t gold.
Labuschagne says these latest assays reinforce the company’s geological understanding of the structural controls of mineralisation at the site as overall confidence continues to grow – including the potential to discover new lodes.
“The current drill program is targeting five lodes and a maiden resource is planned for the first half of this financial year,” he says.
“We believe that Golden Plateau offers excellent potential to become a new, high-grade ore source for Cracow.”
The Golden Plateau mine and surrounding deposits historically produced approximately 850,000 ounces of gold, within a prospective corridor extending 1km along strike and up to 270m below surface.
Resource definition drilling program will continue throughout the first quarter of FY23.
TREK METALS (ASX:TKM)
TKM says it is set for a ‘major exploration push’ in the second half of 2022 as work programs gather momentum at its manganese, lithium and base metals projects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Current and planned activities in the next few months are expected to underpin a pivotal period of exploration activity for the ~$21.3m market cap explorer.
The initial focus of work will be to obtain metallurgical samples through diamond drilling as well as regional exploration targeting additions to the resource base via airborne geophysics.
A soil sampling program is currently underway at the Tambourah Project across areas with highly anomalous stream sediment samples and multiple lithium-bearing pegmatite dykes.
Here, the current phase of work will strive to define lithium drill targets.
A heritage survey has also been completed at the Jimblebar Nickel-Copper-Cobalt Project, paving the way for drill testing of strong off-hole conductors.
BURGUNDY DIAMOND MINES (ASX:BDM)
(Up on no news)
Diamond explorer BDM launched a new ‘ultra-luxury’ diamond brand – Maison Mazerea – in Paris earlier this month marking the final key part of the company’s strategy to become a world-leading end-to-end fancy colour diamond business.
The vertically integrated model of mining and buying rough stones, conducting its own cutting, and polishing, then selling via Maison Mazerea, will allow Burgundy to capture the full margins from the diamond value chain and completely differentiates BDM’s value proposition.
In mid-2021, Burgundy acquired capability and facilities for the cutting and polishing of rough diamonds in Perth, Western Australia.
BDM says this capability will be used for cutting and polishing of Burgundy’s own production from future mining operations, as well as rough diamonds from third party producers