• E2 Metals will buy the large, advanced Pingüino silver gold project in Argentina
  • Los Cerros inks deal to buy 5 large projects in PNG prospective for copper, nickel, and gold
  • Up on no news: Hawthorn Resources, Auric Mining, Torque Metals

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Friday November 25.

 

E2 METALS (ASX:E2M)

E2M will buy the large, advanced Pingüino silver gold project, just 15km from its flagship Conserrat project in Argentina from Austral Gold for $10m in cash and shares.

The deal consolidates two large silver and gold districts and pushes E2M into the spotlight as an emerging pure play silver company on the ASX.

Good timing, with global silver demand on course for a record high in 2022.

Pingüino boasts a current non-JORC resource of 51Moz at 90gpt AgEq2 (32Moz Ag and 219koz Au) at 20gpt Ag cut off.

Shortly after closing the transaction, E2 intends to publish an updated resource estimate for Pingüino in accordance with JORC (a must-have for ASX listed companies) and “define plans for resource expansion and vein discoveries”, managing director Todd Williams says.

“This transaction is a watershed moment for E2 and has been many months in the making.

“The consolidation of Pingüino and Conserrat creates a single company with the largest undeveloped silver resource in Santa Cruz, new and evolving high-grade discoveries with a commanding landholding by a junior in the prolific Cerro Vanguardia district.

“The company remains in a strong financial position and will fund the upfront cash payment from the company’s current cash reserves.”

A Conserrat resource estimate is also due in Q1 2023.

E2M is backed by famed Canadian precious metals bull and investment guru Eric Sprott, who cornerstoned an $8.5 million capital raising in March this year.

 

AURIC MINING (ASX:AWJ)

(Up on no news)

The explorer has a few strings to its bow, including the development-ready 47,900oz Jeffery’s Find gold deposit and the Chalice West project.

AWJ has inked a deal to mine Jeffreys Find with mining contractor BML Ventures, who will be responsible for all mining-related costs.

Once all BML costs have been paid, surplus cash will be split 50/50 between BML and AWJ.  There will be no cost to AWJ once a decision to mine is made.

Meanwhile, AWJ has just finished drilling the newly acquired Chalice West, where it is hunting a lookalike of the neighbouring Chalice mine that produced more than 672,000oz of gold over seven years.

Samples from 227 aircore holes will be assayed for gold, nickel, and other elements, including proxies for lithium and rare earths.

It is anticipated that the initial results will be announced mid-December 2022.

 

LOS CERROS (ASX:LCL)

The advanced South American gold stock has diversified, inking a deal to buy five large projects in PNG prospective for copper, nickel, and gold from private company Footprint Resources.

It gives LCL some juicy exploration targets to play with, in a jurisdiction known for its monster mineral deposits.

It also gives the company options as it waits for “greater clarity on new government mine development policies” in Colombia, where left-leaning Gustavo Petro won Colombia’s June 19 presidential election.

LCL’s 2.6Moz Quinchia project in Colombia is currently the focus of low-cost project development studies.

The guys from Footprint – veteran geologists Glenn Twomey and John Dobe – will join LCL as employees, bringing with them Footprint’s PNG exploration team, logistical support, and in-country relationships.

Twomey and Dobe have ~60 years of ‘boots on the ground’ exploration experience, incuding a combined 16 years in PNG in senior roles (exploration manager PNG and principal geologist-project generation, respectively) for Barrick Gold, the world’s largest gold producer.

They formed Footprint eight years ago to leverage their combined experience and understanding of PNG geology, LCL says.

Once the acquisition is completed, LCL will focus initially on a 3,000m diamond drilling program at the Kusi target within the Ono Project, where old drilling pulled up hits like 35m @ 3.04g/t Au from 136m.

“This transformational addition to the Los Cerros mineral portfolio offers immediate and material exploration upside as well as jurisdictional and metal diversity, in particular the addition of critical metals to the electric vehicle sector,” managing director Jason Stirbinskis says.

“It also ensures we play to our strengths as successful explorers while our Quinchia project migrates to engineering/development studies.

“I have walked the ground over the key projects and the near term prospectivity of our new PNG portfolio is compelling.

“We are particularly excited to welcome Glenn and John to the company as they bring extensive PNG geological experience, are aligned to our ESG priorities and equip Los Cerros with a unique strategic and technical advantage in both PNG and Colombia across various mineralisation styles.”

The $25m market cap company is cashed up, holding +$11m cash at 30 September 2022.

 

TORQUE METALS (ASX:TOR)

(Up on no news)

Earlier this week, TOR completed its 80% earn in at Maynard’s Dam, part of the Paris gold project in WA.

Prior drilling at Maynard’s Dam – 7km from Gold Field’s 3Moz St Ives complex near Kalgoorlie — returned promising hits like 4m @ 21.21g/t Au from 22m.

Paris now consists of three exploration, two prospecting, and nine granted mining licences for a total area of ~176km².

“The 14km of largely unexplored, strike extension of our high grade ‘Paris Gold Corridor’ adds further massive opportunities to grow the Paris Project into a major gold mining camp, similar that of St Ives operated by Gold Fields, immediately to the north of us,” managing director Cristian Moreno says.

Since listing on ASX in 2021 TOR has completed four drilling campaigns at Paris, defining “a potential gold camp hosting several mineralised parallel deposits”.

A fifth drilling at Paris is now underway. The ~4,500m program will target major gold anomalies from historical drilling results, machine learning algorithms, and geological models.

 

HAWTHORN RESOURCES (ASX:HAW)

(Up on no news)

In April, HAW and JV partner Legacy Iron Ore (ASX:LCY) cemented a deal with a subsidiary of billionaire Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, which shelled out an initial $9m to earn into the ‘Mt Bevan’ iron ore project in WA.

Mt Bevan hosts a 1,170 million tonne magnetite resource @ 34.9% iron, 250km north of Kalgoorlie in WA.

While magnetite iron ore resources are lower grade than hematite in the ground, they can be concentrated into a higher-grade product which fetch higher prices.

This initial investment of $9m gives Hancock a 30% interest in Mt Bevan, with $8m cash being paid to LCY and HAW in proportion to their interest in the project (Legacy $4.8m and Hawthorn $3.2m).

The remaining $1m will be working capital.

LCY will hold 42% and HAW will hold 28% upon completion of the initial investment.

Hancock can earn an additional 21% by funding the completion of a pre-feasibility study (PFS), which is well underway.

Additionally — on the back of some promising announcements by neighbouring explorers such as St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) and Red Dirt Mining (ASX:RDT) — the JV has granted Hancock an exclusivity period to undertake a preliminary study for critical minerals lithium, nickel and copper at Mt Bevan.

Meanwhile, HAW is hunting for lithium at its wholly owned East Pinjin tenements.

The $60m market cap stock had $13.18m in the bank at the end of September.