• Gold price surges ~$US30/oz overnight to highest since November last year
  • Rox Resources increases Youanmi gold resource to 3Moz
  • Gold stocks Navarre, Discovery Alaska up on no news
  • Nickel-cobalt explorer NiCo Resources now up 210% since listing yesterday

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Thursday January 20.

 

NICO RESOURCES (ASX:NC1)

(Up on no news)

This advanced nickel-cobalt explorer has enjoyed a rocket-propelled launch into listed life, up 210% since listing at 12pm AEDT yesterday.

Part of the reason is commodity focus — nickel and cobalt are both in very high demand, with tight supply and strong fundamentals underpinning high prices.

The other part is probably the flagship project, Wingellina, which is more advanced than most.

A pre-feasibility study developed by parent company Metals X (ASX:MLX) indicated that the laterite project should support an initial 40-year mine life at production rate of 40,000tpa Ni and 3,000tpa Co.

“We believe Wingellina has the potential to be a Tier 1 project,” NiCo, MD Roderick Corp says.

“A lot of the hard work was already done by Metals X, which is why they want to maintain exposure.

“Given the extensive development, in a project hosting some key commodities, we had no problem filling the book.

“And historically, the project has generated significant interest from major battery metals players including POSCO and Samsung.”

 

DISCOVERY ALASKA (ASX:DAF)

(Up on no news)

The stock formerly known as Discovery Africa has – you guessed it – changed its geographical focus.

DAF’s main game is now the 199.4sqkm ‘Chulitna’ project in Alaska which “hosts numerous prospect areas identified from historical works, which are prospective for gold, silver, copper, tin and base metals”.

It is also is on Stockhead’s list of bargain barrel stocks looking for a new project, with the company stating that it would “continue working to identify and review other new projects that may complement … current activities”.

DAF’s last announcement of substance was way back on November 3, when it reported results up to 73.9g/t gold and 1500g/t silver from a maiden surface sampling program at Chulitna.

“The company is encouraged by the exploration sampling results achieved at the Partin Creek prospect during this phase of work and will now prepare next stage follow up works with the aim to identify priority sites for subsequent potential drilling works,” it said at the time.

The $9m market cap stock is up 33% over the past month and flat over the past year. It had about $1.5m in the bank at the end of September, with the exercise of options in December giving it an additional $640,000.

 

ROX RESOURCES (ASX:RXL) and VENUS METALS (ASX:VMC)

After seven months of drilling (~35,000m) RXL has increased its total resource at the ‘Younami’ project (70% RXL, 30% VMC) by a whopping 1.34Moz to 3Moz.

Discovery costs come it at an ultra-low $7/oz – an exceptional result, RXL says.

The bulk of the new gold is from the high grade ‘Deeps’ target, which now has resource of 2.195Moz grading 6.89g/t.

There are more upgrades to come, the company says, with some drilling from the last few months of 2021 still to be incorporated in the overall resource.

“We took the decision to provide an interim updated resource estimate given the very long assay turnaround times being experienced of up to 14 weeks in some cases,” RXL MD Alex Passmore says.

Rox continues to trade at very low enterprise value per attributable resource ounce metrics calculated currently at $22 per ounce, he says.

“Youanmi mine feasibility studies continue with early mine planning results feeding back into targeted infill drilling areas for continued conversion of inferred material into indicated categories.

“We also continue to work on grass roots exploration activities in areas outside the immediate Youanmi mine area with the intent of making new discoveries in the region.”

The $75m market cap stock is up 36% over the past month. It had $10.7m in the bank at the end of September.

 

NAVARRE MINERALS (ASX:NML)

(Up on no news)

A direct beneficiary of increasing gold and silver prices.

Last week, the recently minted miner said the recently acquired Mt Carlton operation was already outperforming forecasts.

The Queensland project produced 14,603oz of gold, 100,781oz of silver and 610t of copper during the December quarter.

If NML sustains this for FY22 it places Mt Carlton’s performance above the top end of the vendor’s forecast in August 2021.

Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) — which sold the project to NML last year for an upfront cost of $40m — originally estimated Mt Carlton would produce 45,000oz to 50,000oz at an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of between $1,650 and $1,700 per ounce in FY2022.

That’s a very attractive margin at current gold prices of $2,538.97/oz.

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