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Mining
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Thursday, October 31. Prices accurate at time of writing.
Vertically integrated battery anode and graphene additive company, TLG, is on the up today after the successful conclusion of the environmental process for the Nunasvaara South natural graphite mine, part of its Vittangi anode project in northern Sweden.
The Swedish Supreme Court has dismissed all requests for leave to appeal the Environmental and Natura 2000 permit, meaning the mine environmental permit is now in force.
This move follows several key milestones for the Vittangi project this month including the award of EUR $70m grant funding from the EU Innovation Fund for Talga’s Luleå anode refinery and approval of the Nunasvaara South graphite mine Exploitation Concession.
A July 2021 DFS highlighted 24 year mine life for Vittangi with an estimated development capital cost of $595.8m. The front-end engineering and design (FEED) for the Vittangi Anode project was completed in April 2024.
The project, which will be developed as an open-pit mine, will include a graphite anode refinery capable of producing 19,500tpa of Talga’s natural graphite anode product, Talnode-C.
This aligns with Talga’s vision to establish a European battery anode production and graphene additives supply chain.
“The Vittangi project is vital for Europe’s energy transition and strategic material supply,” TLG CEO Martin Phillips said.
“We look forward to continuing to work with our host communities and stakeholders throughout the execution phase to deliver sustainable, high performance anode materials for the European battery industry.”
Investors have reacted positively to the news too with TLG shares rising some 43% and more than 6.2m shares changing hands.
LKY has used the past 12 months looking for REEs at its Mojave project near Las Vegas which abuts America’s largest and only operating rare earths mine Mountain Pass. The latter delivers about 15% of the world’s supply.
Interestingly, and perhaps fortuitously too right now, Mojave plays host to the historical Desert Antimony mine containing quartz-stibnite veins that produced about 100-1000 tonnes with antimony (Sb) grades ranging from 15-20%.
Recent rock chip sampling across the area has thrown up antimony grades as high as 46% this morning, with eight delivering values over 17% and over 18 returning grades over 1.4% antimony.
Antimony is listed as a critical mineral by the U.S. Department of Interior as it is used in a wide variety of military, energy, industrial and consumer applications.
The US has very limited domestic mined sources of antimony and China has restricted export of the stuff.
LKY managing director Steve Woodham said the results have exceeded expectations and highlights how ell mineralised the property is.
“The surface strike length based on the recent high-grade results looks to be over 400m which has us very encouraged and looking forward to commencing a drill program post receiving the necessary approvals,” he said.
Investors have piled in with more than 29.721m shares changing hands and shares jumping between 26% to 35%.
TRE is up this morning on the delivery of a definitive-feasibility study (DFS) for the Kobada gold project in southern Mali.
The study is underpinned by highly attractive financial metrics such as post-tax NPV of US$635m and IRR of 58% at a gold price assumption of US$2,200/oz.
Initial upfront capital costs of US$216m, including US$18m in contingency, means TRE is one of the lowest capital intensity development projects in the sector.
All-in sustaining costs of US$1,004/oz and C1 Cash Costs of US$825/oz were prepared on the basis of the current cost environment, underpinning strong average annual operating cash flows of US$158m per annum
“The delivery of the 2024 DFS, demonstrating Kobada as an asset belonging in the +150,000 ounce per year tier, producing at an initial mine life of over 9 years while at an AISC of just US$1,000/oz, is an exceptional outcome,” TRE managing director Phil Russo said.
“The economic leverage of a low capital and operating cost project is seen in the financial outcomes of the DFS with a rapid payback of 1.5 years at significantly lower gold prices than today’s spot prices.
“Toubani is confident that Kobada is a Project that can succeed in West Africa today and looks forward to finalising all in-country agreements with the State of Mali as Toubani readies Kobada for development.”
TKM has delivered an early Christmas present for shareholders with drilling at the Martin prospect intersecting 10m at 12.66g/t gold and 10m at 7.34g/t gold with multi-element analysis identifying two gold trends.
These assays occur adjacent to a historical intercept of 2m at 9.65g/t Au drilled by the previous owner, Newmont in WA’s Kimberley region.
At least three zones of significant mineralisation have now been intersected at Martin in both Trek and previous Newmont drilling.
This drilling information, as well as multi-element geochemistry, demonstrates that these three prospects sit within two emerging gold trends which offer outstanding potential for a major new gold discovery.
“We are very excited to have delivered such impressive results from Christmas Creek,” TKM CEO Derek Marshall said.
“The broad, high-grade intercepts at Martin confirm the potential for a significant orogenic gold system.
“We are now integrating this new drilling data into our structural models to help plan follow-up exploration, which will now likely include a combination of down-hole televiewer surveys and petrographic analysis ahead of drilling.”
(Up on no news)
Antimony is the gift that keeps on giving to ASX explorers, with stocks on the hunt for the critical mineral among some of September’s biggest Ressie winners due to China slapping restrictions on exports of the commodity of which it is by far the largest producer and processor.
NAG entered into a sale ad purchase agreement with Southern Cross Gold (ASX:SXG) for Nagambie to sell its remaining 30% interest in the Redcastle Exploration Licences EL5546, EL007498 and EL007499.
NAG considered that its remaining 30% interest in Redcastle was a non-core asset and that it should focus on its core asset, the high-grade gold-antimony discovery at the Nagambie mine in Victoria.
Nagambie will receive $250,000 cash from SXG under the agreement and will retain no interest in the Redcastle ELs.
An inferred resource of 415,000 tonnes averaging 11.5g/t gold equivalent and comprising 3.6g/t gold plus 4.3% antimony was unveiled in March with the in-ground metal content of 153,000 ounces gold equivalent, comprising 47,800 ounces gold plus 17,800 tonnes antimony.
This, says NAG, indicates a high-margin orebody at the Nagambie mine, where there are four shallow gold-antimony lode systems all open and at depth.
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Toubani Resources is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.
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