Resources Top 5: The explorers waiting on potentially company-making drill results

Trek, Enterprise, Conico have drill results pending from their respective projects
Calidus says it is on track to be Australia’s next gold producer

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Friday August 27.

TREK METALS (ASX:TKM)

(Up on no news)

Is there big news incoming?

The gold-base metals explorer — which got a speeding ticket from the ASX Thursday after making gains on high volume for no reason – is at it again in morning trade.

There are drill results pending from 8 holes for the ‘Pincunah’ copper zinc project, just south of Pilbara Minerals’ (ASX:PLS) world-class Pilgangoora Lithium Complex.

Early indications were promising, the company said in July.

“The key takeaway for investors is that we now have enough evidence to be very confident that the ‘Valley of the Gossans’ prospect is likely to be large-scale VMS copper-zinc base metal system with an extensive footprint that extends over 2km,” executive director John Young said 29 July.

“The geological similarities to the Sulphur Springs project, located 30km to the east, which is currently being developed by Venturex Resources (ASX:VXR), are striking and show that we are in the right sort of environment to make a significant VMS-style base metal discovery.”

VMS deposits often have a relatively small ‘footprint’.

The next step will be to zero in these potential high-grade accumulations of massive sulphide mineralisation within the broad anomalous (low grade) zone, Young says.

“We will do this by undertaking down-hole EM surveys from the recent drill-holes to help us target VMS mineralisation at depth and along strike,” he says.

“This work will commence in the coming weeks and should provide us with targets to be tested with diamond drilling.”

The $23m market cap stock is up ~30% over the past week.

CONICO (ASX:CNJ)

(Up on no news)

In late July, Conico hit about 55m of “significant sulphide mineralisation” in its very first hole at the ‘Ryberg’ nickel-copper project in Greenland.

Six out of six drill holes at the exciting Miki discovery – part of the Ryberg project in Greenland — have now intersected sulphides.

First drill results were anticipated to be received late August, early September.

The $90m market cap stock is up ~220% since mid-July.

ARDIDEN (ASX:ADV)

(Up on no news)

The Canadian explorer recently inked a $9.2m deal with Green Technology Metals (GTM) to explore and potentially develop its non-core lithium assets in Ontario.

At the flagship ‘Pickle Lake’ gold project, Ardiden identified some “Tier-1 scale gold targets” at the ‘Esker’ prospect which will be the focus of upcoming drill programs.

“Ardiden will continue update the market as First Nation negotiations progress and when the Mines Department issue the final permit to allow drilling to commence at the Esker gold prospect,” the company said late July.

ENTERPRISE METALS (ASX:ENT)

(Up on no news)

More drill results are on their way.

Constellation Resources (ASX: CR1) owns 70 per cent of the 558km2 ‘Orpheus’ project in the Fraser Range, with Enterprise holding the balance.

Assay results are pending from an extensive aircore drilling program targeting the 3km-long Ni-Cu-Co-PGE ‘Eyre’ anomaly.

Drill assays are also pending from Enterprise’s ‘Murchison project’, 30km from IGO’s Nova mine.

Big miner Evolution (ASX:EVN) inked a earn-in joint venture agreement with Enterprise over the project on 1 June 2019.

Evolution can earn an 80% interest in the project by spending $6 million on exploration over a four-year period.

CALIDUS RESOURCES (ASX:CAI)

Calidus says it is on track to be Australia’s next gold producer, with mining now underway at the ‘Warrawoona’ project in the Pilbara.

“We are now more than 50% built and we are well on track for first gold in the June quarter of 2022,” Calidus managing director Dave Reeves said last week.

Warrawoona is forecast to produce an initial 105,000oz a year, but this could be bumped up to 139,000ozpa when the nearby ‘Blue Spec’ deposit is developed.

The ~$220m market cap stock is up 11% year-to-date.