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Resources Top 5: These gold, iron ore and industrial sands stocks are aiming to be in production. Soon.
Mining
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- Shree Minerals’ most advanced project is the small ‘Nelson Bay’ iron ore asset in Tassie
- Star Minerals sets ambitious goal of starting gold mining within 12 months of completing IPO
- Mayur Resources is building a couple of iron and industrial sands, cement and lime projects in PNG
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Friday February 25.
SHREE MINERALS (ASX:SHH)
(Up on no news)
The gold-lithium-iron ore explorer has bounced back alongside the wider bourse to erase much of yesterday’s losses.
SHH’s most advanced project is the small ‘Nelson Bay’ iron ore asset in Tassie, which has been under care and maintenance since 2014.
The company is currently pursuing re-permitting to restart production.
In October, SHH also identified lithium potential at the ‘Dundas’ project which is interpreted to be along strike from Liontown’s (ASX:LTR) 14.8Mt ‘Anna’ resource, about 25km away.
Drilling is planned, initially around and along strike of historical drillholes with recorded pegmatite intervals, following completion of statutory surveys.
It also has ground in the mineral-rich Lachlan Fold of NSW, including a new gold acquisition called “Oak Hill’. Oak Hill is right next door to a 154,000oz resources held by Aureus Mining, the company says, with soil geochemistry indicating the mineralisation could extend into its ground.
A 15-hole, 1000m drilling program is expected to kick off at the nearby ‘Rock Lodge’ project this month.
The $15m market cap stock is up 70% year-to-date. It had $3.9m in the bank at the end of December.
STAR MINERALS (ASX:SMS)
(Up on no news)
The recently listed Bryah Resources (ASX:BYH) spin-out set itself the ambitious goal of starting gold mining at the ‘Tumblegum South’ project within 12 months of completing its IPO.
That’s late October 2022.
Following drilling at the end of 2021, SMS is now updating the 42,500oz resource at Tumblegum South for a scoping study.
Star Minerals acquired Tumblegum South from BYH for $500,000 cash, 9 million shares (valued at $1.8m) and 7m performance rights.
Current resources are for a planned open pit development, though there is also scope for underground development in the future subject to further drilling.
The company also acquired the ‘West Bryah’ project from BYH for 2 million shares along with a 0.75% royalty on any future production.
West Bryah covers 349sqkm in the Peak Hill area and was historically worked during the early gold rush days in the late 1890s.
A soil sampling and drilling program is planned for 2022.
MAYUR RESOURCES (ASX:MRL)
(Up on no news)
PNG-based MRL wants to be the “supplier of choice” for carbon neutral lime and cement products in PNG, Australia, and the Pacific.
Its ‘Central Cement and Lime’ project would be a vertically integrated manufacturing facility with the ability to meet 100% of PNG’s cement, clinker and quicklime requirement.
The co-located quarry, plant site and deep draft wharf will enable very low operating costs, it says.
It is also building the Orokolo Bay iron and industrial sands project, where a mining lease was recently granted. This was followed by the signing of a magnetite offtake agreement with a large Japanese trading house and a cornerstone investment deal.
Site works are due to kick off this month, the company says.
The site works will support the IPO of Mayur’s iron and industrial minerals portfolio via the spin-out of Ortus Resources, which will complete construction and bring Orokolo Bay into production.
The $40m market cap stock is down 17% year-to-date. It had $6.4m in the bank at the end of December.
INTRA ENERGY CORP (ASX:IEC)
(Up on no news)
The former African coal stock has transformed itself into an Australia focused gold-base metals explorer.
It picked up some ground in NSW during the December quarter called ‘Talowla’, which has potential “for high-grade copper under shallow cover”.
“An initial field reconnaissance was undertaken by our geologist, Mr Mark Arundell, as the first step toward an exploratory drilling campaign being undertaken in 2022,” it says.
IEC added another string to its bow with the acquisition of a nickel-copper-PGE project near Kalbarri, WA, called ‘Yalgarra’.
Yalgarra is in the northern sector of the emerging West Yilgarn Ni-Cu-PGE province, sitting amongst active exploration projects owned by S2 Resources (ASX:S2R), Todd River Resources (ASX:TRT), Chalice Mines (ASX:CHN), South32 (ASX:S32) and AusQuest (ASX:AQD).
IEC will target the mapped ultramafic rocks on Yalgarra before moving on to investigate the other large magnetic features, it says.
The $7.3m market cap stock is up 100% year-to-date. It had $827,000 in the bank at the end of December.
LYKOS METALS (ASX:LYK)
(Up on no news)
Lykos, the brainchild of Adriatic Metals (ASX:ADT) cofounder and Aussie-Bosnian national Milos Bosnjakovic, listed on the ASX in October following an oversubbed $12m IPO.
Its polymetallic projects in Bosnia – Sockovac, Sinjakovo, and Cajnice — have a long history of mineral discovery and extraction but remain almost completely unexplored since the early 1970s.
A systematic soil sampling program over Sockovac and Sinjakovo was completed earlier this month.
A newly identified nickel-cobalt anomaly at Sockovac has increased to 13sqkm in size, LYK says.
Additional surface sampling is underway to further refine the geological understanding of the project ahead of the maiden drilling program.
At the Sinjakovo copper-gold project, soil samples returned results of up to 1.6g/t gold and 0.58% copper.
“[The] size and grade of gold-copper surface anomaly is suggestive of a potentially significant target,” the company says.
Preparation is underway for a trenching program ahead of the maiden drilling program.
The 16.6m market cap stock is trading above its IPO price but is down 18% year-to-date.
