• Caprice Resources, Killi Resources hit paydirt in first ever drilling at respective projects
  • New exploration target could propel Surefire Resources’ Victory Bore vanadium project to “world class status”
  • Peculiar, perpetually suspended iron ore stock Mindax up on no news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday March 7.

 

CAPRICE RESOURCES (ASX:CRS)

Explorer CRS hit shallow, high grade base metals in the very first drillhole – EVER – at Lady Sampson, part of the Northampton polymetallic project in WA.

The hole, drilled beneath some historical workings, hit 6m at 11.4% lead, 1.7% zinc and 4.4g/t silver inside a larger 14m drill section at 7.6% lead, 1.1% zinc and 3.1g/t silver from 39m depth.

A second mineralised section was hit at 67m until end of hole at 70m, which means there is potential for additional lodes to the mineralised system at depth.

The remaining 10 holes of the program will be released over the next few weeks, but CRS says this hit represents an immediate follow up drill target.

Planning for an accelerated program is well advanced.

“Given this is the first drilling in this area, we see these initial results as exceptional,” managing director Andrew Muir says.

“The high grades and polymetallic nature, in addition to the presence of at least two zones, demonstrate the potential of the Lady Sampson prospect.

“Whilst we have only received the first hole to date, we recognise the significance of these results and will look to fast track follow up drilling at Lady Sampson.”

The 750m-long Lady Sampson anomaly is focused on a small historical lead mine, where one underground level was developed to 30 feet, but failed due to poor ground conditions.

CRS says Northampton boasts over 100 years of base metals mining history, but minimal on-ground exploration has been completed over the last 50 years.

The $7m capped minnow is up 6% year-to-date. It had $1.8m in the bank at the end of December.


 

KILLI RESOURCES (ASX:KLI)

More maiden drilling success.

KLI says it has unearthed ‘a potential large gold system’ at Rocky, part of the Ravenswood North project in Queensland.

A maiden five-hole program at Rocky – which had never been drilled before – hit a highlight 1m @ 2.38g/t Au, 10.2g/t Ag, & 0.28% Pb from 32m which indicates a mineralised intrusive system is close by.

The holes were punched in on wide 300m spacings over strike of 1000m and all hit mineralisation.

“It’s a fantastic result for the first holes at the Ravenswood North project,” KLI CEO Kathryn Cutler says.

“These first drill holes have not only come back with broad zones of gold, silver, copper & lead mineralisation, they are also located close to surface, and within the same rock suite as the near-by major gold deposits.

“The results of the geophysics also indicate we are in the thick of it, and only 200m from one of the major targets.

“Rocky is fast becoming a priority for Killi, and based on these results and the targets generated, we plan on completing a targeted drill program in coming months.”

Preparations for follow-up drilling programs are underway.

The $4m capped stock is down 10% year-to-date. It had $1.8m in the bank at the end of December.


 

MINDAX (ASX:MDX)

(Up on no news)

The gold-iron ore play is back trading after a weird year in suspension, which started when a 50%, one day share price gain attracted a speeding ticket from the ASX.

MDX’s response on February 24, 2022, was to go into a trading halt “pending a response to a Price and Volume Query received from ASX and details on a potential material project acquisition”.

It took until early March this year for the company to get its house in order and resume trading on the ASX; since then, the stock is up another 27%, for some reason.

Did it even acquire anything? Doesn’t look like it.

It’s not even the first time MDX has sat in bourse purgatory for an extended period.

In June 2019 it was suspended for having no money left and only returned to trading 23 months later in May 2021.

That means since June 2019, MDX has been un-tradeable for ~3 years.

(It did make up for lost time in 2021, spiking as much as 7,500%, before settling at a slightly less mental ~2,430% for its first week back.)

The China-backed $160m capped stock had $1.9m in the bank and the end of December.


 

PEAKO (ASX:PKO)

(Up on no news)

PKO is exploring for platinum group metals (PGMs) at the Eastman project, along strike (~50km) from Future Metals’ (ASX:FME) big 6.9Moz PGE resource in the Kimberley region of WA.

Late 2022 drilling returned decent results from the Brumby prospect in February, including 30m @ 1.45g/t PdEq1 (1.0g/t 3E2 ) from 48m.

High-grade PGEs at Brumby are now defined over 180m strike extent that is open in both directions with a 1.4km strike potential, PKO says.

Promising results were also returned from the Gap and Louisa prospects.

“The intercepts at the Brumby prospect are particularly encouraging, indicating a higher-grade ore shoot that we plan to evaluate as soon as feasible, as well as testing of other high-grade target areas across the intrusion system,” PKO exec Rae Clark said in February.

“These results provide us with a clear path forward for Peako’s exploration in 2023 and, in conjunction with the WA Government’s EIS grant for diamond drilling at Brumby, enable a clear plan for our next phase of exploration to test the extent of PGE mineralisation at Brumby and to move forward toward resource definition drilling, thereby further unlocking the potential of our Eastman project.”

PKO is currently planning its 2023 exploration program, which will kick off following conclusion of the Kimberley wet season (usually between Oct-May).

The $5.5m capped stock is up 30% year-to-date. It had $567,000 in the bank at the end of December and proposes to raise further capital to fund its 2023 exploration program.


 

SUREFIRE RESOURCES (ASX:SRN)

SRN says a new exploration target of 682Mt to 1190Mt @ 0.2% to 0.43% vanadium propels its Victory Bore project in WA to “world class status”.

When added to the current 321Mt @ 0.39% resource, the exploration target boosts the project’s potential to 1003Mt -1,511Mt @ 0.2% to 0.43% V205, “making it world class and potentially one of the largest vanadium resources in the world”.

For reference, advanced vanadium stocks AVL (ASX:AVL), Vanadium Resources (ASX:VR8), and Technology Metals (ASX:TMT) have respective resources of 239Mt at 0.73%, 680Mt at 0.70%, and 153.7Mt at 0.8%.

An update on the PFS – a look at the economics of building a project – is due in the next few weeks, SRN says.

“The extensive linear continuity of the Victory Bore Titanomagnetite and high vanadium grades where we have drilled provide a compelling prediction of the total scale of this vanadium project,” managing director Paul Burton says.

“When proven, it would place this project as one the world’s largest undeveloped vanadium resources and given its good location only 400km from port and proximal to existing infrastructure means it is a hugely valuable asset for Surefire shareholders.”

The $41m capped stock is up 80% year-to-date. It had $3.1m in the bank at the end of December.

 

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