• Drilling contractor Boart Longyear appoints Rothschild and Co as a strategic advisor
  • Korab Resources, Stellar Resources, Copper Strike and Pursuit Minerals rose without fresh news

Here’s your top ASX small cap resources winners in morning trade Thursday, January 7.

 

Drilling company Boart Longyear (ASX:BLY) traded close to $1 per share Thursday:  up more than 30 per cent on a day earlier.

The Adelaide-based company said it had engaged Rothschild and Company to carry out a strategic review of its operations.

Rothschild and Company will evaluate Boart’s potential options as its debt facilities mature in late 2022.

Options on the table for Boart, which has net debt of $823m, include refinancing of its debt facilities and recapitalising the company.

“It is important to start exploring all available options to address its future debt maturities and set us up to take advantage of future growth opportunities,” chief executive Jeff Olsen said.

The drilling services company was seeing an upturn in activity in the mining and metals sectors, with mining houses signalling increased exploration spending, he said.

“We are also seeing intermediate and junior miners accessing capital through significant equity raising allowing them to get out and explore for tomorrow’s resources.” said Olsen.

Boart Longyear said it will update the ASX market on the progress of its strategic review at an appropriate time.

The ASX company returned an after-tax net loss of $74m for the nine months ended September 2020 due to decreased operational activity, impairments and additional financing costs.

 

 

Korab Resources (ASX:KOR) rallied strongly in early Thursday trade before trading in its shares was halted pending an announcement from the company.

The company is preparing a response to an ASX query on the sudden rise in its share price and the amount of trading volume for its shares.

The explorer has a range of mining projects in the Northern Territory and WA and a gold and silver project in Ukraine.

Talks with trading houses and refractory ceramics producers and other potential buyers have been held for its Winchester magnesium project in WA.

Korab is also focused on developing its Batchelor/Green Alligator gold-cobalt-nickel-lead and base metals project in the Northern Territory.

The company has been in talks with third parties about a toll treatment of gold ore stockpiled at the Sundance gold mine near its Winchester deposit.

The last substantial notice issued by Korab Resources was in mid-December confirming the renewal of an exploration permit for its Batchelor project.

 

 

Another early riser Thursday is Stellar Resources (ASX:SRZ) which sprung 36 per cent higher without releasing any update on its activities.

Stellar Resources is exploring for Victorian-style gold deposits in northeast Tasmania, and is developing a tin project in western Tasmania.

The company has 10 exploration licence applications covering 2,295sqkm of north east Tasmania that is highly prospective for Victorian-style orogenic gold.

Stellar Resources said in a recent presentation it expected the exploration licences for its Tasmanian gold project to be granted in early 2021.

“Northeast Tasmania is a continuation of the Victorian Western Lachlan Fold Belt, which hosts the Fosterville mine, other tier-one goldfields including Bendigo, Ballarat, Stawell, Walhalla and Woods Point and has produced about 80 million ounces of gold,” said the company presentation.

Heemskirk is the company’s tin project in western Tasmania’s productive tin field that has three operating mines and is 150km south of Burnie port.

 

 

Copper Strike (ASX:CSE) enjoyed a successful morning’s trading without releasing any substantive news since its last announcement in early December.

This notice stated the ASX had advised the company its current operations are not sufficient — in the opinion of the ASX – to justify its continued quotation on its boards.

The ASX gave Copper Strike until June 9 2021 to demonstrate its compliance with its rule 12.1 or face the suspension of trading in its shares.

The company said at the time that it was continuing to review potential opportunities in the materials sector and would provide an update in due course.

Copper Strike has a shareholding in  Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR) which has a graphite project in Mozambique and a US anode project.

 

 

Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) rose by 25 per cent in Thursday early trade despite not having put out anything new since a company presentation last month.

The exploration company is looking for gold-nickel-copper and platinum group elements at its Warrior project north of Perth.

Warrior is highly prospective for these minerals and has magnetic anomalies similar to Chalice Gold Mines’ (ASX:CHN) Gonneville discovery at its renowned Julimar project located 20km to the south.