Resources Top 5: These stocks are winning amid market carnage

Aldoro searches for a company maker at the Narndee nickel-copper-PGE project
Metalstech makes important new discovery at 1moz Struec gold project
VRX Silica scores mining lease, paving way for project development

Here’s your top ASX small cap resources winners in morning trade Thursday, October 29.

The Narndee project – where Aldoro Resources (ASX:ARN) is hunting major nickel-copper-PGE deposits such as Nova-Bollinger, Voisey’s Bay and the recent Julimar discovery — will be a major focus “from now and into 2021”.

“This is an incredible project for a small company like Aldoro to have in the locker,” managing director Caedmon Marriott says.

“Historic exploration demonstrates a working sulphide mineral system, but this exploration generally applied, and was hampered by, a rigid Bushveld-model, looking for PGE reef deposits in a passive magma environment.”

Previous explorers were looking for the wrong thing, in other words.

Aldoro will use “modern thinking and exploration techniques” in an attempt to locate a company-making deposit.

“This is a genuine company-making opportunity, all thanks to one person’s lifelong ambition to find a massive deposit at Narndee – that is now my ambition as well,” Marriott says.

Aldoro – featured recently in our ‘forgotten resources stocks that could conceivably be the next multi-bagger’ series – is up ~100 per cent in early trade.

An all-important mining lease has been granted, clearing the way for development of VRX Silica’s (ASX:VRX) Muchea silica sand project in WA.

The ~1000 hectare mining lease will support at least 25 years of production, the company says.

“Demand from potential customers for long-term supply of silica sand from the Muchea project is strong,” VRX managing director Bruce Maluish says.

“With the mining lease secured, we look forward to stepping up negotiations to finalise sales contracts for high-quality silica sand products and secure the necessary funding for the project’s $32 million development.”

The VRX share price is now at its highest point since mid-2013.

Big-bagger gold stock MetalsTech (ASX:MTC) has made an important new discovery at its 1moz Sturec project in Slovakia.

Drilling pulled up a continuous mineralised zone of 59m grading 2.9g/t gold and 9.4g/t silver, 225m from surface.

That includes a 7m section grading 11.65g/t gold and 24.7g/t silver from 252m.

This high grade part is believed to be an extension of the ‘Schramen Vein’– key to the 1.5 million ounces of historic gold production, as well as Metaltech’s current 1 million ounce resource.

“We are excited to see what [the next drill hole] delivers in the next few days, which is a planned ‘step out’ of [this drill hole],” chairman Russell Moran says.

“If we continue to hit grade as we move further along plunge in our step out and our geological thesis prevails, we might be looking at a potential resource upgrade sooner rather than later.”

MetalsTech is up +780 per cent over the past 12 months.

Up on no news:

King Island Scheelite (ASX:KIS) is hoping to redevelop the high grade Dolphin Tungsten mine on King Island near Tassie for about $65m.

Tungsten is a super hard metal considered ‘critical’ because China dominates supply.

The mine will have a net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) of $146m and 47 per cent, respectively, over an initial eight year life.

Both NPV and IRR are metrics used to assess the profitability of a project – the higher the number is above 0, the more profitable it will be.

Hexagon Energy Materials (ASX:HXG) has bailed on a US rare earths technology deal and will now focus on gold and hydrogen in Australia.

The explorer says it is “well advanced” in a due diligence process to acquire a zero emission ‘blue’ hydrogen project in the Northern Territory.