• Rumble Resources keeps hitting thick, shallow and high-grade mineralisation at one of 2021’s discoveries of the year, Earaheedy
  • Okapi Resources has snapped up 55,000 hectares of ground in one of the world’s best uranium jurisdictions
  • Kogi Iron gains as iron ore closes in on $US150/t

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday January 31.

 

OKAPI RESOURCES (ASX:OKR)

OKR has snapped up 55,000 hectares of ground in the world class Athabasca uranium district of Canada following several months of due diligence.

Athabasca contains some of the largest, highest grade uranium deposits in the world.

OKR’s projects are along the margin of the Athabasca Basin or in the so-called Carswell Impact Structure where depth to the unconformity is relatively shallow (typically close to 100 metres) — making them ideal for targeting shallow high-grade uranium deposits.

Two properties – Middle Lake and Newnham Lake – have been prioritised for drilling as soon as the necessary drilling permits have been received, OKR says.

In the interim, Okapi will pore over historic exploration program data to generate drill targets on all six properties.

Detailed due diligence over the past two months has demonstrated excellent geological potential across all six properties, OKR MD Andrew Ferrier says.

“The initial focus of the team’s work will be on the Middle Lake and Newnham Lake Projects that have the hallmarks for potential tier-1 uranium discoveries,” he says.

“The team has pre-emptively lodged permits to drill on the Middle Lake Project and is currently in the process of also lodging permits to drill at Newnham Lake.

“This will likely provide the opportunity and flexibility to drill either one of both the targets in the North American summer (June-Aug) and following winter (Dec-Feb).

“We continue to believe that uranium is currently in an upward trend and Okapi is currently assembling and developing the right portfolio of assets to create value for shareholders.”

The $35m market cap stock is down 11% year-to-date. It had about $4m in the bank at the end of December.


 

DIABLO RESOURCES (ASX:DBO)

(Up on no news)

The Arizona Lithium (ASX:AZL) spinout has three US copper and gold projects: Lone Pine, Western Desert and Devils Canyon.

Drilling kicked off in December at Western Desert in Utah, which sits in the same geological setting as big mines like Barrick’s Long Canyon (2.3Moz).

Exploration to date has identified 11 geological and structural targets with the 2,000-metre drill program – which will take 3-4 months to complete — initially targeting the Copper Blossom, Taco, A6 and A3 areas.

Planning for a maiden drill program at Devils Canyon has also been finalised, with permits applications now submitted to the relevant authorities.

DBO is still trading well below its IPO price of 20c per share. It had $5.4m in the bank at the end of December.


 

RUMBLE RESOURCES (ASX:RTR)

RTR keeps hitting thick, shallow and high-grade mineralisation at one of 2021’s discoveries of the year, Earaheedy.

Since the Chinook discovery in April 2021, aggressive drilling continues to uncover a monstrous world class scale zinc-lead-silver-copper rich system.

RTR has now hit a wide, shallow zone of high-grade zinc and lead sulphides at Chinook’s recently discovered ‘Kalitan’ Feeder Zone.

Today’s highlight hit of 51m @ 4.76% zinc + lead and 5.81g/t Ag from 82m included an 8m-thick high grade chunk at 14.61% zinc + lead and 17.7g/t Ag.

Kalitan, which lies along the northeast margin of Chinook (4.1km by 1.9km and open all over the joint), has been defined over a length of 2.3km so far, RTR says.

Importantly, the discovery of significant copper and silver deeper in the Kalitan Feeder Zone emphasise the high potential for large-scale Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag feeder related mineralisation, RTR says.

“These targets are below the extensive Navajoh Unconformity Unit which hosts the Chinook, Tonka and Navajoh Prospects – these formations remain to be drill tested,” it says.

“The potential to intersect multiple inferred high-grade feeders at Chinook, Tonka, Magazine, Navajoh and ultimately targets associated within the 42km of prospective mineralised strike, is very high.”

Drill assays for 50% of the 50,000m drill program remain pending.

$270m market cap RTR is up 7% year to date, and 300% since first announcing the discovery in April last year.

It had $27.3m in the bank at the end of December.


 

KOGI IRON (ASX:KFE)

Iron ore is back with a bang in 2022, with prices for benchmark 62% fe now pushing through $US147/t.

That’s a massive 21% gain over the past month. Iron ore stocks – both miners and explorers — are responding in kind.

KFE’s main game is the ‘Agbaja’ project, where it ambitiously plans to mine iron ore and produce steel billet (crude steel) for the Nigerian domestic market.

A December scoping study envisaged a 1.7Mtpa mining operation to produce 500,00tpa of steel billet per annum across 25 years.

Costing $US507m to build, it would generate NPV (post tax) of ~$US273m and IRR of 14% at a billet price of $US550/t.

Current prices are over $US600/t, the company says.

Fastmarkets recently reported that a reduction in output from some Chinese mills has created a shortage, raising both local and import billet prices.

A more advanced Feasibility Study for Agbaja is due out during second half of 2022.

The $16m market cap stock is up 20% year-to-date. It had $1.8m in the bank at the end of December.


 

VARISCAN MINES (ASX:VAR)

This $12m market cap tiddler is plugging away at its ‘Novales-Udias’ zinc project in Spain, where it has a dual focus.

One — find enough metal to get the old ‘San Jose’ underground mine up and running in the near term, and two – find another monster deposit in the wider project area, like the nearby Reocín mine (one of the largest known zinc-lead deposits in Europe).

VAR is having success with the former. In the December quarter, it identified new high-grade zones – the 168 and Los Caracoles trends — in the ‘Central Zone’ at San Jose.

Both remain open and, following these strong results, drilling is being ramped up.

In terms of the latter focus – find another monster deposit – a geophysical survey has been completed of surface drill targets over the Buenahora licence area, with results expected shortly.

A surface drilling campaign to test step out extensions in the vicinity of the San Jose mine will also kick off, VAR says.

VAR is up 32.5% year-to-date. It had $3.58m in the bank at the end of December.