Resources Top 5: This lithium explorer is going for a joy ride with a global miner in tow

DTM shares go wild over earn-in agreement with lithium major SQM
WMG identifies disseminated magmatic sulphides over >300m at Mulga Tank
TCG, ADN, and BEM also up on news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday July 26.

DART MINING (ASX:DTM)

Dart Mining was the first exploration company to discover lithium on the Australia’s east coast back in 2016.

Through the company’s persistence and early exploration efforts, the project is finally getting the recognition it deserves.

This morning’s biggest winner has announced the entry into an Earn-in Agreement with Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. for its Dorchap Lithium Project in Victoria, Australia.

SQM, a world-leading lithium miner and producer with commercial offices in 20 countries, and customers in over 110 countries also has a 50/50 joint venture with Wesfarmers at the Mt Holland Lithium project in Western Australia.

Dart Mining says it has granted SQM the right, but not the obligation, to sole fund exploration expenditure totalling A$12 million over the next six years.

During the first earn in period, SQM may earn an initial 30% interest in Dorchap by sole funding exploration worth A$3million for the next three years.

SQM may then elect to sole fund exploration expenditure of a further A$9million in aggregate over two further periods totalling three years to earn a further 40% interest in the project.

DTM chairman James Chirnside says the collaboration with SQM brings world class technical and operational expertise to a very worthy exploration target.

~$10.7m market cap DTM had $759,000 cash in the bank at the end of the March quarter.

WESTERN MINES GROUP (ASX:WMG)

WMG is charging out the gates this morning, with shares up around 24.5% at the time of writing.

A diamond drill hole at its flagship Mulga Tank nickel-copper-PGE Project in Western Australia’s eastern Goldfields region hit disseminated sulphides up to >300m thick – a “clear indication’ of a large-scale working mineral system”, it says.

Holes MTD018 and MTD020 were designed to follow-up on historical drilling results at the project, whereas hole MTD019 was drilled to test a discrete EM target on the southern margin of the Mulga Tank intrusion.

MTD020 intersected a ~450m thick package of high magnesium oxide containing disseminated magmatic sulphides (trace to 2%) that coalesced into interstitial blebs towards the base of the unit (3 to 5% sulphide).

Visible nickel sulphides have now identified in six of the first nine holes at the Mulga Tank Project over a wide area and range of exploration targets.

“This is very exciting and offers great encouragement for the prospectivity of this large ultramafic body to host both Mt Keith-style or Perseverance-style nickel sulphide deposits,” managing director Caedmon Marriott says.

TURACO GOLD (ASX:TCG)

This hard drilling Cote d’Ivoire gold explorer is run by Justin Tremain, who led Exore Resources ahead of its ~$80m takeover by Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU).

TCG’s main game is the Eburnea Gold Project in central Cote d’Ivoire where latest drilling results have confirmed its Satama prospect to be a 2km+ gold discovery.

Satama is within a 4.5km gold-in-auger-anomaly and a further 10kms of untested gold-in-soil anomalism within a regional shear zone.

Hits include 30m at 1.92 g/t gold from 94m, 17m at 2.13 g/t gold from 16m, 5m at 5.96 g/t gold from 115m, and 10m at 2.21 g/t gold from 141m.

A 9,700m AC drilling program has also been completed, with results pending, as well as a high resolution airborne magnetic and radiometric survey of the entire permit.

It is expected the airborne survey will help place the Satama shear zone in a regional context, especially with respect to the adjacent belt margin.

ANDROMEDA METALS (ASX:ADN)

Former market darling and South Australian kaolin explorer, ADN, has signed a legally binding offtake agreement with the Vietnam and Hong Kong based Asia Mineral Resources (AMR) to supply halloysite-kaolin from the Great White Kaolin Project.

The agreement is for up to a total of 38,500t of Great White KCM 90 product over the first three years of production at a price in excess of the definitive feasibility study (DFS) pricing.

It includes sales into the ceramics sector covering Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand and the UAE and negotiations are in progress to lock in strategic offtake agreements for the balance of the initial Great White plant output to further de-risk the project.

ADN managing director James Marsh says this marks a significant milestone at it is the first agreement with a leader in the world of high-quality ceramics, which confirms the quality and value of the unique Great White resource.

The ~$310.8m market cap company had ~$35.5m cash in the bank at the end of the March quarter.

NOW READ: Beleaguered kaolin play Andromeda says investors ‘misunderstood’ project study

BLACKEARTH MINERALS (ASX:BEM)

Shares in BEM are on the up and up after announcing a ‘massive’ mineral resource upgrade at Razafy within the Maniry Graphite Project in southern Madagascar.

The Razafy indicated and inferred mineral resource now comprises 25.7Mt at 6.2% Total Graphitic Carbon (TGC) above a 3% TGC cut-off grade.

BEM says the mineral resource estimate is the culmination of the company’s recent diamond drilling exploration program completed earlier this year.

It will form an integral component to the BEM’s current DFS activities, which should result in a significant increase to the mine life of the Maniry Graphite Project.

NOW READ: BlackEarth upgrades Madagascan graphite resource by a massive 63pc