Resources Top 5: This new palladium discovery just made famous prospector Mark Creasy several million richer

Mark Creasy-backed Galileo Mining explodes higher after announcing major palladium-platinum discovery
Drilling now underway at Cooper Metals’ ‘Mt Isa’ copper-gold project, just 10km from Carnaby’s IOCG discovery
ChemX achieves near-battery quality manganese sulphate purity in the initial test work

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Wednesday may 11.

GALILEO MINING (ASX:GAL)

Mark Creasy-backed GAL exploded out of the blocks after announcing a major palladium-platinum discovery at the ‘Norseman’ project in WA.

The discovery hole at the ‘Callisto’ prospect returned a 33m-long intersection grading 2g/t 3E (1.64g/t palladium, 0.28g/t platinum, 0.09g/t gold), 0.32% copper & 0.30% nickel from 144m.

This 33m assayed intersection occurs within a wider 55m disseminated sulphide zone (126–181m) “indicating the potential for a large mineralised system”, GAL says.

Assays from a further five drill holes are pending, but GAL has already flagged strong geological continuity “with all drill holes intersecting disseminated sulphides”.

And as you can see in the image below, GAL haven’t even hit the juicy target zone yet:

All up, there is 5km of untested prospective strike length.

Being on a granted mining lease also means the explorer could potentially accelerate development at Callisto if resource drilling is successful.

There are already geological similarities to South Africa’s colossal ‘Platreef’ palladium-platinum-gold-rhodium-copper-nickel deposits, GAL MD Brad Underwood says.

“This an exceptional result from our Norseman project and with every drill hole undertaken so far intersecting mineralisation, we are hopeful that the initial drill hole will translate into a high-quality resource for mining,” he says.

“While we are at an early stage in the discovery process, the thick and consistent zone of mineralisation, and the extensive prospective strike length, suggests the potential for a large mineralised system.”

In addition to Callisto, GAL also has multiple PGE-nickel-copper targets at the ‘Jimberlana’ and ‘Mission Sill’ prospects to the south “that offer new opportunities for further discoveries”, Underwood says.

“Galileo remains fully funded with $8.2 million at the end of the March quarter and able to continue aggressive exploration programs at all our projects

“We look forward to updating the market as work progresses on this exciting new West Australian discovery.”

This is the latest in string of successes for famed prospector Mark Creasy, who owns 24.6% of GAL and is now several million dollars richer on paper following this morning’s re-rate.

The $100m market cap stock is up 150% year-to-date. It is well funded for exploration with $8.7m in the bank at the end of March.

COOPER METALS (ASX:CPM)

Maiden drilling is now underway at CPM’s ‘Mt Isa’ copper-gold project, just 10km from Carnaby Resources’ (ASX:CNB) company making Nil Desperandum IOCG discovery in Queensland.

Drilling will initially target the historical ‘King Solomon’ and ‘Python’ trends.

At the 1.5km-long King Solomon trend, rock chips grading up to 9.85% copper and 2.58g/t gold “indicate higher gold potential than previously envisaged”.

More old workings were recently found at Python, with 8.53% Cu and 0.11g/t Au returned from rock chip samples near a historical mine shaft.

“It’s great to have started our maiden drilling program at the Mt Isa East Cu-Au Project,” CPM managing director and former explorer of the year Ian Warland says.

“The targets at King Solomon and Python look very promising with extensive historical workings, broad geochemical signature and FLEM responses to drill test as part of this program.

“The VTEM survey screening of a large part of Cooper’s tenure will commence next week; we look forward to updating the market as results come to hand.”

The recently listed $10.5m market cap stock is up 80% year-to-date. It had ~$4m in the bank at the end of March.

BRIGHTSTAR RESOURCES (ASX:BTR)

A ~9,000m drill program will start soon to grow the “size of the prize” (their words) at BTR’s 237,000oz ‘Cork Tree Well’ project in WA.

Previous drilling could not find the edge of the orebody, so more drilling is needed, BTR managing director William Hobba says.

These holes will target extensions to the main lode, ‘Delta’, and the new ‘Delta 2’ target.

“An update of the MRE [resource estimate] for Cork Tree Well is underway, however the consistent positive drill intersections from last year’s program have indicated a pressing need for further extensional drilling,” Hobba says.

“Coupled with the acquisition of E38/3434 in March 2022 containing the exciting Delta 2 project which has the potential to create a second Resource in the project area.

“Brightstar is keen to grow these opportunities aggressively and effectively.”

The program will take ~2 months to drill, with results expected several weeks after that.

The $15m market cap stock had about $2m in the bank at the end of march.

METEORIC RESOURCES (ASX:MEI)

(Up on no news)

This former market darling has fallen from favour after its tenements in Brazil’s Alta Floresta Belt — home to over 40 known gold deposits and host to major miners like Anglo American and Vale – failed to live up to lofty expectations.

While a scoping study is now underway for the 390,000oz ‘Juruena’ project in Brazil, MEI’s new focus is growing the resource/developing the 357,000oz ‘Palm Springs’ gold project in WA.

The 2022 field season at Palm Springs will kick off this month with an IP survey, followed by drilling designed to test for extensions and repeats on several targets.

A scoping study is also due for release in the current quarter.

The $26m market cap stock is down 35% year-to-date, and ~80% from its early 2021 high. It had ~$2.6m in the bank at the end of March.

CHEMX MATERIALS (ASX:CMX)

Battery-focused CMX has a dual focus — exploring the ‘Eyre Peninsula’ halloysite, kaolin and manganese projects and developing its HiPurA high purity alumina (HPA) processing tech.

Today, it announced near-battery quality manganese sulphate purity in the initial test work program for its High Purity Manganese Sulphate Monohydrate (HPMSM) project.

Testing on ore taken from historical drilling at its ‘Jamieson Tank’ manganese project by previous tenement owners produced manganese sulphate crystals with 99.7% purity.

To achieve near battery quality specification without any purification steps is very encouraging, CMX says.

Manganese is an essential component of lithium batteries, in particular Nickel-Cobalt Manganese (NCM) batteries.

NCM batteries are the predominant battery chemistry utilised by major auto manufacturers including Volkswagen (the world’s largest vehicle maker), Tesla and Renault, who state that manganese is a key part of their future development, CMX says.

“The outcomes from this initial testwork program are very encouraging, providing ChemX with significant confidence that manganese from the Jamieson Tank project is well suited for further processing into HPMSM for lithium battery cathodes,” managing director David Leavy says.

Further work on the production of HPMSM is planned once beneficiation work has been completed on samples from recent drilling at Jamieson Tank.

The recently listed stock is up 12.50% year-to-date. It had $6.6m in the bank at the end of March.