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Resources Top 5: Today’s resources champions are a tin explorer, and four gold companies
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- Tin explorer Stellar Resources makes gains on decade-high LME tin price
- Marvel Gold seeks to divest Chilalo graphite project in Tanzania
- Gold explorer Dreadnought Resources makes gold discovery in WA
Here’s your top ASX small cap resources winners in morning trade Tuesday, February 16.
The tin exploration company got off to a good start Tuesday, as international prices for the metal soared to their highest for a decade at $US28,900 per tonne ($37,000/tonne).
On the London Metal Exchange, tin was changing hands at a frenetic pace as stocks of the metal in LME warehouses slumped to around only 1,000 tonnes.
Tin last traded at its current level back in mid-2011 and the LME tin contract on a cash price basis has put on nearly $US4,000 per tonne in the space of a week.
The in-demand base metal supplies solder to the electronics sector and due to production interruptions for COVID-19 global output has been restrained.
Stellar Resources has a portfolio of tin projects in the west coast of Tasmania, including its Heemskirk project and St Dizier and Mount Razorback exploration leases.
“Improved tin demand and prices are generating growing investor interest in tin supply projects, such as Heemskirk, the highest grade underdeveloped tin project in Australia and the second highest globally,” said the company in its December quarter report.
The gold explorer moved up on announcing it was reviewing options to unlock value at its Chilalo graphite project in the east African country of Tanzania.
Marvel Gold has already spent $21m on developing the Chilalo project and after six years of exploration completed a definitive feasibility study for the asset in early 2020.
The study estimated that Chilalo has a net present value of $US331m for an 18-year mine life.
“Chilalo is the forgotten sleeper within Marvel’s asset portfolio,” managing director, Phil Hoskins, said.
The company has been focused on advancing its gold projects in the west African country of Mali including its near 1 million-ounce resource Tabakorole project.
Options under consideration for Chilalo include demerging the project from the company and an IPO that would return cash to Marvel shareholders.
The outlook for the graphite market looks rosy with EVs forecast to drive a 700 per cent growth in graphite demand by 2025, according to metals consultancy Roskill.
The gold explorer with several projects in WA has identified significant gold-in-soil anomalies of up to 6km in length along its Lawrence’s Corridor discovery.
The anomalies are consistent with a significant regional structure and historical Lawrence’s Find workings that returned rock chip samples of up to 54.4 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
Dreadnought Resources said the anomalies enhance a 10km gold anomaly previously identified by Newmont Mining (ASX:NEM) that has not been drilled.
The explorer has started to identify potential targets for a drilling program to begin in March for Lawrence’s Corridor that sits within its Illaara gold project near Kalgoorlie.
“The soil results from Lawrence’s Corridor are encouraging and will undoubtedly generate attractive drill targets that meet our objectives,” managing director, Dean Tuck, said.
The exploration company rose strongly as it identified ‘multiple’ drill targets for copper-gold deposits at its Apsley discovery in NSW’s Lachlan Fold Belt.
Impact Minerals said new induced polarisation survey data had found the anomalies which occur within a core zone 2,000m long and 500m wide.
The core zone is surrounded by a halo of zinc-lead-manganese that extends over several square kilometres and displays all of the textbook signs of a ‘zinc doughnut’ feature.
“These exceptional induced polarisation results, in particular the changeability anomalies, are very exciting given they are coincident with our text book soil geochemistry patterns that are characteristic of those around major porphyry copper-gold deposits around the world,” managing director, Dr Mike Jones, said.
The company’s Apsley prospect lies within its 100 per cent-owned Commonwealth gold project in NSW.
Native Mineral Resources Holdings (ASX:NMR)
The copper and gold explorer with projects in North Queensland and WA’s Eastern Goldfields region did well in Tuesday morning trade despite not releasing any new information.
A company presentation released last week detailed the company’s plans for developing its projects and for building a world-class tenement portfolio.
Native Mineral Resources has four exploration tenements for gold in Queensland’s Palmerville and WA’s Yilgarn Craton provinces including its Music Well prospect.
Music Well has provided historic rock samples grading up to 34 g/t for gold.
At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Impact Minerals and Stellar Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
