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Mining
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday September 13.
RFR will buy the 16.55Mt Horden Lake nickel-copper-PGM deposit in Quebec, Canada, for $4m.
This advanced 815-hectare project – ~300km from RFR’s Belleterre-Angliers Cu-Ni-PGM project and less than 100km from Archer Exploration’s recent Le Grasset acquisition — will be “immediately transformative” for the company, boss Steve Turner says.
“It adds an outstanding battery metals flagship with a substantial Cu-Ni deposit to the current Canadian battery metal property portfolio,” he says.
“The acquisition substantially boosts Rafaella’s battery metals position in Canada.”
This is a busy neighbourhood. In July, CSE-listed Archer (CSE:RCHR) paid C$53.6m for a bunch of assets, including the flagship 5.5 Mt @ 1.53% NiEq Grasset nickel sulphide project.
“The recent acquisition by Archer Exploration of the nearby Le Grasset Cu-Ni deposit for C$53.6m is an example of the potential value of these high-grade battery metal deposits in Quebec,” Turner says.
RFR will now update the resource though an immediate program of infill drilling “that will also quantify the additional high-value precious metals and cobalt credits available”.
Previous owners did not focus on the range of by-product credits available, with cobalt and PGMs, in particular, being overlooked.
“The resource will be re-assessed in relation to the higher commodity price environment that is reflective of the growing demand for these battery metals,” Turner says.
A project prefeasibility study (PFS) – or detailed look at the economics of building the project — will follow.
RFR also has a couple of tin-tungsten assets in Spain, including the advanced Santa Comba development.
The $12m market cap stock has struggled for traction thus far in 2022 and is down 42% year-to-date.
CRR has reported assay results up to 4.32% lithium at Mavis Lake in Canada – “the highest-grade lithium results in our project’s history”.
The world’s largest hard rock lithium mines usually come in at an ore grade of between 0.8% and 1.5%.
The latest assays, including a highlight 24.1m @ 1.62% Li2O from 53m, confirm lithium mineralisation is extending east, CRR says.
“These results further build our confidence in the project and reinforce our decision to commence complementary project development efforts such as metallurgical test work and resource modelling,” CRR chair Rob Martin says.
“Mavis Lake and the opportunity to position Critical Resources as an emerging, lithium focused project developer is an absolutely incredible prospect for the Company and our shareholders.”
Drilling continues at Mavis Lake, with ~10,749m completed so far. A maiden resource will follow.
The search for a new managing director is also going well, Martin says.
“After a global search for a more suitably qualified senior executive to fill the role of managing director, the company is pleased to advise that it is in late stages of negotiations with a highly skilled lithium resource executive, with the ability and experience to take the company from explorer to producer,” he says.
“We look forward to updating the market on this in the coming weeks.”
Explorer ALM has raised $1.75m at 1c per share – the last closing price — for resource extension drilling at the flagship 143Mt @ 0.29% Briggs porphyry copper deposit in Queensland.
ALM chair Alasdair Cooke ($100,000), managing director Frazer Tabeart ($35,000) and non exec director Valentine Chitalu ($25,000) have also committed to the placement.
It’s always good to see company directors with skin in the game.
ALM has an exploration target of 455Mt – 850Mt @ 0.20% to 0.35% Cu at Briggs, where six deep diamond drill holes for a total of 3,000m are planned.
Four of these will expand the existing resource and evaluate the exploration target at Briggs Central, and two to evaluate the exploration target at the Northern Porphyry.
In August last year, ALM inked a deal with Canterbury Resources (ASX:CBY) to earn up to 70% of Briggs through staged exploration spending over nine years of up to $15.25 million.
The $10m market cap stock is down 56% year-to-date.
The magnesium focused stock continues to run after yesterday announcing a review of rare earths and lithium prospectivity at its Batchelor tenure in the Northern Territory.
“Majority of the Batchelor project is underlain by the Burrell Creek Formation (part of the Finnis River Group) which hosts lithium mineralisation within nearby tenements owned or operated by Core Lithium (ASX:CXO), Ragusa Minerals (ASX:RAS), and Lithium Plus Minerals (ASX: LPM),” it says.
CXO and RAS are up ~150% and ~250% year-to-date.
There could also be rare earths mineralisation present at Batchelor, KOR says.
The small cap is now reviewing historical exploration data (~70,000 samples of drill chips, rock chips, whole rocks, and soils), as well as various closed file reports, and open file reports, it says.
“Korab Group is using the review of the nearby Litchfield lithium project completed by Ragusa Minerals and reported to the ASX on 11 August 2022 as a ‘template’ for Korab’s own review of the lithium prospectivity of the Batchelor Project,” KOR says.
“Results of the lithium and REO review of the Batchelor Project will be reported progressively as they become available.”
Any lithium or REE drill targets generated as a result of the review will be incorporated into upcoming drilling, KOR says.
The $13m market cap stock is down 30% in 2022, but +55% over the past two days.
Yesterday DAL announced multiple lead-zinc hits in maiden drilling at the Browns prospect, part of the Lyons River project in WA.
This could be the start of a SEDEX-style find, the company says.
Sedimentary exhalative deposits (SEDEX) are monstrous accumulations of zinc and lead, originally formed by the discharge of metal-bearing fluids onto ancient seafloors.
These super giant Tier 1 deposits account for 25% of global zinc and lead production, and six of the 10 largest active zinc mines globally.
They are also an important source of silver and copper.
More than 800m of Pb-Zn strike length mineralisation has been defined at Browns so far. It remains open in all directions, DAL says.
“We are encouraged by the prospectivity of discovering a significant BHT-SEDEX-style deposit at Browns and by the evidence that lead-zinc-silver mineralizing fluids have circulated at the basin-wide scale five kilometers east from our already drilled Four Corners prospect,” DAL managing director Harjinder Kehal says.
“This means extensive hydrothermal fluid circulation cells are present which are important for developing ore forming fluids.
“This in turn leads us to the conclusion there may be multiple base metal deposits at our Lyons River Project.
“We are looking forward to testing this in the December quarter 2022 by conducting more drilling in conjunction with downhole geophysical surveys.”
The $3.5m market cap minnow is down 10% year-to-date.
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