Resources Top 5: Two discoveries in two days? REC soars 270pc on 300m long copper hit

Recharge Metals drills into 300m of copper mineralisation at the flagship ‘Brandy Hill South’ project
Phosphate stock PhosCo gets “excellent” results from advanced met tests
Odessa (diamonds), Cullen (nickel, copper) and Solis (copper) up on no news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday March 29.

RECHARGE METALS (ASX:REC)

Two copper discoveries in two days?

Yesterday it was Tempest (ASX:TEM) lighting up the boards.

Today it is newly listed REC, which hit 300m of copper mineralisation in drilling at the flagship ‘Brandy Hill South’ project in WA.

Historical drilling at Brandy Hill recorded some nice hits, including 75m at 0.55% copper with a 23m zone returning 1.29% copper, with silver and tungsten values.

Initially, REC was looking to confirm some of the historical hits as well as extending mineralisation in a maiden drilling campaign.

Three holes from that drilling program were recently extended with diamond ‘tails’ to chase the vein-hosted mineralisation at depth.

It is the first of those holes, BHRCD019, which has hit the copper motherlode.

Copper mineralisation was observed from 92m to end of hole at 393m, the company says.

“BHRCD019 was drilled beyond the planned depth of 300m to 393m due to the presence of sulphides beyond the target zone,” REC says.

“Drilling intersected intense hydrothermal alteration, including carbonate, chlorite, epidote, quartz and sericite, throughout the lithological sequence.

“Copper minerals, such as chalcopyrite, were observed throughout the drillhole. The presence of copper is supported by in-field readings taken using a portable x-ray fluorescence instrument (pXRF).”

Drill core will undergo more detailed logging, prior to sampling and analytical testing.

Assays are also pending for remaining 16 RC holes completed during December 2021 and January 2022.

REC is on fire, up almost 270% to 48c per share in early trade Tuesday. It listed in October last year at 20c per share.

REC share price chart

PHOSCO (ASX:PHO)

Fertiliser supply is tight globally and fertiliser explorers, especially the advanced ones, are in demand.

Phosphate stock PHO today announced “excellent” results from advanced bulk tonnage metallurgical tests at the flagship Chaketma project in Tunisia, which show ore can be upgraded to 30% P2O5 with recovery greater than or equal to 80%.

“The 28-tonne bulk sample test work confirms the ability to produce a high-quality product and lay down an excellent base line for producing phosphate rock concentrate,” PHO specialist processing engineer Michael Kelahan says.

“There is a clear path for further test work and process optimisation to provide further confidence in the project.”

PHO made gains earlier this month when it delivered a 50% increase in its KEL mineral resource – one of two at Chaketma — in a major step towards the start of feasibility studies.

The project now has a total resource of 148.5Mt at 20.6% P2O5. Work is now underway to deliver an upgrade at the neighbouring GK deposit.

Already PHO is talking up the potential of a 30-year mine life at an initial production rate of 1.5Mtpa.

The $35m market cap stock is up 81.5% year-to-date. It had $3.1m in the bank at the end of December.

PHO share price chart

ODESSA MINERALS (ASX:ODE)

(Up on no news)

ODE, one of only three diamond companies on the ASX, relisted in January after raising $6 million IPO at 2c a share.

Odessa has a bunch of WA projects located between the historic Argyle and Ellendale diamond mines including ‘Aries’, which it calls “the largest and most diamondiferous kimberlite in WA”.

Geophysical data indicates a system 3km-5km long and 900m deep from surface “comparable to the footprint of the Argyle lamproite system.”

A drill program is planned to test diamond occurrences at surface and at depth.

The $4.6m market cap stock is down 25% year-to-date. It had $4.6m in the bank on listing.

ODE share price chart

CULLEN RESOURCES (ASX:CUL)

(Up on no news)

CUL hopes it is tickling the edges of a new nickel-copper-PGE discovery, a proverbial stone’s throw from Chalice Mining’s (ASX:CHN) company-making Julimar project.

In January, CUL punched a bunch of holes into four main targets outlined at Rupert, Rupert South and Rupert North targeting copper-nickel gold and/or palladium soil anomalies.

This drilling returned highly anomalous results; promising, but not enough to get the market excited.

On March 14 a electromagnetic (EM) survey kicked off at Rupert and Rupert South to follow-up on some prominent anomalies.

EM surveys map sub-surface changes in electrical conductivity and are useful tools for finding sulphides.

$8.5m market cap CUL is down 25% year to date. It had $1.4m in the bank at the end of December.

CUL share price chart

SOLIS MINERALS (ASX:SLM)

(Up on no news)

Recent Aussie debutante SLM, which raised $6m in an IPO, is already listed on the TSX.

It has three large-scale copper exploration projects including the recently acquired ‘Mostazal’ in Chile, as well as ‘Ilo Este’ and ‘Ilo Norte’ in Peru’s southern coastal copper belt.

Drilling is underway at Mostazal, where SLM is testing an enriched (high-grade copper) surface layer, as well as multi-kilometre interpreted porphyry ‘feeder system’.

Porphyries are multigenerational monsters responsible for ~60 per cent of the world’s copper, most of its molybdenum, and significant amounts of gold and silver.

Their easy-mining large volumes make up for the low grades, typically between 0.3 per cent to 1 per cent copper equivalent.

The first three holes completed have intersected widespread copper sulphides including, chalcopyrite, bornite and chalcocite, the company said late Feb.

The $13m market cap stock is flat year to date. It had +$6m in the bank at the end of December.