Resources Top 5: Two explorers bounce on thick, shallow and high-grade drilling results

Indiana hits highlight 21m @ 8.43 g/t gold at Central Gawler Craton project in South Australia
Kula pulls up 10m at 7% halloysite kaolin from 40m at ‘Airfield’ project in WA
Small graphite miner Bass is moves into lithium with new acquisition

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday July 13.

INDIANA RESOURCES (ASX:IDA)

Thick, shallow, and high grade (+5g/t) gold is the trifecta investors should be looking for in drilling results.

Indiana has hit all three at the ‘Minos’ prospect, part of the 5000sqkm Central Gawler Craton gold project in South Australia.

Significant new intersections include:

21m @ 8.43 g/t gold from 176m (including 1m @ 159g/t)
23m @ 6.44 g/t from 186m (including 1m @118 g/t), and
10m @ 8.83 g/t from 39m.

“Minos continues to reveal itself as an exceptional gold target and these stunning high-grade intersections and broad widths of mineralisation confirm the results from our most recent RC drilling program,” Indiana exec chairman Bronwyn Barnes says.

“Minos remains open along strike and at depth, so we believe there is still plenty of scope to grow our high-grade footprint at Minos as we move closer to establishing a Maiden JORC Resource.”

$23m market cap Indiana is up 25% year-to-date.

KULA GOLD (ASX:KGD)

More thick, shallow, and high-grade drilling hits — but this time we’re talking about kaolin clay.

Kaolin is used in everything — paper, rubber, paint, ceramics, fibreglass, cosmetics, high purity alumina (HPA) and pharmaceuticals are just some notable examples, with about 5kg of kaolin also used in the manufacture of each car.

Kula has pulled up a highlight 10m at 7% halloysite from 40m (8.8m true thickness) within a larger 55m intersection at the ‘Airfield’ project in WA.

“Results are very consistent across the three drill holes, and comparable to some of the higher quality deposits in the industry, albeit early stage as only three holes have been drilled to date,” the company says.

“A 200m spaced RC drilling program (2000m) is planned to define and test the extents of the kaolinised zone above the granite in August.

“The company believes the Exploration Target is between 30 and 100Mt of kaolin material based on the current thickness and the nature of the process that forms the wide zones of kaolin in weathered granite.”

$10m market cap Kula is up 55% in 2021.

TENNANT MINERALS (ASX:TMS)

(Up on no news)

The copper-gold explorer, which previously went by Blina Minerals, was suspended from the ASX in March last year on concerns over its financial condition.

Blina undertook a recapitalisation and share consolidation and acquired the remaining 50 per cent stake in the ‘Barkly-Babbler’ copper-gold project in the Northern Territory.

The company was relisted on the ASX early April this year.

KORAB RESOURCES (ASX:KOR)

(Up on no news)

~$6m market cap Korab Resources (ASX:KOR) is focused on the advanced ‘Winchester’ magnesium project in the NT.

Korab plans to develop the Winchester project as a quarry, with the intention to produce raw magnesium carbonate rock to be crushed, screened, and sorted on-site prior to transfer to Darwin Port.

Korab also owns the Bobrikovo gold project in war-torn eastern Ukraine (bad) which has 3.3moz gold and 16.3moz silver in JORC compliant resources (very good).

BASS METALS (ASX:BSM)

Small graphite miner Bass is moving into lithium with a new acquisition.

The ‘San Jorge’ lithium brine project is in Argentina’s prolific lithium triangle. Exploration will kick off shortly, the company says.

Bass will also continue to develop its graphite resources and pursue advanced materials applications for its high quality graphite.

“Bass considers the addition of the San Jorge Project as key to the company’s broadened strategy of providing a comprehensive and integrated exposure to the critical markets of Lithium, Graphite and advanced material concentrates as the global economy shifts to a lower carbon footprint, and markets which it sees as having outstanding long-term fundamentals and entering long term deficits,” the company says.