Resources Top 5: Uranium stocks hit the bourse with a bang

Long-suspended uranium stock Aura re-joins the ASX with a bang in morning trade
Small cap explorer Adavale also re-joins the uranium rush
Miramar hits gold, Kingsgate eyes mine restart

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Thursday September 23.

AURA ENERGY (ASX:AEE)

This long-suspended uranium stock has re-joined the ASX with a bang in morning trade, potentially egged on by pump and group groups.

Aura’s focus is the advanced ‘Tiris’ project in Mauritania, which the company calls “one of the most compelling uranium development projects in the world today”.

The company says it has executed an offtake agreement for the project, with financing discussions currently advancing.

Highlights of recent DFS include low start-up costs of $US74.8 million and a low All-In Sustaining Cost (AISC) of US$29.81/lb – well below current prices.

Vanadium by-product recovery may lower costs further, Aura says.

ADAVALE RESOURCES (ASX:ADD)

Small cap explorer Adavale has also re-joined the uranium rush.

It all begins mid-October with a surveying and sampling program, designed to delineate an unexplored 1.8km by 8km geophysical anomaly at the ‘Lake Surprise’ project in South Australia.

This project has been in the Adavale portfolio since 2006, with a total of 446 drill holes completed across several anomalies to 2011.

A 600m wide, 2km long anomaly was defined but, since then, internal reviews have identified this far stronger, almost untouched anomaly to the southeast of historical drilling.

The $26m market cap stock is up 76% year-to-date.

KINGSGATE CONSOLIDATED (ASX:KCN)

There’s light at the end of the tunnel for this once high-flying gold producer, with a settlement in sight to restart the flagship ‘Chatree’ gold mine in Thailand.

For much of its life Kingsgate was a success story on the ASX thanks to the prolific Chatree mine, enjoying a share-price ride from $2.37 in late 2008 to $12.15 just two years later.

Since that peak it’s been a long downhill slide – especially after the Thai government ordered the closure of Chatree in December 2016.

“A successful re-start of the Chatree gold mine combined with the sustained rise in both the gold and silver prices could give Kingsgate significant optionality with the asset, and a path forward which may include continuing operations, selling the asset or listing [Thai subsidiary] Akara Resources on the Thai Stock Exchange,” the company now says.

“While there can be no guarantee that a negotiated settlement will be reached, Kingsgate is comforted by its recent engagement with the Thai Government, and Kingsgate maintains it has excellent prospects of a successful arbitral outcome if these negotiations do not successfully conclude.”

The $257m market cap stock is up 20% year-to-date.

MIRAMAR RESOURCES (ASX:M2R)

Miramar — which IPO’ed in October last year with ex-Doray Minerals founder Allan Kelly at the helm — has a bunch of gold and base metals projects in WA.

The explorer has just hit a number of thin, +6g/t gold intersections in early stage drilling at ‘Marylebone’, part of the Gigji project near Kalgoorlie.

A new discovery could be imminent, Kelly says.

“The new results include the most significant gold numbers received from Gidji to date and have also helped us identify the structures with the closest similarities to the ‘Paddington’ and ‘Panglo’ gold deposits along strike to the northwest,” he says.

“Our aircore drilling is still relatively wide spaced … and the average hole depth to date at Marylebone is only about 60m, whereas the primary mineralisation at Paddington reportedly starts at about 70m, just below the supergene enriched gold zone.

Miramar is also testing the newly granted tenements along strike to the northwest, “where the same geology seen at Marylebone continues for at least another 1.4km but is virtually undrilled”.

The ~$11m market cap stock is up 15% on its IPO price of 20c per share.

ORION METALS (ASX:ORM)

Orion is a shell company with no assets to speak of after selling its ‘Top Camp’ copper-gold project for $500,000 in July.

It sold its Tanami West rare earths minerals project in northeastern WA last year for $250,000.

So, where to now? On July 14 Orion said it was on the hunt for new assets, with further information about the company’s plans to be announced “in the near future”.