Resources Top 5: Tanzania gold project gets the green light, and a copper-gold play in Mongolia stays hot

Orecorp gains following the grant of a special mining licence
Genmin is up on the release preliminary test work results
Xanadu Mines gains again following yesterday’s resource upgrade

Here are the top five biggest small cap resources movers in early trade Thursday, December 9.

Orecorp (ASX:ORR)

Orecorps’ shares are up 13.97%, after the company received notification of approval for its special mining licence (SML) grant pertaining to the Nyanzaga Gold project in northwest Tanzania.

The company has been working with the Government of Tanzania (GoT) to finalise the framework and shareholders agreements for a new joint venture company, named Sotta Mining Corporation.

ORR says the grant of the SML represents a pivotal milestone towards the development of the Nyanzaga project.

Genmin (ASX:GEN)

African iron ore explorer and developer Genmin has announced preliminary results of the value-in-use (VIU) test work at the Central South University in Changsha, Huan, China on fines and lump iron ore products form its Baniaka Iron Ore Project in Gabon, Africa.

These results indicate Baniaka Fines and Baniaka Lump iron ore samples have a potentially high value in the Blast Furnace iron making process and will now inform the financial model which will be included in the preliminary feasibility study.

Managing director and CEO Joe Ariti said: “The preliminary value-in-use results show Baniaka Fines and Baniaka Lump have a potentially significant value to Chinese steel mills with both being high iron grade, low silica and alumina, with very low levels of deleterious elements and alkali metals.”

“Metallurgically, Baniaka Lump has excellent thermal stability and reducibility, and Baniaka Fines not only delivers high iron grades and low deleterious elements but improves Sintering efficiency with a 12.5% increase in productivity and 8.6% lower solid fuel consumption when substituting for some Australian Fines and Brazilian Fines currently used in Sinter feed blends”.

He said this also fits China’s decarbonisation policy with greener iron ore products through a high proportion of Lump and mine site infrastructure planned to be powered by renewable hydroelectricity.

GEN shares are up 6.25% at the time of writing.

Xanadu Mines (ASX:XAM)

(Up on no news)

Yesterday the company updated its copper-gold resource estimate at the Mongolian-based Kharmagati mine to 1.1 billion tonnes.

The resource now contains 3mt of copper and 8 million oz gold, representing a >50% increase in the contained copper and >80% increase in contained gold metal.

Since 2018, XAM said it has completed 120 diamond drill holes for 69,479m and has grown the resource at a rate of around 11mt copper equivalent per month.

A scoping study is now underway to model the project, leveraging key advantages such as cohesive high-grade zones to drive early payback of initial capita and strong project economics.

Chief executive officer Andrew Stewart said this positions Kharmagtai as one of the largest undeveloped copper and gold resources on the ASX, and one of the largest globally.

“The higher-grade zones (>0.8% copper equivalent) have grown from 58Mt in the previous estimate to just on 100Mt with this update,” he said.

“This could be a real game-changer for project economics.”

Shares are up 8% to 2.7c at the time of writing.

Frontier Resources (ASX:FNT)

(Up on no news)

Last week the company announced the completion of an exploration program at the Taula prospect adjacent to the Tolukuma gold mine in Papua New Guinea.

The Taula vein has been mapped for more than 750 metres subparallel to the mineralised Tolukuma mine structures, and FNT believes these extensions signify enhanced potential for developing near mine gold resources.

Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL)

VUL has signed a binding lithium hydroxide offtake agreement with Volkswagen Group, the world’s largest automaker by revenue and the largest company in Germany.

The agreement is for an initial five-year term and the start of commercial delivery is set for 2026.

Vulcan is aiming to become the world’s first lithium producer with net zero greenhouse gas emissions.

Its Zero Carbon Lithium™ Project intends to produce a battery-quality lithium hydroxide chemical product from its combined geothermal energy and lithium resource, which is Europe’s largest lithium resource in Germany.

Shares in the company ripped higher by 17.9% on the news, to ~$11.50.

Today’s announcement marks one of a number of offtake deal Vulcan has flagged since short-seller J Capital took aim at the business in late October when VUL shares were trading at $14.99.