Potash, lithium, gold and tungsten ASX companies sped off in Tuesday trade. Image: Getty
Resources Top 5: Which potash, gold, oil, lithium and tungsten stocks did investors back today?
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- Republic of Congo focused fertiliser firm Kore Potash took off in Tuesday trade
- Higher oil prices rewarded Louisiana oil producer Grand Gulf Energy
- King Island Scheelite revealed its Swiss cornerstone investor
Here’s your top ASX small cap resources winners in morning trade Tuesday, March 16.
Standout performer in Tuesday morning trade was Kore Potash with its two projects for the fertiliser in the west African country of the Republic of Congo.
Potash prices have stabilised around $US200 per tonne ($258/tonne) and Kore Potash can ship product from Congo’s Pointe Noire port at about $US86.60 per tonne, representing a potential profit of $US113.40 per tonne at current market prices.
The company’s potash is destined for markets in Africa and South America and its project is at the preliminary feasibility stage with a capital cost of $286m.
More potash-based fertiliser will be needed to boost crop yields on arable land to feed the world’s population which is expected to grow to 9 billion people by 2050.
Potash is essential for high quality and high yield food production.
Kore Potash said global annual potash production is around 65 million tonnes per year of which 40 million tonnes is derived from four suppliers.
The company notes that global miners, including BHP with its Jansen project in Canada, and Anglo American with its Woodsmith mine in the UK, are investing in potash assets.
The US-focused oil company’s share price accelerated in early trade Tuesday, reflecting a recent rise in US oil prices where it has its operations.
In results posted this week for the December-ended half year, Grand Gulf Energy produced 9,739 barrels of oil for the period from its operations in the US state of Louisiana.
The company received a price of $US50.60 per barrel for its Louisiana light crude at the end of December, and the price has now risen to $US64.80 per barrel this week.
Grand Gulf Energy achieved a net loss of $69,000 for the December-ended half-year on sales revenue of $489,000.
This is compared with a profit of $376,000 on revenue of $1m for the corresponding 2019 half-year.
King Island Scheelite (ASX:KIS)
The tungsten company’s share price took off Tuesday after Swiss investment fund D.A.CH.S Capital announced it had increased its stake in the ASX company to 6.8 per cent.
The Swiss investor was a cornerstone investor in King Island Scheelite’s capital raising this week for $5.6m with D.A.CH.S Capital subscribing to 20 million shares.
The share placement was for a total of 28 million shares priced at 20 cents per share, and the balance of the available shares were taken up by Australian investors.
King Island Scheelite is developing its Dolphin tungsten project on King Island off Tasmania and will use $4.7m from the capital raising to retire all of its debt.
“D.A.CH.S Capital became a shareholder in the company in early January 2021 and we are extremely pleased that they have shown the confidence in KIS to increase their investment and become a substantial shareholder,” executive chairman, Johann Jacobs, said.
The Swiss investor had an initial shareholding in KIS of 4.2 million shares that has now reached 24.2 million shares, according to a company notice filed to the ASX.
A mine producing scheelite, a type of tungsten, operated on King Island until 1992 and the company’s Dolphin project is for an eight-year mine producing 200,000 metric tonne units of tungsten.
In February, the government of Tasmania approved a $10m loan for KIS’s Dolphin project with a 10-year term.
The spodumene supplier to Tesla ripped higher on announcing a definitive feasibility study for its lithium hydroxide project in the US state of North Carolina.
The study is expected to be completed in the September-ended quarter, and the company also said it is adopting lithium conversion technology with lower carbon emissions.
Solar power generation capacity is being added to its North Carolina project to offset carbon emissions as will its adoption of in-pit crushing systems instead of a truck fleet.
Piedmont Lithium said it is examining a larger production profile for its project in response to continued strong demand for lithium.
“Demand for locally and ethically-sourced battery raw materials is accelerating, and Piedmont is engaging in multiple initiatives to meet this opportunity in the most sustainable way possible,” president and chief executive, Keith Phillips, said.
“With the backdrop of new executive orders [from President Biden] supporting domestic battery supply chains, we are very pleased to launch an integrated definitive feasibility study to advance our North Carolina operations,” he added.
Piedmont Lithium said it is the only spodumene-to-hydroxide lithium project in the US, and the company is at the nexus of three ‘mega trends’ — the electrification of everything, localisation of supply chains, and decarbonisation of the economy.
The exploration company gained in early trade on announcing the discovery of a significant anomaly suggestive of sulphide mineralisation at its Mandilla prospect in WA.
The anomaly was identified within its Ausrox shear zone in a recent 3D induced polarisation survey, and drilling had located anomalous gold in the zone last year.
The WA-focused gold explorer is targeting primary gold mineralisation at Mandilla similar to that discovered by Anglo American at Mandilla East and South since 2006.
Enterprise Metals said it had digitised 40-year-old induced polarisation survey data and projected it over a 2021 3D-IP survey to confirm the validity of an anomaly over the Aurox shear zone in the Mandilla area.
The Mandilla prospect is located 100km south of Kalgoorlie in the northern Widgiemooltha greenstone belt that hosts significant gold and nickel deposits.
