- Uranium turned copper-gold explorer Zeus Resources is Friday’s market leader
- Gold explorer Twenty Seven gains on gold in soil anomalies at Yarbu project
- Queensland Pacific Metals is successful in producing battery-grade nickel sulphate
Here’s your top ASX small cap resources winners in morning trade Friday, April 16.
The uranium exploration company took off early Friday without any substantive news or market update since its 2020 half-year report that was released in March.
Zeus Resources is seeking to diversify and is looking for suitable projects in gold and copper in the Southeast Asian nation of Laos, according to the report.
The company has three projects in WA, Lake Way, Mortimer Hills and Narnoo South, but did not carry out any exploration activity on these in the recent quarter.
Zeus Resources has a strategic investment partner in Zhengyuan International Mining Company, a subsidiary of Chinese state-owned company China Metallurgical Geological Bureau.
WA-focused gold explorer Twenty Seven gained 20 per cent in early Friday trade having raised $2.65m at the start of the week from existing shareholders in a rights issue.
The company announced it had identified gold in soil anomalies at its Yarbu gold project in WA following a review of historical soil data that point to complex mineralised structures.
Yarbu Gold Project is near to Ramelius Resources’ (ASX:RMS) Marda gold project and exploration tenements in WA.
Existing shareholders were offered one new share in the company at an attractive price of 0.6 cents for every four they currently hold in the rights issue.
This is effectively a discount of 21 per cent to its 30-day volume weighted average price.
Queensland Pacific Metals (ASX:QPM)
The emerging battery metals company was a good performer Friday as it revealed the successful completion of test work to produce nickel sulphate at its Queensland pilot plant.
The nickel sulphate was made from nickel-cobalt mixed hydroxide precipitate (MHP), currently the preferred intermediate nickel product to refine into nickel sulphate for batteries.
MHP is a cheaper input to battery-making and existing nickel sulphate refineries are finding it difficult to source sufficient MHP, said the company.
“We have now completed the full process from a raw ore source to a final battery chemical product,” managing director, Stephen Grocott, said.
The explorer leapt higher after it was granted an exploration permit to carry out drilling for its flagship Riqueza copper-gold-silver project in the South American country of Peru.
Inca Minerals has mobilised drilling contractors for its Riqueza project site to target tier-one scale copper-gold-silver porphyry, copper-zinc skarn, and silver-lead-zinc carbonate.
“The grant of this crucial permit clears the way for us to begin the final preparations to start drilling on what we are hopeful will be a transformational program for Inca and our shareholders,” managing director, Ross Brown, said.
Eagle Mountain Mining (ASX:EM2)
The copper-gold explorer made steady progress in Friday trading as it revealed it has identified high-grade copper mineralisation at its Orex prospect in the US state of Arizona.
Extensive outcropping mineralisation lies along the lower Leatherwood intrusive contact of its Orex prospect, approximately 3km from the Oracle Ridge (Orex) mine.
High-grade rock chip samples along the intrusive contact include, 10.6 per cent copper and 29 grams per tonne gold, and an aeromagnetic geophysical survey is now underway.
“The results illustrate the prospectivity of the Orex prospect which covers an area greater than at the Oracle Ridge mine,” chief executive, Tim Mason, said.