Resources Top 5: Who’s ending 2021 on a high?

Neometal’s battery recycling arm officially signs deal to license its recycling tech into North America
Metal Hawk, Desert Metals, Carbine Resources, and Askari Metals up on no news

Here are the biggest resources movers in early trade, Friday December 31.

NEOMETALS (ASX:NMT)

One of 2021’s best performing resources stocks NMT has a history of timing the market well.

In 2019, it sold its 13.8% stake in the Mt Marion JV for $104 million right before the lithium price nosedived due to market oversupply.

After giving a large chunk of that cash back to shareholders it embarked on four new battery sector ventures: battery recycling in Germany, lithium refining in Portugal, a vanadium recovery project in Sweden, and its Barrambie titanium-vanadium project in WA.

Now, that battery recycling arm — called Primobius — has officially signed a deal to license its recycling technology into North America with leading Canadian steelmaker Stelco (TSX:STLC).

Stelco plans to secure large volumes of end-of-life EVs for scrap steel and recycled lithium-ion batteries in a proposed 50 tonnes per day integrated operation. Primobius will get a gross revenue royalty.

Under a separate deal, Primobius can choose to acquire 25% – 50% equity in Stelco’s recycling venture by contributing its share of Stelco SPV’s sunk evaluation and development costs prior to exercising.

An impressive pipeline of development opportunities is reshaping NMT’s short-term strategy, NMT managing director Chris Reed says.

The company is now prioritising market penetration via partnerships over ambitions to operate as ‘principal’.

“Neometals is understandably excited by the speed of commercial progress being made by Primobius,” he says.

“We recognise both the need to partner to secure access to large volumes of end-of-life LIBs to ensure future growth and the present need to recycle significantly growing volumes of production scrap from LIB cell production in the US.

“Stelco is a leading supplier of steel to the Automotive OEMs and consumes scrap as part of its steel manufacturing process and presents the perfect opportunity for Primobius to enter the North American market as partners.”

NMT has a sizeable war chest with $83.5 million in the bank as of September 30, leaving it well placed to make acquisitions and fund developments.

The $746m market cap stock is up 21% over the past month, and 369% year-to-date.

METAL HAWK (ASX:MHK)

(Up on no news)

It was wild ride for this WA-based nickel and gold explorer in 2021.

In September, it spiked over 250% in one day – from 19c to 68c — after uncovering Kambalda-style nickel in maiden drilling at the ‘Berehaven’ project near Kalgoorlie.

Follow up exploration didn’t tick the right boxes for investors, and the share price dropped almost as fast.

But MHK also has another interesting iron in the fire: the ‘Kanowna East’ gold project, where the company hit high grade gold during a recent maiden drilling program.

Highlight hits from the ‘Little Lake’ prospect in November included 4m at 17.8g/t gold from 75m, including 1m at 42.7g/t from 76m.

It also has exploration joint ventures worth $9.75 million with Western Areas (ASX:WSA) – soon-to-be owned by IGO (ASX:IGO) — and Chalice (ASX:CHN) gold spinoff Falcon Metals (ASX:FAL).

The $15m market cap stock is up 41% over the past month, and 20% year-to-date. It has about $5m in the bank.

DESERT METALS (ASX:DM1)

(Up on no news)

Like MHK, DM1 has fallen back from recent highs but remains in an exciting position heading into 2022.

The company is prepping for drilling at its pipeline of targets: The Belele (VMS), Dingo Pass and Dome (Ni-Cu-PGE), and the new “Gonneville-like” PGE project at Innouendy.

Earlier his month, soil sampling at Innouendy increased the size and grade of a platinum palladium (PGE) and chrome anomaly first intersected in October.

The recently announced Maiden Resource over Chalice Mining’s Gonneville Deposit — 330Mt @ 0.94g/t Pd+Pt+Au — provides an exciting comparison at this early stage of Innouendy exploration, DM1 says.

“Both projects sit on the important Craton Margin and consist of mafic and ultramafic intrusive rocks,” it says.

“The surface dimensions (as defined by the chrome anomaly at Innouendy and the Mineral Resource at Gonneville) are similar.

“The single hole so far drilled into the intrusion at Innouendy peaked at 0.59 g/t PGE whereas Gonneville averages 0.94 g/t over 330 Mt.

“Soil samples over Innouendy would appear to be significantly higher in PGEs than at Gonneville.”

DM1 recently received heritage clearance to drill several fence lines of 24 holes across the Innouendy anomaly.

Rigs are now being locked in to commence work as soon as possible in the New Year.

The $16m market cap stock is up 70% over the past month, and down 42% year-to-date.

CARBINE RESOURCES (ASX:CRB)

(Up on no news)

This aspiring silica sand miner acquired the Muchea West project just 40km north-northeast of Perth in July.

It subsequently outlined an exploration target of between 800 million and 1,030 million tonnes grading between 99.6% and 99.9% SiO2.

A 233-hole maiden drilling campaign was completed mid-December, with first results expected in January. They will be used to complete a mineral resource, the company says.

Planning is also underway for a 2022 drilling program.

The $8m market cap minnow is flat over the past month, and down 40% year-to-date. It had $4.5m in the bank at the end of September.

ASKARI METALS (ASX:AS2)

(Up on no news)

This $7m market cap gold-lithium explorer has been busy since listing mid-year.

In November, AS2 pegged the ‘Red Peak’ and ‘Mt Deverell’ lithium projects in WA following a “search for under-explored lithium pegmatite projects located in proven geological settings”.

At least 11 significant pegmatites have been mapped at Red Peak, several more than 3km long and between 150m and 200m wide. The project is also prospective for uranium, another booming commodity.

Besides lithium, Mt Deverell also has lead-zinc potential, similar to the nearby ‘Abra’ deposit owned by mine developer Galena Mining (ASX:G1A).

Comprehensive rock and soil sampling will kick off in at Red Peak in January the company says.

Meanwhile, drilling is scheduled for the ‘Horry’ copper-gold project in Q2 2022.