Resources Top 5: Who's hitting the IOCG bullseye?

Peak’s Ngualla rare earth project has been ‘green stamped’ for development by the cabinet of the Tanzanian Government
Joint venture partners (70% Coda, 30% Torrens) hit more IOCG paydirt in South Australia
Gold-silver explorer Riedel surges on no news

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Thursday July 22.

PEAK RESOURCES (ASX:PEK)

Peak’s Ngualla rare earth project has been ‘green stamped’ for development by the cabinet of the Tanzanian Government.

That paves the way for financing, off-take and development, with construction at Ngualla targeted to kick off by the end of September 2022.

“This is a landmark moment for Peak and will position Ngualla among the most advanced rare earth development projects that is fully permitted, has a JORC Compliant Ore Reserve, licence to mine, completed Bankable Feasibility Study and a fully piloted process from ore to separated oxides,” managing director Bardin Davis said.

“With Ngualla being one of the highest-grade Neodymium and Praseodymium deposits in the world, Peak is ideally placed to benefit from the growing global focus on electric vehicles and decarbonisation technologies, as well as international initiatives to diversify the supply of rare earths.”

“This is a very exciting time for Peak as we progress Ngualla towards development and construction.”

TORRENS MINING (ASX:TRN) and CODA MINERALS (ASX:COD)

IOCG motherlode confirmed?

The joint venture partners (70% Coda, 30% Torrens) say the first two ‘wedge’ holes from the recently drilled deep IOCG exploration hole at ‘Emmie Bluff Deeps’ have both hit copper sulphide zones.

These zones “appear to be broadly comparable to the parent hole, but with strong indications that the mineralisation is improving dramatically to the east”.

In June, Coda Minerals (ASX:COD) and Torrens Mining (ASX:TRN) hit 200m of “intense IOCG alteration”, including ~50m of copper sulphides at the ‘Elizabeth Creek’ project in the Stuart Shelf region of South Australia.

Iron oxide copper gold ore deposits (IOCG) — like BHP’s Olympic Dam mine or more recent Oak Dam discovery — can be tremendously large, and simple-to-process concentrations of copper, gold and other economic minerals.

Coda is now up ~400% since listing on the ASX in October last year, while Torrens is up ~30% on its January listing price of 20c per share.

RIEDEL RESOURCES (ASX:RIE)

(Up on no news)

This explorer surged on March 23 after hitting high grade gold and silver in the ‘Kingman’ project in Arizona.

The highlight was 1.5m at 230.8g/t gold and 359g/t silver from 20.6m. Anything above 5g/t gold is generally considered high grade.

It now plans a 5,000m drill program to follow up on the very high-grade gold and silver drill assay results achieved at ‘Tintic’.

Drilling is due to kick off late this quarter “subject to permitting and rig availability”.

R3D RESOURCES (ASX:R3D)

Not really a major mover but noteworthy, nonetheless.

The reskinning of former PR/ investor relations firm, now copper-gold explorer R3D Resources comes via the takeover of Tartana Resources.

It hit the bourse with a market capitalisation of $21.7 million at the offer price of $0.20 per share – which explains the apparent 255% gain in early trade Thursday.