Resources Top 5: Widgie Nickel the standout as critical minerals steal the show

Neometals spin-off WIN soars 50% on high-grade nickel hits
CYM gains after entering into exclusive Letter of Intent with Glencore
EMS extends Evergreen Discovery at Browns Reef a further 50m

Here are the biggest small-cap resource winners in early trade, Monday June 27.

WIDGIE NICKEL (ASX:WIN)

This Neometals (ASX:NMT) spin-off listed on the bourse back in September 2021 and wants to be a ‘production ready’ nickel stock by the end of 2023.

Its main game is the ‘Mt Edwards’ project in WA, where 162,600t of nickel across 11 seperate resources has already been identified.

Mt Edwards also has lithium potential.

The company has soared some 50% on news of a high-grade nickel discovery at Gillet North, within the wider Mt Edwards project.

Massive and semi-massive nickel sulphides have returned intersections of up to 12m at 3.40% nickel from 200m, including 5m at 4.84% nickel from 206m and 18m at 4.69% nickel from 246m.

MD Steve Norregaard says this drill result is, quite simply, “outstanding”.

“The discovery of thick, high-grade mineralisation at Gillett North is extremely exciting for Widgie,” he said.

“A brownfield discovery in the middle of the Widgie South area, high-grade in nature, with ample room to grow, will enhance Widgie’s existing resource base and ultimately enhance the underlying project economics.”

These results support Widgie’s production aspirations, with a re-estimation of the Gillett Mineral resource expected in the September 2022 quarter.

CYPRIUM METALS (ASX:CYM)

CYM continues to make solid progress on the redevelopment of its Nifty copper project, which is expected to produce copper metal plate in the second half of 2023.

Shares in the copper play gained ~30% this morning after announcing it had entered into an exclusive Letter of Intent with Glencore International AG for A$50m in respect of a copper cathode offtake secured prepayment facility.

The funding will be spent towards the Nifty project, as part of the debt financing for the restart of the project, which includes capital expenditure, contingencies, working capital, and financing costs.

Under the terms of the exclusive Letter of Intent, CYM and GLN will work towards finalising outstanding due diligence activities, and documentation for the project funding for execution, which is being done in conjunction with ongoing advanced discussions with the potential secured senior debt providers.

EASTERN METALS (ASX:EMS)

This ~$5.87m market cap company is making headway at its high-grade zinc-polymetallic discovery Brown Reef within the Cobar project in New South Wales.

A follow-up two-hole diamond drilling program has intersected massive and disseminated sulphide mineralisation, extending the Evergreen lode a further 50m to the south of the area drilled by EMS this year.

As it stands, an exploration target of 27 to 37 million tonnes averaging between 1.3-1.4% zinc, 0.6-0.7% lead, 9-10g/t silver and 0.2-0.3% copper has been reported for Browns Reef.

The Evergreen lode has now been now identified over a strike length of more than 150m and vertical depth of 300m and remains open along strike in both directions and at depth.

Managing director and CEO Wayne Rossiter said the drilling team and staff did an outstanding job completing these holes in difficult conditions and heavy rainfall.

“We look forward to the drilling of the planned step out holes 50m to the north which we could not drill because of the difficult access caused by heavy rains this year,” he said.

KUNIKO (ASX:KNI)

Punter favourite KNI is catching some big waves this morning after confirming cobalt mineralisation has been identified in “multiple sections of diamond drill core” from the priority Middagshville target at Skuterud in Norway.

Skuterud consists of four granted licences covering roughly 1,250 hectares in southern Norway, within 100km of the Oslo port.

With five drill holes now complete, KNI says drilling will continue at the Middagshvile target until around mid-July, with around 2,500 metres of drilling completed to date.

Logging of the drill core is occurring in parallel with the drilling, while laboratory assay results are expected around September.

“While we have further work ahead in assaying the drill core and modelling the geology, the occurrence of visible cobalt mineralisation is very encouraging and assuring that our continued efforts will unlock the potential of this important cobalt project,” MD Antony Beckmand said.

“Our strategy remains on target for the responsible development of ethical sources of net-zero carbon battery metals from Europe, for Europe.”

REEDY LAGOON (ASX:RLC)

This $13m market cap stock is turning heads this morning heads this morning on news that it has extended gold anomalies at the Buracoppin Gold Project in Western Australia.

Soil sampling has recovered gold in samples along trend from the Windmills prospect and identified additional gold anomalies.

At the Windmills, anomalous gold has been recovered from samples collected 600m to the south and along trend from the discovery traverse.

In the south of the project area, two “scout” traverses spaced 800m apart also show anomalous gold.

A total of 1,283 soil samples have been collected during the current program.

Next steps include completion of gold assays for the 733 samples collected and not yet assayed, as well as infill and extension sampling at identified anomalies, systematic soil sampling to recover geochemical data.

This will aid in targeting gold-bearing mineralised systems for drill testing and additional exploratory traverses in untested areas.