Resources Top 5: Yellowcake find surprises and Stellar tin metrics make gains

Energy Metals jumps on high-grade uranium hits from expansion drilling of Bigryli deposit
Trigg reckons Drummond can write another chapter into Australia’s growing antimony story
Tartana rises on major copper sulphate shipment

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Thursday, September 5. Prices accurate at time of writing.

Energy Metals (ASX:EME)

Some 10,500m of RC and diamond drilling completed to date at EME’s Bigryli uranium project has been targeting three sub-deposits (A2, A4 and A15) with good potential for resource growth and the explorer has struck into some high-grade U3O8 already at the A4 prospect.

Drillholes BRD2408 and BRD2409 both intersected multiple zones of high-grade uranium mineralisation, with a standout 10.6m at 0.86% U3O8 from 529.1m downhole, as well as multiple zones in excess of 1%.

The mineralised zone remains open at depth and the resource extension drilling program is ongoing.

Bigryli is a JV between Energy Metals (72.4%), NT Uranium (20.8%), and Noble Investments (6.8%) that’s aimed at growing its 21.3Mlb uranium resource 350km northwest of Alice Springs.

The market has responded in droves to the news, with shares up a whopping 64% to trade at 12c at time of writing.

Trigg Mining (ASX:TMG)

The antimony (Sb) bandwagon has another troupe member as TMG has announced plans to explore antimony potential at its Drummond Basin project in north QLD.

TMG considers its recently acquired Bosworth and West Ravenswood projects prospective for economic occurrences of orogenic and intrusion-related polymetallic mineral systems and potentially epizonal gold-antimony systems.

That’s because nearby at Police Creek, near Mt Coolan, economic grades of antimony of up to 2.3% Sb have been discovered in the epithermal gold and polymetallic mineralisation.

“Drummond’s combination of multiple mineral systems, with variable levels of antimony enrichment and the positive market outlook for antimony, underscores a robust exploration opportunity in gold, antimony and other commodities which we are keen to further explore,” TMG exec chair Timothy Morrison said.

Shares in the now $7m market-capped junior are up 15.4% to trade at 1.5c.

Stellar Resources (ASX:SRZ)

(Up on recent news)

Stellar Resources made recent news with an updated scoping study for the Heemskirk tin project in Tasmania – known for its rich tin deposits.

The study shows Heemskirk can produce 350,000tpa of ore over a 12-year mine life from Heemskirk’s Queen Hill and Severn tin deposits (accounting for just two of the projects’ deposits), to be trucked to the port of Burnie for export.

Project costs come in at $71m and with a pre-tax NPV8 of ~$122m at a tin price of US$28,000, the pre-tax IRR is 33% with a 3.5yr payback period.

However, at current spot prices around US$32,000, that balloons out to a pre-tax NPV8 of ~$190m and an IRR of 46% with a 2.8yr payback period.

Notably, the scoping study is only accounting for the higher confidence indicated resource category – if you counted in the inferred resource, the mine life would jump to 20 years, or in an increased production scenario, throughput can significantly increase to >750,000tpa.

Pre-feasibility studies are underway to look at increased mining rates, optimising plant size, capacity and infrastructure options.

Shares in the $33m tin explorer are up >14%, trading at 1.6c.

Tartana Minerals (ASX:TAT)

(Up on recent news)

A major 150t shipment of copper sulphate pentahydrate was shipped last week from TAT’s sulphate plant, sold through its sole offtake partner Kanins International to one of the largest mining operations in the NT.

TAT MD Stephen Bartrop noted the shipment marks an important milestone.

“It represents our largest shipment to date within the company’s recent sales to the North Australian mining industry,” Bartrop said.

“Improved plant performance has led to increased product quality and which is continuing to build a strong market for our ongoing copper sulphate pentahydrate production.”

TAT shares are up 16% today to trade at 2.9c.

Australian Strategic Materials (ASX:ASM)

(Up on no news)

ASM is on a bit of a tear across the last week of trading, rising 43% – yet there’s no news of any rumblings around its $1.6bn Dubbo REE project since the end of July.

It has more than $1bn worth of conditional support for Dubbo and has awarded Bechtel a front-end engineering contract and expects to finalise funding and commence engineering works sometime from now to before the end of the year.

By 2026 ASM hopes to have made a final investment decision for the project.

Perhaps news is on the way, as shares in ASM are up another 15% today, trading at 6.8c.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.