Resources Top 5: Yesterday's loser is a REE winner today on promising results close to Hastings' Yangibana

Dalaroo Metals identifies rare earth potential at the Lyons River Project in WA’s Gascoyne region
Meteoric Resources completes the sale of its Juruena Gold Project in Brazil to Keystone Resources for ~$30m
Latin Resources makes a new lithium discovery 500m west of the Colina prospect within the Salinas Lithium Project in Brazil

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Wednesday October 5.

DALAROO METALS (ASX:DAL)

This ~$5.9m market cap company is on an upwards trajectory today having gained some 27% at the time of writing on news of rare earth potential at the Lyons River Project in WA’s Gascoyne region – a big turnaround from yesterday’s loss.

DAL says “highly encouraging anomalous values” of up to 0.15% total rare earth oxide (TREO) have been identified during an inaugural rock chip sampling program.

A total of 45 rock chip samples were submitted for a multi-element REE suite analysis, with DAL’s Lyons River Project dominated by the same rocks of the Proterozoic Age Durlacher Suite which hosts Hastings (ASX:HAS) Yangibana Project.

“The Gascoyne is a hotspot for rare earths and we are delighted to get such encouraging results from our first ever surface sampling,” DAL managing director Harjinder Kehal says.

Key ASX players are proving the Gascoyne region could become a game-changing rare earths province with other companies in the district including Dreadnought (ASX:DRE), Kingfisher Mining (ASX:KFM), and Voltaic Strategic Resources (ASX:VSR).

METEORIC RESOURCES (ASX:MEI)

MEI has completed the sale of its Juruena Gold Project in Brazil to Keystone Resources for ~$30m in staged payments, cashing it up to tackle the flagship ‘Palm Springs’ project in WA.

Keystone Resources are a wholly owned subsidiary of Alchemist Investments Inc – a holding group with experience in developing mines globally.

After a few delays regarding satisfying the restricting pre-condition, both parties agreed as part of completion to a slight delay on the terms for the second and final tranche payment totalling $26.5m, which will now be received on or before March 31, 2023.

As well as ramping up exploration activities at Palm Springs, MEI says the funds will be used to greatly expand the scope of potential acquisitions.

MEI has a market cap of ~$19.8m.

LATIN RESOURCES (ASX:LRS)

Latin has made a new lithium discovery some 500m west of the Colina prospect within the wider Salinas Lithium Project in Brazil’s pro-mining Minas Gerais district.

With hits of up to 18.71m at 1.32% Li2O, 1.78m at 1.33% Li2O, and 1.67m at 1.36% Li2O, LRS says MULTIPLE, high-grade lithium bearing pegmatites have been confirmed.

“The significance of these latest results from hole SADD0033 cannot be understated,” LRS exploration manager Tony Greenaway says.

“They confirm that we have a second zone of high-grade lithium bearing pegmatite… which is open in all directions, including along strike to the north and south.

“Colina West has the potential to add considerable resources to the company’s maiden JORC mineral resource estimate, which is on track to be delivered in December this year.”

As well as this, latest assays from resource definition drilling at Colina returned the prospect’s highest grade intersection yet at 8.45m at 3.57% Li2O, including 4.17m at 5.79% Li2O.

NOW READ: Latin Resources all set to roll out more lithium at Colina West

NICO RESOURCES (ASX:NC1)

Nico hit the bourse back in January this year and is one of 22 stocks trading above their IPO price for 2022.

NC1 says the completion and release of its pre-feasibility study for the Wingellina Project, which forms part of the larger Central Musgrave Project (spanning across Western Australia and South Australia) is expected before the end of 2022.

Overall, PFS progress to date suggests that the key physical outcomes are optimal for the production of approximately 40,000tpa of contained nickel and 3,500tpa of contained cobalt for more than 40 years based on ore reserves only.

“The majority of capital and operating cost projections have been received and are in line with expectations,” NC1 adds.

Renewable power solutions are currently being assessed for the onsite power supply, which can be a competitive power option that involves a Build-Own-Operate model from independent power producers (IPPs).

If all goes to plan, the PFS will confirm the Wingellina Project has the potential to become a globally significant producer of nickel with cobalt and manganese to feed the growing lithium-ion battery market.

TG METALS (ASX:TG6)

(Up on no news)

This ~$7.16m market cap explorer is still up some 20% after announcing a new lithium target at the Lake Johnston Project about 5km long and 1.2km wide.

The target was discovered during a soil sampling program at the site where interestingly, no previous lithium exploration had been conducted.

Further ground truthing will take place in the coming weeks, testing for indications of pegmatitic material.

“The location of this Li Index anomaly, close to our priority nickel sulphide targets and drill defined nickel-cobalt laterite deposits, is a bonus,” TG6 CEO David Selfe said at the time.

“It means very little adjustment of our proposed exploration activities will be required to also test for lithium.”