Resources Top 5: Zuileika wins litigation, WA1 Resources is now a 14 bagger

Zuileika up on news of successful litigation against Vango Mining
Rex Minerals, Firetail Resources, and Peako up on no news
WA1 Resources now up ~1300% since announcing a niobium-REE discovery mid last week

Here are the biggest small cap resources wines in early trade, Tuesday November 1.

ZUILEIKA GOLD (ASX:ZAG)

ZAG’s share price exploded in January thanks to a $3m private placement with Yandal Investments– a company owned and controlled by prominent West Australian prospector Mark Creasy.

This morning, the company is up on news of its successful litigation against Vango Mining (ASX:VAN) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Dampier (Plutonic) Pty Ltd (DPPL).

Back in 2017, a binding terms sheet (BTS) was signed allowing Zuleika to earn up to a 50% interest in the tenement M52/183 that hosts mineralisation associated with the K2 gold deposit.

But legal action was pursued following the vendor’s (Vango Mining) refusal to accept the terms of the BTS agreement.

However, judgement was delivered in court on October 31, and has found that ZAG was entitled to an 4.1% stake in M52/183.

The court has ordered VAN to promptly transfer the 4.1% stake to Zuleika after finding Vango breached the terms of and wrongfully repudiated the BTS agreement.

The next stage of litigation will determine the quantum of damages payable by Vango and DPPL to Zuleika.

“Zuleika intends to program that aspect of its claim to trial as vigorously and quickly as possible,” it says.

REX MINERALS (ASX:RXM)

(Up on no news)

RXM has bounced back after “abnormal” trading yesterday sank the share price.

“Rex notes that in last 12 minutes of trading on 31 October, the eve of the Melbourne Cup public holiday in Victoria, there was abnormal selling volumes which moved the share price down,” it said today in response to an ASX query.

“The Company lodged its September 2022 Quarterly Report just three business days ago providing the market with an update. The Company is not aware of any additional information that could be the reason for the recent trading in its securities.”

The copper stock owns the permitted Hillside project near BHP’s Olympic Dam and OZ’s Carrapateena and Prominent Hill mines in South Australia’s Gawler Craton.

The project is expected to produce 35,000t of copper and 24,000oz of gold over a roughly three-decade mine life.

Analysts at Goldman Sach say US$9000/t is the new marginal incentive price for a copper mine today, up 30% on 2018 and only one ASX listed junior – Rex Minerals — makes Goldmans top 50 developing copper projects, rubbing shoulders with the giants.

At the end of the September quarter, RXM had A$36.5m cash in the bank as it works on bringing Hillside into production.

Plant construction is expected to start in early 2023 and production is on track for 2025.

FIRETAIL RESOURCES (ASX:FTL)

(Up on no news)

FTL listed back in April with a suite of lithium, rubidium, nickel, copper, cobalt and gold projects in Western Australia and Queensland.

The company is up on no news, however late last week FTL announced it had hit five lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatite targets in maiden drilling within the ‘Goldilocks zone’ at the Yalgoo Lithium Project.

Interestingly, the project has historically been gold focused with no previous exploration in lithium.

WA1 RESOURCES (ASX:WA1)

(Up on no news)

This formerly little explorer is now up ~1300% since announcing a niobium-REE discovery mid last week.

WA1’s only drill hole into the P2 target, part of the Pachpadra prospect area at West Arunta, pulled up thick, high grade numbers like 54m at 0.62% niobium, 0.18% rare earths and 3.85% phosphorus from 162m.

The 216m-long hole ended in 2m at 1.22% Nb2O5, 0.22% TREO, and 5.73% P2O5.

The fact that the hole at P2 finishes in material grading 1.22% means this thing could be getting better at depth.

P2 also extends for 3km and has significant future exploration potential, WA1 said at the time.

The stock is currently in a trading pause after gaining another ~60% in early trade Tuesday.

READ: NO WA1! Junior explorer rockets 220% on high grade niobium-rare earths discovery

PEAKO (ASX:PKO)

(Up on no news)

East Kimberley-focused platinum group element (PGE) explorer, PKO announced the results of drill assays from its phase-one RC program at the Eastman Project at the end of October with shallow intersections of palladium, platinum, and gold.

Hits included 5m at 1.09 g/t palladium equivalent (PdEq) from 11m, within 10m at 0.9 g/t PdEq (0.52 g/t 3E) from 10m and 4mat 0.73 g/t PdEq (0.5 g/t 3E) from 100m within 17m at 0.58 g/t PdEq (0.32 g/t 3E) from 87m.

The results from both the Blackadder and Longhorn prospects extended the strike of PGE mineralisation across the 16.5km length of the Eastman Intrusive Complex as the company looks ahead to phase-two drilling which will begin shortly.