The ‘Tolga effect’? Here are the early % gains for Kumova’s 16 small-cap picks

Pic: Tyler Stableford / Stone via Getty Images

Unless you’ve been hiding under a small-cap rock, you’ve probably read Stockhead’s interview this morning with mining rich-lister Tolga Kumova.

One of the most high-profile names in the sector, Kumova discussed the macro outlook stemming from the Biden administration’s plan to foster a big US infrastructure push.

And he ran through the value proposition for 16 ASX small-cap mining plays that have the potential to book “life-changing” returns.

Out of curiosity, we ran some quick AM numbers on Tolga’s picks.

Markets opened at 10am AEDT, and Stockhead took an 11am snapshot of all 16 stocks to see how they performed in the first hour of trade.

On the whole, pretty good:

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Code	Description	Price (11am)	%	Volume (1st hr)	Market Cap
A1G	African Gold Ltd	0.275	22.2%	99,991	$11,326,362
VAL	Valor Resources Ltd	0.0065	18.2%	45,943,746	$10,564,664
PEC	Perpetual Res Ltd	0.08	15.9%	4,725,714	$30,913,960
PUA	Peak Minerals Ltd	0.029	11.5%	2,121,506	$15,982,210
AGE	Alligator Energy	0.0155	10.7%	54,152,470	$32,955,901
FFR	Firefly Resources	0.15	7.1%	284,644	$41,970,534
GTR	Gti Resources	0.03	7.1%	20,470,532	$18,046,504
BNZ	Benzmining	1.44	4.3%	71,751	$21,800,108
AL8	Alderan Resource Ltd	0.125	4.2%	238,656	$35,752,931
RGL	Riversgold	0.054	3.8%	609,410	$20,578,877
MEI	Meteoric Resources	0.0735	3.5%	374,968	$93,279,199
MXR	Maximus Resources	0.1325	1.9%	915,814	$15,835,565
SI6	SI6 Metals Limited	0.0345	1.5%	1,048,401	$46,540,907
ASO	Aston Minerals Ltd	0.033	0.0%	361,401	$28,601,015
SUP	Superior Lake Res	0.16	0.0%	82,524	$26,169,785
NCZ	New Century Resource	0.24	-2.0%	616,938	$296,432,371

Five double-digit returns straight out of the gate. 13 companies in positive territory, with two trading flat and just one in the red.

Across the board there were no announcements from any of the 16 companies this morning (market-moving or otherwise).

African Gold (ASX:A1G), led the pack with an early gain of more than 20 per cent. In his appraisal of the stock, Kumova flagged the track record of his two fellow board members (Peter Williams and Simon Bolster) for scoring big hits in Africa.

Having recently acquired some new exploration licences, the company is on the hunt for high-grade gold in Cote D’Ivoire and Mali.

The other double-digit return sectors were uranium (Valor Resources Ltd (ASX:VAL) and Alligator Energy (ASX:AGE)), silica sands (Perpetual Resources (ASX:PEC)) and nickel (Peak Minerals (ASX:PUA)).

Elsewhere on Kumova’s hit-list, Maximus Resources (ASX:MXR) traded flat with a 1.9pc gain to 13.25c.

Maximus said it hit an “outstanding high-grade gold intersection” at its Wattle Dam project in Kambalda, WA earlier this week, but the market appeared to disagree as the stock fell ~30pc over the following two days.

However, Kumova said the real game for MXR is a nickel target to the east of Wattle Dam, where the company will be carrying out electromagnetic surveying later this month.

All up, there’s not much evidence to suggest the 2020 ASX small cap resources boom isn’t continuing into 2021.

Was the ‘Tolga effect’ in play for this morning’s gains? Hard to say, but the price action tells you most (if not all) of what you need to know about Kumova’s reputation as a stock-picker.