In September last year, there were 27 ASX resources stocks with a market cap under $5m.

Nine are currently suspended or delisted – always a danger when investing in the shallow end of the pool.

No bags for you.

But of the rest, only one has lost ground.

Six of these stocks have multi-bagged, sparked by acquisitions, discoveries, bullish commodity sentiment, and sometimes nothing at all.

They are:

Who’s next? Here’s a current batch of sub-$10m market cap explorers to run a ruler over.

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Who’s worth a closer look?

THE MINE FINDERS

Mont Royal Resources’ (ASX:MRZ) director Michael O’Keeffe is a certified company maker.

His $7m market cap coal explorer Riversdale Mining was eventually taken over by Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) for $3.9 billion.

That’s a ~7,200 per cent return.

His privately held explorer Riversdale Resources was subsequently  recently taken over by Hancock Prospecting for about $740 million.

He was then part of the team that assumed control of iron ore play Champion Iron (ASX:CIA) through its takeover by Mamba Minerals when iron ore prices were as low as $US39/t. The Champion share price has since increased ~3000 per cent.

Mont Royal recently kicked off early stage exploration at its Wapatik gold-copper property in James Bay, a tier 1 Canadian mining jurisdiction.

Moho’s (ASX:MOH) Terry Streeter also has an impressive track record.

Streeter built his name on the success of nickel-focused companies Jubilee Mines and Western Areas.

Jubilee Mines, worth about $20m when it discovered the Cosmos nickel deposit in WA, was eventually sold for over $3bn.

Similarly, Western Areas (ASX:WSA), which floated with a market cap of $5m in 2000, is now an established WA nickel producer with a market cap of ~$715m.

Streeter is also currently on the board of junior explorers Corazon Mining (ASX:CZR), EMU NL (ASX:EMU), and unlisted companies Fox Resources and Riverbank.

 

ZINC OUTSIDE THE BOX

Busy explorer Variscan Mines (ASX:VAR) and its historic, high grade  San Jose-Novales zinc mine in Spain have failed to excite investors.

It’s the same deal with Zinc of Ireland (ASX:ZMI), which reckons is “now in control of what is arguably one of the most prospective exploration land packages for high grade, large tonnage, zinc-lead deposits in the world”.

We get it — zinc isn’t sexy. But prices have been running hot for quite some time now.

 

THE NEAROLOGIST

In 2019, Kula Gold (ASX:KGD) offloaded its share of the Woodlark Island gold project to Geopacific Resources.

The minnow then reviewed “11 projects at varying stages of exploration, from grass roots to advanced” before settling on a big chunk of gold-nickel-PGE exploration ground in WA.

The Brunswick nickel-copper-PGE project is south of (and in the same rocks as) Chalice’s (ASX:CHN) world class Julimar discovery.

The minnow has a knack for acquiring ground in good neighbourhoods: it recently applied for exploration licences around the +2moz Edna May gold mine, also in WA.

 

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