Bastion’s foray into southern Sweden is paying off early with big REE hits
Dateline strikes bonanza gold from first hole at Colosseum
More Arizona gold as Gold 50 proves up some shiny exploration results
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Monday June 19.
BASTION MINERALS (ASX:BMO)
BMO has discovered highly prospective, high-grade REEs at its strategic exploration tenure near Gyttorp in southern Sweden.
Rock chip samples of greater than 2.86% and 3.64% total rare earth oxide (TREO) have been recorded from historic sampling.
The REE-mineralisation exhibits an encouraging average ratio of magnetic eare earth oxide (MREO) to TREO at almost 20%, and shows significant potential for the project to service the energy transition with uses in electric vehicles and wind turbines.
The find adds to the company’s portfolio of lithium projects in Canada.
“With Bastion’s binding heads of agreement for the exciting lithium portfolio in Ontario, Canada exposing us to the strong Canadian government critical mineral strategy, we feel the significant growth in the battery metals sector in Europe, more specifically within Sweden for REE, adds to the alignment of our decarbonisation strategy,” BMO chair Ross Landles said.
“We are eager to test the theory that our Gyttorp nr 100 project is a continuation on trend from Sweden’s most prolific historical REE mine, Bastnas, that lies ~50km NE of Gyttorp.
“We are looking forward to building on the momentum that the Canadian lithium optioned portfolio is generating and getting to work on this exciting high-grade REE project, which already boasts outstanding rock chip samples of greater than 2.86% to 3.64% TREO.”
Bastion said it plans to undertake systematic geochemical sampling of known mineral occurrences within the tenement in conjunction with reconnaissance geological mapping. Existing airborne surveys will be used to help define prospective regions.
Investors love the news, pushing the $4m market-capped junior’s share price up 38.5% on early trade.
CENTAURUS METALS (ASX:CTM)
CTM’s Jaguar nickel project in Brazil has confirmed out of its pilot plant its ability to mine and to produce battery-grade nickel sulphide.
After discovering new high-grade nickel mineralisation at the Twister prospect as part of a completed diamond drilling campaign back in May, the developer has tested and confirmed it can pump out very decent battery-grade nickel sulphate from ore sent to its pilot plant.
Assays confirm the project can deliver >22.2% nickel, above its 22% target, as well as zinc hydroxide and cobalt hydroxide by-products – which are still being analysed.
The Jaguar refinery pilot plant’s results will be incorporated into a DFS and engineering requirements.
CTM MD Darren Gordon said that the program was a success in every aspect.
“To produce a high-quality, ‘4 Nines’ battery-grade nickel sulphate product from the first refinery test work undertaken is extremely pleasing and bodes well for off-take discussions as there simply aren’t many options globally for a long-life supply of nickel sulphate with a low-carbon footprint, well located to key Western hemisphere markets,” Gordon said.
“As the EV market evolves, high-quality battery-grade nickel sulphate supply from projects like Jaguar will become increasingly sought-after.”
CTM has a market cap of $383m, and its shares were up 14% to 89.5c on the back of the news in early trade today.
GOLD 50 (ASX:G50)
With its first drilling campaign at the Golconda project in Airozna, G50 has struck some impressive high-grade gold and silver mineralisation.
While it’s early days just yet, producing initial results such as 35m @ 5.2g/t gold and 5.9g/t silver from 176.8m, including 9m @ 19.5g/t gold and 17.8g/t silver at hole GRC06 would whet anyone’s appetite to keep on digging.
It has some impressive silver hits too, showing 11m @ 1.2g/t gold, 399g/t silver, 0.31% copper and 0.55% zinc from 61.0m and immediately below historic underground workings at hole GRC03.
G50 said the results confirmed the first broad zones of multi-gram gold mineralisation associated with previously untested structures.
“Significantly, these drill holes were the culmination of the first modern, systematic exploration undertaken at Golconda where historical mines were known for high grades of both precious and base metals,” the company stated.
Managing director Mark Wallace said the exciting results confirm and justify the company’s approach of defining drill targets at the flagship project.
“The initial drilling program intercepted significant gold and silver mineralisation in several locations and importantly, verified and improved our understanding of the controls to mineralisation, something we believe is key to unlocking the potential of the district.”
“Hole GRC06 intercepted 35m @ 5.2g/t gold and 5.9g/t silver and ended in mineralisation (1.5m @ 0.5g/t gold) at 265m down-hole depth. This is consistent with historical reports that gold grade increases with depth and that the ‘bottom’ of the mineralised system has not yet been identified.”
The explorer’s next move will be to conduct trenching further fieldwork prior to another drilling campaign later this year.
Investors are backing into this one today, with the $13.5m market-capped gold explorer up 39% today.
DATELINE RESOURCES (ASX:DTR)
DTR has made a huge hit from early assay results of the first hole of a diamond drilling campaign at its Colosseum project, with a 63.2m intercept grading @ 10.28g/t gold from just 91.5m. It also has a higher-grade intercept section of 23.5m @ 21.8g/t.
The current eight-hole program is ongoing and is a follow-up to DTR’s drilling last year where it returned grades higher than its current 1.2g/t gold resource grade.
The second hole, CM23-11a, is currently underway with results expected in 2-3 weeks, already having intersected over 36m of the same rock type with favourable-looking mineralisation encountered in CM22-05 and sections of CM23-08.
“The results from the first hole have yielded a materially higher gold grade than the resource average and bodes well for when the resource is recalculated at the conclusion of the program,” DTR MD Stephen Baghdadi said.
In other projects, the company has developed a drill plan for an initial test of rare earths targets developed in 2022.
Depending on the rate of drilling of the gold targets, these may be drilled either with diamond or reverse circulation holes in the September quarter.
Stay tuned for further results.
Shares in the ~$25m market-capped junior were up 15.7% in morning trade.
SULTAN RESOURCES (ASX:SLZ)
SLZ has hired famed geologist Craig Hall as its full time exploration manager on the back of acquiring two highly prospective lithium projects in Ontario, Canada and completing a $1.5m cap raise.
Craig led exploration at then Galaxy Resources’s Mt Cattlin operation in Ravensthorpe, WA from 2015 through to Galaxy’s – now Allkem (ASX:AKE), takeover of General Mining Corporation.
He led successful exploration and resource volume extension programs at the project and has been involved in other lithium, gold and nickel-cobalt projects.
“Craig’s appointment represents the next step in our strategic plan for the company,” Sultan chairman Jeremy King said.
“We have recently appointed APEX to manage the exploration on the Kember and Ruddy projects in Canada and with Craig’s appointment, we now have a highly experienced in-house geologist which strengthens our team as we move towards advancing our exploration programs in Australia and Canada.”
Nothing else new has happened, but investors seem to be picking up what SLZ is laying down as a whole.
The $5.9m market-capped company’s shares rose 22% in early trade today before pulling back slightly.
While Sultan Resources and Dateline Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
The post Resources Top 5: Jaguar can pump out battery-grade nickel sulphide, and Swedish REEs make news appeared first on Stockhead.
