There was some exciting stuff happening December but first, a quick look back at the last 6 months of 2021.
In July, strange bedfellows battery metals and coal were building up a head of steam, just as iron ore was losing it.
The steel making ingredient happily bounced between $US210/t and $220/t for most of the month before plummeting to ~$US180/t when China dusted off ‘straight-from-the-playbook’ move to cut steel production in efforts to dampen prices look after the environment.
Iron ore kept tumbling in August, while lithium continued its inexorable rise. A remarkable 22 of the top 50 stocks in August enjoyed exposure to the battery metal.
Meanwhile, premium Low Vol CFR China – a benchmark for Chinese coking coal imports — hit an all-time high of $US410/t. That’s a 248% increase over the past year. Thermal coal prices were doing even better.
Uranium was a standout in September. The spot price punched through $50/lb for first time in nine years, sparked by the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust (SPUT), which started buying up physical uranium and taking it out of market circulation in August.
In October, investor sentiment for commodities went ballistic (almost) across the board.
Copper was back in vogue, rising above US$10,000/t for the first time since May.
Magnesium price went ballistic — going from ~$3,200 per tonne in September to $11,000 per tonne in October 2021 – while potash prices were up 300% since the start of the year.
Then there’s lithium, which continued to surprise to the upside.
Slow’vember certainly lived to its name, with only five stocks making gains of 100% or more — a trend which carried through to the last month of the year.
That doesn’t mean December was boring. Two very interesting themes emerged.
One: iron ore prices made a recovery, shooting several beleaguered iron ore stocks – large and small — back into our top 50.
Two: several potentially company making copper discoveries were made, all within the space of a few weeks.
This is reflected in our tasty pie chart, which shows iron ore and copper-facing stocks commanding a solid chunk of December’s top 50:
Here are the top 50 ASX resources stocks for the month of December >>>
Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort. Best viewed on a laptop
CODE COMPANY MONTHLY RETURN % SHARE PRICE MARKET CAP LOOKING FOR AHK Ark Mines 547 0.22 $ 6,833,222.66 COPPER, NICKEL, COBALT, IRON ORE CNB Carnaby Resources 457 1.365 $ 140,504,058.03 COPPER, GOLD QGL Quantum Graphite 224 0.165 $ 48,345,000.00 GRAPHITE SPQ Superior Resources 117 0.039 $ 58,344,381.40 COPPER, GOLD, NICKEL,PGE DCX Discovex Resources 100 0.01 $ 23,117,976.68 COPPER, GOLD ERM Emmerson Resources 89 0.14 $ 67,262,196.02 COPPER, GOLD DM1 Desert Metals 58 0.38 $ 12,938,250.00 NICKEL, COPPER, PGE TMS Tennant Minerals 57 0.036 $ 14,996,745.54 COPPER, GOLD ATR Astron Corp 50 0.45 $ 55,114,685.10 RARE EARTHS, MINERAL SANDS SYR Syrah Resources 50 1.785 $ 897,722,501.40 GRAPHITE GL1 Global Lithium 50 0.93 $ 108,862,278.43 LITHIUM PBX Pacific Bauxite 50 0.003 $ 1,189,842.10 PGE HFR Highfield Resources 48 0.89 $ 326,164,748.87 POTASH GWR GWR Group 45 0.145 $ 44,017,591.42 IRON ORE MCR Mincor Resources 44 1.785 $ 845,186,143.20 NICKEL HMX Hammer Metals 43 0.06 $ 48,899,677.38 COPPER, GOLD GMR Golden Rim Resources 41 0.14 $ 33,205,231.53 GOLD CSE Copper Strike 41 0.12 $ 15,003,627.38 SHELL, SYR SHAREHOLDER TRN Torrens Mining 38 0.18 $ 12,539,688.84 COPPER, COBALT, GOLD GRR Grange Resources 38 0.7425 $ 844,857,249.54 IRON ORE CUF Cufe 38 0.04 $ 33,113,932.78 IRON ORE, COPPER MLX Metals X 37 0.54 $ 435,487,712.16 TIN LM8 Lunnon Metals 35 0.46 $ 34,087,069.42 NICKEL HIO Hawsons Iron 34 0.1475 $ 103,682,677.75 IRON ORE COD Coda Minerals 33 0.92 $ 84,139,733.44 COPPER, COBALT, GOLD REZ Resource & Energy Group 32 0.062 $ 30,987,958.92 GOLD, NICKEL IR1 Iris Metals 30 0.56 $ 22,687,499.45 GOLD RMI Resource Mining Corp 30 0.026 $ 8,846,996.13 NICKEL MHK Metal Hawk 30 0.285 $ 12,432,002.44 GOLD, NICKEL NWF Newfield Resources 29 0.45 $ 296,958,638.80 DIAMONDS BDC Bardoc Gold 28 0.5 $ 141,001,117.21 GOLD COB Cobalt Blue 28 0.485 $ 143,206,676.03 COBALT KCN Kingsgate Consolidated 27 1.925 $ 412,762,644.85 GOLD GT1 Green Technology 27 0.495 $ 51,940,000.00 LITHIUM GEN Genmin 25 0.2 $ 56,457,570.00 IRON ORE RRR Revolver Resources 25 0.45 $ 36,842,603.40 COPPER, ZINC XTC Xantippe Resources 25 0.005 $ 30,574,233.01 LITHIUM, GOLD SKY SKY Metals 25 0.11 $ 41,446,181.70 TIN, COPPER, LEAD, ZINC NMT Neometals 25 1.395 $ 660,793,557.18 TITANIUM, VANADIUM, LITHIUM JMS Jupiter Mines 24 0.23 $ 460,362,892.76 MANGANESE MIN Mineral Resources 24 56.21 $ 10,866,441,140.94 IRON ORE, LITHIUM SFM Santa Fe Minerals 24 0.13 $ 9,466,442.57 NICKEL, LEAD, ZINC, COPPER, PGE, SILVER, GOLD, VANADIUM PLS Pilbara Minerals 23 3.205 $ 9,611,008,227.89 LITHIUM ENT Enterprise Metals 23 0.016 $ 9,168,322.32 GOLD, NICKEL, COPPER, ZINC, COBALT, POTASH PAN Panoramic Resources 23 0.27 $ 543,492,211.06 NICKEL DVP Develop Global 23 3.85 $ 527,617,552.50 COPPER, ZINC, SILVER RNX Renegade Exploration 21 0.0085 $ 6,597,199.79 GOLD, COPPER POS Poseidon Nickel 21 0.11 $ 321,715,750.23 NICKEL CIA Champion Iron 21 5.42 $ 2,735,056,130.40 IRON ORE RDG Res Dev Group Ltd 33 0.08 $ 224,809,301.44 GARNET, MANGANESE
Nerves of steel
The iron ore rollercoaster kept coastin’ in December.
A perfect storm had pushed prices to record levels early in the year before China slammed on the brakes, sending the benchmark price as low as US87/t in the September quarter.
Another bull rally in December sent prices above US$120/t to end the year, and iron ore stocks followed in lockstep.
Leading the rebound were iron ore producers Grange Resources (ASX:GRR), Champion Iron (ASX:CIA) and Mineral Resources (ASX:MIN), which is also heavily exposed to lithium.
Also well represented were the advanced explorers/ near term miners; guys like GWR Group (ASX:GWR), CuFe (ASX:CUF), Hawsons Iron (ASX:HIO) and Genmin (ASX:GEN).
What does 2022 have in store for iron ore? Here’s a biblically long and detailed analysis. You’re welcome.
A swarm of copper discoveries
CARNABY RESOURCES (ASX:CNB) and DISCOVEX RESOURCES (ASX:DCX)
On December 13 CNB announced visible copper in drilling at the ‘Greater Duchess’ copper-gold project in Mt Isa, Queensland (CNB 82.5%, DCX 17.5%).
At the ‘Nil Desperandum’ prospect, the first the first diamond hole in the current program hit an 80m downhole interval of intermittently disseminated, semi massive to breccia hosted copper mineralisation.
On December 29 the major discovery was confirmed by assay — 41m at 4.1% copper, which included a 9m chunk grading 10.3%. Very nice.
“Nil Desperandum is shaping up as a major Iron Oxide Copper Gold discovery which is rapidly getting bigger and better at depth,” managing director Rob Watkins says.
“The scale of the mineralised system we are seeing is exceptional.
“We look forward to 2022 as being an incredible ride for Carnaby shareholders as we escalate the exploration at the Greater Duchess Copper Gold Project to a whole new level.”
In late December SPQ announced visual copper and disseminated copper over much of a 659m-long hole at the ‘Bottletree’ porphyry copper-gold prospect.
The strongest copper mineralisation occurs over a 200m interval, the company says. All-important assays are pending.
And this isn’t even the main target at Bottletree — a large, interpreted copper-gold porphyry system located 500m west.
“It must be noted that these copper-mineralised zones are a secondary target and appear to be mere outer zones of mineralisation, or ‘leakage’ related to potentially, a much larger porphyry copper-gold system,” SPQ managing director Peter Hwang says.
“The next program at Bottletree, aimed for the end of Q1, 2022, will be extensive and will target the interpreted porphyry system and the ‘satellite’ copper zones, including further drilling at the copper zone associated with the chargeability anomaly.”
And last but not least, a contender for one of the best drill hits of 2021.
On December 8 ERM announced a “stunning” 117m at 3.38% copper from 75m in drilling at the ‘Hermitage Project’ in the NT.
Due to drilling difficulties the vertical hole (HERC003) was abandoned in high grade mineralisation –3m at 14.91g/t gold and 4.24% copper, to be exact. Amazing stuff.
This drill hole will be continued with a diamond ‘tail’ in 2022, ERM says.
“Whilst it is still early days, the metal zonation and mineralisation in drill hole HERC003 displays increasing gold and copper grades with depth – the subject of future diamond drilling,” ERM managing director Rob Bills says.
“Although based on limited data (i.e. rock chips), it appears that HERC003 intersected a subvertical, brecciated, high grade metal rich feeder zone which has channelled and concentrated the copper and gold and remains open at depth.”
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