Resources Top 5: Red Metal’s rare earths test results stand out among strong quarterly reporters

Look, reporting season is great and all for the odd price boost, but where’s the real news today? Red Metal has some
Okay, then – Mineral Commodities appears to be crushing it on its quarterly wrap
With BPM, CPO and ASR also all trading higher on 2023 activity and cashflow reveals

Here are some of the biggest resources winners in early trade, Thursday February 1. 

Red Metal (ASX:RDM)

Small-capped minerals hunter Red Metal has some news of note today regarding its promising rare earths discovery in North West Queensland.

The company reports that it’s received outstanding leach results from initial metallurgical testing at the Sybella discovery, which it now describes as a “heap leachable source of rare earth oxide (REO) minerals with the potential for highly competitive capital and operating costs”.

Heap leaching is a low-cost process whereby a mound of ore is irrigated with acid to dissolve the metal, which is collected in a pond or tank.

Red Metal says its Phase 1 test work shows strong REO extraction with low levels of impurities can be achieved on coarse non-pulverised, RC chip samples using low levels of sulphuric acid at ambient temperature.

This, the company adds, “points to simple processing options potentially involving heap leach methods”.

Red Metal has huge ambitions for the Sybella project, which is located about 20km southwest of Mt Isa.

The company told Stockhead in August last year that its find there shows scope for “vast tonnages of weak-acid soluble REO mineralisation hosted in low-acid consuming granite rock”.

“The new Sybella REO discovery is special because we’ve identified easily soluble REO minerals in a low-acid consuming granite-host rock at surface, and it’s offering vast tonnage potential,” said the company’s MD Rob Rutherford at the time.

Today, Rutherford said:

“These breakthrough metallurgical results have far exceeded our expectations and underlined the potential for heap leachable REO ore at Sybella.

“The Sybella results, as received to date, have been reviewed against peer projects using publicly available leach data and can be compared favourably to the recent exciting Brazilian discoveries.”

And by that, Rutherford means Brazilian discoveries such as the big granite-hosted ionic clay deposit belonging to Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI), which currently has a market cap more than 10x the size of Red Metal’s.

“When we look at that [Meteoric’s deposit], and ours, we would think we have that kind of opportunity – we’re not an ionic-clay deposit but Australian based and what we do have is weathering in this granite of ours, down to about 20-30m,” Rutherford told us last year.
 

RDM share price


 

Mineral Commodities (ASX:MRC)

Righto, then. Best get onto these quarterly reports still giving certain ressie stocks a lift, such as MRC, which is currently up with a stonking 80%+ intraday gain.

MRC, a $26m market capped exploration and mining company, is focused on the development of high-grade mineral deposits within the mineral sands and battery minerals sectors.

Investors seem to be digging the following highlights from a more than decent quarter:

• A Rights Issue was completed, which resulted in a capital raise of an impressive $8.8 million.

• Operations started up again at the Skaland Graphite mine in Norway. And that’s a reliable flake-graphite project that the company has now taken 100% ownership of.

• Then there was an agreement signed with the CSIRO for an anode pilot plant collaboration in a final precursor to getting commercial anode production underway.

• Annnd, the highest quarter for Tormin production for the year was revealed. Tormin, 360km north of Cape Town in South Africa, is one of the highest grade mineral sands mines in the world and supplies circa 25% of the world’s demand for garnet sands.

As far as cash positioning is concerned, here’s where MRC stood at the end of 2023:

Source: Mineral Commodities ASX announcement
 

 MRC share price


 

BPM Minerals (ASX:BPM)

This nickel-gold exploring minnow, on the hunt in WA’s greenstone belts and sedimentary basins, is also up impressively so far today on quarterly recapping.

Brass Gold-plated tacks, as follows:

• The company’s 100% owned Claw gold project in the Murchison region of WA, took operational precedence last quarter, with a Program of Work (PoW) granted to allow for an extensive ~10,000m Aircore and Reverse Circulation drilling program – now underway.

Drilling continues at our Claw Project, ~500m from $CMM‘s recent high grade discovery at their Mt Gibson #Gold Project.

Follow $BPM for updates. pic.twitter.com/buwYJcGzMw

— BPMMinerals (@BpmMinerals) January 31, 2024

It’s a project, by the way, immediately along strike of Capricorn Metals’ (ASX:CMM) 3.24Moz Mt Gibson Gold Project.

• The final piece of drill permitting was accomplished with the successful completion of the Heritage Survey with members of the Badimia people.

• Several promising targets are to be drill tested as part of the program, including the Louie and Chickie prospects.

• BPM remains well funded with cash of about $3.2m as of the end of 2023.
 

BPM share price


 

Culpeo Minerals (ASX:CPO)

(Up on no news)

This junior copper hunter is exploring the high-grade copper belts of the Atacama Desert in Chile.

A couple of weeks ago, we noted that its maiden drill results from El Quillay, part of the Fortuna project in Chile, failed to live up to the hype.

Of some significance to Culpeo – the best results from the first hole included 5.8m @ 0.78% CuEq from 15.2m and 26m @ 0.81% CuEq from 29m.

Significant wide #copper mineralisation returned from first drill hole in maiden drilling program at El Quillay North Prospect, Fortuna Project in #Chile.

Read more https://t.co/MkHwTOwn4B$CPO #Exploration #ASXNews pic.twitter.com/URaXhgV5FD

— CulpeoMinerals (@CulpeoMinerals) January 16, 2024

Subsequently, the stock took quite a price tumble after briefly rocketing – possibly on greater expectations, or just good ol’ sell the news.

However, it’s recovered well this week, with an 18% gain and an intraday boost of 20%, and is now actually up 68% YTD on the small sample size of one month.

Did it have some positive quarterly report action? That actually flowed in a week ago, on Jan 25, highlighting the securing of a large new concession package in the coastal metallogenic belt of Chile, expanding the Fortuna Project by 2,250 hectares to 4,025 hectares.

“This new concession area contains numerous historic shafts and small-scale mining sites that previously exploited surface mineralisation,” noted the company.
 

CPO share price


 

Asra Minerals (ASX:ASR)

Quarterly reporting for this WA Goldfields-focused gold and REE exploration and development company is the order of the day’s share price rise.

Well, if that day was Jan 31, which it was. But the rise has eked out into the first day of Feb. Pinch and a decent punch up the ASX.

What was doin’ for ASR in the last few months of 2023, then? Some highlights include:

• Asra secured total ownership of its highly prospective Lake Johnston Lithium Project amid huge interest in the new WA lithium hotspot.

• The project is comprised of three exploration licences spanning over 410km2.

• This expands Asra’s multi-commodity portfolio, complimenting gold and REE potential at the Mt Stirling Project in the Leonora district of WA.

• Soil sampling, outcrop mapping and other sampling at Lake Johnston is now underway.

As for company cash positioning? A successful raise took place in November to accelerate the company’s exploration activities.

That raise reportedly supported an improved cash balance of $2.85 million as of the end of 2023.
 

ASR share price

 

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Red Metal is a Stockhead advertiser at the time of writing, it did not sponsor this article. 

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