Exploration is about to kick off at Magmatic Resources’ Wellington North project next to 15.7Moz Boda-Kaiser discovery
Mako uncovers “wide manganese bands” up to 250m deep and 140m wide at Korhogo project
Up on no news: Cyprium (copper), Black Rock Mining (graphite)
Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Tuesday March 19.
MAGMATIC RESOURCES (ASX:MAG)
Exploration is about to kick off at MAG’s 100%-owned Wellington North project, right next door to Alkane Resources’ (ASX:ALK) 15.7Moz Au-equivalent Boda-Kaiser discovery in NSW’s Lachlan Fold.
It was the discovery of Boda in 2019 — also in the same neighbourhood as Newcrest Mining’s (ASX:NCM) mammoth 50moz Cadia operations — which lit a fire underneath a bunch of nearologists like MAG.
Investors gradually lost interest in the Boda story as new shiny things came along (lithium, mostly), but MAG has kept the faith.
Up to this point its main game was the nearby 110Mt Corvette and Kingswood discoveries at Myall, which culminated in a lucrative farm in and investment deal over the project with major Fortescue (ASX:FMG) earlier this month.
Now MAG’s attention turns to Wellington North.
It includes the historic Bodangora gold field — where 230,000 ounces at ~26g/t Au were produced between 1869-1917 — alongside an “extensive portfolio of Boda-style porphyry gold-copper and Bodangora-style high grade gold targets”.
Three of these targets have been flagged for immediate follow-up: Boda Southwest, Lady Ilse North, and Rose Hill.
“Our first target area will be Boda Southwest, a sparsely tested area just over two kilometres from Alkane’s Boda mineral Resource, to be followed by work at Lady Ilse North and at Rose Hill,” managing director Adam McKinnon says.
“Given the similar geological setting, exceptionally close proximity and the dozens of prospective targets identified, we believe the Wellington North project has enormous potential to deliver further Boda-scale discoveries.”
CYPRIUM METALS (ASX:CYM)
(Up on no news)
A nascent resurgence is underway for the beleaguered copper stock, which raised $90 million at 20c a share back in 2021 to buy the troubled Nifty copper mine from Metals X (ASX:MLX).
CYM’s suffered a rough patch since the acquisition, thanks to poor copper sentiment and Nifty’s reputation as a cash furnace. This could be about to change, as a recent resource upgrade to 119Mt at 0.84% copper at Nifty coincides with a soaring copper price.
METALS MARKET: For the first time in nearly a year, copper is trading above $9,000 per metric tonne, helped by a number of supply disruptions.
— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) March 15, 2024
That resource doesn’t include previously mined oxide ores, which include 17Mt of material at 0.53% Cu that could be amenable to heap leaching.
“Nifty is one of the largest non-operational copper projects in Australia, and the only brownfield project that can be reactivated in short order,” boss Matt Fifield says.
“This MRE is the basis for our workstreams to redevelop Nifty into a significant new copper mine.
“With a million tonnes of contained copper, this resource should support a large-scale mine. This is the long-term opportunity at Nifty.”
MAKO GOLD (ASX:MKG)
IP geophysics — which identifies the electrical chargeability of subsurface materials, such as ore — has uncovered “wide manganese bands” up to 250m deep and 140m wide at MKG’s Korhogo project in Côte d’Ivoire.
The anomalies coincide with outcropping manganese and a previously drilling RC hole says company management, which recently visited the nearby Lauzoua manganese mine “and found several similarities with … Korhogo”.
“It is … very encouraging that the IP anomalies are strong to depths of 250m and that 4 of the 5 IP anomalies are over 100m in width,” says MD Pete Ledwidge.
“This increases our confidence that we have discovered what could potentially be a world-class manganese deposit that extends for 8km along strike and could extend to at least 250m in depth.”
MKG is now looking for a potential strategic partnership on Korhogo to focus on the flagship 868,000oz Napié gold project.
BLACK ROCK MINING (ASX:BKT)
The $100m capped graphite project developer is up ~50% over the past month as cash to build the flagship Mahenge project in Tanzania begins to trickle in.
Funding for the project will need both debt and equity, the company says.
On March 18, BKT confirmed approvals now in place for US$153m in loan facilities from three African lenders, which takes care of the debt portion.
The equity portion is also in hand, with partner and giant steel conglomerate/anode producer POSCO taking a potential cornerstone equity position in BKT of up to US$40m.
Final approvals for this investment are expected near term, BKT says.
BKT says Mahenge hosts the second largest graphite ore reserve, and the fourth largest JORC-compliant graphite mineral resource globally.
Phase 1 of the project would produce 89,000tpa and cost US$225m to build.
The company says graphite prices “support healthy potential margins” at Mahenge at forecast all in sustaining costs of US$518/t, which puts it right down the bottom of the global cost curve.
First production is pencilled in for 2026.
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