Resources Top 5: Ramelius has a golden quarter, while PEC flexes in Lithium Valley

Golden gun Ramelius Resources reports record production
Perpetual Resources expands its lithium landholdings in Brazil
While TN2, PNM and 5EA are making good ground, too

Here are some of the biggest resources winners in early trade, Wednesday April 3.

Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS)

First things first, turning heads in the world of commodities today, is gold. The gold price hit a new record high once again overnight, after climbing +1.3% to US$2,280.25 an ounce.

Does this mean we’ll see a few more ASX gold stocks rise today accordingly, disrupting what’s been a bit of an equities/commodity pricing disconnect in the gold market? Maybe. Here’s a notable one.

At the bigshot end of town, the $2.2bn valued gold miner Ramelius Resources has made a very solid 10% gain at the time of writing after hitting record gold production of ~87,000oz – and free cash flow of $125.3m – in the March quarter.

As Reuben reported earlier on in Top 10 at 10, the company has “obliterated guidance” of 70,000 – 77,500oz after reporting record group quarterly gold production of 86,928oz.

The company’s previous record group gold production was 86,516oz in June 2020 quarter.

Ramelius currently holds a cash and gold balance of $407.1m, with free cash flow of $125.3m, and its previous record free cash flow was $69.4m in the June 2020 Quarter.

RMS says Q3 AISC (all-in sustaining costs) will be materially lower than guidance due to record gold production.

Shares of Ramelius Resources $RMS rise as much as 12.7% to A$2.040, their highest level since Nov. 11, 2020. Gold miner posts quarterly gold production of 86,928 ounces, higher than the guidance for the quarter of 70,000-77,500 ounces.

— CommSec (@CommSec) April 3, 2024

RMS share price

Perpetual Resources (ASX:PEC)

Whoa. Perpetual Resources is a late bloomer today, bursting up with a near 50% gain as we were about to write about James Bay Minerals jumping 26% on no news.

Sorry JBY, but PEC is flexing on news, and stonking trading volume, too.

What’s doing? The silica and lithium stock has announced “significant expansion” of its land in the Itinga region of Minas Gerais, Brazil – aka within ‘Lithium Valley’.

Two options agreements are in play here, with the new landholdings containing multiple confirmed lithium soil anomalies and peak value rock chips up to 2.1% Li2O (based on initial LIBS analysis, still to be confirmed by assay).

The permits reportedly include “historic artisanal mines exploiting large pegmatites” with confirmed lithium soil anomalies.

We’re pleased to announce a significant expansion of our exploration landholding in the Itinga region of Minas Gerais, Brazil, known as “Lithium Valley”, through the execution of two option agreements.

Read the full release here: https://t.co/ux78XbDKlm $PEC pic.twitter.com/TaxVy0kmb5

— Perpetual Resources (@perpetualPEC) April 3, 2024

Company chairman Julian Babarczy said this:

“Our successful exploration efforts to date had identified Itinga as the highest prospectivity region within our Brazilian exploration portfolio.

“Data collected from our existing land holdings clearly pointed to the high prospectivity of the land we have now secured, both in terms of potential scale and grade.”

PEC share price

Terra Uranium (ASX:T92)

This $10m market capped Aussie explorer recently picked up ground in the famed Athabasca Basin in Canada with two claims called Rapid River.

Today, it has news that will very likely expand its Canadian uranium hunt further with a capital raise of $500,000 from “sophisticated professional investors” to help advance the company’s acquisition of another promising prospect – Amer Lake.

That’s a uranium project situated about 20km north of the Amaruq gold project being developed by a company called Agnico Eagle. And why that matters partly comes down to the existing high-quality infrastructure/road-network in the region also able to assist this uranium operation.

Amer Lake is in a proven uranium field, with typical assay values ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 ppm U3O8 (0.5 to 1.5% U3O8). That, says Terra, is “over 0.2 metre thicknesses enclosed in greater thicknesses of 1.5 – 2.0 metres above cut-off of 100ppm U3O8″.

Uranium-bearing minerals including uraninite, lesser brannerite and a secondary phase, uranophane have all been identified at the site and two outcrop samples reported back in 2009 were promising, assaying 35,700 ppm and 13,400 ppm U3O8 (3.57% and 1.34% U3O8 respectively).

Executive chair Andrew Vigar said:

“Terra’s Canadian team identified an excellent and extremely value accretive opportunity to acquire six claims at Amer Lake in the Canadian territory of Nunavut.”

“This is a truly game-changing acquisition for Terra, as it transforms us into a company with real ‘pounds in the ground’.”

T92 share price

Pacific Nickel Mines (ASX:PNM)

While the Aussie nickel industry struggles generally at the moment, thanks to Indonesia’s efforts to kill off all competition, Pacific Nickel Mines has reported its March Nickel DSO shipment from its 80% owned Kolosori Nickel Project in the Solomon Islands has now completed. As anticipated.

Barging and ship loading… tick, tick. Ramp-up levels met… tick. The latter being an increase to full ore production of around 1.5mtpa. With ore mining delivering stockpiles to match three shipments per month.

$PNM.AX continues to deliver on the planned ramp up to full #nickel ore production at the Kolosori #Nickel Project.

The focus now is to ensure that ore mining can deliver stockpiles to match the production rates of three shipments per month.https://t.co/RvZrgpbBVn #PNM #ASX pic.twitter.com/IcZlPMujdD

— PacificNickelMines (@PacificNickel) April 2, 2024

The company notes that the loading of its third 60,000 tonne bulk carrier was completed in less than six days with the ship departing site on March 24.

Who’s buying, by the way? Glencore – for 85% if the FOB (Free On Board) value of the nickel ore.

And this now brings the total ore shipped to date at around 184,000 tonnes at a grade of about 1.66%, in line with the company’s earlier projections.

PNM share price

5E Advanced Materials (ASX:5EA)

This boron-lithium stock had an ordinary 2023 share price-wise, but perhaps things are finally looking up. Well, they literally are, with a +23% gain YTD, and a double-digits intraday rise.

Earlier this year, the company, which has US government Critical Infrastructure designation, started pilot mining at its Americas Complex in California. That’s a 370Mt at 8.22% boric acid and 0.17% LCE operation.

This week’s news is that production at the complex is now officially underway and more than 50,000 gallons of PLS has already been accumulated since mining commencement, with run-of-mine head grade independently reported at 5.5%.

An initial 2,000 short tons of boric acid is expected from production, with plans to scale up to a run rate of 9,000 short tons, along with initial production of lithium carbonate targeted to also increase over time.

Boron, by the way, is an essential element for plant growth, but its use in heat resistant fibreglass and unique properties also make it a future facing commodity for the renewable revolution, with growing use as an anti-reflective material in solar panels.