Resources Top 5: Copper in focus as Anax gets the Fitz-pump and TechGen reveals new projects

Junior, near-term copper producer Anax is having the opposite of a Barry Crocker
TechGen also up on copper-toned news, while it waits for lithium results
Meanwhile Mandrake magics up a double digits gain, Rimfire shoots for scandium…
… and Prodigy smacks up on metallurgical testwork in the NT

Here are some of the biggest resources winners in early trade, Monday May 6.

Anax Metals (ASX:ANX)

Dare we say it, but did Anax Metals just fist-pump itself a Fitz-pump?

We’re talking about our legendary ‘Garimpeiro’ columnist Barry FitzGerald, who honed in on the near-term copper producing junior on Friday afternoon.

Thanks for the shout out Barry & @StockheadAU!@anax_metals is excited to be advancing the #WhimCreek #Cu #Zn Project during a time of rising sentiment for #Copper $ANX https://t.co/JP17PeORDA

— Anax Metals (@anax_metals) May 5, 2024

ANX is now trading up 30% today so far on not much else to speak of this morning, aside from what Barry highlighted late last week. To summarise, then…

Barry suggested juniors such as Anax have some room to run amid the recent and ongoing enthusiasm for copper as the future-forward commodity du jour.

He noted that Anax’s current modest market cap (just north of $20m) is not doing justice to its potential to become a 20,000-30,000tpa copper equivalent producer in relatively quick fashion in the Pilbara.

FitzGerald told us:

“Subject to securing financing, [Anax] is well on its way to becoming a 12,000tpa copper equivalent producer within 18 months or so from a final investment decision on its 80% owned Whim Creek project (Bill Beament’s Develop owns 20%), roughly half-way between Port Hedland and Karratha.

“The push out to seriously meaningful levels of 20,000-30,000tpa – for a company with a $16 million market cap at any rate – would be achieved by leveraging off Whim Creek’s potential to become a central processing hub in the region.

“Whim Creek was a copper producer from a heap-leach operation back in the 1990s and still has most of the kit to get back in to production. To become a true consolidator and a processing hub, though, Anax is planning to add a concentrator to treat polymetallic ores.

Garimpeiro reckons that there is at least a half a dozen or so “stranded’’ deposits within trucking distance of Whim Creek.

Get the full story from Barry > here.

ANX share price

TechGen Metals (ASX:TG1)

Gold, copper, nickel, uranium, lithium. WA-focused (with one project also in NSW) junior explorer wants it all, and it wants it now. Well, as soon as possible.

And, while the company champs at bits (figuratively… probably) for its highly anticipated lithium assay results from recently completed RC drilling at the Ida Valley lithium-gold project, it’s got some copper-nickel-uranium news to impart.

And that’d be the announcement of some new exploration opportunities it’s pursuing as it aims to expand its portfolio further into copper-nickel-uranium territories.

The new operations are: Copper Springs (Cu); Springvale (Cu-Ni-PGE); and two uranium projects dubbed Ponton and Myroodah.

Copper Springs, notes TG1, has 23 recorded non-continuous malachite, azurite (copper carbonates) and goethite (iron) gossanous occurrences over an 8km strike length, with a previous rock chips peak of 4% copper and 3.4% copper.

Springvale, meanwhile, is an “under-explored differentiated layered mafic-ultramafic intrusion”, notes the company, with prospects for Ni-Cu, Cu-Ni and Cr-PGE within the project area.

Re the yellowcakes, Ponton boasts an “untested uranium radiometric anomaly overlying a mapped paleochannel”, and Myroodah is a uranium radiometric anomaly with limited previous drilling that returned a peak result of 1m at 480ppm U3O8.

TechGen’s MD Ashley Hood said:

“The new projects are considered high quality projects prospective for base metals, with a focus on the in-demand red metal, copper…

“Along with copper the new assets have known recorded occurrences of silver-gold, copper-nickel platinum group elements and uranium mineralisation.”

TG1’s WA and NSW focus. Source: TG1

TG1 share price

Rimfire Pacific Mining (ASX:RIM)

Critical minerals explorer Rimfire is known for its copper and gold hunting in NSW but is up near 20% at the time of writing on scandium news.

Scandium is a rare earth that has a very low density and higher melting point than aluminium. It has various industrial uses in the aerospace industry and sporting equipment manufacturing among other spaces.

The company is enthused today about its recent 100-hole air core drilling program that’s successfully defined thick zones of strong scandium anomalism from surface, across multiple locations at the Murga scandium prospect, which is on Rimfire’s Fifield project, about 70km northwest of Parkes, NSW.

It’s talking thick, strong zones of the stuff, defined from surface across multiple locations throughout the 20km2 Murga intrusive, including: 22m at 232ppm Sc, with 12m at 305ppm Sc; 22m at 156ppm Sc from 2m, with 4m at 220ppm Sc, and more.

Drill intercepts remain open in all directions with further air core and diamond drilling planned.

@NlRimfire #ASXNews

Multiple Thick #Scandium Zones at #Murga.

Highlights

See full ASX Announcement https://t.co/jRMfdhZRGi $RIM #Sc #criticalminerals #exploration @davidhutton1966 pic.twitter.com/Amrt7sXZh5

— Rimfire Pacific Mining Limited (@NlRimfire) May 5, 2024

RIM share price

Mandrake Resources (ASX:MAN)

Junior explorer Mandrake Resources has three projects on the go, including the Utah lithium project, the Berinka Pine Creek gold-copper project and the Jimperding nickel-copper-PGE project.

It’s the Utah operation in focus today, and helping to sent MAN manfully upwards at time of key jabbing.

The news is this… the Rio Tinto-backed Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) and refining company ElectraLith has successfully produced 99.9% pure battery-grade lithium hydroxide from Mandrake’s Utah project using its Direct Lithium Extraction and Refining (DLE-R) process.

Requiring no water or chemicals, DLE-R has, according to Mandrake, greatly enhanced the potential of the Utah project.

“The production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide direct from brine revolutionises DLE by skipping the conventional interim step of producing lithium carbonate using costly, carbon intensive converters,” explained Mandrake in its ASX release this morning.

Mandrake and ElectraLith are currently progressing a Strategic Partnership Agreement to facilitate the construction of a DLE-R pilot facility at the site.

Next-gen Direct #Lithium Extraction & Refining provider ElectraLith produces 99.9% pure #battery-grade Lithium Hydroxide from our Utah Lithium Project brines.

We’re advancing a Strategic Partnership Agreement for a DLE-R pilot facility: https://t.co/16VeFl1QuL $MAN pic.twitter.com/Zpz65Nxhh6

— Mandrake Resources Limited (@Mandrake_Res) May 5, 2024

MAN share price

Prodigy Gold (ASX:PRX)

This minnow goldie burst up the bourse earlier this morning after delivering an update on its metallurgical testwork for its 100% owned Hyperion deposit in the Tanami region of the Northern Territory.

The upshot there is that, for Prodigy, this testwork has “reinforced potential for excellent gold recoveries through a conventional Carbon In Leach (CIL) plant”.

Adds Prodigy: “A significant reduction in sodium cyanide consumption compared to the initial testwork did not negatively impact the overall 48-hour gold recovery, with recovery levels remaining between 96.8% and 98.0% at a P80 150μm grind size for the oxide, transitional and fresh sample material.”

Source: Prodigy Gold