Resources Top 5: Charger lives up to name, bursting 60pc on lithium and niobium finds

Charger Metals makes good progress at Lake Johnston lithium JV. On niobium, too
Copper-cobalt hunter Aeon looks set to get exploration activities going again at Walford Creek
Lithium hunting junior Fin has drilled holes successfully at its White Bear prospect in Canada

Here are some of the biggest resources winners in early trade, Wednesday May 22.

Charger Metals (ASX:CHR)

Clean energy metals explorer Charger is living up to its name today with a bourse burst upwards of more than 60% at the time of writing.

The company has announced it’s defined new lithium and niobium soil anomalies at the Mt Gordon prospect within the Lake Johnston project in WA.

The Lake Johnston project is a JV with massive Aussie mining gun Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO).

An infill soil-sampling program revealed further delineated surface lithium anomalies at the prospect, and these have been discovered defined near historic drill-holes that have previously logged pegmatite intersections with “elevated lithium values”.

Meanwhile, the newly discovered niobium target is big – 1.8km by 1.7km.

Soil sampling at Mt Gordon has increased the resolution of the large #lithium surface anomalies, and also defined a new large #niobium anomaly 1.8 km by 1.7 km in the south of the tenement. Full release https://t.co/bI8NjdAVw5 pic.twitter.com/ljPPk5Ghlt

— Charger_Metals (@ChargerMetals) May 21, 2024

What happens next? Geological activities a-gogo. Field mapping and possibly some air core drilling to further understand the nature of the niobium at surface.

As well as that, approvals for RC drilling at the Mt Gordon and Medcalf prospects are expected to land in the in-tray this quarter, says the company.

Commentary? Further context? Charger’s MD Aidan Platel obliged:

“The results from the recent phase of soil sampling at Mt Gordon have successfully increased the resolution of the large lithium surface anomalies defined by the first phase of sampling, thus providing more accurate targets for the upcoming RC drill programme,” he said or wrote.

CHR share price

Aeon Metals (ASX:AML)

Aeon’s main game is the Walford Creek copper-cobalt Project in northwest Queensland, where it’s been making steady progress of late, after essentially what amounted to a one-year hiatus.

It’s up a goodly amount today – more than 55% at time of writing – on some land access news that certainly will encourage it, and its shareholders.

The traditional owners of the Walford Creek region, the Waanyi PBC and Waanyi People have agreed terms for a new Cultural Heritage Protection Agreement (CHPA).

And what that allows for is Aeon to recommence activities at Walford Creek, with pen being put to paper on relevant documents and signed by the necessary people, imminent.

Business is business – this comes after a year of negotiations, the results of which will now enable Aeon to drill into the Fish River Fault and its surrounds and carry out “ongoing project development”.

Aeon is also assessing a “number of copper-rich prospective targets” within what’s dubbed the Amy resource and other untested prospective targets in the area.

AML share price

Fin Resources (ASX:FIN)

This Canadian-focused lithium hunter is up about 20% on some fresh drilling news.

Specifically, eight diamond drill holes have now been successfully completed at its White Bear prospect within the broader Cancet West project in James Bay, Quebec.

They’re holes. Tick. And they’ve been successfully drilled. Double tick. But more than this, we know, too, that the drilling intersected the White Bear pegmatite, which has been confirmed as spodumene bearing, based on geological observations and LIBS data. Five holes have interesected visual megacrystic spodumene up to 15cm in length.

LIBS? It’s Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy. That’s a rapid chemical analysis tech that uses a short laser pulse to create a micro-plasma on sample surfaces. Thanks, search engine.

Anyway, notably, the beaut spod-bearing pegmatite zone has a thickness of 12.1m in the program’s final hole drilled from a downhole depth of just 3m.

Previous rock chip samples in the area returned 6.50% Li2O and 6.85% Li2O with the interpreted pegmatite trends at Cancet West, including White Bear, appearing to be associated with the ~10-15km strike length of the Archean-aged Lac Guyer greenstone belt.

The outcropping, relatively flat-dipping White Bear peggie remains open along strike. Core samples have been sent to a lab and results are expected late June or early July.

Fin’s Cancet West project is situated just 45km from Winsome Resources’ (ASX:WR1) major Cancet asset.

FIN share price

NewPeak Metals (ASX:NPM)

Another Canada-focused explorer in the sick gainz here today – this one on uranium and rare earths.

NewPeak notes it’s scheduled an “extraordinary” general meeting for June 28.

(Extra)ordinary matter no. 1 on the meeting’s itinerary?

“The ratification of prior issue of 13,666,667 shares to Gerhard Redelinghuys and Tania Redelinghuys as trustee for Redelinghuys Super Fund, at an issue price of $0.015 pursuant to the Placement…”

For further context, about this time last month, NewPeak completed a $300,000 share placement at 1.5c/sh to Gerhard Redelinghuys, who is the founder of former small cap success story Bowen Coking Coal (ASX:BCB).

Redelinghuys steered Bowen Coking Coal from a small explorer to a multi-mine producer listed in the ASX 300.

He stepped back from his role as BCB MD in February 2023.

As we reported in April, NPM expects to have binding commitments for another $200,000 via placement soon. It will also undertake a Rights Issue to raise not less than $500,000 at the same issue price as the Placement shares.

The ~$1m cash injection will be used to explore its recently acquired/soon-to-be acquired Canadian properties, for new acquisitions, and for general working capital.

NPM share price

Gibb River Diamonds (ASX:GIB)

(Up on yesterday’s news)

Gibb River Diamonds continues to shine today with an intraday gain of more than 40% and a weekly blast of 116%.

Morning glory? This is a strong and swift rise LTR Pharma would be proud of (incidentally also well up today) – but that’s another story entirely.

Source: Market Index

With nothing fresh to report today on this then, we’ll revert to some of yesterday’s explanation.

The multi-commodity explorer burst up on Tuesday based on news regarding its Ellendale diamond project in the West Kimberley region of WA.

Gibb River has been granted three mining leases on the project’s land and these are licences considered key to developing the project further with a view to re-establishing its production.

The Ellendale Project has, in the past, been one of the world’s largest diamond producers, with previous operators reporting a combined market capitalisation of over $690 million in 2006 on leases now held by GIB.

Noted the company yesterday, Ellendale’s production once included the annual supply of more than 50% of the world’s ‘Fancy Yellow’ diamonds, which were “the subject of a special marketing agreement between former operators and Tiffany & Co”.

GIB’s overall aim here is to re-establish diamond mining production at Ellendale, and at the moment, it’s considering various financing options with a view to potentially building a mining operation.

The granting of the mining leases certainly won’t hurt the chances of brining in some decent funding.

The company has a decent amount in the kitty already, representing about $2.2m in cash.

$GIB $GIB.AX #ASX

Good step forward at Ellendale Diamond project for Gibb River Diamonds Ltd

Off the top of my head they have US$100m of diamonds in stockpiled and ready to mine material within the tenements (see https://t.co/uqhCdNdugI)

$2.2m cash
$5.3m mcap pic.twitter.com/q2UlysCOSp

— Platinum Kangaroo (@Pt_Kangaroo) May 21, 2024