Tolga Kumova\u2019s taste in high-powered cars reflects his status as one of Australia\u2019s highest profile investment success stories \u2013 it\u2019s probably little surprise the man drives a Ferrari. <\/p>\n
What may surprise you, however, is the recent revelation in conversation with Stockhead of Tolga\u2019s appreciation for a quiet drive. The sort of drive EVs are renowned for.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe push towards electric vehicles is being driven politically around the world, but the reality is that in many ways they\u2019re a better drive,\u201d Kumova revealed.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople talk about how they miss the sound when they sit in one of these new Teslas, but I must confess, I drive a Ferrari and it\u2019s almost refreshing when the noise isn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can talk on the phone; you can talk to the person next to you \u2013 it\u2019s a more relaxing experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our conversation had little to do with the mechanics of the auto industry and everything to do with resources stocks, but it didn\u2019t take long to bridge the two given the enormous impact the world\u2019s commitment to a greener future has had on commodity demand.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a trend with ramifications for several market sectors, each which stand to benefit from global momentum towards a vision for change. To build an EV, you need batteries. To power an EV, you need energy.<\/p>\n
The recent entry of Sprott Asset Management into the physical uranium market is a great example of this in practice, according to Kumova.<\/p>\n
For so long maligned, uranium has celebrated a renaissance of recent times as the world wakes up to its potential as a clean source of energy. Sprott\u2019s buying spree has driven the price to multi-year highs \u2013 it\u2019s a space Kumova is watching with interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a little cautious on the fact that as the spot prices go higher a number of operations will come back on and fill in the spot trust void,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there is a lot of reactors coming online in China and around the world at the moment, so it could well balance itself out \u2013 I am bullish on this commodity in the short term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uranium\u2019s draw is clear but like a phone call in a Ferrari, Kumova suspects another, lower profile commodity\u2019s potential may be drowned out in some of the louder mineral noise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually think silica sands is a bigger opportunity with less risk than uranium,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt goes back to the energy thematic for me \u2013 low iron silica sand is needed for the glass they use in solar panels, and when you\u2019ve got a resource it\u2019s almost a quarry operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a large capex, high-tech process like it is with some other commodities.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the battery metals side of the coin is the nickel story, which alongside the booming lithium narrative and cobalt\u2019s allure is showing plenty of signs of enduring for the long term.<\/p>\n
Kumova said the actions of BHP in the nickel space, particularly its battle for Canadian company Noront Resources with Andrew Forrest\u2019s Wyloo Metals, were well worth watching.<\/p>\n
\u201cNoront\u2019s bidding hundreds of millions right now for what is a smallish resource in northern Ontario, but it is effectively exploration ground they\u2019re after,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat tells me they\u2019re desperate for it with their nickel division \u2013 it shows the market just how passionate they are about the sector and what they\u2019re thinking going forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of opportunity across the battery metals space.\u201d<\/p>\n
With much of the nation locked down in recent months, investment chatter on Twitter has reached new levels.<\/p>\n
A prolific Twitter user, Kumova said his experience polling on the platform led him to believe that not all small cap investors were doing their due diligence before making financial commitments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a reason I don\u2019t use CommSec or any online broker services,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really important to talk to people about my ideas \u2013 actually running it past people and saying things out loud.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes when you\u2019re thinking about something, when you say it out loud you ether realise you look really silly \u2013 if you can\u2019t explain something properly then it\u2019s probably not worth doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kumova also stressed the importance of incorporating the opinions of people with experience on the board.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my experience if you\u2019re getting specific information about a sector or industry from someone, you should always ask yourself what they\u2019ve achieved before, or what they\u2019ve seen before, or what they\u2019ve done in the space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re speaking to a broker, speak to one who has been successful before. If you\u2019re speaking to a director of a company, speak to someone that\u2019s done it; whether they\u2019ve succeeded or failed at least they\u2019ve tried.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m finding is people are listening to those who have very little experience in our sector and blindly accepting their information. It doesn\u2019t really make much sense to me.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople should only be taking advice from a licensed financial broker.\u201d<\/p>\n
As someone with runs on the board all of this begs the question \u2013 what does Tolga like on the ASX right now? The man himself ran through a series of small cap companies he believes are poised to make an impact over the next little while.<\/p>\n
Aston\u2019s inclusion on this list should come as no surprise to those in the know. Not only is the Canadian explorer making waves with its yellow metal hits at its Edleston gold project in Ontario, Kumova is its executive chairman.<\/p>\n
That should take little away from the company\u2019s recent successes following up historical drill results, which have included numerous hits of visible gold in core.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s one hole we drilled which had 35m with gold speckled through it,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been frustrating because the labs have been incredibly slow \u2013 one of our biggest issues has been drilling holes but not getting the assays back, and not really knowing where the lodes are.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we have been guided by visible gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Exploration has been furthered by drilling at the Sirola zone, 1.5km east of Edleston Main, where visible gold has been hit over a width of 500m.<\/p>\n
A cross section of Aston\u2019s Sirola zone, showing chargeability inversion model, recent drilling and rock chips. Pic: supplied.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deposits on this belt are not small,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is definitely elephant country. You\u2019ve got Timmins 60km to the north of us, which is 71 million ounces, and Kirland Lake to the east is 24Moz. Kerr Addison is 12Moz on this belt.<\/p>\n
\u201cVal D\u2019or, to the other side of the Abitibi belt, is 20Moz. When this belt mineralises, and there\u2019s an event deposit, it\u2019s usually very large.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just gold potential that excites Kumova about Edleston.<\/p>\n
As BHP and Wyloo battle it out for control of Noront in Ontario, Aston has identified a magnetic high structure at Edleston which management believes may be nickel-PGE-cobalt bearing.<\/p>\n
The anomaly is more than 5km long and 1.5km wide, and geophysics tracks it to 800m deep. Early drilling is underway.<\/p>\n\n
\ufeff<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n African Gold made headlines this week when it reported bonanza gold in screen fire assays from the Didievi gold project in Cote D\u2019Ivoire, including 10m at 123g\/t (!!) from 66m.<\/p>\n That assay included 2m at 613g\/t gold \u2013 astounding stuff.<\/p>\n Kumova is a board member at A1G, where drilling has confirmed the presence of a large gold system over an area of at least 1.5km by 1km and open in all directions.<\/p>\n \u201cThis project has had some really large hits lately,\u201d Kumova said, before this week\u2019s news dropped.<\/p>\n \u201cThis thing had some standout hits including 83m at 3.3 grams per tonne, 89m at 3g\/t, 17m at 6.3g\/t, 17m at 5.4g\/t, 43m at 4.3g\/t, 37m at 7.7g\/t \u2013 big numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n Add to that 17.4m at 17g\/t from 244m, including 1m at 216g\/t, also announced in Wednesday\u2019s release.<\/p>\n On top of the impressive width of mineralisation in the assays, Kumova highlighted the project\u2019s proximity to the nearby Agbaou and Bonikro projects.<\/p>\n \u201cThose projects are about 2-3Moz tonne per annum processing plants each, but Agbaou actually runs out of ore late next year so it will need feed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOur project doesn\u2019t have a resource yet, but our first campaign has come back with some really nice numbers \u2013 it looks high grade, it looks large, and it may well have a natural home without having to build a plant.\u201d<\/p>\n African Gold\u2019s projects in regional context. Pic: Supplied<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n A recent spinout of Firefly Resources, Firebird\u2019s flagship is the Oakover manganese project in Western Australia which stands to gain from commodity\u2019s battery demand.<\/p>\n The project has a mineral resource of 64 million tonnes at 10% manganese \u2013 a solid technical base on which the company plans to build through infill and extensional drilling, with ore sorting and gravity testwork also underway.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the main reasons why I like this is the direct comparison with E25\u2019s Butcherbird project, which is in the same region,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n \u201cE25\u2019s market capitalisation today is around $340 million, and Firebird, which has a comparable deposit, is $30 million.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be a matter of going through the process. You\u2019d expect it to be similar processing to E25, a similar market, but the best thing about it is E25 has already shown the proven path to get into operation and production \u2013 it\u2019s a case of following those steps.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ll probably get to use similar consultants, who know what works and what doesn\u2019t. It\u2019s a matter of following that path.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \ufeff<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n An exploration play with a copper-silver project in Peru and uranium opportunities in Saskatchewan, Canada\u2019s Athabasca Basin.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the latter of these two which has recently caught the attention of investors. Valor dropped some serious rock chip samples from the Hook Lake uranium project at the end of August, with uranium oxide grades as high as 59.2% with rare earths, lead and silver potential to boot.<\/p>\n Kumova said the mineralisation combination was unique.<\/p>\n \u201cTo have all of those minerals in the same place is incredibly exciting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been looking to find analogous deposits and I just can\u2019t, I haven\u2019t seen it and I couldn\u2019t find anything like it.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to these types of grades, especially in uranium, normally you\u2019re going for parts per million mineralisation \u2013 59% is enormous.<\/p>\n \u201cWith that sort of grade you don\u2019t need kilometres of mineralisation \u2013 200m could be a deposit.\u201d<\/p>\n A uraninite float sample found east of Valor\u2019s Hook Lake prospect. Pic: supplied.<\/p>\n Kumova said if drilling defined any kind of strike extent or thickness it could be one to take off.<\/p>\n\n \ufeff<\/span><\/p>\n Another in the uranium stable is GTI, which recently acquired in-situ recovery (ISR) uranium projects in Wyoming to complement its Henry Mountains hard rock assets near the White Mesa Mill in Utah.<\/p>\n The recently acquired projects give GTI the largest non-US, Russian or Canadian owned uranium exploration landholding in the prolific Great Divide Basin.<\/p>\n ISR accounts for around 90% of US uranium production and has accounted for 100% of Wyoming\u2019s uranium production since 1993.<\/p>\n \u201cWith all that\u2019s happening in uranium at the moment this thing will be another to keep an eye on,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n As well as the ground, the company has engaged senior Wyoming uranium experts to assist with its exploration efforts in the region.<\/p>\n GTI\u2019s project holding in Wyoming. Pic: Supplied.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n\n \ufeff<\/span><\/p>\n A dual-listed company, Raiden has identified the Arrow gold and Mt Sholl nickel-copper-PGE projects in the Pilbara as its key strategic priorities over the next two years.<\/p>\n That comes with good reason \u2013 a program of work was recently approved for Arrow with contractors engaged to tender on an initial RC program to test early targets.<\/p>\n \u201cArrow is literally abutting De Grey\u2019s (ASX:DEG)<\/a> Mallina gold project \u2013 35km from Hemi, and it has multiple intrusives,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s gold anomalies in the soils, and now it\u2019s got to a point where they\u2019re about to start drilling with a market cap around $20 million or thereabouts.<\/p>\n \u201cIt also has some nickel interests in that part of the world at Mt Sholl, and there\u2019s some interesting things happening up with its copper-gold projects in Serbia and Bulgaria.\u201d<\/p>\n Raiden\u2019s suite of Pilbara projects. Pic: supplied.<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/span>\ufeff<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n Not the planet (that\u2019s spelled Alderaan). Alderan is a US focused copper-gold explorer with projects in Utah.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s flagship is the Detroit project, south of Rio Tinto\u2019s Bingham Canyon\/Kennecott copper mine, which it says has strong potential for porphyry related and Carlin-like copper and gold deposits. Surface exploration results have been promising so far.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was one hole drilled near the target previously, which came back with all the hallmarks of copper-gold porphyry mineralisation,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was just off the structure, and then they stopped drilling. A recent placement will fund the next program, which is being drilled in a couple of weeks to test those targets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n PEC is currently updating the ore reserve for its Belharra project, following a phase of aircore infill drilling results which confirmed high grade white silica sand at the project.<\/p>\n The company is also undertaking bulk representative composite metallurgical testwork on white sand samples from the project, after releasing a compelling PFS in March.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re just going through the process right now to confirm their white sands, so the low iron content material,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n The company has an eye to offtake once the tests are completed. Results are expected this month.<\/p>\n Phase 3 drilling at PEC\u2019s Belharra project in WA. Pic: supplied.<\/p>\n \ufeff<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n Also in the sand game is IND, with a number of assets including the Gingin, Stockyard, Unicup and Quins projects.<\/p>\n \u201cIND is earlier stage than PEC but at Stockyard doesn\u2019t have to go through the same permitting processes though the EPA as some other players in the region,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n \u201cIND doesn\u2019t have that issue because the deposit is actually partly on farmland.<\/p>\n A cleared paddock at Industrial Minerals\u2019 Stockyard project. Pic: Supplied.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a paddock but now it\u2019s effectively just white sand, which isn\u2019t very good for farmland either.\u201d<\/p>\n An aircore rig was recently secured for up to 10,000m across the projects, designed to test new targets and validate historical drilling on each.<\/p>\n\n \ufeff<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n A Canadian gold play, Benz\u2019s flagship is the Eastmain gold project, which spans the upper Eastmain greenstone belt 320km northwest of Chibougamau and 800km north of Montreal.<\/p>\n The company recently completed a placement to raise C$10 million at an 80% premium to its prior TSXV closing price, with funds to be used to advance exploration and build on the project\u2019s 376,000oz resource at 7.9g\/t gold.<\/p>\n Visible gold in core from Eastmain. Pic: Supplied.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re exploring what is essentially an entire belt,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like exploring the entire Wiluna. It\u2019s quite amazing that it was open to be pegged and acquired for the price it was once upon a time.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s also lithium there; there\u2019s an outcrop of 60m by 25m where they\u2019ve taken samples up to 4.7% lithium from surface.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s historical copper hits there as well, as well as historical nickel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n An old pit, Meteoric\u2019s Palm Springs project resource has gone from 0oz to 355,000oz in its first year with successful drilling ongoing.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a plant close by, about 40km away, that would love its feed to extend its life,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n One recent drill hole hit multiple zones of visible gold over 79m, with assays pending.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, significant molybdenum and copper sulphides have been observed over 600m of core at the company\u2019s Juruena project in Brazil.<\/p>\n \u201cThey know they\u2019re in the porphyry, they just need to understand how mineralised it is,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Firefly is in the process of merging with Gascoyne Resources (ASX:GCY)<\/a>.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a move which will strategically consolidate FFR\u2019s higher-grade Melville mineral resource of 196,000oz at 1.54g\/t and the Dalgaranga production hub just 100km away by road.<\/p>\n The move will allow the combined company to leverage the sunk capital spend at Dalgaranga\u2019s processing facility while accelerating the development of Melville.<\/p>\n The ground around Melville and the broader Yalgoo gold project includes more than 100 targets, with 30 at untested historical working with recorded gold production.<\/p>\n \u201cMining the Melville ore will make a significant difference to their profit,\u201d Kumova said.<\/p>\n\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Kumova also flagged a mixed bag of stock tickers worth keeping an eye on, from smaller shells to those with interesting exploration assets.<\/p>\n Cervantes Corporation \u2013 CVS<\/a> \ufeff<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n The post The 18 small cap stocks revving Tolga Kumova\u2019s engine right now<\/a> appeared first on Stockhead<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"African Gold (ASX:A1G) <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
Firebird Metals (ASX:FRB)<\/a> <\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\nValor Resources (ASX:VAL) <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
GTI Resources (ASX:GTR)<\/a> <\/strong>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\nRaiden Resources (ASX:RDN)<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
Alderan Resources (ASX:AL8) <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
Perpetual Resources (ASX:PEC) <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
Industrial Minerals (ASX:IND) <\/strong><\/h2>\n
Benz Mining Corporation (ASX:BNZ) <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI)<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
Firefly Resources (ASX:FFR) <\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n
Plays for the watchlist (ASX:CVS, BNR, GGE, FME, KFM, GLV)<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\nBulletin Resources \u2013 BNR<\/a>
\nGrand Gulf Energy \u2013 GGE<\/a>
\nFuture Metals \u2013 FME<\/a>
\nKingfisher Mining \u2013 KFM<\/a>
\nGlobal Oil & Gas \u2013 GLV<\/a><\/p>\n