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Resources Top 4: For gold and copper prospectors, July is Christmas

  • Aruma shoots up due to rock fragments in Fiery Creek, while Terra shoots up due to a uranium impact
  • The price of antimony is skyrocketing, as is Nagambie’s share price
  • FID approves development of Horizon Minerals’ Boorara gold project

As Australia is hit by a cold snap, many ASX explorers are toasting successful gains in copper, uranium and gold today.

Here are some of the biggest commodity gainers in early trading on Monday, July 29. Prices are accurate as of this writing.

The penny stock AAJ has shown very high copper values ​​in historical surface samples taken by the international mining companies Sumitomo and Anglo American on their recently acquired exploration land for the Fiery Creek project in Queensland.

Copper grades of up to 36% have been found in several deposits throughout the project area. The deposits have long held large reserves but have been under-explored due to low copper prices.

This weakened the exploration interest of other major oil companies such as BHP, Glencore and Rio Tinto, which also owned these oil fields.

AAJ believes that Fiery Creek could be a worthwhile resource in the prolific Mt. Isa Copper Belt.

“The combination of the underexplored nature of the project area, the positive historical results and the favourable geological setting in the prolific Mt Isa mineral district provides Aruma with an exciting exploration opportunity,” said Glenn Grayson, Managing Director of AAJ.

The junior company's shares rose 45.5% to 1.6 cents per share in early trading before falling back to a gain of 18.2%.

There's nothing better than making an ASX small-cap investor's heart beat faster, and Terra is the latest explorer to join the winners' list.

Instead of exploring the more famous Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, the Canadian explorer is hanging out in Nunavut, where he collected samples of surface rocks in the Horned Lake area that assayed 7,950 ppm U or 0.94% U3O8 and samples of 0.18% U3O8 in the Main Zone resource area at Amer Lake.

Amer Lake already contains an overseas non-JORC resource estimate of 17.827 million tonnes at 380 ppm U3O8 containing 15.3 million pounds of yellowcake if the N43-101 report is to be relied upon. T92 announced a deal in March to acquire the six claims (totalling 1190 ha) drilled by Uranerz from 1976 to 1981, with the resource last compiled in 2012.

This means that many modern exploration successes are possible here. Terra has staked two additional claims totaling 1526 hectares in the Baker Lake region of Nunavut.

The high-quality sample in question. Image: T92

It is located just 20 km north of the Amaruq gold project and close to infrastructure. Terra describes the proposed acquisition as “groundbreaking”.

“The results of the recent field work confirm the tenor of the mineralization and that the currently defined resource is a small part of a much larger system,” said Andrew Vigar, Chairman of Terra's Board of Directors. “This is a truly groundbreaking acquisition for Terra as it gives us real 'pounds in the ground' with potential for higher grades and expansion.”

For the deal to close, the main claims need to be renewed, and the term after approval is expected to be another 5-7 years.

“The Company is also pleased to announce that the assessment report has now been completed and submitted to the Nunavut Mining Recorder for processing. This is expected to extend the validity of the mineral claims by at least 5 to 7 years,” said T92.

T92 shares were up 17% at 1:00pm AEST.

HRZ, led by Ashok Parekh, has received approval from the FID Board to commence development of the 458,000 ounce Boorara gold project east of Kalgoorlie in the WA Goldfields.

The gold developer, led by the well-connected “King of Kalgoorlie”, owner of the famous Palace Hotel, merged with Greenstone Resources earlier this year and now owns the third largest landholding in Kalgoorlie and 1.8 million ounces of gold across its entire project portfolio, which includes the 466,570 ounce Burbanks mine.

The Company has targeted an open pit operation where 20,239 tonnes of gold grading 1.73 g/t were mined from the former small Royal deposit in 2016 and processed at the nearby Greenfields mill.

Studies show that Boorara's cash flow is US$30 million, assuming a contract price of US$3,600 per ounce.

“We are focused on making Boorara a safe and efficient mining operation that creates value through cash generation and represents the first step towards sustainable gold production for Horizon,” said Grant Haywood, CEO of HRZ.

Mobilization on site should begin immediately, according to the HRZ. The site's setup and pre-production work are also imminent.

Mining will begin in mid-August, with the first milling operations and gold production expected in October of this year.

HRZ shares rose 11% on the news, trading at 4 cents per share before falling 2.8%.

A 110% rise in antimony prices and a 24% rise in gold prices this year alone has sparked interest in NAG, which plans to produce 47,800 ounces of gold and 17,800 tonnes of antimony (Sb) from its Victorian properties.

The Nagambie Mine's ore deposits contain one of the highest antimony mineralizations in Australia at 4.3% Sb. In addition, only one other mine in the country produces antimony: Mandalay Resources' Costerfield Mine, located 45 km west of the project.

The price of antimony is just under USD 35,000/ton, while the price of gold is heading towards USD 3,700/ounce.

The price of penny stocks rose 25% today from 0.8 to 1 cent per share.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. This article does not constitute advice on financial products. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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