Resources Top 4: Could this exploration stock be another WA1-style success story?

• Encounter intersects niobium-rare earths mineralised carbonatites over 3.5km next door to WA1 Resources’ big find
• Stellar hits significant 38.6m-long zinc-lead-copper mineralised zone at ‘North Scamander’ in Tasmania
• Ora is reporting a cluster of impressive hits in extensional drilling at the 55,000oz Crown Prince prospect

Here are the biggest small cap resources winners in early trade, Wednesday, June 28.

 

ENCOUNTER RESOURCES (ASX:ENR)

ENR has intersected niobium-rare earths mineralised carbonatites (type of rock) over 3.5km at ‘Aileron’, next door to WA1 Resources’ (ASX:WA1) big find in the West Arunta region of WA.

ENR is hoping to follow in the footsteps of WA1, which has enjoyed a breathless rise from 13.5c tiddler to $5.75 market darling in a touch over eight months. That’s a ~4160% gain.

ENR says all three holes drilled over a 3.5km stretch at Aileron hit near surface niobium-REE mineralised carbonatite, which remains open and “is increasing in width to the east”.

The westernmost Hole 1 returned 16m of carbonatite at 0.6% N2O5 & 0.2% TREO (including 402ppm Nd+Pr) from 350m.

Assays for holes 2 and 3, which hit a respective 149m and 282m of carbonatite from shallow depths, are due July-August.

Exciting times ahead.

An expanded RC drilling program testing for “further zones of near surface, enriched mineralisation” will also kick off in August, ENR says.

The $140m capped stock is up ~100% year to date. In May, it raised $10m via placement at 25c per share (a tiny 7% discount at the time) to accelerate exploration in the West Arunta.

 

STELLAR RESOURCES (ASX:SRZ)

SRZ hit a significant 38.6m-long zinc-lead-copper mineralised zone at ‘North Scamander’ in Tasmania, from 130m depth.

A second, “less significant” ~17m-long zone of mineralisation was hit from 220m depth.

These areas of mineralisation are separate to those uncovered in historical drilling, making this a new discovery, says SRZ.

But the primary target of this 750m deep diamond drillhole – the core of a regional scale magnetic anomaly — starts at ~375m depth.

The exploration hole had reached a depth of 360m on 23 June.

“The significant Zn-Pb-Cu mineralised zone intersected to date from 131.2m to 169m in the upper part of our first exploration drillhole at North Scamander is very encouraging,” SRZ exec director Gary Fietz says.

“This is interpreted as being the top of a metal-rich hydrothermal system which may exist at depth, which is the main drilling target as the hole continues to a target depth of 750m.”

Meanwhile, drill at the Severn deposit, the largest of the Heemskirk tin project (7.6Mt @ 1.1% Sn) deposits, was completed in mid-June.

The drilling will be incorporated into a updated resource, scheduled for late August.

A Pre-Feasibility Study on Heemskirk is planned for H2 2023.

The $13m capped minnow is up 30% year-to-date. It had $2.3m in the bank at the end of March.

 

ORA GOLD (ASX:OAU)

OAU is reporting a cluster of impressive hits in extensional drilling at the 55,000oz Crown Prince prospect, part of the ‘Garden Gully’ project near Meekatharra in WA.

Best intercepts include:

• 40m @ 17.53g/t from 30m
• 16m @ 35.77g/t from 28m
• 13m @ 21.9g/t from 32m
• 12m @ 9.73g/t from 6m; and
• 21m @ 2.53g/t from surface.

That’s thick, shallow, and very high grade – three things investors should look for when evaluating drill results.

More assay results are pending.

The hits come from the southeast orebody (SEB) which OAU says “commences at surface, is high-grade over good widths and hence is likely to show robust economic outcomes in any conceptual mining scenario.”

Meanwhile, four deeper holes targeting SEB at depth (+100m) have all intersected “sheared and potentially mineralised zones” with assays pending.

The $10m capped tiddler is up 100% in early trade. It had $3m in the bank at the end of March.

 

RAIDEN RESOURCES (ASX:RDN)

RDN has snapped up exploration ground in the Pilbara, right next door to Azure Minerals’ (ASX:AZS) recent lithium discovery (112.4m @ 1.05% Li2O).

AZS had originally partnered with the Creasy Group in a 60-40 JV to explore and develop the Andover nickel sulphide deposit, where a resource containing 51,700t of nickel metal, 21,700t of copper and 2290t of cobalt was defined last year.

But since identifying thick and high-grade lithium bearing pegmatites at Andover, AZS has stepped up another level, up 570% in 2023 on some fairly spectacular early drilling success.

$13m capped RDN says its new 80% owned tenure sits in the same prospective rocks.

“The company has managed to secure prospective ground, immediately adjacent to one of the most exciting lithium discoveries this year,” MD Dusko Ljubojevic says.

“The project area is also considered highly prospective for nickel sulphide mineralisation, with two of the tenements being adjacent to the high-grade Andover/Ridgeline deposit.”

“Plans for evaluation and field work of these recent acquisitions, along with the remaining projects in the Pilbara, are ongoing and the company will provide updates to the market as the results become available.”

The company is also “confident of generating further transactions”, he says.



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