Undiscovered Alpha

  • IPO Today – TR8 To Testing Major Extension to High Grade Gold Mine

    The high-grade gold mineralisation at the Christmas Gift Gold Project, which has historically produced 30koz at an incredible grade of 18 g/t Au and contains assays such as 8m at 17.23 g/t Au from 12m and 13m at 13.20 g/t Au from 68m – could stretch for 2,500m. The world class geology team at Tarrina Resources (ASX: TR8), which is listing today at 10am, is about to launch an exciting drilling campaign that will test this potential. TR8’s CEO Dr Greg Partington has done this all before, having previously managed the acquisition of the Bullabulling deposit at 410koz and turning it into a 3.7Moz monster at a discovery cost of just $5/oz. A 2.3Moz section of this asset is now being developed by $660 million market cap Minerals 260 (ASX: MI6), which counts Tim Goyder as a substantial shareholder. Greg also led the growth of the Tampia Gold Mine from 310koz to 695koz before it was taken over by Ramelius Resources (ASX: RMS), which then put it into production.

    Analysis of the geophysics done in conjunction with the NSW government at Christmas Gift has clearly shown a strong connection between gold mineralisation and a magnetic low seen in imaging that has not been explored. When factoring this in with the 1,500m gold in soil anomaly above 200ppb Au, data from a total of 592 drill holes, and the structurally controlled nature of the low sulphide, quartz veining mineralisation – the most exciting parts of the project could be completely undrilled.

    TR8 is hitting the boards with a relatively attractive valuation, at just $8.5 million market cap with $4.5 million in cash – a $4 million enterprise value has it almost priced as a shell. We initiated coverage on our other NSW gold portfolio company, Thunderbird Resources (ASX: THB) at $0.01/share in August – and it ran to a $20 million market cap at $0.034/share a couple months later. The key catalyst that drove this was the acquisition of a similar looking gold project in terms of historical production and solid assays over a small strike of 500m, but with serious extensions to test.

    The orogenic gold system at Christmas Gift has strong potential to have a significantly larger scale that has not been discovered, simply because it has not been systematically tested with modern exploration methods. The historical workings are located along a N-NE-trending shear zone within silicified tuffaceous sediments that are close to a contact with dacitic volcanics. Gold mineralisation occurs in quartz-calcite veins with minor sphalerite, galena, and chalcopyrite, with the veins being interpreted as part of a Devonian orogenic gold system similar to other deposits in the region, such as Tomingley (406koz at 1.7g/t Au and 149koz at 2.5g/t Au), as well as Adelong (80.3koz at 3.07g/t Au and 44.8koz at 2.61g/t Au).

    One of our favourite types of investments is a great Australian gold story that has potential to hit a gigantic deposit, but has something solid to fall back on in the event the exploration thesis doesn’t pan out – and the confirmed area of mineralisation at Christmas Gift already likely contains something of similar size and grade to Tomingley or Adelong. 

    TR8 also has another extremely exciting project – Walparuta in SA – where $7 billion market cap Sandfire Resources (ASX: SFR) has just entered into a $330 million joint venture with Haivanah Resources (ASX: HAV), to develop a monster deposit that contains 1.1Mt Cu, 3.1Moz Au and 23.2Kt of Co. The region is being touted as an incredibly prosperous district for these commodities – with SFR committing $30 million in regional exploration expenditure to find lookalikes – and TR8’s project has a very high priority geophysical anomaly that can be drilled immediately.

    The assays surrounding the historically mined area at Christmas Gift can be seen below, which include the standout results of 13m at 13.20 g/t Au from 68m, 8m at 17.23 g/t Au from 12m, 9m at 11.54 g/t Au from 46m, 13m at 6.60 g/t Au from 30m, 4.5m at 16.53 g/t Au from 12m, 4m at 16.80 g/t Au from 12m and 7.0 m at 7.97 g/t Au from 55m. The initial part of the upcoming drilling campaign will be targeting this area and its close surroundings in order to delineate a JORC-compliant resource – so there is a pretty high expectation that it will record strong grades that are likely to excite the market:

    Source: TR8

    Below is the regional RTP magnetics and structural interpretation of Christmas Gift, which shows the low magnetic zone that hosts the historic mines, where TR8 will be testing the tuffaceous rocks to see if they contain significant gold mineralisation:

    Source: TR8

    The ground magnetic data over the regional RTP data can be seen below, which very clearly highlights the magnetic low that hosts the extremely high grade ore where Christmas Gift was mined:

    Source: TR8

    Below is a map of the soil sampling at the project. Drilling to the south doesn’t correlate with low mag geophysics, and as such has not hit significant mineralisation. TR8 will be following the trend North, where it has added a significant acreage to the project in order to capture what could be the most prospective part:

    Source: TR8

    Changing the Paradigm to Hit a Multi-Million Ounce Deposit

    There is a huge amount of upside to be gained by taking data that has been collected and modelled in a 2D format, and turning it into a 3D model for a significantly improved exploration strategy. 3D Modelling allowed Greg to confirm the geology and grade continuity at Bullabulling, and helped explain the geological controls at the project – which provided new high-priority targets and significantly aided the ultimate development strategy. There’s 2,000m of historic core from Christmas Gift held by the government in Sydney that TR8 will begin reanalysing and relogging immediately, in the lead up to drilling campaign – which will all be 3D modelled.

    Historical drilling indicates the potential for the mineralised zone to contain a few hundred thousand ounces at a decent grade, making the downside pretty limited around TR8’s current valuation. With a potential deposit of that size in an area with multiple under capacity mines, and gold at US$4,000/oz – it is certainly plausible for TR8 to achieve either a similar exit to what Strickland Metals (ASX: STK) did with its Millrose deposit, or set up a toll treating operation. 

    STK selling a 346koz resource at 1.8g/t Au deposit to NST for more than $60 million when gold was US$1,925/oz is always worth a mention when imagining how much value can be extracted from a small gold asset when an under-capacity mine needs to buy it, and what this means for the company after the sale. STK ran from a $65 million market cap to $309 million in the months after the deal was announced. Given Greg’s history with Bullabulling and Tampia, any sort of value crystallising event is likely to add a significant premium above the transaction value onto TR8.

    Chasing Copper and Gold Near $150 million HAV

    TR8 has assessed its Walparuta project in South Australia as being similar to HAV’s 12.5Mt at 1.5% Cu, 0.16% Co and 0.2g/t Au project 80km South, which is in the same region as its other monster project that contains a 100Mt ore reserve of copper, gold and cobalt. HAV recently pushed past $150 million market cap after the SFR deal, and the two decades of exploration at the project provides a large and valuable dataset for TR8 to factor into its exploration program. Interestingly, HAV developed a 3D exploration model and then drilled it out for only 2 years to delineate a 108Mt copper-gold resource, way back in 2007.

    There are 8 drillholes that stand out at Walparuta, which reached a maximum depth of 230m, including 1.52m at 0.53% Cu and 1.37 g/t Au, 4.57m at 0.33% Cu and 0.34 g/t Au, 7.62m at 0.90% Cu and 0.62 g/t Au, and 4.57m at 0.73% Cu and 1.49 g/t Au. Copper and gold have correlated with magnetite, and there are over 100 samples that exceed 1000ppm Cu – there was even 66 tonnes of copper ore production early in the 20th century. 

    TR8 believes reinterpretation of geophysical data should better define drill targets to locate the main mineralised area. The project contains several prospects with mineralisation, alteration, geochemical, and geophysical characteristics that are consistent with IOCG mineralisation – with some high-priority zones that would be groundbreaking if they were to hit anything economic.

    With TR8 kicking off its journey as a listed company on the ASX today, the robust newsflow over the coming months from a portfolio of highly prospective projects – which have been assembled by a team that have kicked some huge goals before – is sure to be eagerly awaited by the market.

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    Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.

  • TMG Expands High-Grade US Tungsten Portfolio Amid Government Driven Domestic Production Push

    The tungsten market is really starting to heat up after the world’s hardest metal more than doubled in price from US$320/mtu to US$705/mtu since the start of the year. The US Department of War is banning its military procurement from China, Russia and North Korea beginning in 2027 – effectively eliminating 87% of supply and igniting a race to bring on production inside America. The largest tungsten miner outside of China, US$1.3 billion market cap Almonty Industries (ASX: AII – TSX: All – NASDAQ: ALM), just shelled out US$10 million for a 7.53 Mt at 0.315% WO₃ American asset that is capable of near-term, rapid development – despite the ramp up of a Korean mine being its main focus. Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG) already conducted a comprehensive review of US tungsten assets early in the year, and started snapping up projects in August when the price was under US$500/mtu.

    TMG strategically entered the tungsten market with the acquisition of Tennessee Mountain in Nevada, which contains a resource of 780kt grading between 0.3%-0.5% WO₃, as well as the Nightingale Tungsten District, which has previously been mined at grades up to 1.0% WO₃ and recorded historical production of 564,000 pounds of 70% WO₃ concentrate. Both projects are in Nevada, putting TMG in prime position to become a key player in the race to start producing American mined tungsten before the end of next year.

    A recent expansion to the tenement package at Tennessee Mountain has consolidated the entire district, capturing 75 historically mined workings with no modern exploration, including the addition of Little Joe which has produced at grades between 0.9-1.5% WO₃, and growing strike to well over 5km. There is a treasure trove of historical data that has unveiled a massive tungsten system with brilliant grades, which include a 24 diamond drill hole campaign for a total of 1,276m recorded assays such as 24.9m at 0.65% WO₃ from 7.68m, including 10.67m at 0.98% WO₃ from 19.81m, and 2.13m at 2.06% WO₃ from 28.35m, as well as 18.38m at 0.72% WO₃ from surface, including 13.17m at 0.91% WO₃ from surface. 

    The project’s classic skarn system has prolific amounts of near-surface mineralisation which has been exposed by historical trenching. There are are a few key areas being evaluated at the moment, one being 107m long, 4.5m wide and grading 0.61% WO₃, while the others are 115m long, between 3-9m wide and grading 0.3% WO₃, as well as 98m long between 9-15m wide and grading 0.39% WO₃.

    There could be a large amount of upside in TMG’s current valuation when factoring in the value of these tungsten projects, which the market is yet to place any real weight on. We first initiated coverage on TMG when it was trading at $0.031 with a $25 million market cap, and it went on to reach $280 million at $0.23/share. It’s since retraced to around $130 million, but with $19 million in cash – the company is extremely well funded to aggressively advance its portfolio of American critical minerals projects. TMG is preparing two major drill programs at the Antimony Canyon Project and Tennessee Mountain Project, so big impact newsflow will be heavy in the coming months.

    The tungsten industry has many of the same supply characteristics as antimony, including China controlling 83% of production – while nothing is mined in America. This makes it extremely susceptible to volatile price swings in a normal environment, but when it was chosen as a key pain point for China to press in its export bans that were announced at the end of 2024 – it had nowhere to go but sky high. 

    The deal recently struck by the US and China for the latter to pause rare earths and critical mineral export restrictions for one year appear quite flimsy, and technically only allow for the theoretical granting of export licenses to certain US buyers. There are multiple reports directly from China about the specifics surrounding permitting processes being extremely obscure and at least months away from allowing anything to be granted. This is compounded by many tungsten traders having no interest or motive to export to the US anyway – prices are just as high inside of China as they are in Rotterdam.

    The Pentagon’s launch of a US$1 billion critical minerals stockpile through the Defence Logistics Agency is the perfect backbone for the types of projects that TMG is focused on developing. TMG’s upcoming name change to “American Antimony and Tungsten” beautifully spells out the crucial position TMG will hold in the supply of critical minerals that are vital to so many industries that are the lifeblood of the USA’s defence and economy.

    TMG is still firmly focused on developing its flagship Antimony Canyon Project in Utah, which has a refined but still gigantic JORC exploration target of 6.1 to 6.9Mt at 1.4% to 2.3% Sb – with high grade zones that have historically produced  3.6% Sb. The recently completed net-zero smelting study with Metso detailed plans for a facility that will produce 5,000 tons of 99.65% purity antimony ingot, which at US$50,000/t would generate annual revenue of US$250 million (AUD$375 million) – again posing huge upside for TMG’s current AUD$130 million market cap. After meeting the Utah Governor and other state senators, TMG was invited to present to the Utah State Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee – which is now being followed up with on-site visits by government officials.

    The vastly expanded tenement package that TMG has laid claim to can be seen below, which covers a litany of historical artisanal mining occurrences and mapped instances of outcropping, that are spread across various locations around the initially acquired Tennessee Mountain Mine:

    Source: TMG

    Tungsten’s Strong Fundamentals are Driving Record Prices

    There are a few key factors at play in critical minerals right now, especially tungsten, that continue to make the overarching thematic extremely attractive to invest in. Demand internally from China is stronger than ever, and the amounts exported have been dwindling for years out of necessity – long before any export controls were introduced.

    Just a couple of months ago, China used two foreign companies as proxies to try and take control of a tungsten mine and refinery in Vietnam, which produces 3,400 metric tons a year from the mine but has the capacity to process 6,500 metric tons a year at the refinery – making it a key central processing hub for ore that can economically pass through Asia, notably from Australia. The extreme price rise in tungsten within China can be seen below, highlighting robust internal demand:

    Source: SMM

    This squeeze in the tungsten market has been years in the making, and began gaining momentum towards the end of 2020 when it was trading around US$225/mtu. This can be seen below in a chart of the Fastmarkets Rotterdam pricing, which represents APT prices outside of China:

    Source: TGN

    A great barometer for Western investors to assess sentiment in the Tungsten market is ALM, which has traded as high as 10 times its start of 2025 share price, reaching a US$2.5 billion market cap while raising US$90 million to IPO on the Nasdaq on the way there. ALM has been able to achieve an extraordinary valuation from its ramp of the Sandong mine in Korea, which has an 8Mt at 0.51% WO₃ resource and a phase one planned production output of 230kmtu/year – equating to around US$162 million in annual revenue at US$705/mtu. There are plans to double this, which combined with the company’s existing 60kmtu/year operation in Portugal would make a total of 520kmtu/year – or US$366 million in annual revenue. 

    This is a similar level of revenue to what TMG is staring down the barrel of with the near-term development prospects of its antimony and tungsten assets. The moment there is stronger certainty around production plans, specifically with funding and feasibility studies – TMG is likely to rerate significantly upwards.

    District Scale Tungsten Opportunity at Tennessee Mountain

    The methodical approach that TMG has taken with its project acquisitions, particularly surrounding geological analysis that is based on significant mineralisation events which manifest in repeated deposits across a district, permits the luxury of selectivity when determining which prospects should be developed first – while maintaining long-term upside once the project has gotten into production.

    When TMG initially acquired Tennessee Mountain, the Garnet Mine was a strong point of focus, and the main skarn body was assessed as ranging from approximately 15-30m in width, with high-grade scheelite lenses measuring 5-10m in width and extending down-dip for up to 122m. This made it a very favourable choice for low cost, bulk open pit operations – an ideal first production target.

    After having developed a consistent geological model across the entire district, TMG became extremely confident that the high-grade mineralisation at Tennessee Mountain is part of the same mineralising event that deposited tungsten at the other prospects in the newly acquired land – such as Little Joe and Gribble. 

    As TMG gears up to launch a widespread drilling campaign that will convert these historical deposits into JORC-compliant resources, the viability of Tennessee Mountain as a long-term national security asset grows in line with the true scale of the project.

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    Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.

  • AKA’s High-Grade Gold Project a Smorgon Mine Essential Takeover Target

    Just 15km away from the powerful Victor Smorgon Group’s Stawell Gold Mine, which historically produced 5.3Moz but currently operates at around 75% capacity and mines slightly above 2g/t ore from up to 2km underground, lies Aureka (ASX: AKA)‘s orogenic analogue Irvine – a 304koz at 2.46g/t Au deposit that begins at surface and has an exploration target for an additional 280-420koz at 2-3g/t. Next year’s resource update will include the latest intercepts such as 10m at 12.1g/t Au from 413m, and AKA has a strong institutional shareholder base which includes SG Hiscock as the largest investor.

    AKA’s other key Victorian Gold asset is St Arnaud, which previously produced an incredible 400koz at 15g/t Au – and the company is currently drilling high grade extensions outside of the existing 56.5koz resource, which also has an exploration target for an additional 114koz. Intercepts from earlier in the year include 6.9m at 4.24g/t Au from 422m including 0.75m at 18.6g/t Au from 422.1m, and 3.2m at 4.71g/t Au from 434.0m including 0.6m at 19.9g/t Au from 435.9m. Assays are imminent from a drillhole that hit multiple quartz veins containing 7 instances of visible gold between 115.4 and 124.1m down hole.

    At a $17 million market cap with $4.24 million in cash, a $12.76 million enterprise value places an EV/Resource multiple of just $35.4/oz on AKA. This drops to an insanely low $14.2/oz when adding on the ounces in AKA’s JORC exploration target’s, which are of a relatively high degree of certainty and would take AKA’s total inventory to almost 900koz. Having found further mineralisation after stepping out over 200m down dip with precision, while hitting the highest ever grades seen at Irvine, provides AKA with a series of key upcoming catalysts that firmly pave the way for upwards revaluation.

    Irvine’s resource hasn’t been updated since 2021, and all the drilling that AKA has been completing this year will be factored into the 2026 resource update. A few of the notable assays between 2017 and 2020 include 18.7m at 7.1g/t Au from 196.3m, 10.6m at 6.2g/t Au from 135.7m and 9.4m at 5.3g/t Au from 355.6m.

    The hits from a few key discovery holes at Resolution were responsible for these projects rocketing from a $60 million market cap all the way to $156 million over two months at the start of 2021, when the gold price was just US$1,900/oz and there was a lot of attention around the resource extensions that AKA is currently drilling out. These assays demonstrated fantastic grades that continued down dip for hundreds of meters, with 5m at 10g/t Au from 273.9m, 9.4m at 5.3g/t Au from 355.6m including 3.4m at 9.2g/t Au, 10.8m at 4.5g/t Au from 483.6m including 4.2m at 7.5g/t, and 0.9m at 9.4g/t Au from 251.4m – with visible gold.

    Our other Australian orogenic gold pick Kalgoorlie Gold Mining (ASX: KAL) recently ran to $0.085/share – up from our initiation price of $0.037 – as it continues to hunt high-grade extensions of primary mineralisation in an area with under capacity mines. We’ve seen this work before with Strickland Metals (ASX: STK), when it sold a 346koz at 1.8g/t Au deposit to NST for more than $60 million. This was in June 2023 when gold was US$1,925/oz, and is to be processed 30km away at NST’s Jundee Mill in WA which operates at 60% capacity. STK was capped around $65 million after the deal was announced, but ran to $309 million by November 2023 once the deal settled and the market got excited about what management could do with the capital generated by the project sale.

    AKA’s senior management team is truly second to none, and is led by Managing Director James Gurry who has previously headed the mining research teams at Credit Suisse in London and Deutsche Bank in Australia. He was also a Non-Executive Director at Red Hawk Mining (ASX: RHK), which was acquired by Fortescue for $254 million. AKA’s Chairman Graeme Hunt has had a 35 year mining career that included being MD and CEO of Lihir Gold when it was taken over by Newcrest for $9.5 billion after multiple bids. AKA also counts Southern Cross Gold (ASX: SX2)’s star geologist Kenneth Bush as an early exploration strategy advisor, and Angela Lorrigan, also of SX2, is on the board as technical director. SX2 listed on the ASX in May 2022 at a $31 million market cap, and recently ticked over $1.3 billion after almost three solid years of drilling out its Victorian gold-antimony project, Sunday Creek.

    The landscape for mining in Victoria has dramatically improved since the establishment of the Resources Victoria Approvals Coordination in 2023 – a government entity that has effectively gutted the bureaucracy previously holding up permitting processes. When we went out on a site visit to Alkane Resources (ASX: ALK)’s Costerfield mine and SX2’s Sunday Creek project earlier this year, a presentation was given by RV explaining the centralised and fastracked framework now in place that is designed to accelerate Victoria’s resources industry. We also went out to AKA’s projects a couple of weeks ago and expect a relatively smooth permitting process.

    Below is a long section from Irvine, depicting the existing resources at the Resolution and Adventure Prospects, as well as the downtrending mineralisation that captures the exploration target area. It also highlights the optimised pit shell that will mine at surface ounces before an underground mining operation similar to that at Stawell will target the thick veins that AKA has continuously been hitting:

    Source: AKA

    Stawell Gold Mine’s Magdala Provides Perfect Blueprint for Irvine

    The strike extent and down plunge continuity at Resolution is pretty much exactly what has been seen at Stawell’s Magdala deposit, and the type of mineralisation at Irvine should be easily processed at Stawell’s two stage crushing circuit, which feeds a ball mill with a closed-circuit gravity gold facility for flotation and regrind of sulphides, followed by a CIL recovery plant.

    With mining at Stawell reaching extreme depths of 2km underground, and grades occasionally dipping close to 1g/t, the economics of mining Irvine and transporting the ore would likely be very compelling. If AKA can keep tracing the mineralisation – and there are hits 220m down plunge that reached depths over 700m at grades up to 4.05g/t Au – then there is serious potential for Irvine to be a million ounce deposit.

    The JORC exploration target at Irvine is a high integrity estimate built on solid data. The current JORC resource is composed of 52 structurally oriented diamond drillholes and 364 aircore drill holes, for a total of 41,417m across Resolution, and Adventure – which has been used to extrapolate what is likely to be a down plunge.
     
    Stawell’s historically mined deposits can be seen below, along with the resources that are still being explored. An exciting 1.5Moz was produced from the almost identical Resolution lookalike:

    Source: Stawell Gold Mines

    The Smorgon Group has been happy to own the mine for almost a decade now, and there are reports that they are actually keeping some of the gold it produces. While the group sounded out the market with a potential sale process last year, this was before gold basically doubled in price and AKA hit a litany of high-grade extensions at Irvine, making it a key acquisition target for the operation.

    Smorgon has since increased its ownership of Stawell to 100%, and the 850ktpa processing plant is certainly amenable to a significant capacity boost – which will likely be undertaken by them or a buyer. US$85 billion market cap Agnico Eagle (NYSE: AEM) would be a great suitor given its presence in Victoria with the globally renowned Fosterville mine, which was recently granted a major permit that will extend mining by at least another 10 years.

    St Arnaud’s High-Grade Extension Set to Flourish

    Having been last mined in 1995 when gold was around US$380/oz, the threshold was pretty high in terms of what was considered mineable ore – leaving behind many mineralised areas well worth exploring at the current US$4,000/oz gold price.

    The super high-grade areas that have recorded over 19g/t Au are present in St Arnaud’s Comstock’s quartz reef systems, and are associated with a sulphide assemblage of pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena and sphalerite. This round of drilling has successfully intersected the targeted extension of this system, which AKA plans on continuing to target after the remaining assays from 4 completed holes are returned over the next few weeks.

    The long section below depicts the area under the historical open pit that AKA is testing, where the company has repeatedly hit high grade gold in a mineralisation that is open in both directions and at depth:

    Source: AKA

    AKA’s bolstered cash balance gives the company a strong base to keep drilling out Irvine and St Arnaud, and the upcoming assays from both projects will cap off a very successful exploration program that has highlighted an exciting level of prospectivity in Victoria, which the market is quite often used to seeing in WA.

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    Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.

  • Major Gold Discovery at RML’s American Gold and Antimony Project, Next Door to US$3B PPTA

    A truly incredible intercept of 189.2m at 1.30 g/t Au from 34m, including 12.9m at 2.32 g/t Au from 94.4m and 70.8m at 2.24 g/t Au from 128.8m, at Resolution Minerals’ (ASX: RML) flagship Horse Heaven project in Idaho has demonstrated both grades and continuity of mineralisation that are excitingly similar it’s neighbouring 6Moz Stibnite mine – which is just 5km away and owned by US$3 billion market cap Perpetua Resources’ (NASDAQ: PPTA). 

    This first assay from RML’s 10-hole, 2,743m diamond drilling campaign is from the Golden Gate Prospect, and it ended in mineralisation at a depth of 223m. This is significantly further than historical drilling that had only tested to around 150m, and also saw grades increase as the drill core went through the oxide and transition layers, and into the sulphide zones. Identical looking sulphide cores have been seen in the subsequent two drill holes, of which assays are imminently due.

    Stibnite’s main orebody – the 2.7Moz Yellow Pine pit – is contained across a strike of 427m, a width between 50–198m, and with down-dip continuity to a depth of 366m. Golden Gate has a 3.5km strike, mineralisation that now extends to at least 223m, and an ongoing drill program that is increasing the width – outline clear potential for a Stibnite scale deposit.

    RML just raised $27 million through Oakley Capital Partners and Roth Capital Partners, which included investments from John Hancock’s Family Office, Astrotricha Capital SEZC, Tribeca Investment Partners and Next Investors. JP Morgan just picked PPTA as its first US National Security Fund investment, with a US$75 million equity injection, which was quickly followed by US$180 million from Agnico Eagle (TO: AEM).

    RML’s advanced project is shaping up to be both an analogue and a major geological extension of Stibnite’s monster 4.8Moz at 1.43g/t Au and 0.06% Sb reserve – and today’s assays are in the same section of the project that has previously hit 150m at 0.940 g/t Au from surface, including 88m at 1.26g/t Au from 64m, as well as 85m at 0.937g/t Au from surface, including 38.18m at 1.46g/t Au from 50.29m. There is a clear trend of continuity of mineralisation, and grades increasing at depth – which is exactly what we want to see at this project.

    As RML continues planning its 15,000m drilling campaign for 2026, which will test numerous geophysical anomalies that correlate to extraordinary rock chips up to 7g/t Au and widespread high-grade trench samples – there will be many more assays from previously untouched depths in various parts of the project over the next few weeks. Horse Heaven is an Intrusion-Related Gold System just like Stibnite, which itself has previously produced 980koz of gold, 40kt of antimony and 6kt of tungsten – and has just broken ground to begin developing a mine that will process over 460kozpa in its first four years.

    Golden Gate has a historical resource of 216koz at 0.93g/t Au, but has also produced over 2,000t of tungsten oxide that graded between 1.5-2% W – which is especially interesting when considering the scheelite that was repeatedly seen throughout today’s drill core. 

    The other main prospect at Horse Heaven is Antimony Ridge, which has historical production of over 1,000t of antimony that graded an astounding 45% Sb, and a recent raft of insanely high-grade rock chips up to 49.8% Sb, 1,420 g/t Ag and 3.12 g/t Au, and grab samples up to 10.35% Sb, 68.5 g/t Ag and 4.43 g/t Au. 

    RML expects to be able to drill at Antimony Ridge soon, where it will target the highest grade areas to establish a resource that will be used as the base of its downstream antimony operation. The company recently engaged Kingston Process Metallurgy to run a variety of programs that will determine the best processing methods, and have appointed Tribeca as its corporate adviser to develop and promote its US critical minerals strategy.

    While gold’s recent explosion to an all time high of US$4,380/oz was followed by a sudden retracement back towards US$4,000/oz, with relative volatility seen across the relevant explorers as a response – these prices are already insanely attractive to projects like Horse Heaven. The Stibnite mine had its definitive feasibility study done in 2020 at a gold price of just US$1,850/oz, which at the time was considered strong, and still came out with a US$1.864 billion NPV (albeit at a 5% discount rate). Increasing the gold price to US$2,350/oz takes the NPV to US$2.943 billion – and the current gold price would astronomically increase this figure.

    Our cornerstone antimony pick Trigg Minerals (ASXL TMG) rose over 640% from our initial entry price, reaching a market cap of $280 million. RML’s valuation has fluctuated significantly recently, hitting a $270 million market cap before retracing to around $122 million – right as the first round of assays were due to arrive. 

    The environment for critical minerals in the US has materially improved over the past few weeks, after almost a year of China’s export bans culminated in a crescendo of sorts where the Australian and American Governments inked an US$8.5 billion deal to fund each other’s critical mineral projects. With a significant amount of capital to be deployed in the next 6 months, the likelihood of companies like RML and TMG, who have managed to get their hands on highly prospective projects with encouraging historical exploration and production, receiving funding is sky high. 

    A cross section of today’s intercept can be seen below:

    Source: RML

    Gigantic American IRGS’ Portray RML’s Potential

    The easily extractable nature of the Stibnite deposit and its aggressive development plan has left the market with no choice but to drive up PPTA’s valuation to record but not necessarily unreasonable levels, and RML’s Horse Heaven could play a critical role in fully utilising the enormous infrastructure being built next door – which will only be at full capacity for the first few years. 

    From the 4.8Moz at 1.43g/t of mineral reserves are Stibnite, more than a third of it will be mined in the first four years at an astonishing annual rate of 463koz. Even more impressive is the grade, which will average 2.2g/t during this time – resulting in 7.3Mtpa mill churning out ounces at a globally competitive AISC of a mere US$438/oz.

    Taking an extreme case of low-grade, large scale open-pit mining, such as Kinross Gold Corp (NYSE: KGC)’s 12Moz Fort Knox, demonstrates what is possible at a gigantic IRGS in the USA. The mine has a 16Mtpa mill that is operating significantly under capacity – averaging 55% in 2022, 50.16% in 2023 only 40% in 2024 – while receiving head grades between 0.7-0.8g/t – and still produces gold at US$1,205/oz. The robust infrastructure but lack of onsite ore has seen Kinross actively engaging in M&A to extend the life of Fort Knox, with the company going as far as mining and transporting the 4g/t Manh Choh deposit that is a whopping 400km away.

    All of Stibnite’s ore reserves will be exhausted after 15 years, with the most valuable component being completely mined out after 4. PPTA needs to have a firm foothold in anything worthwhile in its vicinity to have strong prospects of increasing mine life and maintaining grades – and RML is now the perfect candidate. Below is a chart that shows the front-loaded nature of Stibnite’s best years, followed mostly by declining grades and exhaustion of reserves:

    Source: PPTA

    Stibnite has attracted exciting levels of funding that RML will hopefully continue to gain access to. PPTA recently ruled off a US$425 million equity financing package, which included US$100 million from legendary hedge fund manager John Paulson’s private family office. This is on top of the almost US$2 billion in debt that PPTA is on track to receive from EXIM, which will cover most of the development costs.

    PPTA has also received US$80 million of government funding over the years, much of which has been towards permitting and feasibility studies, but also to assess the suitability of antimony production. US$6.9 million of it came from the US Army to demonstrate the feasibility of using material sourced from Stibnite to produce military-specification antimony trisulfide.

    Antimony Industry Needs Multiple US Producers

    The US-Australia (Trump-Albanese) deal has the potential to further anger China, and there is no sign of reprieve for the antimony market – the supply constraints of which have seen historically elevated price levels since 2021 – prior to the Ukraine and Palestine wars as well solar panel demand. This was when China first really started withholding trisulfide from the US, but it only induced a price increase to the US$11,000-US$13,000/t mark.

    While antimony’s 500% increase in just over a year to as high as US$62,000/t has been triggered by the panic of a total ban, and Western consumers being forced to buy it from anyone outside of China, Russia and Tajikistan – it has also exposed the fragility of the entire industry that posed major risks to US national security and has proved to be a pain point that can be pressed.

    Military grade antimony trisulfide has always fetched a significantly higher price than the actual value of its contained antimony, and there have been instances of this margin being more than double. The USA’s need for this product that is critical to more than 300 types of munitions is more urgent now than ever.

    The chart below depicts the recent price action of antimony in its different forms and locations, which include concentrate, ingot and trioxide, from Rotterdam, Baltimore and China. The DoD funded years of testing with Stibnite’s ore and eventually approved it as material that can be processed into military grade trisulfide – and RML’s project contains much of the same material:

    Source: Blue Ocean Equities

    RML recently expanded the tenement package through the acquisition of an additional 30 federal lode mining claims, which takes the project size to 59km2 – right next to PPTA. As the drilling continues at Golden Gate, RML is also seeking permits to drill at Antimony Ridge – making for an upcoming period of extremely exciting news flow.

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    Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.

  • Ultra High-Grade Gold and Antimony Assays have DTM Set to Find More Veins

    Recent outstanding antimony, gold and silver assays at Dart Mining (ASX: DTM)’s Coonambula Project have sent the company’s share price as high as over 400% above our initial entry point, with samples recording results up to 65.3% Sb, 17g/t Au and 97.9g/t Ag – while an intercept just 42m from surface hit massive sulphide that is around 70% Stibnite. A JORC resource is not far away as drilling continues, which will be followed by a larger diamond drilling campaign – so the recent pullback makes DTM worth a closer look. A 15:1 consolidation that becomes active today should see the company trade more freely too, and it will temporarily be under the ticker DTMDC.

    The placement in August led by Oakley Capital Partners and Zerp Capital bolstered DTM’s cash balance by $2.86 million, and an additional $450k was placed to a strategic investor this month. Oakley’s entire portfolio has been on fire lately, including our rare earth and niobium pick Power Minerals (ASX: PNN) – which last week traded as high as 435% above our initial entry price, and is now backed by Next Investors.

    DTM’s current exploration program is centered around finding extensions of mineralisation along strike from the Banshee mine, which historically produced 20t of ore grading 20% Sb, and the Perseverance mine, which previously produced 20kt of ore grading 20g/t Au.

    A 2014 drilling campaign highlighted by DTM’s JV partner GDM recorded a litany of high grade assays across the project, including 3m at 9.18% Sb from 158m including 1m at 20% Sb from 158m, 6m at 5.12% Sb and 1.55g/t Au from 77m, and 3m at 1.50% Sb and 8.53g/t Au from 18m. There were also standout rock chips of 44.9% Sb, 24.1% Sb, 39.9% Sb, and 39.4% Sb, and surface trenching of 4m at 3.09g/t Au and 1.14% Sb, as well as 1m at 6.15 g/t Au and 3.1% Sb. Further selective rock chips that were found while trenching returned 3.65g/t Au with 23.9% Sb, and 9.93g/t Au with 7.56% Sb. 

    While both types of samples contained extremely high grades, the latest fieldwork by DTM saw the company revisit GDM’s trenches and discover in situ veining – with results from two veins to the north recording 17g/t Au, 30% Sb and 40.3g/t Ag, and 15.05g/t Au, 26.3% Sb and 27.8g/t Ag. A southern vein contained 5.65g/t Au, 25.6% Sb and 20.6g/t Ag. DTM is now engaged in an expanded systematic channel sampling program along the entire western wall of Banshee, which will determine if gold, silver and antimony is present in the altered granodiorite that surrounds the high-grade veins, as well as ascertain if sub-horizontal veins and structures are mineralised targets at Banshee.

    Recently completed Induced Polarisation geophysics, which was funded by the Queensland Government through its Collaborative Explorer Initiative, covered 1.4km of strike across the project. DTM’s company-owned drill rigs are on site working through the 2,000m that is on track to be completed before year end, before at least another 2,000m will commence afterwards.

    Coonambula is a fantastic opportunity in addition to the Triumph project, which has been identified as analogous with the 5.6Moz Ravenswood mine. Triumph has historical production of 20koz, has historical high-grade, near-surface assays such as 16m at 9.44g/t Au from 38m, 10m at 26.86g/t Au from 51m and 16m at 5.48g/t from 34m. The recent breakthrough assays at depth, such as 4.4m at  8.99 g/t Au and 28.09g/t Ag from 171.3m, could drastically increase Triumph’s size and scope.

    Triumph holds a 150koz at 2.17g/t JORC resource across 5 prospects, all of which are open along strike and at depth, with 85% of ounces contained within 100m of surface and 20% of identified strike. Metallurgical testwork has also recorded recoveries in excess of 96%. The deposit is hosted along just 1.2km of strike, which sits inside a 6km structural corridor – and DTM has a litany of targets that it has been testing with its two company-owned diamond drill rigs. You can read our previous take on DTM here.

    The Banshee mine and associated assays from programs completed across 2013 and 2014 can be seen below, with relatively narrow but very high grades on either side. It is open along strike in both directions, where DTM is currently engaged in infill drilling designed to delineate a JORC resource as soon as possible, before then launching an aggressive extensional drilling campaign that will expand on the deposit:

    Source: GDM

    Below is a visual on the planned and currently underway drill hole locations in relation to the high-grade samples that are surrounding the Banshee mine. The recent IP survey will identify additional high-grade antimony shoots at Banshee, as well as more lodes along strike or parallel to the existing mine – and DTM will be able to correlate the anomalies to the high-grade assays seen above, allowing extremely precise targeting:

    Source: DTM

    The intercepts from Banshee that kicked off DTM’s recent big run can be seen below. There are three narrow intercepts that each hit massive stibnite from 42m, 45.4m and 68.8m, which could extend above and below to unknown depths. Hitting this 100m west of the Banshee mine in an area of known mineralisation is a terrific result for infill drilling, and with DTM’s rapidly improving understanding of the nature of mineralisation at the project – the company is on track to keep finding these veins:

    Source: DTM

    Solid Historical Data Forms a Strong Base for DTM

    DTM is earning into a 51% interest in the tenements with its joint venture partner Great Divide Mining (ASX: GDM), who listed with the asset in 2023 – and only made the project available because it began producing gold from a different project.

    GDM’s prospectus is littered with very useful information about Coonambula, which has been built into DTM’s model to target the extremely high-grade veins in parts of the project. For example, the gold zone that was intermittently mined between 1888 and 1937 at Perseverance is just 10m wide and contained 3 veins that were between 20cm and 50cm thick. There was around 13koz at 20g/t produced from this section, with grades of mineralisation that went all the way up to 71g/t Au – but low grade gold between 0.1g/t and 1g/t occurs right outside the mineralised zone, making precision extremely important.

    Coonambula is just 75km away from the 600ktpa Cracow mine, and its owner Aeris Resources (ASX: AIS) has been sourcing 20% of its ore supply from low-grade open-pit material of just 0.75g/t – making small scale production from high-grade veins at Perseverance a worthwhile proposal.

    The area of the project where Banshee is located has a long history of production dating all the way back to 1876, most of which is alluvial. 12 RC holes were drilled by the previous owners who vended Coonambula to GDM (as per this article’s first image), but these have already been correlated to a previous IP chargeability image and line up as expected, which can be seen below:

    Source: GDM

    GDM considered the mineralised trend at Banshee to be over 4km long, but its continuity has not really been fully assessed by prior exploration – leaving a raft of high-value work for DTM to be engaged in.

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    Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.

  • TMG’s Critical Geological Breakthrough and Fast Tracked Antimony Production Bolstered by Net-Zero Smelting Facility

    An incredibly significant geological breakthrough at Trigg Minerals’ (ASX: TMG) flagship Antimony Canyon Project has seen the company discover a conductive core that is likely the high sulphidation mineralisation system’s hot fluid feeder zone, with inversions from recent geophysics confirming a litany of stacked, sub-horizontal mineralised layers 50m-100m beneath and along strike from historical mine workings that have produced at grades up to 3.6% Sb.

    Many of these zones are completely untested, and are present in the prospects where TMG recently recorded channel samples up to 1.5m at 33.2%Sb. With this new interpretation having been validated by two independent expert consultancies, Dahrouge Geological Consulting USA and MineOro Explorations – the market is now eagerly awaiting TMG to drop to launch a drilling campaign that tests these layers and the motherload zone.

    TMG is also preparing to build one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in the history of critical minerals in the USA – a state of the art net-zero antimony smelting facility that will be constructed in under two years, while TMG plans to imminently begin mining ore and producing antimony concentrate that will eventually supply its own refining plant. 

    The recent conceptual net-zero smelter study and plant design assessment with Metso, which was completed in less than two months, outlined a clear plan for a facility that will have annual production of 5,000 tons of 99.65% purity antimony ingot and trisulfide. At the latest US$55,000/t antimony price – that would be annual revenue of US$275 million (AUD$415 million), which would pose a massive amount of upside for TMG’s current AUD$220 million market cap.

    One of the most important parts of the smelting facility is that it will be able to produce antimony trisulfide – the most critical forms of antimony because it is unsubstitutable for over 300 different types of munitions – making it the product that the USA is most starved of. While China introduced export controls in August last year, and officially banned the export of antimony to the US in December – the country has actually been unofficially sabotaging the procurement of trisulfide since at least 2021, when shipments to the United States were informally stopped.

    These plans could not come at a better time, with many of China’s major smelters closing indefinitely due to an inability to source concentrate. 20 out of 30 Chinese antimony smelting operations have ceased production, and many of the ones remaining are operating at just 25% capacity.

    You can read our overview of $17 billion market cap Metso (HE: METSO)’s Ausmelt TSL Process here, as well as all of our TMG coverage here – but its market-leading proprietary technology is trusted by the world’s biggest mining companies, including Rio Tinto and Anglo American, across 50 global smelting operations that process a myriad of commodities. TMG’s facility will require just 4,000 MWh of power per year, which will likely be drawn from renewable sources, and is modular – allowing rapid scaling to meet increasing antimony requirements.

    The results from the recent controlled-source audio-frequency magnetotellurics (CSAMT) geophysical survey can be seen below, which displays the main feeder zone of hot mineralised fluids in relation the historical mine workings and other prospects at ACP:

    Source: TMG

    US Initiatives Swarming Critical Minerals

    The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) has been on a prolific critical minerals funding spree that has seen it begin to throw billions of dollars at mining and refining operations, the latest and highest profile being a non-binding offer of a US$2 billion loan to Perpetua Resources (NASDAQ: PPTA). While PPTA’s Stibnite mine is a superb looking gold project, it will only produce antimony as a byproduct that will supply 35% of the US demand for 6 years from 2028. The project won’t directly produce trisulfide, and will instead just send concentrate to United States Antimony Corp (NYSE: UAMY), who only has enough smelting capacity to meet 10% of the 24kt of antimony in the US consumed in 2024. TMG should only require around 5% of PPTA’s capital expenditure, and will be able to supply over 20% of US antimony demand – with the view of growing as needed and faster than any other company.

    TMG has Washington-based Bernhardt Group running government and stakeholder engagement in the US, to seek out the same key fast tracked US government financing programs and permitting initiatives that PPTA utilised to gain over US$80 million during its pre-development phase, such as Exim Bank, DPA Title III and FAST-41. A favourite of many resources companies, including US$50 billion Barrick Gold Mining Corp, the Group is led by David Bernhardt, who is the former Secretary of the Interior under Donald Trump’s first Presidency – and now has unrivalled access to the upper echelons of American politics. 

    The antimony market has to go the same way as rare earths – interventionist policies and significant financing facilities to make it so the US can source all of its required supply between domestic operations and Western allies, while the private sector is insulated from volatile price action as well as supply and demand shocks from China. 

    If the US government can guarantee a floor price for NdPr of US$110/kg, compel JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to finance a US$1 billion domestic 10ktpa rare earth magnet manufacturing facility, commit to buying the entire facility’s capacity for 10 years, while investing US$400 million directly into equity of American rare earths producer MP Materials (NYSE: MP) – then it can do the same for America’s near-term antimony producers like TMG.

    China’s Antimony Muscle is Ripe for American Overpowering

    In general, China has been extremely active in strengthening its global grasp on critical minerals supply from developing nations as well as domestically, having invested over US$57 billion in mining and refining infrastructure abroad over the past two decades through its belt and road initiative. 

    However, years of depleting reserves, declining grades and mine closures within China left its production capacity in a very fragile state, and no significant antimony investments were made abroad – creating a delicate pricing scenario highly susceptible to supply and demand shocks.

    The antimony market has been under severe stress for many years, with global production of 178kt in 2011 collapsing to 106kt in 2023 – with around 87% of the mining market being controlled by China, Russia and Tajikistan the entire time. China accounted for 150kt (84%) in 2011, which had been cut down to one third the size at 62kt (58.5%) in 2023.

    TMG’s ACP is located in the Fraser Institute’s number one ranked mining jurisdiction in the entire world – America’s Utah – the perfect place to become an epicentre of domestic antimony mining and refining. In preparation for an imminent drilling campaign, a channel sample and rock chip program yielded outstanding results, with assays reaching up to 33.2% Sb and multiple samples exceeding 10% Sb. The locations of the samples in the context of the project can be seen below:

    Source: TMG

    This project and the TMG team have all of the qualities investors look for when seeking out a company who can truly capitalise on a lucrative disruption in a commodity market. There are a whole litany of historically producing mines across the project, including the Nevada mine, which averaged 2.2% Sb with considerable high grade zones averaging 3.6% Sb, while Emma and Mammoth both averaged 1.5% Sb, with considerable high grade zones of 2.2% Sb and 2.4% Sb, respectively.

    ACP’s gigantic JORC exploration target of 12.8 to 15.6Mt at 0.75% to 1.5% Sb, implying 96,000t to 234,000t of contained antimony, gives TMG the luxury of targeting the highest grade zones for initial production, such as the Nevada mine. With a modern exploration approach led by TMG’s CEO Andre Booyzen and antimony expert and geologist Chris Gregory, who together pioneered the success of Australia’s only antimony mine – the best parts of ACP are bound to be first in line for mining after the imminent drilling campaign the market is now keenly awaiting.

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    Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.

  • KAL Launches Largest RC Campaign in History to Target Further Primary Mineralisation

    The largest RC drilling campaign in Kalgoorlie Gold Mining (ASX: KAL)’s history has just commenced, with 50 RC holes for 6,200m set to confirm primary orogenic gold mineralisation at depth – underneath the aircore results that combined with geochemical analysis and geophysics, point towards a significant gold system similar to 1.1Moz at 1.2g/t Lake Rebecca Gold Project. 

    This is the key value adding exploration campaign that the market has been waiting for, where KAL will be drilling underneath extensive, thick gold mineralisation defined throughout the drilling conducted in 2024 and 2025 – and a total of 3.6km of strike will be tested. KAL will be utilising gold fire assays to deliver results to market in a matter of weeks.

    While there are many exciting prospects at Pinjin, such as Wessex, which has previously recorded 8m at 7.36g/t Au from 32m, including 4m at 13.5g/t Au from 32m – Lighthorse is still the company’s main priority, and will be getting thoroughly explored with 40 holes for 4,750m across 1.6km of strike. KAL is hunting for the primary orogenic source of the supergene mineralisation seen in its headline assay of 17m at 4.81 g/t Au from 48 m, including 8m at 9.21 g/t Au from 52m – and with the hole ending in mineralisation.

    Our previous article explained how low grade aircore results in the shallow oxide layer of a gold deposit can indicate large high-grade resources beneath, which is especially true locally in this region with Rebecca, but also extends to the gigantic scale seen at the 10Moz Gruyere gold mine, and the 13.6Moz Hemi deposit. Rebecca has incredible intercepts of 42m at 7.75g/t Au from 61m and 17.84m at 15.95g/t Au from 142m, directly below aircore intercepts of 4m at 0.56g/t Au from 20m, 3m at 0.34g/t Au from 20m and 1m at 0.30g/t Au from 20m.

    KAL’s latest aircore results of 15m at 0.41g/t Au from 36m and 25m at 0.21g/t Au from 28m are crucial indicators of widespread mineralisation that significantly increases the potential scale of a mineralised system at Lighthorse – which is now similar in size to the 1.8km of strike that contains 960koz of Rebecca’s ounces.

    The location of Pinjin couldn’t be any better, being just 37km from Northern Star’s Carosue Dam mine that is operating at 73.5% capacity, 22km away from Ramelius Resources’ Rebecca project which is scheduled to go into production in 2027, and 12km from the Anglo Saxon mine that has an open pit resource of 157koz at 6.1g/t.

    KAL will also be putting through 3 RC holes for 400m at Providence South, where the company has detected that the host ultramafic unit is a faulted block of the same unit as Pinjin’s existing 76.4koz at 1g/t resource, which is over at the Providence and Kirgella Gift prospects.

    The array of planned RC holes at Lighthorse can be seen below, overlaid with geophysics and areas of known mineralisation, with the 1.6km of strike stretching North and South of the current hotspot, where RC drilling hit 8m at 3.5g/t from 58m, including 2m at 13.65g/t Au, as well as 3m at 5.52g/t Aufrom 133m, including 2m at 7.92g/t Au. 650m North of previous RC drilling, there is an area of strong anomalism as confirmed by the 25m at 0.21g/t from 28m AC hole that will be targeted:

    Source: KAL

    Wessex is particularly interesting because it is that part of Pinjin that is barely 1km away from the Anglo Saxon pit, which between 2017 and 2020 produced 50,370oz at 2.4g/t by toll treating ore at NST’s Carosue Dam, when the gold price was fluctuating between US$1,150/oz and US$2,000/oz. A dedicated haul road was built to connect it to the processing plant 35km away – which could also be used for KAL to transport ore.

    The 7 holes for 1,050m is a widespaced, first pass drilling program that will test high priority areas across 2km of strike. The standout assays from KAL’s prior aircore drilling can be seen below, in conjunction with the planned hole locations and also the litany of assays at the Anglo Saxon mine. This campaign is timely given the 8,000m of drilling being concurrently conducted by Hawthorn Resources, who are looking to expand the pit:

    Source: KAL

    This Campaign is the Time to Own KAL

    Drilling started a little later than planned, but with the right company – who have a wealth of expertise from drilling the Rebecca project for RMS after it was opportunistically acquired for $146 million when the gold price was around US$1,800/oz. They know this particular region and its ground very well, which is important given that accuracy is critical when hunting for mineralisation along such long strike distances. 

    RC drilling is a highly nuanced process that depends on maintaining precise control over rotation speed, air pressure, bit selection, and rod handling. There are often a whole variety of ground conditions encountered including soft cover, hard rock, broken ground, or water-bearing zones that have to be carefully navigated to both reach the targeted depths and avoid sample smearing. After all, Rebecca had anomalous gold as low as 0.20g/t right outside an intercept of 50m at 4.05g/t Au.

    At the grades KAL has been seeing at Pinjin, an additional resource of any size would be a high value bolt-on acquisition to NST’s Carosue Dam. It has been feeding grades varying between 0.8g/t-1.2g/t over the past year from an open-pit operation, and a significant amount of overall supply is sourced 45km north of the CDO processing plant. 

    NST is also investing in the project’s long term infrastructure, having recently constructed an 8MW solar farm operation as the mining giant prepares to bring the plant up to its 4Mtpa nameplate capacity – which toll treating and the acquisition of nearby satellite deposits will likely play a key role in.

    KAL raised around $2.3 million from its $0.032 options this financial year, which were mass-exercised over the past week so investors could receive the bonus $0.06 option providing KalGold with a strong $5.0 million cash balance. 12% shareholder Regal Funds Management was also a major option holder, and likely exercised all of them which was balanced out by selling some stock. There should be less overhang in a couple of weeks, setting up an ideal environment for the stock to run into drilling results. The company also has the WA Government putting in $130k for four diamond drill holes that will be testing high grades at depth between the Kirgella Gift and Providence prospects.

    If KAL can find pockets of primary mineralisation from this campaign, and demonstrate even a modest level of continuity – it will drastically improve Pinjin’s prospectivity and development timeline, which are already very exciting.

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    Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.

  • Remarkable Consistency from New Assays as VRL Launches Resource Upgrade and Expansion Drilling

    Remarkable mineralisation consistency and continued impressive grades have been seen in the first round of assays from the recent 3,600m RC drilling program at Verity Resources (ASX: VRL)’s flagship Monument Gold Project, with results such as 5.8m at 2.5g/t from 15m, 2.9m at 3.6g/t from 30m, 3.91m at 3.81g/t from 57m, and 19.4m at 1.65g/t from 84m, including 5.8m at 2.25g/t. Seeing these consistent grades throughout the widths of the BIF main mineralisation lode heavily reinforces the prospect of profitable open-pit mining, and validates the recent pit optimisation study, which VRL will now take into a scoping study that will be followed by the granting of a mining licence. 

    The program was expected to produce stellar results due to the high-grade areas being twinned drilled, which have recorded historical results such as 5m at 2.03g/t Au from 60m, 6m at 3.15g/t Au from 95m and 5m at 3.22g/t Au from 130m. By completing a 25m by 25m drill design pattern, the geological model has been confirmed alongside grade continuity – allowing for an upgrade to the JORC indicated classification, which mining studies can be based on.

    The upcoming 6,400m diamond and RC drilling campaign will both extend areas of established mineralisation by targeting high-grade shoots around assays such as 7m at 13.15g/t Au from 7m and 3.90m @ 3.16 g/t from 48m, while also testing the extents of the known banded-iron formation along strike and at depth. The $3 million that the company just banked from a strongly supported capital raise led by Evolution Capital will take Monument’s existing 154koz at 1.4g/t deposit through to its highly anticipated upgrade before the end of the year. The placement, which saw VRL Non-Executive Director Patrick Volpe invest $250k to take his stake to 16.23% of the company – will take Monument through to a scoping study and mining permits level of development readiness that should act as a serious value creation catalyst. 

    You can read our initial take on VRL here, where we outlined the potential for an exit similar to the $173/oz that STK got from NST for its Millrose deposit. $5.7 billion GMD and its 3Mtpa mill sit under 30km away from Monument – and it operates at just 0.8g/t Au, while GMD is aggressively turning the plant into a central processing hub for higher grade ore. VRL currently has a market cap of $9.3 million with a cash balance of $3.5 million, which has the company trading at just under $38/oz EV/Resource – before the resource upgrade later this year. At 1.4g/t, the size of Monument is not nearly as relevant as its grade, given it would make an excellent source of supplemental ore for Laverton.

    Even in a toll treating or joint venture situation, the economics should be attractive. A back of the envelope assessment of what production figures could be would likely be similar to what AWJ recently achieved in WA. The company brought in a partner who funded the entire capex and opex of its 30koz satellite deposit in exchange for a 50/50 profit share split. AWJ ended up pocketing $17 million in cash after the operation produced almost $120 million in revenue at an average selling price of around $3,900/oz – compared to gold’s current record levels of $5,675/oz. 

    This implies an average AISC of $2,800/oz, and is especially relevant when considering the ore was sent to region processing hubs in WA similar to Laverton – but much further away. If VRL could produce at a similar price, and with where gold trades right now allowing for a $2,875/oz margin – there is $443 million of profit that could be produced from Monument’s existing 154koz resource, let alone the upcoming upgrade.

    Excitingly, VRL will also be testing a few of its many syenite-intrusion targets – the exact same style of mineralisation seen at analogous WA monster deposits such as 1.4 Moz Jupiter and 7Moz Wallaby. Geochem and AC drilling well-outside of the existing resource at Monument, which hit 24m at 3.24 g/t from 44m, including 12m at 6.35 g/t, also came into contact with highly encouraging geological structures that point towards this type of mineralisation being present at the project.

    The targets VRL have at Monument are a very exciting two-sided approach. On one hand, it’s growing a resource that can be progressive drilled out by tracing known and well-understood mineralisation, which is currently open along strike and at depth in all directions. On the other, it is looking to test intrusive targets that could hold a gigantic deposit. 

    So far, majority of the mineralisation at Monument has been defined within 125m of surface – but there are a couple of deeper intercepts that show outstanding grades, such as 5m at 3.22g/t Au from 130m and 2.10m at 6.58 g/t from 263m. The imminent program will comprise 77 drill holes (5 DD and 72 RC) for a total of approximately 6,400 metres. The RC will hit all required parameters for increasing the geological confidence and facilitate the upgrade of existing 154koz resource from an inferred to indicated confidence level, while also acting as a precursor to the next phase of scoping studies. With just 10% of the project’s 20km structural strike length drilled with detailed aircore and RC drilling, there is still so much more potential waiting to be discovered at Monument. 

    The thorough understanding of Archean greenstone-orogenic mineralisation in general and in the context of Monument is allowing VRL to take a masterful approach to its exploration strategy, which is headed by industry veteran and structural geologist Dr. Rick Gordon. The latest drilling results can be seen below, along with the historical assays from the 139koz Korong resource:

    Source: VRL

    Assays due from the 15koz at 2.1g/t Waihi deposit are due soon, where grades have historically averaged a touch higher than Korong:

    Source: VRL

    Huge Potential in Intrusion Targets

    Monument’s intrusion targets are built around a clear thesis that acknowledges alkaline intrusions and their dyke swarms can create receptive traps, while late-Archean orogenic fluids supply and focus gold into structurally prepared sites within and adjacent to those bodies – which has been clearly documented at 7Moz Wallaby and in 1.5Moz Jupiter’s syenite-associated lodes.

    VRL’s AC campaign has already outlined credible vectors on intrusive contacts and favourable stratigraphy. The brilliant hits from Fred’s Well, such as 24m at 3.24 g/t from 44m, including 12m at 6.35 g/t, as well as 3m at 2.98 g/t from 72m, within a mixed package of mafic, ultramafic, shale, chert and felsic porphyry, combined with pathfinder elements including Ag, As, Ba, Bi, Cu and Mn with As above 20 ppm and Cu above 100 ppm. The intercepts can be seen below:

    Source: VRL

    North Well shows a 1,500m supergene footprint with best AC of 20m at 0.39 g/t from 60m including 4m at 1.06 g/t and 8m at 0.37 g/t, with numerous granitic and porphyry dykes and mineralisation focused along porphyry/granitoid contacts with mafic volcanics or sediments. VRL ran a 19-hole, 757m AC program a few months ago at Triton, Star Well and Korong West to test structural-stratigraphic positions along the same corridor, and Triton targets were selected because the architecture mirrors Fred’s Well.

    The analogues frame the upside and help interpret those AC vectors. At Jupiter, company and academic work describe several syenite pipes and linking dykes emplaced into basalt along a more than 2km corridor, with mineralisation concentrated within and adjacent to the intrusions and remaining open below pits. It’s an intrusion-associated lode model consistent with Monument’s intrusive contacts, felsic porphyry and Au-As-Bi-Cu associations.

    At Wallaby, gold is focused in and around a south-plunging syenite pipe expressed as an actinolite-magnetite-epidote-calcite alteration column, widely interpreted as an orogenic overprint on a magmatic-hydrothermal framework. While Monument’s shallow AC can’t definitely assert a Wallaby-style pipe directly, using RC/DD to test down-plunge contacts and log for AMEC-style alteration can – which is exactly what VRL are about to do. In that context, the 24m at 3.24 g/t from Fred’s Well is an extremely meaningful vector to a larger intrusive-adjacent system, subject to RC confirmation of geometry, true width and continuity.

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    Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.

  • Monster Deposit’s High-Grade, Bulk Tonnage Potential Just Getting Started at MPK’s Ferké Gold Project

    The monster deposit that Many Peaks Minerals (ASX: MPK) is likely sitting on at its flagship Ferké Gold Project has demonstrated impressive continuity of mineralisation from surface, while recording increasingly outstanding grades the deeper it gets drilled – having recently hit 45m at 8.58g/t Au from 104m including 25m at 14.8g/t Au from 116m, and 84.8m at 3.01g/t Au from 295.8m, including 7.5m at 9.27g/t Au, as well as 75.0m at 6.11g/t Au from 427m, including 7m at 52.9g/t Au.

    MPK has increased its diamond drilling campaign to over 18,500m while simultaneously conducting aggressive RC drilling underneath high priority aircore assays that have grown Ferké’s strike to 9km – which is being undertaken with a strong $20 million cash balance, along with the backing of globally renowned institutional resources investor 1832 Asset Management. 

    The primary focus of MPK’s exploration in 2025 has been the Ouarigue and subsequently Ouarigue South prospects of Ferké, the latter of which started the year with a strike of 250m and known depth of 140m, but has now grown to over 450m strike and with triple the vertical extent to over 500m – with grades that are growing at depth. 

    MPK has done an excellent job chasing the deposit down dip, defining vast amounts of unbroken mineralisation that is extending to extreme levels of vertical depth. Considering the deposit’s likely ability to be open-pit mined down to over 400m given the higher gold grades with depth, the economics of these hits are very exciting, and include 230m at 1.2g/t Au from 225m and 87m at 1.68g/t Au including 29m at 3.46g/t Au. With outstanding true widths of mainly between 55-70m throughout the mineralised intrusion, which occasionally narrow to 30m and extend to 100m – a back of the envelope estimate of this part of the deposit reveals million ounce potential.

    The drastically improved understanding that MPK now has of Ferké is the perfect springboard to search for Ouarigue South replicas throughout the 9km of strike recently defined by 5,447m of aircore drilling across 172 holes to an average depth of 31m, which hit gold on every single hole. The exploration pioneered by MPK’s Managing Director Travis Schwertfeger has landed the company African gold development legend Mattew Scully as COO – who recently led the successful commissioning and operation of the $600 million, 8.4Mtpa Kiaka Gold Mine in Burkina Faso, as well as the $500 million capex Sissingué and Yaouré gold mines in Côte d’Ivoire.

    As an intrusion-hosted orogenic gold system located in northern Côte d’Ivoire, on the eastern margin of the Paleoproterozoic Daloa greenstone belt, Ferké is notably geologically similar to the Bonikro deposit (also in Côte d’Ivoire), which is predominantly an intrusion hosted orogenic style gold system that has produced 1.4Moz at 1.63g/t – and still retains 2.15Moz of resources and 444koz of reserves. Bonikro runs ore through a 2.5Mtpa processing plant that produces at an AISC of US$1,582/oz with recovery rates of 92.8% – and MPK has preliminary bottle roll testwork anticipated in the next month.

    Other ASX-listed gold explorers in Côte d’Ivoire provide an exciting benchmark for what MPK could be on the verge of. Two highly relevant examples include African Gold (ASX: A1G), which is currently valued at $174/oz with a 989koz at 2.5g/t resource, and Predictive Discovery (ASX: PDI), which is valued at $214/oz with a 5.5Moz at 1.66g/t resource. 

    These are relatively high valuations in terms of African gold explorers, but the premiums likely come from further exploration upside potential at A1G and concrete development prospects and PDI – the first of which is a strong factor for MPK, and the latter is set to become a valuation increasing catalyst upon Ferké’s MRE in around 7 months time. If MPK can hit a 1Moz maiden resource with plenty of upside remaining, and command a $174 EV/oz valuation – that would be a drastic increase from the company’s current $87 million enterprise value. If the market starts pricing in a deposit more towards Bonikro’s size, then MPK will be up for a big rerate.

    The exact type of key catalysts that drove MPK to its recent highs are on the immediate agenda of the company – but in a much larger capacity. Most of MPK’s gains came from a new high-grade gold shoot discovery to the south of Ouarigue in March, follow-up diamond drilling commenced in April, further extensions at Ouragie South in May that were accelerated with three rigs on site through June, and then the seriously high grade hits at depth that flowed through in August and September.

    A cross section that depicts part of the Ouargie South prospect and its standout assays can be seen below, with the repeated down dip extensions that MPK has hit over the past few months of diamond drilling. The assays outline a 65m to 92m true width zone of mineralisation extending from surface to approximately 300m vertical depth:

    Source: MPK

    Below is another cross section adjacent to and 100m apart from the one above, which shows the mineralised granodiorite body thickening with depth, where MPK have intersected an incredible 75.0m at 6.11g/t Au from 427m, including 7m at 52.9g/t Au and 2m at 15.5g/t Au:

    Source: MPK

    The Path to a Multi-Million Ounce Deposit is Paved with Gold for MPK

    Ferké’s gold system is emplaced in Birimian-age granite-greenstone terrane, and the methods of finding zones of structurally controlled, high-grade mineralisation and larger intrusion-hosted intercepts have been well established at the project.

    As well as utilising superb surface trench samples, such as the 114m at 2.5g/t Au including 78m at 3.52g/t Au found at one of the top parts of Ouargie South, MPK recently conducted an extremely successful aircore drilling campaign that extended the confirmed mineralised corridor at Ferké to at least 9km. 

    By tracing structures and targeting zones of soil contour anomalism above 30ppb Au, while overlaying airborne magnetic geophysics, and using the context of previous diamond and RC drilling – MPK has found a whole raft of potential prospects for further high-grade, bulk tonnage mineralisation similar to Ouargie and Ouragie South. 

    The broad zones of gold anomalism, which included intrusion material, intersected on multiple lines of drilling indicate a strong mineralising system, and a couple of notable assays were 15m at 0.72g/t from 9m, including 3m at 2.3g/t Au, and 6m at 1.39g/t Au from 9m, including 3m at 2.58g/t Au. These hits have already been followed up with 45 RC holes for 5,200m, and MPK will take this up to 7,000m.

    The AC collar locations and highlighted results, which were drilled on 600m to 2.2km spaced lines, can be seen below:

    Source: MPK

    The Makings of an Institutional-Grade Investment Opportunity

    West African gold production has doubled over the past 10 years, reaching 17Mozpa – and Côte d’Ivoire has been the highest growth country in the region with production rising 500% to 1.8Moz. Many major global resources companies have mines there, including US$50 billion Barrick Gold Mining Corp, CAD$13 billion Endeavour Mining and $5.7 billion Perseus Mining.

    Rapid permitting, low capital expenditure, abundant hydro power and a skilled workforce characterise Côte d’Ivoire’s fast and efficient development capabilities. Endeavour’s Lafigue Gold Mine went from drilling to construction in only 4 years, poured first gold from its 4Mtpa processing plant just 21 months later in 2024 – and ramped up to its 200kozpa production target within a year at an AISC of just US$1,018/oz, which is expected to drop to US$900/oz. 

    With 2.7Moz of reserves grading 1.69g/t, the project became incredibly profitable despite a 8.9:1 strip ratio – and had a capital cost of just US$448 million. Ferké’s outstanding grades and growing size have the potential to produce even more attractive economics than Lafigue – and MPK is in the middle of high impact diamond drilling that has potential to keep adding serious ounces.

    1832 is one of Canada’s largest asset managers, and is owned by the Bank of Nova Scotia – a C$110 billion financial services giant. While being major holders in many of the world’s biggest gold miners, the asset manager is very active in explorers and is recently well known to Australian investors through its position in Spartan Resources (ASX: SPR), which saw a 1,200% share price increase in just two years before being taken over by Ramelius Resources (ASX: RMS) for $2.4 billion. 

    1832 also invested $1.6 million into our antimony portfolio company TMG, and has had investments in numerous other ASX-listed explorers, including Andean Silver (ASX: ASL), Exore Resources – which was acquired by Perseus Mining (ASX: PRU), and Kingwest Resources (ASX: KWR) – which was acquired by Brightstar Resources (ASX: BTR).

    The incredible recent drilling results and extreme growth potential defined by MPK at Ferké, combined with the thorough understanding of the project and mineralisation style, led 1832 to aggressively buy MPK on market and then cornerstone an overnight placement in July that raised $13.5 million. 

    There is good reason why this calibre of investor has waited until now to get into MPK. The data produced since the start of the year has drastically increased the size and grade of Ferké, and the endless onslaught of positive results has left nowhere for MPK’s share price to go other than up. With a clear and exciting pathway ahead for the company to continue rapidly expanding its deposit – this trend seems likely to continue.

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    Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.

  • US Government Throws Billions at Rare Earths, Niobium Use Cases Explode as PNN continues to hit widespread, high-grade mineralisation at Santa Anna

    As the US government steps in with an unprecedented rare earths price floor and prolific direct funding, while global interest in niobium and its high-tech uses has exploded, Power Minerals (ASX: PNN) has recently released widespread, spectacularly high-grade assays up to 43,385ppm TREO and 14,711ppm Nb across its flagship Santa Anna carbonatite complex in Brazil. PNN just executed its acquisition option and completed a strongly supported $2.6 million capital raise led by Oakley Capital Partners (who recently raised for top resources performers RML, LSR and PIM), which will fund the imminent maiden resource definition drilling program.

    PNN is about to embark on the most critical value-adding exploration phase in the project’s history, in the same mining-friendly region of Brazil as CMOC’s niobium mine that operates at 4,300ppm, and with major mining company EDEM as a strategic partner capable of fast tracking permitting and production. You can read our initial take on Power here.

    Our initial coverage of PNN in July was when the company was at an $8 million market cap, with its benchmark peer comparison St George Mining (ASX: SGQ)’s market cap sitting at $85 million. PNN has since risen to $14.2 million, including a $2.6 million capital raise, while SQG has pushed out to $216 million, including a $5 million capital raise.

    SGQ’s journey from a $25 million market cap to $85 million involved acquiring its project, raising $21 million just to pay for it, and defining a resource from a 3,674m, 67 diamond drill hole historical dataset. PNN now has 221 holes for 7,649m, plus another 54 auger assays to come, is fully funded to reach a maiden JORC resource (and with no milestone payments due for 24 months) – which could act as a major catalyst for revaluation.

    Most of SGQ’s push from $85 million to $215 million came from targeting high-grade pockets of mineralisation – and PNN is formulating its upcoming exploration plan to do the exact same thing.

    PNN’s 2,272m, 29 RC hole due diligence program, which drilled down to an average depth of 78m and maximum depth of 129m, achieved its exact intended objectives – to Intersect broad zones of niobium and high-grade REE, as well as confirm that mineralisation occurs at surface in the weathered zone, and at depth in fresh rock. 

    A couple standout Nb assays are 87m at 2,124ppm Nb from 24m, including 1m at 5,745ppm Nb from 107m and 3m at 10,117ppm Nb from 24m, as well as 76m at 3,424ppm Nb from 24m, including 26m at 5,317ppm Nb from 24m, which included 5m at 825ppm Nb from 29m and 5m at 6,802ppm Nb from 41m – highlighting areas of increasing grades at depth. Notable REE assays were recorded too, such as 114m at 3,012ppm TREO from surface, including 16m at 5,300ppm TREO from 97m, as well as 60m at 9,202ppm TREO from surface, including 14m at 18,768ppm TREO from 30m. 

    The follow up 1,000m auger drilling campaign was designed to extend the mineralised footprint to the east and south-east of the RC program, and it achieved fantastic grades of both niobium and total rare earth oxides (TREO), but importantly – an exceptional percentage of magnet rare earth oxides (MREO), the high value NdPr that everyone is seeking. 

    Standout assays from this program included 15m at 13,212ppm TREO from surface containing 24.2% MREO, including 4m at 28,827ppm TREO from 9m containing 26.5% MREO, including 1m at 43,385ppm TREO from 11m containing 26% MREO. This same hole also produced fantastic niobium assays with 15m at 4,319ppm Nb from surface, including 3m at 7,522ppm Nb from 11m and 1m at 7,748ppm Nb from 12m. 23 samples averaging 7,523ppm TREO are now being leach-tested to assess recovery rates and processing pathways. 

    The US Government is no longer willing to face the risk of any uncertainty around rare earths supply from China, and in a groundbreakingly interventionist move – the Department of Defense is guaranteeing a floor price for NdPr of US$110/kg for American rare earths producer MP Materials (NYSE: MP), well above the US$60/kg NdPr spot price at the time of announcement and the US$78/kg it has risen to since – and in line with the feasibility price forecasts from Brazilian developers such as Meteoric Resources (ASX: MEI), which are set at US$111/kg.

    MP’s market cap has surged to US$11.25 billion – up from US$3.1 billion in April before the China rare earths export ban – and the DoD is plowing a US$400 million equity investment into MP itself, while Apple is investing US$500 million in infrastructure with MP to secure domestic supply. The company also received a US$1 billion financing offer from JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to construct a domestic 10ktpa rare earth magnet manufacturing facility – which the DoD has again stepped in and committed to buying the entire facility’s capacity for 10 years.

    All of this processing infrastructure will require immense amounts of feedstock from many projects around the world, in favourable jurisdictions – and PNN’s Santa Anna is about to have a near-surface JORC resource with impressive TREO grades and an excellent percentage of magnetic rare earths.

    While more than 90% of niobium’s current consumption is still attributable creating alloys in the steel industry, numerous high-tech uses for the critical metal are breaking out of research and entering industry, leading to Fastmarkets increasing its reporting of European prices from once to twice a week – which are up 12% YTD. Incredible innovations with critical minerals can rapidly change an industry’s supply and demand dynamics, as was seen in the 2021 publication of research on antimony’s added efficiencies to photovoltaic solar panels – which then took just two years to become the largest use of antimony.

    Toshiba just started shipping the world’s first rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a niobium titanium oxide anode, which was developed with CBMM and is currently being used on an electric bus at its Brazilian mine site. CBMM is a major funder of Nb research, and recently awarded grants to South Korean researchers who demonstrated that adding niobium to lithium-manganese rich cathode material greatly improved its stability and electrochemical performance, and UK researchers who discovered that niobium-containing perovskite can convert carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide with 100% selectivity – creating a closed loop recycling system that cuts steel plant carbon emissions by up to 90%.

    PNN’s open-pittable and near surface resource, which is weathered and likely amenable to simple processing methods, is recording repeated grades similar to neighbouring CMOC, which has a resource of 602.9Mt at 4,300ppm Nb and was purchased from Anglo American as a part of a US$1.5 billion deal in 2016. The grades at Santa Anna are also similar to Canada’s niobium mine, which runs a head grade of 4,200ppm with high-cost underground mining, and was sold for US$530 million in 2015. 

    The TREO assays from PNN’s RC holes can be seen below, with widespread mineralisation everywhere that has now been proven to extend at depth:

    Source: PNN

    The Nb assays from PNN’s RC holes can be seen below, in conjunction with high-grade historical hits that PNN’s strategic partner EDEM drilled when the major miner discovered the project in 2021:

    Source: PNN

    As far as carbonatite-hosted deposit areas go, PNN’s 5.8km2 alkaline complex within a 17.05km2 project at Santa Anna is huge, especially compared to the 2.26km2 held by SGQ over part of the Araxa Complex. 

    Santa Anna’s grades are showing strong potential for a bulk tonnage operation, but the sheer size of it and with over 80% of the surface area yet to be drilled – there are plenty of opportunities for PNN to discover high grade pockets of mineralisation that would drastically improve project economics.

    The first assays from PNN’s recent auger drilling campaign, which hit brilliant grades near surface, can be seen below. There are still assays from 54 holes imminently due:

    Source: PNN

    US Builds Its Own Rare Earths Industry and Niobium’s Stardom Approaches

    The prices of rare earths have always been determined by the flows of supply coming out of China – and for the first time in history this will no longer be the case. The US Department of Defence’s unprecedented mechanism of a price floor should do exactly what it is supposed to – directly incite projects in favourable jurisdictions to move projects into production, even if the economics are not as attractive as Chinese sources.

    China’s foothold on the entire rare earths supply chain is a political weapon wielded at extremely precarious stages of international negotiations. With America’s biggest corporations pledging trillions of dollars in AI-driven capital expenditure, and revolutionary levels of electrification occurring in basically all industries – the amounts of capital required to subsidise the rare earths industry pale in comparison to what is at stake if the US’ ambitions to continue to be the world’s technology leader are jeopardised. 

    While the US is bailing themselves out of this pain point (albeit still with 2-3 years until the country can actually produce a meaningful quantity of magnets), and its infrastructure will source feedstock from around the world – everything produced will likely also be consumed domestically. This leaves other major economies in deep trouble, and China is moving to secure ground that can hold this position – most of which is in Myanmar.

    China and India are on the verge of fighting a proxy war in Myanmar, where most of the feedstock that is processed through Chinese refinement and separation facilities is sourced from. Over the past three months, Chinese backed militias have been forcibly seizing mines and operating them for its own processing facilities, while India has been working with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) – a powerful rebel group in Myanmar – to procure rare earths from various regions in the country outside of China’s control.

    As seen below, rare earths prices have been historically volatile, but many of these price shocks have actually been triggered by disruptions of the flow of oxides from Myanmar:

    Source: LYC

    Fastmarkets recently announced it will increase the publishing frequency of its European ferro-niobium price assessment in response to greater market activity, in order to better capture spot dynamics amid rising liquidity in the niobium market. Traders are getting more actively involved, companies with industry changing inventions are seeking offtakes – and market interest in the commodity is rapidly rising.

    Battery technology that has serious potential to improve the operating metrics of major industries that are undergoing electrification should not be underestimated. Developed in collaboration with the world’s biggest Nb miner CBMM, and Japan’s Sojitz Corporation (who is also a major CBMM shareholder), Toshiba has started shipping the world’s first rechargeable lithium-ion battery with a niobium titanium oxide anode – which is able to achieve an 80% charge in 10 minutes and hit 15,000 charging cycles. 

    The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) recently labelled its US$22.8 million financing of Amaero International (ASX: 3DA)’s advanced alloy production facility in Tennessee as EXIM’s deal of the year, after 3DA proved that niobium dramatically improves the strength and heat-resistance of alloys in jet engines, missiles, and energy systems.

    The Most Exciting Time for Power is Now

    There are a litany of strong driving factors that make PNN’s target commodities worth investing in, and Brazil’s excellent mining jurisdiction is the perfect location to be exploring for them. The strategic partnership that PNN has formed with Brazilian miner and developer EDEM gives the company top tier access to expert technical staff, and accelerated drilling and assaying at significantly reduced rates, as well as unrivalled permitting support.

    At just a $14 million market cap and on the cusp of delineating a resource, in a country where other decent projects are now trading for hundreds of millions of dollars, and with a raft of news that will consistently flow through over the next few months – there is still a massive amount of value that PNN could capture.

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    Disclaimer: This article is for informational and marketing purposes only, and does not constitute financial advice or a recommendation to invest. All opinions expressed are our own. We may receive fees or other forms of compensation in connection with the publication of this content, and may own shares in any of the mentioned companies. Please do your own research and seek professional advice before making any investment decisions.