Resources Top 5: Golden days for BPM as gold hits get hearts racing

Junior goldie BPM Minerals is the big winner in the resources space today, striking near the site of Capricorn’s Mt Gibson gold mine.

BPM has investors' hearts racing this morning. Pic: Getty Images

• BPM has hearts racing with gold find near 3Moz WA deposit

• Titan has Gina Rinehart in its corner for Ecuador gold and copper drilling

• Chalice surges on palladium price spike while its founder Tim Goyder gives a shot in the arm to WA minnow Metal Hawk

Here are some of the biggest small cap resources winners in morning trade, Wednesday, September 18.

BPM MINERALS (ASX:BPM)

The runaway resources gold medallist today is BPM, which looks like it's found a possible extension to $2.3 billion capped Capricorn Metals' (ASX:CMM) Mt Gibson gold project in WA's Mid West.

Mt Gibson contains 3.24Moz of gold and has already been earmarked as the next growth leg for Mark Clark's Capricorn, the operator of the ~120,000ozpa Karlawinda gold mine in WA's Pilbara.

With a 1.83Moz reserve, the most recent study on the restart of the mine put a $339 million price tag on the construction of an operation pulling out 152,000oz of gold annually over the first 7.5 years of its life with production starting late next year.

BPM's Claw discovery, from where it can basically peak over the fence at its neighbour's grass, delivered a high-grade hit from the Louie prospect of 30m at 1.84g/t from just 25m deep, with 5m at 7.12g/t starting from 35m.

The $9m explorer has been testing a 1km-long 100ppb gold in regolith anomaly, picked up during first phase drilling this year, which demonstrated similar geology to the Mt Gibson project to the north.

Given the result was from part of a shallow 30 hole, ~2000m aircore program, it will BPM and its investors' hearts racing in anticipation of results from the six reverse circulation holes drilled into the anomaly.

Aircore drilling is also continuing at 100m infill spacing to better define the anomaly with Phase 3 follow up RC being planned.

The closest prospect to BPM's ground drilled by CMM gives a sense of the prospectivity of the region, with Capricorn hitting 16m at 17.16g/t and 15m at 18.56g/t at Sundance earlier in 2024.

BPM is hitting gold to the south of Capricorn's Mt Gibson mine. Pic: BPM

"We’re delighted to have received exceptional results from Louie in this second round of drilling at the Claw Gold Project. This is shaping as a highly promising greenfields discovery in one of Western Australia's most prospective gold corridors," BPM CEO Oliver Judd said.

"We are in a heavily endowed environment at Mt Gibson, immediately along strike from WA’s next gold mine in a ‘gold bull market’.

"With additional drilling nearly complete, we are eager to further delineate the high-grade core of this 1km regolith anomaly. The upcoming assays, due within the month, will guide us toward deeper RC drilling.

"This is the beginning, and investors can expect a steady stream of updates as we continue to explore what could turn into a game-changing discovery with clear strategic potential in relation to Mount Gibson."

BPM's shares were up 98% at last check, as punters back its potential to make a new discovery in the Mt Gibson region, while sustained success would no doubt make it an attractive consolidation option with gold at a near record $3800/oz.

SIERRA NEVADA GOLD (ASX:SNX)

In the bizarro world that is the 2024 mining market, metals that have gone unloved for years like silver and antimony are now at the forefront of the lithium-scorched bag holder's mind.

SNX is running hot today on some high-grade initial sampling from a quartz stockwork zone at its Crystal Peak area, part of the Blackhawk project in Nevada.

A prolific precious metals jurisdiction, the Nevada find clocked in at 1880g/t silver, with elevated copper and antimony results also found across its sampling. Grades of 31.2g/t gold and 4.94% copper were identified in samples from the nearby G Mine area.

Float from areas near outcropping quartz veins at Crystal Peak in Nevada. Pic: SNX

While they're a long way from the confidence provided by drilling results, there is evidence of an accumulation of silver from sampling within a 60m by 30m zone of densely quartz veined stockwork at Crystal Peak.

Results from various samples include 752g/t, 485g/t, 427g/t, 142g/t and 141g/t silver.

SNX says assays for soil sampling at Crystal Peak and G Mine covering extensions are due in late October. Drilling won't be started until the 2025 field season, but it would be the first serious exploration at the sites since the early 1980s.

SNX has hints of high grade silver, copper, gold and antimony in Nevada. Pic: SNX

"These new prospects near the Blackhawk Project in Nevada have returned exciting high-grade results from the initial mapping and sampling work. Results demonstrate potential for high-grade silver, gold, copper and antimony mineralisation with results up to 1,880g/t silver with associated copper and antimony at Crystal Peak and up to 31.2g/t gold at G Mine," SNX exec chair Peter Moore said.

"We are excited to be the first explorer to implement modern exploration techniques across this ground, and we are planning additional exploration to follow up these initial results.

"Preparations for the upcoming RC drilling program at the Endowment high-grade silver mine located 10kms east of Crystal Peak continue with drilling expected to commence in early October."

Silver, gold, copper and antimony are basically a grab bag of the commodities exciting investors in 2024. Whether they remain the flavours on their tastebuds once the real exploration commences remains to be seen.

TITAN MINERALS (ASX:TTM)

Titan bounded out of a trading halt today to reveal Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting, through its subsidiary Hanrine, had pledged to spend up to US$120 million chasing copper at its Linderos project in Ecuador.

That could give Australia's richest an eventual 80% stake, with US$2m changing hands after the companies entered into a formal binding JV and earn-in agreement.

Prep for an initial 10,000m of drilling is underway, looking for something big to the south of TTM's 3.1Moz gold, 22Moz silver Dynasty project.

The project also lies to the south of Lumina Gold's world class Cangrejos project and to the west of Lundin Gold's extraordinarily low cost Fruta Del Norte, in which Newmont has a 32% stake acquired in its takeover of Newcrest.

Surface geochemistry of the early-stage Linderos has identified the potential for multiple porphyries, with results from 3700m of drilling at the Copper Ridge prospect including a hit of 308m at 0.4% copper equivalent from 54m.

The US$2m payment will stock up TTM's coffers immediately for a 5% stake in Linderos, with 10km of drilling or US$8m of expenditure within the first three years of the JVA starting enabling Hancock to take a further 25%.

Another 15km of drilling or US$12m of spend within 7 years can take its stake to 51%, with Hancock able to claim 80% by making a decision to mine or spending US$120m, whichever comes first.

Titan will be free carried until that point, with US$1m also due if Hanrine hits the 51% ownership mark.

“We are well advanced in our technical discussions with Hanrine who are ready to commence exploration activities at the Linderos Copper Project, with expansion of the camp being the first task on the priority list to ensure seamless and efficient operations once drilling commences," Titan's Melanie Leighton said.

It's Hancock's latest gambit in Ecuador, having committed US$120m previously to help Ecuador's State mining company explore near SolGold's large Cascabel copper, gold and silver deposit.

ALICANTO MINERALS (ASX:AQI)

(Up on no news)

Maybe onrushing silver prices are behind the no-news gains for Alicanto, which holds some ancient mines with decent grades in Sweden.

The near Viking era Sala and Falun assets have been the company's focus for the past few years having sold out of its Mexican projects.

It has former Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) chair Ray Shorrocks in the hot seat as interim exec chair as the explorer hunts for new projects after a period of inactivity.

Shorrocks has so many board seats right now he could host the Last Supper.

Another, Andean Silver (ASX:ASL) has been locked away raising $20m for drilling at its Cerro Bayo project in Chile.

Among the pitch for prospective instos and high net worth investors there is a call from Citi that Chinese retail demand could push silver prices up from multi-year highs of US$31/oz currently to US$35/oz by the end of the year and US$38/oz during 2025.

A move like that crystallising into reality could be interesting for Alicanto's Sala asset – 14.7Moz of silver at 47g/t and 311,300t of zinc at 3.2% Zn in its current resource.

CHALICE MINING (ASX:CHN) & METAL HAWK (ASX:MHK)

(Up on no news)

Chalice ran over 16.5% higher in morning trade as palladium prices rose 3.6% to US$1120/oz.

They've now lifted 20% in eight trading days, with major producer Sibanye's decision to slash output at its lossmaking US mines, acquired in its merger with Stillwater several years ago, a big factor.

The prospect of export restrictions from the world's largest producer, Russia, as Vlad Putin looks to retaliate against Western sanctions that have been in place since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has also pushed bets higher.

Chalice's Gonneville deposit at its Julimar project, which once made the explorer a $3 billion ASX 200 listed company, contains 17Moz of 3E (palladium, platinum and gold), 960,000t of nickel, 540,000t copper and 96,000t of cobalt.

But since criticism was levelled at the mining method and commodity prices used in a scoping study last year, it's remodelled its 660Mt resource to include a high grade component of 59Mt at 2g/t 3E, 0.2% Ni, 0.21% Cu and 0.019% Co for 3.8Moz 3E, 120,000t Ni, 120,000t Cu and 11,000t Co.

Palladium makes up around 55% of the value of its future sales, with the once soaring battery metals explorer recast as a counter-cyclical option on a rebound in platinum group metals prices, used both as a store of wealth and in the catalytic converters that restrict emissions from car exhausts.

CHN is also in the good books after Gonneville was given an approvals fast-track yesterday as a Strategic Project, assigned by the WA Government.

Chalice was founded by Tim Goyder, the multi-millionaire resources investor who also chairs lithium miner Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR).

He's behind a big move for another ASX explorer today, as his investment vehicle Lotaka Pty Ltd became a significant shareholder of Metal Hawk after a string of on-market purchases over the past two weeks pushed Goyder's stake to 5.43%.

It came as Metal Hawk also announced the completion of a geophysical survey at its Siberian Tiger prospect, where it is aiming to find something akin to Gold Fields' 5Moz Agnew-Lawlers gold mine, 15km as the crow flies near the WA Goldfields mining town of Leinster.

Also making late moves up the bourse was Duketon Mining (ASX:DKM), up on no news.

Originally published as Resources Top 5: Golden days for BPM as gold hits get hearts racing