Resources Top 5: Don’t miss the gains down in Africa – Triton guns for graphite, Arrow targets iron
Big news out of Africa has given two ASX miners impressive share price lifts. Get your resources wrap here.
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Big news on Wednesday for $43 million market capped graphite explorer Triton Minerals (ASX:TON).
Triton Minerals surged ahead in the ASX resources pack after Mozambique’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources granted the company a 25-year mining concession for the Cobra Plains graphite project in the Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique.
At 3pm, its share price was up nearly 23 per cent for the day.
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Consultations with the Mozambique government appear to have been something of a protracted process, so this will come as a big relief for the company to get things over the line.
It can now get its plans cracking at Cobra Plains, as well as continuing its further funding discussions for the company’s flagship Ancuabe graphite project.
“The grant of the Cobra Plains Mining Concession, with its large-scale 5.7 Mt contained graphite Resource, means that Triton now owns two globally significant graphite resources with a diversified mix of flake sizes which can be applied towards a range of applications from batteries to expandable graphite for building materials,” said Triton’s executive director Andrew Frazer.
Stockhead’s Jess Cummins recently reported: “Triton recently announced plans to recommit to the large-scale development at the Ancuabe project in a bid to cash in on the strong and increasing demand for graphite from both battery and industrial applications.
“The move was well supported by its proposed cornerstone shareholder, Shandong Yulong, who poured a $5 million conditional investment into the project.
“Shandong Yulong is willing to provide Triton with additional expertise in a number of disciplines including engineering, mining technology and construction.”
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Other resources stocks with big news
ARROW MINERALS (ASX:AMD)
AMD is up even more than TON on the Wednesday winners board, also based on its African mining exploration interests.
It has reinforced its position in the burgeoning West African iron ore game and enjoyed support from investors.
At 3pm (AEST) its share price was up 50 per cent for the day.
Arrow announced on Wednesday morning that it had secured rights to earn a 100 per cent interest in the Simandou North Iron Project in Guinea through a staged earn-in.
The project covers the northern extension of the Simandou Range, which is considered the home of the largest undeveloped high-grade iron ore deposit in the world, a Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) and Chinese backed monster expected to hit a FID (final investment decision) this year.
AMD has executed a binding term sheet to acquire the remaining 39.5 per cent interest in private Singaporean registered company Amalgamated Minerals Pte. Ltd, which holds majority interest in the project.
#ArrowMinerals (ASX: $AMD) is pleased to announce it has executed a binding term sheet to acquire the remaining 39.5% interest in Amalgamated Minerals, which holds the majority interest in the #Simandou North Iron Project in #Guinea, #WestAfrica.
— Arrow Minerals (@ArrowMinerals) August 29, 2023
View: https://t.co/bBeeL94P3Npic.twitter.com/Rcvl1TbQba
The explorer holds a 33.3 per cent interest in the project and is in the process of earning in to increase this to 60.5 per cent. It says the latest agreement provides a mechanism by which AMD can advance to a 100 per cent interest.
Arrow said it was developing an “infrastructural corridor” including shared use rail and port infrastructure to support development in the iron-rich area.
Arrow Managing Director Hugh Bresser described the commercial agreement with the Amalgamated shareholders as “a major step forward”, adding that it “enables us to advance our exploration activities and development plans with security and confidence”.
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ZENITH MINERALS (ASX:ZNC)
Base, industrial and precious metals hunter Zenith Minerals is pumping so far today, courtesy of … yesterday’s news.
And that, in case you probably missed it, regarded assay results from its deep diamond drill program at its 100 per cent owned Red Mountain goldmining project, about 390km northwest of Brisbane in central Queensland.
The results come from a May-July campaign this year and ZNC is labelling discovered intersections as “significant widths of gold and silver mineralisation”.
For analytical mining-stats tragics, that reverse translates to this, ripped straight from the Zenith ASX announcement horse’s mouth: “118m at 0.54 g/t Au + 11.9 g/t Ag from 225m in ZRMDD052, including 12m at 1.36 g/t Au + 4.93 g/t Ag from 288m and 9m at 1.24 g/t Au + 6.30 g/t Ag from 323m o 11m at 0.45 g/t Au + 4.54 g/t Ag from 183m, and 11m at 1.16 g/t Au + 1.08 g/t Ag from 224m in hole ZRMDD051”.
Zenith also noted it was targeting its intrusion related gold (IRG) Breccia Pipe discovery down to 400m below surface.
Executive Chair David Ledger said: “We are excited by these gold and silver intersections that now demonstrate not only the excellent continuity of mineralisation at Red Mountain within 400m from surface, but also a significant increase in mineralised widths at depth, as predicted by our modelling.”
Oh, and there was also this divestment news from Monday, which might also be playing into the ZNC share price rise:
QMines (QML) agrees to acquire a high-grade copper-zinc project from @ZenithMinerals for $4.5 million
— Zenith Minerals (@ZenithMinerals) August 29, 2023
Both parties see the arrangement as a win-win, with Zenith today announcing its divestment of Develin Creek as Zenith pivots to #lithium exploration.https://t.co/FsuisO1mFC
As the post above notes, Zenith Minerals is also very much into lithium and it’s one of the companies lithium giant Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM) might be interested in sniffing around for a buy.
For context on that, here’s what our Jess wrote the other day in a broader piece on possible prospects of SQM interest: “Split Rocks lithium project is in WA’s Forrestania greenstone belt, an emerging lithium district host to SQM-Wesfarmer’s Mt Holland/Early Grey lithium deposit containing 189Mt at 1.5 per cent Li20.
“The company recently defined 30 new lithium targets in addition to the >3km long by 2km wide Cielo lithium target reported earlier this year.
These new targets lie outside the Rio prospect, where drilling returned 26m at 1.2 per cent Li20.
“ZNC MD Michael Clifford says the explorer is “very keen” to see these targets being tested to unlock the full potential of this exciting project area.”
At 3pm (AEST), ZNC was up 23.6 per cent for the day.
FIREBIRD METALS (ASX:FRB)
Unlike the very vocal lithium, manganese is a battery-metal quiet achiever, though it also plays into the irrepressible electric vehicle narrative, and Firebird Metals is here for it.
When we say “here”, we mean Western Australia and specifically the company’s flagship Oakover project about 85km east of Newman.
The company on Wednesday morning announced the successful completion of its updated scoping study to produce manganese concentrate at Oakover.
This followed an 80 per cent increase in the Oakover indicated mineral resource estimate, which now stands at 105.8 Mt at 10.1 per cent Mn.
Firebird notes that, combined with an Inferred MRE of 70.9Mt, the total Oakover Resource is 176.7Mt at 9.9 per cent Mn (all using a 7 per cent Mn cut-off).
Firebird has now made the decision to progress with a full-scale production that will see, annually, about 4Mt processed and around 1.2Mt kt of 30-32 per cent Mn concentrate produced.
Firebird Managing Director Peter Allen – known by some as Mr Manganese – said he believes everything is in place for the Oakover project to become a “significant manganese operation”, adding that the board’s latest decisions “have nearly doubled the life-of-mine at Oakover from 10 years to 18 years” with NPV growing from $329 million to $741.3 million NPV and IRR increasing from 47 per cent to 73.1 per cent.
At 3pm Wednesday (AEST), FRB ws up 11.5 per cent for the day.
LCL RESOURCES (ASX:LCL)
The nickel hunter previously known as Los Cerros is up again on some fresh news this morning regarding an acquisition in Papua New Guinea.
LCL has executed a binding tenement sales agreement with Papuan Minerals Limited, an unlisted public PNG exploration company, to acquire 100 per cent ownership of two exploration licences – EL 2391 and EL 2560.
The company notes that, when combined with its existing exploration licences, as well as other applications and agreement to acquire EL 2566 from Munga River Ltd, these new Papuan grabs will give LCL “control of a significant region prospective for nickel mineralisation”.
LCL acquired the final piece of the Ni Camp around our Veri Veri Project. Note the proximity of Iyewe, Doriri & Veri Veri. Likely to be priority sub-area for us, as is Wedei, possibly the largest, most coherent Ni surface anomaly in PNG. See ASX release. https://t.co/TiSSc7yRLopic.twitter.com/FIWH8KOEcJ
— LCL Resources (@LclResources) August 30, 2023
As reported by Stockhead’s Reuben Adams last month: “LCL has uncovered a 200m wide corridor of high-grade nickel sulphides – include nickel-rich boulders up to 1m in diameter — at the Veri Veri project in PNG.
Multiple surface samples return over 10 per cent nickel sulphides – that’s high grade — including a trench of 3m @ 2.11 per centNi and 0.23g/t Au.
“Veri Veri is a distinctive hydrothermal nickel sulphide-gold system. It could also be very big, LCL says.”
Regarding these new acquisitions, LCL’s managing director Jason Stirbinskis said: “We now hold the dominant position across the ultramafic lithologies in the south of PNG.
“These units are highly prospective for nickel mineralisation as evidenced by our Veri Veri nickel sulphide project, the established Iyewe and Doriri targets and large nickel stream sediment anomalies at Wedei and Safia.
“We also note the potential for nickel laterites, particularly in the northern region, near the advanced Wowo Gap Nickel Project, northeast of our boundary.”
At 3pm, LCL was up nearly 13 per cent for the day.
This content first appeared on stockhead.com.au
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Originally published as Resources Top 5: Don’t miss the gains down in Africa – Triton guns for graphite, Arrow targets iron
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