Resources Top 5: Litchfield finds potential large-scale system at Oonagalabi

Litchfield is planning to carry out drilling to test a large, high-chargeability system at its Oonagalabi project in the NT that has yet to be tested.

Litchfield's IP survey has found a large system at its Oonagalabi project in the NT for testing. Pic: Getty Images

• Litchfield Minerals to test newly identified high-chargeability system at Oonagalabi

• Dynamic Metals starts RC drilling at the Cognac West gold prospect

• AusQuest is planning to carry out Stage 2 drilling to test a large-scale porphyry system

Your standout small cap resources stocks for Wednesday, March 5, 2025.

Litchfield Minerals (ASX:LMS)

An induced polarisation (IP) survey across the Oonagalabi project in the Northern Territory has proven the presence of a large, high-chargeability system that hasn’t been tested by historical drilling.

Two major, sub-parallel chargeability anomalies were uncovered, extending 1km along strike and from surface to more than 500m depth.

The discovery presents a compelling opportunity for Litchfield to define a higher-grade zone within the system, where it previously reported indicators of copper, zinc, lead, silver, gold and associated critical minerals.

These results have encouraged Litchfield to undertake a 2000m drilling campaign with Bullion Drilling in a drill-for-equity agreement at a 26% premium to the company’s current share price.

Approvals are expected in the coming weeks with drilling set to take place in late March or early April.

“Our geology continues to evolve, and we now believe that Oonagalabi may be part of a large skarn system,” LMS managing director and CEO Matthew Pustahya said.

“We believe Oonagalabi has the scale and geological characteristics to develop into a significant discovery, and this next drilling phase will be pivotal in unlocking its full potential.”

Industrial Minerals (ASX:IND)

While IND technically had no news out today, it was slugged with a speeding ticket from the ASX questioning why its shares had climbed from a closing price of 12.5c on Monday, March 3 to an intra-day high of 23c today.

In its response, the company said it was not aware of any information that it had not already disclosed that could be responsible for the climb.

However, it noted that recent developments in the global tariff and trade environment on products had resulted in an increase in interest and demand for its high-purity quartz ore.

The company had in the December 2024 quarter sent pegmatite samples from its Pippingarra project to an interested party in China to assess its suitability as a feed for high purity quartz product applications.

IND also pointed out that it was working on ongoing marketing events, developing a maiden resource estimate for Pippingarra and conducting independent testwork in China.

Completion of this work is expected by the end of March 2025.

Dynamic Metals (ASX:DYM)

Dynamic has started reverse circulation drilling at the Cognac West gold prospect within its Widgiemooltha project in WA.

The drilling will test targets defined from large soil sampling anomalies and previously reported rock chip sample that returned assays such as 2040g/t and 53.1g/t gold.

Cognac West is structurally complex with interpreted second order structures around a late felsic intrusion that is ~500m east of the major structure in the area, the Republican Thrust.

It has been subject to near surface historical exploration dating back to the 1970s such as soil sampling and shallow drilling though these data sets are often incomplete and limited to gold assays.

A peak historical drill hole gold assay from the 1990s includes 1m at 91.3g/t from 41m in JSA0253.

During 2024, DYM undertook an extensive soil sampling program at the prospect, where samples taken every 50m along 200m spaced east-west lines initially highlighted three areas of gold anomalism with several higher-grade zones identified by follow-up infill soil sampling.

All information, which also includes geological mapping and rock chip sampling, were incorporated into the geological model to generate several RC drill targets across Anomaly A and Anomaly B.

The company plans to drill 75 holes across these two targets to test the structural complexity of the prospect area as they will improve its understanding of the fresh rock geology and further refine the drill targets for gold mineralisation.

AusQuest (ASX:AQD)

With maiden drilling at its Cangallo project in Peru providing strong vectors towards a potential large-scale porphyry copper-gold system under shallow cover, AusQuest is now preparing to carry out Stage 2 RC drilling.

Interpretation of geochemical data from the maiden drill program had suggested that the main porphyry system had not been intersected by the drilling to date, with the centre of the system likely to occur beneath the shallow cover within the caldera-like structure.

As such, the Stage 2 drilling will test this thesis and extend the original copper-gold intersections by re-directing drill holes from the original drill pads as well as stepping out to the west, south and north to help locate the centre of the porphyry system.

The main porphyry system is believed to have excellent potential to contain higher copper grades based on the grades intersected within the thin tonalite dykes that are thought to emanate from the buried system.

Supergene enrichment is also evident in several drill-holes, highlighting the possibility of an enriched supergene blanket, with high copper grades, occurring beneath the shallow cover.

Panther Metals (ASX:PNT)

(Up on no news)

While Panther had no news today, it announced yesterday that it has secured firm commitments for a ~$685,000 placement that required significant scaling due to strong demand from strategic investors.

Proceeds will be used to further extensional RC drilling at its bonanza-grade Burtville East project, which is adjacent to Brightstar Resources' (ASX:BTR) Laverton hub operations.

Exploration at the project will also focus on metallurgical and mineralogical drilling and stockpile testing, including void drilling, with a view to advancing towards potential future small scale mining operations and monetisation of the existing onsite high grade gold stockpiles.

It may also test several budgeted targets – such as Rainer – that were not tested in the last program due to flooding preventing access.

Aircore drilling will also be carried out to test several anomalous gold results from the prior drill program at Comet Well.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.