This week we saw two West Australian goldies' share prices surge on new discoveries made at their respective projects that both have mineral resources in place. A Peruvian copper-gold explorer that was Bulls N' Bear Runner of the Week a fortnight ago got another leg up after confirming its discovery, and a tungsten producer saw a lift in its share price after China imposed export restrictions on tungsten-related products.
Kalgoorlie Gold Mining (ASX:KAL)
456pc up (from 1.6c to 8.9c)
This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is junior goldie Kalgoorlie Gold Mining (KalGold), which rocketed ahead on Friday after revealing the results of its latest drilling program at the company’s Kirgella West prospect. The project is part of its KalGold’s Pinjin gold project about 140 kilometres east-northeast of Kalgoorlie and southeast of the Eastern Goldfields.
The new discovery is to be named Lighthorse and was discovered during further air core drilling at Kirgella West. Lighthorse returned a best assay of 17 metres grading 4.81 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 48m, including 8m going 9.21g/t from 52m.
A solid 4m hit at 4.72g/t gold from a depth of 52m from a second drill-hole added to the newly identified mineralised zone.
Some excitable punters jumped in on Thursday before the company released the assay results, pushing KalGold’s share price to a six-month high of 3 cents, before it eased back to sit at 2.3c. KalGold then paused trading and quickly moved into a trading halt.
Heavy volumes of 5.6 million shares were traded - with the day recording the company’s second largest share turnover in nine months as traders climbed over each other to grab the stock in anticipation of possible imminent head-turning assay numbers.
With today’s release of its drilling results, this morning’s trading volumes put the previous day well and truly in the shade. A stunning 112.6 million shares changed hands by noon (WST), turbocharging the share price to a 52-week high of 8.9c.
A weekly gain of 456 per cent on last Friday’s closing price of 1.6c made for a memorable trading week for those fortunate enough to have grabbed a slice of this week’s action.
KalGold recently drilled 1966m at Kirgella East and 319m at Kirgella West as part of its phase-four air core drilling program.
A previous air-core program was undertaken at Kirgella West, defining gold mineralisation and anomalism over a 1200m strike length and up to 320m in width. The gold results included the presence of coincident pathfinder anomalism, with levels of arsenic, copper, zinc, potassium and rare earths returned from the assaying.
The company is sitting on a mineral resource containing 214,300 ounces of gold at greater than 1g/t gold. Its Pinjin project, consisting of the Kirgella Gift and Providence deposits, holds 76,400 ounces. The La Mascotte deposit, within the wider Bulong Taurus project, has a solid 137,900 ounces of the precious yellow metal.
OzAurum Ltd (ASX: OZM)
358pc up (from 3.6c to 16.5c)
OzAurum Resources launched into second place on this week's ASX Runners list. It caught the punters' attention on Monday morning when it revealed a new gold discovery at the company's Mulgabbie North project in WA's Eastern Goldfields.
An air core drilling program unearthed multiple shallow high-grade intercepts at the project that has an existing mineral resource of 11.6 million tonnes grading 0.7g/t gold for 260,000 ounces.
Last Friday’s closing price of 3.6c looked insignificant as the stock opened the week at 7.7c before it motored to a 52-week high to touch 9.2c, driven by a whopping 76.3 million shares traded.
Shallow high-grade hits of 20m going 3.57g/t from surface included 4m at 10.21g/t, 10m grading 6.59g/t from 12m with a 4m slice of 14.17g/t and 4m at 6.86g/t from surface.
OzAurum followed up on Wednesday with a photograph of visible gold panned from the interval that produced the 4m slice grading more than 14g/t. This gave the company’s share price another leg-up to reach a new 52-week high of 11c on volumes exceeding 41 million.
Significant quartz veining was observed in multiple intervals, which is known to be a feature of many significant gold systems. A reverse circulation drill rig is now motoring towards the site to expand on the new discovery.
The share price moved into a higher gear on Thursday, reaching 16.5c on a stunning 52 million shares traded, making for a stellar gain of 358pc for the week.
OzAurum believes drilling has defined a new gold zone varying in width from 25m to 75m and consisting of more than 400m strike.
AusQuest Ltd (ASX : AQD)
69pc up (from 3.9c to 6.6c)
AusQuest, the Runner of the Week two weeks ago, flew into third place this week.
The market got into a frenzy on January 23 over the company’s significant Cangallo copper-gold porphyry discovery in Peru, which rocketed its share price up by more than 312pc for the week. On Thursday, the company confirmed the eye-watering discovery with further assay results indicating a series of thick mineralised intersections at the site.
The maiden drilling program at Cangallo encountered a stunningly thick interval of 348m grading 0.26pc copper and 0.06g/t gold, including 12m going 0.53pc copper and 0.27g/t gold from 252m. The news sent the share price on a beautiful run.
The latest assays returned possibly better copper grades, with a thick 304m section running 0.3pc copper and 0.06g/t gold from 34m, including 28m going 0.56pc copper and 0.03g/t gold.
Intervals of 226m at 0.22pc copper and 0.07g/t gold from a shallow depth of 4m, along with 154m going 0.37pc copper and 0.06g/t gold from 36m, re-energised the crowd. They sent the share price surging to a new 52-week high of 6.6c on stunning volumes of more than 95 million shares traded on the day.
Management says it has tested only a fraction of the target area and seven of the eight holes ended in mineralisation. They plan a follow-up drilling program to commence shortly at the potential bulk-scale discovery.
Peru is known for producing more copper than any other country outside of global leader Chile. It also provides a stable mining environment and has a government that supports new mine developments.
EQ Resources is preparing for further open-pit mining in the northern part of its Barruecopardo mine, with the end of the breeding season of the local, protected Egyptian vulture. Credit: File
EQ Resources (ASX : EQR)
67pc up (from 2.8c to 4.7c)
Tungsten producer EQ Resources enjoyed a solid run this week, but just missed out on a Runners placing this week.
The company appeared to benefit from China’s move on Tuesday to restrict exports of five critical metals used in defence, clean energy and other industries in response to trade tariffs placed on Chinese goods imported into the US by America’s new President Donald Trump.
Chinese companies will also require a licence to export tungsten-related products into the US. The restrictions, which also apply to US-bound exports of molybdenum, tellurium, bismuth and indium, were imposed to “safeguard national security interests”, according to the Asian behemoth’s commerce minister.
Market watchers must have sensed an opportunity and hit the buy orders button hard, pushing EQ’s share price up more than 67pc on the day from 2.8c to a peak of 4.7c on a whopping 30.2 million shares traded.
Thursday’s volume of 29.3m failed to maintain the upward price momentum as the share price retreated to close at 3.3c.
EQ Resources produces tungsten concentrate from two operations, its Barruecopardo open pit mine in its wider Saloro operation in Spain and the Mt Carbine mine in North Queensland.
The company could soon have more news to come, as it gets underway with phase six open pit operations in the northern zone of Barruecopardo, with the end of the breeding season of two local protected species, Egyptian vultures and black storks.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Craig Nolan
