Big Drill Hits: Sayona expands its lithium footprint + Two under-the-radar goldies

Welcome back to Weekly Big Drill Hits – A curated list of the most intriguing intersections made by ASX-listed explorers. We skipped last week's recap to compile the biggest hits for the June quarter. You can read more about it here.

Making up for lost time, we'll be covering the top drill hits so far in July.

Lithium

The 'Interval' reflects the length of the core and 'From' reflects interval start. Only the highest grade thickness intercept is shown (per announcement. The data is for illustrative purposes only and may not be an exhaustive list of all drill hits. (Data date range: 3-14 July)

Patriot Battery Metals and Sayona fall under Macquarie's coverage. Here are some of the key points from their notes this week.

Patriot Battery Metals (ASX: PMT): Outperform with $2.30 target price

• "The results from the winter drill program at CV5 have been highly positive, with wide widths and strong grades announced."

• "Drilling has materially grown the CV5 pegmatite footprint, which has increased from 2.2km to 3.7km."

• "The initial resource for CV5 is set to be released in the coming weeks and remains a key catalyst."

Sayona Mining (ASX: SYA): Outperform with $0.24 target price

• "Recent exploration, including step out drilling, has identified a significant increase to the lithium footprint at the Moblan Lithium Project."

• "There is material upside to the Resource of 51.4mt @ 1.31% Li2O (April 2023), with these results expected to contribute to the DFS (November 2023)"

• "The faster-than- expected production ramp-up at NAL is also encouraging, with the negotiation of uncommitted volumes from NAL currently underway."

Gold

The 'Interval' reflects the length of the core and 'From' reflects interval start. Only the highest grade thickness intercept is shown (per announcement. The data is for illustrative purposes only and may not be an exhaustive list of all drill hits. (Data date range: 3-14 July)

This week's gold hits highlights several goldies that you've probably never heard of, which I suppose is the whole purpose of this series. Momentum is key for gold explorers, as more often than not, a one-off bonanza gold hit also results in a one-off spike in share price. We'll recap two stocks on the list that are breaking out or trending higher.

Gascoyne Resources (ASX: GCY) has made several appears in recent months. In summary, the company resumed trading in March after a five month suspension and raised $50 million. The stock fell around 40% to 10 cents on its first day. A renewed focus on its Never Never Deposit in WA plus a steady stream of high-grade gold hits has helped the stock almost double from recent lows to a nine month high.

Gascoyne Resources 3-month price chart (Source: Market Index)

Emerald Resources (ASX: EMR) is a $1.2bn gold producer operating the Okvau Gold Mine in Cambodia. Earlier this month, the company said the project achieved its full-year guidance, 108,866 ounces produced in FY23. Despite it being a rather under-the-radar gold producer, the stock has been trending rather strongly, up 95% year-to-date and 152% in the past twelve months.

Emerald Resources 12-month price chart (Source: Market Index)