Big Drill Hits: The best lithium, gold and nickel hits of the week

Welcome back to Weekly Big Drill Hits – A curated list of the most intriguing intersections made by ASX-listed explorers.

After a pretty loaded list of drill results last week, it's understandable that this week was going to be pretty quiet on all fronts.

Lithium

Date range: 17-21 March 2023

It was a pretty dull week for lithium drill hits. A few companies including Lord Resources (ASX: LRD), Argonaut Resources (ASX: ARE) and Critical Resources (ASX: CRR) intersected pegmatites or near-surface mineralisation this week. Assays are pending. So we might hear from them in a few weeks time.

Gold

Date range: 17-21 March 2023

It's quiet unusual to see only a few gold explorers post drill results. Perhaps this is a seasonal lull.

Copper and Uranium

No copper and uranium drill results were released.

We're still building out our watchlists. So if we've missed any results, please feel to reach out.

Nickel

Date range: 17-21 March 2023

Does a big drill hit drive share price upside?

The immediate thought is 'Yes'.

A high grade drill result should support factors such as the economics of the project, enhance mineral resources and positively influence the company's share price. But there are a few other considerations to be made. We'll look at one of them today.

An important question to ask is where does this drill result sit within the broader context of the company's drilling campaign and exploration timeline.

Imagine a company announces maiden drill results for a prospective project that the market hasn't really heard much about. The result is a bonanza.

Now imagine that the same company is running another drilling campaign for the same project. It's posting regular drill results that aren't as impressive as the bonanza.

Patriot Battery Metals (ASX: PMT) might be a good example to look at. The stock listed on the ASX on 7 December 2022 and started to post drill results in January. Here are some of the key announcements and share price reactions:

• 19 Jan (+38.3%): Patriot drills 156.9m of 2.2% lithium

• 30 Jan (+15.9%): Patriot drills 52.2m of 3.34% lithium

• 6 Feb (+9.6% from session high of 16.3%): Patriot extends strike length by 400m

• 14 Feb (-11.5%): Patriot drills 22.6m at 1.56 lithium

• 24 Mar (+5.1%): Patriot extends strike length to 3.15 km

• 30 Mar (+1.7% from session high of 11%): Patriot drills 83.7m of 3.13% lithium

Notwithstanding broader market factors, the drill hits appear to be less and less impactful for Patriot shares.

As Macquarie puts it, "the release of the maiden resource estimate for Corvette by the end of June presents a key near-term catalyst for PMT."