Juniors on Radar: 5 ASX Explorers to Watch Today

Venture Minerals hits another “exceptional” tin intersection

Further drilling at Venture Minerals’ (ASX: VMS) Mount Lindsay tin-tungsten project has uncovered further high-grade mineralisation. Recent intersections include 119m at 0.8% tin, and 0.2% tungsten from 75.8m. 

Tin and tungsten are both critical minerals that play key roles in electric vehicle production. 

• Tin currently trades at USD $43,408/t, and has increased 11.7% year to date. 

In an announcement on Tuesday, the company described Mount Lindsay as one of the world’s largest undeveloped tin projects. Mount Lindsay is located in northwest Tasmania, and has 80,000t of tin, along with what the company says is “a globally significant tungsten resource” of 3,200,000t tungsten trioxide. 

Managing Director Andrew Radonjic commented:

“The new drilling at Mount Lindsay continues to deliver outstanding tin intersections.”

“The value of Mount Lindsay today continues to grow having already more than 80,000 tonnes of tin metal in JORC compliant resources at a time of record Tin prices.”

According to Radonjic, the company’s feasibility drilling will be finished soon.

“Venture looks forward to completing this Feasibility Drilling shortly and ramping up our exploration efforts with drilling scheduled to test multiple high priority targets over the coming months within Australia’s premier tin district on the West Coast of Tasmania.”

Andrew Radonjic, managing director of Venture Minerals. (Source: Venture Minerals)

Askari Metals identifies major lithium targets

Askari Metals (ASX: AS2) is up 9.72% at the open after identifying high-priority lithium exploration targets in a remote sensing survey at the Yarrie Lithium project, located in the Pilbara, WA. 

The hyperspectral survey generated target maps for minerals related to pegmatites and compared them to known lithium-tin-tantalum occurrences in the region as an indicator for potential lithium presence. As result of this survey, several high priority targets were identified within the Yarrie lithium project.

Moving forward, the company will begin on ground exploration to field test these targets.

In today's announcement, the company noted Yarrie’s proximity to the Archer lithium deposit, owned by Global Lithium Resources (ASX: GL1). Archer is 30km south of Yarrie, and contains 10.5mt at a 1% lithium oxide cut-off. 

Askari’s Vice President of Exploration and Geology Johan Lambrechts said:

The prospectivity of the Yarrie Lithium Project is further underpinned by the sheer size of some of the targets, with one of the targets measuring a staggering 88 km². We are excited to drive our lithium exploration forward at both the Yarrie and Barrow Creek Lithium Projects, especially after discovering fertile pegmatites at Barrow Creek.”

“Our focus remains squarely on lithium, but we are also currently completing the second phase of RC drilling on our Burracoppin gold project.”

Navarre Minerals reports further high-grade gold

Navarre Minerals (ASX: NML) is up 8.14% after reporting further high-grade gold results at the Crush Creek project. 

According to the company, new assays show potential for Crush Creek to become a new mill feed source at the company’s recently-acquired Mt Carlton operation, which is within trucking distance.  

Notable results from the recent assays includes:

• 3.1m at 211.6 g/t gold from 94.8m 

• 5.0m at 9.2 g/t gold from 96m

The drilling results will underpin a new mineral resource and ore reserve estimate for Mt Carlton. The company says Mt Carlton is on-track for reporting in March.

Managing Director Ian Holland commented:

“These high-grade gold results continue to highlight the project development opportunities present within the Crush Creek project area as potential satellite operations approximately 30 kilometres from the recently acquired Mt Carlton processing facility.”

“The Company looks forward to announcing its updated resource estimate for Crush Creek’s BV7 and Delta deposits, due to be reported in March 2022.”

Gascoyne Resources extends gold zone

Gascoyne Resources (ASX: GCY) is up 2.94% after reporting additional drilling results from the recently discovered gold mineralisation zone north of the Gilbey’s open pit, which is the main ore source at the Dalgaranga gold project in WA. 

This new zone was originally announced on 8 February. Today’s report has seen this new discovery grow in width and extent. 

Highlight intercepts include:

• 17m at 3.5g/t gold from 22m

• 5m at 1.7g/t gold from 103m

This new zone appears remarkably close to the Gilbey’s pit. The closest intercept drilled so far is only 50m north-west of Gilbey’s current mining front.

Later this month, the company plans to drill on an upper bench of the northern extent of the Gilbey’s Open Pit high wall. This will potentially link to the newly-discovered gold mineralisation zone.

Commenting on the announcement, Managing Director and CEO Simon Lawson said:

“With the closest assay result received so far less than 50m from the pit crest, we are growing increasingly confident of the near-term potential to increase resources, reserves and mine life at Dalgaranga.”

Breaker Resources and Global Lithium announce maiden resource at Manna

Breaker Resources (ASX: BRB) has gained 4% and Global Lithium (ASX: GL1) has soared 18.18% after announcing the maiden lithium resource at the Manna lithium deposit, located in the Lake Roe gold project. 

Breaker has a 20% interest in the Manna project. Global Lithium (ASX: GL1) – which has the other 80% stake – is carrying all costs and expenditure to the completion of a positive bankable feasibility study. If this study is not completed within 5 years, Manna will revert to a 50-50 joint venture. 

The maiden inferred mineral resource estimate for Manna contains 9.9 Mt at 1.14% lithium oxide and 49 tantalum pentoxide parts per million. 

With this news, Global Lithium’s overall lithium mineral resource base has almost doubled to 18.4Mt across the company’s two WA projects.

Global Lithium Chair Warrick Hazeldine commented:

“This highly encouraging result supports GL1’s decision to acquire an 80% stake in the Manna Lithium Project in December 2021, giving the Company its second asset in a Tier 1 jurisdiction. The ability to declare this Mineral Resource estimate at such an early stage in the Company’s ownership grows our confidence in the Project ahead of a major targeting and drilling program, which is currently being planned.” 

Warrick Hazeldine, non-executive chair at Global Lithium

Adding to Hazeldine’s statement, exploration manager Bryan Bourke said:

“We will carry out significant exploration programs at both sites in 2022 in parallel with a surging global lithium market that we plan to supply in the coming years.”

“Across our two project areas, whilst early days, this result from Manna nearly doubles GL1’s overall position in terms of its mineral resources – a huge achievement for a company that only listed on the ASX in May last year.”