Juniors on Radar: Explorers on the Move Today

The S&P/ASX 200 materials index opened -1.24% lower today, just barely outperforming the ASX 200. 

3-month chart of the S&P/ASX 200 materials index, with the ASX 200 shown in red. 

#1 Natural Gas

Natural gas is up 3.31% today, edging back towards April 18’s 14-year high. Blizzard conditions in the Rocky Mountains have hampered output in recent days, according to Wood Mackenzie analyst Kara Ozgen.  

• TMK Energy (ASX: TMK) is up 7.14% at the open and 66.67% for the last year. The company is exploring coal seam gas prospects in Mongolia, as noted in our article this past Friday. 

  • Click here to read TMK Energy’s Deep Dive page.

Company announcements

#1 Heavy Minerals

Heavy Minerals (ASX: HVY) has opened 10% higher after reporting a maiden mineral resource estimate for the Port Gregory garnet project. 

According to the estimate, the project contains 4.9Mt of garnet – a silica material that’s often used as an abrasive in industrial sand-blasting applications. 

Putting that number in context, the company says that 4.9Mt of garnet is equivalent to 5 years of global demand. 

“The size and quality of the resource has exceeded all expectations and this positions HVY as the next potential garnet producer in the region,” says executive direction and CEO Nic Matich. 

“High grade, shallow mineralisation, lends itself to a low-cost mining operation. The Company is firmly of the view that the Port Gregory asset is a world-class deposit.”

Next catalyst: infill drilling is planned for Q3 2022 to extend the mineral resource’s footprint.

#2 Evolution Energy Minerals

Evolution Energy Minerals (ASX: EV1) has opened 9.71% higher after signing a memorandum of understanding with Chinese graphite producer Yichang Xincheng Graphite for the offtake of coarse-flake graphite. 

The pending offtake agreement looks set to account for 30,000t of the company’s planned coarse flake graphite production over the next 3 years. 

Managing director Phil Hoskins commented:

“What really excites us is this second phase to our relationship, which advances the Company’s unique strategy to target a diverse set of downstream products – fine flake for battery anodes and coarse flake for expandable graphite and foil.”

Next catalyst: the company expects to finalise the memorandum of understanding in the next few weeks. 

Click here to read Evolution Energy Minerals’s Deep Dive page.

#3 Antipa Minerals

Antipa Minerals (ASX: AZY) has opened 18.6% higher after reporting a 250% increase in the gold mineral resource at the Minyari Dome project. The project now contains 1.8m ounces of gold at 1.6g/t, which is considered a low-grade gold resource by Undervalued Equity. 

“This outstanding result confirms that our 100% owned Minyari‐WACA gold‐copper‐silver‐cobalt resource is very large‐scale with significant continued growth opportunities and strong potential to support a stand‐alone development,” says managing director Roger Mason.

“To have achieved a massive 250% increase in the resource at a discovery cost of an extremely low $7.20 per gold equivalent resource ounce is a credit to the entire Antipa team.”

Next catalyst: the company expects to finish the project’s scoping study in Q3.