Juniors on Radar: Explorers on the Move Today

With the S&P/ASX 200 falling more than -2% this morning, it’s been a grim start to the day, and a quiet response from junior mining companies. 

Typically, we’re looking at 50-60 announcements each day from junior miners. Today, there’s been just 10 so far. So, this article will be a little more condensed than normal…

#1 Coal

Coal has opened 5.45%, marking a second day of big gains. 

• MC Mining (ASX: MCM) is up 3.45% at the open and 30.44% for the last year. The company has thermal and metallurgical coal projects in South Africa. 

• Bathurst Resources (ASX: BRL) is up 0.78% at the open and 282.35% for the last year. The company has coal projects in New Zealand. In the company’s recent quarterly report, Bathurst noted a 11% increase in earnings compared to the prior period, and says that “we are on track to achieving our full year domestic and export sales tonnes” in the next quarter. 

Company announcements

Like I said in my introduction, it’s been a quiet day for announcements, and the market has largely ignored them, anyway. Out of the 12 market-sensitive announcements in the materials sector, only one company has seen an increase in its share price (at the time of writing, at least). 

So, no prizes for guessing who I’m about to cover…

#1 Auric Mining

Auric Mining (ASX: AWJ) has opened 4.65% higher after reporting the results of metallurgical testwork on samples from the Jeffreys Find Deposit. 

With overall gold extraction between 90.16-94.99%, the company says that “these characteristics point to optimal processing costs and increased suitability for toll treatment in the near term.” 

Technical director John Utley commented:

“These results confirm the amenability of Jeffreys Find mineralization to conventional CIL [carbon-in-leach] treatment. This is another critical step in our progression towards mining at Jeffreys Find.”