Juniors on Radar: Explorers on the Move Today

The S&P/ASX 200 materials index opened 2.51% higher today, outperforming the ASX 200. 

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

#1 Zinc

The zinc spot price has regained 0.4% today after fading slightly from a 16-year high in recent days. 

“Zinc continues to show sustained strength and pricing is beginning to reflect the criticality of the metal to world supply chains,” says Ironbark Zinc managing director Michael Jardine. 

“Put simply, the world needs more Zinc for both new and traditional infrastructure.”

• Golden Deeps (ASX: GED) is up 12.5% at the open and 50% for the last year. Recent testwork at the company’s Abenab project in Namibia generated a concentrate with a grade of up to 8.95% zinc. For context, anything between 2.5-10% is considered medium grade, according to Undervalued Equity. 

• Ironbark Zinc (ASX: IBG) is up 4.65% at the open after releasing quarterly cashflow and activities reports. The company is up 100% for the last year. The company has noted that the world’s only major new zinc mine scheduled to complete in 2022 (the Ozernoye project in Russia) is facing major headwinds because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

Company announcements

#1 Siren Gold

Siren Gold (ASX: SNG) has opened 9.09% higher after discovering a new 3km-long gold zone at the Lyell project, located in New Zealand. 

Rock chip samples taken along this zone found results from 0.7-8.6 g/t gold. According to Undervalued Equity:

• Less than 1.5 g/t is considered low grade.

• 1.5-5 g/t is medium grade.

• Anything over 5 g/t is high grade. 

#2 Austral Resources 

Austral Resources (ASX: AR1) has opened 9.72% higher after releasing a quarterly activities report for the period ending 31 March. 

“Copper production will increase significantly from May,” says CEO Steve Tambanis in the report. 

“To put this into perspective, production from January to April this year was 540t of cathode. Planned cathode production from May to December is a significant 9,000t and then increasing to 12,000t for 2023.”

It could be a case of good timing for the company. With copper prices at historic highs, the company’s increasing cathode production rate could lead to growth in sales revenues. 

The company has noted that revenues should be “considerably higher than originally forecast when Austral listed late last year.”

#3 Metarock

Metarock Group (ASX: MYE) has opened 8.33% higher after releasing an operational and guidance update for the full year to 30 June 2022.  

The company’s revenue and margins remain in accordance with the miner’s previous half-year announcement.

• The company expects revenue of $450-480m for FY2022.

• The company expects revenue of $700-750m for FY2023.