Five explorers leveraged to drilling success as microcaps offer big upside
As gold prices rise, exploration success is driving microcaps to massive gains
At the small end of the market a rerate can be just one hole away
These five juniors have drilling programs on the go
All it takes is one drill hole to drastically change the fortunes of even the tiniest explorer.
Just over six months ago, New South Wales explorer Koonenberry Gold (ASX:KNB) had a market capitalisation of well below $5 million.
A series of wide gold hits at the Enmore gold project's Sunnyside prospect has transformed the former microcap into one of the best performing stocks this year.
The first and second holes at Sunnyside returned 170m at 1.75 grams per tonne gold from 77m, including 18m at 9.95g/t gold and 172.9m at 2.07g/t gold respectively.
The hits have kept on coming for Koonenberry, which now has a market cap of more than $75 million, with the company reporting on Tuesday that visible gold had been encountered in seven of the first nine holes.
Results from the fourth and fifth holes are expected later this month, with the sixth expected next month.
OzAurum Resources (ASX:OZM) started the year with a market cap of less than $5 million, but at the start of February, its shares surged more than five-fold off the back of a high-grade gold discovery at the Mulgabbie North project in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields.
Initial results included 20m at 3.57g/t gold from surface, including 10.21g/t gold, and 10m at 6.59g/t gold from 12m, including 4m at 14.17g/t gold.
The company has continued to build on the results since then and while its share price has eased from February highs, it's still up more than 150% year-to-date.
We've identified a few more microcap explorers which are actively drilling right now.
Asra Minerals (ASX:ASR)
On Monday, Asra kicked off a 1300m drilling program at its Leonora South gold project in WA, close to tenements owned by growing mid-tier producer Genesis Minerals.
The program, comprising 1000m of RC and 300m of diamond tail drilling, will target down-dip extensions of the high-grade Orion and Sapphire deposits.
The company will follow up high-grade results from October last year, including 1m at 47.95g/t gold from 115.2m and 1m at 23.12g/t gold from 148.7m at Sapphire, and 0.8m at 23.97g/t gold from 161.2m at Orion.
Asra, which has a market cap of just $6.7 million, expects the first assays in the next 6-8 weeks.
Codrus Minerals (ASX:CDR)
The $6.6 million capped Codrus will fire up the rig any day now after being granted a long-awaited drilling permit for its Bull Run gold project in Oregon.
The project, briefly a producer in the 1930s, has only ever had three shallow holes drilled into it, but has returned rock chip results of up to 1040g/t gold.
'There (are) some pretty outrageous grades there, so it's really low-hanging fruit just crying out to be drilled,' Codrus executive chairman Greg Bandy told Stockhead earlier this week.
Induced polarisation surveying has identified multiple anomalies, while more recent rock chipping returned grades of up to 60g/t gold, 1.5% copper and 2.5% molybdenum.
Codrus is permitted for up to 14,000m of drilling, which is expected to cover multiple programs.
Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R)
Miramar is in the process of an 11,000m aircore program at its Gidji gold project, just 15km north of Kalgoorlie, which represents the first drilling there for three years.
The company has described the 80%-owned project as 'the cheapest house in the best street', sitting right next door to Northern Star Resources' (ASX:NST) 313,000oz 8 Mile Dam deposit.
Early results include a best hit of 1m at 4.45g/t gold, with drilling to date increasing the footprint of the high-priority Blackfriars target.
The company says it shares several similarities to the multi-million-ounce Paddington gold deposit along strike to the north. Results are expected to flow through between now and July.
With a market cap of just $3 million, Miramar is highly leveraged to success at Gidji.
GreenTech Metals (ASX:GRE)
The stage two diamond drilling program at GreenTech's Whundo copper-zinc project in the West Pilbara is progressing.
The first two holes of the program returned a best result of 7.14m at 1.46% copper, 1.23% zinc and 0.08g/t gold from 277.16m, including 6.3m at 1.84% copper, 1.4% zinc and 0.08g/t gold from 278m.
Whundo has an existing resource of 6.2 million tonnes at 1.12% copper and 1.04% zinc.
The project sits on a granted mining lease and GreenTech has flagged the potential to process ore through Anax Metals' nearby Whim Creek plant or Artemis Resources' Radio Hill plant.
GreenTech has success in its DNA via the recent appointment of Julian Hanna as MD, the exploration expert responsible for the early progress of Western Areas and MOD Resources.
Antares Metals (ASX:AM5)
Last week, Mark Connelly-chaired Antares launched its Phase 2 RC drilling at the Surprise copper project in the Mt Isa region of Queensland.
The 1500m program will focus on untested targets identified by geophysics and beneath outcropping high-grade copper mineralised zones and is aiming to enlarge the known mineralised envelope of the project.
The first phase of drilling, completed earlier this year, returned 11m at 1.8% copper and 1.3g/t gold from 68m, including 4m at 3.8% copper from 71m.
The $4.1 million company has also identified rock chips grading up to 26% copper from artisanal workings.
Drilling should be getting started any day now at West Cobar Metals' Fraser Range copper-gold project in WA after receiving approvals at the start of the month.
The company plans to drill eight RC holes to depths of 200-300m to test three iron oxide-copper-gold and two Broken Hill-style targets.
The program is being fully funded by MinRex Resources (ASX:MRR) under a farm-out option agreement signed in March.
MinRex will earn 50% of the project if it sole funds $500,000 of expenditure.
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