Resources Top 5: Institutional investors attracted to Koonenberry's golden success
DY6 has identified further visible natural rutile at the Central Rutile project in Cameroon
Lodestar Minerals is boosting its coffers with a two-tranche placement for $2.2 million
Your standout small cap resources stocks for Monday, June 30, 2025
Koonenberry Gold (ASX:KNB)
A string of broad, high-grade gold results from the Enmore project in the New England region of northeast NSW is putting Koonenberry Gold in the spotlight and attracting institutional shareholders, including Lowell Resources Fund (ASX:LRT) and Lion Selection Group (ASX:LSX).
The latter has increased its ownership of Koonenberry to 9.2% after purchasing an additional 25 million shares from Datt Capital Pty Ltd off-market for 3c per share.
This show of confidence by the prominent resources sector investor has seen KNB shares reach 4.1c, a lift of 28.13% on the previous close with 102m shares changing hands.
Enmore, near Armidale, has been drill tested historically but Koonenberry is drilling an adjacent target area which has so far shown to be materially better mineralised than the historic results.
The new target area is a sheared granite host rock, where Koonenberry has recorded high tenor gold drilling intersections such as 172.9m at 2.07g/t Au from 171m.
Drilling results are from a small footprint area to date and demonstrate a thick mineralised and altered zone which contains intervals of high-grade gold.
This represents a small portion of a target area that strikes for 2km as defined by new surface geochemistry results.
Underpinning its growing investment in KNB, Lion said, was the large and mostly untested search space at Enmore with hallmarks of a potentially large gold system.
Lion rarely invests at the pure exploration stage and said this was because of the risks associated with such early-stage ventures.
It said exceptions may only be made when the opportunity featured highly capable management and contained multiple opportunities to make discoveries, which strongly underpinned its investment in Koonenberry.
'The Koonenberry board and management have shown deep conviction for a new target underpinned by high quality technical work to acquire Enmore and make the discovery which is now underway,' Lion said.
'In addition to Enmore, Koonenberry has a portfolio of 100%-owned and joint venture projects across NSW that provide ongoing exposure to further discoveries.'
The shares purchased from Datt by Lion are subject to a voluntary escrow expiring on 28 November 28, 2025. The Koonenberry board has approved a transfer of the block of shares with the escrow to remain in place.
Lion managing director Hedley Widdup said: 'Koonenberry has progressed to become a key holding for Lion, providing exposure to an in-progress discovery that has strong hallmarks of scale and quality.
"This latest purchase has been done at a price which is very attractive compared with the upside that we think remains both at Enmore and across Koonenberry's portfolio.'
Melbourne's Datt Capital amassed a substantial stake in the company but then called for board and governance changes.
The issue was resolved and Koonenberry appointed Datt appointee Tony Gu to the board. However, Gu resigned only three weeks later and Datt sold the bulk of its shares, now exiting its position entirely.
Koonenberry was also flung into the spotlight by our columnist Kristie Batten in her Monday column. Check it out here.
DY6 Metals (ASX:DY6)
Rutile is a much sought after critical mineral being the rarest, highest grade and most valuable source of titanium, which is used in the aerospace, automotive, medical and industrial sectors.
One of a number of ASX-listed juniors, including Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM) and Peak Minerals (ASX:PUA), seeking to build up and exploit rutile resources in central Africa is DY6 Metals.
At the Central Rutile project within the Bounde licence in Cameroon, DY6 has identified further visible natural rutile in alluvial and eluvial sources and shares have reached 3.4c, an increase of 20% on the previous close.
Reconnaissance sampling has identified a new area of around 100km2 with large residual natural rutile nuggets ranging in size from 2cm to more than 4cm, heavy minerals and residual rutile mineralisation.
The sampling program consisted of some auger drilling and the collection of channel, surface grab and stream sediment samples.
Samples have been submitted for laboratory analysis in Cape Town, South Africa, with results expected in the September quarter.
The identification of rutile across the entire tenement package is highly encouraging for DY6, as it confirms that this region is an emerging, globally significant rutile province.
'The reconnaissance program has been a great success, having identified visual HM and rutile mineralisation across each licence,' technical consultant Cliff Fitzhenry said.
'What we have uncovered at the Bounde licence is particularly exciting. I have never seen rutile nuggets of this size before.'
Exploration will now move to the next phase with a systematic regional soil sampling program seeking to rapidly identify areas of higher-grade residual rutile mineralisation.
Lodestar Minerals (ASX:LSR)
With a two-tranche placement to bolster its coffers by $2.2 million, Lodestar Minerals more than doubled to 1.3c before closing at 1.1c
Funds raised will be used to advance existing exploration programs in Chile, to assess new opportunities and for working capital.
The company has appointed Oakley Capital Partners as lead manager and corporate advisor for the two-tranche capital raising.
The first tranche will comprise the issue of 79,166,667 shares at 0.6c per share to raise $475,000 before costs in line with the company's available Listing Rule 7.1 and 7.1A capacities. Shares will be issued to sophisticated and professional investor clients of Oakley.
The second tranche will be subject to shareholder approval at a general meeting. This will comprise the issue of 345m shares at 0.5c per share to raise $1,725,000 before costs.
This will also be made to sophisticated and professional investor clients of Oakley.
'We are delighted to have secured the support of Oakley Capital Partners for this capital raising. The strong level of interest and demand reflects renewed confidence in Lodestar's strategic direction and growth potential,' Lodestar chairman Ross Taylor said.
"This successful recapitalisation marks a pivotal moment in the company's evolution and positions us to advance our exploration and development ambitions with renewed strength.
'We welcome Oakley Capital Partners as a key partner and thank them for their belief in the Lodestar team and our vision.
'The successful raising of a significant amount of capital reflects the strong demand and investor confidence in the company's direction and future potential.'
Megado Minerals (ASX:MEG)
(Up on no news)
Reaching a 12-month high of 2.4c, a 41.18% increase on the previous close, was Megado Minerals, which earlier in June completed the acquisition of 80% of Iberian Copper Pty Ltd, which owns 100% of the Iberian copper project in Spain.
The Iberian Copper Project in Aragón and Navarra consists of 12 permits (under application) covering 956km2 of historically copper and silver producing strata along about 200km.
Megado aims to undertake a maiden drilling campaign in Q4 2025 and to support this, an in-country team is completing extensive geological mapping in preparation for airborne geophysics.
The airborne program to be flown in Q3 is expected to confirm high-priority targets for drilling.
In addition, the company has signed an agreement with the University of Aragón to support its exploration.
The university has substantial intellectual capital invested in the region and has identified multiple opportunities for the company's consideration.
'This is an exciting milestone for the company. We now have a massive opportunity with full control of an entire copper and silver belt hosting multiple historic mines,' Megado chairman Anthony Hall said.
'Importantly, we have also secured a very capable in-country operating team that has a track record of success. We are already starting to see this with early geological mapping and our agreement with the University of Aragón.'
Astute Metals (ASX:ASE)
Nevada has been a star performer in US resources exploration and extraction for many years and always figures prominently in the Fraser Institute's annual mining investment attractiveness index.
One ASX junior taking steps to join Nevada's honour role is Astute Metals which has used a review of historical data and newly-acquired ASTER imagery to identify four high-priority gold-silver targets at its Needles project, prompting an 18.75% increase in shares to 1.9c.
Providing the company with confidence of future success at Needles is the project's geological similarities to bulk-tonnage gold operations in Nevada such as the 20Moz+ Round Mountain mine and AngloGold Ashanti's recent 16Moz+ Silicon-Merlin discovery.
The underexplored project also hosts numerous historical gold-silver workings from the early 1900s to 1920s and has previously returned rock chip results of up to 33g/t gold and 1115g/t silver.
Silicon-Merlin was discovered through exploration drilling beneath the alteration cap of an epithermal deposit, which indicates there's discovery potential in drilling the deeper parts of epithermal systems and a pathway to value creation.
Astute Metals will now carry out systematic soil sampling and magnetic surveys, ahead of initial drilling planned for Q3 2025.
Work at Needles will be conducted in tandem with the company's drilling program at the nearby Red Mountain lithium project, leveraging cost and management synergies.
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