Resources Top 5: Trek steps up its gold exploration pace at Christmas Creek

News.com.au

6 hours ago

A diamond rig will expand the high-impact drill program of Trek Metals at Christmas Creek
Soil sampling has resulted in the identification of 15 gold anomalous zones at the Miriam project
Evion Group will supply expandable graphite from its Indian JV to a US graphite supply chain
Your standout small cap resources stocks for Wednesday, June 24, 2025
Trek Metals (ASX:TKM)
Living up to its name, Trek Metals climbed to 9.5c, a new high of almost two years and a step up of 15.86% on Tuesday's close, after revealing it will pick up the pace of exploration at Christmas Creek gold project in WA's Kimberley region.
Although it closed at 8.6c, a lift of 4.88%, the company has increased almost four-fold since the end of February on the back of a capital raising and a string of positive Christmas Creek announcements, supported by strong gold prices.
Trek Metals (ASX:TKM) is adding a diamond rig to expand the high-impact drill program at Christmas Creek and expects the rig from DDH1 Drilling to arrive on site in early July.
This rig will enable deeper exploration targeting and provide the company with detailed structural information relating to gold mineralisation.
Initial drilling will test the Martin prospect where earlier reverse circulation drilling had returned high-grade intersections of 10m at 12.66g/t gold from 59m and 10m at 7.34g/t from 94m in hole 24XRC097.
'The securing of this second rig to undertake diamond drilling at Christmas Creek represents an exciting milestone, providing the opportunity to get down deeper into the system and obtain a much clearer picture of the geology and structural controls of the gold mineralisation,' chief executive officer Derek Marshall said.
TKM has a reverse circulation program underway to test extensions of the same high-grade mineralisation with initial assays expected in mid to late July 2025.
This program started in early June with the initial objective of testing for extensions of high-grade intervals at the Martins target.
Once this work is completed, the RC rig will move to follow-up encouraging results at the Zahn and Coogan targets.
'The initial RC holes have been drilled underneath, down-dip and along strike from the high-grade intercepts achieved at the Martin prospect last year, as we aim to fully delineate what we believe to be a significant stacked high-grade vein system,' Marshall said.
Christmas Creek comprises a previously unexplored, largely concealed district-scale gold and rare earths exploration opportunity southwest of Halls Creek.
Prior to its acquisition by the company in December 2023, it was part of Newmont Exploration's global exploration portfolio.
Since then, TKM has secured additional tenements to add to the district-scale greenfields gold and rare earths exploration opportunity.
Future Battery Minerals (ASX:FBM)
Soil sampling by Future Battery Minerals has resulted in the identification of 15 gold anomalous zones at the Miriam project in WA's Goldfields and outlined the potential for shallow, high-grade discoveries.
Multiple samples returned results above 0.1g/t gold with a peak value of 3.03g/t gold and have highlighted a developing 1.75km gold anomaly.
Many of the anomalous zones are coincident with previously identified structural targets produced from geophysics, with results serving to upgrade the Forrest prospect and regional targets including the Jungle structural trend.
Work was conducted with the aim of identifying areas of elevated or anomalous gold and to consider their importance for the targeting of shallow regolith and bedrock hosted gold.
All surface geochemical sampling was collated with the evaluated results including 300 samples recently collected by FMB and submitted to LabWest for analysis.
Future Battery Minerals (ASX:FBM) managing director and CEO Nick Rathjen said the company's boots on the ground and activity-focused exploration strategy had returned 'exceptional' results, strongly evidenced by the growing exploration potential across its broader Coolgardie portfolio.
'Importantly, the emergence of the Canyon target with a 1.75km striking anomaly is untested and increases the scale potential for the project,' he said.
'Ground preparations are underway for the upcoming initial drill program at Miriam that remains on track to commence in July.
'In light of the strong geophysical and geochemical results and scale of the Canyon target, it's now advanced to drill-ready status and will be tested alongside Forrest in this program.'
FBM remains on track to begin an initial RC drill program at Miriam in July 2025, with all permits in place.
A second heritage survey is also scheduled for July 2025, covering prospective areas which FBM intends to test in subsequent drilling scheduled for late Q3 2025.
Shares closed at 1.8c after climbing 25% to a daily top of 2c.
Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY)
Olympio Metals raced further ahead, hitting a new 12-month high of 13.5c, an increase of 68.75% on the May 24 close, before ending the day at 11c.
This came after the Canadian-focused gold explorer observed visible gold in its very first drill hole at the Bousquet project in Quebec.
The result was from Paquin prospect and occurred within a 9m zone of quartz veining, sulphides and alteration from 183m which extended mineralisation to the west.
The hole is being logged and sampled with priority and samples will be submitted for assay with results expected by mid-July.
'We are delighted to see visible gold in our very first hole at Paquin, which has extended the gold mineralisation to the west. This is a great start and confirms for us that there is great potential in the Bousquet gold project,' Olympio's managing director Sean Delaney said.
'The Bousquet project is perfectly positioned for gold exploration success, having multi-million-ounce gold deposits to the east and west along the Cadillac Break with year-round access for drilling.'
Evion Group (ASX:EVG)
Vertically integrated graphite developer Evion Group has reached an agreement to supply expandable graphite from its Indian joint venture to a leading US graphite supply chain company with shares reaching 1.9c, an increase of 26.67% on the previous close.
The maiden US order represents around 80 tonnes of expandable graphite shipped from the 50/50 JV Panthera graphite facility near Pune, India.
About $400,000 in revenue will be generated from the order and it follows the maiden shipment for the JV in the March 2025 quarter.
'This shipment signals a broader shift in the global supply landscape, with growing demand from US industries for high-quality, non- Chinese sources of critical minerals like expandable graphite,' Evion managing director David Round said.
'Our Panthera Graphite facility has demonstrated its ability to deliver at scale, and we hope this is the first step in establishing a strong, long-term, strategic partnership with the US market.
'We believe this is likely to be the first of many future orders and we look forward to updating the market shortly around our planned, substantial growth and development plans in India.'
Negotiations continue to regularly supply the US and other global buyers in Europe and Asia.
Expandable graphite is essential for thermal management and fire retardancy across the aerospace, EV, energy storage, military applications and electronics sectors.
Noble Helium (ASX:NHE)
Noble Helium is making progress with its refinancing and strategic turnaround and this is reflected by investor confidence with shares climbing from 1.2c on June 18 to a high of 3.4c, an increase of 41.7% on the June 24 close.
The latest catalyst has been executing a favourable Letter of Amendment to a Convertible Note Agreement with New York-based investor Obsidian Global GP, LLC.
Under the amended terms, Obsidian has agreed to not sell any shares in the company or issue a conversion notice until the sooner of a successful refinancing of the company or September 30, 2025.
In addition, the company has terminated an At-The-Market Subscription Agreement with Dolphin Corporate Investments.
'These steps are a crucial part of the refinancing and strategic turnaround of Noble Helium,' Noble Helium's non-executive chairman Dennis Donald said.
'The board intends to issue further information in the near future and would like to thank
Obsidian for its ongoing support of the company.'