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Resources Top 5: It's ‘Up There Cazaly' as gold drilling kicks off at Duke of York
A 2000m RC drill program will test beneath old gold workings and attempt to validate historical results at Duke of York
Manuka Resources intends to restart the Wonawinta Processing Plant to produce silver and gold
Ausgold is busy at the Katanning gold project with drilling, a DFS and permitting
Your standout small cap resources stocks for Friday, June 20, 2025
Cazaly Resources (ASX:CAZ)
It has been 'Up There Cazaly' for junior gold explorer Cazaly Resources, jumping to 2.6c, an increase of 30% on Thursday's close, before closing up 15% at 2.3c.
In homage to the stirring AFL song, Cazaly rose above the pack of ASX juniors after starting drilling this week at the Duke of York prospect in the Goongarrie gold project.
A 2000m RC drill program will test beneath old gold workings and attempt to validate historical results.
After receiving approval, drill site preparation was completed last week in order to facilitate the first phase of RC drilling, which kicked off this week.
The initial phase of drilling is designed to validate historical drill intercepts including 13m at 3.5g/t and 8m at 10.7g/t.
This drilling will also inform the next phase of RC drilling to further test for gold mineralisation along strike and down plunge.
After Duke of York, Cazaly Resources (ASX:CAZ) plans to drill the Star of Goongarrie prospect.
Cazaly's managing director Tara French said: 'I am extremely pleased to announce that drilling has commenced at Duke of York, the first of many gold targets to be tested in this highly prospective district.
'Our team has worked extremely hard to obtain approvals which places us on the ground less than three months after exercising the option to earn up to 80% of the Goongarrie Gold project with Brightstar Resources.
'It's a very exciting time to be drilling beneath historical gold workings in the Eastern Goldfields, and we can't wait to see the results of this first drilling campaign.'
Previous drilling at Duke of York was completed in 2001 by Red Back Mining NL in joint venture with Goldfields Exploration, when the gold price was circa US$300. There were 23 RC holes drilled for 2,084m.
In 2011 Metaliko Resources completed limited work at Duke of York with three RC holes drilled for 270m.
The Duke of York and Star of Goongarrie prospects are priority target areas with anomalous gold mineralisation localised in a structurally complex zone within the Bardoc Tectonic Zone at the junction of two constituent faults.
Goongarrie is in the northeastern goldfields, 90km north of Kalgoorlie, and is easily accessible via the Goldfields Highway that runs along the western boundary of the project area.
The project consists of 70km2 of greenstone sequence within the Kalgoorlie Terrain.
Manuka Resources (ASX:MKR)
(Up on no news)
With silver and gold production in its sights in the Cobar Basin of NSW as a time of buoyant markets for the safe-haven metals, Manuka Resources intends to restart the Wonawinta Processing Plant that is on active care and maintenance.
The silver will come from stockpiles and open pits at and around the Wonaminta plant, south of Cobar, while most of the gold will come from stockpiles at the Mt Boppy east of the traditional mining town.
A 10-year Life of Mine plan will see the 1Mtpa Wonaminta processing plant refurbished and 13.2Moz of silver produced supported by gold credits with production scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2026.
Restart costs are estimated at A$18.9m including the addition of a deslime circuit and dewatering circuit to the plant to enhance performance.
This LOM plan has been estimated to provide Manuka Resources (ASX:MKR) with annual EBITDA of $22M at an average cost of A$35/oz silver for an NPV8 of A$101m and IRR of 109%.
Wonaminta project comprises two existing and three planned open pits and has historically produced 3.2Moz including 382,000oz by Manuka between 2022 and 2023.
The total 38.5Mt resource at the project comprises 38.3Mt at 41.3g/t Ag in ground and 200,000t at 60g/t Ag and 0.07g/t Au in ROM stockpiles.
Mining will start in April 2026 and will see production from the existing Manuka and Boundary pits as well as the new Belah, Bimble and Pothole pits.
Gold ore from Mt Boppy stockpiles will be hauled to Wonawinta and blended with silver ore during the first two years of production to deliver a payable gold credit.
Mt Boppy was historically one of NSW's richest gold mines, having produced ~500,000oz gold at ~15 g/t. It is on a granted Mining Lease and has an existing 48-bed mining camp and ancillary infrastructure.
The resource stands at 2.6Mt at 1.32g/t Au with 400,000t at 4.23g/t in-ground and 2.2Mt at 0.84g/t in rock dumps, tailings and stockpiles.
Manuka said there were also opportunities to extend the resource beneath the existing open pit and along strike and en-echelon of the existing deposit.
The company also has a large vanadium-rich iron sands resource offshore of the Taranaki Bight in New Zealand and is advancing the Taranaki VTM Project through the NZ approvals process.
Manuka shares reached a high of 4.15c, a 12.17% increase on the previous close.
Ausgold (ASX:AUC)
At the Katanning gold project in WA's Great Southern region, Ausgold has defined one of the state's largest undeveloped resources of 3.04Moz of gold at an average grade of 1.06g/t including higher confidence measured and indicated resources of 2.42Moz and an ore reserve of 1.28Moz at 1.25g/t.
That is enough for a plant with proposed throughput of 3.6 million tonnes per annum to comfortably sustain annual production of 136,000oz of gold for an initial 10-year mine life.
A major ~19,000m drill program is underway including 12,000m of RC drilling proximal to the KGP designed to de-risk the first 18 months of production and grow the mineral resource.
The infill drilling has delivered near-surface gold intercepts such as 14m grading 4.58g/t gold from 29m in the Central Zone that support the de-risking strategy and high-grade results such as 10m at 10.55g/t gold from 42m in the Southern Zone that support growth potential.
Likewise, drilling has extended the Datatine high-grade shoot in the Northern Zone by ~240m down-plunge after returning 6.6m at 3.4g/t gold from 362m, reinforcing its potential as a high-grade underground prospect that remains open down-plunge.
Drilling at regional prospects has also intersected broad gold zones, which reinforce Ausgold's belief in the prospectivity of its regional growth pipeline.
Shares reached 74.5c, a 4.93% increase on the previous close before ending the trading day at 71c.
Ausgold (ASX:AUC) is putting the final touches on a definitive feasibility study which is due for release before the end of June.
'It's starting to look really good, taking shape. I think it's going to be a really strong project,' executive chairman John Dorward told Stockhead.
He said the feasibility study was a big step towards putting a milestone out in the public domain and it would be a critical step on the right path for the company.
Besides the DFS, Ausgold is focused on permitting. 'We will have our initial application in by the end of this month to start the permitting clock, which we think is around a nine-month timeline,' he said.
The current Katanning project is a starter kit for what Ausgold believes will be a multi-decade asset.
The company's large landholding means there is plenty of the greenstone belt still to explore for large new gold deposits.
'We have started to actively explore that. We have enough to build a very attractive project. today, but we think it's just the early innings and very much just the starter for what we think will ultimately be there,' Dorward said.
Peak Minerals (ASX:PUA)
Investors responded positively to Thursday's news from Peak Minerals of a rare earths discovery, including high-value monazite, at the Minta rutile project in Cameroon.
After rising to a four-year high of 2.4c on the day of the announcement, PUA today exceeded that, hitting 2.5c, a lift of 13.64% on Thursday's close.
The discovery at Minta Est prospect stands to boost the economics of the heavy minerals package at Minta as monazite trades at about three times the value of rutile and zircon.
Sampling at Minta Est returned Heavy Mineral (HM) results along with mineral assemblages and rare earth element distribution results.
Assays were received from an additional 36 residual and 11 alluvial holes at Minta Est over an initial 121km2 and further assays are pending.
The average depth of all holes reported on Minta Est to date is 4m, with all holes intersecting mineralisation from surface.
Sampling returned grades of 0.5%-1.2% TREO from free-dig material in monazite separated by conventional mineral sands processing methods.
Recent and historical samples show assemblages of up to 73% monazite, up to 35% rutile and up to 28% zircon at Minta Est.
'It is very exciting to release these new drilling assay results representing an entirely new high-grade discovery at Minta Est, located across 121km2 in the northeast portion of Minta rutile project,' Peak Minerals chief executive officer Casper Adson said.
'Monazite makes up to 73% of the heavy mineral assemblage at Minta Est, positioning the project as a potential high-value, world-class asset.
'Importantly, the separated monazite contains up to 22.5% NdPr and 2.7% DyTb – key magnet rare earths critical to the global energy transition.'
Hawthorn Resources (ASX:HAW)
(Up on no news)
Although it has no fresh news, explorer Hawthorn Resources made a positive move, lifting 28.3% to 6.8c.
After converting its 19.6% equity interest in the Mt Bevan magnetite project to a 1% FOB royalty, the company is primarily focused on gold at the Trouser Legs 70:30 joint venture with Gel Resources, including the Anglo Saxon project.
Anglo Saxon, which has a mineral resource of 157,000 ounces at 6.1g/t, is at Pinjin, about 140km northeast of Kalgoorlie and to the east of Northern Star's Carosue Dam project.
Given the prevailing higher gold prices, the JV partners earlier this year completed a revised pit optimisation study as they assess development options for Anglo Saxon.
Outcomes of this study are assisting the JV in discussions with third parties aimed at determining the next stage of development and maximising project returns.
An 8000m RC drilling program has been designed to infill the upper levels of the southern extension of the resource and de-risk the first stage of any mining of a future cutback.
Tendering and a Program of Works have been approved and drilling is expected to take place during the September quarter of 2025.
