Next Small Cap, page-3

Rechargeable lithium ion batteries are revolutionising the way the world is powered.

$11.3M capped explorer Red Mountain Mining (ASX: RMX) is one company intent on taking advantage of the potential of the energy power revolution via the growing markets that look to be opening up in the form of lithium and cobalt – two essential materials required for lithium ion batteries.

With $2.5M in the bank at end of last quarter, the company has an active exploration campaign ongoing on both its lithium brine project in Utah, and its cobalt project in Africa. When we last updated you on RMX it was gearing up to begin its drilling at Red Valley. That drill programme is now well underway with the first hole completed and the company is expecting to have the second hole, of the initial three-hole programme, completed any day now.  But RMX isn’t rolling all its marbles into Red Valley.
It’s also attacking the renewable energy revolution via a well-considered venture into cobalt.

It is no wonder then that RMX has entered the cobalt scene as it looks to shore up its assets for the growing future clean energy storage demand.

In its latest move, RMX has signed a term sheet to take a closer look at a high-grade cobalt copper project located in the world-renowned cobalt region of Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  

The Mukabe-Kasari Cobalt-Copper Project offers significant potential and has artisanal mining that has already demonstrated mineralisation at the location.  At the same time, given RMX is operating in Africa on this project, this is a very high risk stock for political and social reasons. Getting mining projects up and running in countries such as the DRC is no simple feat, and there may be challenges ahead.Rock chip samples from the project indicate a greater lateral spread and consistent high-grades within the project area and show promising high grade cobalt samples grading 1.1% and 1.5%.There were also some good copper-cobalt combinations, including 2.7% copper with the 1.1% cobalt sample… and there are further samples to follow still.But while cobalt is next in the project pipeline, it is the immediate drilling in Red Valley that could really elevate this company in the near term.