The holy grail of mining investing is to find an early-stage company with good prospects and, hopefully, hang on to the shares as they mature into a fully-fledged miner.
There are no certainties in this regard, but the team over at Shaw and Partners have had a look at Sunstone Metals Ltd (ASX: STM) and has taken a shine to them after a positive announcement this week.
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What was announced this week?
So the news this week included trenching results from the company's most recent exploration efforts, which delivered some positive findings.
These included 29.5m at 0.91 gram per tonne of gold equivalent (made up of gold, copper, and molybdenum) and 21.6m at 1.19 grams per tonne of gold equivalent.
The company said in its statement to the ASX that the high grade mineralisation at the surface "highlights the huge scope to grow the 3.6Moz AuEq Mineral Resource at its Bramaderos Project in southern Ecuador''.
The company's Managing Director, Patrick Duffy, added:
These results demonstrate yet again the huge potential to grow what is already a big gold-copper resource at Bramaderos. "The latest results come from the first three trenches across part of the large Porotillo soil gold-copper anomaly, which lies south of the recent Copete discovery. They contain extremely strong, consistent gold and copper mineralisation and significantly strengthen our targeting model ahead of imminent drilling at Copete, Porotillo, and Melonal.
Mr Duffy said the company had recently increased the resource base by a third to 3.6 million ounces and said, "Sunstone is well-placed to fast-track further expansion of the resource in 2026''.
He added that a scoping study was also well underway, "which we are very confident will demonstrate outstanding economics of this growing cluster of outcropping gold-copper porphyry systems on the Bramaderos project''.
The Shaw and Partners team examined this week's announcement and said the trenching method of exploration was a cost-effective way to refine targets for the company's upcoming drilling program.
They also put the region into context:
Bramaderos is in elephant country, with a vast exploration target of an additional 5-13 million ouncs. The immediate strategy focuses on drilling to convert targets to formal resources, aiming to reach 5 million ounces by the end of the year. By integrating the high-grade Limon epithermal system into the broader mine plan, Sunstone aims to enhance early-year project economics through higher-grade feed, reinforcing Bramaderos as a globally significant asset with long-life, low-cost potential.
Shaw and Partners added that Sunstone is continuing to engage with strategic partners to potentially accelerate its projects.
The broker has a price target of 7 cents per share, which would represent a 311.8% return from the current level of 1.7 cents if achieved.
Sunstone was valued at $115.6 million at the close of trade on Wednesday.
