ASX investors devoid of good copper stocks just might have 2 in sight

Ever since OzMinerals delisted after BHP bought it out for $9.6bn, good copper stocks have become more difficult to find. Nonetheless, there were a couple of copper stocks with good news this morning, thereby depicting all hope is not lost.

Good news from these 2 copper stocks

Eagle Mountain Mining (ASX:EM2) is a small cap explorer that has the Oracle Ridge Project in Arizona. This morning, the company updated its Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) to 28.2Mt at 1.35% copper, 1..06g/t silver and 0.16g/t. Jusing an 0.8% copper cut-off grade, this equates to 380,000 tonnes of contained copper. This represents a 27% increase in contained copper and a ^% increase in grade.

Eagle Mountain told investors this could just be the tip of the iceberg with recent drilling results, which showed up to 10% copper, not included in the most recent update. Will this company become the next OzMinerals? Probably not, even the company adits it wants to be a mid-tier copper producer. Nonetheless, it is on the right track.

Culpeo Minerals is chipping away

The other copper stock with good news was Culpeo Minerals (ASX:CPO). This explorer has the Fortuna Project in Chile and is at an earlier stage, lacking a formal JORC Resource. Culpeo told investors it had made several solid drilling results, grading up to 5.37% copper. All up, it assayed 36 rock chip samples and half of them returned over 2%.

Investors can still find good copper stocks

Copper is a critically important industrial metal, important in renewable energy and in electronics. However, investors looking for good copper stocks have had slim pickings since Oz Minerals was bought in May for $9.6bn.

Investors have a choice of Sandfire Resources (ASX:SFR) – which is a producer but hte jury is still out on whether its new projects in Spain and Botswana can be lucrative as the DeGrussa Mine in WA; 29Metals (ASX:29M) – which has struggled with production issues for several months now; or the big 2 miners BHP and Rio which offer exposure to copper, although it is an afterthought in their respective portfolios. Then there’s several aspiring explorers that are some years away from production.

Small beginnings…

Nonetheless, the story of Sandfire and how it discovered DeGrussa during the dark days of the GFC depicts that small cap explorers can indeed become the miners of tomorrow. Eagle Mountain Mining and Culpeo Minerals are still some way from that outcome, although their investors have every right to be pleased with this morning’s news.

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