Welcome to the first edition of the Investing News Network's weekly round-up of Australia’s top-performing mining stocks on the ASX, starting with news in Australia's resource sector.
In significant news for Australia's iron sector, mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO,NYSE:RIO,LSE:RIO), together with its joint venture partner Hancock Prospecting, said on Tuesday (June 24) that the partners will invest a combined US$1.6 billion to develop the Hope Downs 2 iron ore project in the Pilbara region, Western Australia.
Companies focused on antimony and gold have also been making news this week, such as Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML) announcing its acquisition of the Horse Heaven project in Idaho, US, and Ausgold (ASX:AUC,OTC Pink:AUSGF) signing an agreement to acquire Critica’s (ASX:CRI,OTC Pink:VTMLF) Kulin gold project in Western Australia.
This week, Resolution was one of two companies focused on antimony to make the top ASX mining stocks list. Antimony has been gaining attention as supply falls and prices hit record highs following China's export controls earlier in the year. The metal is critical to the defense and lead-acid battery industries. In a report by Reuters, the executive director of a US battery association said the shortage of the key mineral is a national emergency with no quick solution.
Market and commodity price round-up
The S&P/ASX 200 index opened at 8,505.50 on Monday (June 23) and closed at approximately 8,550.20 on Friday (June 27). This reflects a modest 0.53 percent gain over the week.
For metals, the gold price declined by 2.8 percent, opening at US$3,368.57 per ounce on Monday and closing at US$3,274.15 at 6 a.m. AEST, June 28. Its price in Australian dollars fell by 4 percent from AU$5,221.02 to AU$5,013.71 by the week's end.
The US silver price ended the week neutral, moving from a US$36.01 open on Monday to a US$35.99 close on Friday. However, in Australian dollars, it opened at AU$55.81 per ounce and pulled back 1.24 percent to AU$55.12.
Top ASX mining stocks this week
How did ASX mining stocks perform against this backdrop?
Take a look at this week’s five best-performing Australian mining stocks below as we break down their operations and why these mining stocks are up this week.
Stock data for this article was retrieved at 4 p.m. AEST on June 26 using TradingView's stock screener. Only companies trading on the ASX with market capitalizations greater than AU$10 million are included. Mineral companies within the non-energy minerals, energy minerals, process industry and producer manufacturing sectors were considered.
Share price: AU$0.013
Market cap: AU$16.37 million
Weekly gain: 116.67 percent
GBM Resources is a Brisbane-based exploration and development company focusing on the discovery of world-class gold and copper deposits in Queensland.
Its flagship asset is a fully owned group of projects — Yandan, Twin Hills and Mt Coolon — located in the Drummond Basin, among Australia’s major gold provinces with a production history of over 4.5 million ounces.
Combined, the three Drummond Basin projects host 1.84 million ounces of gold and a total project area of 4,667 square kilometres.
The Mt Coolon project is subject to a farm-in partnership between GBM and leading gold producer Newmont (NYSE:NEM,TSX:NGT). In late April, Newmont released final assays from its Phase 1 drill program at Mt Coolon.
On Tuesday (June 24), GBM announced that it has received firm commitments to raise AU$13 million, which it will use in part to repay and cancel all of its existing convertible notes with Collins St Asset Management worth AU$6.2 million. Upon repayment, GBM will be debt-free and well-funded to advance its Yandan and Twin Hills assets with the goal of expanding its gold resource base.
The placement also includes several board and management changes, with Peter Rohner stepping down as managing director immediately and as CEO once his contract expires on July 31.
Shares of GBM soared to AU$0.014 on Tuesday following the announcement of the placement and recapitalization strategy.
2. Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY)
Share price: AU$0.088
Market cap: AU$10.82 million
Weekly gain: 41.94 percent
Locksley Resources is an exploration company focused on its flagship Mojave project in California, a rare earths and antimony asset situated near MP Materials’ (NYSE:MP) Mountain Pass mine, the only operational REE mine in the US. It also owns copper, gold and base metal assets in Australia.
Mojave is located on California’s south-eastern border with Nevada.The project hosts two mineralisation zones, the El Campo rare earth elements prospect, which hosts rare earths including neodymium and praseodymium, and the past-producing Desert antimony mine area, which hosts antimony, silver, lead and zinc. Rock chip sampling returned grades up to 12.1 percent total rare earth oxides at El Campo, and up to 46.1 percent antimony and 1,022 grams per tonne silver at the Desert antimony mine.
After starting May at AU$0.019, Locksley’s share price saw a boost on May 8 following the federal endorsement of Dateline Resources’ (ASX:DTR,OTC Pink:DTREF) Colosseum gold-rare earths project, which is located in the same district as Mojave. Locksley stated it would use this precedent to pursue government support.
Its share price climbed even higher after the company announced a capital raising on May 28 to fund exploration at Mojave. It peaked at AU$0.115 on June 4. The upcoming drilling program will focus on El Campo, with five RC holes targeting rare earths at the site, and is planned for the last quarter of 2025. The company secured the drilling permit on June 5.
On June 17, Locksley announced a strategic US collaboration for the project, saying that it aims to align its antimony and rare earth elements assets with the US’ critical minerals strategy. The company successfully completed an OTCQB listing on June 26 to expand its US market presence; it will trade under the symbol LKYRF.
Share price: AU$0.026
Market cap: AU$14.39 million
Weekly gain: 36.84 percent
Noble Helium is a helium exploration company with four key projects in Tanzania, namely North Rukwa, North Nyasa, Eyasi and Manyara. North Rukwa, the company’s flagship project, covers a total area of approximately 1,467 square kilometres.
Exploration at the project is currently ongoing. Noble raised AU$3 million in September 2024, with proceeds allotted for North Rukwa and North Nyasa.
Last week, Noble announced a trading halt following a sudden jump of its shares from AU$0.012 on June 16 to AU$0.019 on June 19.
Addressing the jump on Monday, June 23, the company stated it believed the rise does not stem from undisclosed information, and the only material development was ongoing negotiations for amendments to a funding agreement with private company Obsidian Global.
The original agreement, which would have raised US$2.5 million through convertible notes to fund ongoing exploration and working capital, was made public on December 24, 2024.
Before resuming trading Monday, Noble announced it successfully executed the amendment. Shares of the company continued on their upward trend following these developments, peaking at AU$0.034 on Wednesday (June 25).
Share price: AU$0.064
Market cap: AU$146.8 million
Weekly gain: 28 percent
Mindax is an exploration and development company with iron ore and gold assets in Western Australia.
Its flagship project is the Mt Forrest magnetite iron ore project, in which it holds a 65 percent interest in a joint venture with Norton Gold Fields, which holds the remaining 35 percent.
According to a February 2023 report, Mt Forrest is estimated to contain 422.37 million tonnes of indicated resources at average grades of 41.42 percent mass recovery and 64.76 percent iron concentrate, as well as 599.4 million tonnes of inferred resources at average grades of 43.14 percent mass recovery and 63.85 percent iron concentrate.
On April 15, Mindax announced that it used its existing cash reserves for a 5 percent strategic investment in Cashmere Iron, an unlisted public company.
Cashmere Iron’s flagship Cashmere Downs iron project sits adjacent to Mindax’s Mt Forrest project. Mindax said that the decision to invest in Cashmere follows its review of various independent technical reports outlining the project's potential.
“As a neighbour in the Mid-West region, Mindax is familiar with Cashmere and its assets, having followed the progress made by the Cashmere management team in advancing the project over many years,” the company said, calling the investment “a vital step” in its goal of consolidating iron resources in the mid-west region of Western Australia
5. Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML)
Share price: AU$0.052
Market cap: AU$33.22 million
Weekly gain: 26.83 percent
Resolution Minerals acquires, explores and develops precious and battery metals projects such as antimony, gold, copper and uranium.
The company is currently building a portfolio of gold and antimony assets, and recently acquired the antimony-gold-tungsten Horse Heaven project as part of this strategy.
Horse Heaven is located 5 kilometres from Perpetua Resources' (TSX:PPTA,NASDAQ:PPTA) Stibnite gold-antimony project in Idaho. Stibnite received final approval from the US Forest Service in January, and construction is expected to begin in late 2025. If it enters production, it will become the US’ only antimony producer.
The Horse Heaven project has a historic non-JORC gold resource of 216,000 ounces of gold at the Golden Gate Hill target, and a gold resource of 70,000 ounces at the Antimony Hill prospect.
In March, Resolution Minerals also secured three projects in Australia, including the Drake East antimony-gold project in New South Wales and Neardie antimony project in Queensland.
Last week, Resolution announced it selected external affairs adviser Clewett Global Services to assist with engaging the US federal government. The company added that it is considering applying for US Department of Defense (DOD) funding to expedite Horse Heaven.
Resolution is also currently working on an OTCQB listing to appeal to North American Investors.
Don’t forget to follow us @INN_Australia for real-time news updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle de la Cruz, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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