Metals are booming again
13 resources winners with gains above 100% in May; a recent record
13 out of the 50 top performers last month were engaged in a project acquisition, M&A activity, or joint venture
Small Cap Standouts: Australian Gold & Copper, Sun Silver, Falcon Metals
“Sell in May and go away,” goes the old stock market proverb.
Not this May. Mining and exploration stocks are officially back in fashion, thanks to some good old-fashioned Chinese stimulus.
“China [the world’s largest consumer of raw materials] has continued to step-up fiscal support and announced supportive/pro-growth policies, underpinning commodity demand,” says RBC Capital Markets.
“We think that the cyclical recovery underway in China should continue over the coming months as more spending comes through.”
This coupled with historically low exchange-stocks, ongoing supply disruptions and under-investment in new mine capacity should continue to support commodity prices, RBC says.
“We forecast most commodity prices to rise in 2024 (except bulks). Overall, our largest prices changes for the near term are for gold, copper, zinc, and met coal.”
RBC doesn’t mention silver, which went ballistic last month to peak at ~US$33/oz – its highest point in over a decade.
This is due to safe haven buying and the ‘we aren’t producing enough silver to meet industrial demand!’ thematic finally gaining traction with investors.
“… the most furious part of the [silver] rally may be ahead,” says Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro senior market analyst.
“Silver could be ready to repeat the growth spurt it showed in 2010-2011.”
All up, we had 13 resources winners with gains above 100% in May, which is the best result for a long time.
Interesting stat: 13 out of the 50 top performers this month were engaged in a project acquisition, M&A activity, or joint venture with a major miner.
Most popular commodities for May:
Here are the top 50 ASX resources stocks for the month of May >>>
Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.
Security Description Last %Mth MktCap COMMODITY FOCUS AGC AGC Ltd 0.465 447% $103,333,333 GOLD, SILVER, COPPER KP2 Kore Potash PLC 0.038 245% $25,014,051 POTASH DY6 DY6 Metals 0.12 173% $4,849,300 RARE EARTHS, NIOBIUM ERW Errawarra Resources 0.115 161% $11,030,877 LITHIUM, GRAPHITE, GOLD FRS Forrestania Resources 0.046 156% $7,442,144 IRON ORE, GOLD ICL Iceni Gold 0.066 154% $18,002,229 GOLD FAL Falcon Metals 0.32 137% $56,640,000 MINERAL SANDS, GOLD BUR Burley Minerals 0.14 115% $21,051,932 IRON ORE, LITHIUM CRS Caprice Resources 0.036 112% $10,053,912 NIOBIUM, RARE EARTHS RC1 Redcastle Resources 0.025 108% $8,207,104 GOLD M4M Macro Metals Limited 0.035 106% $125,946,867 IRON ORE SER Strategic Energy 0.02 100% $11,959,939 COPPER, GOLD, NICKEL CBH Coolabah Metals 0.077 83% $9,271,283 FLUORITE EMU EMU NL 0.032 78% $2,159,775 COPPER ILT Iltani Resources Lim 0.335 72% $11,393,519 SILVER, INDIUM, COPPER, ZINC, TIN SVY Stavely Minerals Ltd 0.047 68% $17,951,184 COPPER, GOLD ENT Enterprise Metals 0.005 67% $4,423,605 HEAVY MINERALS, RARE EARTHS, TITANIUM IND Industrial Minerals 0.25 67% $16,846,200 QUARTZ, SILICA SAND PEC Perpetual Resources 0.015 67% $9,600,441 RARE EARTHS, LITHIUM EQN Equinox Resources 0.355 65% $43,842,501 RARE EARTHS, IRON ORE BM8 Battery Age Minerals 0.165 65% $15,348,983 LITHIUM, ZINC, GERMANIUM BMR Ballymore Resources 0.205 64% $36,229,770 GOLD CCZ Castillo Copper Ltd 0.008 60% $10,396,043 COPPER MDX Mindax Limited 0.053 56% $108,585,540 IRON ORE, GOLD RR1 Reach Resources Ltd 0.014 56% $12,242,039 RARE EARTHS, NIOBIUM, LITHIUM GIB Gibb River Diamonds 0.048 55% $10,152,453 GOLD, DIAMONDS KOB Koba Resources 0.15 55% $23,784,242 URANIUM AQD Ausquest Limited 0.017 55% $14,027,537 IRON ORE, COPPER, GOLD TOR Torque Met 0.2 54% $36,645,760 GOLD, LITHIUM SUM Summit Minerals 0.23 53% $10,961,139 NIOBIUM, RARE EARTHS GBE Globe Metals & Mining 0.058 53% $39,200,320 NIOBIUM OZZ OZZ Resources 0.05 52% $4,626,506 GOLD AOA Ausmon Resorces 0.003 50% $3,176,998 RARE EARTHS, COBALT, LEAD ZINC, SILVER, COPPER IEC Intra Energy Corp 0.003 50% $5,072,345 GOLD, LITHIUM MRQ MRG Metals Limited 0.0015 50% $3,787,678 HEAVY MINERALS, LITHIUM, PHOSPHATE LGM Legacy Minerals 0.25 47% $26,363,749 COPPER, GOLD HRZ Horizon 0.047 47% $32,946,233 GOLD KTA Krakatoa Resources 0.016 45% $7,553,716 NIOBIUM, RARE EARTHS GSR Greenstone Resources 0.013 44% $17,852,345 GOLD MGT Magnetite Mines 0.39 44% $38,389,465 IRON ORE CHW Chilwaminerals 0.57 44% $26,148,751 HEAVY MINERALS A8G Australasian Metals 0.092 44% $4,795,085 QUARTZ, LITHIUM KCC Kincora Copper 0.056 44% $11,478,291 COPPER, GOLD T88 Taitonresources 0.1 43% $5,377,454 MOLYBDENUM, QUARTZ MMC Mitremining 0.705 42% $78,950,931 SILVER, GOLD KRM Kingsrose Mining Ltd 0.052 41% $39,131,379 NICKEL, COPPER, COBALT POL Polymetals Resources 0.4 40% $65,904,266 SILVER, ZINC VUL Vulcan Energy 4.74 40% $817,346,788 LITHIUM AQX Alice Queen Ltd 0.007 40% $4,836,930 COPPER, GOLD SS1 Sun Silver 0.54 170% $38,000,000 SILVER, GOLD
Small Cap Standouts
AUSTRALIAN GOLD & COPPER (ASX:AGC) +447%
Timing its run perfectly with silver’s meteoric rise was NSW explorer AGC, which announced a slew of rich hits from its Achilles gold-silver discovery including a highlight 5m grading 16.9g/t gold, 1,473g/t silver, and 15% lead+zinc.
That’s super high grade.
It is the culmination of a few years of boring exploration legwork for AGC, starting in 2021 when it drilled into several large zones of anomalous lead, zinc and copper around Achilles.
“Achilles is producing some exceptional grades in the drill bit,” AGC MD Glen Diemar said.
“The first six holes have produced grades including combined lead and zinc to 38%, gold to 45g/t and silver above 3,000g/t.
“This silver result is so high grade the laboratory is sending the sample to Canada for further analysis, which is a rare occurrence.
“We are extremely happy with how Achilles is taking shape. With drilling now spread across more than half a kilometre of strike we are excited to see how big this can get.”
Enjoy the nearology glow last month was Strategic Energy Resources (ASX:SER), which has a target confusingly named ‘Achilles 1’ 8km away from AGC’s discovery.
SUN SILVER (ASX:SS1) +170%
The pickings for quality silver exposure on the ASX are fairly slim.
Bringing some shine to the ASX last month was Sun Silver (ASX:SS1), which closed its IPO early after raising the maximum $13m in mere days before going +170% in its first month on the bourse.
The focus is Maverick Springs, an advanced, high grade 292Moz silver-equivalent resource at 72.4g/t (175.7Moz silver, 1.37Moz gold) in the tier 1 jurisdiction of Nevada.
It is just off the southeast end of the Carlin Trend belt of monster gold-silver deposits, and a proverbial stone’s throw from Kinross’ 3.7Moz Bald Mountain gold mine.
Maverick Springs’ large, continuous body of silver-gold mineralisation is 2.4km long, up to 1.2km wide, and between 30-110m thick. The deposit starts about 130m below surface.
SS1 reckons there’s more where this came from, with the current mineralisation model covering less than 25% of the property area.
IPO funds will be used for infill drilling (to increase resource confidence), resource expansion, mining studies, and downstream opportunities.
READ: Silver’s Perfect Storm
FALCON METALS (ASX:FAL) +137%
The Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) spinout has been plugging away at the Pyramid Hill gold project in Victoria, CHN’s No 1 focus before it hit the motherlode at Julimar.
But FAL, notably chaired by Mark Bennett, discoverer of the Nova nickel deposit, scored an unexpected rerate last month when it stumbled upon a large, shallow, and high grade heavy minerals sands deposit.
A shallow drilling at the Farrelly prospect hit thick, high grade minerals sands — including zircon, ilmenite, rutile, and potential rare-earth element bearing monazite and xenotime — over a 1.2km by 600m area.
It remains open in several directions, the company says.
“While it is early days in our understanding of Farrelly, with more drilling and test work required, it is shaping up to become a significant mineral sands deposit, in proximity to other major deposits, but at far higher grades,” MD Tim Markwell says.
“Importantly, we have not yet defined the limits of the high-grade zone and drilling to test this is expected to recommence in the summer once harvesting is completed, in parallel with our gold exploration at Pyramid Hill.”
The post Who Made the Gains? Here are May’s top ASX miners and explorers appeared first on Stockhead.
