5 Best-performing ASX Copper Stocks (Updated September 2024)

Year-to-date gain: 154.17 percent
Market cap: AU$56.65 million
Share price: AU$0.305

Exploration-stage Waratah Minerals has built a portfolio of metals projects in Australia. The company’s focus in 2024 has been on its New South Wales-based Spur project, located 5 kilometres west from Newmont’s (TSX:NGT,NYSE:NEM) Cadia Valley Project in a known gold-copper porphyry district.

Waratah began drilling on the property in late May of this year. Excellent drill results released in early July — including a highlight of 57 meters grading 2.5 grams per tonne gold and 0.11 percent copper from 115 meters — boosted the company’s share price by more than 160 percent to AU$0.34 on July 8. Ongoing drill work at Spur has in turn spurred Waratah’s stock, which hit a year-to-date high of AU$0.46 on September 23.

Year-to-date gain: 58.62 percent
Market cap: AU$227.37 million
Share price: AU$0.23

Aeris Resources has three primary copper assets in Australia, with two currently in production: the Tritton operations and the North Queensland operations. The company recently placed its Jaguar zinc-copper operation on care and maintenance. Its portfolio also contains the producing Cracow gold mine in Queensland.

In its June quarter activities report, Aeris reported copper production of 5,400 tonnes. The company’s 2024 copper production guidance stands at 19,000 to 24,000 tonnes, and its 2025 guidance is 21,000 to 25,000 tonnes.

Aeris' pipeline includes the Stockman copper-zinc-gold-silver project in Victoria. The company expects to complete a feasibility study at Stockman in the second half of 2024.

It also holds a 30 percent interest in the Canbelego copper joint venture project in New South Wales alongside Helix Resources (ASX:HLX), Aeris' joint venture partner. Helix intersected a large new structural zone with associated copper mineralisation at Canbelego during testing of an induced polarisation geophysics anomaly.

Aeris’ share price traded with the rising copper price to hit a year-to-date high of AU$0.34 on May 20.

Year-to-date gain: 55.17 percent
Market cap: AU$196.55 million
Share price: AU$0.45

Exploration-stage Encounter Resources controls a portfolio of wholly owned copper and niobium/rare earths projects in Australia's Northern Territory and Western Australia. It is also advancing large-scale copper projects via partnership and farm-in agreements with South32 (ASX:S32,OTC Pink:SHTLF) and IGO (ASX:IGO,OTC Pink:IPGDF).

The company's partners have released multiple news items so far this year. In March, IGO announced a significant copper anomaly discovery at the Yeneena project in Western Australia.

The following month brought news out of the Jessica copper project in the Northern Territory, where a South32 subsidiary completed assays on drill cores, confirming "the presence of copper sulphide bearing veins and alteration signatures associated with iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) style mineralisation."

As for Encounter's wholly owned projects, the company reported the discovery of significant copper mineralisation during drilling at its Sandover copper project in the Northern Territory in mid-May.

In July, the company shared that its partner IGO had begun drilling on copper targets at the Yeneena project, with results expected this fall. That same month, Encounter initiated a new drill program at Sandover to continue exploring the new discovery zone.

Encounter's share price climbed to a year-to-date high of AU$0.92 on July 8.

Year-to-date gain: 54.55 percent
Market cap: AU$186.28 million
Share price: AU$0.17

Aurelia Metals operates three mines in New South Wales: the Peak mine in the Cobar Basin, which produces copper, lead and zinc concentrates; the Dargues gold mine; and the newly opened polymetallic Federation mine.

Now that the Federation mine is up and running as of September 24 of this year, Aurelia will switch gears to developing its Great Cobar copper deposit, which is also located in New South Wales. The project is accessible to the north of the New Cobar mining complex at the company’s Peak mine.

The prefeasibility study for Great Cobar shows that the brownfield development project can economically provide feed to the Peak process plant for at least five years, delivering a total of 47,000 tonnes of copper and 61,000 ounces of gold.

Aurelia’s share price saw its highest year-to-date value on July 11, coming in at AU$0.23 per share.

Year-to-date gain: 31.43 percent
Market cap: AU$182.48 million
Share price: AU$0.46

Bougainville Copper is working to reopen the past-producing Panguna copper complex, which ceased operations in 1989.

Panguna is considered one of the largest copper deposits in the world, and according to the company, its successful restart is viewed as a critical component of future economic independence for Bougainville, which is an autonomous region in Papua New Guinea. The country's government holds a 36.5 percent stake in the company.

In early February, after much deliberation, Bougainville Copper was granted a five year extension to its Panguna mining licence, which it hoped would open the door for advanced-stage prefeasibility and feasibility exploration activities.

The news sent shares of the company spiking to their best year-to-date close of 2024 — AU$0.80 on February 2 — more than double Bougainville Copper's close of AU$0.35 the previous day.

However, in late May, the company was served with notice of a class action lawsuit on behalf of Bougainville residents seeking compensation for claimed environmental and social harm due to Panguna's previous operations.

"The company will fully consider the matters raised in the claim and intends to vigorously defend its position," Bougainville Copper states in a press release.