1. AusQuest (ASX:AQD)

Year-to-date gain: 625 percent
Market cap: AU$78.87 million
Share price: AU$0.058

AusQuest is a mineral exploration company with polymetallic projects in Australia and Peru.

In Australia, the company has a strategic alliance agreement with South32 (ASX:S32) that encompasses base metal projects across Western Australia and South Australia.

Shares of AusQuest started the year trading at AU$0.008, and soared after the company announced a major large-scale porphyry copper-gold discovery at Cangallo during its maiden drill campaign on the property on January 23. For example, hole CANRC001 returned an interval of 348 metres grading 0.26 percent copper and 0.06 parts per million (ppm) gold from 6 metres, including 26 metres at 0.36 percent copper and 0.07 ppm gold.

The company's share price reached AU$0.043 by January 28, and jumped even higher to AU$0.057 on February 6 after further drill results confirmed the significance of the porphyry copper-gold discovery at Cangallo.

AusQuest spent much of the year exploring several of its properties. In addition to its significant focus on work at Cangallo following the success of its maiden campaign in January, the company also drilled its Balladonia, Morrisey and Mount Davis projects in Western Australia and performed an induced polarisation survey at the Coober Pedy project in South Australia.

The most recent update from the Cangallo project came on December 2, when AusQuest reported the commencement of its Stage 3 drilling campaign.

The exploration program will consist of more than 6,000 meters of reverse circulation drilling and is designed to expand on the first two stages while also locating the centre of the porphyry system. Drilling is expected to take four to six weeks, with assays expected approximately four weeks after the program concludes.

Then, on December 5, AusQuest announced that it had received firm commitments for a placement of 212.8 million shares to raise a total of AU$10 million. It said proceeds from the sale will primarily be used to expand its RC drilling program at Cangallo to 20,000 metres, and accelerate the timeline for follow-up deep diamond drilling from Stage 4 to Stage 3.

Shares in AusQuest reached a year-to-date high of AU$0.61 on March 26.

2. Auris Minerals (ASX:AUR)

Year-to-date gain: 366.67 percent
Market cap: AU$21.87 million
Share price: AU$0.028

Auris Minerals is a copper and gold exploration company focused on assets in the Bryah Basin of Western Australia. Its holdings in the region consist of three project areas: Morck Well, Forrest and Doolgunna.

In 2025, the company was most active at its Morck Well, which is in close proximity to Sandfire Resources' (ASX:SFR,OTC Pink:SFRRF) DeGrussa copper mine. Auris owns an 80 percent interest in the property, with CuFe (ASX:CUF) owning the remaining 20 percent.

Sandfire extensively explored the project area between 2018 and 2022 under a farm-in agreement, and exploration work reverted to Auris following Sandfire’s withdrawal from the agreement at the end of 2022.

According to the project page, key highlights from drilling at the site included assays of 3.5 percent copper over 11 metres, 2.3 percent copper over 9 metres and 1.3 percent copper over 6 metres.

Shares in Auris began climbing following its announcement of firm commitments for a AU$3.2 million strategic placement October 16.

On October 28, the company published its quarterly results for the period ending September 30. In the report, Auris stated it collected 34 rock chip samples from the Jacques and Frenchy’s gold prospects at Morck Well.

While its share price didn't react to the report, two days later it jumped from a close of AU$0.02 to AU$0.027 after reaching an intra-day peak of AU$0.36 on October 30. Responding to an ASX price query, Auris indicated that it was unaware of the reasons behind the price movement, and that it had not yet sent the rock chips to be assayed.

The most recent news from the project came on November 14, when it released the assay results from the sampling program at Morck Well, reporting a maximum of 0.88 grams per metric ton of gold from the Jacques gold prospect.

Shares in Auris reached a year-to-date high of AU$0.029 on November 4.

3. Sunstone Metals (ASX:STM)

Year-to-date gain: 216.67 percent
Market cap: AU$127.39 million
Share price: AU$0.019

Sunstone Metals has two gold-copper projects in Ecuador, the Bramaderos and El Palmar projects.

Located in Southern Ecuador, Bramaderos hosts porphyry gold-copper systems. El Palmar is in Northern Ecuador within a region that is home to a number of world-class copper porphyry deposits.

After trading below AU$0.01 for much of Q1, shares of Sunstone Metals began rising at the end of March, during which time Sunstone released a corporate update discussing partnership opportunities.

On May 8, the company shared assay results from surface sampling and geological mapping at Bramaderos, outlining the scope of new high-grade zones at the site.

“At Bramaderos, we have a cluster of gold-silver epithermal systems at surface that are adjacent to several very large gold-copper porphyry deposits," Managing Director Patrick Duffy said. "This is an ideal scenario for considering future developments at what we expect will become a major gold-copper mining centre in southern Ecuador."

On November 24, the company released an updated mineral resource estimate for Bramaderos, increasing the indicated and inferred resource by 33 percent to 3.6 million gold-equivalent ounces from 220 million tonnes of ore. The total resource reports 220,000 tonnes of contained copper at an average grade of 0.1 percent.

The most recent news from Sunstone came on December 8, when the company announced it would ramp up a scoping study at Bramaderos after it raised AU$8 million through share placements with existing and new investors.

Shares in Sunstone reached a year-to-date high of AU$0.025 on December 1.

4. Kincora Copper (ASX:KCC)

Year-to-date gain: 210.34 percent
Market cap: AU$45.18 million
Share price: AU$0.90

Kincora Copper is an exploration company operating under a project generator model and partnering with other companies to advance its portfolio, including copper-gold projects in the Macquarie Arc of New South Wales, Australia, and a portfolio of projects in Mongolia.

Among them is the Northern Junee-Narromine Belt land package, which is covered by a May 2024 earn-in agreement that could see AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU,JSE:ANG) earn up to an 80 percent interest in the Nyngan and Nevertire licenses through AU$50 million in exploration expenditures or AU$25 million for exploration and the completion of a prefeasibility study.

Kincora secured a second agreement with AngloGold Ashanti in April for the Nyngan South, Nevertire South and Mulla licenses with similar terms, bringing the total exploration funding to AU$100 million.

On August 25, Kincora announced results from the first drilling program at the Nyngan project, noting that assays support the potential for porphyry copper and epithermal gold, and that it saw "encouraging results at particularly shallow depths" from drill targets identified by a ground gravity survey earlier this year.

On September 22, the company reported that it had resecured the full rights to a portfolio of Mongolian copper and gold projects after its joint venture partner, Orbminco, withdrew from a September 2024 earn-in agreement to focus on its Australian gold projects. Kincora said that it would look to build on existing and new interest in the project.

The most recent project-related announcement came on October 22, when Kincora announced that it had been awarded a AU$143,483 drilling grant for its Wongarbon porphyry project within the Macquarie Arc. The company said the grant came following a competitive review process and was part of New South Wales’ Critical Mineral Strategy. Kincora secured the project directly from the New South Wales government last year.

Shares in Kincora reached a year-to-date high of AU$1.295 on November 4.

5. Revolver Resources (ASX:RRR)

Year-to-date gain: 182.76 percent
Market cap: AU$25.42 million
Share price: AU$0.082

Revolver Resources has two wholly owned copper projects in Queensland, Australia: Dianne and Osprey. At both of these projects, the company is targeting Mount Isa style copper and IOCG deposits.

Revolver is advancing toward a final investment decision on bringing the Dianne copper mine into production. So far this year, it has reached some key milestones toward that end, giving its share price a boost.

In February, the firm finalised the SX/EW process for front-end engineering design, a critical milestone for the AU$1.3 million grant awarded by the Queensland Critical Minerals and Battery Technology Fund the previous year.

In preparation for a restart of production at Dianne, Revolver launched a diamond drill program in mid-June. The following week, the company announced it had completed the site engineering design, the final requirement needed to satisfy the scope of work outlined in the grant, and as such received the remainder of the grant funding.

Revolver’s share price spiked at the end of August, right before the company gave a positive report on its progress towards bringing Dianne back into production. The company is targeting a restart of mining activities at Dianne and first copper cathode production in 2026.

On November 21, Revolver released an upgraded mineral resource estimate for Dianne that increased the indicated resource by 140 percent to 1.09 million tonnes of ore, and increased the overall copper grade by 26 percent to 1.38 percent.

The project's indicated and inferred copper resource across its open pit and below bit resources totals 18,047.68 tonnes of copper from 1.31 million tonnes of ore.

Shares in Revolver reached a year-to-date high of AU$0.10 on September 22.