5 Best-performing ASX Gold Stocks of 2024

Year-to-date gain: 685.71 percent
Market cap: AU$171.71 million
Share price: AU$0.55

Larvotto Resources is a gold exploration and development company working to advance its flagship Hillgrove gold-antimony project in New South Wales, which it acquired in late 2023.

The firm released a prefeasibility study for Hillgrove on August 5. It indicates a post-tax net present value of AU$157 million at an 8 percent discount, and an internal rate of return of 50 percent. The payback period is less than two years, contingent on prices of US$2,000 for gold and US$15,000 per tonne for antimony.

Shares of Larvotto saw significant gains following news in August that China had decided to ban antimony exports. China is the world’s largest exporter of antimony, which is used in the production of solar panels, military applications and electronics. The mineral is commonly found within gold-bearing quartz veins.

On August 21, the company received its final permit for a second drill program at Hillgrove and began work shortly after. The most recent update from the site came on November 22, when Larvotto amended a release from the previous day. It said drilling had confirmed and extended shallow, high-grade gold-antimony mineralisation.

Shares of Larvotto reached a year-to-date high of AU$0.710 on October 31 alongside a surging gold price.

Year-to-date gain: 417.98 percent
Market cap: AU$140.58 million
Share price: AU$0.255

Labyrinth Resources is a gold exploration and development company focused on advancing brownfield assets in Western Australia and Canada. The company’s Canadian properties are the Labyrinth and Denian projects in Québec.

In January, the company announced that it had agreed to sell both of its Canadian projects to Gold Projects WA (GPWA) in an all-cash sale worth US$3.5 million. However, in an update to the sale on May 16, the company reported that it had terminated the agreement after GWPA failed to comply with its obligations.

Labyrinth’s primary focus for the majority of the year has been its properties in Western Australia.

Shares of the company soared on July 17 after it executed a binding option agreement to acquire Sand Queen Gold Mines' 49 percent interest in the Comet Vale project for AU$3 million. The deal will provide Labyrinth with 100 percent ownership of the project. An estimate from April 2023 demonstrates a combined open-pit and underground indicated and inferred resource of 619,000 tonnes at 4.8 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 95,710 ounces of gold.

Labyrinth also announced it had entered into a binding share agreement to acquire Distilled Analytics’ 100 percent share of the Vivien gold project. The company said the acquisition will provide a near-term opportunity to define a resource for the Vivien Main pit and Vivien Gem prospect from the existing project drill database.

The most recent update from Comet Vale came on November 6, when Labyrinth announced it had received maiden drill results from the Cheer prospect. In the release, the company points to a highlighted grade of 26.8 g/t gold over 3 metres. The company said the results show Comet Vale's untapped potential.

On November 18, the company reported its final acquisition of the year, signing a binding term sheet with Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD,OTC Pink:GSISF) for a 100 percent stake in the Mulwarrie gold project. The site has a JORC inferred resource of 79,000 ounces of gold from 0.88 million tonnes of ore with an average grade of 2.8 g/t gold.

Shares of Labyrinth reached a year-to-date high of AU$0.29 on October 25.

Year-to-date gain: 233.33 percent
Market cap: AU$189.04 million
Share price: AU$0.14

WIA Gold is an exploration company focused on developing projects in Africa. The company's primary goal is to advance the Kokoseb deposit, which is located at its Damaran gold project.

Kokoseb is located on WIA's Okombahe exploration licence, which consists of 12 tenements across a 2,700 square kilometre area within the Damaran Belt in Northwest Namibia. WIA Gold holds an 80 percent stake in the exploration licence, with the remaining 20 percent being held by Namibian state-owned mining company Epangelo.

On April 16, the company released an updated resource estimate for Kokoseb, reporting 2.12 million ounces of gold from 66 million tonnes at 1 g/t gold with a cut off of 0.5 g/t gold. The company reported drill results from the project on August 20 that identified high-grade mineralisation below the current resource, as well as new mineralisation in the Eastern zone. WIA reported a highlighted intercept from the new area grading 4.95 g/t gold over 4 metres.

WIA Gold also owns the early stage Bouafle project, which is located in Côte d'Ivoire and has been granted two exploration permits, with a third under application. On May 27, WIA reported that it had commenced reverse-circulation drilling at the site with the intention to test 10 previously identified trends.

In a quarterly activities report released on October 28, the company said its primary focus for the September quarter was drilling at Kokoseb, with 12,478 metres completed. Highlighted assays from the program produced grades of up to 4.95 g/t gold over 4 metres from a near-surface depth of 80 metres.

Additionally, the company said exploration at Bouafle had yielded several significant results, including one sample with 87.43 g/t gold over 4 metres. WIA also reported that it had commenced a 2,000 metre follow-up program in October with the goal of uncovering the full potential of the mineralised zone and surrounding area.

WIA's most recent news came on November 5, when the company received firm commitments from new and existing shareholders for a AU$30 million placement. WIA said it would use the proceeds to accelerate ongoing drilling, increase its resource estimate and advance Kokoseb toward a definitive feasibility study.

Shares of WIA reached a year-to-date high of AU$0.175 on October 21.

Year-to-date gain: 230.43 percent
Market cap: AU$625.97 million
Share price: AU$2.66

Catalyst Metals is a gold development and production company focused on its Plutonic mine in Western Australia and Henty mine in Tasmania. The company acquired Plutonic as part of a takeover of Vango Mining in 2023.

Since the takeover, Catalyst has been working to increase production at the mine. In its fiscal year-end update, released on July 10, the company said it continued to make improvements at Plutonic, with annual output of 85,000 ounces under its ownership versus only 60,000 ounces in the previous year, which was prior to its acquisition.

As for Henty, Catalyst said it achieved record quarterly production and produced 24,982 ounces for the entire year. According to the company, the mine is on its way to annual output of 30,000 ounces.

Catalyst released a report showing updated ore reserves numbers and guidance on September 11, sharing that its ore reserves had grown by 105 percent over the past year to 1 million ounces. Over the next three years, the company plans to increase its annual production from 100,000 ounces to 200,000 ounces.

On October 16, the company released its report for the quarter ended on September 30. Catalyst said business conditions continued to improve, noting that it produced 27,991 ounces of gold. It also said it had increased cashflow to AU$58 million from the AU$37 million recorded in the previous quarter.

The most recent news from Plutonic came on December 2, when Catalyst released a development update for Plutonic East. The project is on track and on budget, with first ore set for delivery during the March quarter of 2025.

Shares of Catalyst reached a year-to-date high of AU$3.54 on November 1.

Year-to-date gain: 191.67 percent
Market cap: AU$1.32 billion
Share price: AU$0.70

Ora Banda Mining is a gold producer operating out of the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.

Its flagship Davyhurst asset covers about 1,200 square kilometres. As of June 30, Davyhurst hosted total resources of 1.95 million ounces of contained gold from 23.3 million tonnes of ore with an average grade of 2.6 g/t gold. The site hosts pre-existing infrastructure, including a 1.2 million tonne per annum processing facility.

Ora Banda completed gold-mining operations at its Missouri and Sand King open-pit mines in January and April of this year, respectively. The company's Riverina underground gold mine entered commercial production in August, and it is now developing the Sand King underground mine. In its annual report, released on September 26, the company said its 2024 fiscal year was significant as it ramped up production at Riverina and delivered record gold production at Davyhurst of 69,900 ounces of gold, amounting to a 46 percent increase over the prior year.

Missouri and Sand King contributed a combined 56,574 ounces during the period before they ceased operations.

Looking forward, the company has set increasing guidance figures over the next two years, expecting production in the 100,000 to 110,000 ounce range in its 2025 fiscal year and in the 140,000 to 160,000 ounce range the next year.

The bulk of the increase over those two years is expected to come from new production from the planned Sand King underground mine once it comes online in the 2025 fiscal year.

Shares of Ora Banda reached a year-to-date high of AU$0.955 on October 30.