Year-to-date gain: 757.14 percent
Market cap: AU$219.81 million
Share price: AU$0.60

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.

Hillgrove is currently in the pre-development stage, and Larvotto released the pre-feasibility study for the project on August 5. In the release, the company reported total resources of gold at 1.04 million ounces of gold from 7.26 million tonnes of ore with an average grade of 4.4 grams per tonne (g/t). In addition to gold, the company reported 93,000 tonnes of antimony on site with an average grade of 1.3 percent.

The study also included a maiden ore reserve estimate, with 3.15 million tonnes of ore grading 3.2 g/t gold and 1.2 percent antimony for 320,000 ounces and 39,000 tonnes of contained metal respectively.

The company indicated a post-tax net present value of AU$157 million and an internal rate of return of 50 percent with a payback period of 2 years, contingent on prices of US$2,000 per ounce of gold and US$15,000 per tonne of antimony.

Shares in 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.

The company reported on August 21 that it had received its final permit for the second drill program at Hillgrove and began drilling shortly after. In an update on October 22, Larvotto said it had completed drilling at the site's Clarks Gully deposit and would be moving to Garibaldi, with a second drill to be mobilized for follow up drilling at Baker Creek to test for antimony and high-grade gold.

Shares in Larvotto reached a year-to-date high of AU$0.69 on October 25 alongside a surging gold price.

Year-to-date gain: 321.12 percent
Market cap: AU$795.46 million
Share price: AU$3.39

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. On March 28, the company announced it had repaid the first tranche of an AU$12.1 million convertible note that it inherited as part of the purchase.

Since the takeover, Catalyst has been working to increase production at the mine, and the company announced in its March quarterly report that performance had improved. Production for the quarter reached 21,252 ounces of gold, a slight increase over the previous quarter despite equipment breakdowns.

In the company’s fiscal year-end update released on July 10, the company said it continued to make improvements at Plutonic, with annual production at the mine reaching 85,000 ounces under its ownership versus only 60,000 ounces in the previous year, which was prior to its acquisition.

As for its Henty mine, Catalyst said Henty achieved record quarterly production of 6,926 ounces in its fiscal Q4 and produced 24,982 ounces during the year. According to the company, the mine is on its way to annual production of 30,000 ounces.

On August 29, Catalyst released in-depth year-end results. During the period, the company said it achieved its first profit, with a net profit after tax and impairments of AU$23.56 million versus a loss of AU$15.63 million in the previous year.

Catalyst released updated ore reserves and guidance on September 11, sharing that its ore reserves had grown by 105 percent over the past year to 1 million ounces and that in the next three years it planned to increase its annual production from 100,000 ounces to 200,000 ounces.

Shares in Catalyst reached a year-to-date high of AU$3.53 on October 23.

Year-to-date gain: 283.33 percent
Market cap: AU$1.72 billion
Share price: AU$0.92

Ora Banda Mining is a gold producer operating out of the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. Its flagship Davyhurst asset is composed of 92 tenements covering approximately 1,200 square kilometres with multiple significant zones.

As of June 30, 2024, Davyhurst hosted total mineral 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 2024, respectively. The company's Riverina underground gold mine entered commercial production in August, and it is now developing the Sand King underground mine.

In Ora Banda’s annual report released on September 26, the company said its fiscal year 2024 has been a significant one as it ramped up production at the Riverina underground mine and delivered record gold production at Davyhurst of 69,900 ounces of gold, a 46 percent increase over the prior year.

The Missouri and Sand King open pits 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 fiscal year 2025 and in the 140,000 to 160,000 ounce range in fiscal 2026. The bulk of the increase over the two years is attributed to new production from the planned Sand King underground mine once it comes online in fiscal 2025.

Shares in Ora Banda reached a year-to-date high of AU$0.925 on October 25.

Year-to-date gain: 269.05 percent
Market cap: AU$173.65 million
Share price: AU$0.155

WIA Gold is an exploration company focused on developing projects in Africa. The company's primary goal is to advance the Kokoseb deposit 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 mineralization below the current resource as well as new mineralization 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 activity report released on October 28, the company said the primary focus for the September quarter was drilling at Kokoseb, with 12,478 metres completed. Highlighted assays from the program produced grades up to 4.95 g/t gold over 4 meters from a near surface depth of 80 metres.

Additionally, the company said that exploration at the Bouafle project 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 mineralized zone and surrounding area.

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

Year-to-date gain: 239.13 percent
Market cap: AU$55.75 million
Share price: AU$0.39

Auric Mining is a gold mining and development company working to advance several operations in Western Australia.

Much of the company’s time in 2024 has been focused on Stage 2 production at its Jeffreys Find gold mine, which commenced in March. Its joint venture partner BML Ventures executed a contract with another firm to process 300,000 tonnes of ore from Jeffrey Finds at the Greenfields Mill in Coolgardie in a campaign that would last through 2024 and into early 2025.

In the announcement, the company said mining at the site is straightforward and it expects to exceed the 9,741 ounces of gold produced from Jeffrey Finds in 2023.

Auric followed up on this announcement on May 7 when it reported that the first toll milling campaign of 30,300 tonnes had been processed, resulting in 6 gold dore bars weighing a combined 64.68 kilograms.

The most recent production update came on October 2, and Auric announced the second toll milling campaign was complete, with 128,000 tonnes of ore milled for 6,295 ounces of gold. Additionally, the company said it had achieved AU$23.5 million in gold sales with an average sale price of AU$3,731 per ounce.

The company’s next milling run is scheduled to begin on November 7.

Shares in Auric reached a year-to-date high of AU$0.40 on October 23.