Top 5 Australian Mining Stocks This Week: Mount Ridley Climbs on Gallium Resource

Market and commodities price round-up

The S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) opened at 9,059.20 on Monday (October 27) and closed at 8,885.50 on Thursday (October 30), reflecting a 1.92 percent decrease over the period.

Precious metals once again took a dip this week. Gold decreased 3.29 percent in US dollars, falling from US$4,112.18 on Monday to US$3,976.70 by the close of Australia's trading day Thursday. In Australian dollars, the yellow metal took a larger 4.31 percent fall, moving from AU$6,314.29 to AU$6,042.29.

The silver price also descended this week, although less steeply than gold. Silver decreased 1.46 percent in US dollars, starting the week at US$48.60 and closing at US$47.89, and dropped 2.48 percent in Australian dollars from AU$74.62 to AU$72.77.

Top ASX mining stocks this week

How did ASX mining stocks perform against this backdrop?

Take a look at this week’s five best-performing Australian mining stocks below as the Investing News Network breaks down their operations and why these companies are up this week.

Stocks data for this article was retrieved at 4:00 p.m. AEST on Thursday, October 30, using TradingView's stock screener and reflects price movements between Monday and Thursday. Only companies trading on the ASX with market capitalisations greater than AU$10 million are included. Mineral companies within the non-energy minerals, energy minerals, process industry and producer manufacturing sectors were considered.

1. Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD)

Weekly gain: 400 percent
Market cap: AU$20.29 million
Share price: AU$0.025

Mount Ridley Mines is a Western Australia-focused explorer targeting “demand-driven” minerals such as rare earth minerals, gold and gallium.

Its flagship asset is the Mount Ridley rare earth project, located in the Albany Fraser Range region, and the company also owns the Weld Range West iron project.

The Mount Ridley project’s Mia prospect holds a maiden JORC resource of 168 million tonnes at 1,201 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxide.

On Tuesday (October 28), Mount Ridley Mines announced a new inferred gallium resource estimate at its flagship project, reporting 838.7 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 29.3 ppm gallium (39.5 ppm gallium oxide) for 24,584 tonnes contained gallium.

“With Australia and the United States now formally aligning on critical minerals supply chains, the Mt Ridley Project represents one of the few new gallium discoveries outside of China, and it sits within an established rare-earth system,” Non-Executive Director Pedro Kastellorizos commented.

“Immediate focus will be on high-value zones rich in gallium and heavy rare earths as we advance metallurgical testwork and partnership discussions to define a viable development pathway.”

Shares of Mount Ridley Mines jumped from AU$0.006 to AU$0.012 on Tuesday, and continued climbing to a close of AU$0.025 by Thursday.

2. Pivotal Metals (ASX:PVT)

Weekly gain: 50 percent
Market cap: AU$19.96 million
Share price: AU$0.027

Pivotal Metals is an explorer and developer with copper, nickel and platinum group metals projects. It is headquartered in Brisbane.

The company’s all-Canadian portfolio includes its flagship Horden Lake project and its Belleterre project area, which includes the Midrim, Lorraine and Laforce projects. All of its assets are located in the province of Québec.

Horden Lake is its most advanced project, with a resource comprising high-grade copper alongside nickel and platinum group metals, totaling 37 million tonnes of ore at an average grade of 1.1 percent copper equivalent.

On Wednesday (October 29), the company published a prospectus offering 159,090,909 new flow-through shares at C$0.01644 per share, roughly AU$0.01815, to raise approximately C$2.62 million, or AU$2.89 million.

This fund raise was initially announced on October 24 as part of AU$5.4 million in funding Pivotal Metals secured to accelerate drilling at Belleterre, which is planned to begin in December.

Shares peaked at a weekly high close of AU$0.03 on Wednesday.

3. Terrain Minerals (ASX:TMX)

Weekly gain: 50 percent
Market cap: AU$16.09 million
Share price: AU$0.006

Terrain Minerals is a Western Australia-based diversified exploration company focused on the discovery of critical minerals.

Its portfolio includes high-value commodities such as gold, gallium, rare earth elements, copper and lithium.

Among its key projects are the Smokebush gold-gallium project in the Yalgoo Mineral Field and the Lort River rare earths project situated 50 kilometres northwest of Esperance in the Albany-Fraser Belt.

News of high-grade gold and silver at the Smokebush project’s Lightning prospect has driven interest in Terrain over the past month.

This week, Terrain Minerals shared an update on Lort River, announcing on Tuesday that the results of an airborne electromagnetic survey at the project “outlined extensive, shallow regolith clay basin targets prospective for rare earth elements mineralisation.”

The company also shared recent drilling results from the area, including 8 metres at 4,037 ppm total rare earth oxide from 23 metres downhole. It plans to begin follow-up air-core drilling and metallurgical sampling next quarter.

Shares of Terrain Minerals climbed to AU$0.005 on Tuesday and reached AU$0.006 the next day.

4. White Energy Company (ASX:WEC)

Weekly gain: 37.5 percent
Market cap: AU$12.46 million
Share price: AU$0.044

Headquartered in Queensland, White Energy Company is a mining exploration and coal technology company.

White Energy Company’s five mineral projects are located in Australia, spread across the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia.

Its most advanced asset is the 51 percent owned Specimen Hill copper-gold project in Queensland, at which it recently commenced drilling, according to an October 24 announcement.

The company published its activities report for the September quarter on Thursday, outlining project and corporate highlights.

Included in the highlights was the Queensland ministerial approval to register the transfer of Specimen Hill’s farm-in tenements, which were registered on October 16.

The company also shared updates on exploration across its other projects: the Robin Rise and Lora Creek copper-IOCG projects in South Australia, the multi-resource Tindal project in the Northern Territory and the Maranoa copper-gold-cobalt project in Queensland.

Following the published report, shares of White Energy jumped to AU$0.044, their highest point of the week.

5. Auris Minerals (ASX:AUR)

Weekly gain: 35 percent
Market cap: AU$10.96 million
Share price: AU$0.027

Auris Minerals is a copper and gold explorer focused on the Bryah Basin, Western Australia.

Its Bryah Basin portfolio consists of the Morck Well and Forrest projects, all of which are prospective for copper and gold.

Auris released its activities report for the September quarter on Tuesday, discussing advancements made during the period.

Although the company didn’t release further news, after closing at AU$0.02 Wednesday, Auris’ share price shot up to an intra-day high of AU$0.36 Thursday before closing at a weekly high of AU$0.027.

This rapid price gain brought the attention of the ASX, with Auris responding to a price query on Thursday that it has disclosed all available information.

When asked whether samples from its exploration program had been sent to the laboratory, Auris responded that they had not as of writing.

According to the company, sampling was completed in September and the samples will be sent in the coming days.

“Results are expected by Auris approximately three to four weeks from receipt of the samples at the laboratory,” the company said.