Top 5 Australian Mining Stocks This Week: Mount Ridley Holds Top Spot with New CEO

Market and commodities price round-up

The S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) opened at 8,857.3 on Monday (November 3) and closed at 8,828.3 on Thursday (November 6), reflecting a 0.33 percent decrease over the period.

The gold price was nearly flat in US dollars over the week, going from US$4,002.31 per ounce on Monday to US$4,005.84 by the close of Australian trading Thursday. In Australian dollars, the yellow metal saw a small 0.6 percent jump, moving from AU$6,115.06 to AU$6,151.80.

The silver price dipped 0.59 percent in US dollars, starting the week at US$48.75 per ounce and closing at US$48.46. In Australian dollars, silver was nearly flat, moving from AU$74.49 to a close AU$74.42.

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 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: 56.25 percent
Market cap: AU$56.24 million
Share price: AU$0.05

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 earths 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-compliant resource of 168 million tonnes at 1,201 parts per million (ppm) total rare earth oxide.

This is the company’s second time as the top ASX stock of the week, as its new inferred gallium resource estimate at Mount Ridley placed it first on last week’s list with a 400 percent gain.

The company reported a gallium resource of 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.

This week, shares of the company began climbing even higher following its appointment of a new CEO announced on Monday morning. Geologist Allister Cairo, who previously served as head of critical minerals at Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY,OTCQX:LKYRF), is taking the lead effective on Thursday.

Shares of Mount Ridley Mines peaked at AU$0.078 during trading Monday before closing at AU$0.056, and reached a weekly high close of AU$0.057 on Tuesday (November 4).

2. Mont Royal Resources (ASX:MRZ,TSXV:MRZL)

Weekly gain: 44.55 percent
Market cap: AU$52.94 million
Share price: AU$0.27

Mont Royal Resources is a dual-listed explorer and developer focused on the Ashram rare earths and fluorspar project in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region of Québec, Canada. The company also holds the Eldor niobium project and the Northern Lights gold, copper and lithium project in the same area.

Mont Royal had been voluntarily suspended from the ASX since February.

On Wednesday (November 5), Mont Royal made its comeback to the ASX after completing a merger with Canadian critical metals company Commerce Resources, the owner of the Ashram and Eldor projects.

The company said its team is focused on streamlining the Ashram project’s development..

Ashram is regarded as one of North America’s largest undeveloped monazite-dominant carbonation-hosted rare earth elements deposits, according to the release.

It holds 73.2 million tonnes at 1.89 percent total rare earth oxide (TREO) and 6.6 percent fluorspar in the indicated category, as well as 131 million tonnes at 1.91 percent TREO and 4 percent fluorspar in the inferred category.

Just over 21 percent of the rare earth oxides are neodymium and praseodymium, essential for rare earth magnets.

Shares of the company closed at a high of AU$0.270 on Thursday.

3. Noble Helium (ASX:NHE)

Weekly gain: 29.63 percent
Market cap: AU$17.99 million
Share price: AU$0.035

Perth-based Noble Helium was founded in 2015 and is working towards answering the need for a “geo-politically independent primary source of helium.” Its flagship project is the North Rukwa helium project located in Southwest Tanzania, comprising approximately 1,467 square kilometres.

According to the company’s quarterly report, dated October 31, a five hole drilling campaign for the North Rukwa project’s western margin in Tanzania has been confirmed following a review by independent industry experts.

The report also highlighted that Dennis Donald moved from non-executive chairman to executive chairman, and advanced an additional AU$400,000 to the company under an unsecured loan agreement.

While no further announcements were made by the company following the report, its shares spiked on Wednesday, peaking at an AU$0.035 close.

4. Bellavista Resources (ASX:BVR)

Weekly gain: 20.48 percent
Market cap: AU$55.49 million
Share price: AU$0.50

Bellavista Resources is a base metal and battery mineral deposits explorer focusing on the development of its portfolio in Western Australia’s Edmund Basin.

In the basin, the company has a total of five projects in a 1,068 square kilometre project area, namely the Brumby polymetallic project, the Vernon base metals project, the Vernon nickel and platinum-group metals (PGMs) project, the Kiangi uranium target and the Gorge Creek nickel-PGMs project.

According to a September 29 release, initial test work on Brumby hyper-enriched black shale mineralisation recovered zinc, vanadium, copper and more. The company said it plans to complete a bulk sample of the mineralisation.

On Monday, Bellavista shared that executives Glenn Jardine and Peter Canterbury have been appointed as managing director and finance director, respectively. Both appointees are formerly of De Grey Mining, which was acquired by Northern Star Resources (ASX:NST,OTC Pink:NESRF) for AU$6 billion in May.

“They have outstanding track records of creating strong shareholder value … This culminated in what was the largest takeover of a pre-development company ever seen in Australia,” Bellavista Chairman Mel Ashton commented.

Following this corporate update, shares of Bellavista climbed to a close of AU$0.52 on Monday.

5. Australis Oil & Gas (ASX:ATS)

Weekly gain: 20 percent
Market cap: AU$15.84 million
Share price: AU$0.012

Established in 2014, Australis Oil & Gas is headquartered in Subiaco, Western Australia, and was founded by the same executives of Aurora Oil and Gas. The company is focused on its operations in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS), located in the US states of Mississippi and Louisiana.

Australis operates 30 producing wells in the TMS, which it refers to as “one of the last emerging oil shale basins onshore in the USA which has similar oil productivity to the best areas within US shale such as Eagle Ford and Permian basin in Texas.”

As of its recent quarterly report, Australis holds 47,300 net acres in the core of the TMS, making it the largest producer and acreage holder in the region. The company sold 48,800 barrels of oil during the period.

While no updates have been released by Australis so far in November, its shares spiked early in the week, closing at AU$0.0115 on Tuesday and then AU$0.012 on Thursday.