Top 5 Australian Mining Stocks This Week: Bayan Mining Soars 87.5 Percent on Project Updates

Market and commodity price round-up

The S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) posted a modest 0.93 percent gain this week, opening at 8,817.2 on Monday (August 11) and closing at 8,900.4 on Friday (August 15).

Gold demonstrated a 0.75 percent decrease in US dollars, going from US$3,365.65 per ounce on Monday to US$3,340.53 by the close of Australian trading on Friday. The yellow metal saw a smaller decrease in Australian dollars, going down 0.5 percent from AU$5,159.15 to AU$5,133.32 over the same period.

Silver largely remained flat in US dollars, starting the week at US$38.06 per ounce and closing at US$38 with a 0.16 percent decrease. In Australian dollars, the metal went from AU$58.33 to AU$58.39.

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 (August 14) 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. Bayan Mining and Minerals (ASX:BMM)

Weekly gain: 87.5 percent
Market cap: AU$14.2 million
Share price: AU$0.135

Bayan Mining and Minerals is a critical minerals explorer with assets in Canada and the US. It is focused on rare earths, gold and silver projects such as its Desert Star and Desert Star North assets in North America.

Desert Star is located in a prospective rare earths corridor in California’s Mojave Desert, while Desert Star North is a gold asset sitting 3 kilometres from Dateline Resources’ (ASX:DTR,OTC Pink:DTREF) Colosseum gold mine.

On Tuesday (August 12), Bayan announced a trading halt pending the release of an announcement.

The following day, the company provided an update to its North American portfolio, including Desert Star and Desert Star North. Sixty-five rock chip samples and 30 heavy minerals samples for Desert Star have been tested and are awaiting results this month, while Desert Star North is expecting multi-element analysis results by September.

Trading recommenced on Thursday, with Bayan shares rising as high as AU$0.16 that day.

2. Lindian Resources (ASX:LIN)

Weekly gain: 80 percent
Market cap: AU$254.44 million
Share price: AU$0.225

Lindian Resources is an Australian rare earths explorer and developer. Its flagship project is the Kangankunde rare earths project in Malawi, which it regards as one of the world’s highest-grade undeveloped deposits.

On Monday, Lindian said that its mining licence expansion application in Malawi's Balawa District has been approved by the country's Mining and Minerals Regulatory Authority. The expansion increases the licence area from 900 hectares to 2,500 hectares, allowing the company to speed up a Stage 2 expansion at Kangankunde.

Shares of the company were the highest this week on Thursday, closing at AU$0.225.

3. Energy Transition Minerals (ASX:ETM)

Weekly gain: 72.73 percent
Market cap: AU$139.58 million
Share price: AU$0.095

Energy Transition Minerals is an explorer and developer focused on critical minerals. Its flagship asset is the Kvanefjeld rare earths project in Southern Greenland, a multi-element deposit containing rare earths, zinc and uranium.

The company has delineated a JORC-compliant resource of over 1 billion tonnes across three zones at Kvanefjeld.

Energy Transition Minerals said on Tuesday that it has won an auction to acquire the Spain-based Penouta tin-tantalum-niobium mine and processing facility. Its successful bid was for AU$9.2 million.

In addition, Energy Transition Minerals announced a placement for AU$10 million. It is with existing shareholder OCJ Investment and will support the acquisition and the firm's balance sheet. OCJ will own approximately 15.5 percent of the company following settlement of the placement, and will have voting power of approximately 17 percent.

OCJ nominee Amy Jiang has been appointed non-executive director of the company following the investment.

Shares of the company peaked at AU$0.10 on Friday.

4. Dateline Resources (ASX:DTR)

Weekly gain: 52 percent
Market cap: AU$527.87 million
Share price: AU$0.19

Dateline Resources is focused on gold and rare earths projects in the US. Its efforts are currently geared toward the advancement of its flagship Colosseum gold and rare earths project in San Bernardino County, California. It sits 10 kilometres from MP Materials’ (NYSE:MP) Mountain Pass mine, the only operating rare earths mine in the US.

In June, the Trump administration announced that it would fast track the development of Colosseum as part of its push to boost domestic critical minerals supply. On Monday, Dateline published magnetotelluric survey results from Colosseum, confirming multiple high-priority drilling targets with significant rare earths potential.

Dateline’s shares saw a significant jump on Thursday, rising from a Wednesday (August 13) close of AU$0.15 to AU$0.175. The company addressed the increase in an ASX response published on Friday, saying that its ASX disclosures are up to date, with no new information received since the announcement on Monday.

5. Eclipse Metals (ASX:EPM)

Weekly gain: 50 percent
Market cap: AU$83.98 million
Share price: AU$0.033

Eclipse Metals is an exploration company focused on unlocking the potential of rare earths mineralisation in Greenland. Its flagship asset is the Ivigtût project in the southwest of Greenland.

According to Eclipse Metals’ website, Ivigtût holds the world’s largest and only known source of naturally occurring cryolite, a rare mineral historically used in aluminum production.

Situated less than 10 kilometres from Ivigtût is the company’s Grønnedal rare earths deposit, which currently holds a resource estimate of 89.2 million tonnes at 6,363 parts per million total rare earths oxide.

The last updates from Eclipse include a quarterly report on July 31 and an investor presentation on July 21. Shares of the company started climbing on August 8, closing at AU$0.033 on Friday, the highest level over the past two weeks.