Top 5 Australian Mining Stocks This Week: Bougainville Copper Soars on Panguna Update

Market and commodities price round-up

The S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) opened at 8,911.3 on Monday (October 13) and closed at 9,068.4 on Thursday (October 16), reflecting a 1.76 percent increase over the period.

The index hit an all-time high of 9,109.7 during Thursday's trading session.

Precious metals gold and silver both continued setting all-time highs this week.

The gold price increased 5.07 percent in US dollars, climbing from US$4,018.62 per ounce on Monday to US$4,222.31 by the time the ASX closed Thursday. In Australian dollars, the yellow metal jumped 4.62 percent to AU$6,494.26.

The silver price also posted significant gains.

It climbed 5.7 percent in US dollars, starting the week at US$50.03 per ounce and closing at US$52.88. In Australian dollars, the metal demonstrated a strong 5.25 percent increase, rising from AU$77.27 to AU$81.33.

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. Bougainville Copper (ASX:BOC)

Weekly gain: 143.16 percent
Market cap: AU$649.72 million
Share price: AU$2.31

Bougainville Copper is an independently managed company focused on the past-producing Panguna copper mine, located in Bougainville, an autonomous region of Papua New Guinea.

Between 1972 and 1989, Panguna produced 3 million tonnes of copper, 306 tonnes of gold and 784 tonnes of silver. During this time, Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO,NYSE:RIO,LSE:RIO) was Bougainville Copper’s majority shareholder, with the government of Papua New Guinea also holding significant ownership.

However, the people of Bougainville itself saw little economic benefit from the mine, which caused significant environmental damage, and division over the mine led to its closure and a civil war with Papua New Guinea.

Since June 2025, Bougainville Copper is 72.9 percent owned by the Autonomous Bougainville Government and people of Bougainville, after the Papua New Guinea government transferred its 36.45 percent share.

Rio Tinto previously exited its 53.8 percent shareholding in 2016 without providing remediation, but is now exploring options to address the mine’s impact and safety.

Interest in reopening the mine has increased in recent years as Bougainville seeks independence from Papua New Guinea, with Panguna positioned as a major source of potential wealth to support its efforts.

This week, shares of Bougainville surged on Thursday following an announcement that Bougainville Copper is on the lookout for an international mining partner to redevelop the Panguna project.

In its quarterly report, released after markets closed on Wednesday (October 15), the company stated it is currently in discussions with “a range of international mining parties.”

Market Index also reported on the matter, saying that it “certainly excited investors,” with expectations that Bougainville could “unlock one of the world's biggest copper-gold deposits.”

Shares of the company closed at AU$2.31 on Thursday.

2. Cobalt Blue Holdings (ASX:COB)

Weekly gain: 131.82 percent
Market cap: AU$150.83 million
Share price: AU$0.255

Cobalt Blue Holdings is a minerals processing and mining company primarily focused on cobalt in Australia.

The company is developing a cobalt refinery in Kwinana, Western Australia, and is moving toward a final investment decision. It also holds the Broken Hill primary cobalt project in New South Wales, and the Halls Creek polymetallic project in Western Australia.

Broken Hill received a further three years of major project status in July. The extension follows the project's initial designation originally granted in March 2022 and supports the continued development of the project.

On Monday, Cobalt Blue provided the date and agenda for its 2025 annual general meeting, which will take place on November 14. However, this did not explain its shares climbed from a Monday close of AU$0.150 to AU$0.32 at the start of trading Tuesday, and the gain resulted in an ASX price query.

In a response published on Tuesday, Cobalt Blue said that it has no undisclosed information or pending release that may have led to the surge. The company noted that the spike may be due to rising cobalt prices, adding that they are “currently trading at a near 3-year high of around US$19.30/lb (Cobalt Metal standard grade), with a particular increase in that price over the last week (approximately 20%)” at the time of writing.

The company said the cobalt market strength could be related to recent announcements by the Democratic Republic of Congo government on its implementation of export controls on cobalt and related products.

The country is the world’s largest cobalt producer by a wide margin.

Cobalt Blue was elevated for much of the week, with its highest close coming on Wednesday at AU$0.305.

3. Morella (ASX:1MC)

Weekly gain: 129.17 percent
Market cap: AU$22.11 million
Share price: AU$0.055

Established in 2000, Morella is a West Perth-based company focused on critical mineral projects across Australia and North America, targeting lithium, rubidium, titanium and vanadium.

The company’s key Australian projects are the Mount Edon rubidium-lithium project, Tabba Tabba lithium-tantalum pegmatite project and Mallina lithium project, all located in Western Australia.

Morella revealed hydrometallurgical test work results from the Mount Edon project on Monday, highlighting its achievement of up to 89.3 percent rubidium extraction. “We are encouraged by (the) results and will now move toward variability testing and scoping-level economic inputs to support the project’s advancement within Morella’s broader critical minerals portfolio,” Managing Director James Brown said.

Aside from forming a key part of Morella’s strategic critical minerals portfolio, the company said that Mount Edon also represents one of Australia’s more advanced rubidium-focused exploration projects.

The news on Mount Edon drove Morella’s shares to climb up to a close of AU$0.068 on Monday, a 178 percent spike from the previous AU$0.0245 close. Shares of the company closed at AU$0.055 on Thursday.

4. Nova Minerals (ASX:NVA,NASDAQ:NVA)

Weekly gain: 122.88 percent
Market cap: AU$659.51 million
Share price: AU$1.315

Nova Minerals is an Australian explorer and developer currently focused on fast tracking antimony production in the 2026/2027 fiscal year from its Estelle gold district in Alaska, US. Its flagship Estelle gold project currently holds a global JORC-compliant measured, indicated and inferred resource of 9.9 million ounces of gold.

At the start of October, Nova’s subsidiary received funding of US$43.4 million from the US Department of Defense to produce military-grade antimony tri-sulphide.

Then, on October 10, Nova announced it secured a land-use permit for an antimony refinery at Alaska’s Port Mackenzie. In the release, the company stated it is fast tracking offtake agreements for additional feedstock for the refinery, and noted it is still progressing its gold resource towards feasibility and production.

This week, Nova made two important announcements. The first, shared on Monday, revealed that Nova was invited to brief the Australian government to prepare for a Thursday meeting between Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Donald Trump regarding critical minerals.

According to the company, the brief was instructed to include “an overview of the Estelle project, the key minerals identified, planned expansion activities, and the company’s engagement with US government agencies.”

On Thursday, Nova said that it has undertaken a 5-for-1 forward split that will result in a ratio change to its American Depositary Receipt program. The change will affect its NASDAQ listing, moving from a ratio of 60 ordinary shares to one American depositary share to the new 12 ordinary shares to one American depositary share.

The company said this will increase the quantity of its American depositary shares on issue and “align its share price with industry peers.” It is expected to take effect on October 29.

No updates have been shared regarding the meeting with Trump as of writing.

Shares of Nova closed at a weekly high of AU$1.645 on Wednesday.

5. Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML)

Weekly gain: 119.51 percent
Market cap: AU$165.43 million
Share price: AU$0.09

South Australia-based Resolution Minerals is currently focused on the Horse Heaven gold-antimony-tungsten project in Idaho, US, aiming to provide an end-to-end solution for domestic critical minerals supply to the US defense industry.

Horse Heaven was acquired by Resolution Minerals in June as part of its US strategy.

During the acquisition, Resolution noted that prices for antimony, gold and tungsten are at record highs due to China’s export controls. Antimony in particular has been gaining attention for its applications in the defense industry.

While no project updates were shared by the company this week, like Nova Minerals, it was also invited to provide a briefing ahead of the upcoming Australia and US meeting on critical minerals.

The company shared the news Monday night, saying that the inclusion of Horse Heaven as part of the requested formal briefing reflects growing recognition of Australian expertise in advancing secure, responsible mineral supply chains.

Shares of the company climbed to a weekly high close of AU$0.094 on Wednesday, followed by an AU$0.09 close on Thursday.