Market and commodities price round-up
The S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) increased slightly this week, opening at 8,967.42 on Monday and closing at 8,973.08 on Friday (August 29).
As for precious metals, gold rose 1.17 percent in US dollars, going from US$3,372.21 per ounce on Monday to US$3,411.52 by the close of Australian trading on Friday.
The metal saw a smaller rise in Australian dollars, increasing 0.48 percent up from AU$5,196.32 to AU$5,221.48 over the same period.
Silver pulled back slightly in US dollars, starting the week at US$38.95 per ounce and closing the Australian trading week at US$38.84. In Australian dollars, silver fell from AU$60.03 to AU$59.48.
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 28) 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.
Weekly gain: 187.31 percent
Market cap: AU$208.45 million
Share price: AU$0.145
Invictus Energy is an energy resource explorer and developer focused on the Cabora Bassa Basin in Northern Zimbabwe, in which Invictus holds a 360,000 hectare licence area.
It was acquired by Invictus in 2018, with aggressive work undertaken since. In late 2023, the company made the Mukuyu gas-condensate discovery at the site.
On Tuesday (August 26), Invictus requested a trading halt, pending the release of an announcement.
The following day, Invictus revealed it has entered into a binding MOU and share subscription agreement with Al Mansour Holdings, which is backed by a senior member of the Qatar royal family.
The arrangement involves a 19.9 percent acquisition of Invictus by Al Mansour for an investment of AU$37.8 million (before costs) at a share price of AU$0.095. The funding will be allotted to the expedition of Cabora Bassa exploration, including the drilling of its priority target Musuma-1.
Al Mansour has also agreed to provide up to US$500 million in conditional future finance for accelerating the project to production.
Trading recommenced on Wednesday (August 27) and shares closed at AU$0.145 the following day.
Weekly gain: 89.29 percent
Market cap: AU$85.9 million
Share price: AU$0.053
Subiaco-based Gateway Mining is a gold exploration company with assets in Western Australia.
The company’s flagship project is the Montague gold project, approximately 70 kilometres north of Sandstone. It holds a total resource of 526,000 ounces of gold from 10.07 million tonnes at a grade of 1.6 grams per tonne gold.
On August 19, Gateway completed its acquisition of the Yandal gold project from Strickland Metals (ASX:STK) in a AU$45 million share transaction.
Progress updates on Yandal placed Gateway in mining headlines this week, as the company announced both a board restructure to reflect its focus on Yandal and newly identified zones at the project on Tuesday.
In the board update, Gateway appointed former Strickland officer Andrew Bray as its new executive chairman and Anthony McClure as a non-executive director.
Meanwhile, Gateway announced it identified around 90 kilometres of new shear zones via gravity and aeromagnetic surveys. Gateway said it has commenced rock chip sampling, soil sampling, lag sampling and mapping programs at the site.
“While Gateway’s acquisition of the Yandal Gold Project has only just completed, we expect to have constant news flow coming out of the project over the coming weeks and months,” Bray commented.
Shares of the company peaked towards the week’s end, closing at AU$0.053.
Weekly gain: 81.08 percent
Market cap: AU$27.13 million
Share price: AU$0.335
Ark Mines is an Australian explorer focusing on rare earth elements (REE). It also holds projects containing copper, nickel, iron and cobalt.
Its flagship project, Sandy Mitchell, is located in North Queensland, Australia, and is home to both light and heavy rare earths in placer mineral sands deposits.
The project hosts a measured mineral resource estimate of 71.8 million tonnes at 1,732.7 parts per million (ppm) monazite equivalent.
Ark’s share price climbed early this week when the company announced a AU$4.5 million investment from the Queensland Investment Corporation’s Critical Minerals and Battery Technology Fund.
On Wednesday, Ark Mines released an update on its Stage 3 resource expansion drilling program at Sandy Mitchell and a new investor presentation highlighting its funding.
According to the drilling update, drilling is advancing ahead of schedule, with 94 out of 189 drill holes now completed.
Shares of Ark Mines reached its highest close of the week on Tuesday at AU$0.455.
Weekly gain: 71.43 percent
Market cap: AU$14.41 million
Share price: AU$0.024
Gladiator Resources is a uranium and rare earth element focused company with headquarters in Sydney. The company’s flagship project is its Mkuju uranium project in Southwest Tanzania, and last week it agreed to acquire rare earth tenements in the US with Apex USA Resources.
Mkuju’s Likuyu North deposit holds a JORC mineral resource estimate of 4.6 million pounds of uranium oxide from ore with an average grade of 267 ppm uranium oxide.
A trading halt was announced by Gladiator on Tuesday, pending an important announcement.
It came on Thursday (August 28), with Gladiator revealing it completed an over-subscribed capital raising of AU$1 million at AU$0.018 per share. Proceeds will be used to support the company’s new US REE-focused strategy.
The following day, Gladiator also shared that it has applied for a US OTC Markets listing.
“(This listing) is a key step in expanding our reach to North American investors and enhancing liquidity for our shareholders,” Chairman Matthew Boysen commented in the Friday release. “We have observed significant daily volumes being traded with other ASX-listed US REE companies.”
The company’s shares closed at AU$0.024 on Thursday, its highest record this week.
Weekly gain: 47.33 percent
Market cap: AU$16.02 million
Share price: AU$0.026
Queensland-based Cannindah Resources is an exploration and resource development company focusing on copper and gold.
Its flagship project is Mt Cannindah, located 100 kilometres south of Gladstone. Significant historical copper and gold intercepts from the project include 82 metres at 2.32 percent copper and 0.88 grams per tonne gold.
While no project-centric announcements were made by the company this week, a replacement investor presentation was published on Wednesday, with changes largely disclaimer- and compliance-related.
In the presentation, Cannindah said that its goal is to outline over 100 million tonnes of material and that the current resource is open to the south, north and at depth.
The original presentation was published on August 22, alongside news of management changes, including the appointment of Cam Switzer as interim CEO.
Shares of the company were the highest on Thursday, when they closed at AU$0.026.
Don’t forget to follow us @INN_Australia for real-time news updates!
Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle de la Cruz, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ovintiv-to-host-its-first-quarter-2022-results-conference-call-and-webcast-on-may-10-2022-301520609.html 
View original content to download multimedia: https://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2022/08/c7532.html 
