Who Made the Gains? Here are May’s top ASX miners and explorers

“Sell in May and go away,” goes the old stock market proverb. Not this May. ASX mining and exploration stocks are officially back in fashion.

Pic: Via Getty

• Metals are booming again

• 13 resources winners with gains above 100% in May; a recent record

• 13 out of the 50 top performers last month were engaged in a project acquisition, M&A activity, or joint venture

• Small Cap Standouts: Australian Gold & Copper, Sun Silver, Falcon Metals

"Sell in May and go away," goes the old stock market proverb.

Not this May. Mining and exploration stocks are officially back in fashion, thanks to some good old-fashioned Chinese stimulus.

“China has continued to step-up fiscal support and announced supportive/pro-growth policies, underpinning commodity demand,” says RBC Capital Markets.

“We think that the cyclical recovery underway in China should continue over the coming months as more spending comes through.”

This coupled with historically low exchange-stocks, ongoing supply disruptions and under-investment in new mine capacity should continue to support commodity prices, RBC says.

“We forecast most commodity prices to rise in 2024 (except bulks). Overall, our largest prices changes for the near term are for gold, copper, zinc, and met coal.”

RBC doesn’t mention silver, which went ballistic last month to peak at ~US$33/oz – its highest point in over a decade.

This is due to safe haven buying and the ‘we aren’t producing enough silver to meet industrial demand!’ thematic finally gaining traction with investors.

“… the most furious part of the rally may be ahead,” says Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro senior market analyst.

“Silver could be ready to repeat the growth spurt it showed in 2010-2011.”

All up, we had 13 resources winners with gains above 100% in May, which is the best result for a long time.

Interesting stat: 13 out of the 50 top performers this month were engaged in a project acquisition, M&A activity, or joint venture with a major miner.

Most popular commodities for May:

Here are the top 50 ASX resources stocks for the month of May >>>

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Security	Description	Last	%Mth	MktCap	COMMODITY FOCUS
AGC	AGC Ltd	0.465	447%	$103,333,333	GOLD, SILVER, COPPER
KP2	Kore Potash PLC	0.038	245%	$25,014,051	POTASH
DY6	DY6 Metals	0.12	173%	$4,849,300	RARE EARTHS, NIOBIUM
ERW	Errawarra Resources	0.115	161%	$11,030,877	LITHIUM, GRAPHITE, GOLD
FRS	Forrestania Resources	0.046	156%	$7,442,144	IRON ORE, GOLD
ICL	Iceni Gold	0.066	154%	$18,002,229	GOLD
FAL	Falcon Metals	0.32	137%	$56,640,000	MINERAL SANDS, GOLD
BUR	Burley Minerals	0.14	115%	$21,051,932	IRON ORE, LITHIUM
CRS	Caprice Resources	0.036	112%	$10,053,912	NIOBIUM, RARE EARTHS
RC1	Redcastle Resources	0.025	108%	$8,207,104	GOLD
M4M	Macro Metals Limited	0.035	106%	$125,946,867	IRON ORE
SER	Strategic Energy	0.02	100%	$11,959,939	COPPER, GOLD, NICKEL
CBH	Coolabah Metals	0.077	83%	$9,271,283	FLUORITE
EMU	EMU NL	0.032	78%	$2,159,775	COPPER
ILT	Iltani Resources Lim	0.335	72%	$11,393,519	SILVER, INDIUM, COPPER, ZINC, TIN
SVY	Stavely Minerals Ltd	0.047	68%	$17,951,184	COPPER, GOLD
ENT	Enterprise Metals	0.005	67%	$4,423,605	HEAVY MINERALS, RARE EARTHS, TITANIUM
IND	Industrial Minerals	0.25	67%	$16,846,200	QUARTZ, SILICA SAND
PEC	Perpetual Resources	0.015	67%	$9,600,441	RARE EARTHS, LITHIUM
EQN	Equinox Resources	0.355	65%	$43,842,501	RARE EARTHS, IRON ORE
BM8	Battery Age Minerals	0.165	65%	$15,348,983	LITHIUM, ZINC, GERMANIUM
BMR	Ballymore Resources	0.205	64%	$36,229,770	GOLD
CCZ	Castillo Copper Ltd	0.008	60%	$10,396,043	COPPER
MDX	Mindax Limited	0.053	56%	$108,585,540	IRON ORE, GOLD
RR1	Reach Resources Ltd	0.014	56%	$12,242,039	RARE EARTHS, NIOBIUM, LITHIUM
GIB	Gibb River Diamonds	0.048	55%	$10,152,453	GOLD, DIAMONDS
KOB	Koba Resources	0.15	55%	$23,784,242	URANIUM
AQD	Ausquest Limited	0.017	55%	$14,027,537	IRON ORE, COPPER, GOLD
TOR	Torque Met	0.2	54%	$36,645,760	GOLD, LITHIUM
SUM	Summit Minerals	0.23	53%	$10,961,139	NIOBIUM, RARE EARTHS
GBE	Globe Metals & Mining	0.058	53%	$39,200,320	NIOBIUM
OZZ	OZZ Resources	0.05	52%	$4,626,506	GOLD
AOA	Ausmon Resorces	0.003	50%	$3,176,998	RARE EARTHS, COBALT, LEAD ZINC, SILVER, COPPER
IEC	Intra Energy Corp	0.003	50%	$5,072,345	GOLD, LITHIUM
MRQ	MRG Metals Limited	0.0015	50%	$3,787,678	HEAVY MINERALS, LITHIUM, PHOSPHATE
LGM	Legacy Minerals	0.25	47%	$26,363,749	COPPER, GOLD
HRZ	Horizon	0.047	47%	$32,946,233	GOLD
KTA	Krakatoa Resources	0.016	45%	$7,553,716	NIOBIUM, RARE EARTHS
GSR	Greenstone Resources	0.013	44%	$17,852,345	GOLD
MGT	Magnetite Mines	0.39	44%	$38,389,465	IRON ORE
CHW	Chilwaminerals	0.57	44%	$26,148,751	HEAVY MINERALS
A8G	Australasian Metals	0.092	44%	$4,795,085	QUARTZ, LITHIUM
KCC	Kincora Copper	0.056	44%	$11,478,291	COPPER, GOLD
T88	Taitonresources	0.1	43%	$5,377,454	MOLYBDENUM, QUARTZ
MMC	Mitremining	0.705	42%	$78,950,931	SILVER, GOLD
KRM	Kingsrose Mining Ltd	0.052	41%	$39,131,379	NICKEL, COPPER, COBALT
POL	Polymetals Resources	0.4	40%	$65,904,266	SILVER, ZINC
VUL	Vulcan Energy	4.74	40%	$817,346,788	LITHIUM
AQX	Alice Queen Ltd	0.007	40%	$4,836,930	COPPER, GOLD
SS1	Sun Silver	0.54	170%	$38,000,000	SILVER, GOLD

Small Cap Standouts

AUSTRALIAN GOLD & COPPER (ASX:AGC) +447%

Timing its run perfectly with silver’s meteoric rise was NSW explorer AGC, which announced a slew of rich hits from its Achilles gold-silver discovery including a highlight 5m grading 16.9g/t gold, 1,473g/t silver, and 15% lead+zinc.

That’s super high grade.

It is the culmination of a few years of boring exploration legwork for AGC, starting in 2021 when it drilled into several large zones of anomalous lead, zinc and copper around Achilles.

“Achilles is producing some exceptional grades in the drill bit,” AGC MD Glen Diemar said.

“The first six holes have produced grades including combined lead and zinc to 38%, gold to 45g/t and silver above 3,000g/t.

“This silver result is so high grade the laboratory is sending the sample to Canada for further analysis, which is a rare occurrence.

“We are extremely happy with how Achilles is taking shape. With drilling now spread across more than half a kilometre of strike we are excited to see how big this can get.”

Enjoy the nearology glow last month was Strategic Energy Resources (ASX:SER), which has a target confusingly named ‘Achilles 1’ 8km away from AGC’s discovery.

SUN SILVER (ASX:SS1) +170%

The pickings for quality silver exposure on the ASX are fairly slim.

Bringing some shine to the ASX last month was Sun Silver (ASX:SS1), which closed its IPO early after raising the maximum $13m in mere days before going +170% in its first month on the bourse.

The focus is Maverick Springs, an advanced, high grade 292Moz silver-equivalent resource at 72.4g/t (175.7Moz silver, 1.37Moz gold) in the tier 1 jurisdiction of Nevada.

It is just off the southeast end of the Carlin Trend belt of monster gold-silver deposits, and a proverbial stone’s throw from Kinross’ 3.7Moz Bald Mountain gold mine.

Maverick Springs’ large, continuous body of silver-gold mineralisation is 2.4km long, up to 1.2km wide, and between 30-110m thick. The deposit starts about 130m below surface.

SS1 reckons there’s more where this came from, with the current mineralisation model covering less than 25% of the property area.

IPO funds will be used for infill drilling (to increase resource confidence), resource expansion, mining studies, and downstream opportunities.

READ: Silver’s Perfect Storm

FALCON METALS (ASX:FAL) +137%

The Chalice Mining (ASX:CHN) spinout has been plugging away at the Pyramid Hill gold project in Victoria, CHN’s No 1 focus before it hit the motherlode at Julimar.

But FAL, notably chaired by Mark Bennett, discoverer of the Nova nickel deposit, scored an unexpected rerate last month when it stumbled upon a large, shallow, and high grade heavy minerals sands deposit.

A shallow drilling at the Farrelly prospect hit thick, high grade minerals sands -- including zircon, ilmenite, rutile, and potential rare-earth element bearing monazite and xenotime -- over a 1.2km by 600m area.

It remains open in several directions, the company says.

“While it is early days in our understanding of Farrelly, with more drilling and test work required, it is shaping up to become a significant mineral sands deposit, in proximity to other major deposits, but at far higher grades,” MD Tim Markwell says.

“Importantly, we have not yet defined the limits of the high-grade zone and drilling to test this is expected to recommence in the summer once harvesting is completed, in parallel with our gold exploration at Pyramid Hill.”

This content first appeared on stockhead.com.au

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Originally published as Who Made the Gains? Here are May’s top ASX miners and explorers