Who Made the Gains? October shows it’s not just gold stocks eyed by investors

As we look towards a clean energy future, critical minerals stocks rank up on October’s resources winners list. And, of course, gold was looking good too.

October's winners include those eyeing graphite, nickel, rutile and, of course, gold. Pic: Getty Images

• Green Critical Minerals pumps on ‘revolutionary’ graphite tech

• Polymetals Resources rises on imminent Endeavour mine restart

• James Bay Minerals shows a pivot to gold can whet investor appetites

As we look towards a clean energy future, critical minerals stocks feature on October’s winners list for resources across graphite, base metals, rutile, copper and nickel.

And that's something of a sea change from recent domination by gold in September, antimony (at mainly gold deposits) in August and gold again in July.

You’d have to go back to June’s ASX small cap resources winners list to find critical minerals at the fore because gold is on such a heater at the moment – consistently pushing through all-time highs and now up around $4200/oz mark ahead of the US election outcome.

READ MORE: Gold Digger: Who’s better for gold, Trump or Kamala?

Not-gold ressie winners

Coming in at second place on our resources winners list for last month, Green Critical Minerals (ASX:GCM) has just locked in a purchase deal with Cerex for its late-stage graphite tech, which can produce saleable graphite blocks from graphite powder.

The junior rose 300 per cent in October for its ability to produce very high density (VHD) blocks, a graphite material that has among the highest thermal conductivity ever recorded for any bulk material and can be used in solar-thermal systems, nuclear reactors and other high-performance electronics.

Trading under 2c a share in September and coming in at fifth on the ressie list is Asian Battery Metals (ASX:AZ9), which had a rocket put under its stock during October, up 179 per cent, after it encountered some outstanding copper and nickel hits at at the Oval prospect in Mongolia's Gobi desert.

A highlight sulphide intercept in hole OVD021 of 8.8m at 6.08 per cent copper and 3.19 per cent nickel from 107.2m was intersected during Phase 1 diamond drilling and its shares rose significantly on the news.

AZ9 says a boost from BHP's (ASX:BHP) Xplor program during 2023 helped it get to this stage and the junior is now trading at 9.5c.

In seventh with a 150 per cent rise, Peak Minerals (ASX:PUA) has exploration on its mind after snapping up the Minta rutile project in Cameroon, which spans across 8800km2 and is prospective for zircon and monazite REEs, too.

Polymetals Resources (ASX:POL) made waves coming in at sixth with a 167 per cent rise in value as it looks to reboot the historical Endeavour silver and base metals mine, while in ninth Lunnon Metals (ASX:LM8) rose 118 per cent while searching for nickel and gold at the Lady Herial tenements near the prolific Foster nickel mine.

Creeping into tenth place is lithium junior Evergreen Lithium (ASX:EG1), bucking price trends to rise 105 per cent for the month with a spodumene discovery at Bynoe.

And galloping up into eighth with a 129 per cent increase in share price, penny stock Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ) is racing ahead with development of its Flemington scandium project in NSW.

It's looking to become a pure-play scandium producer where others such as Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), Sunrise Energy Metals (ASX:SRL) and small cap resources winner alumni Rimfire Pacific Mining (ASX:RIM) are proving up some of the highest ex-China grades of the stuff that the world has ever seen. Not sure exactly why scandium is so popular…

READ MORE: Is scandium ready to pop, too? Here are some ASX juniors rising on deposits of the stuff

And the winner is...

Numero uno for October, James Bay Minerals (ASX:JBY) is showing a pivot to gold is still whetting investor appetites, gaining a whopping 367 per cent over the month to currently trade at 62c a share – more than double its IPO price of 30.5c back in September 2023.

For about a year the junior had been exploring across its highly prospective La Grande lithium tenements in Quebec, Canada, yet a bottoming out of Li2O prices across the period made it difficult to get investors on board.

JBY’s share price hit a rock bottom of just 9.9c a share on August 20, yet a couple of months later on October 14, the company shocked the bourse with its acquisition of the advanced Independence gold project in the Nevada desert.

The Independence project surrounded by the Phoenix operation. Source: James Bay Minerals.

For just $2.4m it snapped up a non-JORC 1.18Moz gold and 7.6Moz silver project with a high-grade 796,200oz resource at 6.53g/t gold and a mineralised strike open in all directions.

With easy infrastructure to gold mining giants Newmont and Barrick Gold’s Phoenix mine, which churns out up to 1.8Moz gold a year, it’s got the potential for permitting within little as eight months and a recent 9.1g/t near-surface gold discovery over 24.4m outside the current resource has seen investors pour in to the small cap.

WATCH MORE: Long Shortz with James Bay Minerals: JBY’s golden opportunity with Independence project acquisition

Other gold explorers making gains include Yandal Resources (ASX:YRL) in third place, up 222 per cent in October after making the Siona gold discovery east of Wiluna in WA and Black Dragon Gold (ASX:BDG) in fourth, which has gone gangbusters in share price, up 214 per cent on minimal news about its 1.5Moz Salave gold project in northern Spain where it’s still waiting on environmental approvals.

October's top 50 ASX resources stocks 

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Market Cap
JBY	James Bay Minerals	0.7	367%	$23,409,750
GCM	Green Critical Min	0.008	300%	$12,208,341
YRL	Yandal Resources	0.29	222%	$77,664,208
BDG	Black Dragon Gold	0.044	214%	$11,770,778
AZ9	Asian Battery Met PLC	0.081	179%	$24,479,414
POL	Polymetals Resources	0.8	167%	$155,808,532
PUA	Peak Minerals Ltd	0.005	150%	$12,485,551
AUZ	Australian Mines Ltd	0.016	129%	$22,376,194
LM8	Lunnon Metals	0.36	118%	$79,368,749
EG1	Evergreen Lithium	0.084	105%	$4,723,320
CCZ	Castillo Copper Ltd	0.008	100%	$11,629,883
GCR	Golden Cross	0.004	100%	$4,389,024
MKG	Mako Gold	0.018	100%	$17,759,143
ODE	Odessa Minerals Ltd	0.008	100%	$10,146,260
PEC	Perpetual Res Ltd	0.017	100%	$12,512,517
TKL	Traka Resources	0.002	100%	$3,891,317
EWC	Energy World Corpor.	0.02	100%	$61,578,425
AVM	Advance Metals Ltd	0.047	96%	$7,919,461
A1G	African Gold Ltd.	0.082	91%	$29,434,681
LRV	Larvotto Resources	0.71	89%	$227,487,649
NVA	Nova Minerals Ltd	0.25	85%	$67,984,220
G88	Golden Mile Resources	0.018	80%	$7,402,011
EEL	Enrg Elements Ltd	0.002	80%	$2,326,032
TZN	Terramin Australia	0.077	75%	$162,975,329
MM8	Medallion Metals	0.091	72%	$37,127,550
CY5	Cygnus Metals Ltd	0.145	71%	$68,824,203
GW1	Greenwing Resources	0.067	68%	$16,123,649
SLZ	Sultan Resources Ltd	0.01	67%	$1,975,865
ARD	Argent Minerals	0.03	67%	$43,317,770
RWD	Reward Minerals Ltd	0.068	66%	$15,494,013
LRL	Labyrinth Resources	0.028	65%	$124,363,210
SPD	Southern Palladium	0.74	64%	$66,415,000
MKR	Manuka Resources	0.055	62%	$42,887,222
SUH	Southern Hem Min	0.037	61%	$27,240,882
NMR	Native Mineral Res	0.032	60%	$12,747,940
STM	Sunstone Metals Ltd	0.008	60%	$40,983,229
CAY	Canyon Resources Ltd	0.15	56%	$212,082,643
USL	Unico Silver Limited	0.33	53%	$116,526,439
PLL	Piedmont Lithium Inc	0.205	52%	$84,948,925
AYM	Australia United Min	0.003	50%	$5,527,732
NNL	Nordicnickellimited	0.105	50%	$15,325,329
R8R	Regener8Resourcesnl	0.15	50%	$4,725,375
TSL	Titanium Sands Ltd	0.006	50%	$13,270,483
ZMI	Zinc of Ireland NL	0.012	50%	$6,068,831
DME	Dome Gold Mines Ltd	0.15	50%	$56,539,299
ERA	Energy Resources	0.003	50%	$66,444,898
LKE	Lake Resources	0.061	49%	$105,964,686
OSM	Osmondresources	0.41	46%	$30,078,710
GLN	Galan Lithium Ltd	0.175	46%	$127,512,452
ASQ	Australian Silica	0.032	45%	$9,019,532

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While James Bay Minerals and Australian Mines are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Originally published as Who Made the Gains? October shows it’s not just gold stocks eyed by investors