Resources Top 5: Sierra Nevada soars after locking in New Pass gold mine

The acquisition of key claims has given Sierra Nevada full control over the New Pass gold mine, allowing it to assess the potential for trial mining.

Sierra Nevada is one of the top gainers after it secured the New Pass gold mine. Pic: Getty Images

• Sierra Nevada secures full control over New Pass to assess the potential for trial mining

• Canyon Resources recently secured port access approval, the final hurdle to FID for its Minim Martap bauxite project

• Codrus has identified priority gold drilling targets at its Bull Run project in Oregon

Your standout resources stocks for Tuesday, May 13, 2025

Sierra Nevada Gold (ASX:SNX)

Sierra Nevada has secured full control over the New Pass gold mine in Nevada, allowing it to further exploration work and assess the potential to resume mining operations.

The historical New Pass mining centre has a long and varied history dating back to its discovery in the 1860s.

It produced gold intermittently at a reported average recovered grade of 17g/t gold from two parallel, steeply dipping north-south striking quartz veins – the eastern Superior Vein and the western Thomas W Vein – until 2012.

The company has initiated government permitting to start operations with awards expected within six months.

This will enable it to start development from the Superior Level 4 and establish five drill positions to carry out drill testing to delineate the vein directly below the current workings.

SNX aims to assess the potential for re-establishing gold production from existing underground workings.

Canyon Resources (ASX:CAY)

Up on no news

Shares in Canyon Resources gained today despite no fresh announcements from the company.

The gain might be due to expectations that the Canyon will soon announce a final investment decision for its Minim Martap bauxite project in central Cameroon.

In April 28, 2025, the company announced it had received port access approval, the last key item for a final investment decision.

Canyon noted then that it had started detailed design for bauxite port loading infrastructure while final tenders were received for mine development and the road access upgrade to the Inland Rail Facility.

It also said that engineering design of the IRF is about 50% completed while an evaluation takes place of the rail and port capacity upgrade from 6Mtpa to 10Mtpa.

Notably, the company flagged that a final investment decision is scheduled to made in Q2 2025 with the first bauxite shipment expected in H1, 2026.

Codrus Minerals (ASX:CDR)

Codrus Minerals’ induced polarisation survey has identified multiple new anomalies at its Bull Run project in Oregon, US, which overlap with promising geochemical and rock chip results.

The company has highlighted six distinct zones with an emphasis on the Eldorado and Lady May zones.

These target areas overlap with previously collected rock chip results of up to 28 g/t gold and 1.5% copper at Eldorado, and 60 g/t gold and 2.5% molybdenum at Lady May.

Several IP zones also coincide with high-priority copper geochemical targets, adding to the evidence of potential mineralisation.

Between these results and soil sampling that returned up to 27g/t gold in localised areas, Codrus has highlighted five priority gold targets of up to 500m in strike extent for testing by permitted drilling.

Black Rock Mining (ASX:BKT)

Up on no news

Black Rock built on the momentum it gained yesterday after the Mining Commission of Tanzania lifted a notice of default on the special mining licence for its Mahenge graphite project.

The Notice was one of 95 breach notices issued by the Mining Commission to large and medium-scale licence holders, leading the company to enter into suspension on April 16, 2025.

It also signed two agreements with government-owned Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) relating to the construction of a power line and substation.

While Black Rock’s 84%-owned subsidiary Faru Graphite will construct the infrastructure for an estimated cost of US$40m, it will recoup the capital cost of the power line from TANESCO over the first four years of mine production via a schedule of repayments.

A new 220kV power line will connect Mahenge to competitively priced, high-voltage hydro-dominated power, enhancing the green credentials of its graphite products.

These agreements with TANESCO are a key de-risking milestone for Black Rock that satisfies conditions precedent for project lenders.

Ark Mines (ASX:AHK)

Up on no news

While Ark had no news out today, it had reported last week that rock chip sampling at its Pluton gold project in North Queensland had returned assays of up to 25g/t gold and 34g/t silver.

Its work also found the structural relationships with prospective lithologies show potential to extend the target area.

Correlation analysis shows the gold mineralisation correlates with arsenic, copper, selenium, tellurium, bismuth and sulphur, and negatively correlates with tin, tungsten, lead and zinc.

Meanwhile, silver mineralisation was found to be largely uncorrelated with gold, positively correlated with lead, zinc, mercury, selenium and sulphur and negatively correlated with tungsten.

These relationships suggest overlapping or telescoped mineralisation styles that may be petrologically distinguishable with further field works.

Ark’s results also indicates there may be structural controls on mineralisation that expand the target and the potential for multigenerational overlap of different mineralisation styles.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Sierra Nevada Mines, Codrus Minerals and Ark Mine are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.