Resources Top 5: White Cliff on the way up as copper has a rollercoaster ride

White Cliff Minerals has had a strong day after sulphides were observed in drilling at Rae project in Canada, pointing to copper mineralisation.

It has been a rollercoaster ride for copper and copper stocks in the past month. Pic: Getty Images

• Extensive sulphides have been observed in RC drilling at the Rae copper project in Canada  

• A mining lease has been granted for Norwest’s Bulgera gold project in WA’s Eastern Gascoyne region

• A maiden resource estimate at the Bara do Pacu licence in Brazil has seen Meteoric Resources shares increase

Your standout small cap resources stocks for Wednesday, April 16, 2025.

White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN)

It has been a rollercoaster ride for copper in recent weeks, from around US$5.26 per pound on March 26 to $4.01 on April 8 and has recovered somewhat this week to be trading at around $4.59 (A$7.24).

The chaos for the red metal is a small part of the global turmoil as markets ebbed and flowed to the forces unleashed by Trump's changeable tariffs policy.

Copper’s fluctuations come as the market tries to simultaneously price in both the broader tariff threat to global manufacturing activity and the specific threat of US tariffs on copper imports.

The turbulence overlays a re-configuration of the supply chain as traders ship copper to the US to beat the unknown tariff deadline, and this is tightening up availability everywhere else, including China.

While copper is currently excluded from Trump's reciprocal tariffs it is believed that it won’t be long until it is included but until a move is made, the race is on to move copper to the US.

LME three-month copper slumped to a 17-month low of $8,105 per tonne on April 7 after China responded to US tariffs and the subsequent 90-day reduction of US tariffs on everyone but China and a reprieve for electronic goods have generated an equally strong correction back above the $9,000t level.

It has been a bit of an up-and-down ride for copper stocks as well, although White Cliff Minerals (ASX:WCN) has had a strong day, up as much as 17.7% to 2c after extensive sulphides were observed in step-out drilling at the Rae project in Canada, pointing to copper mineralisation.

In RC drilling at the Danvers prospect there were 175m of visually identified sulphides from 7m downhole and 91m of visually identified sulphides from surface.

While assays are expected in 4-6 weeks the company is confident the results will show the project’s copper potential.

“As we continue to undertake exploration activities in the greater Rae project area, the true extent of the region’s copper potential is now becoming increasingly clear and importantly the structural plumbing that provided the fluid pathways up to Hulk are now proven fertile with significant depth extent containing what we believe to be copper,” WCN managing director Troy Whittaker said.

“We eagerly await the results back from the lab which will show definitively the copper potential this drilling has encountered.”

With first-pass drilling at Danvers complete, the rig has been repositioned to the Hulk prospect.

“Whilst we would like to continue to drill at Danvers based on these last few holes, we remain committed to our stated strategy of drilling Hulk as part of this maiden campaign,” Whittaker said. 

“The rig has therefore been repositioned and drilling is underway, targeting large-scale sediment-hosted copper. 

“The Hulk basin is home to a strong geophysical conductor spanning three sub-basins for a total area of ±150km2 . 

“Assay results will set the direction of future diamond drilling at site.”

In addition, several historical mineral occurrences exist along the strike length of the structure which are yet to be ground truthed and represent future drilling targets.

Rae represents a district-scale opportunity, underpinned by the presence of high-grade volcanic-hosted copper-silver lodes and the prospect of a large tonnage sedimentary hosted copper deposit.

“Pleasingly, our early foray into the north Canada drilling season is now paying dividends,” Whittaker concluded.

Norwest Minerals (ASX:NWM)

Norwest Minerals has lifted 56% to 1.4c on being granted a mining lease for its Bulgera gold project in WA’s Eastern Gascoyne region, putting it a key step closer to short-term cash flow.

The 2435ha mining lease includes the historical Bulgera gold mining centre where ore was last mined and hauled to the 1.8Mtpa Plutonic gold plant just 50km to the west in 2004.

Bulgera has a resource of 6.3Mt grading 1.07g/t gold for contained metal of 217,600oz.

This resource was last drilled and modelled in 2021-22 when the precious metal was priced at $2500/oz and the current price exceeding $5000 is expected to deliver an increase in scale once the resource model is revised.

The Bulgera and nearby Marymia East package totals 26,800 hectares with the former covering the northeastern extent of the Plutonic Well greenstone belt. It is linked to the Plutonic gold plant via a well-maintained haul road extending 50km to the southwest.

Its current resource offers the potential for cashflow generation in the short and long term.

“The granting of ML 52/1085 is a significant milestone for Norwest and the Bulgera gold project, marking an important step in solidifying our plans for cashflow generation in the short and longer terms,” chief executive officer Charles Schaus said.

“The rising gold price has significantly bolstered the Bulgera project economics with the company reviewing options to exploit this valuable gold asset for the benefit of all stakeholders.”

NWM is planning resource drilling at Bulgera to define further gold at the newly granted ML 52/1085.

This will test near-surface gold zones in and around the historical mining centre, near-surface targets along strike identified by historical surface geochemistry and deeper gold lodes extending below the shallow 2004 open pits.

Mineralisation along the entire belt has continually shown the highest gold grades occur below 100 vertical metres.

The company is also investigating the economics of recovering gold contained in its >2Mt dumps, which are believed to be composed primarily of low-grade (less than 1g/t gold) oxide material that was dumped by historical miners.

Although this material was not viable in 2004, current high gold prices make such low-grade material that can be simply loaded and hauled to a local plant potentially economical.

Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI)

Remaining in the spotlight after a maiden resource estimatethis week for the Bara do Pacu licence at its 100%-owned Caldeira Rare Earth Element Ionic Clay Project in Brazil is Meteoric Resources, which has moved another 23.6% higher to 11c on volume of more than 51 million.

The resource of 389Mt at 2204ppm total rare earth oxides with 432ppm magnet rare earth oxides has reinforced the Tier-1 rare earths status of Caldeira and makes it one of the highest-grade ionic clay rare earth deposits in the world.

Importantly, it includes 77Mt of indicated resource at 2917ppm TREO with a higher grade component of 32Mt at 4,130ppm TREO.

The Bara do Pacu resource takes the overall Caldeira resource to 1.5Bt at 2359ppm TREO and grows the total measured and indicated resources to 666Mt at 2,685 ppm TREO including 22.5% magnet rare earths.

“Barra do Pacu is immediately south of the Capão do Mel resource and with this update we can now include it in the upcoming pre-feasibility study,” managing director Stuart Gale said.

“This resource estimate effectively doubles the indicated resource located within 1,000m of the proposed processing plant site. 

“The combined measured and indicated resource for Capão do Mel and Barra do Pacu is in excess of 150Mt at greater than 3,000ppm TREO including greater than 20% MREO. 

“This represents an obvious starter area for future mining at the Caldeira project to drive strong economic returns and a rapid capital payback.”

RareX (ASX:REE)

Another critical minerals specialist shining after recently revealing gallium and highlighting scandium at its advanced Cummins Range rare earths and phosphate project in the Kimberley region of WA is RareX, which has jumped 48% to 3.7c.

The project has a resource of 524.3Mt at 4.6% phosphate, 3120ppm total rare earth oxides and yttrium, 190ppm heavy rare earths, 70g/t scandium oxide as well as large portions of neodymium, praseodymium and a small amount of thorium/uranium.

This clocks in at 38,250t scandium oxide, with 6980t of Sc2O3 in the higher grade indicated resource category.

Gallium was uncovered from a deep dive into historical drill data which uncovered particularly thick and high-grade gallium assays (up to 6,286g/t) in more than 100 holes.

Managing director James Durrant said the aim of the deep dive was to uncover “what we had missed from all of the historic (rare earths/phosphate) drilling, not just the stuff that RareX did, but all of the stuff by previous owners.

“We started uncovering real potential for a gallium resource sitting just below the surface in our regolith and we were getting tens, if not hundreds of metres at over 100g/t gallium,” Durrant said.

“So relative to other deposits, that's quite extraordinary. And it's over long extents and it's over a good breadth.”

“Depending on how it plays out, we can have gallium as a major co-product of the rare earths and the phosphate. So it actually makes the project a lot more strategic by way of its critical minerals endowment,” Durrant said.

Western Mines Group (ASX:WMG)

A big mover among the ASX small caps has been Western Mines Group, as much as 73% higher to 19c after releasing a maiden mineral resource estimate for the shallow disseminated nickel sulphide mineralisation at the Mulga Tank nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE project in WA.

Modelling of the company’s drilling results to date has identified a significant mineralised zone in the main body of the Mulga Tank Complex.

The mineral resource estimate using a 0.20% Ni cut-off grade is 1.968Bt grading 0.27% Ni, 131ppm Co, 82ppm Cu and 17ppb Pt+Pd for 5.3Mt Ni, 257,000t Co, 161,000t Cu and 1.1Moz Pt + Pd.

The indicated component comprises 565Mt tonnes grading 0.28% Ni, 134ppm Co, 104ppm Cu, 18ppb Pt+Pd.

WMG believes the Mulga Tank deposit has very reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction, which is why it has continued to explore and advance the project during the current downturn in the nickel price cycle. 

Whilst at an earlier stage, the company notes the higher nickel grade and other beneficial factors such as four times the S:Ni ratio of the Mulga Tank deposit compared to more advanced projects such as Canada Nickel’s Crawford nickel project.

Based on a current trough nickel price of ~US$16,000/t, the recoverable value per tonne of ore from the Mulga Tank deposit is US$17.30 per tonne assuming 40% recovery and 0.27% Ni grade.

“This is a very significant milestone for both the project and the company,” WMG managing director Dr Caedmon Marriott said.

“Our exploration results from Mulga Tank have been continuously building as we unlock knowledge of the complex and this mineral resource marks a culmination of that.

“It demonstrates what we have long stated - that the main body of the complex hosts a globally significant nickel sulphide deposit, we believe the largest nickel sulphide deposit in Australia and top 10 in the world.”

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent financial advice before making any financial decisions. While White Cliff Minerals, Norwest Minerals, Meteoric Resources and RareX are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

Originally published as Resources Top 5: White Cliff on the way up as copper has a rollercoaster ride