Welcome to the Investing News Network’s weekly round-up of the top-performing mining stocks on the ASX.
Companies focused on gold, helium and critical minerals shone this week, with copper and gold explorer CGN Resources taking the top spot.
Read on to discover this week’s top gaining Australian mining stocks on the ASX and what drove their share prices.
Market and commodities price round-up
The S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) opened at 8,797.00 on Monday (July 13) and closed at 8,840.70 on Thursday (July 16), reflecting a 0.5 percent increase over the period.
On the other hand. gold and silver both were down this week as of the close of Australian stock markets Thursday. The gold price decreased 2.21 percent in US dollars, from US$4,120.69 on Monday to US$4,029.63 Thursday. Meanwhile, a larger 2.86 percent drop was seen in Australian dollars, with gold going from AU$5,926.46 to AU$5,756.74.
Silver prices saw even larger dips, decreasing 4.69 percent in US dollars from US$59.89 to US$57.08. In Australian dollars, the metal fell by 5.33 percent from AU$86.14 to AU$81.55.
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 using TradingView’s stock screener and reflects price movements between the first trading day of the week 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.
1. CGN Resources (ASX:CGR)
Weekly gain: 58.18 percent
Market cap: AU$10.6 million
Share price: AU$0.087
CGN Resources is an exploration company targeting copper, gold, nickel and critical metals in Western Australia.
Its flagship asset is the Webb iron-oxide copper gold (IOCG) project in the West Arunta region. In the Leonora district, it owns the newly expanded Leonora gold project, which hosts the Christmas Well, Panhandle and Desdemona assets.
On Monday, CGN announced it has now completed heritage surveys and received clearance from the Darlot Traditional Owner group for five high-priority drill targets at Christmas Well and Panhandle.
This paves the way for a maiden 4,000 metre reverse circulation drilling campaign targeting the five areas, namely Ox Tongue, Lambs Fry, Sweetbread, Rocky Mountain Oyster and Pelican.
Impact drilling at Christmas Well will commence Friday, June 17, according to the Monday update.
“This is a major milestone for CGN and marks the transition from project generation to drill testing some exceptionally compelling gold targets,” Managing Director Stan Wholley commented.
“We are particularly encouraged that our first pass targets received heritage clearance, allowing us to systematically commence testing our portfolio of high-quality opportunities ranging from some high-grade historical prospects to completely untested greenfield targets.”
The company also shared its quarterly activities report on Thursday, highlighting the completed surveys alongside its acquisition of the Desdemona gold project during the quarter. The addition of Desdemona expands the Leonora project by 142 square kilometres to approximately 386 square kilometres.
CGN’s shares rocketed upwards on Monday from their close of AU$0.055 the prior week, and continued upwards to a peak of AU$0.087 on Thursday.
2. Kaili Resources (ASX:KLR)
Weekly gain: 52.78 percent
Market cap: AU$10.32 million
Share price: AU$0.110
Kaili Resources is a Sydney-based company with a focus on gold, base metals and critical minerals.
Its current focus is exploring for ionic clay-hosted rare earth elements (REE) across South Australia, including its Lameroo, Karte and Coodalya tenements within the Mallee project.
On Thursday, the company announced that a drilling crew is scheduled to mobilize next week to its Coodalya tenement to kick off a targeted REE drilling campaign.
The program will consist of 16 holes with an average depth of 18 metres for up to 288 metres of shallow drilling. The holes will be drilled on roadside verges around private land in the north-east section of Coodalya.
Kaili stated that the upcoming work is designed to infill previous exploration and identify further prospective REE areas.
“This focussed drilling program will build on previous drilling in 2025 and earlier this year and allow the company to consider more extensive drilling programs within adjacent private land,” Kaili’s principal geologist Mark Derriman said.
After closing last week and opening this week at AU$0.072, shares of Kaili spiked to AU$0.110 on Thursday on the news.
3. Laramide Resources (ASX:LAM)
Weekly gain: 47.52 percent
Market cap: AU$144.27 million
Share price: AU$0.745
Toronto-based Laramide Resources is a uranium exploration and development company dual-listed on the ASX and TSX.
The company maintains a portfolio of uranium assets in tier-1 jurisdictions across Australia and the United States, including the advanced Crownpoint-Churchrock in-situ recovery (ISR) uranium project in McKinley County, New Mexico. The site hosts two uranium deposits.
While no updates have been made by the company this July, its last project update on June 16 said that the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has advanced the application for the Crownpoint-Churchrock groundwater discharge permit to the public notice phase. The proposed permit is required to support ISR uranium extraction at Churchrock Section 8.
This development allows the company to begin formal public notification and stakeholder consultation regarding its planned uranium recovery operations.
“Advancement into the public notice phase demonstrates continued progress through the state permitting process and represents another important step toward the potential development of one of the largest uranium resources in the United States,” President and CEO Marc Henderson said.
Laramide plans to continue its collaborative work with entities including NMED, local communities and Tribal governments throughout the public participation process.
Shares of Laramide Resources closed last week at AU$0.505, and suddenly spiked from AU$0.53 to AU$0.745 on Wednesday.
4. Blue Star Helium (ASX:BNL)
Weekly gain: 40 percent
Market cap: AU$36.92 million
Share price: AU$0.007
Subiaco-based Blue Star Helium is an independent helium exploration and production company with a focus on high-grade assets in North America.
Its primary focus is the development of its flagship Galactica project in Las Animas County, Colorado, US, which is home to the Pinon Canyon plant. Galactica is operated as a 50/50 joint venture with Helium One Global.
On Tuesday (July 14), Blue Star Helium announced a major commercial milestone with the first sale of helium from the Pinon Canyon plant, ending the commissioning and optimisation phase.
This marks the first delivery under a recently secured three-month fixed-price offtake agreement for all helium production from the plant during that window. As the first production tube trailer officially departs the site following the sale, the second trailer is on site and being filled.
“This ‘first sale’ milestone establishes Blue Star as an active supplier into the US domestic helium market at a time when reliable, in-country supply commands a premium for US users,” Managing Director and CEO Trent Spry said.
“Alongside helium sales the company remains focussed on securing a commercial solution for the CO2 product which would represent a valuable secondary revenue stream.”
The joint venture is now planning to drill three new development wells in the second half of 2026 to further ramp up production and raw gas throughput.
In the days following the announcement, shares of Blue Star Helium rose to a peak of AU$0.007 Thursday. The company’s shares closed at AU$0.005 last week.
5. Pivotal Metals (ASX:PVT)
Weekly gain: 30.77 percent
Market cap: AU$21.01 million
Share price: AU$0.017
Pivotal Metals is an explorer and developer with copper, nickel and platinum group metals projects in Québec, Canada. It is headquartered in Brisbane.
The company’s all-Canadian portfolio includes its flagship Horden Lake and a set of assets in the Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt: Midrim, Lorraine and Laforce.
Horden Lake, its most advanced project, is dominated by high-grade copper and also contains nickel, gold, platinum group metals and cobalt.
While Pivotal did not release any project updates this week, the company announced a major resource upgrade at Horden Lake on July 7.
The updated mineral resource estimate (MRE) delivered a substantial 42 percent growth, increasing the total resource to 52.4 million tonnes of ore at 1.05 percent copper equivalent, for 549,000 tonnes copper equivalent. The resource is split between the measured, indicated and inferred classifications, and a majority of it is contained in one open-pit shell.
In an investor presentation published the same day, Pivotal Metals said that a scoping study for Horden Lake is targeted for the third quarter of 2026, with expansion drilling to follow in Q1 2027.
As for Belleterre, the company noted that 3,000 to 4,000 metres of drill testing at multiple targets will take place in 2026.
The share price of the company has been on the rise since the MRE was released. This week, it rose from last week’s close of AU$0.013 to a weekly peak of AU$0.017 on Thursday.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle de la Cruz, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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