Welcome to the Investing News Network’s weekly round-up of the top-performing mining stocks on the ASX.
Companies focused on metals including gold, copper, scandium and nickel landed in the top five this week.
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 9074.9 on Monday (August 24) and closed at 9,038.2 on Thursday (August 27), ending the period down 0.4 percent.
After several weeks of gains, gold and silver were both slightly in the red this week as of the close of Australian stock markets Thursday. The gold price fell 0.25 percent in US dollars, from US$4,617.60 on Monday to US$4,606.19 Thursday. Meanwhile, a 0.62 percent decrease was seen in Australian dollars, with gold moving from AU$6,440.01 to AU$6,399.96.
Silver prices similarly ended the period down slightly, falling 0.07 percent in US dollars from US$69.38 to US$69.33. In Australian dollars, the metal lost 0.38 percent from AU$96.71 to AU$96.34.
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. FirstAu (ASX:FAU)
Weekly gain: 50 percent
Market cap: AU$30.11 million
Share price: AU$0.009
FirstAu is a gold and base metals exploration company with a portfolio of assets in Western Australia.
In recent weeks the company has been focused on its newly acquired holdings: the Riverina East gold project and a package of 20 tenements.
On July 27, FirstAu announced that it had completed the acquisition of Riverina East from Viking Mines. The property consists of 11 mineral licenses and one exploration license covering a total land package of 255 square kilometres. It hosts the historic First Hit gold mine, which produced 30,000 ounces of gold during the life of operations.
The following day, the company reported it acquired 20 mineral licenses across the Kalgoorlie and Leonora regions in its activities report for the quarter ending June 30. The company announced in mid-August that initial mapping and sampling at two of the tenements confirmed a new mineralisation target, named the Kims prospect. Fieldwork at Kims also discovered historic workings and an unreported quartz outcropping.
On Monday, FirstAu announced that it would commence its first drill program at Riverina East. The program has been designed to test and extend the First Hit deposit, with the objective of advancing toward a mineral resource estimate for the project.
Additionally, on August 7, FirstAU announced it would seek shareholder approval to consolidate its shares at a 20:1 ratio at its upcoming general meeting on September 23.
2. Alara Resources (ASX:AUQ)
Weekly gain: 40.54 percent
Market cap: AU$42.61 million
Share price: AU$0.052
Alara Resources is a copper exploration and production company with a 51 percent stake in the Al Wash-hi Majaza copper-gold plant in Oman through the Al Hadeetha Resources joint venture.
Production at the plant began in 2024. It hosts a copper concentrator with capacity of 1 million tonnes of ore per year, and an open-pit mine with a 10.3 year mine life. The plant is supported by an exclusive long-term offtake agreement with Trafigura, signed in July 2023.
On Wednesday (August 26), Alara announced that it had completed shipments 57 through 60 from Oman’s Sohar Port, totaling 3,303 wet tonnes of concentrate containing 673 tonnes of copper. Several shipments had previously been delayed due to congestion at the port amid ongoing regional disruptions.
Alara also reported on August 18 that it had closed an entitlement offer for the sale of AU$3.84 million in new shares. It received interest in excess of the maximum number of shares available, with full interest equivalent to AU$4.95 million.
3. Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD)
Weekly gain: 33.33 percent
Market cap: AU$49.15 million
Share price: AU$0.052
Mount Ridley Mines is an exploration and development company advancing its Mount Ridley project in north of Esperance in Western Australia. The project contains independent clay-hosted deposits of gallium, rare earth elements and scandium.
Mount Ridley covers approximately 3,400 square kilometres, including the Grass Patch complex, and hosts more than 68 kilometres of strike with clay-hosted mineralisation. The company has previously released resource estimates for the gallium, rare earth element and scandium deposits at the project.
On Wednesday, the company released an upgraded scandium resource for the project, reporting an inferred resource of 47,357 tonnes of scandium in 946.1 million tonnes of ore grading 50.1 parts per million (ppm) scandium, combined across two blocks. According to the company, Mount Ridley now holds the largest publicly reported, JORC-compliant scandium resource globally.
Earlier this month, Mount Ridley Mines announced on August 12 that testing of its proprietary Selectro leaching process on material from its project achieved more than double the average recoveries of the industry standard hydrochloric acid process.
The company reported that it achieved heavy rare earth recoveries of between 77 to 83 percent, light rare earths recoveries between 70 to 77 percent, scandium recovery of 80 percent, and gallium recoveries averaging 56 percent.
One week later, Mount Ridley reported it lodged a provisional patent application for the Selectro process and had also initiated bulk testwork, including flotation, to further optimise the process.
4. Yandal Resources (ASX:YRL)
Weekly gain: 29.92 percent
Market cap: AU$59.31 million
Share price: AU$0.165
Yandal Resources is an exploration company focused on its Ironstone Well-Barwidgee gold project in Western Australia.
The property covers an area of approximately 456 square kilometres in an under-explored area between Northern Star Resources’ (ASX:NST,OTCPL:NESRF) Jundee and Bronzewing gold mines. The site hosts several mineralised deposits, including Flushing Meadows, where Yandal has identified a resource of 268,000 ounces of gold. In 2024, the company discovered the Siona deposit, and in 2025, it identified the Arrakis deposit.
The most recent project news came on Tuesday (August 25), when Yandal announced new results from infill reverse circulation and diamond drilling at Arrakis that identified a potential third high-grade domain at the target. One highlighted assay returned grades of 2.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gold over 17.5 metres, including an intersection of 4 g/t gold over 4.8 metres.
The company said that the down-plunge projection remains open below the Yueh Shear zone, providing a target for future drilling.
5. Alliance Nickel (ASX:AXN)
Weekly gain: 29.63 percent
Market cap: AU$30.79 million
Share price: AU$0.035
Alliance Nickel is an exploration and development company advancing its NiWest nickel-cobalt project in Western Australia. The project is situated in a region with known nickel and cobalt mineralisation and is adjacent to Glencore’s (LSE:GLEN,OTCPL:GLCNF) Murrin Murrin mine. To date, the project has seen more than AU$30 million in investment capital for exploration, metallurgical testing and development studies.
In May 2024, NiWest was awarded major project status from the Australian government, making it the first nickel project to achieve that status since nickel was listed as a critical mineral. Alliance said the inclusion will allow it to receive support in navigating federal and state regulatory processes for a period of three years.
A definitive feasibility study (DFS) released in November 2024 shows an after-tax NPV of AU$1.5 billion, an IRR of 17.6 percent and a payback period of five years at an annual long-term average nickel price of US$20,216.
According to the DFS, NiWest holds a resource of 93.4 million tonnes at 1.04 percent nickel and 0.07 percent cobalt for 971,000 tonnes of contained nickel; about 83 percent is in the measured and indicated JORC category, and the cut off is 0.8 percent nickel. The DFS focuses on a 35 year mine life for NiWest, with planned average annual production of 20,000 tonnes of contained nickel and 1,600 tonnes of contained cobalt over the first 12 years.
The company has not released any project-related news since June 26, when it provided an update on capital cost optimisation and sent a 2 tonne bulk sample overseas for vat leach testing. The initial analysis suggested that it could achieve material reductions in water infrastructure expenses, along with potential metallurgical benefits. The work is expected to be completed in late Q3.
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Securities Disclosure: I, Dean Belder, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.
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