Resources Top 5: Gold diversification puts light at the end of tunnel for Uvre
Xanadu Mines has soared after fielding an off-market takeover offer from Bastion Mining
Brightstar has upgraded gold resources at key deposits in the Laverton and Menzies hub
Your standout resources stocks for Monday, May 19, 2025
Uvre (ASX:UVA)
With a shift in focus to gold at a time of strong prices, uranium and lithium explorer Uvre has been a strong mover, rising as much as 22.35% to 11.5c.
This comes after the company signed a binding agreement to acquire 100% of Minerals Exploration and its wholly-owned subsidiary Otagold, which holds a portfolio of five exploration and prospecting permits in New Zealand.
The acquisition is subject to completion of several conditions, including due diligence on MEL and Otagold and the permits held by Otagold.
It is also contingent on Uvre (ASX:UVA) raising at least $4m in a single tranche share placement at 8c per share, managed by Bell Potter Securities.
UVA has secured firm commitments for its equity raise following a strongly supported bookbuild, with incoming directors Norman Seckold and Peter Nightingale – both major shareholders of MEL – committing $500,000 and $100,000 respectively, pending shareholder approval.
As full consideration, Uvre will issue 75m fully paid ordinary shares at 8c per share, valuing the transaction at $6m.
Seckold was previously chairman of New Zealand gold developer Santana Minerals (ASX:SMI) and is currently chairman of Alpha HPA (ASX:A4N), Nickel Industries (ASX:NIC), Fulcrum Lithium (ASX:FUL) and Sky Metals (ASX:SKY).
Otagold controls a strategic landholding with 100% ownership of five permits and applications covering 332km2 of highly prospective ground.
Its flagship asset is the Waitekauri gold project, roughly 8km west of OceanaGold Corp's 10Moz Waihi gold mine on New Zealand's North Island.
UVA executive chairman Brett Mitchell said this transaction was an exceptional opportunity for Uvre on several levels.
'Norm and Peter will bring a wealth of knowledge and experience in the resources business, along with a track record of creating substantial shareholder value through resource asset exploration and project development,' he said.
'The Otagold projects led by Waitekauri have compelling gold exploration upside in a tier-one jurisdiction, as shown by the extensive mineralisation and drilling targets already identified.
'The combination of Norman's well-known record in building successful mining projects combined with the talented Uvre team, the immense exploration upside at these projects and the strong financial position which will follow the placement will leave Uvre very well-placed to create significant value."
UVA will be targeting bonanza style gold-silver low sulphidation veins with the objective to identify a multi-million-ounce resource.
An eight-hole drill program has been designed with landowner compensation agreement completed and significant potential identified at depth and along strike.
UVA shares settled at 10c, up 6.4%, but well above the 8c issue price of the raising and deal.
Xanadu Mines (ASX:XAM)
ASX and TSX listed Mongolian copper-gold explorer Xanadu Mines has soared 55% to 7.9c on volume of more than 74m after fielding an off-market takeover offer from Bastion Mining Pte Ltd.
A Bid Implementation Agreement has been entered by the parties and this comes after the offer was recommended unanimously by an XAM Takeover Board Committee.
Bastion represents a consortium of Boroo Pte Ltd, a private Singapore-incorporated entity which invests in major gold projects internationally, and Xanadu director Ganbayar Lkhagvasuren.
The offer price of A$0.08 cash per share represents a 57% premium to Xanadu's closing price of 5.1c on May 16, 2025, and 62% to its 10-day volume weighted average price of 4.9c up to and including May 16.
This offer implies a total equity value for Xanadu of A$160m, excluding the proposed share issue to Bastion.
Bastion will subscribe for 286,829,633 shares in Xanadu at A$0.06 per share, representing an initial investment of A$17.2 million to fund the company's share of joint venture cash calls, working capital and associated corporate costs during the offer period.
Boroo's key assets include Lagunas Norte, a producing gold mine in Peru and a portfolio of development-stage projects in South America.
Xanadu Mines (ASX:XAM) has a suite of Mongolian exploration plays with the most advanced being the global-scale Kharmagtai copper-gold project held with 50-50 JV partner Zijin Mining Group.
The Takeover Board Committee, together with XAM's legal and financial advisers, recommend that shareholders accept the offer in the absence of a superior proposal and subject to the Independent Expert concluding (and continuing to conclude) that the offer is fair and reasonable.
'The proposed acquisition of Xanadu by Bastion is aligned with the company's strategy of generating returns for shareholders and also providing a liquidity event,' Xanadu executive chairman and managing director Colin Moorhead said.
'Bastion's offer provides Xanadu shareholders with an attractive premium, which recognises the company's inherent value and considerable achievements in progressing the Kharmagtai copper-gold project,' he said.
'Together with my partners at Boroo, I am pleased to be making this supported offer to Xanadu shareholders,' said Ganbayar Lkhagvasuren, on behalf of Bastion.
'The Bastion offer provides Xanadu shareholders with the certainty of cash at a significant premium to Xanadu's share price, against a market backdrop of considerable uncertainty. 'Bastion is ideally positioned to advance Kharmagtai to the next stage of development with the benefit of Boroo's experience in acquiring, financing and developing mining operations in Mongolia.'
CAAF Ltd, Xanadu's largest independent shareholder which holds a relevant interest in the company of 11.85%, has stated its intention to accept the offer.
Bastion has agreed that once it acquires a relevant interest in at least 50.1% of the shares in Xanadu it will declare the offer unconditional.
Upgraded resources at key deposits within the Laverton and Menzies hubs of Brightstar Resources in WA's Goldfields have seen shares push 7.98% higher to 74.5c.
They later settled up 2.2%.
The resource estimates come ahead of a definitive feasibility study and are set to underpin future mining operations.
The most noteworthy upgrades are a 34% increase in total measured and indicated resources at the Lord Byron deposit to 251,000oz at 1.5g/t gold along with a 25% increase in resource grade at the Lady Shenton system to 273,000oz at 1.5/t gold.
Cork Tree Well has also seen total indicated ounces increase 6% to 292,000oz at 1.4g/t gold while total resources at Fish deposit have increased 22% to 49,000oz at 4g/t gold.
Resource grade at the Second Fortune underground mine increased 23% to 40,000oz at 13.4g/t gold while the Link Zone deposit has seen total resources upgraded 38% to 29,000oz at 1g/t gold.
Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) managing director Alex Rovira said the 2024 drilling was aimed at preparing the deposits for near-term development and dependable, deliverable mining operations.
'The infill drilling, both RC and DD, has provided increased confidence across the deposits and reduced geological risks for future mining, which will be crucial as Brightstar looks to progress the deposits toward production,' he said.
'This update features Brightstar's first resource estimates for several of the recently acquired deposits across the portfolio.
'It is therefore particularly encouraging to see these results, which include increases in head-grade and measured & Iindicated classification, considering the utilisation of Brightstar's robust in-house mining-focused estimation parameters.'
The company already has more than 1Moz of gold in high confidence measured and indicated resources with +300,000oz in producing or near-term deposits such as Second Fortune, Fish and Lord Byron at Laverton as well as Lady Shenton and Link Zone at Menzies.
A steady mover has been Resource Mining Corporation with an exploration and development update for the Mpanda copper-gold project being the catalyst for another 22% increase to 2.8c.
After a positive update from the Tanzanian project on May 13, shares have climbed from 0.6c and this prompted a price and volume query from the ASX.
Previous results from the project have returned impressive gold and copper grades from rock samples up to 36.7g/t gold and 11.89g/t copper from Kabungu and 13.58% copper and 3.24g/t gold from Stalike.
Analysis of copper-gold auger and soil samples is progressing focused on Stalike and Kabungu prospects.
Multiple small-scale mines form a northwest-southeast trend which combined with soil geochemistry and rock and drilling results, extends more than 40km.
Ten prospects make up the Mpanda Project and the company believes results to date provide an indicator of the presence of an extensive mineralised system.
There have been 16 rock chip samples from small-scale mines gathered within RMC's tenements with five samples exceeding 11g/t gold and two exceeding 10% copper from the Kabungu prospect.
As well as ongoing exploration, RMC is assessing near-term production opportunities at Stalike and Kabungu by utilising nearby existing third-party processing infrastructure.
'Renewed investor interest in RMC in the past week has been very encouraging following our recent update of ongoing exploration activities,' executive chairman Asimwe Kabunga said.
'These works are ongoing and will help form the basis for a more structured and targeted low-cost drill program that we can execute in the near-term once we complete the current sampling program.
'As well as our exploration activities, given the extensive small-scale workings located across our Stalike and Kabungu projects where local miners have exploited the near-surface material, RMC is uniquely positioned to accelerate development of its own mineral production operations without extensive capex.'
Raiden Resources (ASX:RDN)
Investors have shown their approval of initial assay results from ongoing 2025 Phase 2 diamond drilling program on the Vuzel Gold Project of Raiden Resources in south-eastern Bulgaria, with shares 75% higher at 0.7c.
All eight Phase 2 holes at Vuzel hit near-surface gold and significant intersections include:
24.8m at 1.96g/t gold from 0m, including 13.3m at 3.40g/t from 0m;
56m at 1.09g/t Au from 0m, including 8m at 1.50g/t from 7m and 8.3m at 4.94g/t from 47.7m; and
47.5m at 0.53g/t Au from 2.5m.
Results indicate that Vuzel may host an extensive, near-surface mineralised gold system with a high-grade component.
'I am pleased to report that all assay results received to date from the second phase of the Vuzel drilling campaign have confirmed significant gold mineralisation, extending over a meaningful strike length and width,' managing director Dusko Ljubojevic said.
'These results build on the strong foundation of our maiden drilling program, which also intersected gold mineralisation in every hole.
'Importantly, this phase has delivered high-grade intercepts and has significantly improved our understanding of the controlling structures that acted as conduits for fluid emplacement.
'This growing geological insight is expected to enable more precise targeting of high-grade zones in future drilling.
'We believe that recent transactions in the region support management's view that discoveries in the district hold the potential for significant value generation for shareholders.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Telegraph
32 minutes ago
- Daily Telegraph
NAB fined $15.5m for failing to answer customers in financial hardship
Don't miss out on the headlines from Breaking News. Followed categories will be added to My News. National Australia Bank and a subsidiary have been fined more than $15m for failing to respond to hardship applications, with one executive conceding customers deserved better. In a Federal Court decision released on Wednesday, NAB and AFSH Nominees were found to have left hardship applicants in the dark after failing to respond within 21 days. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) brought the lawsuit. In her decision, Justice Penny Neskovcin details that people who asked the bank for help were going through medical emergencies, family violence, the pandemic and business failure, natural disasters, and redundancy and unemployment. 'These failures likely made an already challenging time in people's lives far worse,' ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court said. NAB failed to respond to hardship application from people going through family violence and natural disasters. Picture: NewsWire / Kelly Barnes 'This penalty sends an important message to other financial institutions – customers should be at the centre of what you do.' Justice Neskovcin found NAB and AFSH made a 'high' number of breaches of the National Credit Code, in not providing written responses to 345 hardship notices between 2018 and 2023. The hardship claims were knocked back by NAB staff incorrectly clicking a 'reject' button in their system. About 6 per cent of 12,600 hardship applications were incorrectly rejected this way. NAB customer services boss Sharon Cook apologised and said 70 staff had been hired to address the issue. 'We're sorry we let down our customers when they needed our help,' she said. 'We have created NAB Care, a dedicated hardship assistance team, hired 70 new colleagues and increased the support options available to our customers. 'There is more to do, and we will continue to find ways to better support our customers who need us.' NAB says it has hired 70 staff in a new dedicated hardship assistance unit. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell Under the National Credit Code, if someone cannot pay their loan, lenders must consider varying the credit contract and advise them of the decision within specified time frames. Payment deferrals, reduced payment arrangements, interest-only periods, term extensions, capitalisation of arrears or interest-rate reductions are all options to get the loan repayments happening again. As well as the $15.5m fine, NAB and AFSH have to publish notices about the breaches on their websites. AFSH Nominees sells mortgages as Advantedge Financial Services. From September 30, Advantedge will stop accepting new home loan applications. From next year, all Advantedge loans will be moved over to NAB. In a letter sent to affected customers, NAB customer services executive Jocelyn Turner told them what the bank had fixed since the wave of hardship rejections. 'Our customers deserved better from us, particularly during their most challenging financial moments,' Ms Turner said. 'We have taken our response extremely seriously and have been working alongside ASIC to improve our approach.' As well as the 70 new staff, more hardship options are available to people, and frontline NAB staff have completed training to recognise financial hardship indicators. Executives from across the bank also now met to discuss particularly sensitive and complex hardship cases to provide 'personalised solutions', Ms Turner said. 'As a result of these actions, more customers are receiving hardship support through NAB,' she said. 'While this reflects the unfortunate reality that many Australians continue to face financial challenges, the increasing referral rate also means more customers are receiving help. 'Importantly, we are helping them in the early stages enabling them to recover more quickly.' Originally published as 'Deserved better': NAB fined $15.5m for failing to answer customers in financial hardship
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Leak proves economic roundtable ‘choreographed', Ley says
A leak revealing the Treasury pre-wrote a list of outcomes from Labor's much-hyped economic roundtable is proof the 'whole exercise is being choreographed', Sussan Ley says. The roundtable will not happen until next week, and yet a Treasury document showed pre-written advice for cabinet, the ABC reported on Thursday. Among the recommendations was pausing the National Construction Code, which sets safety and environmental standards for buildings. The code has been criticised, including by the Productivity Commission, for driving up the cost of construction by imposing overly strict regulations. The leaked document also recommended a plan to roll out artificial intelligence to process building approvals. The Opposition Leader said it was clear the government already knew what it wanted from the upcoming roundtable. 'It's all been lined up, statements are ready to go out,' Ms Ley told Nine's Today. 'People are going there in good faith and they want to see outcomes. 'They want see us growing the economic pie and they want to see Australians pay less tax and be rewarded for their effort. 'I fear that none of those things are actually on the agenda at this productivity roundtable.' Her predecessor, Peter Dutton, took a 10-year pause on the National Construction Code to the federal election. Whether the policy remains in line with Ms Ley's vision for the Coalition is unclear. Further on housing, the Treasury advice recommended measures to streamline housing approvals and reforms to clear a backlog of 30,000 applications waiting to clear environmental hurdles. The artificial intelligence plan would be key to getting through that backlog. The focus on housing comes amid widespread expectations the Albanese government will fall short of its pledge to build 1.2 million homes by 2030. Employment and Workplace Relations Minister Amanda Rishworth defended the pre-written advice, saying it was normal for Treasury officials to prepare notes based on conversations in the lead-up to the big talks. 'It's not surprising that Treasury would prepare advice to government and, of course, in the lead-up to the productivity roundtable, there has been ministers and other organisations holding a lot of discussions,' Ms Rishworth told the ABC. 'There's been other roundtables led by government ministers discussing some of the challenges and some of the opportunities.' She added that it was 'a really good opportunity to bring people together and look at the very long term of what we need to do as a country'.
News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Mt Waverley Secondary College zone unit sells for $753k
A Vietnamese family has ended a nine-month house hunt with a $753,000 auction win for a renovated home in one of Melbourne's most fiercely contested school zones. The buyers, whose daughter already attends Mt Waverley Primary, had missed out at several auctions before securing the two-bedroom unit at 4/2 Clive St in the coveted Mt Waverley Secondary College catchment. The father, a lecturer in Vietnam, had been flying in for inspections, determined to keep the family within the prized zone. RELATED: 'Traps': Vic homes you shouldn't buy Shock list of Melb's most sold suburbs Affairs, lies and leaks: Block chaos exposed Ray White Mt Waverley's Jacob Biviano said renovated units were a scarcity in the suburb and this one's quality and location made it hotly contested. 'They'd been looking for nine months, missed out several times, and this time they weren't leaving without it,' Mr Biviano said. 'Being in that school zone was non-negotiable, and renovated units like this just don't come up very often here.' The home is tucked at the rear of the block and had been comprehensively updated by its former owner, who lived in it for several years before renting it out. Polished floorboards flow through open-plan living and dining, the kitchen features stone benches and premium appliances, and a cafe servery window opens onto a north-facing deck and synthetic-turf courtyard. Two robed bedrooms, a modern laundry/bathroom, separate toilet, reverse-cycle heating and cooling, evaporative cooling and a carport round out the low-maintenance package. More than 55 groups inspected the home during the campaign, with three bidders — including a local investor and a buyer from Camberwell — vying for it at auction. The family prevailed just above the $700,000-$750,000 price guide. Mr Biviano said the home's location had all of the right ingredients for buyers. 'You can walk to Mount Waverley and Jordanville train stations, Hamilton Place shops are just around the corner, and you're in one of Melbourne's most sought-after school zones,' he said. 'The past fortnight has been noticeably busier, buyers know spring will bring more stock and more competition, so they're acting now to get ahead of that,' he said. The Ray White Mount Waverley agent said he believes Mount Waverley is poised for another growth surge, with the Suburban Rail Loop on the horizon and Monash and Deakin universities close by. 'Thirty years ago my father was selling here when it was still mostly market gardens,' Mr Biviano said. 'Now it's a premium market in its own right, quieter than Glen Waverley but with exceptional schools. 'I think the capital growth here will rival and could potentially exceed Glen Waverley in the years ahead.'
