Resources Top 5: Magmatic adds western gold arm to Aussie portfolio

News.com.au

16-06-2025

Magmatic will pay $50,000 cash and 36 million shares for the Weebo gold project
The commercial potential of the Ema rare earths project in Brazil has been enhanced by test results
Investors have welcomed two positive recent announcements from Trigg Minerals
Your standout resources stocks for Monday, June 16, 2025.
Magmatic Resources (ASX:MAG)
With gold trending toward the record high of US$3500/oz set in April, having reached $3452 in the past 24 hours aided by escalating tensions in the Middle East, any positive moves by ASX-listed gold players are welcomed by investors.
One to benefit is Magmatic Resources (ASX:MAG) which has identified an inexpensive entry-point to stake its claim in one of WA's hottest gold regions with the acquisition of the Weebo gold project.
This adds a west coast arm to the company's Australian operations and complements its potential Tier-1 gold and copper prospects in the Lachlan Fold Belt of New South Wales.
The deal will see Magmatic pay $50,000 cash and 36 million shares, valued at around $1.47m, with a further 14m shares contingent on milestones for 136km2 of ground at Weebo.
This project covers a 50km north-south strike wedged between five of WA's largest gold mines, including Bellevue Gold's (ASX:BGL) namesake operation, Vault Minerals' (ASX:VAU) Darlot, Northern Star's (ASX:NST) Thunderbox and Bronzewing, and Gold Fields' Agnew-Lawlers.
That's more than 15Moz of gold resources or historic production surrounding a vast underexplored tract of WA's Northern Goldfields.
'The company is extremely pleased to add to its portfolio of projects with this exciting new gold property superbly located in the heart of WA's Yilgarn Goldfields,' MD David Richardson said.
'The prospectivity of this area is highlighted by the proximity to five large gold mines and we believe the project area is underexplored, offering a great opportunity for new discoveries.
'We have already put a local exploration team in place and expect to commence exploration drilling in the coming quarter.'
With heritage clearances in place, drilling is being planned to begin next quarter and there are already significant results to follow up, having been drilled by fellow ASX explorer Midas Minerals (ASX:MM1) when it had an option over the ground in 2021 and 2022.
They include the Ockerburry and Scone Stone prospects, the former a mineralised structure defined by drilling over at least 5km.
At Scone Stone, drilling outlined an 800m-long northeast trend of potential intrusive origin, wedged between an ultramafic unit to the west and mafic unit to the east.
Mineralisation like that has been closely watched in WA since De Grey Mining's discovery of the Hemi gold deposit in the Pilbara in 2020.
First-pass drilling is also 'warranted' for the Otto prospect, where lower grade gold has been found in limited wide-spaced drilling around an aero-magnetic target 5.5km north of Northern Star's Otto Bore mine.
Over in NSW, Magmatic has strong strategic backing, with Andrew Forrest's Fortescue its major shareholder and farm-in partner on the Myall project in the Lachlan Fold Belt.
Work in the East Lachlan Fold Belt is continuing as MAG adds another string to its bow at Weebo.
'Our four projects give shareholders exposure to both the gold and copper markets, with two potential Tier 1 gold-copper projects and now, two near-surface gold projects in the heart of two of Australia's most well endowed mining regions,' Richardson added.
Brazilian Critical Minerals (ASX:BCM)
The commercial potential of the Ema rare earths project in Brazil has been further enhanced by testing with Brazilian Critical Minerals recording the tracer reagent magnesium sulphate in multiple extraction holes.
This work forms part of an in-situ recovery trial and shows the potential value of using the chemical, a much more environmentally friendly alternative to ammonium sulphate, for leaching rare earths.
The tests showed that magnesium sulphate had migrated from the injection holes to the extraction holes in the field trial locations.
Encouragingly, pH levels were also reduced significantly to at or below pH 4.0 in the extraction solution with the addition of low concentration magnesium sulphate.
Not only is the solution at the pH level required to leach REEs into solution via in-situ recovery, solution flows through the clay zones also continue to exceed laboratory estimates with injection and extraction wells showing a steady rise in solution levels over time indicating the basement rock is largely impermeable.
Solutions containing REEs have now been extracted from the monitoring holes and are enroute to the laboratory for certified analysis.
The testing success reported on June 13 has seen shares climb 40% to 1.4c before closing 20% higher at 1.2c.
'Over the past 10 days, we've successfully applied the same testing protocols to the Ema mineralisation that delivered exceptional laboratory results throughout 2024 and early 2025,' managing director Andrew Reid said.
'Encouragingly, the pilot field trial has confirmed that permeability rates are not only consistent with lab data but, in many cases, even better.
'In recent days, we've also achieved a significant technical milestone — lowering the in-situ pH to levels that demonstrate clear migration of magnesium sulphate through the clay layers to the extraction wells.
'This is a critical step, as it indicates rare earth elements are now at a stage where they can be effectively ionically leached into solution.'
He added that the WSP Brazil controlled and supervised independent field trial had further validated the company's confidence in the simplicity and effectiveness of the ISR process.
Ema hosts one of the world's largest ionic clay rare earth deposits with a resource of 943Mt at 716 parts per million total rare earth oxides.
It includes a starter zone of 341Mt with high-value magnet rare earths, used to make permanent magnets for advanced technology like electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines and particle accelerators.
Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG)
(Up on no news)
A number of ASX-listed companies are seeking to take advantage of positive sentiment toward critical minerals in the US, including Trigg Minerals, which has reached 8.5c, an increase of 14.9% on the previous close.
Investors welcomed two positive announcements from the company last week centred on the Antimony Canyon project in the US.
Firstly, the company confirmed multiple zones of massive stibnite mineralisation at the Utah project with initial field mapping pointing to several zones of massive stibnite mineralisation at the Emma and Mammoth deposits.
The results highlight the project's potential as one of the highest grade and significant antimony projects in the US and bode well for Trigg as it pursues its strategy to become a key domestic supplier of critical minerals.
Antimony is considered a critical mineral by the US government due to its military and industrial applications.
It's used in missiles, flame retardants, renewable energy, defence and other high-tech industries.
Later in the week, Antimony metallurgist David Fourie joined the Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG) team as a technical advisor for its net zero antimony strategy, centred on Antimony Canyon.
Fourie played a central role in the design and ESG elements of the first 'clean plant' antimony smelter built by SPMP to European environmental standards in Oman.
SPMP is the largest antimony roaster outside of China, set to produce 20,000 tonnes of antimony products a year once the smelter reaches full capacity.
Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML)
Another increasing its focus on the US in line with that country's push to establish a domestic critical minerals supply chain, Resolute Minerals hit a new 12-month high of 5c, climbing 43% on the previous close on volume of more than 131m.
The latest move to reach a massive investor base in the US sees the company's intended listing on the OTCQB Markets nearing completion.
Resolution expects to increase its visibility, liquidity and accessibility for North American investors and hopes to stoke the interest of an investor base similar to NASDAQ-listed Perpetua Resources.
Perpetua's ~A$2 billion Stibnite antimony-gold project with a resource of 4.8Moz gold and 148Mlb antimony shares its western boundary with RML's newly acquired Horse Heaven antimony-gold-tungsten project in Valley County, Idaho.
Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML) also expects the dual listing will provide a stronger US presence for potential US Department of Defense funding as antimony is classified as a critical mineral, potential fast-tracking of Horse Heaven and a stepping stone to a potential NASDAQ listing.
'Listing on the OTCQB Market is a strategic move that aligns with our vision of becoming a globally recognised developer of what we believe will become a major antimony, gold and tungsten deposit in the United States,' executive director Aharon Zaetz said.
Kairos Minerals (ASX:KAI)
(Up on no news)
Simon Lill-led Kairos Minerals holds the 1.4Moz Mt York gold deposit, the largest undeveloped, free-milling gold project in the Tier-1 Pilbara region of WA with mineralisation defined over 3km within a large, single optimal pit shell.
The company's experienced technical team is confident that the gold deposit, hosted in banded iron formation (BIF), will grow significantly now that Kairos has access to an additional 1,500m of well-mineralised strike extension of the Main Trend geology from neighbours Pilbara Minerals.
The company reached a two-year high of 3.2c, an increase of 23.1%. Its had no formal news since May 23 BUT did get a write-up from our mining maestro Barry FitzGerald over the weekend. Check out his Garimpeiro column here.
The Mt York resource base of 43.08Mt at 1.0 g/t gold includes a higher-grade component of 14.6Mt at 1.6 g/t for 751,000oz.
Plans to make Mt York a super-pit project are underway.
The discovery of spodumene-bearing pegmatites at Mt York coupled with a lithium-caesium-rubidium soil anomaly at the Roe Hills project near Manna lithium deposit in the Goldfields, offer further potential significant value drivers.
Roe Hills, which is around 120km east of Kalgoorlie, holds rare earth element potential after exploration confirmed a discovery called Black Cat. There is also gold potential undercover at this discovery.