Resources Top 5: Resolution Minerals stands tall on back of US antimony buy

News.com.au

2 days ago

RML is acquiring a drill-ready antimony, gold and tungsten project in the well-endowed Stibnite Mining District of Idaho
ACM is acquiring a pipeline of high-impact gold and copper exploration projects in Peru
DTR has received further high-level US government support for development of its Colosseum project
Your standout resources stocks for Thursday, June 12, 2025.
Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML)
Standing tall above the pack of ASX juniors was Resolution Minerals after climbing 78.95% to a new 18-month high of 3.4c on volume of more than 204m.
The strong support came after the company announced on Wednesday that it was acquiring a drill-ready antimony, gold and tungsten project in the Stibnite Mining District of Idaho – next to the largest known antimony resource in the USA.
The Horse Heaven project shares its eastern boundary with A$2bn market cap Perpetua Resources and its Stibnite gold-antimony project, which hosts a 4.8Moz gold reserve and a 148Mlb antimony reserve.
Once reopened, Stibnite will be the only domestically mined source of antimony in the US, supplying around 35% of the country's demand.
Horse Heaven has strong gold, antimony and silver mineralisation in two prospects – the Antimony Ridge Fault Zone (ARFZ) and the Golden Gate Fault Zone (GGFZ) – and includes past-producing antimony and tungsten mines.
Past rock chip results include up to 5.99g/t gold, 367g/t silver and 19.15% antimony, with past drilling returning up to 1.459g/t gold.
Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML) said the brownfields project was a transformational acquisition, with the highly encouraging past results indicating large tonnage mining potential.
It is expected to begin drilling the antimony prospects at Horse Heaven in the near-term.
Horse Heaven is also eligible for fast-tracking under FAST-41, just like Stibnite which was fast-tracked for approval in April, and on May 19, 2025, obtained final approval to be re-opened.
The company said Horse Heaven complemented its recently acquired Australian gold-antimony-copper projects – Drake East antimony-gold project (NSW), Neardie antimony project (Qld) and Spur South gold-copper project (NSW) – to create a portfolio highly leveraged to gold and antimony.
'The acquisition of the Horse Heaven project is a company transforming event for RML,' executive director Aharon Zaetz said.
'As many governments around the world look to onshore their supply of critical minerals, such as antimony, we have secured a commanding ground position with known antimony occurrences and next to what will soon be the largest antimony producer in the USA.'
Australian Critical Minerals (ASX:ACM)
Becoming the latest seeking to exploit the copper-gold riches of the coastal belt along the Andes in South America is Australian Critical Minerals, which has entered a binding share purchase agreement to acquire Circuit Resources.
This transaction, which the company describes as transformational, includes a pipeline of high-impact gold and copper exploration projects in Peru, with silver, base metals and lithium as a secondary focus.
Circuit Resources owns or has the option to acquire the concessions associated with the Blanca, Riqueza, Flint, Cerro Rayas, Liro and Kamika projects with the first two, Bianca and Riqueza, representing the primary targets for ACM.
Investors share the company's enthusiasm with shares up as much as 27.5% to a daily high of 7.9c before closing at 7.3c.
Blanca is a low-sulphidation epithermal quartz vein gold system encompassing the Cruz Vein and is within a copper-gold-silver porphyry-epithermal metallogenic belt that also hosts Alta Copper's Canariaco and Rio Tinto's La Granja porphyry copper deposits.
Cruz vein outcrops at surface and was partially explored by Inca Pacific Resources in 1996 and 1997 with further trenching and rock sampling carried out in 2010 and 2018 by St Elias Mining.
Drilling and trenching delivered strong gold hits including 1.5m at 52.8g/t gold within a 9.5m intersection at 11.27g/t; and 4m at 3.97g/t gold including 1.75m at 7.5g/t.
ACM plans to prioritise exploration of Blanca and will immediately start the approvals process for twinning, infill and extensional drilling.
Riqueza is a district-scale, intermediate-sulphidation vein system extending over a 10km strike length and southwest of several deposits including Minera IRL's Corihuarmi gold-silver project, Kuya Silver Corp's Bethania silver project and Lara Exploration's Kenita polymetallic project.
It has undergone substantial previous exploration with copper grades from 1% to 8.7% and silver assays to 2238g/t in historical rock chip samples.
A review and prioritisation of historical drill targets based on extensive surface sampling, mapping and geophysics is underway with ACM aiming to start drill permitting in the second half of 2025.
'The acquisition of Circuit Resources is a significant opportunity for ACM, delivering a pipeline of high-impact exploration projects across gold, copper, silver, zinc and lithium in Peru,' ACM managing director Dean de Largie said.
'The scale and quality of these assets – spanning over 25,000 hectares – give us immediate drill-ready targets and exceptional scope for new discoveries.
'Projects like Riqueza, with high-grade copper-silver veins over several kilometres and proximity to majors like Anglo American, offer Tier-1 potential.
'Blanca has already demonstrated strong gold mineralisation, while Cerro Rayas and the Salar projects provide exposure to critical metals with potentially strong demand tailwind.'
Dateline Resources (ASX:DTR)
Dateline Resources has welcomed further high-level US government support for expediting the development of its Colosseum project in California.
On Sunday, US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum highlighted the national significance of the Trump Administration's reopening of the Colosseum mine during an interview on Fox News.
He emphasised that restarting the mine was a pivotal step towards bolstering America's supply of critical minerals and reducing US reliance on overseas sources for REEs.
The mine, to be clear, has not yet been reopened and does not yet have a rare earths resource.
It contains an offically reported resource of around 1.1Moz of gold. Drilling for rare earths was announced on April 5, with the project thought to "share the same mineralising system as Mountain Pass", the only operating rare earths deposit in the States.
In a meeting on Monday at the US Department of the Interior headquarters in Washington, DC, Dateline Resources says its MD and CEO Stephen Baghdadi met with Secretary Burgum to discuss the next steps in developing REE extraction at Colosseum.
Baghdadi highlighted the mine's potential to contribute to the US REE supply chain, essential for advanced technologies and national security, sooner than any other known deposit in the US.
Secretary Burgum, joined by senior appointees from the Department of the Interior and President Donald Trump's National Energy Dominance Council, reaffirmed his commitment to bolstering US rare earth production, expressing specific enthusiasm for Colosseum, the company said.
The hope is more government support and funding could come with that.
Investors welcomed the news, with shares reaching 10.2c, a 29.2% increase on the previous close with more than 196m changing hands.
Meeka Metals (ASX:MEK)
With commissioning of the processing plant underway at the Murchison gold project, Meeka Metals reached a 10-year high of 18.5c, an increase of 15.63% on the previous close, as it transitions to producer status.
Dry commissioning (system and equipment testing) has progressed successfully and ore is being fed into the plant while wet commissioning (full operational commissioning) is underway.
The first gold pour from gravity gold is planned for June 2025 while first gold sales and cash flow are expected in early July.
'It rounds out a period of consistent delivery against our development timeline and reflects our focused actions to bring the project online,' Meeka's managing director Tim Davidson said.
"We are now focused on maximising the expanded open pit mining opportunity following the success we are having with the drill bit.
'Additionally, first ore is expected from our first underground mine at Andy Well in the September 2025 quarter.'
The Murchison project hosts a 1.2Moz at 3g/t gold mineral resource on granted Mining Leases.
Ausgold (ASX:AUC)
New high-grade gold results have extended the Datatine high-grade shoot by 240m down-plunge and reinforced its potential as a high-grade underground prospect within Ausgold's Katanning gold project (KGP) in WA.
Results of up to 6.6m at 3.40g/t gold from 362m, including 3.8m at 5.80g/t from 364.85m, also support the outlook for future resource growth at Katanning.
RC and diamond drilling also returned 2m at 3.67g/t from 297m along with 11.3m at 0.96g/t, including 4.2m at 1.81g/t from 333.83m, and resulted in AUC shares reaching a new three-year high of 77c, a 6.22% increase on the previous close.
The company will now utilise funding of up to $180,000 through the Geological Survey of WA Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) for further drilling.
This will target sections where high-grade mineralisation is interpreted to have been missed and test for further high-grade mineralisation up to 150m beyond the current down-plunge extent.
'With both Datatine and the Central Zone remaining open down-plunge, we see clear opportunities to increase resources at the KGP,' executive chairman John Dorward said.
The company is on track to complete a feasibility study in late June considering the development of a large-scale, long-life open pit gold project.