Resources Top 5: Ora Banda leads big gains for mid-tier gold miners as prices surge

Ora Banda Mining is confident of gold resource growth at the Davyhurst project with Little Gem discovery
Producer Vault Minerals follows a yellow brick road in WA
Capricorn Metals will acquire the Kings Find Project adjacent to its Mt Gibson Gold Project in WA’s Murchison region

Your standout small cap resources stocks for Thursday, March 13, 2025.

Ora Banda Mining (ASX:OBM)

Gold prices caught another leg up on Wednesday in the States as falling month to month inflation figures raised investor hopes of rate cuts, always good for non-yielding bullion.

Prices are edging toward all time highs, touching US$2938/oz (over $4660/oz Aussie) at the time of writing.

A 10% gain made Ora Banda, owner of the +100,000ozpa Davyhurst gold project, one of the biggest beneficiaries as it also dazzled with a new discovery at the Riverina region of the mine site near Kalgoorlie.

Further golden potential came as OBM reported two broad high-grade lodes at the Little Gem target.

Returns of up to 22.7m at 5g/t gold from 481.3m, including 14,5m at 6.8g/t, and 10.9m at 6.4g/t from 545.7m from diamond drilling have pointed to a greenfields discovery.

The two wide, high-grade lodes intersected 400m below surface shine light on a new 4.7km target zone that runs from the Sunraysia deposit to British Lion. This is more than double the current strike length of the known Riverina orebody.

The results have pleased investors in the gold producer with shares hitting a new record of $1.075 intraday.

“These outstanding results at Little Gem have been achieved through exceptional geology work, done well, and is exactly how deposits should be discovered,” Ora Banda’s MD Luke Creagh said.

“These latest discovery intercepts at Little Gem are landmark because they open our eyes to a new 4.7km long target zone that runs all the way from Sunraysia to British Lion.

“To put this into context, this is more than double the current strike length of the known Riverina orebody. “Consequently, we’ve committed to a priority 16-hole starter drill program which will test the carbonate horizons along the 4.7km strike and down to a depth of 400m.

“We are very much looking forward to seeing what this program delivers.”

The nominal 400-metre line spacing is aimed at determining the continuity of the carbonate horizons.

This program will be phased, with the first phase testing the 1.6km strike of Little Gem along with potential depth extensions below the Sunraysia deposit.

It is expected that a total of 7300m will be drilled over about 10 weeks with a further four weeks for assay returns.

Vault Minerals (ASX:VAU)

Investors are also warming to gold producer Vault Minerals as it rides on the back of a strong gold price environment and the success of the three WA operations inherited from the merger of Silver Lake Resources and Red 5 in June 2024.

Vault has been active on the ASX with almost 69 million shares changing hands and the daily high of 43.5c was 4.82% higher than the previous close.

This comes as no surprise after Vault lodged a robust half-year report late last month, its first since the merger, including group gold production of 195,417oz from the Leonora, Deflector and Mount Monger producing centres.

Gold sales for the half totalled 199,428oz, up 86% on the 107,470oz produced in H1 FY24, for group sales revenue of $678.8 million, a 139% increase on the $285.5m of H1 FY24, with an average realised price of A$3,369 per ounce.

Group EBITDA was $267.4 million at an EBITDA margin of 39%. All three operations contributed a positive EBITDA, with the EBITDA of King of the Hills (KoTH) and Mount Monger Operations (MMO) incorporating delivery into the gold forward sales, whilst all Deflector gold sales were delivered at the prevailing spot market price.

Net profit after tax was $119.3m, an increase of 311%, while operating cash flow for the half lifted by 152% to $237.3m.

The milestone first half-year result highlights the strong cash-generating capacity of Vault’s diverse portfolio, with the three producing assets recording solid, positive EBITDA contributions during the integration period of the business.

Vault is also investing in the future and operating cashflows for the half included $45m of underground mine development and $68m of open pit waste stripping.

Board approval has also been received for the $80m expansion of the KoTH processing facility to 6Mtpa, a 20% increase on FY24.

Stage 1 includes the installation of a new, fit for purpose crushing circuit delivering increased throughput capacity and reduced unit operating costs. In addition, this stage significantly increases wet plant and classification circuit capacity to cater for throughput exceeding 7Mtpa.

Upon the release of the December 2024 Quarterly Activities Report, Vault tightened its FY25 guidance range to gold sales of 390,000–410,000oz at an AISC of A$2250-2,450 per ounce.

Vault ended the period with cash and bullion of $575.6 million and no debt, excluding $31.8 million of gold in circuit and concentrate on hand, at net realisable value.

Capricorn Metals (ASX:CMM)

Confident of expanding its gold footprint, Capricorn Metals has signed a binding agreement with Serena Minerals to acquire the Kings Find Project adjacent to its Mt Gibson Gold Project in the Murchison region of WA.

Kings Find Project, which is to the north and contiguous to Mt Gibson, is considered highly prospective for gold and features multiple settings conducive to hosting economic gold deposits.

Capricorn, which has a market cap of about $3.073B, has identified four target zones for exploration within the new tenure, with the highest priority target just 35km from current Mt Gibson resources and in proximity to the Great Northern Highway.

“The acquisition of the Kings Find Project continues the expansion of Capricorn’s Mt Gibson exploration footprint and adds highly prospective targets very close to the company’s current Mt Gibson resources,” Capricorn executive chairman Mark Clark said.

“This provides Capricorn with an outstanding exploration opportunity with a view to adding meaningful additional ore sources to the Mt Gibson operation. We look forward to commencing active exploration on the project in 2025.”

The transaction consideration is $1.5m, of which Capricorn has paid an initial cash deposit of $100,000 with the balance of the consideration to be paid by the issue of Capricorn shares. Further consideration includes the grant of a 1% net smelter royalty on the sale of any minerals.

Capricorn shares have been as much as 6.86% higher to $7.95, approaching the record high of $8.13 set last month.

Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL)

Another gold shiner is producer Bellevue Gold which has been as much as 7.25% higher to $1.287 as it continues to bask in a positive half-year report delivered a couple of weeks ago, its first full six-month reporting period after declaring commercial production in Q4 FY24.

BGL closed trade 5.7% up.

Gold sold in the half from its namesake WA project totalled 65,635oz at an average realised price of $3,388/oz and at an AISC of $2240/oz. Profit after income tax for the period totalled $12.1m.

Growth and exploration capital included the capital development required in continuing to establish key mining areas ($35.9m) and ventilation raisebores ($9.3m), with the two raisebores expected to be completed during H2 FY25.

Other capital costs were exploration and drill drive access ($6.5m); and key enabling infrastructure ($20.2m), including commissioning and installation of primary fans and pumps ($4.6m); continued tailings storage facility construction ($7.2m), processing plant expansion ($0.6m) and windfarm early works ($2.4m).

Total available liquidity at December 31, 2024, was $81.0m, up from $75.7m on June 30, 2024, and made up of cash and cash equivalents of $79.5m, nil bullion awaiting settlement and finished goods of $1.5m.

Contributing to the movement in cash and cash equivalents during the period were cash receipts from gold sales of $232.8m and $145.7m net proceeds from issues of shares, offsetby $214.4m of operating and investing net cash outflows and $133.3m in principal and interest outflows on debt and leases, including a $112.6m voluntary debt repayment.

Energy Transition Minerals (ASX:ETM) and European Lithium (ASX:EUR)

Investors believe that critical minerals explorer Energy Transition Minerals is set to benefit from a change of government in Greenland which may have positive implications for its Kvanefjeld Rare Earth Project.

In response to shares rising from a low of 6.4c on Wednesday to 9.9c on Thursday, the company responded to an ASX price query by saying that Greenland’s centre-right opposition party, the Demokraatit Party, secured the largest number of votes and that this party “has a broadly pro-business agenda”.

With that party securing 29.9% of votes, followed by the Naleraq Party (24.5%) and the Inuit Ataqatigiit Party (21.4%), ETM told the ASX this outcome was understood to be likely to lead to the formation of a new coalition government.

ETM said the government formed after the parliamentary elections of 2021 was led by the Inuit Ataqatigiit Party, and introduced the Uranium Act (Act No. 20 of 2021) which led to the halting of development of the Kvanefjeld Project.

There was a decline in support for the Inuit Atatatigiit Party at the 2025 election, which is reported to have lost five seats in parliament.

ETM is an exploration and development company focused on developing mineral projects globally. The company manages exploration projects in Western Europe, North America and Greenland.

One of its projects is Kvanefjeld, which remains subject to arbitration proceedings in the Arbitration Tribunal in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The company is also involved in the Villasrubias lithium project, an early-stage exploration project in the region of Castille and Leon in Spain, and the Good Setting and Solo lithium projects in James Bay, Quebec, canada.

The company continues to assess other critical metals project opportunities globally.

The same backdrop saw European Lithium shares run 12% higher, as it also reported a maiden JORC resource of 45Mt at ~0.4% rare earths oxides at the Tanbreez project today.

The Tony Sage chaired company owns the majority stake in Critical Metals Corp, a Nasdaq listed firm which holds 42% of Tanbreez and is set to earn up to a 92.5% stake in the deposit. EUR holds a 7.5% share in its own right.

WATCH: StockTake: Greenland’s critical minerals potential

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent financial advice before making any financial decisions. While Ora Banda Mining and European Lithium are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.