Resources Top 5: American West reels in big fish and $7m to advance the USA’s largest indium deposit

• AW1 raises $7m to advance critical minerals strategy in the US
• SQX expands into US with two high-grade precious metals projects
• Strong copper, gold and molybdenum results for CAE

Your standout small cap resources stocks for Thursday, October 16, 2025. 

American West Metals (ASX:AW1)

After reeling in $7 million in a placement to domestic and global institutional investors at 4.5c per share, an 18% premium to the 30-day VWAP, American West Metals (ASX:AW1)  doubled to a 2025 high of 9.8c and more than 160m shares changed hands valued at over $12.6m.

Internationally renowned resources investment firm Tribeca Investment Partners demonstrated its confidence in the company by investing $2m in the placement. 

The funds will enable AW1 to rapidly advance the 100%-owned West Desert project in Utah, which hosts America’s largest and highest grade indium deposit.

West Desert JORC 2012-compliant resource totals 33,668,038t at 3.83% zinc, 0.15% copper and 9.08g/t silver, or 1.29Mt Zn, 49,053t Cu and 9.8Moz Ag in oxide and sulphide open pit resources along with underground sulphide resources. This includes 27.3Mt in the indicated category.

There is also potential to define significant resources of gallium and molybdenum.

Indium is a critical metal necessary in the production of semi-conductors, solar panels, military equipment, smartphones and other high-end technology products.

With funding secured and permits in place, AW1 can charge ahead with drilling of follow-up targets for indium, gallium, silver and other critical metals.

This comes during an environment of favourable US policies to develop domestic critical minerals supply chains.

The Trump Administration has implemented an aggressive policy framework as highlighted by the March 2025 Presidential Executive Order that requires accelerated advancement of critical minerals projects by authorising funding under Title III of the Defence Production Act (DPA).

This makes available government grants, low-interest loans and price floor commitments to support domestic production and AW1 is engaging with US agencies to potentially access these funding mechanisms.

“West Desert is a rare critical metals opportunity that is strategically located within the mining heartland of the US – in Utah, rated as one of the world’s top mining jurisdictions by the Fraser Institute,” American West Metals MD Dave O’Neill said.

“With only 10% of the project area explored with drilling and with gallium and molybdenum not yet included in the JORC resource, there is outstanding potential for resource growth and value creation.

“Work has begun to exploit this immediate opportunity with drill permitting in place. The mineralisation remains open along the 2.5km mine corridor, and walk-up drill targets are being defined for our follow-up drilling program.”

SQX Resources (ASX:SQX)

An expansion by SQX Resources (ASX:SQX)  into the US with the acquisition of two high-grade precious metals projects has been applauded by investors who sent shares to a record 29c at opening, a leap of 70.6% on the previous close, before closing 26.5% up at 21.5c.

The company has signed a binding agreement to acquire 80% of AM6 Pty Ltd, which holds the Williams gold-silver project in Montana and Red Bird gold project in Arizona.

Williams is 40km northwest of Philipsburg in the Sapphire Mountains of Granite County and was last worked in the late 1980s with more than 445m of exploration drives plus additional stopes and raises.

Numerous multi-ounce bonanza grade zones were identified and there was 876t extracted from a stope grading 141.7g/t Au and 780g/t Ag.

The project is significantly under explored and there is strong upside potential. Of eight mineralised veins zones identified, significant exploration has only been conducted on two veins.

Red Bird is an epithermal vein, breccia and replacement mineralisation target formerly explored by Homestake Mining.

Historical underground continuous chip-channel results included 56.4m at 2.5g/t Au, 18.8m at 2.3g/t Au and 10.7m at 8.5g/t Au.

SQX will initially target broader and larger tonnage potential for open-pittable mineralisation.

“This is a transformative acquisition for SQX into the North American precious metals space which is seeing significant investor interest and explorer success,” SQX’s executive chairman Patric Glovac said.

Upcoming exploration across the Williams and Red Bird projects will focus on systematic geological and geophysical work to refine targets ahead of the 2026 drilling season.

To fund the acquisition and work, SQX has received firm commitments for a placement to professional and sophisticated investors raising $2m at 10c per share.

After completing the AM6 acquisition, the company will appoint Dr Julian Stephens as an executive director.

He will add deep gold-system expertise and North American operating familiarity. His mix of technical excellence and listed-company stewardship is expected to strengthen SQX’s exploration, transaction and investor engagement capabilities.

Stephens is the former MD of Sovereign Metals (ASX:SVM) where he led the team which discovered the world’s largest rutile deposit at Kasiya in Malawi, and serves as a non-executive director of Viking Mines (ASX:VKA).

Cannindah Resources (ASX:CAE)

Impressive copper, gold and molybdenum results from Cannindah Resources (ASX:CAE) trenching highlight the potential of Mt Cannindah project in central Queensland and saw shares lift 44.69% to a daily top of 6.8c, closing at 5.8c for a 23.4% gain.

Results from Appletree and Dunno prospects, which are ore grade in parts at surface, were identified over an area of about 500m by 100m and are supported by previous soil and rock chip data.

Notable assays from trenching include: 

• 61m at 1.08% copper equivalent (0.94% Cu, 0.22g/t Au and 141ppm Mo) and another 38m at 0.3% CuEq from 90m; and 
• 46m at 0.64% CuEq (0.52% Cu, 0.19g/t Au and 98ppm Mo).

Work is being completed to ascertain the significance of the additional targets.

A current scout RC drill program will test this target in the next 2-4 weeks as the rig moves from resource extension drilling at Mt Cannindah breccia into drill testing the Eastern and Southern porphyry targets.

Verity Resources (ASX:VRL)

Auger drilling by Verity Resources (ASX:VRL)  has identified a new rare earths zone that highlights the potential scale of its Pimenta rare earths project in Brazil.

The program follows surface sampling that returned consistent mineralisation of up to 25,817ppm total rare earth oxides with high-value magnet REEs making up an average 25% of the REE basket over 147 samples.

VRL’s 38 auger holes confirmed widespread near-surface REE mineralisation within a deeply weathered soil-saprolite profile developed over granite.

Notable assays include:

• 7m grading 2193ppm TREO with 28% MREO from surface; and 
• 5m at 2329ppm TREO with 25% MREO from surface.

Results indicate widespread allanite-hosted mineralisation with a geological signature similar to that at American Rare Earths’ (ASX:ARR) Halleck Creek in Wyoming that has a resource of 2.63Bt at 3292ppm TREO.

“Pimenta is shaping up as a compelling surface REE prospect. Intercepts such as 4m at 2,683ppm TREO from surface, MREO proportions up to 28% and consistently strong NdPr underpin a high-value magnet mix,” director Patrick Volpe said.

BMG Resources (ASX:BMG)

(Up on no news)

WA explorer BMG Resources (ASX:BMG) hit a 3-year high of 2.6c, a jump of around 53% on the previous close, before a trading halt was implemented just after midday AEDT. It closed 35.3% up at 2.3c.

The halt followed a price query from the ASX and will remain in place until the company responds.

BMG’s flagship Abercromby gold project hosts a resource of 11.1Mt at 1.45g/t Au for 518,000oz in the Agnew-Wiluna Greenstone Belt.

The company is pursuing a dual exploration strategy targeting resource growth at the Capital deposit and a pipeline of regional targets highly prospective for further Capital-style mineralisation.

The Bullabulling gold-lithium project is in the emerging Coolgardie gold and lithium region and the Invincible gold-lithium project is in the central Pilbara.

BMG also has the South Boddington gold project in the Saddleback Greenstone belt south of Perth that hosts the +40Moz Boddington deposit, Australia’s largest gold mine.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent financial advice before making any financial decisions.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Cannindah Resources and Verity Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.