Who Made The Gains? Here are May’s top 50 miners and explorers

Investors – where to put your money when everything looks so bloody good?

Iron ore touched $200/t once again to close out a volatile month in positive territory.

Gold bounced back to record its biggest month-on-month gain since July last year.

Poor cousin silver and the platinum group elements – platinum, palladium, rhodium – weren’t far behind.

Red hot base metals nickel (+1.6%), copper (+2.5%), lead (+0.65%), zinc (+2.83%) and tin (+3%) got hotter.

Meanwhile, battery metals like lithium, cobalt and graphite continued their resurgence.

It’s hard to argue against experts who say we are in the midst of a ‘commodities super cycle’. So, what were the top 50 resources winners for May searching for?

Mostly gold and copper, but with a healthy amount of everything else, sans battery metals (don’t worry, there’s always next month).

Here are the top 50 ASX resources stocks for the month of May >>>

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort. Best viewed on a laptop

CODE	COMPANY	PRICE	MONTHLY RETURN %	MARKET CAP
MDX	Mindax	0.072	2300	$ 115,515,825.60
CPN	Caspin Resources	2.72	306	$ 148,978,366.56
CAP	Carpentaria Resources	0.14	186	$ 73,739,799.98
BPM	BPM Minerals	0.515	134	$ 14,321,250.00
4CE	Force Commodities	0.035	133	$ 37,699,331.75
GBR	Great Boulder Resources	0.12	131	$ 45,807,831.03
HLX	Helix Resources	0.036	125	$ 51,435,357.60
CLZ	Classic Minerals	0.002	100	$ 40,221,264.37
ASQ	Australian Silica	0.18	98	$ 38,859,088.24
VAR	Variscan Mines	0.061	91	$ 13,204,885.49
ODY	Odyssey Gold	0.14	84	$ 61,091,611.43
TKL	Traka Resources	0.031	82	$ 15,700,417.11
TAR	Taruga Minerals	0.1	82	$ 53,075,033.13
RDS	Redstone Resources	0.02	82	$ 12,222,984.07
BUX	Buxton Resources	0.125	76	$ 15,646,374.68
CVV	Caravel Minerals	0.515	69	$ 194,679,471.28
LOT	Lotus Resources	0.2	67	$ 195,291,549.32
ATR	Astron Corp	0.57	61	$ 70,424,319.85
LCD	Latitude Consolidated	0.073	59	$ 62,172,278.57
TLM	Talisman Mining	0.22	57	$ 41,058,244.70
SLZ	Sultan Resources	0.28	56	$ 18,426,613.09
MSR	Manas Resources	0.01	54	$ 24,842,462.38
POD	Podium Minerals	0.545	54	$ 180,834,574.89
MTC	MetalsTech	0.19	52	$ 26,148,998.46
CR1	Constellation Resources	0.47	52	$ 13,613,173.58
PBX	Pacific Bauxite	0.003	50	$ 1,189,842.10
SVL	Silver Mines	0.33	47	$ 351,308,176.33
VRC	Volt Resources	0.033	43	$ 80,931,155.43
ACS	Accent Resources	0.05	43	$ 23,301,364.15
IVR	Investigator Resources	0.12	43	$ 139,014,393.74
LTR	Liontown Resources	0.555	42	$ 909,554,990.50
HGO	Hillgrove Resources	0.069	41	$ 62,776,948.53
PF1	Pathfinder Resources	0.335	40	$ 16,160,361.75
AIS	Aeris Resources	0.16	39	$ 326,304,320.94
PEX	Peel Mining	0.33	38	$ 135,881,771.03
VXR	Venturex Resources	0.785	37	$ 357,095,628.96
STM	Sunstone Metals	0.019	36	$ 41,989,765.27
CAZ	Cazaly Resources	0.062	35	$ 22,912,922.55
MZZ	Matador Mining	0.49	34	$ 84,229,588.32
DM1	Desert Metals	0.715	34	$ 24,500,000.00
ALY	Alchemy Resources	0.02	33	$ 12,772,625.61
ERW	Errawarra Resources	0.25	32	$ 7,641,135.90
RSG	Resolute Mining	0.61	31	$ 645,777,233.01
BKT	Black Rock Mining	0.19	31	$ 125,348,075.65
ALK	Alkane Resources	0.93	30	$ 523,942,144.00
E25	Element 25	2.48	30	$ 358,584,789.29
TIE	Tietto Minerals	0.37	30	$ 164,226,764.16
ACP	Audalia Resources	0.035	30	$ 34,606,809.55
VMS	Venture Minerals	0.11	29	$ 145,659,721.13
PEK	Peak Resources	0.115	29	$ 169,186,300.29

There’s nothin’ like nearology

In April, Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR) gained 500% after hitting the zinc-lead motherlode at ‘Chinook’, part of the Earaheedy project in WA.

It didn’t take long for the ‘nearologists’ – stocks that pick up ground near a major discovery – to benefit.

Recent IPO BPM (ASX:BPM) gained 134% after picking up three projects next to Rumble.

The projects – Hawkins, Ivan Well and Rhodes – cover the same rock layer ‘target zone’ as Chinook, BPM says.

Importantly, the ground was pegged prior to the recent Rumble discovery, “delivering a first mover advantage with all surrounding ground now fully pegged”.

Great Boulder Resources (ASX:GBR) raised $5.5m to explore the Whiteheads (gold, nickel) and Side Well (gold) projects, as well as the ‘Wellington’ acquisition near Rumble in the Earaheedy Basin.

Special mention goes to hard-working tiddler Variscan Mines (ASX:VAR) which — on the same day market darling Rumble launched a new drilling campaign – re-rated on a big discovery at its Novales lead-zinc project in Spain.

Nearologists also continue to dine out on Chalice Mining’s (ASX:CHN) Julimar discovery.

Before Chalice came crashing in, tearing up the rulebook, companies had only really explored and mined the area for bauxite and mineral sands.

It was not a known nickel-copper-PGE province at all. This is true frontier exploration, despite being less than an hour from Perth.

In May, standout explorers included Caspin Resources (ASX:CPN) (+306%), Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) (+42%) and Venture Minerals (ASX:VMS) (+29%) – although Liontown (lithium) and Venture (iron ore, tin) have other very attractive irons in the fire to explain their gains.

Special mention goes to Errawarra Resources (ASX:ERW) which is hunting ‘Julimar style’ deposits at its Errabiddy project in WA’s Mid-West.