ASX-listed small cap resources stocks with a gold focus have traditionally dominated our top 50. But this month  it was lithium, rare earths and coal plays which made the biggest moves.

We’ll tell you why in a minute, but check out this delicious donut chart first:

 

MAY WINNER:

Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) +307%

 “We are very much looking forward to getting on the ground and drilling this exciting project, and we are confident that it could quite quickly emerge as a company-maker for Liontown.”  

Liontown chairman Tim Goyder said this in November 2016, a few weeks before the $17 million market cap explorer got its hands on the Kathleen Valley project.

He was probably right – Kathleen Valley is shaping up as a company maker.

In 2019,  Liontown continues to find thick zones of high-grade lithium outside the current resource of 21.2Mt @ 1.4 per cent Li2O. In fact, it’s had to increase the exploration target twice in recent times.

If this 19 – 31Mt exploration target is successfully converted to resources, it would make Kathleen Valley one of the largest, highest grade spodumene projects in the Western world.

MRE = Mineral Resource Estimate, ET = Exploration Target. You’re welcome.

The stock is now up over 420 per cent in the past two months, and currently boasts a $168 million market cap.

There’s a lot of work to do before Liontown becomes a miner, but Goyder — who owns about 18 per cent of the company — would have to be pretty happy with how things are going so far.

OTHER TOP 50 HIGHLIGHTS

The Galilee Basin is a 247,000 sq km thermal coal basin in central Queensland. It’s one of the largest untapped coal reserves on the planet.

There’s a number of advanced Galilee Basin projects in the works, but no major transport links to port makes them uneconomic to develop.

Here are the big ones:

Pic: GalileeBasin.Org

But then two things happened.

First, the coal-friendly Federal Coalition government was re-elected; and in Queensland, there’s little doubt Labor’s anti-coal agenda had something to with it.

Soon after, the Queensland government decided to fast-track the approval process for Adani’s $2 billion Carmichael mine, which includes a new rail line from Northern Galilee Basin to the Port of Abbott Point (see above).

If approved, Adani’s investment in pit-to-port infrastructure could improve the business case for other projects in the region – including those belonging to small caps East Energy Resources (ASX:EER) and  AusChina Holdings (ASX:AUH).

East Energy and AustChina were up 250 per cent and 50 per cent for the month, respectively, as investors bet that their previously stranded assets in the Galilee Basin would be given new life.

 

Similarly, it was speculation that China could ban rare earths exports to the US that saw investors flock to ASX-listed players last month.

Greenland Minerals & Energy (ASX:GGG) led the charge with its share price climbing nearly 80 per cent to around 13c, followed closely by Arafura Resources (ASX:ARU) and Alkane Resources (ASX:ALK).

Alkane managing director Nic Earner reckons this news could be the “big shot in the arm” the industry needs.

Here are the top 50 mining small caps for the month of May:

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

Ticker Name Price April 30 Price May 31 1 Month Price Change % Market Cap
LTR LIONTOWN RESOURCES 0.027 0.110 307 $168,122,368.00
EER EAST ENERGY RESOURCES 0.002 0.007 250 $22,406,910.00
CLA CELSIUS RESOURCES 0.018 0.045 150 $31,803,160.00
CAD CAENEUS MINERALS 0.001 0.002 100 $4,282,520.50
AKN AUKING MINING 0.001 0.002 100 $1,865,168.88
AVZ AVZ MINERALS 0.040 0.077 93 $143,841,504.00
HWK HAWKSTONE MINING 0.013 0.024 85 $16,567,632.00
AFR AFRICAN ENERGY RESOURCES 0.011 0.020 82 $12,533,780.00
RFR RAFAELLA RESOURCES 0.072 0.130 81 $4,184,812.50
GGG GREENLAND MINERALS 0.073 0.130 78 $147,244,400.00
FEX FENIX RESOURCES 0.059 0.105 78 $23,977,500.00
ARU ARAFURA RESOURCES 0.051 0.090 76 $78,140,312.00
ADN ANDROMEDA METALS 0.006 0.010 75 $13,554,992.00
CTM CENTAURUS METALS 0.005 0.009 70 $21,639,858.00
LKE LAKE RESOURCES 0.048 0.081 69 $20,388,544.00
MHC MANHATTAN CORP 0.003 0.005 67 $3,706,393.50
AL8 ALDERAN RESOURCES 0.035 0.058 66 $6,966,479.00
PXX POLARX 0.057 0.093 63 $30,330,710.00
COB COBALT BLUE 0.135 0.220 62 $17,175,068.00
RES RESOURCE GENERATION 0.094 0.150 60 $87,207,048.00
FEL FE 0.014 0.022 57 $8,573,893.00
OAU ORA GOLD 0.007 0.011 57 $7,107,054.50
AUZ AUSTRALIAN MINES 0.023 0.036 57 $98,879,472.00
CML CHASE MINING 0.016 0.025 56 $5,174,048.00
DEV DEVEX RESOURCES 0.040 0.062 55 $7,184,731.00
TGM THETA GOLD MINES 0.105 0.160 52 $61,022,740.00
AUH AUSTCHINA 0.002 0.003 50 $3,346,155.25
WKT WALKABOUT RESOURCES 0.240 0.355 48 $109,029,720.00
TON TRITON MINERALS 0.044 0.065 48 $48,211,172.00
ARX ARC EXPLORATION 0.130 0.190 46 $4,797,639.00
KRR KING RIVER RESOURCES 0.022 0.032 45 $40,875,072.00
DKM DUKETON MINING 0.105 0.150 43 $17,702,442.00
COY COPPERMOLY 0.007 0.010 43 $17,230,434.00
TIG TIGERS REALM COAL 0.042 0.059 40 $105,708,520.00
PEK PEAK RESOURCES 0.040 0.056 40 $44,758,328.00
CUX CROSSLAND STRATEGIC METALS 0.005 0.007 40 $7,081,525.00
PEC PERPETUAL RESOURCES 0.023 0.032 39 $7,933,452.50
BKT BLACK ROCK MINING 0.072 0.100 39 $61,482,840.00
FGR FIRST GRAPHENE 0.180 0.250 39 $107,243,552.00
NWM NORWEST MINERALS 0.180 0.250 39 $15,720,000.00
ALK ALKANE RESOURCES 0.240 0.330 38 $156,889,824.00
JRL JINDALEE RESOURCES 0.240 0.330 38 $11,548,276.00
GAL GALILEO MINING 0.125 0.170 36 $20,463,568.00
S2R S2 RESOURCES 0.085 0.115 35 $28,510,246.00
ORM ORION METALS 0.006 0.008 33 $3,824,779.50
VAR VARISCAN MINES 0.002 0.002 33 $2,542,147.25
PWN PARKWAY MINERALS 0.003 0.004 33 $2,433,307.75
MTB MOUNT BURGESS MINING 0.003 0.004 33 $1,427,638.13
SPQ SUPERIOR RESOURCES 0.006 0.008 33 $4,816,306.00
SMI SANTANA MINERALS 0.003 0.004 33 $2,700,798.00
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