Who Made the Gains? Here are October’s top ASX miners and explorers

Thirteen resources companies made gains of 100% or more in August, which now seems like an aberration in a fairly weak H2 for metals stocks, sans lithium.

Just two explorers made gains of 100% or more in October, which is on par with September (1), June (1), and July (3).

Of course, one of these October winners, WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1), comfortably 10-bagged (gained +900%) over five glorious sessions.

Which puts it in rarefied air.

Over the course of 2022 no other resources stock has been able to 10-bag in any given month, according to our dubious research.

The next best for 2022 was Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) which leapt 639% back in March for much the same reason: a potential discovery.

In fact, you have to go all the way back to August 2021 to find a resources 10-bagger in Kuniko (ASX:KNI).

Amazing effort.

(Read our in-depth analysis of October’s best and worst performing metals here.)

Here’s a breakdown of the five most popular commodities for October:

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

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

October Top ASX Resources Stocks

WA1 RESOURCES (ASX:WA1)

On a Wednesday October 26 the share price of $3m market cap explorer WA1 jumped a barely believable 420%.

Why the rocket? WA1 hit thick, high-grade niobium in its first hole in a remote, lightly explored, but highly mineralised region on the WA/NT border.

Niobium is mainly used to make steel better, but also has growing uses in lithium-ion batteries, intelligent glass, solar panels, 5G tech, and nuclear energy.

Ferroniobium metal (65% Nb) currently sells for ~US$45,000/t.

WA1’s only drillhole into the P2 target at the West Arunta project in WA – and only the second in the region — pulled up 54m at 0.62% niobium, 0.18% rare earths and 3.85% phosphorus from 162m.

The 216m-long hole ended in 2m at 1.22% Nb2O5, 0.22% TREO, and 5.73% P2O5.

Those are very good numbers.

Furthermore, because WA1 was hunting for deep IOCGs (iron oxide copper gold deposits) they didn’t assay the top +70m of the hole.

Managing director Paul Savich told Stockhead the highest-grade stuff in a lot of rare earths deposits is in the weathered material at the top.

Punters poured into the stock, and kept pouring. WA1 is now worth almost $60m.

Special mention goes to neighbouring explorers Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) and Norwest Minerals (ASX:NWM), up 46% and 44% respectively for the month.

WA1, ENR, NWM share price charts