Three junior mining companies were among the strongest performers on the ASX this week, led by Brazilian rare earths explorer Alvo Minerals, whose shares rose 257 per cent after drilling identified high-grade mineralisation at its Bluebush project.
Pioneer Minerals gained 133 per cent after securing an option over a gold, copper and silver project in Argentina, while Dalaroo Metals climbed 127 per cent following a significant early drilling result at its Bondoukou project in Côte d’Ivoire.
The sharp moves came against a fragile backdrop for markets, with the wider artificial intelligence rally narrowing despite the S&P 500 remaining close to record levels. The proportion of S&P 500 companies trading above their 50-day moving average fell from about 70 per cent in August to roughly 28 per cent by early October.
Alvo Minerals leads ASX gains
Alvo’s Bluebush project lies within the Serra Dourada granite in Brazil, the same geological formation that hosts the Serra Verde rare earths mine. The company’s shares rose from 2.1 cents to 7.5 cents as investors responded to results indicating an ionic clay rare earths system.
Drilling included six metres at 2,537 parts per million total rare earth oxide, including three metres at 3,415 parts per million. A separate hole returned 11 metres at 1,032 parts per million, with mineralisation continuing at the end of most holes.
The results also contained dysprosium and terbium, two heavy rare earth elements used in high-performance magnets. Alvo said heavy rare earth oxides made up 22 per cent of the total rare earth oxide mix.
Ionic clay deposits are attracting interest because their minerals may be recoverable through a simpler process than the methods typically required for hard-rock deposits. Alvo is planning further auger drilling at its Boa Vista, São Bento and Praia prospects before preparing a maiden mineral resource estimate.
The company will also carry out diagnostic and column-leach testing to assess how much of the heavy rare earth content can be recovered in ionic form.
Pioneer Minerals takes option on Argentine project
Pioneer Minerals more than doubled in value after announcing an option to acquire the San Francisco gold-copper-silver project in San Juan province, Argentina.
A review of historical drilling identified a 109-metre intersection grading 4.94 grams per tonne of gold, 109 grams per tonne of silver and 1.13 per cent copper at the project’s main breccia pipe.
Other reported intersections included 83 metres at 4.4 grams per tonne of gold, 82 grams per tonne of silver and 0.4 per cent copper, as well as 85 metres at 2.7 grams per tonne of gold with additional silver and copper. A deeper intersection returned 72 metres grading 3.47 per cent copper.
Pioneer said mineralisation remained strong at a depth of 500 metres and was open in several directions. The project also contains more than 70 other mapped breccia structures, although only nine have been drilled, along with about 150 mapped quartz vein systems.
The company said it had arranged a 1.8 million dollar capital raising at 18 cents a share to fund its next steps.
Dalaroo drilling points to gold discovery
Dalaroo Metals rose from 7.5 cents to as high as 17 cents during the week, closing at 15.5 cents after reporting an 18-metre intersection grading 7.31 grams per tonne of gold at Bondoukou in Côte d’Ivoire.
The result came from the first two orientation holes at the Wilfred target and represented the first systematic drilling across a seven-kilometre gold-anomalous corridor.
The discovery hole also returned a deeper 16-metre zone grading 1.46 grams per tonne of gold. The programme’s first hole produced a further intersection of 23 metres at 2.14 grams per tonne from near the surface.
Dalaroo can earn up to an 80 per cent interest in the project and plans to begin a five-hole, 1,250-metre drilling programme to test the discovery’s strike and depth.
The mining gains contrasted with the collapse of plans for a proposed multibillion-dollar float by Firmus, an Nvidia-backed artificial intelligence infrastructure company. The company had sought a valuation of 44 billion dollars, but withdrew the proposed listing after investors questioned the price and market conditions deteriorated.
