Resources Top 5: Broken Hill Mines debut sees 120-year-old mining operation back on the ASX
What could be a very significant Channel Iron Deposit discovery has been made by PGD
AIV has declared a maiden inferred resource of 8.5Mt at 1.13g/t gold for 310,000 ounces at Mt Hogan deposit
Your standout small cap resources stocks for Monday, July 21, 2025
Broken Hill Mines (ASX:BHM)
After 120 years of mining silver, lead and zinc, and being the birthplace of mining giant BHP, Broken Hill is again directly represented on the stock exchange after producer and explorer Broken Hill Mines made its debut.
And it turned heads, opening at 47.5c and reaching 51.5c in early trade, a 454% increase on the previous close of predecessor Coolabah Metals with more than 8m shares exchanged.
BHM has quickly got to work, with the drill spinning in a bid to increase silver, lead and zinc resources at the Pinnacles mine west of the mining stronghold of Broken Hill and its existing Rasp underground mine.
A 4000m program is aimed at growing the size and grade of its current 6Mt resource at the Pinnacles, which runs at an impressive 10.9% ZnEq. As well as 4.7% zinc, the resource includes 153g/t silver, 3.3% lead and 0.5g/t gold.
BHM also has another 3000m of earlier drill core from Pinnacles in the queue for assays, with first results expected in the next month or so.
This new drilling follows results released earlier this year including 8.9m at 927g/t Ag, 12.2% Pb and 1.3% Zn from 11 metres.
Broken Hill Mines (ASX:BHM) listed on the ASX after a reverse takeover of Coolabah Metals, which consolidated two of three mining companies that control the silver, lead and zinc operations at Broken Hill. The reverse float included the injection of $20m in fresh capital from investors.
While Pinnacles is set to play a role in future growth, the Rasp underground mine with access and surface facilities on the town's Line of Lode is the flagship.
The mine produces around 25,000tpa of zinc equivalent metal, but there are plenty of opportunities to improve the outlook.
Despite the Rasp plant's 750,000tpa capacity, the project has been campaign milled since 2020 and ore feed grades are around 6% ZnEq.
'We bought an operating mine, a going concern, we've got 120 staff on day one and a hungry plant,' executive chairman Patrick Walta told Stockhead recently.
'The whole philosophy is about utilisation of sunk capital. We have this beautiful plant that's really had 500 million bucks spent on it over the years and it's only about 12 years old.
' It is only fed by one orebody and it's a relatively low-grade ore body by Broken Hill standards.'
That source – Western Mineralisation – runs at around 8.2% ZnEq, including 4.8% zinc, 3.1% lead and 38g/t silver. Yet the Main Lode grades 17.7% ZnEq, including 870,000t of ore at 7.8% zinc, 7.6% lead and 151.7g/t silver.
Walta said the mine made $20 million in operating cashflow last year with a plant running at around 40% of total capacity. When the Main Lode is online it will introduce not just more ore but ore running at 2.5x the grade.
Peregrine Gold (ASX:PGD)
While chasing gold in the Pilbara region of WA, Peregrine Gold has made what could be a very significant Channel Iron Deposit discovery just 2km from BHP's Western Ridge asset, close to the town of Newman.
This has seen securities increase 70.28% to a 12-month high of 31.5c.
Stream sediment sampling followed by further sampling and mapping by Peregrine geologists has resulted in the CID being mapped over a total strike length of 6.4km and widths of up to 200m with a further 1.3km of strike interpreted in magnetics.
Peregrine Gold (ASX:PGD) believes the discovery was missed by previous exploration programs and GSWA mapping due to its low topographical position.
Historical CID work focused on the mesas in the area to the northeast but PGD said the recent discovery represented a better preserved and far larger scale CID system than historical mesa-style CIDs and could represent a 'Valley Type' system.
Geochemical data of the CID samples has shown the material is of a consistently high grade – peaking above 61% Fe – with all CID samples taken averaging ~57% Fe.
Levels of deleterious elements are also low and considered within the parameters for high quality iron ore deposits.
It is anticipated that subject to drill testing, the depth of the CID channel may be substantially thicker in the central parts of the channel which are up to 200m wide.
Recent corporate movements have drawn attention to CZR Resources' (ASX:CZR) sale of its 85% holding in the Robe River Mesa Channel Iron Deposit for ~$75m.
Positioned next to Rio Tinto's Robe Valley operations and near major infrastructure, Peregrine believes Robe Mesa provides a useful point of reference.
Early indications suggest Peregrine's CID discovery has a scale that compares favourably to Robe Mesa.
'Our objective moving forward will be to advance the Coopers CID prospect as quickly as possible,' PGD technical director George Merhi said.
ActivEX (ASX:AIV)
A maiden JORC-compliant inferred resource of 8.5Mt at 1.13g/t gold for 310,000oz at Mt Hogan deposit resulted in ActivEX (ASX:AIV) soaring to a two-year high of 3.2c, a staggering 358% increase on the pre-trading halt close.
The historic Mt Hogan mine forms part of the Gilberton gold joint venture with Gilberton Gold Pty Ltd. The project is in northeast Queensland, about 300km from Townsville.
'The journey towards our maiden gold resource commenced in 2022 when the company made the decision to focus exploration efforts in the vicinity of the Mt Hogan gold mine,' AIV MD Mark Derriman said.
'Three phases of RC/core drilling culminated with the most recent RC drilling program in November 2023.
'Incoming JV partner Gilberton Gold Pty Ltd have been crucial to funding the project and will take over management of operations going forward with the next round of drilling planned to commence late in Q3 2025 and will comprise both RC and core drilling.'
Caprice Resources (ASX:CRS)
An 11m intersection grading 17.3g/t gold from 170m at Vadrian's deposit of the Island gold project in WA's Murchison region has seen Caprice Resources (ASX:CRS) lift 37.5% to 6.6c with more than 45m shares changing hands.
As well as this being the company's best intercept to date at Vadrian's, the first batch of assays from phase 3 drilling confirmed the recent discovery of the Evening Star high-grade lode.
Other results include 10m at 11.7g/t Au from 175m and 9m at 8.3g/t from 94m.
These have doubled the strike of the high-grade system to at least 350m and extended mineralisation at depth where it remains open in multiple directions.
Drilling to follow-up the strike extent and grade potential of historical anomalous gold mineralisation about 80m west of the main New Orient lode has also returned notable intersections such as 21m at 1.3g/t gold from 29m.
Tivan (ASX:TVN)
A second collaboration between Tivan (ASX:TVN) and Sumitomo Corporation covering TVN's Australian fluorite projects has seen shares increase 31% to 11c.
The leading Japanese trading house and Fortune Global 500 company has signed agreements for the Sandover Fluorite Project in the NT and Speewah Fluorite Project in WA.
An MoU for Sandover, a high-grade fluorite project acquired by Tivan in November 2024, will see the companies discuss the collaborative development, financing and operation of the project to be formalised through negotiating commercial agreements following delivery of a pre-feasibility study.
Tivan is working to define a deposit supportive of fluorite mining and processing at Sandover, focused on an expedited pathway to produce metspar and a traditional acid-grade fluorspar production pathway.
At Speewah the parties have established an incorporated joint venture, including Japan Fluorite Corporation (JFC), a special purpose subsidiary incorporated by Sumitomo, making an initial $5.3m equity investment for a 7.5% interest.
In parallel, Sumitomo has agreed to the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) becoming a partner in Speewah through acquiring a 49% equity interest in JFC.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent financial advice before making any financial decisions. While Broken Hill Mines, Peregrine Gold and Caprice Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
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