There are two smallcap explorer stocks catching eyes on HotCopper lately, and they’re both proving to be wise picks for long-term shareholders.
Market watchers are ever-present in the small-end of the ASX – typically microcap explorers, predominantly WA based (but not always as we’ll soon find out) – and it’s not rare for certain stocks to come out of nowhere.
There’s at least two good examples to consider on the ASX on Monday.
Dateline Resources
- Share price: 15cps (+55% on Monday)
- Market cap: $428M
- Shares on issue: 2.86B
- YTD run: +4,185%
Datline Resources (ASX:DTR) is something I’ve covered for HotCopper before, most recently last week, when it came in as one of the most-discussed stocks on the boards.
And on Monday, it’s surged back to the top of the hottest attention-grabbers list with its latest news surrounding its US-based REE project called Colosseum.
Just take a look at the company’s share price chart on Monday, heading into the final hour of trades:
So what’s going on? Dateline has recently come onto the scene after Donald Trump directly referenced the company’s flagship REE project in a Truth Social post.
Trump, a pro-mining, pro-business, anti-red-tape force in his own right, is seen as fostering the right conditions for the project to take off.
Helping matters dramatically on Monday, the company reported possible evidence of significant underground mineralisation associated with key REEs and critical minerals that America wants for defence manufacturing.
MTM Critical Metals
- Share price: 38cps (+1.4% on Monday)
- Market cap: $172M
- Shares on issue: 458.7M
- 1Y returns: +752%
MTM Critical Metals (ASX:MTM) has been on a tear in recent history ever since it brought one interesting claim to market: it can recover gold from e-waste at grades of over 550 grams per tonne (g/t).
(I covered that with my colleague Isaac McIntyre for the HotCopper Wire podcast back in Week 9 of 2025.)
While the company also claims its Flash Joule Heating technology – a way to recycle e-waste that is more eco-friendly than existing methods – can help meet ESG targets, investors have been far more interested in the gold recovery proposition.
Just take a look at its chart across the last year (and consider also the strength of gold through 2024 into 2025.)
Back on May 23, the company confirmed it was ready to start commercially rolling-out a “production-scale FJH unit,” which appears to have turned some investors bullish on the prospects of what could lie ahead.
Join the discussion: See what’s trending right now on HotCopper, Australia’s largest stock forum, and be part of the conversations that move the markets.
Disclaimer: HotCopper did not have a commercial relationship with either Dateline nor MTM Critical Metals at the time this article was crafted and published.