MiningGoldPic: RubberBall Productions, Brand X Pictures/ Via Getty Images
What happened to the top ASX resources stocks of 2017?Mining
9 hours ago |
Reuben Adamsshare- In 2017 punters couldn’t get enough of battery metals or the Pilbara conglomerate gold story
- But of 2017’s top 40, 15 have since suffered losses of 70% or more; 8 of those have lost 90% or more
- A handful have won big, including Bellevue Gold and De Grey Mining
In mining and exploration, six years is enough time to sort the pretenders from the contenders.
Trends will come, go, and sometimes come back again. Often what is left are the explorers and project development companies with a real chance of success.
What was hot in 2017?In 2017, the embryonic battery metals boom had everyone excited.
About 50% of the top 40 small caps had exposure to battery metals such as cobalt, lithium and high purity alumina.
In hindsight it was too early — hundreds of hopefuls would bail to more palatable metals when sentiment dived a few years later – but those with good projects stuck to their guns, and in 2023, are reaping the rewards.
Gold explorers were the next best performing theme; of these, some of the biggest movers were Pilbara conglomerate gold nugget explorers.
An Australian gold rush kicked off July that year when
Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) and Canadian partner
Novo Resources made a gold nugget find at their Purdy’s Reward site in the Pilbara region of WA.
The mention of “Witwatersrand-style” and “conglomerate-hosted” gold had investors salivating. (Witwatersrand refers to the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa — a geological formation that houses the world’s biggest known gold reserves).
Unlike battery metals, the conglomerate gold story didn’t have legs.
Most of 2017’s top stocks have failed to live up to the hypeOne stat shows how difficult it is for investors who fall in love with hype stocks to succeed — of 2017’s top 40 small caps, 15 have suffered losses of 70% or more.
Eight of those have lost over 90% of their value since peaking in 2017. Take conglomerate gold darling ARV for example — down 94% from 29c in late 2017 to 1.6c per share currently.
This exercise is also an interesting glimpse into how years of cap raisings and placements can dilute your holdings. A ballooning number of shares on issue may push up the market cap, but the value of your shares plummet.
Just look at
Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI). The up-and-coming cobalt/gold/rare earths explorer has increased its market cap from $18m to $191m since the end of 2017, a 960% gain.
And yet the share price is only 56% bigger, thanks to the number of shares on issue swelling from 460m to 1.5 billion over the same period.
Now for the good news. Of the 15 stocks that continued to succeed, a handful have succeeded big.
Punters who bought and held onto a couple of these winners in 2017, even after they had made their initial gains, would be laughing all the way to the bank in 2023.
Here’s the current performance of the Top 40 ASX resources stocks for 2017>>>Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort. Best viewed on a laptop | CODE | |
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| 1 | COMPANY | |
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| 2 | 2017 GAIN (Jan-Dec) | |
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| 3 | SHARE PRICE CHANGE DEC 2017- FEB 2023 | |
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| 4 | MARKET CAP DEC 2017 | |
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| 5 | CURRENT MARKET CAP (FEB 27 2023) |
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| 6 | A4N | ALPHA HPA (THEN COLLERINA COBALT) | 1400% | 300% | $ 80,386,504.00 | $ 566,000,000.00 |
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| 7 | AAR | ASTRAL RESOURCES (THEN ANGLO AUSTRALIAN RESOURCES) | 420% | -10% | $ 21,909,726.00 | $ 47,910,000.00 |
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| 8 | AGY | ARGOSY MINERALS | 693% | 204% | $ 205,504,208.00 | $ 976,000,000.00 |
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| 9 | ARE | ARGONAUT RESOURCES NL | 357% | -93% | $ 37,442,044.00 | $ 3,600,000.00 |
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| 10 | ARV | ARTEMIS RESOURCES | 625% | -94% | $ 166,339,184.00 | $ 22,600,000.00 |
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| 11 | ASN | ANSON RESOURCES | 204% | 120% | $ 29,031,290.00 | $ 218,740,000.00 |
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| 12 | ASO | ASTON MINERALS (THEN EUROPEAN COBALT) | 1150% | -51% | $ 152,339,472.00 | $ 112,760,000.00 |
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| 13 | AUZ | AUSTRALIAN MINES | 1000% | -51% (-75% PRE CONSOLIDATION) | $ 235,646,720.00 | $ 25,680,000.00 |
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| 14 | AVZ | AVZ MINERALS | 1400% | 300% | $ 393,562,912.00 | $ 2,750,000,000.00 |
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| 15 | AXN | ALLIANCE NICKEL (THEN GME RESOURCES) | 381% | -24% | $ 60,267,528.00 | $ 65,760,000.00 |
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| 16 | BCN | BEACON MINERALS | 423% | 64% | $ 34,237,340.00 | $ 101,680,000.00 |
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| 17 | BDM | BURGUNDY DIAMOND MINES (THEN EHR RESOURCES) | 211% | 114% | $ 14,777,823.00 | $ 103,900,000.00 |
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| 18 | BGL | BELLEVUE GOLD (THEN DRAIG RESOURCES) | 809% | 400% | $ 70,610,104.00 | $ 1,130,000,000.00 |
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| 19 | CCZ | CASTILLO COPPER | 277% | -71% | $ 28,406,254.00 | $ 13,640,000.00 |
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| 20 | CLA | CELSIUS RESOURCES | 543% | -88% | $ 78,970,024.00 | $ 25,260,000.00 |
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| 21 | CLE | CYCLONE METALS (THEN CAPE LAMBERT RESOURCES) | 254% | -95% | $ 40,053,116.00 | $ 6,100,000.00 |
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| 22 | DEG | DE GREY MINING | 359% | 664% | $ 53,974,228.00 | $ 2,000,000,000.00 |
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| 23 | DGO | DGO GOLD | 204% | 241% (ACQUIRED 2022) | $ 11,036,635.00 | $ 308,000,000.00 |
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| 24 | EPM | ECLIPSE METALS | 220% | 25% | $ 18,298,786.00 | $ 40,560,000.00 |
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| 25 | EUR | EUROPEAN LITHIUM | 242% | -67% | $ 105,797,552.00 | $ 97,100,000.00 |
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| 26 | GED | GOLDEN DEEPS | 700% | -85% | $ 7,981,704.00 | $ 10,400,000.00 |
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| 27 | HAS | HASTINGS TECHNOLOGY METALS | 400% | 546% (-16% PRE CONSOLIDATION) | $ 244,981,216.00 | $ 307,440,000.00 |
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| 28 | JRV | JERVOIS MINING | 1356% | -74% | $ 121,157,624.00 | $ 380,000,000.00 |
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| 29 | KFE | KOGI IRON | 337% | -91% | $ 49,148,836.00 | $ 12,600,000.00 |
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| 30 | LPD | LEPIDICO | 387% | -72% | $ 143,626,048.00 | $ 80,200,000.00 |
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| 31 | MAU | MAGNETIC RESOURCES NL | 286% | 204% | $ 32,586,774.00 | $ 165,170,000.00 |
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| 32 | MEI | METEORIC RESOURCES NL | 592% | 56% | $ 44,446,976.00 | $ 191,390,000.00 |
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| 33 | NVA | NOVA MINERALS (THEN QUANTUM RESOURCES) | 264% | 958% (174% PRE CONSOLIDATION) | $ 35,541,480.00 | $ 114,480,000.00 |
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| 34 | NWC | NEW WORLD RESOURCES (THEN LONGFORD RESOURCES) | 233% | -54% | $ 38,110,136.00 | $ 100,730,000.00 |
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| 35 | ODM | ODIN METALS | 336% | -90% | $ 33,292,640.00 | $ 17,230,000.00 |
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| 36 | OKU | OKLO RESOURCES | 223% | -57% | $ 108,776,728.00 | $ 78,200,000.00 |
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| 37 | ORM | ORION METALS | 593% | -69% | $ 37,354,452.00 | $ 16,350,000.00 |
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| 38 | PEX | PEEL MINING | 253% | -73% | $ 110,301,584.00 | $ 92,920,000.00 |
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| 39 | PUA | PEAK MINERALS (THEN HILL END GOLD) | 700% | -97% | $ 24,178,186.00 | $2,600,000 |
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| 40 | RIE | RIEDEL RESOURCES | 1022% | -91% | $ 33,519,028.00 | $ 6,720,000.00 |
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| 41 | RMI | RESOURCE MINING CORP | 750% | 123% | $ 10,073,090.00 | $ 40,000,000.00 |
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| 42 | RTR | RUMBLE RESOURCES | 216% | 283% | $ 21,130,894.00 | $ 141,270,000.00 |
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| 43 | SPX | SPECTRUM METALS | 233% | 1800% (ACQUIRED 2020) | $ 5,965,155.00 | $ 270,000,000.00 |
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| 44 | SUH | SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE MINING | 400% | -90% | $ 11,720,421.00 | $ 7,090,000.00 |
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| 45 | TAR | TARUGA GOLD | 223% | -80% | $ 10,079,972.00 | $ 13,410,000.00 |
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| 46 | TGN | TUNGSTEN MINING NL | 243% | -9% | $ 52,966,704.00 | $ 78,640,000.00 |
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WHO KEPT WINNING?DE GREY MINING (ASX
EG) +664% (post 2017)In 2017, DEG was plugging away at its Pilbara gold project where it had amassed 1.2Moz across several targets.
However, it was the company’s involvement in the short-lived conglomerate gold craze which ensured its inclusion in top resources stocks of 2017.
Once that frenzy died down so did the DEG share price – to a low of 5c per share —
until it made one of the biggest gold discoveries in recent memory, early 2020.
The rest is history. Hemi is now one of the best Australian gold finds of the 21st century and the third globally significant deposit to be discovered since 2000 after AngloGold and IGO’s Tropicana find (2005) and Gold Road’s Gruyere discovery (2013).
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