ASX Mining Stocks Rally on Drilling Results, China Distribution Deal

The S&P/ASX 200 opened lower Thursday, dropping 67.30 points or 0.74% to 9,060.50 and crossing below its 20-day moving average. The broader index has lost 0.26% over the past five days and sits 2.54% below its 52-week high. But individual stocks moved sharply on company news, with gold and copper explorers leading the gainers.

49 Metals (ASX: 49M) rose after intersecting a wide gold zone at its Gold Mountain project in Nevada. Maiden RC drilling at the project and the subsequent Adit Zone discovery has transformed the company's understanding of the broader system, CEO Phil Carter said.

"Hole DRC#22 has delivered 170 metres of continuous gold mineralisation, the thickest interval we've seen anywhere on the project, while DRC#19 has returned another broad zone of mineralisation containing a high-grade core of up to 20 grams per tonne gold," Carter said.

Culpeo Minerals (ASX: CPO) also gained after securing access for its maiden Vista Montana drilling campaign. The initial four-hole, 2,000-metre diamond drilling program at the Lana Corina project and the Vista Montana prospect is expected to commence within the next two weeks.

CEO Geoff McNamara said the re-establishment of operations at Lana Corina allows the company to move directly to maiden diamond drilling at Vista Montana, which has the potential to materially expand the Lana Corina discovery. "This drilling, coupled with an imminent geophysics survey, will further refine existing targets and potentially identify new targets along the highly prospective structural corridor," McNamara said.

Biome Australia (ASX: BIO) rose after its wholly owned subsidiary Biome Australia Trading signed a heads-of-agreement with H&S Global for exclusive distribution of the Activated Probiotics range in China. The range will be sold through cross-border e-commerce under a three-year initial term, with the launch planned within FY27.

MD Blair Vega Norfolk said the company had been evaluating the Chinese market for several years and deliberately waited for the right partner. "Entering too early with the wrong partner is how brands get damaged in this market," Norfolk said. "We reviewed proposals from several of the leading distributors in this channel and H&S were in a class of their own. What mattered most was that they share our time horizon, vision and values."

Among the ASX 200's worst performers were Generation Development Group, down 14.84%, and Centuria Capital Group, down 13.91%.

Elsewhere, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA backed Premier Roger Cook's call for Western Australia to be carved out of the Commonwealth's proposed domestic gas reservation scheme. Cook argued for an exemption on the basis that WA already has a longstanding domestic gas reservation policy exceeding the outcomes the Commonwealth is seeking on the east coast.

CME chief executive Aaron Morey said a legislated carve-out was essential to protect WA's successful gas market from unintended consequences flowing from reforms designed to address east coast challenges. "WA is physically disconnected from the east coast gas market and has operated its own domestic gas reservation policy for two decades," Morey said. "That policy has helped deliver reliable supply and gas prices that in recent years have been around half those on the east coast. As the Premier rightly highlights, the volume of gas delivered into our State's domestic market last year exceeded 20 per cent of LNG exports."