Top 5 Australian Mining Stocks This Week: Sheffield Soars on Thunderbird Mineral Sands Improvements

2026-06-04 17:00:00 ET

Welcome to the Investing News Network's weekly round-up of the top-performing mining stocks listed on the ASX.

This week’s list of top ASX mining stocks includes companies focused on iron, gold and more, led by mineral sands explorer Sheffield Resources as the top gainer. All of the week's top performers were focused on Australian mining projects, with most located in Western Australia.

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Read on to discover this week's top gaining Australian mining stocks on the ASX and what drove their share prices.

Market and commodities price round-up

The S&P/ASX 200 (INDEXASX:XJO) opened at 8,711.00 on Monday (June 1) and closed at 8,686.10 on Thursday (June 4), reflecting a 0.29 percent decrease over the period.

Gold and silver prices declined this week as of the close of Australian markets Thursday. In US dollars, gold decreased 1.37 percent from US$4,538.77 on Monday to US$4,476.67 by Thursday, while a slight 0.52 percent decrease was seen in Australian dollars, with gold moving from AU$6,312.67 to AU$6,280.13.

Silver prices saw slightly larger dips, declining 2.3 percent in US dollars from US$75.29 on Monday to US$73.56 on Thursday. In Australian dollars, the metal recorded a 1.44 percent decrease from AU$104.72 to AU$103.21.

?Top ASX mining stocks this week

How did ASX mining stocks perform against this backdrop?

Take a look at this week’s best-performing Australian mining stocks below as the Investing News Network breaks down their operations and why these companies are up this week.

Stocks data for this article was retrieved using TradingView's stock screener and reflects price movements between the first trading day of the week and Thursday. Only companies trading on the ASX with market capitalisations greater than AU$10 million are included. Mineral companies within the non-energy minerals, energy minerals, process industry and producer manufacturing sectors were considered.

1. Sheffield Resources (ASX:SFX)

Weekly gain: 75.71 percent
Market cap: AU$22.15 million
Share price: AU$0.061

West Perth-based Sheffield Resources holds interests in a portfolio of global mineral sands development and production operations.

Sheffield's primary asset is the 50/50 Kimberley Mineral Sands (KMS) joint venture with privately owned Chinese steel manufacturer Yansteel, the owner of the Thunderbird mineral sands mine in Western Australia. It also holds the option to acquire up to an initial 20 percent interest in the South Atlantic mineral sands project in Brazil.

On Wednesday (June 3), the company shared an operations update regarding the Thunderbird mineral sands mine, highlighting improvements in monthly production and product recoveries from April to May 2026.

Data from Sheffield revealed that ore mined in May reached more than 1 million tonnes, and the operation produced approximately 60,000 tonnes of ilmenite concentrate and 16,500 tonnes of zircon concentrate.

In April, approximately 780,000 tonnes of ore were mined, and it produced 36,500 tonnes of ilmenite concentrate and 10,000 tonnes of zircon concentrate.

“(This improvement) demonstrates that the changes being made by KMS are having a positive impact on operational performance. Further improvement is required and KMS is continuing to implement changes that should ultimately result in a sustained improvement in operational performance,” Executive Chair Bruce Griffin said.

The prior week, Sheffield announced changes to improve ore mining performance, which it also expects to save at least AU$10 million on an annualized basis.

Shares of Sheffield closed at AU$0.035 last week and jumped following the operations update, reaching the week’s peak close of AU$0.061 Thursday.

2. Stavely Minerals (ASX:SVY)

Weekly gain: 41.67 percent
Market cap: AU$14.46 million
Share price: AU$0.017

Stavely Minerals is a Western Australian mineral exploration company advancing its flagship asset, the Stavely copper-gold project located in the Stavely Volcanic Belt of Victoria, Australia.

The project covers an area of over 1,000 square kilometres in the belt, including a wholly owned retention licence, fully owned exploration licences and and the Black Range joint venture licence.

Company updates from this week include the issuance of shares from a Tranche 2 placement. In the release, Stavely highlights the welcoming of Jupiter Asset Management back into a substantial shareholder position, as well as two major shareholders further increasing their holdings.

In the release, Stavely stated it plans to begin diamond drilling next week targeting a gold discovery at the Freddy's Find prospect.

The company’s last Stavely project update was made on May 27, outlining the progress of a scoping study assessing developing deposits at the project's Thursday’s Gossan prospect, one of which is the Cayley Lode copper-gold-silver deposit.

Stavely said that they will continue to progress the scoping study and that a second round of open-pit optimisations is currently underway.

Shares of the company closed at AU$0.013 last week and reached a peak close of AU$0.016 on Thursday.

?3. Macro Metals (ASX:M4M)

Weekly gain: 33.33 percent
Market cap: AU$27.45 million
Share price: AU$0.008

Macro Metals is an iron-focused company operating mineral projects and mining services with a pit-to-port strategy.

Macro Metals holds a range of exploration projects in Western Australia, including the Extension and Catho Well iron ore projects and the Mogul polymetallic project. It outlined its recent progress at the projects in its March quarterly report .

The company also offers mining services through the majority Indigenous-owned joint venture Nyapiri Macro Mining, a 49/51 partnership between its subsidiary Macro Mining Services and Nyapiri Holdings, which is a Kariyarra, Ngarla and Nyamal Traditional Owner business in Western Australia.

Macro Metals released an update on the mining services business on Thursday, reporting BHP (ASX:BHP,NYSE:BHP,LSE:BHP) awarded Nyapiri Macro Mining its first work package instruction under the BHP Framework Agreement, focused on the Mount Goldsworthy mine on the lands of the Ngarla people.

“This work package is an important step for Nyapiri Macro," Nyapiri Macro Director Francisco Brown said. "Not only does it represent our first opportunity to provide mining services to a Tier 1 company on-Country, but it also enables us to offer local Indigenous employment and contracting opportunities that will be meaningful for our people and our community."

After closing last week and opening this week at AU$0.006, shares of Macro Metals reached a weekly high of AU$0.008 on Thursday.

4. Magmatic Resources (ASX:MAG,OTCPL:MGRLF)

Weekly gain: 31.43 percent
Market cap: AU$25.11 million
Share price: AU$0.046

Magmatic Resources is a gold-copper exploration company with four projects in Australia: the Weebo gold project in the Goldfields region of Western Australia, and the Myall, Wellington North and Parkes projects in the Lachlan Fold Belt of New South Wales.

No project updates have been shared by the company this week, but Magmatic commenced Phase 3 drilling at Weebo on May 29.

Included in the program is 1,745 metres of reverse circulation drilling to advance bedrock targets at several prospects, alongside a 5,000 metre aircore drilling program to test extensions of gold anomalies and mineralisation defined in Phase 1 and 2 drilling work.

The company's managing director, David Richardson, said the company expects to release "a steady flow of assay data ... over the next two to three months."

Shares of the company closed last week at AU$0.035 and climbed to this week’s highest close of AU$0.050 on Wednesday.

5. Venus Metals (ASX:VMC)

Weekly gain: 30.23 percent
Market cap: AU$55.33 million
Share price: AU$0.280

Subiaco-based Venus Metals is a gold and base metals exploration company focused on a portfolio of gold, base metals and critical metals projects in Western Australia.

Venus also has the Greenbushes East lithium joint venture with IGO (ASX:IGO,OTCPL:IPGDF) , in which IGO earned a 70 percent interest through a farm-in agreement, and a stake in Rox Resources (ASX:RXL).

On May 29, the company announced a pause in trading , pending an important announcement.

After trading closed that day, Venus revealed that it has sold its aggregate 1.0 percent net smelter return royalty on all gold production from Rox Resources' Youanmi gold project mining leases to precious metals royalty company Franco-Nevada (TSX:FNV,NYSE:FNV) .

As a result, shares of Venus Metals spiked to an open of AU$0.300 on Monday from last week’s close of AU$0.215. The company’s shares remained elevated, holding between AU$0.280 and AU$0.295 throughout the week.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle de la Cruz, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.