- WA goldie Torque celebrates ‘the most visible gold returned from a drill sample’
- Nimy achieves 84.1% gallium extraction, with strong recoveries for REEs and scandium
- Golden Deeps on the trail of Tsumeb-scale discovery at Gracelands in Namibia
Your standout small cap resources stocks for Wednesday, August 26, 2026.
Torque Metals (ASX:TOR)
Torque is driving value via the drill bit at the Ritz project’s HHH deposit with multi-ounce intercepts and investors responded positively, sending shares 20.5% higher.
Hole 26HRC135 is the standout, returning an exceptional 11m at 456g/t gold from 122m.
The highest concentration of nuggets was observed within the first 3m. That’s right, nuggets.
“It’s always exciting to see visible gold in panned drill samples, particularly when they are validated by spectacular assayed intercepts of this magnitude,” managing director and CEO Craig Jones says.
“The abundant visible gold in this shallow interval reflects the incredible endowment of the system and reinforces the high-grade growth potential we see across the Ritz gold project.”
It also highlights the scope to rapidly grow the current MRE at the main HHH deposit, he says, which stands at 73,000oz (1.15Mt at an average grade of 2.0g/t gold).
The RC and diamond drilling at HHH has been targeting extensions to the existing resource in the South Kalgoorlie mining district, and possible additional lodes not previously modelled.
“It was incredible to see these visible gold nuggets coming out of the RC drill spoil as you sieved the chips,” Torque’s GM of exploration Monty Graham said.
“I’ve seen the odd ‘VG’ in RC drill chips before, but that metre (123m-124m) in hole 26HRC135 is the most visible gold I’ve ever seen from a drill sample.”
Gold testing three-month highs above US$4700/oz this week has also helped goldies to pop.
Nimy Resources (ASX:NIM)
Nimy was as much as 21.5% higher at 5.1c intraday before closing at 4.8c as testwork delivered exceptionally high extraction of gallium and rare earths.
The results from the Mons project in WA suggest Nimy is primed to capitalise on Western demand for non-Chinese sources.
Metallurgical work tested multiple recovery methods for gallium and rare earths from Block 3 at Mons.
Transition material achieved 84.1% gallium extraction, with strong recoveries for yttrium, neodymium, gadolinium, dysprosium and scandium.
The work provides Nimy with a baseline processing route for preliminary process design and early economic assessment, with a scoping study already underway for Block 3.
Results also tick the box on the process technology and flowsheet knowledge developed by Nimy – now valuable intellectual proprietary property.
“These strong extraction results are another key milestone on the path to establishing Block 3 as a major source of much-needed gallium for western world markets,” managing director Luke Hampson said.
“We already know that Block 3 has a substantial resource with scope for significant growth and it is one of the highest-grade gallium deposits in the world.
“Now our focus is on establishing the optimum processing route to maximise recoveries and economics through the Nimy, Strategic Metallurgy and Curtin University collaboration, tailored specifically to the unique minerology at Block 3.”
Gallium is on the critical minerals list for Australia, the US, EU, India, Japan, Korea and the UK. Yet China produces almost all of the world’s supplies.
Golden Deeps (ASX:GED)
Golden Deeps reached 6.2c intraday, a lift of 21.57%, as it probes the high-grade Graceland discovery in Namibia’s prolific Otavi Mountain Land Critical Metals Belt. Shares finished 9.62% higher at 5.7c.
A deeper drilling program is diving into the high-value critical semi-conductor germanium as well as copper, silver, zinc and lead.
Three priority targets are said to have a similar footprint to the nearby Tsumeb deposit – a pipe-shaped, polymetallic deposit extending 1700m deep.
Mined for almost a century until 1996, Tsumeb yielded roughly 30Mt of copper, lead, and zinc.
Assay results coming in for Golden Deeps from four earlier shallow diamond drill holes have confirmed down-dip continuity of the strongly-mineralised gossan/sulphide zones at Gossan 1 and Gossan 1 East.
Results include very high-grade assays up to 9.2% copper and 417g/t silver below Gossan 1 East, and 23.2% zinc, 144g/t silver and 118g/t germanium below Gossan 1.
Golden Deeps CEO Jon Dugdale says the “spectacular and consistent results” from Graceland point to potential for significant discoveries.
“Adding to our confidence is the fact our drilling targets have a similar geological and structural setting, and geochemical footprint, to the world-class Tsumeb deposit, located just 30km to the north of Graceland.
“In addition, our ongoing shallow diamond drilling program continues to demonstrate the continuity of the high-grade zones below the spectacular gossan outcrops at Graceland.
“Our latest diamond drilling program is testing below the high-grade gossan zones as well as IP targets deeper than 200m below surface, and will continue for several months.”
That should provide plenty of catalysts to come.
Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD)
Not to be outdone, Mount Ridley now hosts the largest reported scandium resource globally.
Just 25km northeast of Esperance in Western Australia, the Grass Patch scandium resource has been upgraded to 946Mt – alongside heavy rare earths and gallium.
Aerospace, defence and solid oxide fuel cells all need scandium but supply is severely constrained and dominated by China, which produces most of the world’s supply as a by-product from titanium, bauxite and rare earth element processing.
“We’ve now established the world’s largest publicly reported JORC compliant scandium resource, at a time when the commodity is under intense focus from governments and industry seeking to secure supply outside China,” managing director and CEO Allister Caird said.
“This significant scandium resource upgrade is a clear signal that we continue to advance the project across multiple fronts in a systematic and accelerated manner.”
Scandium’s strategic significance was underscored in August when the US Department of War committed US$400m to Sunrise Energy Metals (ASX:SRL) for its Syerston scandium project in NSW.
Mount Ridley says its own patent-pending process provides a potential pathway to recover scandium, heavy rare earths and gallium simultaneously from a single leach circuit.
“Holding the largest scandium resource in the world, alongside our proprietary Selectro process, provides a genuine pathway for Mount Ridley to commercialise this resource together with our broader commodity base at Grass Patch,” Caird said.
The scandium resource is confined to Blocks 1 and 2 of the Mount Ridley project, where it is co-located with 122.5Mt heavy rare earth and 536.2Mt gallium mineral resources.
The broader Mount Ridley Project hosts a total gallium resource of 838.7Mt, including 302.4Mt at Block 3.
Rapid Critical Metals (ASX:RCM)
Silver mineralisation has been extended another 300m to the south at RCM’s Webbs project in northern New South Wales.
The latest assays were headlined by 4m at 1230g/t silver equivalent (35.9oz/t) from 136m in hole WSRC0019 within 37.4m grading 278.8g/t AgEq.
That’s roughly 25% higher than the 23oz/t average grade of the ore actually mined at Webbs between 1884 and 1901, and it sits inside a 37.4m mineralised envelope that points to width as well as grade.
“WSRC0019 is a standout result by any measure,” managing director Byron Miles said.
“Exceptional grade and real width in the same intersection is exactly what we have been drilling for.
“Just as important, WSRC0012 has pushed the system more than 300m further south and WSRC0028 has delivered a second exceptional intercept a kilometre to the north.
“Webbs is behaving like a mineralised corridor rather than a single lode, and it is still open in every direction we test.”
RCM plans to build scale across its NSW silver corridor, where Webbs sits within a 12km district-scale position alongside Conrads and Webbs Consol
“With approvals now in hand at Webbs Consol and a third rig joining us within weeks,” Miles said.
That will lift the rate at which they can test the growing corridor.
At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Nimy Resources, Mount Ridley Mines, and Rapid Critical Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, the companies did not sponsor this article.
