The juniors vying to be Tolga Kumova’s next mining hit

• There are few individuals with as much clout in ASX small cap mining circles as Tolga Kumova
• They aren’t all hits, but the former Syrah Resources boss has backed a number of winners over his time, including African Gold, Bellevue Gold and Meteoric Resources
• We look at some juniors where the renowned mining investor has skin in the game

 

There are few names in the ASX small-cap mining industry that draw as many eyes to an under-the-radar stock as Tolga Kumova.

The former stockbroker came to prominence in the mid-2010s as he led African graphite developer Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR) on a heady rise from 8c in 2011 to as much as $6.66 and then $3.35 after his resignation in 2016.

While Syrah’s fortunes have waxed and waned since with the volatility of the battery metals market, Kumova quickly moved on to a series of investments as a backer of other management teams, often alongside fellow mining identity Evan Cranston.

Most notable was Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL), where Kumova no longer holds a top-20 shareholder position after the one-time penny stock graduated to the ASX 200.

It’s now worth close to $2.6bn after developing its WA mine of the same name in the midst of a gold boom.

A couple of big investments have brought Tolga back to prominence in the past couple of years, albeit with a smaller social media footprint.

Based on known shareholdings drawn from data on financial services software IRESS, close to half of the value of his ASX investments is contained within Meteoric Resources (ASX:MEI).

Kumova was in the stock ahead of its discovery of the Caldeira project in Brazil, a high-grade find that brought the world’s attention to Brazil’s burgeoning ionic clay rare earth industry.

It’s now worth $640 million with Kumova’s stake priced at ~$42m as of Tuesday this week.

Over a five year horizon, the stock has repriced 650% thanks to discovery success and emerging Western government support for ex-China rare earths, with investors now expecting price floors to protect the downside for producers of the critical minerals.

A DFS released in July put a US$498 million price tag on a project producing 3862t of NdPr and 127t of dysprosium and terbium per year, expected to rake in ~US$160m per annum in operating cash flow at spot rare earths pricing.

But there are a host of other companies where Tolga has positioned his cash.

Using IRESS as a guide, we’ve taken a look at the juniors the stockpicker is betting on next.

 

What is in Tolga’s ASX listed portfolio?

Meteoric is not the only recent winner.

Among the top-performing gold companies of the past two years is Benz Mining Corp (ASX:BNZ), which acquired the secondary Glenburgh project from Spartan Resources as the latter focused on its Never Never gold discovery in November 2024.

At the time the 786km2 WA land package included a resource of 16.3Mt at 1g/t Au for 510,100oz, with former Barrick executive Mark Lynch-Staunton also stepping up as CEO.

Benz shares have rerated since then, up over 1700% as drilling has ratcheted up the scale of Glenburgh, culminating in a recent exploration target of 485-540Mt at 0.6-0.7g/t for 10.1-12Moz of gold.

Benz this week raised $150m for a 450,000m drill drive featuring 14 rigs, ahead of a maiden mineral resource estimate under Benz ownership in H1 2027.

As of July 31 this year, Kumova also had stakes upwards of 5% in Argentine precious metals explorer Ronin Resources (ASX:RON), lithium turned gold junior Industrial Minerals (ASX:IND), Paris gold project owner Torque Metals (ASX:TOR), Rubix Resources (ASX:RB6), mining services stock Macro Metals (ASX:M4M) (where Kumova is chair), Firebird Metals (ASX:FRB), EU critical minerals play Osmond Resources (ASX:OSM), copper IPO LUX Copper (ASX:LUX) and Tethyan Belt explorer Regener8 Resources (ASX:R8R).

Disclosed ASX positions

Source: IRESS (NB: this is not a rich list-style valuation, just a list of known shareholdings as of July 31)

 

Some of these firms are well known to the market – Benz, Simon Lawson-chaired Torque (up 20% yesterday after hitting 11m at 456g/t gold in the HHH deposit) and Meteoric in particular are covered by a host of mainstream analysts.

Kumova also had a big win this year with the $264m takeover of African Gold by TSX-listed Montage Gold, after the firm built a +1Moz position at its Didievi gold project in Cote d’Ivoire.

Now, we’re keen to look at the value proposition for a few of the smaller names on this list.

 

Regener8 Resources (ASX:R8R)

Regener8 is among the most recent companies to be blessed with Tolga’s Midas touch, picking up the mining punter as a significant shareholder after a March placement that raised $800,000.

That was followed by an entitlement offer to raise up to ~$2.87m, with the rights issue acceptance taking Kumova’s voting power to 9.51%.

His entry as a major player on the register has come as Regener8 has pivoted to the Western Tethyan Belt in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the scene of $2bn ASX silver success story Adriatic Metals.

After shareholders approved the acquisition of Srebenica North in May, the junior has begun work on the silver, copper, antimony, zinc and lead project.

Three phases of field sampling have already been completed by the firm’s geos across the Dolovi and Vagan tenements.

The ground sits near the border with Serbia, close to projects owned by Terra Balcanica and Middle Island Resources (ASX:MDI), as well as two mines owned by prominent Balkan developer Mineco.

Bosnia came to prominence through the growth of Adriatic, which developed the Vareš silver mine ahead of its takeover by Dundee Precious Metals.

Mineco’s Sase (or Gross) lead-silver-zinc mine sits immediately to the east of Srebenica North, with the Veliki Majdan lead-zinc mine 10km north.

At Terra Balcanica’s Viogor-Zanik project, immediately adjacent to Dolovi, recent drilling has struck high-grade intercepts including 824g/t AgEq (silver equivalent) over 4m at the Čumavići target and 436g/t AgEq over 19.6m (including 1.42% Sb with 746g/t AgEq over 9.8m) at the Brežani target.

MD Stephen Foley said this month that soils and a ground magnetic survey would be used by R8R to define and rank drill targets.

“Neither dataset would be conclusive alone – read together, and integrated with the field mapping to follow, they are what will allow us to define and rank drill targets,” he said.

“This is the first modern ground-based geophysics over this licence area in more than fifty years, and processing is now underway.”

 

Osmond Resources (ASX:OSM)

Osmond shares have risen around 200% in the past five years, with a string of major catalysts on the horizon.

The developer owns the Orión EU critical mineral project in the Jaén Province of Spain’s Andalucía region.

It could become Europe’s first domestic producer of monazite, a key rare earth mineral, along with zircon and titanium.

A maiden mineral resource estimate is expected in the coming weeks, with a scoping study on track for completion this quarter.

 

Xpedra Resources (ASX:XPD)

Formerly known as Thunderbird Resources, Xpedra has undergone a transformation over the past year under the chairmanship of former New World Resources head honcho Mike Haynes and leadership of  once Avanco CFO Scott Funston as MD.

It owns the Springfield gold project in New South Wales, once explored by Australian gold giant Newcrest before its Cadia discovery, but basically undrilled since 1999.

That is until this year, with Xpedra catching the eye with a hit in maiden drilling of 94m at 2g/t.

Results from the four deepest holes drilled at Springfield to date on Wednesday returned strikes including 5m at 6.58g/t gold from 108m and 64m at 1.34g/t from 140m, with intervals inside that of 21m at 2.41g/t from 167m and 10m at 3.68g/t from 176m.

More drilling is planned to follow up thick gold mineralisation identified over at least 400m, with a 1.1km northern extension yet to be tested.

READ: These experienced campaigners are chasing NSW’s next big gold discovery for Xpedra

 

Desoto Resources (ASX:DES)

Backed by Tony Poli of Aquila Resources fame, DeSoto is running a 10,000m auger drilling program at its Timbakouna gold project, and has a team with a track record in the driver’s seat.

The project is at the centre of a Guinean gold portfolio acquired in February 2025.

It’s well worth watching since the firm is run by Chris Swallow as MD, formerly the corporate development officer of Guinean gold success story Predictive Discovery.

Its exec chair is Predictive Discovery founder and CEO from 2007-2021, Paul Roberts. That included the discovery of the monster Bankan gold project.

 

 

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Xpedra Resources, Regener8 Resources and Osmond Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.