The company's board last year approved a restart plan for the resumption of copper cathode operations at the Nifty copper complex in the Paterson region of Western Australia, where the company will initially re-leach the heap leach pads to recover "significant remaining copper''.

Production imminent

The company expects to restart production by the middle of this year.

Cyprium Executive Chair Matt Fifield said of the restart plans last year:

As a brownfield restart, some of our great advantages are sunk capital and time. Establishing initial cathode production from our above ground heap leach resources is a low-risk way to produce meaningful cash flow. The restart also is strategically important as it enables accelerated future growth from open pit and regional ore sources.

A previously-published prefeasibility study for the cathode operations envisages the production of 6000 tonnes of copper from the existing heap leach pads.

The company raised $80 million last year and another $41 million in January to progress its development plans, with the $41 million raised at 52 cents per share, compared with the current share price of 38 cents.

Mr Fifield said the most recent capital raise allowed the company to "accelerate workstreams progressing the next phase of the Nifty Copper Complex which involves expansion of SXEW (solvent extraction-electrowinning) capacity, designing and building a surface mine to access the shallow open-pit oxide ores and the sulphide ores beneath it''.

He added:

We are also developing resources outside of the Nifty Copper Complex that could quickly come into a production plan. In particular, we have recently re-acquired control of the exploration grounds adjacent to Nifty that host multiple advanced targets on significant legacy exploration data. We expect to leverage this data and create meaningful developments for Cyprium as we continue to build Australia's next great copper company.

Shares looking cheap

Canaccord said in a research note to its clients that they saw significant potential for Cyprium to extend the mine life at Nifty "through the inclusion of low-grade stockpiles and, once mining commences, the addition of new oxide and transitional material''.

They added that they modelled two scenarios for further expansion at Nifty, one involving a three-year extension and one where mining continues indefinitely.

They added:

Under the three-year extension, we would see a 54% improvement in our price target to $1.00 per share and under continuous operations our price target would increase 100% to $1.30 per share.

Canaccord then discounted its target price to 65 cents per share, based on the fact that "the sulphide plant is yet to be financed and the oxide re-leaching carries a degree of risk on ramp-up".

Cyprium Metals was added to the All Ordinaries Index on its recent rebalance on March 23.

The company is valued at $219.7 million.

The post Up more than 90% over the past year, analysts say this ASX copper stock can keep going appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The copper price is on the rise due to higher demand amid the global energy transition.

Copper is essential for electrification and is used in electric vehicles, wind turbines, power grids, and data centres.

Trading Economics analysts say other factors are also pushing the red metal's value higher.

They note that the US Government has recently added copper to its list of critical inputs for the US economy and national security.

Additionally, copper has benefited from a weaker US dollar, which makes dollar-denominated commodities cheaper for overseas buyers.

The analysts also point to potential new tailwinds from China, commenting:

Speculation also grew that Beijing could target the copper refining industry next in its efforts to curb overcapacity, after China's nonferrous metals association urged stricter controls on new smelting projects.

3 ASX copper shares soaring amid the commodity surge

Sandfire Resources Ltd (ASX: SFR)

Sandfire Resources is the largest pure-play ASX copper share on the market.

The Sandfire Resources share price is up 76% in the year to date to $16.34 on Tuesday.

Sandfire Resources has operations in Australia, Botswana, Spain, and the US.

Its principal operating mines are the MATSA project in Huelva Province, Spain, located in the highly prospective Iberian Pyrite Belt, and the Motheo project within the Kalahari Copper Belt of Botswana, which commenced operations in August 2023 and features a central processing facility.

Sandfire ships its copper to smelters around the world. In FY25, it ramped up production at MATSA and Motheo to increase its reserves.

Sandfire Resources shares have a market capitalisation of $7.4 billion.

Cyprium Metals Ltd (ASX: CYM)

The Cyprium Metals share price is up 68% in the year to date at 37 cents today.

Cyprium's main operation is the Nifty Complex in Western Australia, which previously produced significant copper oxide and sulphide.

Cyprium Metals intends to redevelop Nifty, which has operational approvals in place and has attracted recent new financial backing.

Nifty has a Mineral Resource Estimate of 1,038,000 tonnes of copper and a mineral inventory of 91,000 tonnes of copper.

This ASX copper share has a market capitalisation of $185 million.

Aeris Resources Ltd (ASX: AIS)

The Aeris Resources share price is up 146% to 44 cents in the year to date.

Aeris Resources is a diversified miner, with copper dominating its portfolio of assets.

Its main project is Tritton, which is a long life copper mine in Cobar, NSW.

In Victoria's East Gippsland, Aeris has an advanced copper and zinc development project called Stockman.

Aeris Resources shares have a market capitalisation of $471 million.

The post 3 ASX copper shares soaring amid 28% surge in commodity price this year appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

In the mining space, small-caps are typically junior producers or mineral explorers that are still focused on test drilling.

Resilient commodity prices are supporting ASX mining shares in 2025, leading to an outperformance against the benchmark.

The S&P/ASX 300 Metal & Mining Index (ASX: XMM) is up 23.4% while the S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) has lifted 7.8% in 2025.

In terms of commodity prices, silver has been the standout.

The silver price has soared 67% in the year to date to US$48.30 per ounce yesterday, supporting ASX small-cap silver mining shares.

The gold price is 52% higher in the year to date, and reached a new record above US$4,300 per ounce last month.

As we reported last month, many ASX small-cap gold mining shares are shooting the lights out this year.

Copper has also risen strongly, up 26% to US$5 per pound in the year to date, supporting pure-play copper shares and major diversified miners with expanding copper segments.

Aluminium is up 12% to US$2,863 per tonne, cobalt has doubled to US$48,570 per tonne, and tin is up 23% to US$35,814 per tonne.

Iron ore was trading at US$104.73 per tonne yesterday, up 1.1% in 2025, providing support for the three major ASX 200 iron ore shares.

In 2025, BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) and Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG) shares are both up 8% and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) is up 11%.

The mining segment's strong performance relative to the broader market is particularly evident among small-cap mining shares.

Let's check out some examples.

4 ASX small-cap mining shares that have doubled in 2025

Here are four ASX small-cap mining shares that have doubled in value in the year to date.

Kingsgate Consolidated Ltd (ASX: KCN)

The Kingsgate share price has ripped 242% in the year to date, closing at $4.41 yesterday.

Kingsgate is an Australian gold and silver producer and the owner and operator of the Chatree Gold Mine in central Thailand.

It also owns and operates the Nueva Esperanza Gold-Silver Project in the renowned Maricunga Belt in northern Chile.

Kingsgate Consolidated shares have a market capitalisation of $1.1 billion.

Cyprium Metals Ltd (ASX: CYM)

Cyprium Metals shares are up 1,850% in the year to date, closing at 39 cents yesterday.

Cyprium's flagship property is the Nifty Copper Complex in Western Australia.

Nifty previously produced significant copper oxide and sulphide.

The site has a Mineral Resource Estimate of 1,038,000 tonnes of copper and a mineral inventory of 91,000 tonnes of copper.

Cyprium Metals intends to redevelop Nifty, which has current operational approvals and recent new investment backing.

This ASX small-cap copper mining share a market capitalisation of $109 million.

Locksley Resources Ltd (ASX: LKY)

The Locksley Resources share price is up 1,650% in the year to date, closing at 35 cents yesterday.

Locksley Resources is a critical minerals explorer advancing its flagship Mojave project in California in the US.

The Mojave project includes the Desert Antimony project and El Campo rare earths prospect.

On The Bull, Niv Dagan from Peak Asset Management warned of a likely period of profit-taking on Locksley Resources shares.

The ASX small-cap mining share streaked to a record 69 cents in September.

Despite its recent tumble, the stock's 2025 gain remains impressive.

Locksley Resources shares have a market cap of $96 million.

Aeris Resources Ltd (ASX: AIS)

The Aeris Resources share price is up 125% in the year to date, closing at 41 cents on Thursday.

Aeris Resources is a mid-tier base and precious metals producer, with a copper-dominant portfolio.

Its main copper project is Tritton, which is a long life mine in Cobar, NSW.

In Queensland, Aeris Resources has the high-grade gold project, Cracow, in the state's centre, as well as North Queensland operations.

In Victoria's East Gippsland, Aeris has an advanced copper and zinc development project called Stockman.

Aeris Resources shares have a market capitalisation of $374 million.

The post 4 ASX small-cap mining shares up 100% or more in 2025 appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Unfortunately, the ASX copper share came back with an almighty thud, dropping as much as 72% to 3.1 cents.

What's going on with this ASX copper share?

Cyprium Metals shares have come under pressure today after it completed a $31.6 million equity raising.

The company issued 600 million new shares via a placement at an offer price of 4 cents per share, raising $24 million.

In addition, the ASX copper share has completed an entitlement offer under which it has issued 125 million new shares at the same price, raising $5 million.

The release also notes that oversubscriptions in this entitlement offer shortfall enabled the company to place an additional 65.5 million new shares, raising a further $2.6 million.

But it doesn't stop there. Each participant in the equity raising received 1 free attaching option for every 2 shares issued. These options will be exercisable at 6 cents each, on or before 31 December 2024.

Management notes that its placement was strongly supported by sophisticated and professional investors, including numerous new and existing high-quality domestic and offshore natural resources-focused institutions, family offices, and private equity investors.

This includes private equity firm and existing shareholder, Pacific Road Capital Management, (PRCM), which subscribed for $8.26 million in the equity raising, representing a 15.54% interest in the company post-equity raising.

These funds will be used to advance the Nifty Project's technical studies. This project is on the western edge of the Great Sandy Desert in the north-eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia,

Management commentary

The ASX copper share's managing director, Clive Donner, was pleased with the equity raising. He said:

The Board is very appreciative of the strong support from current shareholders and welcomes a number of new institutional investors onto the register. The oversubscribed Equity Raising has now been completed, which together with the US$14.5 million Bridging Facility closed last quarter, provides the Company with the capital to advance the Nifty technical studies and finalise an appropriate development funding package next year. This will enable the delivery and execution of our strategy to restart the Nifty Project as a larger scale open pit copper operation.

The post Why did this ASX copper share just crash 70%? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

While ASX mining shares such as Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) and BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) are diversified producers with copper production, here are the pure copper majors and juniors of the ASX. 

Copper majors 

Oz Minerals Limited (ASX: OZL) 

Oz Minerals is the largest copper-focused ASX share with a market capitalisation of approximately $8 billion. Its shares have soared alongside copper prices, up 26% year-to-date and more than 150% in the past 12-months to record territory. 

The company delivered a mixed first-quarter update with the softer copper product due to its Carrapatenna mine switching contractors, which lowered fleet availability and grades. Despite quarterly production potentially missing expectations, the company believes it is on track to meet its FY21 production guidance.

Oz Minerals continues to eye several growth pipeline projects with a number of drilling programs underway. 

Brokers are relatively mixed on Oz Mineral shares with an average price target of $23.16 across Morgans, Macquarie, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley. Commentary has highlighted a stronger performance out of Carrapateena in the June quarter and the solid copper price to continue to drive earnings upside momentum. 

Sandfire Resources Ltd (ASX: SFR)

Sandfire is another mid-tier copper producer with a market cap of approximately $1.1 billion. The company has leveraged the recent surge in copper prices, with its interim net profits surging from $34.2 million in 1H20 to $60.8 million in 1H21. 

Sandfire has started developing its significant copper-silver production hub in Botswana, receiving board approval for the initial 3.2Mtpa operation.

The most recent broker update from Macquarie on 9 March believes higher copper prices will significantly impact Sandfire Resources.

The broker estimates the earnings forecast could rise by an average of 90% over the next five years. Macquarie rates its shares as outperform with an $8.8 target price. Sandfire shares are currently fetching $6.35. 

Copper juniors 

Copper Mountain Mining Corp (ASX: C6C)

Copper Mountain shares have more than doubled this year and are up an eye-watering 800% in the past 12 months. The company has made an outstanding transition from explorer to producer, with record production and revenues flowing through. 

Copper Mountain released a quarterly activities report on Tuesday, highlighting quarterly revenue of $162.2 million and gross profit of $96.3 million from the sale of 27.5 million pounds of copper, 8,553 ounces of gold and 161,657 ounces of silver. 

While the company may sound like a mid-tier producer, it boasts a market capitalisation of just ~$67 million. 

Cyprium Metals Ltd (ASX: CYM) 

Cyprium focuses on mid to late-stage local copper projects that could be fast-tracked into the production of copper metal.

The company recently acquired a portfolio of copper projects from Metals X Limited (ASX: MLX). Cyprium executive director Barry Cahill commented on the acquisition, saying: 

We look forward to leveraging our many years of combined team experience, to position Cyprium to establish itself as a significant Australian mid-tier copper producer.

The post Which ASX mining shares can take advantage of soaring copper prices? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

At the time of writing, the Cyprium share price is down nearly 17% over the course of this week and is currently trading at 25 cents.

Let's take a closer look at the company's news.

Assay results

The Cyprium share price is on the slide again today despite the company releasing its most recent assay results. The miner reported it has found extensive, shallow copper and gold mineralisation at its Nanadie Well Copper-Gold Project.

So far, the company has results for 38 out of 66 holes from its drilling program at Nanadie Well.

The drilling program found near-surface oxide and supergene mineralisation with potential mineralisation over a strike of 750 metres.

The drilling program began in January 2021, with the company stating the first lot of results are encouraging.

The Nanadie Well Copper-Gold Project is located in Western Australia, about 650kms from Perth. The company acquired 100% of the Project in July 2020. 

Management commentary

Commenting on the company's assay results, Cyprium executive director Barry Cahill said: 

As anticipated, the results are continuing to show an extensive shallow and broad oxide copper-gold mineralisation.

We are really excited and encouraged from what we are seeing in these assay results from the supergene horizon at Nanadie Well. It gives us increasing confidence in the potential of the sulphide mineralisation. We are looking forward to the results of the assays of the diamond drill core and results of the downhole geophysics in that part of the mineralised zone.

We anticipate continued positive news flow over the coming weeks as the results for the remaining RC drill holes are received.

Cyprium share price snapshot

The Cyprium share price had a rough trot in 2020, but it has since bounced back. Currently, the company's share price is up by more than 170% over the last 12 months. It is also up by almost 9% year to date.

Cyprium has a market capitalisation of around $26.12 million, with approximately 98 million shares outstanding.

The post Cyprium (ASX:CYM) share price slumps 6% despite positive news appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

4 ASX shares seeing big gains today 

Cyprium Metals Ltd (ASX: CYM) 

Cyprium Metals is a copper and gold explorer with a number of projects in the Murchison region of Western Australia. The company is currently undergoing a scoping study to determine the parameters required to develop a copper project in the region. 

The Cyprium share price opened as high as 30% higher today following the initial results of its reverse circulation drilling program at its Nanadie Well project. Its shares are currently 7.5% higher at the time of writing, on the highest trading volume since inception. 

Executive Director Barry Cahill was pleased with the preliminary investigations. 

We are pleased to announce the first results from the January 2021 Nanadie Well supergene RC drilling campaign. These fantastic results from the first four holes of the programme provide strong support to our understanding and demonstrate the potential of the supergene horizon at Nanadie Well.

We anticipate continued positive news flow over the coming weeks as the results for the remaining 62 holes are received.

SRJ Technologies Group PLC (ASX: SRJ) 

The SRJ share price has been in a constant decline since its IPO on 18 September. Its shares have slumped from 80 cents to 30 cents in just 7 months. 

SRJ provides a niche engineering service with products designed to maintain the integrity of pressure containment systems. The business struggled with widespread delays of repairs and maintenance in 2020 due to COVID.

More recently, on 15 March, the company upgraded its performance outlook in 2021 after experiencing increased levels of oil industry engagement and new market openings. Its share price has bounced 11% higher today, but is still near all-time lows. 

Market Herald Ltd (ASX: TMH)

The Market Herald is a stock market internet discussion forum and news platform. The company reported strong growth figures during February reporting season with a 469% increase in net profit before tax to $8.1 million for the 6 months ending 31 December 2020. It shares are up 9.80% today on no market sensitive news. 

Bellevue Gold Ltd (ASX: BGL)

The Bellevue share price has struggled to make headway due to weak gold prices. Its shares were hovering around 10-month lows, before bouncing 9.15% today. 

Bellevue believes it has one of the highest-grade new gold discoveries globally with a 2.4 million ounce reserve at 10g/tonne resource located in one of the highest-rated mining jurisdictions in the world. The project is currently undergoing a significant drilling program to target further resource conversion and growth across the project.

The post ASX shares making the biggest moves today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.