Key Highlights

  • About 3,500 metres of maiden Reverse Circulation Drilling has started at Hill of Leaders in the Northern Territory, expected to take three to four weeks.
  • Phase two rock-chip sampling returned a top result of 15.69% tungsten trioxide (WO3), with 24% of 29 samples exceeding 1% WO3; exposed mineralisation runs over two kilometres along strike.
  • The August 2026 Placement of 13.1 million shares at A$0.20 raised A$2.6 million before costs, lifting cash to A$3.36 million at 30 September 2026.
  • Soil geochemistry results from 1,350 samples on a 200-metre grid are also expected in the coming weeks, providing a broader picture of the surface anomaly.

Stelar Metals (ASX:SLB) has become a tungsten story because its maiden drilling at the Hill of Leaders project in the Northern Territory is under way, funded by a placement completed in August. The company announced on 13 October 2026 that about 3,500 metres of reverse circulation drilling had started, expected to take three to four weeks.

Who Stelar is

Stelar Metals Limited has been listed on the ASX since 18 March 2022 and is classified in the Materials sector. The ASX describes it as a Mining exploration company, and its securities are ordinary shares.

Tungsten is its primary focus, with molybdenum a possible by-product. Hill of Leaders covers about 450 square kilometres in the Tennant Creek region, held under exploration licence EL33232.

The surface evidence

The drilling rests on rock-chip sampling. In the company's September 2026 quarterly report, 29 phase two samples included a top result of 15.69 per cent tungsten trioxide (WO3), with others at 7.76, 4.96 and 4.45 per cent. About 24 per cent of those samples exceeded 1 per cent WO3.

Eighteen phase one samples had two results above 1 per cent, at 1.411 and 1.110 per cent. Exposed mineralisation is reported to run for more than two kilometres along strike, in vein corridors up to about 200 metres wide.

Surface samples are selective snapshots rather than a measure of what lies at depth. That is the gap the drill programme is designed to test, beneath and along strike from historic mine workings.

Funding and approvals

On 3 August 2026 the company announced a placement of 13,141,421 shares at A$0.20, raising about A$2.6 million before costs, with Taylor Collison as sole lead manager. The price was 16.7 per cent below the last traded price of A$0.240 on 29 July 2026.

Cash at 30 September 2026 was A$3.363 million, up from A$1.599 million at the end of June. Operating outflow for the quarter was A$359,000, and exploration and evaluation expenditure was A$226,345, mostly field costs at Hill of Leaders.

Financing brought in a net A$2.43 million after A$198,000 of transaction costs, while investing outflow was A$307,000. Related-party payments of A$139,520, mainly catch-up director fees and superannuation, were disclosed. The company estimates a funding runway of 5.25 quarters. Environmental approvals were finalised, and an Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority certificate has been received.

Structure and what is next

At the quarter end there were 80,707,108 fully paid ordinary shares, 2,750,000 unlisted options at A$0.15 and 3,000,000 performance rights. Further notices of proposed issues and an application for Quotation of securities were lodged on 2 and 3 November 2026, so the share count has probably moved since the quarter end.

Soil geochemistry from 1,350 samples on a 200-metre grid over about 50 square kilometres is awaited. The 13 October announcement said those results were expected in the coming weeks, although the Quarterly Report gave conflicting timing, so the date should be treated as indicative. Drilling results will follow as they become available, with no fixed date given.

Risks

Stelar has no production revenue, so it depends on raising Equity to keep exploring, and the August placement was priced at a discount to the market. Drilling may show that the high grades are local, not continuous at depth.

Tungsten is also a specialist market, and the evidence so far is surface sampling rather than drill intercepts. No Mineral Resource has been reported in the sources reviewed here, so any development case is distant, and it would need further drilling, metallurgical work, approvals and funding.

The company lodged its Annual Report and a notice of Annual General Meeting on 25 October 2026. Later phases the company has outlined include more mapping, extensional surface sampling, detailed geophysics and diamond drilling.