The gold bugs are definitely back and beaming this week.
After months of being whacked by war-induced inflationary pressures leading to a resilient US dollar, the shiny yellow metal came roaring back to life as cracks began appearing in the American economy.
July's non-farm payrolls (non-seasonal jobs) unexpectedly went backwards in reporting this week, shedding 23,000 jobs and reinforcing the view that the world's largest economy may finally be cooling.
Traders immediately began scaling back expectations of further rate hikes, while bond markets staged an unexpected rally after the US Treasury quietly doubled its planned buybacks of long-dated debt in an attempt to steady the bond market.
The Government printing more money to add to the already-groaning weight of more than US$40 trillion (A$61 trillion) in national debt is never a good sign of prosperity.
The result was a familiar one. The US dollar softened to a runny egg and gold exploded higher, surging more than six per cent to US$4550 (A$6910). Copper, meanwhile, refused to give an inch, holding firm near US$6.50 (A$9.95) per pound as the market struggles amid chronic supply shortages, remaining a powerful long-term red metal driver.
Back home, Australia's own inflation architects were quietly celebrating a milestone of their own. Federal debt has now blown through the trillion-dollar mark, leaving taxpayers with the privilege of funding record government spending while somehow managing higher taxes, higher electricity prices and a cost-of-living crisis that seemingly adds more brainwash initiatives by the second.
An unexpected, good news story of the week came in the final reprieve for the ASX’s healthcare index, which was up a staggering 14 per cent in just one week.
Former market darling and once Australia's largest listed company, CSL, has had a ripping week after the healthcare giant spent the past year being treated like a biotech penny dreadful, shedding almost $90 billion in value from its highs. Investors finally decided enough was enough. The stock exploded nearly 18 per cent in a single session after management delivered better-than-expected FY26 numbers and forecasts for the year to come.
The resources sector also continued to remind everyone where Australia's real economic engine sits. BHP surged almost seven per cent as copper held its ground as the market’s metal of choice, while New Zealand's biggest precious metals producer, OceanaGold, lobbed a hefty $776 million bid for Ausgold’s Katanning gold project in Western Australia.
It seems OceanaGold, unable to expand its considerable resource base in NZ thanks to the government’s insistence on ignoring its own mineral wealth, has decided it's time to expand into WA. The message is clear: quality ounces are making the big players move and they’re no longer waiting for developers to build the mines themselves.
The Bulls N' Bears Runners cavalcade this week perfectly mirrored the renewed gold sentiment, with the precious metal once again stamping its authority on the list. Pay-outs and payloads were the themes of the week for the minors, with a plucky gas explorer also making a late charge after plunging a well into one of Queensland’s most prolific gas basins.
GENESIS RESOURCES LTD (ASX: GES)
Up 500% (0.5c – 3c)
The Bulls N' Bears Runner of the Week is Genesis Resources, which took off in spectacular fashion this week after returning rock chip grades of up to 28.8 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from reconnaissance sampling at its Arltunga copper-gold project in the Northern Territory.
Now, high-grade gold samples from surface are always going to get the market’s attention, but one struggles to recall too many occasions where a handful of rock chips have ignited a 500 per cent share price rally. Genesis rocketed to a high of 3c this week – its highest point in almost a decade. With gold back in favour and the company's tightly held share register acting as an amplifier for every buy order, it was the perfect storm for this feisty junior to claim the top spot.
The company collected 53 reconnaissance samples from previously undrilled areas across its exploration licence 100 kilometres northeast of Alice Springs, with standout results coming from the newly identified WP-10 prospect, where separate samples returned impressive assays of 11.25g/t and 10.47g/t gold.
Along trend at Genesis' Star Creek prospect, samples also delivered grades at an impressive 13.71g/t and 6.41g/t gold from around historical workings that include old trenches and a 10-metre-deep shaft, all crying out to be tested at depth.
Even the company's Jenkins Mine, which returned modest surface grades of up to 0.88g/t gold, comes with a tantalising backstory. Historical records from the Northern Territory Geological Survey suggest the mine once operated at an average head grade of a hefty 34.7g/t gold, which is yet to be tested by modern exploration.
With a clutch of high-grade targets now in hand, Genesis plans to drill-test WP-10, Star Creek, Chinaman's Workings and Jenkins during the 2027 field season. The company also added a tasty kicker, collecting 10 rock-chip samples from previously untested areas on its Alice Springs tenement before unseasonal rain brought the field program to an early end. One of those samples returned 1.2 per cent copper roughly 300 metres northeast of the nearest drill hole at the Diana 2 prospect, with follow-up fieldwork now planned.
Gold and copper remain two of the hottest commodities in town, and Genesis appears to have a solid footing in both. The market has already cast its vote on the surface results. Now comes the real test – whether those flashy grades can survive the journey from a rock on the surface to a drill core at depth.
TRITON MINERALS LTD (ASX: TON)
Up 100% (0.25c – 0.5c)
Stealing second place this week is Triton Minerals, whose shares doubled after the company finally drew a line under a long-running dispute and secured a pathway to complete the sale of a 70 per cent stake in its Mozambique graphite assets.
A new deed of settlement has now resolved the legal proceedings that stemmed from its partner, NQM Gold 2 Pty Ltd, missing staged payments under the original agreement, which was worth about $17 million.
Under the latest deal, the transaction will complete on August 21, with Triton set to receive the remaining $5.5 million held in trust. NQM will take ownership of 70 per cent of the assets, while Triton will retain a substantial 30 per cent stake in the joint venture. Accordingly, court proceedings will now be discontinued.
The market’s excitement is understandable given the sheer scale of the graphite assets involved. Triton’s flagship Ancuabe project hosts a JORC mineral resource of 46 million tonnes grading 6.6 per cent total graphitic carbon for 3.04 million tonnes of contained graphite. A definitive feasibility study has already outlined a production profile of 60,000 tonnes of graphite concentrate per year over a mine life stretching almost three decades, involving a valuable mix of large and jumbo graphite flakes.
The bigger prize, however, may well be the Cobra Plains deposit. Hosting a massive inferred resource of 103 million tonnes grading 5.2 per cent total graphitic carbon for a staggering 5.7 million tonnes of contained graphite, the asset also benefits from sitting within a 25-year mining concession.
Combined, the Mozambique assets contain almost 9 million tonnes of graphite resources, making them among the biggest undeveloped graphite inventories on the ASX. With environmental approvals, mining concessions and development studies already in place, the market appears to be betting that this settlement finally clears the path for the projects to move from courtroom battles to mine development.
With legal clarification, a booming graphite market and $5.5 million in cash on its way, Triton’s story looks like it can finally get back on track.
A Silver City rig drilling Pure One's Venus-2H well in the prolific Surat Basin, in Queensland.
PURE ONE CORP LTD (ASX: P1E)
Up 91% (3.3c – 6.3c)
We love a late runner at Bulls N' Bears, and junior energy hopeful Pure One Corp has made a late dash for the final podium spot on Friday.
The company announced strong gas shows at its Venus-2H horizontal appraisal well in Queensland’s Surat Basin, with total gas readings hitting up to 25.4 per cent as drilling continues towards its intersection with the Venus-1 wellbore.
Project Venus is a first-rate asset because it sits in the heart of Queensland’s premier Walloon Fairway, the most proven and productive coal-seam gas province in the state. This area has already seen more than 10,000 wells drilled and supplies the bulk of the gas that feeds the LNG export facilities at Gladstone. The permit is surrounded by major operators such as Origin, Apollo, Arrow, QGC and Santos, meaning the geology is well understood, the infrastructure is dense and commercial pathways are already established.
The current Venus-2 well is an appraisal, commercial-style horizontal well designed to prove gas deliverability. It has been drilled vertically to about 420m, before turning horizontal for approximately 1km. It will then intersect the existing Venus-1 well for dewatering, followed by flow testing. Every previous well on the block has already produced gas to surface, giving management high confidence.
The implications for Pure One are compelling. The junior explorer retains a controlling 69.4 per cent stake in Eastern Gas Corporation, the listed vehicle that now holds and funds the project. A successful commercial flow test would therefore deliver a material uplift in value directly to Pure One's balance sheet and share price, without the company having to fund the full development itself.
New domestic and exportable gas supply is definitely back from the doldrums in Australia and proving a commercial resource in this location could rapidly re-rate Pure One.
The discovery could transform from a pure junior explorer into a company with a de-risked, infrastructure-adjacent gas asset - a powerful catalyst sitting comfortably alongside its additional technology, which is focused on an EV-vehicle launch planned for next month.
The company recently rebranded from Pure Hydrogen to Pure One to reflect its expansion into battery-electric and multi-technology clean mobility solutions. The focus is on capital-light, partner-manufactured vehicles using proven components, targeting commercial and government fleets where battery-swap technology is especially attractive.
One of DXN Limited’s high-performance compute modular data centres from its manufacturing base in Welshpool, WA.
DXN LIMITED (ASX: DXN)
Up 35% (21.5c – 29c)
Rounding out our runners list is Bulls N' Bears regular DXN Limited. While its 35 per cent gain for the week was modest compared to the others, the broader story for this data centre specialist is astounding. The company announced that it had been awarded a contract by Australia Pacific Airports, the operator of Melbourne Airport.
Under the agreement, DXN will design, manufacture, deliver, install and commission a prefabricated Edge Data Centre facility, with the contract valued at approximately $4.1 million. This comes on the heels of an $8.8 million deal inked recently with a US Neo-Cloud operator, which could be worth up to US$200 million (A$280M) in future orders.
DXN’s point of difference in the data-centre world lies in its speed-to-deployment, modular scalability and direct liquid cooling expertise. Subject to successful delivery, the Melbourne Airport operator has indicated its intent to progress to a substantially larger campus program, representing a potential revenue opportunity for DXN well in excess of US$200 million for the existing site in the next one to two years.
Airports operate a dense mix of latency-sensitive, safety-critical systems that increasingly require compute and network capacity to be physically located near the operations they serve, rather than being housed in a distant central facility. The award builds on DXN’s track record of delivering prefabricated critical infrastructure for government, telecommunications and blue-chip enterprise customers across the Asia Pacific.
With its share price now up nearly 1300 per cent since its lows in May, DXN is once again raising its hand to be in contention for Runners of the Year 2026 glory when it is all said and done.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Andrew Todd
