The new week welcomed a sad end to the ASX’s eight-day party. The market has been on an absolute tear since United States President Donald Trump stopped his tariff trade war and rebounded 14 per cent in a little over a month.
Following last week’s de-escalation between the US and China, which saw tariffs slashed a massive 115 per cent, Trump returned to his volatile ways by announcing a “big beautiful” tax cut bill that promises to send already spiralling US debt skyrocketing over the next decade.
The result was panic stations in US credit – which was already downgraded to start the week – and the Dow and Nasdaq tanked as bond yields surged with investors demanding more than 5 per cent yield on 20-year US treasury bonds.
As a result, glittering gold surged back up nearly 5 per cent after a massive sell-off last week.
Back home, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) handed down its latest 0.25 per cent rate cut to encourage business growth, with a surprising revelation emerging that the central bank had contemplated a ‘jumbo’ double rate cut. The RBA board was clearly worried about Australian industry weakness and a rollercoaster economy.
Trump handed down yet more executive orders on resources, declaring “clean” metallurgical coal as a critical mineral. Uranium is likely to follow.
In the same week, AustralianSuper announced it had become a substantial shareholder of Aussie producer Whitehaven Coal, insisting the commitment is “ESG consistent” and in line with “net zero emissions by 2050”. That sounds about right.
A plethora of Aussie resource juniors copped takeover offers this week, which will all be scrutinised by the Foreign Investment Review Board. Mongolian-based Xanadu Mines, Arizona-based New World Resources, PNG-based Kingston Resources all received bids for their gold and copper projects.
Adriatic Metals did not formally receive a takeover bid, but was forced to disclose it was in early takeover talks with Serbian neighbour Dundee Precious Metals, after a leaky media article unveiled the news before a deal could be struck.
Unfortunately for Bulls N’ Bear’s ASX Runners list, Adriatic is only up 38 per cent on the speculation, tipping it a little over the $1.5 billion mark, but still outside the top four. This week’s list features a good variety of commodities and sectors.
OCEANA LITHIUM LTD (ASX: OCN)
up 115% (3.3c – 7.1c)
This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is junior explorer Oceana Lithium. The company shot out of a cannon on Wednesday, to see its share price soar 115 per cent to 7.1c a share by Thursday from last week’s close of 3.3c. The move came after it announced a smallish $667,000 placement at 2.3c per share, orchestrated by the sharp folks at Westar Capital.
The book must have been well oversubscribed as punters came out scrambling for shares on-market on Wednesday, following a capital raise to fund the company’s projects in Australia and Brazil.
Oceana also mentioned the potential to additionally assess “new complementary project opportunities”, in a watch-this-space scenario.
The cash injection will predominantly fuel Oceana’s ambitions across its Napperby project in the Northern Territory and Bangemall base metals project in Western Australia, while keeping the lights on with working capital.
Napperby sprawls across some 650 square kilometres of granted ground and a further 512 square kilometres is under application in the heart of Central Australia’s Arunta Province, which is home to “hot granites” brimming with lithium, rare earths and uranium potential.
Meanwhile, at the company’s Bangemall project in WA’s Gascoyne, Oceana has reported a strong electromagnetic (EM) anomaly at 100-150m depth, hinting at a potential fault zone loaded with zinc, copper or cobalt.
Historical sampling and a Rio Tinto hole intersecting 15m of 0.2 per cent zinc suggest this ground could be a base metals bonanza. Historic holes don’t accurately pierce the EM anomaly, leaving it begging for follow-up drilling.
With funds in the bank and the company’s technical team buzzing about its untested EM targets, Oceana’s got a serious run and could soon be on its way to drilling for massive sulphides.
ZOONO GROUP LTD (ASX: ZNO)
up 97% (3.9c – 7.7c)
This week’s runner-up is biotech battler Zoono Group Limited, which took off on Tuesday after the company unveiled a blockbuster exclusive supply contract with eco-food packaging company Sharpak Aylesham and food supply chain group OSY.
The deal is set to put Zoono’s antibacterial packaging expertise front and centre in the United Kingdom’s soft fruit packaging game, utilising the company’s proprietary bacteria combat techology to fight viruses and mould.
Zoono says the deal puts it the fight against a US$2.6 trillion global food waste crisis.
Sharpak’s packaging brought in an impressive $1.5B in revenue last year, as it supplied a hefty chunk of soft fruit packaging for Britain’s top supermarkets.
Teaming up with OSY’s application tech, Zoono’s shelf-life extension products will coat packaging for grapes, cherries and more, with a five-year deal for minimum purchases of NZ$30.7M (A$28.17M).
The market went bananas, with the share price surging 97 per cent from last week’s close to a peak of 7.7c on $800,000 worth of stock changing hands.
After three years of Zoono pivoting from a battered antimicrobial market to niche food chain solutions, its trials with three major UK supermarket chains and global food producers are showing promising results. Commercial viability has been nailed for a range of produce.
The company expects to receive its first orders after in-store trials wrap up later this year, with production set to ramp up early next year. It’s a promising start for Zoono’s tech, following a four-year lull from its previous all-time high share prices of nearly $2.50 per share. Hopefully, the company is poised to make a comeback, with this contract being the start of a tasty new chapter.
METALSGROVE LTD (ASX: MGA)
up 86% (5c – 9.3c)
This week’s bronze medal goes to newly refocussed African gold explorer MetalsGrove Limited. The company’s share price crept up on a week where there was no news to the market and surprisingly very little volume.
The tightly held stock enjoyed a belated market awakening to the company’s freshly minted gold joint venture (JV) permits in Côte d’Ivoire, where the greenstone belts are brimming with multi-million-ounce potential.
MetalsGrove’s three Central West gold JVs span a substantial 950 square kilometres of Côte d’Ivoire’s gold country, just 60km northeast of the 3.8-million-ounce Abujar gold mine. The company says its projects are sitting pretty on the same Birimian greenstone belt as Abujar, in a country seemingly constantly turning up multi-million ounce open-pit deposits.
The company has made a few savvy appointments since its acquisition, roping in three West African gold gurus - Peter Ledwidge, Colin Carson and Rob Perring - as strategic advisors. Each are well versed in the West African gold landscape and have many success stories between them.
As market pundits wake up MetalsGrove’s latest golden opportunity, the company’s permits are already turning up targets ripe for exploration, with aeromagnetic surveys hinting at priority targets for near-term drill bit testing in the white-hot jurisdiction.
Historic gold workings at Raiden Resources’ Vuzel project in Bulgaria, where drilling continues to throw up consecutive shallow gold hits from a 4km by 1.5km prospective zone. Credit: File
RAIDEN RESOURCES LTD (ASX: RDN)
up 75% (0.4c – 0.7c)
The final spot on Bulls N’ Bears Runners of the Week goes to junior goldie Raiden Resources, after a haul of shallow gold hits were recorded from its phase two drilling program at its Vuzel project in Bulgaria. All eight holes drilled hit near-surface gold.
The Bulgaria project is shaping up as a potential monster, with top intercepts including at surface hits such as 24.8 metres at 1.96 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, with a sizzling 13.3m section at 3.4g/t and another at-surface hole dishing up a meaty 56m at 1.09g/t.
The flat, shallow gold system means cheaper, faster drilling and, with only 1.5km of a 4km target zone tested, the company’s rigs are continuing to spin.
Raiden says more assays are on the way from the project, which is less than 20km from Gorubso-Kardzhali’s gold processing plant. The area is relatively unknown for its gold, but home to several majors, including Dundee Precious Metals’ Ada Tepe mine.
The market went wild for Raiden’s results and the plentiful paydirt results sent its share price up 75 per cent to close at 0.7c on Monday from a handy $820,000 worth of stock traded.
The company says the results are key to unlocking the deposit’s geology at Vuzel, paving the way for more precision strikes on its high-grade zones.
Raiden seems to be just scratching the surface at its 4km long anomaly and looks primed to assault its promising gold prospect, especially considering the company’s substantial $15M cash war chest.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Andrew Todd
