The Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Janus Electric, after it secured a wave of major US commercial orders for its innovative electric truck conversion technology. Arrow Minerals surged after finally nabbing a new three-year exploration permit over its Niagara bauxite project in Guinea, clearing a long-standing tenure overhang, and CGN Resources ran higher after kicking off maiden drilling at its Christmas Well project in the red-hot Leonora gold district of WA.
Red as far as the eye can see. Red in the market. Reds in government. At this rate, one day we might even find ourselves saluting a Red Army flag. First, the government came for your capital gains. Now they're coming for your retirement.
After overseeing the worst collapse in Australian living standards on record, Prime Minister Albanese says he wants your super, and he isn’t even trying to hide it, declaring the next pot of gold isn't sitting in the Treasury - it's sitting in your hard-earned nest egg.
Speaking at this week's Chair Forum, Albo made it abundantly clear he wants Australia's $4.5 trillion superannuation pool to do more than simply fund your hard-earned retirement.
The new buzzwords of "national benefit", "sovereign capability" and "productivity" arose at the forum from the mouths of a couple of career politicians who haven’t presided over any of the above.
The translation? Labor wants your money to fund its expensive pet projects.
It was nice to see Former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews also at the forum, sitting at Albo’s flank.
Back from his hangs with Putin and Kim Jong-Un in the big city of Beijing, Dan has now positioned himself alongside Labor mega-funder and rich lister Anthony Pratt as his “advisor”. The Former Victorian premier also urged super funds to pour more money into his personal favourites of – would you believe it - pandemic preparedness, even more clean energy, water security and whatever else that could blow out Australians’ utility bills.
If past actions are any guide, locking up Australia's future funds may have appealed to Dan Andrews almost as much as locking down seven million Victorians during the COVID pandemic. Currently, our painstakingly accumulated money seems to be getting pulled from our paws at an alarmingly increasing rate to fund the government’s turbocharged debt, NDIS corruption, CMFEU big-build blowouts and our government-induced inflation.
The worrying part isn't Albo’s proposal. It's tomorrow's precedent.
Across the globe, in Washington, President Donald Trump's much-publicised 20 per cent Strait of Hormuz transit fee came and went almost as quickly as it arrived. At the same time, another ceasefire with Iran proved about as durable as a paper umbrella in a cyclone. Only oil managed to make gains – up 8 per cent - in commodities, as gold, copper and materials copped a beating to close the week.
It was another frustrating week for small-cap investors as the juniors continued drifting further into obscurity post July 1st capital gains changes, leaving the ASX 200 to soak up what little buying interest remained.
That didn't stop one battery-swapping truck technology company, however, from bucking the trend, after a string of major US commercial wins suggested its long-promised business model may finally be shifting from concept to cash flow.
JANUS ELECTRIC HOLDINGS LTD (ASX: JNS)
Up 131% (14.5c – 33.5c)
Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is electric vehicle conversion connoisseurs Janus Electric, after the market finally got the commercial endorsement it had been waiting for.
The electric truck conversion specialist lit up the ASX boards after unveiling a string of major US contracts, transforming its North American order book almost overnight.
The company revealed it had reeled in four new Californian fleet operators, securing a hefty $45 million in conditional orders for 67 diesel-to-electric truck conversions, 77 swappable battery packs and four charging stations. The deals have supercharged its North American order book, increasing it from 45 to 112 trucks in just seven days.
The momentum was already building after an existing customer doubled down with a repeat $10 million order on Monday, arguably the strongest validation an emerging technology company can receive.
With California's generous zero-emission incentives paving the way, Janus has zeroed in on North America, where hefty government subsidies are accelerating the shift from diesel to electric fleets. The strategy appears to be paying off, with the company finally making the long-awaited leap from a promising technology story to a genuine commercial business - and the punters wasted little time climbing aboard.
ARROW MINERALS LTD (ASX: AMD)
Up 86% (0.35c – 0.65c)
Taking out second spot, this week is Arrow Minerals, after finally removing the tenure cloud that had weighed on the company since May last year.
The company says the Guinean government has awarded Arrow a fresh three-year industrial exploration permit over its flagship Niagara bauxite project, replacing the permit that had been caught up in the country's sweeping mining licences overhaul.
The new permit covers the same historic 500-square-kilometre footprint and mineralised plateaux hosting the company's maiden resource of a whopping 185 million tonnes grading 42.3 per cent aluminium oxide.
The green light effectively clears the path for exploration to resume and allows its amended acquisition of the project to finally move towards development.
The market wasted little time welcoming the certainty, sending the stock soaring after more than a year in the wilderness. Better still, the permit carries rights for two additional two-year extensions, giving Arrow plenty of runway to unlock the project's potential.
The timing couldn't be much better. Guinea is the undisputed heavyweight of the global bauxite industry, supplying more than 70 per cent of the world's seaborne bauxite trade and holding the planet's largest known reserves of the aluminium ore.
In a province that has become one of the world's most important aluminium feedstock hubs, getting the keys back to a prospective project was always likely to grab investors' attention.
CGN RESOURCES LTD (ASX: CGR)
Up 71% (5.5c – 9.4c)
Claiming bronze this week is CGN Resources, after the junior goldie kicked off maiden drilling in one of Australia's hottest gold neighbourhoods in Leonora.
The company says maiden reverse circulation drilling has kicked off today at its recently acquired bolt-on Desdemona project, which spans 142 square kilometres.
The deal has expanded the company's footprint to almost 386 square kilometres across its Christmas Well and Panhandle projects. These grounds all straddle the same major geological contact that hosts some of Western Australia's biggest gold deposits, including Genesis Minerals' Gwalia mine and Vault's King of the Hills operation.
Importantly, much of the acreage remains hidden beneath shallow cover and has seen remarkably little modern exploration, leaving plenty of upside should the drill bit deliver.
Timing is everything in the gold game, and Leonora has never been hotter.
CGN’s neighbours in Genesis and Vault have just inked a binding $12.6 billion merger to create Australia's third-largest gold producer, pumping out between 600,000 and 700,000 ounces a year from the very same district.
The company says its campaign will test a string of high-priority targets alongside mouthwatering historical results, including a nine-metre hit running a massive 20.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 3m at 17.3g/t right next door to Genesis’ eight-million-ounce Sons of Gwalia gold monster. If the maiden campaign can replicate anything close to those grades, CGN may have timed its arrival in Leonora to perfection.
With the majors scrambling to consolidate every quality ounce they can find, explorers drilling on their doorstep inevitably become a whole lot more enticing.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
