Runners of the Week: OD6 Metals, Mount Ridley | Australian Markets

The ASX has one other scorcher, with equities again reaching new highs. Materials stole the show on a constructive week Down Under and the beleaguered lithium and uncommon earths sectors led the charge.

Perth-based lithium giant Pilbara Minerals noticed its share price surge practically 22 per cent on news that world battery heavyweight CATL had closed some of China main mines.

Australian employment knowledge got here back higher than anticipated, cracking a low 4.2 per cent unemployment charge with 25,000 jobs added final month. The constructive numbers had been principally attributable to population figures reducing -and not as a result of Australians are having fewer infants.

The strong numbers slashed hopes for a September charge cut to a mere 35 per cent, and sadly, United States knowledge additionally got here back with higher-than-expected inflation. This led to the inevitable “this is not a time for investors to panic but rather focus on fundamentals” calls from the wealth management massive wigs. Anything to keep the funds of their pockets and our charges turning over, I suppose.

The actual fireworks this week – and over the month – got here from the white-hot Aussie crucial minerals sector, specifically, uncommon earths.

After Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King final week steered floating price flooring to rival the US’s US$110 a kilogram neodymium and praseodymium benchmark, Australia’s uncommon earths stock continued their tear to taking out three of the high 4 spots on this week’s Runners checklist.

And blue chips Lynas Rare Earths and Iluka Resources each noticed their share price rise more than 50 per cent on the month.

However, this week’s Runner of the Week was taken out by a not too long ago dormant uncommon earths giant lingering close to Western Australia’s south coast.

OD6 METALS LIMITED (ASX: OD6)

Up 250% (3c – 10.5c)

Bulls N’ Bears’ ASX Runner of the Week is Aussie uncommon earths renegade OD6 Metals, which joined the crucial minerals refrain this week with a transformational saleable product produced at its mammoth clay-hosted Splinter Rock uncommon earths project close to Esperance on Western Australia’s south coast.

The company unveiled a high-quality combined uncommon earth carbonate product, which is available in at a promising 56 per cent whole uncommon earth oxides (TREO). It has additionally produced a combined uncommon earth hydroxide at about 59 per cent TREO.

The company produced the uncommon earths with the help of industry chief ANSTO utilizing a much-simplified scalable heap leach course of, which can drastically cut back the operational prices and capex of its remaining clay processing amenities.

OD6 says its new plant flowsheet will slash hydrochloric acid use from 37.12 kilograms per tonne to 7.12kg/t, whereas boosting recoveries to an spectacular 79 per cent TREO.

By ditching pricey tank leaching for a heap leach pad, the company has eradicated complicated steps resembling clay washing, utilizing energy-intensive filters and recycling about 80 per cent of its acid, which is its most expensive operational enter.

OD6 says its product ought to fetch a premium because of its high proportion of the magnet uncommon earths neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium. It additionally has ultra-low ranges of impurities uranium and thorium.

The company’s share price rocketed 250 per cent on Wednesday and Thursday to peak at 10.5 cents from final week’s 3c close, fuelled by a large $5 million in stock traded.

OD6 will now courtroom off-take companions throughout North America, Europe and Asia for its large 682 million tonne useful resource at 1338 elements per million (ppm) TREO.

With the speak of price flooring and a large slashing in prices at Splinter Rocks, OD6 has catapulted itself back into the Australian uncommon earths fray, closing the week in a trading halt forward of raising funds for a renewed clay hosted uncommon earths push at its monster WA project.

MOUNT RIDLEY MINES LTD (ASX: MRD)

Up 250% (0.2c – 0.7c)

Snagging silver this week is OD6’s Esperance neighbour, Mount Ridley Mines, which rode the uncommon earths coat tails of its dazzling massive brother in the area to see its share price additionally surge 250 per cent on the week. Mount Ridley’s stock rose from 0.2c per share final week to a high 0.7c on Thursday.

Given Bulls N’ Bears doesn’t do attracts, and since it launched no news, Mount Ridley took a back seat to the OD6, which is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the complicated chemical processing division.

Mount Ridley’s eponymous project is simply a stone’s throw from Splinter Rock and hosts its own smaller, however nonetheless appreciable, 168-million-tonne clay-hosted useful resource grading at 1201ppm TREO.

The company says mineralisation at the project is extremely analogous to OD6’s clays and that earlier hydrochloric acid leaching checks positions it as a darkish horse to compete on the identical area as its more superior sibling.

Mount Ridley kicked off its own capital raise on the week, spelling out a $830,000 raise and rights combo to advance its metallurgical testwork with ANSTO, mirroring OD6’s heap leach improvements.

The project’s proximity to Splinter Rock and shared geological traits have given it a second likelihood at life. For now, this Esperance underdog is driving the sector’s tailwinds, however with the world desirous to get its arms on a Western uncommon earths provide, there seems to be a lot of upside left on this $3 million market cap minnow.

ACTIVEPORT GROUP LTD (ASX: ATV)

Up 200% (1.1c – 3.3c)

Charging late to say the remaining podium place on Bulls N’ Bears Runners is AI options co-ordinator Activeport Group, after it launched Australia’s first non-public cloud superhighway Private-Cloud Connect.

The fibre service presents variable bandwidth for personal cloud operators and demand influx, permitting it to ship a versatile premium service at a diminished value.

Private-Cloud now hosts three massive prospects DigiCo, Equinix and NextDC, that are tapping into Activeport’s software-orchestrated community for secure and scalable connectivity.

With the Australian artificial intelligence market projected to hit $22 billion by 2030, at a staggering 17 per cent annual growth charge, Activeport says its platforms are cornering a market area of interest linking non-public companies to high-powered knowledge centres.

The market definitely lapped it up, with pundits piling into the stock on Thursday’s ASX announcement. The company’s share price rocketed to close the week at 3.3c at this time, up 200 per cent from 1.1c final week, on more than $9 million in stock traded.

The company’s potential to scale for heavy workloads, resembling knowledge migrations, whereas optimising day by day operations prices has received the sector speaking.

Activeport’s fast buyer uptake indicators it as a sturdy market match, permitting Private-Cloud Connect to leverage Australia’s growing colocation infrastructure. The company’s early dominance has its eyeing partnerships to scale its community into Asia and past. With the ASX buzzing over tech innovators, some Aussie darlings are seemingly displaying their steel.

ENERGY TRANSITION MINERALS LIMITED (ASX: ETM)

Up 180% (5.5c – 15c)

Closing out the Runners checklist this week is one other uncommon earths hopeful in Energy Transition Minerals (ETM), which final week strategically scooped up its Penouta tin-tantalum-niobium mine in Galicia, Spain, for €5.2 million (A$9.2m) by way of an insolvency course of. Surprisingly, that wasn’t why the company’s share price was working.

Despite its promising new project, a characteristic story on Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes program on Sunday actually received ETM’s stock going. Company management reasonably cheekily steered on air that there have been billions to tens of billions of {dollars}’ value of worth in the ground at its Kvanefjeld uncommon earths project in southern Greenland, which is owned by way of an ETM subsidiary.

This was adopted by a fast retraction adopted on Monday, however the company’s share price was already buzzing. It shot from 5.5c to 15c intraday on a large $13 million in stock traded.

As the 60 Minutes’ section highlighted, Greenland is now and has long been against mining, which may be why ETM added its Penouta project to the fold final week.

The tin mine seems an absolute steal and has a shot at working in the close to time period. Its current infrastructure consists of a new 1-million-tonne each year gravity processing plant, which is primed for a restart, pending Spanish regulatory approvals.

Acquired at a steep low cost from its €28 million ($49.5 million) historic value, Penouta’s sunk capital and up to date operation has ETM saying it presents a low-risk guess in a promising tin market experiencing its own provide squeezes.

Penouta has a 1.1-billion-tonne uncommon earths useful resource, which enhances its near-term money move potential. Additionally, ETM is freshly cashed up to navigate the project’s regulatory approvals course of and any allowing hurdles. One factor’s for sure, if it might probably use its Spain proceeds to tug off its mammoth mine in Greenland, ETM will likely be on its method to turning into a powerhouse uncommon earths supplier on a world scale.

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