In a stock market calendar week typically swamped with strange and often unexplained share movements on low volumes, the last days of 2024 and opening exchanges in 2025 did not disappoint.
This week’s quartet of Runners however, have performed admirably led by a boron explorer with ambitions of American production, an Australian niobium explorer which landed the services of a high-profile director to its board and a medical device company making good on its plans to advance MRI-compatible products.
5E Advanced Materials (ASX:5EA)
86 per cent up (from 7.5c to 14c)
With its light-weight element firmly lodged in the critical minerals list, boron explorer 5E Advanced Materials, dual-listed on Nasdaq and ASX, dazzled the market this week with an 86 per cent rise securing the top spot on the first Bulls N’ Bears Runners podium for the new year.
5E jumped straight out of the gates on Monday to capture a 21 per cent rise by vaulting to 9.1c, and despite wafer-thin trading conditions that typify this time of year, 5EA saw its strongest volume in more than three months change hands. The following day saw those gains more than doubled again Tuesday with the stock price scaling 50 per cent higher to reach 14c.
The catalyst appears to have been a stunning performance by its Nasdaq dual-listed price which posted an eye-catching 134 per cent gain with the mood only marginally dampened as the week wore on with an ASX speeding ticket.
While the company has deflected the ASX queries with a solid “no reason” response across the board, there does appear to be some merit in the argument that the ASX share price was simply catching up with its American share price offering traders the opportunity to arbitrage trade – a method of banking a profit by selling the high priced counter to buy the low-priced one.
Another clue to the sudden performance may be found in the fact the company is developing the Fort Cady resource in southern California, seen by many as one of the biggest undeveloped conventional colemanite deposits in the world outside Turkey, containing 7.9 million tonnes of boric acid.
With designs on become a vertically integrated producer of the metal it is also moving forward with plans to build downstream processing capabilities with a focus on shoring up the U.S. defence supply chain and supplying the renewable market.
Boron, reliant on global supply which is primarily locked up by Turkey and China together controlling more than 50 per cent of production, is however extremely vulnerable to geopolitical policy changes.
Everything manufactured from rocket-fuel ignitors, permanent magnets, fertilisers, heat-resistant glass, ceramics, fibreglass and renewable energy includes the element in its manufacturing process making 5E’s business - now designated as critical infrastructure - particularly important to the US.
Caption - Phase one of 5E Advanced Materials’ Boron Americas Complex in southern California grabbed the attention of the market this week with an 86 per cent share price rise after its dual listed price on the Nasdaq shot up 134 per cent.
Lycaon Resources (ASX:LYN)
79 per cent up (from 9.5c to 17c)
On home turf, Lycaon Resources stunned the market with a coup of epic proportions landing industry veteran and former Diggers “Dealer of the year” prize winner, Tony Rovira who agreed to join the company’s board as a non-executive director.
In a move which clearly caught the market off-guard, the share price leapt 80 per cent yesterday to 17c once the news was announced.
With more than four decades of experience as a geologist and mining executive, Rovira’s history of developing and selling resource assets is the stuff of legends.
Having previously brought the Cosmos and Cosmos Deeps nickel mines into production for Kerry Harmanis’ Jubilee Mines 25 years ago, Rovira has since moved onto to even bigger and greater things.
Most recently as managing director of Azure Minerals, the mining stalwart successfully sold the company’s Andover project - seen by many as one of the biggest undeveloped hard-rock lithium deposits in Australia - to Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting and Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile SA (SQM) for A$1.7billion.
While Lycaon’s immediate plans are being held close to its chest, Rovira appears to have been recruited to bring some of his deal making prowess to the table.
Certainly, based on the market reaction to the news, the punters seem to think he bears all the hallmarks of a rainmaker for Lycaon.
Maximus Resources ASX:MXR)
42 per cent up (from 4.5c to 6.4c)
Taking out the bronze medal, Maximus Resources soared 42 per cent this week after fellow ASX-listed gold explorer, Astral Resources let it be known it had put a non-binding deal to the Maximus board to take over the company for 7c a share by way of an all-scrip deal.
Signalling the seriousness of its intentions, Astral managed to picked up a 19.99 per cent parcel in Maximus, previously held by Beacon Minerals and private shareholder Colin Petroulas, in exchange for 40.8 million Astral shares.
While no final decisions has been made, due diligence has kicked off in tandem with negotiations for a binding agreement on an exclusive basis.
The rationale for the takeover seems straightforward enough. A successful merger of the Widgiemooltha neighbours, 100km south of Kalgoorlie in WA would leave the mutual shareholders with a combined interest of 1.8 million ounces of gold in resource, 1.46 million ounces grading 1.1 grams per tonne (g/t) from Astral and 335,000 ounces from Maximus running at 1.5g/t.
Astral completed its scoping study 12 months ago in which the findings pointed to a highly profitable standalone gold operation. As Maximus would be bringing higher grade dirt to the table, coupled with a 45 per cent leap in gold prices from a year ago, currently trading at US$2663 (A$4286) per ounce, the combined project economics would likely be vastly improved.
Imricor Medical Systems (ASX:IMR)
35.5 per cent up (from $1.17 to $1.585)
Rounding out the list for our first Runners of the year, posting a very solid 35.5 per cent rise is MRI-compatible products developer, Imricor Medical Systems, following an equally pleasing 15 per cent rise during the Christmas holiday week.
Imricor announced it would be accelerating submission for Europe’s CE mark and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its NorthStar 3D Mapping System- the only MRI compatible 3D mapping system of the heart globally - a few days before the festive season, which lit a bonfire under its share price.
But it was the further news on Monday that the company had received an initial order to bring the first MRI compatible ablation tools - capital equipment and consumables including catheters, electrophysiology systems and robotic systems - to cardiac centres in Qatar which caught the market’s interest, kicking the stock price along to $1.585 a share, a rise of 65 per cent for the past two weeks.
The four runners this week come from a diverse range of sectors in biotech and resources. But pleasingly, regardless of whether it was corporate news, management changes or firm sales orders, the market has shown some backbone for the first time in quite some while, by reacting positively to the variety of news.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By James Pearson
