As school holidays ended, so it seems did many of the market’s fears and the ASX ripped for a third week running.
Market data confirmed Australia’s slowdown in inflation, which combined with US tech giant earnings and AI investment roaring back to life, resulted in a steady flow of green for traders. There hasn’t been a red day on the market for nine straight trading days.
Aussie tech stocks ripped on the week, as the mining and energy sectors both pulled back to the pack.
Lower inflationary figures are helping to push calls for the Reserve Bank to announce further rate cuts at its May meeting and Australia's economic figures show expansion despite higher cost of living pressures and higher interest rates.
Resources again seem to be the saving grace, thanks to jacked-up LNG prices and Chinese demand for minerals triggered in part by a stream of economic stimulus from President Xi’s CCP.
The United States and the Ukraine finally inked their critical minerals agreement this week. The deal grants the US a portion of profits and royalties from any future sales of Ukrainian minerals and rare earths – the latter would seem to be limited. Trump may have overstated Ukraine’s rare earths-rich landscape, which is in fact why one Bulls N’ Bears Runner made a late charge for the podium spot.
On song, critical minerals companies dominated this week’s Runners of the Week list. As the ASX was humming, so was the Runners podium, with all three of the companies three bagging between Monday and Friday. Taking out top spot is an African critical minerals minnow, that does have quite a bit of rare earth elements and the critical mineral gallium.
DY6 METALS LTD (ASX: DY6)
up 340% (4.2c – 18.5c)
This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is rare earth elements (REE) and heavy minerals exploration company DY6 Metals.
The company shot out of a cannon on Tuesday after it revealed that historical assays at its Tundulu REE project in Malawi features significant high-grade mineralisation of the critical mineral gallium.
A review of past drill results confirmed high-grade intercepts, including a 74-metre hit grading 93.3 grams per tonne (g/t) gallium oxide with 1.56 per cent total rare earth oxides (TREO) from 72m depth and 53m running 72.8g/t gallium with 1.02 per cent TREO.
Gallium was recently put on China’s hit list for critical mineral export controls, as the metal’s demand and price has steadily increased in recent years for its uses in semiconductors. China controls about 94 per cent of global gallium supply, leaving the rest of the world frantically searching for the metal, which has interestingly popped up in DY6’s carbonotite hosted rare earth project.
The company noted its gallium mineralisation was open at depth, with elevated results occurring within the saprolite clays near surface and again within fresh rock at depth. It has not assayed for deeper potential.
DY6’s shares promptly quadrupled on Tuesday morning peaking at 18.5 cents for a gain of 340 per cent from last week’s close of 4.2c. The company was quickly placed into a speeding halt by the good boys and girls down at the ASX, who insisted the company needed to supply more evidence and documentation.
Some $1.1 million worth of stock was exchanged in its one hour of trading on Tuesday, which was the company’s highest most one-day volume over the past year.
DY6 says it will now kick off critical metallurgical test work on a Tundulu bulk sample to determine if the deposit can economically produce a multiple product package.
The company says substantial potential remains for additional gallium, as only 40 per cent of the 91.5-square-kilometre project area has been drill-tested. With gallium being thrown into the mix, Tundulu’s already REE-rich deposit could quickly add a valuable byproduct.
Sampling carried out by the company found mineral rich carbonatite at the previously unexplored Tundulu Hill and Makhanga Hill to the east and west of Nathace respectively.
DATELINE RESOURCES LTD (ASX: DTR)
Up 329% (0.7c – 3.0c)
Charging late this week and going down by a nose is gold and rare earths hopeful Dateline Resources. The company was touted by Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform this week, with the leader of the free world giving his seal of approval to the company’s Colosseum project outside of Las Vegas.
President Trump referred to the developing gold project as “America’s second rare earths mine”, noting it had been approved after years of stalled permitting. In response, Dateline’s share price surged 233 per cent on Friday on 390 million shares traded, worth $7.7 million.
Admittedly, the project is highly prospective for rare earth elements (REE) as it sits just 10km north of the globally significant Mountain Pass REE mine. However, the company has been primarily focussed on Colosseum’s 1.1-million-ounce gold endowment.
Dateline will now look to weave rare earths exploration into its ongoing development story.
The gold project is no slouch, with Dateline wrapping a robust scoping study around its deposit, outlining an 8.3-year mine life with an annual output of 75,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of US$1490 per ounce.
The study projects a net present value of US$235 million and a 31 per cent internal rate of return, based on a conservative gold price of US$2200 per ounce.
With gold prices now more than US$3200 per ounce, the project’s economics are significantly juiced up, forecasting total sales of nearly US$1.5 billion over its lifespan.
The Trump administration appears more focused on the project’s rare earth elements potential and highlighted the project as “America’s second rare earth elements mine.”
An executive order from President Donald Trump earlier this year seeking to reduce US dependence on China seems to be the driving force here, however we wonder if the gun hoe leader of the free world may have gotten his wires crossed.
Andromeda Metals has confirmed its South Australian kaolin can be processed into +99.99 per cent high purity alumina for use in smartphones and synthetic sapphires. Credit: File
ANDROMEDA METALS LTD (ASX: ADN)
up 200% (0.95c – 2.85c)
Runners’ final podium finish goes to high purity alumina hopeful Andromeda Metals after the company announced it had achieved the critical four nine purity designation (4N or 99.99 per cent) for its high purity alumina (HPA) product from its Great White kaolin project in South Australia.
Kaolin is a soft white alumina clay primarily used in ceramics and paints that can also be converted to HPA for high end uses in synthetic sapphires and smart phones.
Andromeda announced that after seven years of successful metallurgical test work, the company had achieved a 99.9985 per cent purity level from its kaolin sourced at its Great White project.
The news sent its share price skyward on Thursday, hitting a top of 2.85c on $6.5M worth of paper traded, exactly 200 per cent up on its close price from last week.
Andromeda says its HPA is among the highest quality grades, which makes it ideal for applications in batteries, semiconductors, ceramics and emerging technologies.
With demand for this critical mineral projected to exceed supply by 48 per by 2028, Andromeda is looking to cash in on the growing market, using its novel process flowsheet, which was confirmed by an independent analysis to produce a premium HPA.
The company says its lab scale trials sets it apart from other HPA producers, as Andromeda’s process will likely be more cost and carbon effective than other reported processes.
Following the positive results, the company will look to complete a scoping study and investigate government funding opportunities. It locked in $75M in project debt financing a little over a month ago.
JINDALEE LITHIUM LTD (ASX: JLL)
Up 158% (26c – 67c)
The final Runner and critical minerals company for the week is Jindalee Lithium. After its promising start last week, the company got a run on with our critical minerals’ quartet thanks to its addition to the US’s FAST-41 framework.
The framework designation signals US federal interest in projects that are of national strategic importance and promises them a fast track to eventual production.
Jindalee Lithium started the week at relatively the same levels it was last week, before the Trump administration included its flagship McDermitt Lithium project in Oregon on the incoming US FAST-41 list.
The market quickly took notice, with five solid days of volume sending its share price to a high of 67c on Thursday, up 41c to a high of 67c. This was a 158 per cent increase on last week.
The company says its significant McDermitt deposit was designated a ‘transparency project’ under the FAST-41 framework because it has one of the biggest contained lithium resources nationally.
It was one of only 10 resource projects nationally listed in FAST-41 in a White House announcement early last week.
Jindalee has gotten busy simultaneously applying for US Department of Defence grants to co-fund a feasibility study at McDermitt. The company expects to know the success of any awards by the middle of the year.
The growing demand for domestically sourced lithium has been highlighted as a priority for the Trump administration, as have rare earths. In a struggling lithium market, getting government recognition at a counter cyclical time could be just what McDermitt needs to push on to become a producing lithium mine.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Andrew Todd
