Fresh from holidays and Trump International’s golfing greens in Miami, US President Donald Trump didn’t take long to get back to his erratic ways as leader of the free world.
Still sipping pina coladas at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, the Don kicked off the year with a full-scale military stunt that felt more like a late-night dash for fast food than an invasion.
In a two-hour operation, US forces zipped into Venezuela, scooped up its self-appointed leader, Nicolás Maduro and zipped him out on drug smuggling charges to the US. Trump must have decided he wanted to pocket Biden's recent $50 million Maduro bounty for himself, as he liberated the dictator and dropped him in a US prison where he’ll be bunking with Diddy for the foreseeable future.
These US aggressions always seem to find their way to countries swimming in oil, of which Venezuela's got the world's largest proven reserves – funny how that works. But let's be real, regaining control of that heavy, tar-like, low-quality crude wasn't exactly breaking new ground; China, Russia, and Iran have been slurping it up for years, funnelling all the proceeds straight to the Maduro family trust instead of the starving Venezuelan people.
Back in the 1970s, Venezuela was Latin America's richest playground, with per capita income outpacing Spain, Greece and even Israel, all thanks to that oil bonanza.
When Maduro picked up the baton in 2013, he ran the petro-flush country straight off a cliff by confiscating companies, nationalising grocery stores and imposing price controls that inevitably led to shortages and black markets.
Oil output nosedived from over 3.5 million barrels a day to under a million, despite those mammoth reserves and hyperinflation went nuclear, peaking at over a million per cent in 2018.
GDP cratered by up to 80 per cent in one of the worst peacetime meltdowns ever, poverty boomeranged back to more than 90 per cent and more than 7-8 million bolted in history's biggest modern exodus, whilst leaving only the socialist leader’s families holding the proceeds.
It’s an unfortunate reminder of how these socialist blueprints never seem to pan out; they start with grand equality vibes and end with breadlines and billionaires at the top.
Oil futures dropped to a near five-year low amid the potential return of the Venezuelan juggernaut, before rebounding 4 per cent to end the week as the global drama continued.
Tensions are high around Iran, where economic protests over nearly 50 per cent inflation and women’s rights resulted in "Death to the dictator" echoing coast to coast.
Diplomats across the region are scrambling to evacuate embassies, fuelling concerns for a pre-emptive US strike on the outgoing regime within the month.
In a bit of lighter and more positive news, lithium is on another one of its wild, almighty runs north. The lithium spodumene price has tripled to US$1800 in a little over 6 months.
The Aussie hard rock producers- recent market stragglers - are now flush with cash after a long winter of stockpiling. Marginal production stories have led the charge, with companies such as the Top End’s Core Lithium tripling in price in nearly six months. As old lithium projects start to have the dust blown off their covers, they will, no doubt, shortly be gracing our ASX columns with upbeat announcements once more.
Our Runners convoy is an odd mix considering the week we’ve had. Surprisingly, only one lithium company made it into the top four, but perhaps unsurprisingly, a Trump-fuelled tirade once again helped another runner join the ranks.
HYDRIX LTD (ASX: HYD)
Up 142 % (1.2c – 2.9c)
The Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is med-tech product development company Hydrix Limited, which signed a contract with Picard Medical subsidiary SynCardia Systems this week, to kick off work on SynCardia’s next-generation fully implantable total artificial heart technology.
The $2.5 million deal was secured through Hydrix's wholly owned subsidiary and represents an initial project phase within a multi-stage, multi-year development program comprising defined engineering, verification and regulatory milestones.
Progression will hinge on technical wins, safety checks, regulatory nods, and SynCardia's funding flow – no small feat in the high-stakes world of med-tech.
Hydrix beat out global competitors in a rigorous selection process, showcasing its credentials in mechanical circulatory support systems and tightly regulated medical device wizardry, with a proven track record of pushing complex cardiovascular tech from the lab to commercialisation.
The collaboration will start from the ground up, designing the system from scratch and drawing on Hydrix’s strengths in electromechanical actuation, embedded software, energy management and safety-critical backup systems.
Hydrix will lead the design of the controller and critical sub-systems for the synthetic heart, known as Emperor, combining advanced electronics, smart software, precision mechanical design, user-friendly operation and built-in fail-safes to closely replicate how a real human heart works.
The Emperor heart is engineered to imitate a natural human heart's rhythm, delivering stable blood flow and providing steady performance amid vascular shifts.
It's the first artificial heart to be green-lit by the US FDA and Health Canada and still remains the only commercial player in both markets.
With over 2100 implants across 27 countries, Emperor is the planet's most battle-tested and scrutinised ticker, with studies proving its mettle in bridging patients ahead of transplants or even serving as a permanent backup.
The announcement set Hydrix's share price on fire, rocketing from last week's 1.2c close to a 2.9c high - up a heart-stopping 142 per cent - on volumes north of $4 million.
For a company that's navigated the med-tech trenches before, this deal could be the pulse that propels it from niche player to sector staple.
PATAGONIA LITHIUM LTD (ASX: PL3)
Up 137% (5.9c – 14c)
Stealing second this week is comeback story Patagonia Lithium, which, despite its glowing portfolio of major lithium brine projects in the world-class Lithium Triangle of Argentina, was listed in March of 2023, when lithium was crashing and never really returned to its day-one glory.
That was until this week, when Patagonia inked a strategic partnership agreement with Ameerex Corporation this morning, designed to support Patagonia’s Formentera Lithium project in Argentina and niobium and rare earths projects in Brazil.
Under the terms of the deal, Ameerex receives a priority pick to allocate capital to its chosen Patagonia assets post-assessment. The funding will add firepower to the junior's recent $2.68 million raise as it moves closer to the rollout of an indicated mineral resource and a scoping study for its lithium assets.
Executive chairman Phillip Thomas reckons there's real merit in tapping fresh funding streams, especially with lithium's wild rebound. The timing couldn't be sweeter, as spodumene prices have tripled to US$1800 in six months, pulling lithium hopefuls out of the doldrums.
Ameerex's portfolio includes the Rasberry Unit Field in Texas via the Falcon Caddo JV, packing an estimated 24 million barrels of oil – a nod to their oil-gas roots, but now they're pivoting hard into clean energy minerals amid the global shift.
Patagonia, on the other hand, has kicked back into gear following a recent $2.36 million capital raise.
The company says it is back on site at Formentera in Argentina’s Jujuy province, resuming drilling after the Christmas break.
Patagonia is eyeing a packer test to gauge viability before pushing deeper, with ambitions to hit lithium producer status in two years – riding the battery demand wave in a market that's finally thawing.
The partnership news lit a fuse under the stock, blasting from 5.9c last week to a 14c peak on $6 million-plus turnover, up a sizzling 137 per cent.
For an explorer that's weathered the lithium winter, this tie-up could be the catalyst to transform brines into bucks, especially if Ameerex's cash unlocks Formentera's full potential in Argentina's lithium triangle.
ENERGY TRANSITION MINERALS LTD (ASX: ETM)
Up 110 % (9.5c – 20c)
Taking home Bulls N’ Bears bronze is rare earths and critical minerals mogul Energy Transition Minerals (ETM), which ran this week thanks to the small caps booster of all boosters, a Trump tirade.
The company holds a new major strategic project in Greenland and its share price took off this week after the Don stated that it "needs Greenland from the standpoint of national security" for its natural resources. Straight off a pit stop in Venezuela, he pointed out that the Russian and Chinese navies were surrounding the country and emphasised that the current owners, Denmark, lacked the capability to secure the territory. The White House went one step further and again signalled its intentions to acquire the country, which would likely be very favourable indeed for ETM.
Imitating a rocket ship, ETM’s share price surged from 9.5c last week to a high of 20c this week on a lazy $28 million in volume. Then, on Friday, the company announced that it would take its new, improved Greenland hype train to the NASDAQ boards in the US, lighting yet another fire under its share price.
ETM recently made waves after a feature story on Channel Nine’s 60 Minutes program aired in August last year.
Company management rather cheekily suggested on air that there were billions to tens of billions of dollars’ worth of value in the ground at its Kvanefjeld rare earths project in southern Greenland, which is owned through an ETM subsidiary.
This was followed by a quick retraction from the company on the ASX, but not before its share price trebled.
As the 60 Minutes’ segment highlighted, Greenland is now and has long been opposed to mining, which might be why ETM added its Penouta tin project in Spain.
The tin mine looks like an absolute steal and has a shot at operating in the near term. Its existing infrastructure includes a new 1-million-tonne-per-annum gravity processing plant, which is primed for restart pending Spanish regulatory approvals.
But despite the promise of ETM’s new project, nearly all of the recent hype has been driven by Trump's hungry eyes on the company’s mammoth Greenland mine. And if mining policy continues to improve in that country, it seems ETM could be well on its way to becoming a global powerhouse in the rare earths sector.
ADALTA LTD (ASX: 1AD)
Up 100 % (0.4c – 0.8c)
Rounding out the Runners of the Week is cancer AdAlta, which had no news this week but announced last Friday that it had secured exclusive rights to co-develop Shanghai Cell Therapy Group's BZDS1901 CAR-T therapy outside Greater China, a significant move validating its 'East-to-West' strategy and potentially unlocking substantial future value despite ongoing corporate and funding uncertainties.
In a pivotal step for its strategic direction, AdAlta and its subsidiary, AdCella, have struck a Development and Collaboration Agreement with Shanghai Cell Therapy Group (SHcell).
The deal will focus on the co-development of personalised CAR-T therapy and grants AdCella exclusive rights to develop and commercialise its own white-labelled CAR-T therapy outside of China.
A CAR-T therapy is a process that allows Doctors to take some of your own T cells from your blood and engineer them into cancer-seeking homing missiles when reinjected.
The pact hands AdCella exclusive development and commercialisation rights beyond China, splitting net proceeds 60-40 in AdCella's favour, with a Joint Development Committee calling the shots.
AdAlta is on the hook to fund Phase 1 outside China, ponying up at least US$15 million (A$22.4 million) for Stage 1 – including US$3 million (A$4.5 million) to SHcell within 70 days – while building Aussie manufacturing muscle.
A Phase 1 trial will target up to 18 advanced mesothelioma and gynaecological cancer patients Down Under, chasing clinical proof-of-concept and scalable production.
AdAlta says its new product comes with a lightning-fast two-day manufacturing process via non-viral mRNA delivery, slashing the usual 9-10 day timeline – a game-changer for patient outcomes and costs.
Tech transfer to Australia is baked in, with AdCella potentially retaining ANZ commercialisation rights post-Stage 1.
The news simmered last week with a 25 per cent bump, but momentum built into a full boil, doubling from 0.4c to 0.8c on $2.5 million traded, up a clean 100 per cent.
AdAlta is now eyeing a majority stake in AdCella post-initial funding, with private talks humming.
It's a bold gamble in the multi-billion-dollar CAR-T arena, de-risking the strategy and teeing up massive upside, in a move that could morph AdAlta from speculative biotech to global contender.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Andrew Todd
