After a record ascent by the ASX to all time highs, the market has taken a breather again this week.
The question remains though have we hit the top of the mountain, or just a quick wait for the ski lift. If the US market is anything to go by, trading multiple are getting out of control with AI chip manufacturer Nvidia trading at a market cap of US$5t – that’s “trillion” – and a couple of the other usual tech suspects trading at a mere trillion dollars below that.
Markets are pushing the pause button however as a major week in reporting and policy lurks on the other side of the weekend.
In one of the year’s most-watched knees-ups, US President Donald Trump and China’s Xi Jinping sat down together at a South Korean military base on Thursday to settle their differences on an escalating US-China trade stoush.
Talks centred on tariffs, rare earths and of all things soybeans, resulting in another Donald Trump deal to wind back tariffs in return for resumed US bean buys.
In typical Trump fashion he dubbed the meeting a great success, rating the meeting a roaring 12/10.
As expected, ASX rare earths have since taken a bath. With the world leaders seemingly settling the rare earths mess, making allowances for continued China exports from the global supply giant which refines about 90 per cent of all rare earths.
With the US Federal Reserve in rate cut mode, China and the US playing buddy-buddy and the AI bubble remaining intact, the Bulls are positively licking their lips at the possibility of a big end to 2025.
Copper has quietly crept towards all-time highs following supply side interruptions from major global mines and a US-China deal on the boards but this week’s Bulls N Bears Runner of the Week was all about …….wait for it …..critical minerals.
MOUNT RIDLEY MINES LTD (ASX: MRD)
Up 660% (0.5c – 3.8c)
Easily burying the competition this week is junior rare earths explorer turned gallium giant Mount Ridley Mines. The company has been on an unstoppable tear this week after revealing its namesake deposit in Western Australia featured a previously overlooked gallium resource alongside its rare earths.
The company released its maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate on Tuesday which stands at whopping 838.7 million tonnes at 29.3 parts per million gallium for 24,584 tonnes.
The shear tonnage is a serious flex, slotting the deposit among the world's largest known gallium troves outside China.
The Mt Ridley project sprawls over 575 square kilometres northeast of Esperance, with the fresh resource spanning three distinct zones across a huge 70 square kilometre resource, leaving 70 per cent of the tenure unprobed for gallium.
The resource was uncovered by some savvy re-evaluating and desktop sleuthing with some re-jigging historical data and modern eyes to spotlight what was previously overlooked.
For the uninitiated, gallium is the unsung hero of the tech revolution—essential for LED lights, solar panels, radar arrays and most importantly, high-speed semiconductors.
The global market is in flux thanks to China's dominance (90 per cent of supply) and demand surging.
Enter Australia, cosying up to Uncle Sam via the Critical Minerals Supply Chain Framework and suddenly Mount Ridley's timing is impeccable—like showing up to a gold rush with a fleet of excavators.
Mount Ridley topped up the kitty with an $830,000 placement and entitlement offer at 0.2c a pop—early birds are now nursing an 1800 per cent windfall.
Tuesday's resource bombshell lit the fuse as shares blasted from 0.5c last week to a high of 3.8c on some $2.4 million traded.
The company wasted no time either, kicking off metallurgical studies to tease out combined REE-gallium recoveries via a mixed rare-earth carbonate product. With gallium and extras like scandium as lucrative by-products, this mix is as good as gold in this market, or near enough to the next best thing.
EDEN INNOVATIONS LIMITED (ASX: EDE)
Up 107% (4.2c – 8.7c)
Scooping up second place on the Bulls N’ Bears Runners podium is clean-tech innovator Eden Innovations, which has reported an avalanche of orders for its “OptiBlend” kits used in the installation of 3 CAT 175-16 diesel-powered generators at a US data centre.
The Perth-based innovator, best known for its EdenCrete carbon nanotube concrete booster and OptiBlend dual-fuel wizardry, announced fresh kit sales for a total of US$155,000 ($230,000).
The order bumps the fortnightly tally to nine kits across new and repeat customers, totalling US$455k ($700,000) for immediate delivery.
For context, that's like scoring a year in revenue in just one quarter for Eden, which is now teasing a third order for another trio of kits, while a backlog of US$304,000 ($467,000) from prior deals lingers.
The company says its OptiBlend morphs diesel beasts into hybrids, blending in cheaper natural gas to slash diesel burn by up to 70 per cent, stretching backup runtime a massive 250-300 per cent on stored fuel.
For data centres, where blackouts are the stuff of nightmares, the longer uptime, fatter margins on natgas versus diesel and a guilt-free emissions haircut is the perfect recipe.
The market lapped it up on Monday’s announcement as shares surged 107 per cent from last Friday's 4.2c close to an intra-day peak of 8.7c on $1.1 million in shares traded.
If the order floodgates hold, this could be the huge money spinner proving that in the age of AI overload, energy remains a critical need.
WHITEBARK ENERGY LIMITED (ASX: WBE)
Up 86% (0.7c – 1.3c)
Bronze place was taken out this week by gas whisperer Whitebark Energy, which dusted off its crown jewel this week with a petrophysical plot twist that turned its sleeping Perth Basin gas giant into a raging exploration play.
The company says a re-evaluation of its Warro Gas Field has unearthed thick, dry gas intervals overlooked by prior explorers which are primed for well testing.
Petrophysics consultant Steve Adams has been hailed for the discovery after dissected data from all six Warro wells revealed high-quality pay zones in the Yarragadee Lower Formation.
He says previous exploration was too broad-brush, stimulating water-prone flanks that drowned the gas signals during tests.
Warro is no greenhorn either, its been billed as one of WA's largest undeveloped onshore gas beasts, with gas-in-place estimates sprawling 4.4–11.6 trillion cubic feet (TCF)—enough to eclipse every other Perth Basin play.
Sitting pretty 200km north of Perth and a mere 30km from the Dampier-to-Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline, Warro has the pipes too – often an afterthought that can stop projects dead.
Its shares went skyward during the week, up 86 per cent from 0.7c last Friday to a high of 1.3c on Wednesday's trading resumption with $5 million worth of paper changing hands.
PIVOTAL METALS LIMITED (ASX: PVT)
Up 78% (1.8c – 3.2c)
Rounding out the Runners roster this week is copper-nickel-PGE player Pivotal Metals, which is focussed on exploration results out of its project in Quebec.
There was no news out this week, however last Friday the company conducted a placement for $4.25 million via Powerhouse Advisory at 1.1c per share.
The weighty raise for the Junior was topped off with $1.1 million in non-dilutive Canadian flow-through shares (think tax perks for explorers, minimal shareholder haircut), which locked in Pivotal's latest project for a all out drilling assault.
The company says its Abitibi belt portfolio in Quebec's mining heartland is world-class. Surrounded by hydropower access, mills and a greenstone belt that has birthed giants, its targets are screaming for the drill bit.
The money has been earmarked for the 57 square kilometre Belleterre package, staked across the Belleterre-Angliers Greenstone Belt in the Archean Superior Province—one of earth's most prolific mineral machines and home to magmatic copper-nickel-PGE monsters.
Pivotal says the rigs will descend on the project in December, targeting its Alotta conductor, a fresh magnetic target plunging 150m deeper than prior intercepts and still open in all directions where seasonal ice kept the geophysics sidelined most of last year.
Historical drilling highlights at the project include a 24.2m hit running a massive 2.3 per cent copper, 1.2 per cent nickel and 1.9 grams per tonne (g/t) PGEs from 53m and a higher grade intercept going 15.7m for 3.1 per cent copper, 1.6 per cent nickel and 2.9g/t PGE from 55.3m.
The fully filled coffers had punters piling in, jacking up the share price 78 per cent by Tuesday, to a high 3.2c from last week’s close of of 1.8c and a handy jump for the 1.1c raise.
With copper touching all-time highs amid supply squeezes and EV fever, the smart money is piling into tier-one copper jurisdictions now. If December's drilling returns similar results, Belleterre could echo discoveries of the Abitibi region’s past.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Andrew Todd
