On a short week, the markets saw a nice post-Easter bump with the ASX finishing up 2.5 per cent across three days, primarily thanks to another volatile Trump tariff backflip - this time with China.
After weeks of escalating China-United States trade war tensions, US President Donald Trump announced plans to cut the unprecedented 140 per cent tariffs placed on China, perhaps understanding his game of chicken with the largest export nation in the world might not turn out to be as rosy as he had hoped.
The Asian purchasing powerhouse remained understandably sceptical of the unpredictable leader of the free world’s intentions. But at least for now, the world’s largest economies have returned to the negotiating table, rather than a tit-for-tat tariff escalation.
The result was good news for iron ore and, by extension the ASX, with the share prices of big producers BHP and Rio Tinto bouncing back about 5 per cent each, as iron pushed back above US$100 per tonne.
Importantly for one of Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runners this week, a plethora of new projects were recently added to the US’s FAST-41 framework, which is an effort to expedite critical domestic minerals production and reduce import dependence. The framework designation signals US federal interest in projects and can fast track them to eventual production.
Following the Easter long weekend, the gold price went ballistic to start the week on a tear - even by recent gold standards - surging to nearly US$3500 an ounce before pulling back on Trump’s backflip and easing trade tensions.
A short week has dictated a shorter Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runners of the Week list, with only three companies making the grade this week. It was a tight sprint from Tuesday to Thursday for the top spot, which eventually went to a Central Australian copper minnow, as the red metal saw some returning demand to its price on improving China-US relations.
REDSTONE RESOURCES LTD (ASX: RDS)
up 71.4% (0.35c – 0.6c)
This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is copper exploration company Redstone Resources. The company saw its share price surge on Wednesday after it announced a biblically deep drill hole at its West Musgrave project in Western Australia to test the source of its high-grade Tollu copper deposit.
The company believes the high-grade copper at Tollu is remobilised from a Voisey’s Bay-style magmatic massive sulphide deposit. This seems like a highly prospective analogue, particularly considering Tollu is just 60 kilometres from BHP’s $2 billion West Musgrave project and its Nebo-Babel and Succoth magmatic deposits.
Redstone’s announcement of a 1200m deep hole sent the company’s share price flying on Wednesday, finishing up at 0.6 cents per share from a close of 0.35c per share last week.
The region has become a major metallogenic province near the intersection of the borders between WA, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
It recently emerged as a new mining hub, following BHP’s takeover of OZ Minerals’ in 2022.
The world’s biggest miner has been busy building all the infrastructure for the once-isolated region, in the process creating a potential boon for juniors looking to piggyback off it with their own discovery.
The potentially company-making hole will test below existing drill hits at Redstone’s Chatsworth prospect, including a 5m hit running 1.46 per cent copper from 61m and a higher-grade 10m intercept coming in at an impressive 3.4 per cent copper from 427m.
If the hole turns up a Voisey’s Bay-style nickel-copper discovery, neighbouring BHP would be all over Redstone like a rash.
ANTERIS TECHNOLOGIES GLOBAL CORP (ASX: AVR)
up 71.3% ($4.58 – $7.85)
Losing by a nose on this week’s Runners list is Anteris Technologies Global, which flew late in the week on no news to the market. Surprisingly, the company did not receive a speeding ticket from the good people in ASX land.
Maybe they noticed a $9 price target issued by the US-based securities research team at Cantor Fitzgerald, following Anteris’ 100-patient milestone for the treatment of severe aortic stenosis late last month?
Anteris says it is a leader in structural heart solutions. The company recently topped 100 uses of its DurAVR transcatheter heart valve, which is used to treat aortic stenosis - a severe form of heart disease which restricts or blocks blood flow.
The company’s share price ran up across the week, topping at $7.85 per share on more than $500,000 of shares changing hands. Please note: dollar signs are not usually seen in our Runners column.
Anteris says its replacement heart valve has been deployed across a wide range of cases and diverse patient groups and has demonstrated an exceptional safety profile, with no valve or cardiovascular-related deaths reported within the first year of use.
Anteris’ is the first biomimetic heart valve of its kind and is constructed using the company’s patented ADAPT tissue, a single-piece, anti-calcification technology cleared by the US Federal Drugs Administration (FDA). The technology has been used in more than 55,000 patients globally.
The company says it remains on track to initiate its pivotal DurAVR valve trial in the second half of the year, pending FDA approval, marking a major step towards becoming a first-in-class solution in the structural heart market. One thing is for sure - cardiologists care about first-in-class and will take note.
Jindalee Lithium’s flagship McDermitt project in Oregon, in the United States, has been added to the Trump administration’s FAST-41 faster permitting framework due to its strategic importance. Credit: File
JINDALEE LITHIUM LTD (ASX: JLL)
Up 65% (25.5c – 42c)
Jindalee Lithium started the week in style, shooting out of the blocks thanks to the Trump administration’s inclusion of its flagship McDermitt Lithium project in Oregon to the incoming US FAST-41 permitting framework.
The company’s inclusion in FAST-41 earned it a bronze medal on Bulls N’ Bears Runners of the week.
The FAST-41 initiative is set up to streamline and improve project coordination, predictability and transparency of federal permitting for critical minerals projects deemed to be of national strategic importance.
Jindalee’s share price peaked at a high of 42c and was up 65 per cent on more than $1 million of paper traded on Tuesday, before it settled down considerably to finish the short trading week.
The 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 an initial 10 resource projects nationally listed in FAST-41 in a White House announcement earlier this week.
The company says its 21.5 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, within shallow hosted mineralisation, is uniquely placed to provide lithium chemicals to the American automotive industry.
Management has submitted a simultaneous application to the US Department of Defence for a grant to co-fund a feasibility study at McDermitt. The company expects to receive word of any award decision by mid-year.
Jindalee has seen its struggles of late in a depressed lithium market, however. Given the need for domestically sourced lithium is a priority for the Trump administration, any developments in this space could seriously contribute to McDermitt becoming a producing lithium mine.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Andrew Todd
