It’s that most wonderful time of the year when ASX-listed companies are putting in the hard yards and delivering quarterly reports – otherwise known as “telling shareholders how their money was spent (or hopefully, how it was made)” season.
However, just because financial reports need to be prepared, it doesn’t mean that major discoveries can’t be made, or important business deals can’t be completed.
It is an exciting time that sadly – at least for avid analysts – only comes around four times a year, but can often throw up some interesting moves on the sharemarket and provide a couple of new entries for the weekly Bulls N’ Bears Runners of the Week column.
Krakatoa Resources led the charge this week after surging 130 per cent from a previous close of just 1c to touch 2.3c on Thursday after it confirmed the discovery of a new niobium-rare earths target at its Mt Clere project north of Meekatharra in Western Australia’s Mid West region.
Mapping, stream sediment and soil sampling identified a significant anomalous catchment area for niobium and rare earths about 40km long, with the target area coinciding with a 15km-long regional gravity high.
The target area takes in the Stone Tank and Bullbadger prospects. It also sits near the company’s Tower rare earths project where it has previously defined a mineral resource of 101 million tonnes grading 840 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO).
Management says its findings are further supported by Geological Survey of Western Australia stream sediments data that captures a distinct carbonatite signature in drainages surrounding the gravity high.
Two rock samples around the Bullbadger prospect showed significant levels of rare earths with 4739ppm TREO and 2335ppm TREO, respectively. An infill soil sample program has already kicked off within the 15km gravity high area which, if successful, is expected to lead to additional geophysical surveys and potential drill testing.
Taking out second place on the podium is Runners of the Week debutant and data solutions provider, Adisyn. The company’s shares jumped 100 per cent from a close of 2.5c to touch 5c after it signed a binding agreement with Australian-owned Zettagrid to sell its VMware cloud platform for a total consideration of up to $1.4 million.
Zettagrid will pay $850,000 upfront for the cloud-based software, with the remaining $550,000 payable nine months following settlement date and subject to revenue-based earn-out criteria.
Adisyn says its cloud platform assets contributed more than $1 million of revenue for the first half of the financial year. The two companies will also begin a strategic partnership for the sale of new cloud services using the Zettagrid platform.
Adisyn says it is continuing an ongoing internal review for the divestments of assets deemed to be non-core to the company’s new strategic focus on becoming a sovereign provider of cyber threat protection for businesses in the Australian defence force industry supply chain.
Digital security is big business and is especially important when it comes to the defence industry, so we here at Bulls N’ Bears wish Adisyn every success in its new strategic pathway.
This week’s bronze medal goes to Canterbury Resources, which surged 93.75 per cent to touch 6.2c from a previous close of 3.2c. The share price leap coincided with … well … not a lot really.
In fact, the company was issued a “Please Explain” from the ASX following the rise, which it promptly explained by pointing to its recent quarterly report.
The financial update provided several updates for investors, including a progress report on a proposed drill program for the company’s Bismarck project in Papua New Guinea, with eight holes proposed to test a porphyry copper-gold target at its Willie Headwaters prospect.
However, the important part of the upcoming campaign is that it is being funded by Rio Tinto as part of its farm-in agreement. And the presence of the mining heavyweight could just have been enough to pique the interest of savvy investors.
The project sits on Manus Island next to the Bismarck Sea – but, apparently, it has nothing to do with the Johnny Horton song from the 1960s about the German warship of the same name.
Just missing out on a medal this week is Pivotal Metals, which recorded an 80 per cent price hike from a previous close of 1.5c to touch 2.7c and still gets the chance to at least stand near the podium. The company’s shares surged following impressive results from the first two diamond drill holes sunk at its Horden Lake in the Canadian province of Quebec.
Assays returned a 37.5m hit at 1.31 per cent copper equivalent from just 51.15m including a 15m section going 2.15 per cent. The second hole also delivered, with a 6.75m intercept grading 1.54 per cent copper equivalent from 99m.
Considering the results are from the first two diamond holes at the operation, with assays from another 32 drillholes to come, the company could be looking at a significant boost to its already solid 28-million-tonne resource at 1.5 per cent copper equivalent.
Horden Lake could be considered an anomaly in itself, with the operation sitting within the now infamous lithium district of James Bay. Perhaps that’s why the company is named Pivotal as it has moved away from the frenzy of lithium explorers in the region.
Finally, a special mention must be made to Rincon Resources, which appeared in this column for the first time last week after it recorded a 155 per cent price hike following the discovery of several new targets in WA’s West Arunta region. This week, the company kept up its momentum to touch 15c, meaning that in the past two weeks it has skyrocketed a ridiculous 455.56 per cent from a close of just 2.7c a fortnight ago.
The highlight of the new targets is its newly-defined Avalon prospect that bears striking similarities to WA1 Resources’ Luni niobium discovery in the region that prompted a flurry of activity in the area on the edge of the Gibson Desert.
This columnist just loves it when one of our runners keeps on running. I also love the Forest Gump movie … and that’s all I have to say about that.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Michael Philipps
