Strike hits top spot as foreign fields beckon

A diverse range of resource stocks, including coal, gold, iron ore and uranium, as well as non-resource stocks from the property and water treatment sectors, featured among Western Australia’s top stocks in one-year returns.

While uranium still played a significant role, the big name uranium stocks which have dominated in the past were notably absent from the 2006 list.

Uranium, coal and iron ore explorer Strike Resources Ltd managed to eclipse the rest of the Western Australian stocks, topping the list with a massive 6,100 per cent one-year return.

The company, which has a market capitalisation of about $30 million and share price hitting a 12-month high of 98.5 cents, holds a prospective portfolio of mineral exploration projects in Australia and Indonesia.

Strike Resources recently secured the right to progressively earn a 51 per cent or greater interest in the high-grade hematite and magnetite deposits at the Apurimac and Cuzco projects in Peru.

Strike is currently conducting due diligence on the projects and on Apurimac Ferrum S.A. (AF), the Peruvian company that will hold the projects.

An interesting inclusion in this year’s list is property developer Axiom Properties, which was a distant second behind Strike with a return of 1,622 per cent.

The company, which has a market capitalisation of $59 million, holds a portfolio of property assets including the Port Geographe Project at Busselton.

Gold and mineral explorer Indo Mines grabbed third position, posting one-year returns of 1,572 per cent, followed by mineral processor and coal mining company GVM Metals on 1,307 per cent.

Indo Mines, which emerged from Australian Kimberley Diamonds and was renamed in March this year, has a portfolio of exploration prospects in Australia, Indonesia and Peru. Recently, the company and its partner, Compass Resources NL, completed the purchase from Newmont of the advanced Nangali gold project in Peru.

Negotiations for the acquisition started in June 2004 with Newmont subsidiary, Minera LJB Normandy Peru. The company also recently confirmed its Yogyakarta Ironsands pig iron project in central Java had been completed on schedule.

Meanwhile, GVM Metals, which listed on the Alternative Investment Market in 2005 in order to expand its shareholder base, has come a long way from its days as a gold, platinum and base metals exploration company.

The company, which has a market capitalisation of more than $9 million, shifted its focus to mineral processing and coal mining activities, primarily in South Africa. It has recently planned to raise $7.8 million through an AIM placing to fund activities at its South African coal projects.

In fifth position for one-year returns is water and wastewater treatment processes and services company, Environmental Solutions International, with returns of 1,249 per cent.

In early February, the Burswood-based company emerged from more than a year in suspension from the share market to acquire environ-mental technology company Asia Pacific Coal and Steel Pty Ltd for shares worth more than $8 million, with settlement taking effect in late May.

ESI, which had been in administration since late 2004, received a capital injection from Victorian stakeholders late last year.

Since the lifting of its suspension, the company’s stock has risen from 6.6 cents to a high of $1.17, and is currently trading at 40 cents. 

Hydrocarbon explorer and developer European Gas and investment and explorer and developer of platinum group metal projects Platinum Australia came in sixth and seventh positions, with one-year returns of 702 per cent and 556 per cent respectively.

In eight and ninth positions were uranium explorer Berkeley Resources and iron ore explorer Gindalbie Metals, with one-year returns of 545 per cent and 536 per cent respectively.

Berkeley Resources, which has a market capitalisation of $50 million, is the leading uranium explorer in the Iberian Peninsula, with a suite of exploration projects in the Salamanca, Caceres and Guadalajara provinces in Spain.

Earlier in the year, the company signed a heads of agreement with France-based uranium explorer AREVA NC to form a strategic alliance to explore and develop the company’s Spanish uranium projects.

Gindalbie Metals, which recently appointed George Jones to the position of executive chairman, is developing its two-stage Karara Iron Ore Project in joint venture with Anshan Iron and Steel Group Corporation, China’s second largest steel producer.

Rounding out the top 10 is uranium explorer Newland Resources, which posted a return of 533 per cent in one-year returns.