This week Bulls N Bears Runners of the Week takes a look at a company quitting the livestock shipping business, an explorer looking for Peruvian gas offshore, a goldie looking to move to producer status and a WA explorer seeking the next big nickel-copper discovery.
Wellard Limited (ASX:WLD)
112% up (from 7.3c to 15.5c)
The addition of the letter “I” into Wellard Ltd’s “WLD” ASX stock code may well have been warranted this week as the company’s share price went on a wild ride from 7.3c to 15.5c a share, giving it line honours for the latest Bulls N Bears Runners of the Week instalment. The company’s shares surged on Tuesday’s news it is quitting its livestock shipping operations and selling its last remaining ship – the Ocean Driver – for US$50 million.
Punters clamoured for the stock on hearing of the expected 15c per share capital return after receipt of the sale proceeds, pushing the price all the way up to15.5c.
Tuesday’s volume of 9.2 million shares traded was more than the combined volume of shares that changed hands in November-December and represented a significant jump of more than 100 per cent from Friday’s close of 7.3c.
The decision to sell its last vessel leaves Wellard with no income generating businesses remaining and it will need to re-invent itself to sustain life as a listed entity. The company is part of a class action against the Federal Government resulting from the 2011 ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia.
The class action consists of 215 parties, including cattle producers, exporters, veterinarians and musterers who were all impacted to varying degrees from the snap ban imposed by the then Federal Government Minister for Agriculture.
Wellard management says the potential for a payout from the action is its only possible income source at present. It will consider the possibility of delisting from the ASX and becoming a private company.
Condor Energy (ASX: CND)
80% (from 2c to 3.6c)
Junior gas explorer Condor Energy snatched second place this week after its shares leapt on news of the company’s 147 per cent increase to its best estimate (2C) contingent resource of one trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas at its undeveloped shallow water Piedra Redonda gas field.
A further 513 per cent jump to its 2.65 Tcf high estimate (3C) of gas added to the excitement for the hydrocarbon true believers.
Closing last Friday at 2c, the company’s shares were placed into a trading halt on Tuesday morning before they were back up for grabs on Thursday, causing traders to pile in on the impressive news.
With daily share volumes in the past six months not exceeding 4 million on any given day and often coming in below 500,000, a staggering 70.7 million changed hands on Thursday, boosting the price to a near four month high of 3.5c. Friday’s trading pushed the price even higher and saw the shares touch 3.6c.
The company engaged a specialist firm to reprocess seismic data and when that data was combined with previous petrophysical and geophysical studies, it resulted in the whopping increase to the resource. The new resource positions the project as one of the largest undeveloped offshore gas discoveries on the west coast of South America.
Piedra Redonda sits within Condor’s Tumbes Technical Evaluation Agreement (TEA) or block area that covers 4858 square kilometres of offshore Peru acreage. Condor holds an 80 per cent stake in the project.
The TEA area covers almost all the Peruvian offshore Tumbes Basin in shallow to moderate depths and is surrounded by multiple historic and currently producing oil and gas fields.
Western Gold Resources (ASX : WGR)
Up 70% (from 4.1c to 7c)
Getting a solid bump to its share price on Wednesday and moving into this week’s third place is aspiring gold producer Western Gold Resources.
During the week the company revealed its preferred mining contractor for the promising Gold Duke project, located about 40km south-west of the small historic gold mining town of Wiluna, which sits at the gateway to the famous Canning Stock Route.
The market bought into news that the project is now about to become a mine and also seemed to like the contractor offering a deferred payment scheme to assist with the development. This helped boost Western Gold’s stock by 50 per cent on the day and more than 70 per cent for the week, taking it to a high of 7c from a Friday close of 4.1c. Solid volumes of 3.6 million on Wednesday were followed by a healthy 1.8 million shares traded Thursday, as the stock pared back some of its recent gains.
Management says a binding obligation will be created with the SSH Group upon executing a Master Services Agreement, which will be dependent on the company securing a toll treatment/ore sale agreement and a final investment decision by Western Gold’s board.
The first-stage production will focus on four deposits at the site, including Eagle–Emu–Gold King–Golden Monarch, which have a production target of 447,000 tonnes grading 2.55 grams per tonne gold for 34,000 ounces of the precious yellow metal.
SSH will be responsible for site establishment, mining and ore haulage to selected third-party processing operations and Western Gold believes the deferred payment facility will aid with managing the company’s cash flow.
Caption - Terrain Minerals has kicked-off drilling at its Lort River nickel-copper project near Esperance in WA, as it searches for the elusive Nova-Bollinger nickel/copper twin. Credit: File
Terrain Minerals (ASX : TMX)
Up 66% (from 0.3c to 0.5c)
Narrowly missing out on a podium finish this week but nonetheless grabbing the market’s attention anyway was junior explorer Terrain Minerals. The company has its promising Lort River nickel project in the renowned Albany-Fraser Orogen, where IGO’s highly successful Nova-Bollinger nickel-copper mine sits.
Terrain kicked off an RC drilling campaign at Lort River during the week, causing rusted on followers of IGO’s extraordinary Nova-Bollinger Nickel discovery some years ago to get a slight twinge in their legs.
The new drill campaign will hit two prime targets which management says contains a super-prospective “eye” feature identified by magnetic surveys similar to what was identified at Nova-Bollinger prior to its initial drilling. That little piece of news got the market pumping and Terrain saw a stunning 58.6 million shares traded on Thursday.
Its price was boosted to 0.5c a share, representing a solid increase for the day of 66.67 per cent for the $7 million market-capped junior.
Volumes of nearly 40 million shares were traded by Friday lunchtime.
The Lort River project sits 50km north-west of Esperance and about 300km south of Nova-Bollinger.
Before being picked up by IGO, the Nova nickel/copper discovery was made by Sirius Resources back in 2012 and the nearby Bollinger find shortly thereafter. That discovery sent the company’s shares on a rocket ship to the moon, before IGO kicked Sirius’ front door in with an astounding $1.8 billion offer for the mineral-rich project.
Some pundits describe the Albany-Fraser Orogen, extending for a minimum 1200km in length, as being a one-hit wonder due to Nova-Bollinger being the only nickel-copper discovery on a huge scale found within the region’s mineralised belt. Others however believe there are more Nova-Bollinger’s lurking out there, particularly because it is a “magmatic sulphide” discovery which are known to occur in clusters elsewhere in the world.
Sirius Resources’ Nova-Bollinger discovery caused a conga line of small-capped ASX listed companies to run to the Fraser Range in search of the next big one. Many returned home with their tail between their legs and a million dollar drilling bill.
Not many of them however went down as far as Esperance which makes Terrain’s Lort River play rather curious and perhaps even cause for pause.
With the rotary truth diviner now doing its thing on site, punters won’t have long to wait to see if Sirius Resources Nova-Bollinger nickel copper discovery does indeed have a big, beautiful twin.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Craig Nolan
