Aldoro goes nuts after niobium hits in Namibia

Critical minerals niobium, titanium and manganese all played a significant role in this week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runners of the Week movers and shakers.

All three metals play a crucial role in steel alloys used in wide applications across defence and aerospace applications, battery storage, electric vehicles and many other industries.

A recent Chinese government ban on the exportation of some critical minerals sent the market into a frenzy and Aldoro was at the centre of that whirlwind this week.

Aldoro Resources (ASX:ARN)

201% up (from 8.8c to 26.5C)

On to this week’s Bulls N Bears Runners of the Week. Charging home on Friday to claim top spot on the podium is Aldoro Resources.

The company had existing investors sitting on cloud-niobium after revealing stunning news of a line of surface chips from its recent trenching program stretching for 262m across its Kameelburg project in Namibia, hitting continuous niobium grading an average 0.52 per cent.

Assays from its Line 4 within the trenching program returned a 94m stretch running at 0.93 per cent niobium oxide and 30m going at 1.2 per cent.

Keen-eyed market punters got a sniff of critical minerals in the air last week and clambered onto the company’s share register, piling in to buy up 7.2 million shares on Wednesday, sending the price to its highest point for the year to reach 16c.

With volumes for the junior miner only exceeding one million traded in a single day on three occasions this year, a strong follow-up on Thursday saw nearly 2.5 million shares changing hands.

Thursday was no orphan either with another 6 million shares traded on Friday to push Aldoro’s stock to 26.5c, a new 52-week high.

With the sampling program producing consistent mineralisation at surface along the sampled section of Line 4, the company plans to hammer a diamond core-hole into the ground to better understand the potential of the area.

Management says with niobium currently trading at US$57,000 (A$88,500) per tonne, the value of ore containing niobium oxide at a grade of 0.15 per cent is equivalent to one gram per tonne of gold in local currency terms. In that case, a 94m hit going 0.93 per cent niobium represents a golden opportunity for the company.

Macro Metals (ASX: M4M)

200% up (from 0.8c to 2.4c)

Whilst it was all smiles for Macro Metals this week, which was up 200 per cent, it was nonetheless pipped at the post by Aldoro’s 201 per cent run. The West Australian manganese explorer took a bow in second place this week.

Macro, a $40 million-capped junior explorer with a mining services business, gave its share price a rev-up from two different pieces of news during the week. Its initial reveal showed earthmoving firm Paramount Earthmoving stumping up $4 million to buy more than 400 million shares in Macro at 1c each, giving it a 10 per cent stake in the business.

Macro says it will have access to Paramount’s large range of heavy equipment on favourable terms, which it believes will help the company secure a range of mining services contracts using the late-model equipment at various projects within WA.

The market liked the potential upside to the mining services arm of the business and bid its shares up, slowly at first, with its stock reaching a higher peak every day on increasing volumes.

From a close on Friday the week before of 0.8c, Monday saw its price touch 1.2c on volumes of 24.4 million shares, Tuesday brought a 1.4c high on 37.1 million shares traded, Wednesday, 1.9c on 87.9 million shares and Thursday’s trading bumped the price to reach a high of 2.4c on 83.6 million shares.

Interestingly, the company revealed Thursday morning that a 15-hole reverse-circulation (RC) drill program has begun at its Wandanya manganese project in the East Pilbara region, 50km south-west of the world-class Woodie-Woodie manganese operation.

In October, Macro signed an earn-in joint-venture agreement with Firebird Metals where it can earn an 80 per cent interest in the project by spending a minimum of $112,500 over 12 months at the Wandanya and Disraeli tenements. A minimum 10 RC drill-holes with at least 100m of drilling at each tenement is required to earn the 80 per cent stake.

Invion (ASX : IVX)

Up 186% (from 15c to 43c)

Pulling up third in Runners this week is life-science firm Invion Limited, which dosed its first patient in the company’s open-label phase-I/II non-melanoma skin cancer trial.

Market punters obviously think Invion is onto something in the global ant-cancer mega-market and jumped onboard after Tuesday morning’s news, ripping the share price upwards to touch 41.5c from last week’s 15c close with almost one million shares traded.

Another climb ensued on Wednesday to reach a new 52-week high of 43c on volumes of 600,000 shares.

Invion’s trial is evaluating the safety and efficacy of its drug candidate INV043, a novel photosensitiser developed for use in Photodynamic Therapy (PDT).

The drug is applied topically to non-metastatic cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma’s and uses the PDT therapy of non-toxic photosensitisers and light to selectively kill cancer cells. The technology seeks to promote an anti-cancer immune response within the body.

PDT provides an alternative treatment option that is less invasive than surgery with minimal side effects.

Petratherm (ASX : PTR)

Up 107% (from 20c to 41.5c)

Missing out on a podium finish but performing strongly again is perennial contender Petratherm.

Named Runner of the Week two weeks ago after a superb 340 per cent gain, the heavy mineral explorer had its share price dialled up again after news of assay results from a five-hole step-out drill program at its Rosewood prospect, part of the company’s wider Muckanippie project.

Management says the assays reveal bonanza heavy mineral concentrations and intercept thicknesses from the program.

Closing last Friday at 20c, Wednesday’s news ramped-up the share price to a new 52-week high of 41.5c on volumes near the levels seen two weeks ago, albeit it at a much higher price.

An impressive 29.5 million shares traded ownership after results of 22m going 19.1 per cent heavy minerals from 8m including 4m at 27.9 per cent and 17m running 9.7 per cent heavy minerals from 6m, including a 4m slice grading 22.2 per cent from 8m.

The company says visual analysis suggests high-value titanium minerals leucoxene and rutile are present in the heavy mineral assemblage.

Titanium has unique properties such as its high-resistance to chemicals and it has the highest strength to weight ratio of any metal.

In recent weeks there has been a changing of the baton between sectors leading the Runners of the Week. Metals have been there, medical and technology have had their time in the sun and it will be interesting to see if any one sector can stamp its leadership on the months ahead.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au