In Case You Missed It: Lithium, rare earth and pharma players do the heavy lifting

Stockhead’s In-Case-You-Missed-It highlights some strongest performing ASX stocks that might have slipped your notice today. 

It’s a short, sharp update to help frame the trading day by showing some of the biggest movers in percentage terms.

ICYMI Leader Board

Stocks highlighted in green have made market-moving announcements (click headings to sort).

Top of the charts today was Power Minerals (ASX:PNN) who’ve gone all in on Argentinian lithium, buying up extra brine assets while offloading its non-core Santa Ines copper-gold project for A$1.5m.

PNN will purchase the extensive Laguna Verde lithium-brine projects in the Catamarca Province from TSX-V-listed Ultra Lithium for up to 50m shares, worth $23.5m at current prices.

It’s more of a merger between PNN and Ultra’s Argentina assets than anything, with Ultra to own a big chunk of PNN shares on issue once the deal completes. Ultra CEO Dr Weiguo Lang will also be appointed to the position of CEO, Argentina Operations, reporting to the PNN board.

The acquisition will expand PNN’s portfolio of lithium development assets in Argentina’s lithium triangle to 2,837.70sqkm, “making it one of the largest lithium landholders in the region and providing it with a significant pipeline of development projects”.

Australian Strategic Minerals (ASX:ASM) has signed a deal with US based rare earth magnet manufacturer Noveon for the sale of neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) alloy from the Korean metals plant (KMP).

The agreement provides for the sale of 100 tonnes of NdFeB alloy from the KMP, to be delivered to Noveon in accordance with an agreed schedule during the period up to end of March 2024.

Longer term, ASM hopes to ink continuing offtake for rare earth materials.

Osteopore’s (ASX:OSX) bioresorbable mesh product, Osteomesh, has received reimbursement approval from Discovery Health Medical Scheme (DHMS), a prominent medical scheme in South Africa.

The company says the craniomaxillofacial implants market in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 5.5%, and is expected to reach USD 93.87M by 2029 – and South Africa is expected to dominate this market.

And PharmAust (ASX:PAA) released an update on its the clinical trial for its lead drug monepantel to treat Motor Neurone Disease, with blood samples collected from all patients for interim analysis.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Osteopore and PharmAust are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.