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In Case You Missed It: Niobium hits and a big battery metals offtake deal

Pic: via Getty Images.

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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).

Code Company Price % Today Market Cap
GNM Great Northern 0.0025 25% $3,418,102
MOM Moab Minerals Ltd 0.01 25% $5,455,708
LEL Lithenergy 0.72 24% $34,887,000
ENR Encounter Resources 0.185 16% $56,884,125
MME Moneyme Limited 0.135 13% $33,989,667
REE Rarex Limited 0.058 12% $30,128,102
EZZ EZZ Life Science 0.6 11% $23,060,700
AW1 Americanwestmetals 0.052 11% $10,309,467
DM1 Desert Metals 0.105 11% $6,891,402
BPM BPM Minerals 0.08 10% $4,815,972
NC6 Nanollose Limited 0.05 9% $6,848,773
SKN Skin Elements Ltd 0.013 8% $5,593,619
ADX ADX Energy Ltd 0.007 8% $22,975,060
CUS Coppersearchlimited 0.28 8% $13,726,673
LKE Lake Resources 0.45 7% $597,426,777
EYE Nova EYE Medical Ltd 0.25 6% $39,218,678
ADD Adavale Resource Ltd 0.018 6% $8,831,944
LEX Lefroy Exploration 0.28 6% $42,521,371
OCN Oceanalithiumlimited 0.32 5% $11,460,833
FBM Future Battery 0.12 4% $49,202,190
INF Infinity Lithium 0.125 4% $55,511,051
SUM Summitminerals 0.13 4% $3,090,944
TMK TMK Energy Limited 0.0145 4% $64,925,000
SPN Sparc Tech Ltd 0.325 3% $26,978,387
HHR Hartshead Resources 0.034 3% $92,686,510
M2M Mtmalcolmminesnl 0.034 3% $2,055,108
BC8 Black Cat Syndicate 0.44 2% $114,622,715
WNX Wellnex Life Ltd 0.064 2% $26,064,309
EUR European Lithium Ltd 0.093 1% $137,010,004
PTX Prescient Ltd 0.098 1% $77,940,925
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WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) has flagged absurdly high-grade niobium drill hits at the West Arunta project in remote WA including a highlight 13m at 5% Nb2O5, within an overall interval of 31m at 3.5% Nb2O5.

There are three or so major niobium mines in the world; two are ‘high grade’ (between 1% and 2.5% ore grade), while the third sits around 0.5%.

“Drilling at Luni has quickly consolidated a shallow and extremely high-grade mineralised envelope by stepping out on a broad 200m spacing,” WA1 MD Paul Savich said.

“Luni continues to demonstrate the potential to host a globally significant deposit of one of the world’s most critical raw materials.

“Our reconnaissance drilling, along with detailed planning for other activities including resource definition and metallurgical test work, are ongoing with further assays due in the coming weeks.”

Ferroniobium (~65% Nb), the primary saleable form of niobium, is used in steelmaking to boost strength and add corrosion/heat resistance. The company says 300g of niobium can reduce the weight of steel in a mid-size car by 200kg increasing fuel efficiency by 5%.

It currently sells for ~US$45,000/t.

Automaker Stellantis — which owns the Opel, Peugeot, Citroen, Fiat and Chrysler brands – has finalised a deal to buy ~40% of future nickel-cobalt production from Alliance Nickel’s (ASX:AXN) NiWest nickel cobalt project in WA for an initial five years.

It also snapped up $15m worth of AXN shares at 18c per share, giving it a 11.5% stake in the junior formerly known as GME Resources.

The deal is “transformational” for AXN, boss Paul Kopejtka says.

“It validates our development strategy for the NiWest nickel-cobalt project and opens critical new funding options by securing a premier Tier 1 cornerstone customer and investor,” he said.

“We look forward to a long partnership with Stellantis as we continue to execute our strategy to become the next Australian supplier to the global markets of premium battery-grade nickel and cobalt sulphate.”

And while we’re on the subject of battery metals, Lithium Energy (ASX:LEL) has reported “world class lithium intersections” at the flagship Solaroz brine project in Argentina.

Initial assay from two holes shows lithium brine concentrations of up to 508mg/L across intersections of up to ~400m, with final brine depth yet to be reached in both holes (currently 650m and 545m depth).

Crucially, grades are increasing with depth “with heavier lithium rich brines settling lower into the aquifer”. Drilling at both holes continues.

RareX (ASX:REE) has updated its Cummins Range resource to 519Mt at 0.32% TREO and 4.6% P2O5, for a total of 1.6 million tonnes of contained TREO and 24 million tonnes of contained P2O5.

That’s a whopping 760% increase in contained TREO and 1300% increase in P2O5 compared with the 2021 MRE – making the project the second-largest rare earths deposit, and the largest undeveloped rare earths deposit, in Australia, the company says. 

 

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Lithium Energy and RareX are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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