As a cold sweat washed over this column early last week, a clarity emerged that something was afoot.
Something familiar, yet weirdly foreign …. even though it had only been a week.
A whole week since the top ASX runners had been led by a company seeking lithium in the still-burgeoning Canadian juggernaut known as James Bay.
But as Fin Resources emerged from the pack last Monday with a 154.5 per cent run on the back of revealing its fieldwork had unearthed large spodumene crystals in a broad pegmatite outcrop at its Cancet West project in Quebec, it triggered a much-needed epiphany.
No longer will this column skulk in the shadows feeling voodoo doll-like pain from each drillbit plunged at James Bay. The area is one to be celebrated and that we will – even though the company itself strangely made no reference to the famous region where it is plying its exploration trade as it trumpeted its latest news.
Despite that fact, Fin joined the growing cavalcade of companies recording significant share price hikes in the James Bay area by jumping to a high of 2.8 cents after closing the previous week at just 1.1c.
Fin’s ASX release did mention a smattering of all the usual suspects in the area, with nods towards Patriot Battery Metals’ Corvette lithium deposit that sits 100km west of Cancet West and Winsome Resources’ Cancet lithium deposit, 45km west of the project. The appendix even made mention of the Lac Guyer greenstone belt but not a word about James Bay.
Well, technically it did with a reference to ASX-listed James Bay Minerals’ Aqua project that sits between the company’s Cancet West and Ross lithium projects. But not a single allusion to the famed region in the Canadian province of Quebec.
Was it a bet? Did the team at Winsome drive down the road and dare Fin to release an announcement without alluding to the region? Was it sheer audacity?
To be fair, it was a pretty solid announcement. It outlined the discovery of at least five pegmatite outcrops across the western and eastern blocks of Cancet West, with all outcrops mapped as hosting megacrystic feldspar crystals of more than 15cm in length, in addition to pockets of quartz zones.
Each outcrop had an approximate strike length of between 200m and 400m, with the potential to extend along strike and below the surface.
Yes, there were no laboratory results and the cautionary statement on visual estimates of mineralisation was clearly seen on the front page of the announcement. But the project is in James Bay, where there have been some mammoth results from drilling this year.
This column found it highly unusual that Fin did not want to draw any attention to that fact.
But in any case, the company has already kicked off fieldwork at its second operation in the region, with nine priority target areas at its Ross project to the south of Cancet West. Will the upcoming release on that program of work also casually dismiss James Bay? Stay tuned.
Moving away from the place that will from now on be verily embraced by this column and onto another way of boosting a share price … find a big-name backer.
Zuleika Gold shot up more than 90 per cent to 2.1c after a close of 1.1c when it revealed it had lured more support from prominent investor and prospector Mark Creasy’s Yandal Investments in a new subscription agreement worth $3 million.
While still subject to shareholder approval, the deal could see Yandal increase its voting power in Zuleika from 19.12 per cent up to 42.53 per cent after Creasy’s company purchased 100 million shares in the explorer for the same amount back in March last year.
The $3 million is expected to be used to fund drilling and other exploration activities at the Zuleika, Credo, Goongarrie and Menzies gold projects, repayment of a related party loan, working capital and towards any possible acquisition of new assets or investments.
In May, Creasy featured at No.97 in The Australian Financial Review’s list of the top 200 wealthiest people in the nation, with an estimated fortune of $1.45 billion. So, when someone who has amassed their wealth in the mining and resources sector makes a move to support an explorer with a swag of gold projects near Kalgoorlie, the market inevitably follows.
Sometimes it is not just what you have, but also who is with you. Heaven forbid if Creasy casts any future financial support anywhere near James Bay!
Another Runners column and another “Please Explain” from the ASX. This time it was for King River Resources, which jumped 90 per cent from a close of 1c to 1.9c on the back of… well, nothing.
Just two days later, the company announced it had wrapped up a geophysical survey at its Tennant Creek project and had allocated $2 million for a drill campaign to test prospective targets at the Northern Territory operation. It prompted another request for information from the ASX, with King River explaining it had “inadvertently” tagged the announcement as market sensitive.
Anyway, that’s between the company and the ASX, this column only reports what it sees on the market.
Tennant Creek is prospective for copper and gold. It is in a pretty good area, with multiple historic mines and workings. Maybe the market just figured out that gold is steady and copper is due to be on the rise? Who knows?
Finally, like James Bay, we return to an old friend in tech company Mobilicom, which featured in this column in July after jumping a massive 462 per cent on the back of a big order that will end up at the United States Department of Defence.
Mobilicom is an end-to-end provider of cybersecurity and smart solutions for drones, robotics and autonomous platforms. It designs, develops and delivers smart solutions focused primarily on targeting global drone, robotics and autonomous system manufacturers.
Sadly though, the tech company recently revealed its intention to part ways with the ASX and trade exclusively on the Nasdaq.
Still, its jump of more than 80 per cent from a close of 0.6c to 1.1c could linger as a decent parting gesture after it notified the market it would extend the proposed delisting date to October 19, to allow current shareholders the time and ability to transfer their fully-paid ordinary shares to American depositary shares if they so wish.
Go well, Mobilicom – I will miss writing about your end-to-end integrated solutions and the way your products support a diverse range of applications and operations in the most challenging and inaccessible urban and rural environments. Although, on reflection and reading back over that last sentence, maybe I won’t.
After successfully predicting a re-visit to James Bay in this column last week, this wise soothsayer at Bulls N’ Bears expects gold to be the big mover next week. Actually, let’s go with James Bay again, just to be on the safe side.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: office@bullsnbears.com.au