Bison, Genetic Signatures, Narryer & Immutep
Brought to you by BULLS AND BEARS
Andrew Todd
There is only one question that the world and the markets care about right now. Is the Strait of Hormuz open or closed?
Heading into another week with oil and gas down 20 percent, US President Donald Trump cracked under the pressure and apparently took the drink.
Don has gone into full pirate mode, posting rum-filled posts on social media at all hours of the night, while also implementing his own naval blockade by copying the Iranian regime’s policy in the Bosphorus.
The USA completely blockaded Iran’s ports and coastal areas in the Strait of Hormuz after the ceasefire talks failed last week.
Iran had already closed the narrow waterway before, but it has now been closed twice, just in case.
While Australian Energy and materials stocks fluctuated with every headline, a fleet of tankers was flying across the Pacific to come to our aid.
As if it couldn’t get any worse, Wednesday night was marred by the fire of an overworked Viva Energy refinery in Geelong.
We only have two refineries left in Australia; perfect timing for a refinery to catch fire, destroying forty percent of oil production, or 48,000 liters per day. Constant disruptions have left Anthony Albanese scrambling to secure greater fuel supplies across Asia.
With inflation warnings now at the forefront and the federal budget in focus amid rising energy costs, the RBA is now backed for rate hike after rate hike, as if cost-of-living pressures weren’t bad enough.
In Western Australian mining circles across the continent, this week’s Supreme Court ruling found Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting had lost its bid to protect all royalties on the massive Hope Downs iron ore project operated with Rio Tinto.
The Wrights, heirs of Lang Hancock’s former partner, were entitled to 50 percent of past and future royalties; It costs, according to some in the chattering class, an estimated $14 million a year and potentially as much as a billion dollars.
The runners of the week put in some pretty solid performances in a tough week. IPOs are officially back and have taken our place at the top. As a few biotechs show some life!
BISON RESOURCES LTD (ASX:BSR)
375% increase (20c – 95c)
This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is newcomer Bison Resources, which listed to great applause on the ASX on Thursday following a $5.5 million capital raise at 20 cents per share.
The book was clearly well constructed, and on day one of the IPO there were little to no sellers, forcing those who wanted to get in on the precious metals story to pay.
And they paid. On Friday morning the stock was up 375 per cent to 95c; This marked the best IPO performance since last year’s strong Metal Powder Works.
Bison Resources has established a portfolio of four projects within the prolific Carlin Trend in Nevada.
The Trend is one of the world’s most productive gold belts and is home to numerous world-class gold and silver reserves.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that Nevada was also ranked as the most attractive mining region in the Fraser Institute’s most recent Annual Survey of Mining Companies. The state is home to almost 75 percent of the United States’ total gold production.
The projects are located in good company, surrounded by the world-class Goldstrike, Bald Mountain and Maverick Springs mines.
Maverick Springs is owned by ASX neighbor Sun Silver Resources, which has a market capitalization of $200 million, and that company has had its fair share of the recent resurgence in share prices.
Bison’s projects are located just 7km from Sun Silver’s reserve, which contains 539 million ounces of silver equivalent and is the largest pre-production primary silver asset on the ASX.
The company says its soils share lithological and structural environments similar to those that host Nevada’s largest gold and silver deposits. Adding icing to the discovery cake, remote sensing analysis has already detected spectral anomalies and provided immediate targets for follow-up exploration.
The core of the emergent strategy is the Ruby Lake project. Spectral data analysis identified a number of anomalies indicating a potential carbonate alteration or skarn-style deposits ready for the initial drilling attack.
Bison is now paid off and ready to implement its multi-phase exploration program, including airborne magnetic surveys, boulder sampling and follow-up geophysics, ahead of crucial drilling.
One thing is certain: despite the uncertainties in global markets, precious metals and IPOs continue to be at the top of investors’ lists.
GENETIC SIGNATURES LTD (ASX:GSS)
156% increase (8c – 20.5c)
Second of the week was molecular diagnostics company Genetic Signatures, which announced an equipment supply agreement consisting of reagents and consumables for gastrointestinal screening at Hvidovre Hospital in Denmark.
Hvidovre is one of Denmark’s leading public hospitals and tested 28,000 samples in the first year, with an estimated annual growth of 3 percent.
The medical facility will then move to full implementation of Genetic Signatures’ EasyScreen Pan-Enteric test, the company said. The test allows the simultaneous detection of 24 gastrointestinal pathogens, including bacteria, viruses and parasites, from a single patient sample in a single automated run.
Intrepid Australian biotech company wins competitive bidding process; This reflects the growing international recognition and growing adoption of the ongoing advantages of diagnostic medicine.
Over the full twelve-month period, sales from the Hvidovre supply agreement are expected to account for approximately 6 percent of current sales.
In fact, the agreement has a ten-year term and can be extended for up to two 12-month periods, providing long-term and highly sought-after ‘recurring revenues’ for Genetic’s profitability.
NARRYER METALS LTD (ASX: NYM)
148% increase (2.3c – 5.7c)
Quickly finishing with the bronze medal was our rival and critical mineral researcher, Narryer Metals.
The company’s shares more than doubled to 5.7 cents on Friday after it announced an oversubscribed and overpriced placement with veteran Perth mining investor Tim Goyder coming on as a new significant shareholder.
The company announced a $1.06 million raise of 3 cents per share on Friday; That represented a 30 percent premium over the previous closing price of 2.3 cents, with most of that increase going into the new milestone.
Goyder, who was awarded the title of billionaire in 2023, brings a serious mining history and ASX success.
He was the founder and former chairman of exploration giant Chalice Mining and also chaired Liontown Resources, which was valued at around $8 billion at one stage and has since developed the Kathleen Valley lithium mine.
More recently, Goyder transformed WA gold prospector Minerals 260 from a $30 million microcap into a $1.7 billion developer after expanding the Bullabulling gold resource to more than 4.5 million ounces outside Coolgardie.
When the experienced operator takes a significant share of the early-stage resource play, the market stands up and takes notice; The situation was no different today.
Proceeds from the placement will be transferred to Narryer’s portfolio of critical mineral projects in Australia and Canada, with an immediate focus on Australian assets.
Narryer said the Rocky Gully project near Albany, WA, captured high-grade scandium, gallium and rare earth elements with mineralization hosted in shallow clay.
Meanwhile, the Muckanippie project in South Australia is also emerging as a trump card. The titanium field has already produced high-grade heavy mineral sands rich in rutile and leucoxene, and this looks set to become the world’s newest mineral sands district of global significance.
For a microcap whose market cap is still under $10 million even after the rally, Goyder’s support adds real credibility; just look at the charts of his previous efforts.
IMMUTEP LTD (ASX: IMM)
120% increase (4c – 8.8c)
Rounding out our runners-up is Bulls N’ Bears regular Immutep, after announcing that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had granted him Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) for the lead candidate eftilagimod alfa (efti) for the treatment of soft tissue sarcoma.
With a market sector worth US$1.4 billion (AU$2.1 billion) in 2024, soft tissue sarcoma is a rare cancer that develops in soft tissues such as muscle, fat, nerves or blood vessels, and usually presents as a painless, growing lump.
The FDA’s ODD program was developed to stimulate research into treatments for rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 people in the United States.
Key benefits of the program include seven years of market exclusivity in the U.S., waiver of FDA user fees, waiver of up to 25 percent in U.S. clinical tax credits, and exemption from the Pediatric Research Equity Act.
The company says the designation recognizes efti’s potential therapeutic relevance in soft tissue sarcoma and supports the glowing clinical data.
Immutep says the study met its primary endpoint in 38 evaluable patients, with 51.5 percent showing no tumor growth. The results comfortably exceeded the previously set target of 35 percent and held strongly against historical comparisons of about 15 percent achieved with radiotherapy alone.
The news couldn’t come at a better time for the company. Last month, the company lost almost 90 percent of its value, or half a billion dollars of its market value, on the dire news that an independent commission recommended halting the Phase III study of TACTI-004 in non-small cell lung cancer for its lead nominee efti.
After all, efti seems to have more legs left, perhaps not for non-small cell lung cancer. Immutep also reported having $99 million in the bank as of December, giving the drug developer a significant amount of cash and a comeback, as evidenced by its share price this week.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
