HotCopper Highlights for Week 15: MTM Critical Metals, the ASX200 itself & More!

Good Afternoon and welcome to HotCopper Highlights for the end of Week 15, I’m Jonathon Davidson. In this segment we wrap up what you were watching and discussing on HotCopper this week – let’s get into it. 

MTM Critical Metals has been hotly watched, especially after it reported extracting gold from recycled e-waste at grades 100 times higher than that found in ore. While you might need to accept some wishy washy calculations to get to that number, forum users have been very interested. The question now is how MTM will scale up its in-house tech – and where it will get tonnes of e-waste from down the line.

Meanwhile, nanocap Ionic Rare Earths attracted eyes as the company reported it expects to benefit from the latest critical mineral export ban coming out of China which covered a basket of heavy rare earths. The thinking here goes Ionic could produce those banned metals in Australia, but for now, the company’s a long way off. 

Finally, love-it-or-hate it energy junior and forum favourite Elixir Energy lured eyes as it farmed out 51% of its Queensland based Diona gas project to publicly listed Xstate Resources. For now, Xstate will pay Elixir a quarter million as a deposit for the project; worth noting is that Xstate needs a project on its books so it can recommence trading on the ASX.

And so what about the most discussed? 

The HotCopper thread looking at the ASX200 itself has been popular throughout this rollercoaster of a week in which we saw the kind of large volatility swings only a true economic crisis panic could induce. HotCopper users, as ever, were net bullish on the gains we saw on Tuesday and Thursday; but there were less willing to comment on a potential bearish outlook. To be fair, VanEck say the ASX could be a safe haven for investors fleeing the US this year, and right now, we’re outperforming Wall Street.

Elsewhere, here’s a stock I’ve been talking about a lot the last few months, Star Entertainment made its way back onto the discussion boards as the company finally found a suitor willing to pay some $250M to keep things afloat. That suitor is US casino giant Bally’s corp, headed by a chairman who is perhaps a bit of a vulture. Bally’s have picked up prime casino assets for a massive discount, but for the Star brand, it’s good news.

Finally, Woodside Energy generated chatter through the week as investors digested the reality of its newfound lower valuations in a world of cheaper oil prices, especially when Brent hit US$60 a barrel on trade war fears intraweek. An LNG deal with Stonepeak also prompted some interest.

That’s HotCopper Highlights for Week 15, I’m Jonathon Davidson, have a great weekend and we’ll see you on Monday.