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Nimy Resources (ASX:NIM) has raised a relatively paltry $678,000 to go after gallium at Mons Belt. The move follows recent moves from China to curb exports of gallium, though, the country did pretty much the same thing earlier this year.
Some interesting trends are happening in commodities – short sellers have ditched lithium stocks in favour of uranium stocks as the price of the nuclear energy feedstock continues to remain under pressure on the NYMEX (though still above pre-Fukushima prices, ignoring 2006-2008.)
That has coincided with a slight – keyword slight – uptick in commodity prices for lithium as Australia’s Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) pointed to minor output cuts; however, with a world now flush with lithium, don’t get me wrong and think we’re at the cusp of another lithium bull rally.
We aren’t. Period.
In fact, the only real commodity-driven bull rally of late has been antimony, a critical mineral which China also curbed exports of and of which Larvotto Resources (ASX:LRV) was the big ASX junior winner.
While China isn’t actually the world’s largest producer of antimony anymore (despite what ChatGPT and even first-page results on Google may tell you) and appears to be running out of the metal itself, ASX investors and traders haven’t really cared.
But nor have they cared about more recent developments in commodities – first, an uptick in palladium prices failed to lead to any real momentum among exposed ASX stocks; and now the latest Chinese gallium export ‘bans’ are also falling flat.
But that hasn’t stopped Nimy from launching a fairly small capital raise to help expand exploration efforts on-site at its MONS Project in Western Australia.
In between the lines, there’s crucial context here that might help paint a picture.
MONS is a former nickel sulphide play. We all know what Indonesian nickel supply has done to that sector this year, and if you don’t, just know it went very badly for Australia.
As for whether the latest Chinese export curb can lift a basket of ASX juniors remains to be seen.
There is perhaps one question worth asking that could explain an apparent loss of interest in the machinations of China’s metals trade flows: Why invest in high-risk juniors when one can just invest in an S&P500 ETF?
NIM last traded at 7.2cps.
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