ASX Runners: Grand Gulf, Meteoric, Aus Strategic Materials & NeuroScientific

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ByAndrew Todd

April 17, 2025 — 5.49pm

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“Ahhhh stability” - or at least a little relative stability – was welcomed back to the markets this week.

The ASX this week saw some sanity and volume return to trading with the ASX finishing up 1.3 per cent, after a Monday morning sell-off fuelled by Friday losses from the escalating China-United States trade war.

Following China’s retaliatory export restrictions on rare earth elements used in defence, energy and automotives – of which China controls some 97 per cent of production for the majority – US President Donald Trump launched a probe into the need for tariffs on critical minerals this week.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears ASX Runner of the Week is… Grand Gulf Energy.

Underestimating just how dependent dozens of US defence and aerospace companies are on China’s rare earth products, the US will perhaps have to look elsewhere for its rare earths. China currently meets 70 per cent of US demand.

The probe’s announcement saw Australian rare earth and critical minerals stocks take off, securing a stranglehold of two of our four Bulls N’ Bears Runners spots on the short week.

Despite the subdued quiet in markets before the Easter long weekend – relative to the past couple of months - gold continued its legendary march passing US$3000 an ounce just weeks ago to reach a staggering US$3350 per ounce this week.

The yellow metal’s dominance should not surprise to Runners readers by now but for a country that possesses the most gold reserves in the world, it is a seriously big deal.

Having said that, the Bulls N’ Bears Runners list does not feature a goldie this week, as rare earths understandably stole the show. The top spot was again awarded to an unlikely all-comer - an Aussie oil and gas minnow that secured an option over a mammoth-scale oil prospect in Africa.