The Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA), Metals X Limited (ASX: MLX) and Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX: SOR) share prices were all soaring today.

Let's take a look at these three ASX mining shares in more detail.

Sayona Mining

Sayona Mining shares lifted 7.35% today. However, Sayona shares sank 11% in yesterday's trade. Investors may have been buying up Sayona shares following recent declines. The Sayona Mining share price has tumbled 48.45% since 13 September. Looking ahead, Sayona recently announced its North American Lithium operation is on track to restart production in the first quarter of 2023.

Sayona shares have soared 40% in the last year.

Strategic Elements

Strategic Elements shares soared 51.11% on Thursday. In today's news, Strategic Elements advised the market of "outstanding battery development success". The company reported successful developments in Energy Ink, a new power source that produces electrical energy from moisture in the air.

Commenting on the news, managing director Charles Murphy said:

The technology is evolving at a rapid rate. It was a fantastic result to clearly produce more than enough power compared to a leading existing glucose monitoring patch being used by millions of people worldwide and to have the excess potential for a manufacturer to include more advanced sensing or other features.

The Strategic Elements share price has descended more than 30% in the last year.

Metals X Limited

The Metals X share price leapt 7.81% today. The company did not released any news to the market today. Metals X touts itself as Australia's biggest tin producer and has a 50% equity interest in the Renison Tin Operation in Tasmania. Tin futures are up 0.02% today and have leapt 7.63% in the last month, Trading Economics data shows. In a recent presentation, Metals X said it is debt free.

Metals X shares have lost nearly 27% in the last year.

The post 3 ASX mining shares that left the index in the dust on Thursday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Four ASX shares that aren't letting that hold them back today are listed below. Here's why they are charging higher:

Bowen Coking Coal Ltd (ASX: BCB)

The Bowen Coking Coal share price is up almost 7% to 32 cents. This morning, this coal miner announced that it has completed the loading of its first coal train through its Mallawa train loadout facility following refurbishment works.

Domino's Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX: DMP)

The Domino's share price is up 2% to $65.32. Investors have been buying this pizza chain operator's shares despite there being no news out of the company. However, with its shares down almost 50% in 2022, bargain hunters may have been buying them on the belief that they have been oversold.

Sayona Mining Ltd (ASX: SYA)

The Sayona Mining share price is up 7% to 18.2 cents. Once again, this may have been driven by investors snapping up shares after some significant declines. For example, prior to today, the lithium developer's shares were down by over 50% since the middle of September. Alternatively, some short sellers could be closing positions to lock in gains ahead of the end of the year.

Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX: SOR)

The Strategic Elements share price is up a massive 54% to 17 cents. This morning, this beaten down investment company released an update on Energy Ink. It is a new power source that generates electrical energy from moisture in the air. According to the release, the power output of an Energy Ink battery has provided more than the baseline power consumed by a leading glucose-monitoring skin patch.

The post Why Bowen Coking Coal, Domino's, Sayona Mining, and Strategic Elements are rising appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The company's share price has soared 44% to 21 cents at the time of writing. In earlier trade, the Strategic Elements share price hit 23.5 cents, a jump of 62%. For perspective, the  S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is 0.21% in the red today.

Let's take a look at why the Strategic Elements share price is having such a good day.

Breakthrough development

Strategic Elements shares are charging higher after the company reported a positive development from a collaboration with the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

The company's 100%-owned subsidiary Australian Advanced Materials (AAM) and UNSW have made a step-change in generating electricity from moisture.

It comes as the company eyes the lucrative electronic skin patches market.

Breakthroughs in battery technology have shown the potential to increase electrical charge capacity from milliamp-hours (mAh) to ampere-hours (Ah).

Strategic Elements said this established the technology as a "world leader globally".

In a statement authorised by managing director Charles Murphy, Strategic Elements said:

It wasn't long ago that many said it was impossible to produce any usable energy from moisture.

Our team experienced a lot of scepticism. For us to now realistically target the ampere-hour range generation of electrical energy solely from humidity in the air is a huge achievement.

There is an obvious near-term target market in electronic skin patches, but we are also excited about clearly being in the early stage of testing the fundamental upper limits of this technology.

Strategic Elements operates as a pooled development fund that invests in Australian innovation.

Share price snapshot

The Strategic Elements share price has shed 32% in the past year and is down 24% year to date.

In the past week, it has surged 17%, while it is up nearly 8% in the past month.

For perspective, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index has shed nearly 1% in the past year.

Strategic Elements has a market capitalisation of about $80 million based on today's share price.

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At the time of writing, the Strategic Elements share price is trading 23.2% higher at 26.5 cents apiece.

Here are the details.

What did Strategic Elements announce?

In today's release, Strategic advised that its 100% owned Stealth AxV Automation & Robotics Platform successfully achieved multiple development and program milestones across 3 applications under development. These include the autonomous security vehicle (ASV), autonomous CBRN agent detection and autonomous mining applications.

Stealth Technologies is collaborating with software-industrial company Honeywell to develop autonomous security vehicles for the correctional sector.

The company says that the ASV seamlessly integrates into the prison's security management platform and can autonomously test key perimeter intrusion detection systems (PIDS) like photo-electric beams, microphonic sensors and fibre-optic fence sensors.

Strategic Elements also reported that the ASV has successfully completed "thousands of operational tests of advanced perimeter intrusion detection systems at a Western Australian prison facility".

The release noted that the ASV successfully fed hundreds of hours of mobile HD surveillance video to the prison's Patrol Control Centre while autonomously testing and patrolling the secure perimeter.

Stealth intends to run the ASV at a Western Australian prison until the end of 2021 and then conduct a full review and assessment of ASV missions made to date. Discussions on a commercial agreement between Stealth Technologies and Honeywell are continuing.

Mining probe to start

The company also notes that its Stealth platform will start a phased pilot investigation with a global mining company that owns "tier-1 world-class assets" on its books.

Phase 1 of the investigation involves validating the potential suitability of a Stealth technology solution and therefore incurs no payment milestone. It is intended that Phase 1 will complete in the first quarter of 2022, according to the announcement.

Management commentary

Speaking on the announcement, Strategic Elements managing director Charles Murphy said:

Stealth Technologies has built a world first automation and robotics technology for the correctional sector to increase security, save costs and re-deploy staff away from mundane, repetitive tasks. It is satisfying that real world outcomes are starting to be reported that indicate the robustness and reliability of the ASV.

Murphy concluded:

It's a good example of a start-up with innovative IP, a large company with domain knowledge and a research organisation with deep expertise coming together to solve a real, customer identified problem.

We have a direct line with domain knowledge for Autonomous CBRN Detection by working with DSTG and are keen to replicate this experience in the mining sector where we are in the early stages of a relationship with a global mining company.

Strategic Elements share price snapshot

The Strategic Elements share price is catching bids in response to the announcement today, trading as high as 28 cents per share before smoothing off to its current levels.

The Strategic Elements share price has gained more than 65% in the last 12 months after rallying another 32.5% this year to date.

The post Here's why the Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price is rocketing 23% today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

At one stage Strategic Elements shares were up a whopping 13% to 50 cents. However, they have since partially retreated and are currently exchanging hands at 38.5 cents apiece, a 5.48% jump from the open.

What's happening with Strategic Elements?

The Strategic Elements share price has been on the move upwards ever since the company reported its FY21 earnings on 23 August. It has gained around 15% over this period to date.

In its report, the company recognised a 34% year-on-year growth in revenue to $127 million. It also secured a successful capital raise of $5.1 million through a share purchase plan.

The net loss for the year came in at $2.35 million, which was an improvement from the year prior. As a result, the company's balance sheet was strengthened with cash and equivalents increasing by more than $5 million in FY21.

In addition to these financial results, the company's wholly-owned ventures are currently in a series of collaborations with research partners to commercialise its "autonomous security vehicle (ASV)".

The ASV is an autonomous vehicle that can perform duties without the staff that are usually required. This has the benefit of reducing the risk of harm, and labour costs.

For instance, the company, through its subsidiaries, is in a collaboration with the University of Western Australia to conduct a live demonstration of the ASV to the Australian Army. It is also expanding its technology into the fields of herbicide resistance and in the correctional sector.

Strategic is also in collaboration with the University of NSW to develop its "nanocube printable memory technology". The company has already received government funding of more than $1 million to date to advance the project.

Investors have been pushing up the Strategic Elements share price since the company released its earnings. As such It has climbed almost 60% into the green over the last month alone.

Strategic Elements share price snapshot

Strategic Elements operates as a venture builder, generating projects by combining teams of leading scientists and innovators. The company operates as a registered Pooled Development Fund (PDF).

The Strategic Elements share price has been a major performer across the All Ordinaries this year, posting a return of 95% since January 1. This has contributed to a return over the past 12 months of a mammoth 580%.

These results have outpaced the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO)'s return of about 25% over the past year.

The post The Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price is up 5% on Thursday appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Let's investigate further.

Strategic Elements share price jumps on strong growth in contract revenue

The company outlined several investment highlights in its report, including:

• Contract revenue growth of 34% year on year to $127 million
• Successful capital raise of $5.1 million through a share purchase plan
• Further $3 million raised via an institutional placement
• Loss for the year of $2.35 million versus $2.55 million the year prior
• $7.9 million in cash on the balance sheet, up from $2.27 million the same time last year.

What happened in FY21 for Strategic Elements?

In a positive for the Strategic Element share price, the company's wholly-owned subsidiaries exhibited progress in FY21.

For instance, the company's wholly-owned venture, Stealth Technologies, has developed the first "autonomous security vehicle (ASV)" in the world. The ASV has the designation of automating perimeter security, "reducing human involvement" in patrols.

Strategic is collaborating with the Defence Science Technology Group and the University of WA to conduct a live demonstration to the army. As such, both parties have committed to "providing $500,000 in cash and in kind resources".

Another venture, Australian Advanced Materials (AAM), is developing a self-charging battery and its "Nanocube printable memory technology" technology at the University of NSW.

The pair have formed a collaboration, and the Nanocube project received funding from the Australian government of $1.069 million over a three year period.

In addition, the company also completed a series of capital raises throughout the year, totalling $8.1 million before costs.

As per Strategic, all of the capital raised "will be used to advance existing 100% owned businesses and fund new potential opportunities".

What did management say?

Regarding the Nanocube and battery ink technologies, Strategic's directorship said:

The Nanocube Memory has been continually developed by the Company and the University of New South Wales during the year. A one megabit demonstrator is under development, however the rapid success of the Battery Ink led the Company to divert some resources away from the Nanocube Memory and deploy them to escalate the Battery Ink development.

What's next for Strategic Elements?

Strategic's subsidiaries are extending the application of technologies within the company's portfolio.

To illustrate, Strategic has been collaborating with Honeywell to build ASV's for the "correctional sector".

This will continue into 2022, with both parties now actively "negotiating a new agreement" to commercialise the ASV.

In addition, it has extended the ASV's application to weed identification in food crops. Here Strategic is collaborating with Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative in field testing to advance the ASV sensor's weed identification capacity.

Aspects of this are expected to be "included into an expanded trial" conducted in November 2021.

The Strategic Elements share price has gained 75% this year to date, extending the previous 12 month's climb of 422%.

These returns have far outpaced the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO)'s return of around 25% over the past year.

The post Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price soars on 33% revenue growth appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

At the time of writing, shares in the company are trading at their intra-day high of 33 cents.

Let's take a closer look at what's behind the movement.

What's fueling the Strategic Elements share price?

The Strategic Elements share price is strongly in the green today on strong volume.

However, the company hasn't released any price-sensitive news that could explain today's bullish price action.

In fact, the last time Strategic Elements made headlines was in early July.

The company notified investors that its subsidiary Stealth Technologies was in the process of designing and delivering an autonomous drone-carrying vehicle.

In late July, Strategic Elements further notified shareholders that its subsidiary had accomplished several key development milestones.

In particular, the company highlighted improvements in the hardware and software of its sophisticated weed detection technology. Weed infestation continues to be a significant issue affecting global crop yields.

Also at the end of July, Strategic Elements released an update for the fourth quarter of FY21, noting the company held $7.9 million in cash.

More on the Strategic Elements

Strategic Elements is listed as a Pooled Development Fund (PDF).

Essentially, the company invests in various small and medium-sized businesses, assisting in their development and expansion.

The subsidiaries owned by Strategic Elements engage in various industries, including robotics, automation, defence, agriculture, security and transport.

The Strategic Elements share price started 2021 with a bang, bolting more than 350% higher by late January.

Investors flocked to buy shares in the company after Strategic Elements reported positive developments on its printable Nanocube Memory technology.

Since hitting lofty highs earlier this year, the company's share price has been progressively sold down.

Including today's bullish price action, shares in Strategic Elements are trading 66% higher year-to-date.

The post Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price rockets 20% higher appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

At the time of writing, shares in Strategic Elements are up 3.49% ­ – trading for 22.3 cents apiece.

Let's take a closer look at today's news from the exploration and information technology development fund.

Autonomous vehicle collaboration

Strategic Element's subsidiary, Stealth Technologies, will be designing and delivering an autonomous drone-carrying vehicle to help the Australian Defence Force adopt autonomous technology faster.

The project will be in collaboration with the Department's Defence Science Technology Group (DSTG).

The vehicle will be able to deliver drones and sensors to a target location, automatically detecting and sensing chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) agents on the way.

The vehicle will use Stealth Autodrive Hardware and Stealth OS Software to navigate through environments. It will also be able to launch a drone with CBRN detection and sensing abilities and have it land back in the vehicle.

The Western Australian Defence Science Centre (DSC) will provide $150,000 for the autonomous vehicle's development and an investigation into whether it could be manufactured in Western Australia.

DSTG, DSC, the University of Western Australia, and Stealth Technologies will each put $350,000 towards the collaboration.

DSTG will also provide personnel, existing CBRN search algorithms, facilities, equipment, and support.

Stealth Technologies will retain all intellectual property and commercialisation rights for CBRN detection and other defence force-related applications.

Stealth Technologies will eventually demonstrate the vehicle's abilities to the DSTG and the Army.

The company will also look into using technology to fulfil other Defence needs. These may include resupplying or intelligence, surveillance, or reconnaissance missions.

The autonomous vehicle and drone launch and land system's initial concept design is expected this quarter.

According to Strategic Elements, the global market for CBRN Defence was estimated to be worth US$16.2 billion in 2020. It's expected that will increase to US$21.9 billion by 2027.

Strategic Elements share price snapshot

Today's good news hasn't been enough to get the Strategic Elements share price back into the green.

It's currently 6% lower than it was at the beginning of 2021. However, it has gained 221% since this time last year.

The company has a market capitalisation of around $86 million, with approximately 388 million shares outstanding.

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The milestone is part of the innovation company's quest to develop a moisture-powered battery that can receive charge from humidity in the air or human skin.

Let's take a closer look at today's news from Strategic Elements.

Technological milestone

Strategic Elements has successfully used its moisture-charged battery to power a Bluetooth sensor.

The feat involved an electronic control board, a Bluetooth communication module, a temperature sensor and a humidity sensor.

The device successfully communicated real time humidity and temperature data to a laptop over a 5-hour period, using power generated from the air around it.

According to the company, the technology has the power to be used for internet of things (IoT) devices. IoT devices are those people don't directly interact with but that can communicate with other devices over the internet. One example is a garage door that automatically opens when its owner's car approaches.

The battery uses Strategic Elements' graphene oxide-based battery ink technology. The technology can create extremely thin batteries that can be printed onto surfaces such as glass or flexible plastic.

According to Strategic Elements, its moisture powered batteries are more environmentally friendly than traditional batteries as graphene oxide is widely available, as is the humidity needed to power them.

Additionally, the company said scaling down batteries can significantly increase their output capacities.

The company plans to test its technology on a prototype of a scaled down, printed battery in the coming weeks.

If that test is successful, Strategic Elements intends to develop a prototype battery pack capable of producing more than a milliamp of electrical current in the coming quarter.

Strategic Elements share price snapshot

Today has boosted the Strategic Elements share price back into ASX green.

Currently, Strategic Elements shares have gained 6.2% since the start of 2021. They've also gained 264.2% since this time last year.

The company has a market capitalisation of around $85 million, with approximately 388 million shares outstanding.

The post Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price soars with air-powered battery appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

The Strategic Elements share price opened up 3.57% today, trading at 44 cents. However, at the time of writing, the share price has retreated slightly and is currently trading for 42 cents, down 1.19%. 

Let's look further into this morning's news from Strategic Elements.

Flexible future

The company announced it has made its self-charging batteries into a textile form. In this form, the batteries are put through their paces and can be bent without damaging the battery and causing minimal changes in voltage. 

The company said bending strain often caused cracks on functional films, which tends to make flexible electronics malfunction. To make sure its self-charging batteries won't crack, it was bent over 2000 times. It can bend up to a 6mm radius, which is smaller than the average adults' finger.

Strategic Elements' self-charging batteries work by using Battery Ink technology, receiving charge from the humidity in the air and on skin.

As the flexible battery can be charged with skin, it could be perfect for use in electronic skin patches and flexible electronics, said the company.

According to Strategic Elements, the electronic skin patch sector made US$10 billion in 2019. A figure that's expected to quadruple by 2032.

In addition, Strategic Elements' Battery Ink technology is being developed in collaboration with CSRIO and the University of New South Wales. It is also partially funded by a Federal Government grant.

The next step is to shrink the batteries. The company's goal is to make the self-charging batteries 4 times smaller than existing battery ink cells.

Strategic Elements' share price snapshot

Strategic Elements' latest news is powering up its share price once more, adding to its fantastic year on the ASX. The company's share price has currently risen by 81.25% year to date. It is also up 987.5% over the last 12 months.

The company has a market capitalisation of around $158 million, with approximately 378 million shares outstanding.

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At the time of writing, the Strategic Elements share price has retreated slightly and is currently trading at 44 cents. Below, we take a closer look at the developments. 

Strategic Elements announces potential of weed detection automation 

Strategic Elements are working to achieve early-stage validation for the detection of weeds. For this project, they are working alongside the Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative and the University of Western Australia School of Agriculture and Environment. 

Advanced weed detection technologies typically use RGB cameras and different forms of imaging. This technology makes it possible to distinguish weeds and crops via colour. Strategic Elements highlights the 'serious limitations' of the technology in some scenarios. Particularly, in broadacre cropping where weeds are often the same colour as crops. Due to the similarities in colour, this form of detection often results in the excessive use of chemicals and production losses.

The company notes that the estimated cost of weeds in Australian cropping systems alone is at ~A$3.3 billion.  Comparatively, the annual cost of weeds in the United States is estimated at ~US$34.5 billion. 

Strategic Elements is taking a different approach to the issue. Their strategy involves leveraging its sophisticated sensor, mapping, and utilising localisation technology. This technology is already built and is used in its Autonomous Security Vehicle collaboration with US Fortune 100 company, Honeywell. 

The company has collected logistics and in-field scoping data from a large scale broadacre farm in Western Australia. This data allows Strategic Elements to enable detection of weeds protruding above the canopy of a barley crop. Weed detection prototype hardware was later developed and installed onto a combine harvester during harvest.

Algorithms were then developed, tested, and validated during the harvest. This occurred by comparing the location of weeds detected by the technology with known locations of weeds with visual confirmation. Although the testing was completed on a limited data set, the technology was able to detect 100% of weeds. The specifications included a height threshold of 20 cm above the crop canopy. 

Management commentary

Managing director, Charles Murphy commented on the company's versatile automation technology: 

Our strategy to build a platform that had applications across multiple industry sectors is starting to fulfill its promise. Our commercialisation strategy is to collaborate closely with end users to solve a real, existing problem with automation. From an Australian domestic market context other sectors like logistics and mining also have attractive opportunities and we are very active in seeking the right partners with which to collaborate.

The future of Strategic Elements

Looking ahead, the company targets further optimisation of the weed detection technology by 2Q21.

This will be followed by further product engineering in the third and fourth quarter. Further development will evolve the product into a versatile and easy to use package. This package will then be installed by farmers on a wider range of farm equipment.

Finally, the company aims to have a program running to deploy the weed detection technology to at least 10 potential end customer reference sites. Strategic Elements believes this will be operational in the November 2021 harvest. 

The post Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price rises after latest announcement appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

This is a great start, particularly on a morning where the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is falling hard, down 2%.

Strategic Elements' gains come following the company's latest progress report on its novel battery ink technology.

What did Strategic Elements report on its battery ink project?

In an announcement to the ASX this morning, Strategic Elements revealed another big step forward with its self-charging battery project.

The battery pack is a prototype with several connected battery ink cells. It uses moisture from the air to generate an output of over 4 volts for around 5 hours. The batteries can also generate electricity from the humidity from your skin surface.

Strategic Elements said that additional work would be done to test its battery ink cells. Testing with different loads and different humidity levels will be performed.

The project is being developed in collaboration with the University of New south Wales and CSIRO. The Federal Government has also given partial funding for the project.

The company reported that a patent application covering aspects of its work was filed yesterday, 27 January.

In a forward looking statement, Strategic Elements revealed the battery ink cells could potentially be made up to 4 times smaller while still generating 0.8V of electricity. The development of these smaller cells is expected to be conducted over the next 4 to 6 weeks.

In the next 6 to 8 weeks, the company also plans to develop a prototype of Battery Ink cells it can fabricate onto flexible textile material.

Words from the Managing Director

Commenting on the latest progress, Strategic Elements Managing Director Charles Murphy said:

We are obviously very encouraged with the milestones being achieved by UNSW and the team. In response that that we are adding in PhD material science expertise and developing a panel of industry specialists. The technology sits across two of the strongest 2021 investment sectors in batteries and environmental technologies and is a very good fit for our high-risk, high reward Pooled Development Fund Structure.

UNSW Professor Dewei Chu added, "Although still under development the battery ink is developing promisingly as an electrical generator battery technology."

Strategic Elements share price snapshot

Strategic Elements operates as a venture builder, generating projects by combining teams of leading scientists and innovators. The company operates as a registered Pooled Development Fund (PDF). Notably, investors in Strategic Elements do not pay capital gains taxes. This is compensation for the added risk of investing in small and medium sized companies under the Federal Government PDF program.

It's been a great New Year for investors in Strategic Elements to date.

With the 13% intraday gains taken on board, the Strategic Elements share price is up 233% since the opening bell on 4 January. Shares are up a whopping 906% over the past 12 months.

The post Why the Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price is soaring 13% higher appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Here's the data:

Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P)

Zip was the most heavily traded share last week and attributable to a massive 5% of total trades on the CommSec platform. But despite the Zip share price surging 29% higher for the week following its second quarter update, only 52% of these trades came from the buy side. Zip reported a significant increase in transaction value thanks largely to its US business.

Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd (ASX: VUL)

This clean lithium developer's shares were in demand with investors last week. So much so, they were attributable for 2.8% of total trades on the CommSec platform. Approximately two-thirds of these trades came from buyers. These investors will be pleased to have seen the Vulcan share price continue its ascent. At the end of last week, its shares were up 164% in 2021 thanks to its very promising pre-feasibility study.

Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX: SOR)

Also popular with investors last week was Strategic Elements. It is an investment and development company with a focus on brain-inspired (neuromorphic) computing hardware. Approximately 2.3% of trades on CommSec involved its shares last week, with 63% coming from buyers. They appear excited by its Nanocube Memory structure, which is aiming to combine computing and memory in one place in a way similar to how biological neurons operate.

Lithium Australia NL (ASX: LIT)

This lithium miner was heavily traded last week and accounted for 1.4% of trades on CommSec. 68% of the trades came from buyers, who will have been delighted to see the Lithium Australia share price rocket 61% higher over the five days. This followed news that Lithium Australia has entered into an acquisition and joint venture agreement with Galan Lithium Ltd (ASX: GLN).

Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS)

Finally, another lithium miner makes the top five this week after accounting for 1.4% of trades on the platform. Once again, the buying was strong, with 68% of trades coming from the buy side. Unfortunately for these buyers, though, is that the Pilbara Minerals share price dropped lower during the week.

The post Zip and Vulcan were among the most traded ASX shares last week appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

At one stage today, the technology-focused investment and development company's shares were up as much as 36% to a record high of 92 cents.

When the Strategic Elements share price hit that level, it meant it was up a remarkable 475% in the space of one month.

So, with 378.4 million shares on issue, this gave Strategic Elements a market capitalisation of ~$350 million.

Why is the Strategic Elements share price rocketing higher?

Investors have been scrambling to buy Strategic Elements shares since this time last month due largely to an announcement at the end of the year relating to its printable Nanocube Memory technology.

According to the release, testing has confirmed that the printable Nanocube Memory technology has potential as printable brain-inspired (neuromorphic) computing hardware.

Management advised that work at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has confirmed that the Nanocube Memory structure and operation allows it to combine computing and memory in one place in a way similar to how biological neurons operate.

This is potentially a big positive as experts in the memory technology field believe the future of computing will be about rethinking processor architecture from the ground up to emulate how a brain efficiently processes information.

Management notes that artificial synapses fabricated by UNSW using the Nanocube Memory technology provide a potential hardware solution that has combined data storage and processing abilities. This is key to neuromorphic computing.

On Tuesday, the company responded to a media article commenting that "the next goal in the memory tech space is to print one megabit of memory on to a piece of plastic, which Strategic expects will be completed by May."

Strategic Elements responded by confirming that the technology is still under development, but it is aiming to develop the one megabit ultra-low power, flexible, transparent memory by May 2021.

This update appears to be what has given the Strategic Elements share price an added boost this week.

Insider share selling.

Insider selling is often regarded as a bearish indicator as few should know the intrinsic value of a company better than its directors.

So, it is worth noting that since November the company has filed countless change of director's interest notices which reveal that insiders have been selling millions of the company's shares over the last two and a half months.

Nevertheless, that hasn't appeared to put a dampener on the Strategic Elements share price rise over the same period.

The post Why the Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price is rocketing 36% higher today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Four shares that have not let that hold them back today are listed below. Here's why they are pushing higher:

AVZ Minerals Ltd (ASX: AVZ)

The AVZ Minerals share price has jumped 18% to 16.5 cents. Investors have been buying the lithium-focused mineral exploration company's shares since the release of an announcement last week. That announcement revealed that AVZ Minerals has signed a strategic, long-term offtake partnership with China's largest lithium compounds producer, Ganfeng Lithium. The deal is for 30% of the company's Manono Project's initial saleable yearly tonnage.

Immutep Ltd (ASX: IMM)

The Immutep share price has risen almost 8% to 42 cents. This morning the biotech company revealed that it has been granted a patent in the United States relating to combined preparations comprising its lead active immunotherapy candidate eftilagimod alpha (efti) and a PD-1 pathway inhibitor. This US patent follows the grant of the corresponding European patent in November 2018.

Kogan.com Ltd (ASX: KGN)

The Kogan share price is up over 2% to $19.37. This is despite there being no news out of the online retailer today. However, with the COVID-19 outbreak in New South Wales continuing to spread, investors may believe more and more people in the state will be forced to shop online during the peak retail season.

Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX: SOR)

The Strategic Elements share price has rocketed 45% higher to 24 cents. Investors have been buying the company's shares following the release of an announcement relating to its printable Nanocube Memory technology. According to the release, testing has confirmed that the technology has potential as printable brain-inspired (neuromorphic) computing hardware. The University of New South Wales confirmed that the Nanocube Memory structure and operation allows it to combine computing and memory in one place in a way similar to how biological neurons operate.

The post Why AVZ Minerals, Immutep, Kogan, & Strategic Elements shares are pushing higher appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

In morning trade, the technology-focused investment and development company's shares are up a massive 39% to a record high of 23 cents.

Why is the Strategic Elements share price rocketing higher?

Investors have been buying the company's shares this morning following the release of an announcement relating to its printable Nanocube Memory technology.

According to the release, testing has confirmed that the printable Nanocube Memory technology has potential as printable brain-inspired (neuromorphic) computing hardware.

Management explained that work at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has confirmed that the Nanocube Memory structure and operation allows it to combine computing and memory in one place in a way similar to how biological neurons operate.

Why is this important?

The company notes that experts in the memory technology sector believe the future of computing will be about rethinking processor architecture from the ground up to emulate how a brain efficiently processes information.

The artificial synapses fabricated by UNSW using the Nanocube Memory technology provides a potential hardware solution that has combined data storage and processing abilities, a key to neuromorphic computing.

In addition, the technology has the potential to store a range of values (as resistance states), rather than just traditional ones and zeros. This allows it to mimic the way the strength of a connection between two biological synapses can vary. It notes that changing those synaptic weights (connection strength) in artificial synapses in neuromorphic computing is one way to allow the brain-based system to achieve self-learning.

How was it tested?

The release explains that "in order to test the artificial synapses fabricated using the Nanocube Memory technology for synaptic plasticity, a memristor device was fabricated and subjected to consecutive positive and negative current-voltage (I-V) sweeps which showed incremental decrease in resistance of the memristor device with positive voltage sweeps and incremental increase in resistance of the memristor device with negative voltage sweeps."

The company advised that this shows the core synaptic function of synaptic plasticity of the memristor technology.

"Next, when electrical signals are applied to a biological synapse, the connection strength between neurons can be excited (potentiation) or inhibited (depression) which can be interpreted as the memorizing and forgetting behaviour of the human brain."

What's next?

Further early-stage work on features such as stability, potentiation, depression, latency, and power requirements will continue and be reported in the first quarter 2021.

The company also revealed that it is very pleased with progress of its printable self-recharging battery technology and remains on track to announce further information in January.

The post Why the Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price rocketed 39% higher today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Today's gains see Strategic Element's share price up 125% year-to-date, and up 500% from the post-COVID sell-off lows on 24 March.

By comparison the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is up 0.2% for the year, and up 43% since 24 March.

What does Strategic Elements do?

Strategic Elements is involved in numerous innovative projects, including the self-charging battery technology that led to today's share price leap. The company operates as a venture builder, generating projects by combining teams of leading scientists or innovators in the technology and resources sectors.

Strategic Elements operates as a registered Pooled Development Fund (PDF). Notably, investors in Strategic Elements do not pay capital gains taxes, as a compensation for the added risk of investing in small and medium sized companies under the Federal Government PDF program.

What moved the Strategic Elements share price today?

This morning Strategic Elements announced its self-charging battery technology project had achieved a critical milestone.

The company revealed it had manufactured a 1 litre batch size of Battery Ink – enough to produce 2,000 battery cells. The results reveal the potential to scale up the technology, with capacity having rapidly increased 10-fold from the previous 200 battery cells.

Strategic Elements reported 5 Battery Ink cells were fabricated from the scaled-up ink. Those cells successfully harvested energy from humidity in the air to generate at least 0.8 volts for a 2-hour testing period. Recharging time was just 3 minutes, and the battery cells were only 1 centimetre in size and thinner than a human hair. Additionally, the performance matched that of the smaller 200 millilitre batch size ink.

The battery technology is a liquid ink based on graphene oxide. It can generate energy from the humidity in the air or from your skin to self-charge. The technology is being developed together with the University of New South Wales and CSIRO.

Looking ahead, the company stated the next key milestone for the technology will be to fabricate a prototype battery pack with multiple connected Battery Ink cells producing 3.7 volts. It expects that stage to be complete in January 2021.

When those results are released, the Strategic Elements' share price will again be on watch.

The post Why the Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) share price rocketed 9% higher today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Today's gains cap off what has been a volatile year in 2020 so far for this company. Strategic Elements shares have a 52-week range of 3 cents to today's new high of 18 cents. But before today, the share price went nowhere over the past month, staying flat at 7 cents.

But why such a massive change in valuation over the space of one day? Well, the company did make an announcement to the markets this morning that seems to be why its shares are reaching for the stars today. But more on that later.

Who is Strategic Elements?

Strategic Elements is a very interesting kind of company, and one you might not have run into before. The company tells us that it "operates as a venture builder where it generates ventures and projects from combining teams of leading scientists or innovators in the technology or resources sectors."

Importantly, the company describes itself as a "registered Pooled Developed Fund (PDF)". According to Strategic Elements, a PDF means that "our investors pay no tax on capital gains or dividends to compensate for the higher risk of investing in small and medium-sized companies."

The federal government's business.gov.au website confirms this arrangement. It states that the PDF program aims to "increase the supply of capital to Australian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)."

According to the government, under the arrangement:

PDFs and their shareholders receive tax benefits on the income derived from their equity investments. This is to help compensate for the higher risk of investing in SMEs. PDFs will be taxed at 15% on the income and gains derived from equity investments in Australian SMEs. Shareholders are exempt from tax on the income and gains derived from holding and disposing of PDF shares.

Strategic Elements aims to use this program to "take part in projects that explore brand new fields of innovation". However, it also notes that, under the PDF arrangement, investments in retail or property investments are not permitted.

At the moment, some of Strategic Elements' investments include an artificial intelligence and robotics company called Stealth Technologies, as well as a meteorite mining company (Australian Exploration Projects) and a company dedicated to making 'memory ink' (Nanocubes).

A new self-charging battery?

But Strategic Elements comes before us today for a different reason. It's 100%-plus share price movement this morning can be put down to one announcement made before market open: a company in Strategic Elements' portfolio is developing a self-charging battery technology. Strategic Elements' subsidiary Australian Advanced Materials is collaborating with both the CSIRO and the University of New South Wales to develop the battery. According to the release:

The battery cells create electricity from humidity in the air or skin surface to self-charge themselves within minutes. No manual charging or wired power is required. They are created with a printable ink and are ideally suited for use in Internet of Things (IOT) devices.

The company notes that, if successful, the new battery technology would have a number of benefits over the existing lithium-ion rechargeable battery technology in widespread use today. These include non-flammability, weight reduction, no need for 'plug-in charging' and reduced environmental impact.

The batteries will be made using 'battery ink' from Strategic Elements' Nanocubes, as well as graphene oxide, which is derived from graphite, a form of carbon.

Why are investors so excited about these batteries?

With the Strategic Elements share price rising by more than 170% just today, I think it's fairly safe to say investors are excited about this technology's prospects. But why? I think the answer lies with this technology's potential applications. Strategic Elements is very keen to tout the application of these batteries to the Internet of Things.

Part of the company's release states:

The global battery market for IOT is already significant with US$8.7 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow to US$15.9 billion by 2025. The growing need for thin and flexible batteries in IOT and medical devices, along with inherent advantages of micro batteries provides significant opportunities.

Rechargeable batteries are already being used for new applications. Most famously perhaps is by Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA). If Strategic Elements is really onto a winner here, it would have virtually limitless applications – including in electric vehicles. Further, companies working in this area, like Tesla and Nio Inc (NYSE: NIO), have recently seen significant investor interest and share price appreciation. I'm sure some of this goodwill and sentiment is flowing into Strategic Elements today.

This is an interesting one to watch going forward!

The post ASX stock of the day: Strategic Elements (ASX:SOR) surges 170% on new self-charging battery appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

After jumping as much as 41.82% in morning trade, Strategic Elements shares finished 18.18% higher at 6.5 cents apiece.

Strategic Elements is an ASX-listed pooled development fund, which is a Federal Government program designed to increase investment into Australian small and medium-size enterprises by providing tax incentives.

Strategic Elements operates as a 'venture builder', where it generates ventures and projects from combining teams of scientists or innovators in the technology or resources sectors.

What did Strategic Elements announce?

This morning, Strategic Elements announced it has filed three patents over autonomous robotics technology being developed by one of its subsidiaries, Stealth Technologies.

Stealth Technologies is an artificial intelligence and robotics company that develops advanced solutions in autonomous driving and robotic automation.

Notably, Stealth has been collaborating with the US$100 billion industrial conglomerate Honeywell to develop an autonomous robotic security vehicle for the correctional justice sector.

According to today's release, Stealth's use of 3D printing technologies is enabling the rapid advancement of intellectual property and prototyping.

Two of the patent applications announced today cover low-cost solutions developed by Stealth that reportedly increase reliability and mitigate against system failures in autonomous robotic vehicles.

The third patent application covers robots designed to automate perimeter security intrusion detection systems.

Strategic Elements believes the intellectual property covered by these patents has potential commercial use in security, mining and agriculture.

About the Honeywell collaboration

Stealth Technologies' agreement with Honeywell was announced in September 2019. It will see Stealth collaborate exclusively with Honeywell to develop and pursue opportunities for autonomous robotic vehicles for a term of 12 months.

This collaboration has led to the development of an autonomous security vehicle (ASV) for the correctional sector. The vehicle has been designed for rugged and remote environments, is fully electric, and is able to operate autonomously all day and night.

Final validation and acceptance testing for the ASV will begin in Q3 2020. Meanwhile, Stealth is investigating the potential use of the ASV in other applications.

Under the agreement with Honeywell, Stealth can market the ASV independently to sectors such as transport, energy, defence, government, and utilities.

After today's rise, Strategic Elements has a current market capitalisation of around $19 million. If you'd rather invest in much larger and more liquid companies, check out the top ASX growth shares in the free report below.

The post Why the Strategic Elements share price surged 18% higher today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Shareholders in a PDF are also exempt from tax on both their income (dividends) and gains, provided certain requirements are met. However, deductions are not able to be claimed in the event of a capital loss.

The tax treatment is unique and reasonably complicated, and should be understood fully before choosing to invest. Of course, no investment should ever be made on the basis of tax treatment alone, and each investment needs to be considered on its own merits.

The program is now closed to new registrations and has been replaced by other incentives. There are currently 25 registered PDFs remaining. Of these, 6 are listed on the ASX.

Acrux Limited (ASX: ACR) undertakes pharmaceutical research and development.

Acrux's current focus is the commercialisation of topical products for drug delivery using technology developed at Monash University. Its key product, Axiron, used for testosterone replacement therapy, was a strong performer but has suffered from falling sales following increased requirements from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Shares have fallen dramatically from highs of near $4.50 in 2012 to 78 cents currently. However, product sales appear to be stabilising, and the tax-free dividends are starting to look attractive.

Acrux has a market capitalisation of around $130 million.

Austock Group Limited (ASX: ACK) focuses on the financial sector. It has a wholly owned investee entity (Austock Life) which specialise in insurance bonds and has over $600 million in funds under management.

Austock also holds a key investment in a company providing fund administration and accounting services.

With a market capitalisation of around $51 million, shares are up 13% in the last 12 months to 50 cents. Austock has a trailing dividend yield of 4%.

Authorised Investment Fund Limited (ASX: AIY) has a market capitalisation of just over $4 million. Shares have been volatile and thinly traded in recent years.

Authorised recently announced new consultants to the company to work on projects including battery technology, wireless communications and a smartphone screen innovation.

It is too early to assess the likelihood of success for any of these projects, and I consider Authorised sits at the highest end of the risk spectrum.

BioTech Capital Limited (ASX: BTC) focuses on investments in biotechnology and life sciences.

The fund currently holds investments in Biointelect, which offers consulting services to the biopharmaceutical industry, and Sensear, which manufactures specialised communications headsets for industrial use.

BioTech Capital has a market capitalisation of $14 million. Shares are up 30% in the last year and are trading at 13 cents – a long way above the valuation of its underlying investments of 2.96 cents per share.

MEC Resources Limited (ASX: MMR) currently holds a key investment in Advent Energy, an oil and gas exploration company with an offshore gas project near Sydney.

MEC has a market capitalisation of $6.5 million. Shares are down nearly 80% in the last 5 years but have staged a recovery of 95% in the last 12 months.

Strategic Elements Ltd (ASX: SOR) owns 100% of Australian Advanced Materials, which is developing memory technology for electronics.

Strategic also intends to work with researchers to develop additional technologies relating to printed electronics.

Strategic has a market capitalisation of around $30 million. Shares are relatively unchanged in the last year.

Foolish takeaway

Despite the attractive tax benefits on offer when investing in PDFs, early stage businesses come with a high degree of risk. In addition, these funds do not appear to be well diversified – generally, a venture capital fund would be expected to have this risk spread across at least 10 or more investments.

The post 6 listed funds with tax free capital gains and dividends appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.