Buy Hold Sell: 6 hot ASX commodity stocks

In the first two episodes of this commodities-focused Buy Hold Sell series, we zeroed in on the obvious plays – gold, and oil and gas – the parts of the market dominating headlines and investor attention.

But as is often the case in commodities, the real opportunity set runs much deeper. Lithium has staged a sharp comeback, tin and manganese prices have surged over the past year, and key industrial metals like copper and even iron ore continue to trade at elevated levels.

So in this episode, we flipped the format. Rather than focus on a single commodity, we asked our guests – Rick Squire from Acorn Capital and Emanuel Datt from Datt Capital – to each bring three of their highest-conviction commodity stock ideas.

No themes, no hypotheticals – just six big buys and the reasoning behind them, from two of the country’s most respected resource investors.

This episode was filmed on Wednesday, 8th April 2026.

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Edited Transcript

Chris Conway: Hello, and welcome to Livewire's Buy Hold Sell. My name is Chris Conway. So far in this commodities series, we've taken a look at gold, oil and gas, but as we all know, there are far more commodities than just those. So in this episode, I've asked my guests, Rick Squire and Emanuel Datt, to each bring along three commodities stocks that they like that aren't focused on either gold or oil. That's right. It's going to be wall-to-wall buys for this episode as the gents pitch some of their favourite names. Emanuel, I'll come to you first. What stock do you like, and what does it mine?

Jupiter Mines (ASX: JMS)

Emanuel Datt: Sure. So I like Jupiter Mines, which mines manganese in South Africa. It owns just under 50% of the world-class Tshipi Mine, which is next to S32's Mamatwan Mine, which is another very large asset. What we really like about Jupiter is that, just under a year ago, we saw a significant M&A transaction where a large African miner, Exxaro, took over one of Jupiter's partners, and that's resulted in Exxaro holding a 20% shareholding effectively in Jupiter plus a large interest in the asset itself, the Tshipi Mine. I think that this leaves Jupiter in a very odd position, caught between a rock and a hard place, I guess, but has significant influence given it is able to market all the product from the mine itself. I think it's very interesting because the implied price for this transaction by Exxaro implied a valuation of about 33 cents per Jupiter share. Market price is about 28 today.

I think that it's a really interesting asset because shareholders are being paid a fairly decent yield of about 5-6% with that takeover optionality that I believe will happen in time. It just makes a lot of sense. So it's a very pragmatic, safe pick. You're probably not going to 100% [return], but I think the value will be realised in the fullness of time.

Chris Conway: Yeah. Good start. Jupiter Mines for you, Emanuel. Rick, what's your first pick? What commodity is the focus on and what do you like?

Midas Minerals (ASX: MM1)

Rick Squire: My pick is Midas Minerals. So they're a copper explorer. It's copper with a little bit of silver in Namibia in Southern Africa. So, for those who are not familiar, Namibia is in the southern part of Africa. It's to the northwest of South Africa and a neighbouring country, but it's very different to other countries in Africa because it has a small population. There are only about three million people in Namibia. There's a really strong mining base to it, as well as agriculture and tourism. And so it's actually reasonably wealthy for the amount of people living in the country.

And so when you go to Namibia, the infrastructure is fantastic there. The roads that are there, the shops and everything, they're actually quite a prosperous country. There are other countries that are a lot poorer, like Malawi and Mali and countries like that in Africa. So it's one of the more prosperous. But the other thing I really like about it is that, because of that really strong mining base in there, the bureaucracy, the education system is set up for mining. And that's really important when you're trying to move a project forward: they actually understand how to move it forward. The infrastructure's set up for it. The bureaucracy, there's less chances of corruption when it's set up like that. And so it's in the right place, and they've made a really interesting discovery where they've literally spun the drill rig around 180 degrees and they're drilling back the other way. And earlier this year, in January, they announced some really exciting results from a project called Spaatzu. And I was fortunate enough to go out and have a look at the project in February this year. And I can see the reason why they're excited.

So it's been a little while since they've had any news flow on results, but hopefully there'll be some good news flow because they've got four drill rigs on site. And when you make a big discovery in copper, we've seen companies like Firefly that can have really explosive growth. Now, there is risk to that because there have been companies that have made really interesting discoveries and they haven't quite cleared the hurdle and then they've collapsed. You think of names like Stavely and Lefroy Exploration that get onto a project, the market gets right behind them, but if they don't continue to deliver the results, it can be volatile.

So it is a risky space, but I think they're onto a project that's got the potential to have scale and it's got potential to cross the divide to get into production. But time will tell, but it's something I'm very excited about.

Chris Conway: Midas Minerals for you for your first pick. Emanuel, I'll swing back to you for your second pick. What do you like and what does it mine?

Metals X (ASX: MLX)

Emanuel Datt: I like Metals X. Metals X mines tin out of the Renison Tin Mine in Tasmania. So it earns 50% of that. Renison is a very old, deep, high-grade tin mine, and it's been mined successfully for many years, so there's a high degree of certainty around the outcomes. It's been very strong production momentum, and that's happened coincidentally with the strong rise in the tin price itself. Tin has a real scarcity value, but it's critical for high technology applications. And I think that, ultimately, there's some ancillary benefits from this Strait of Hormuz shutdown in the sense that diesel is much more constrained. So you have artisanal miners out of Indonesia and Myanmar who are diesel-constrained as well. So that has really limited the tin supply side basically. And I think that Metals X are very well-equipped to benefit from that fortress-like balance sheet, they just sit there and hoard cash.

Interestingly, they're starting to attempt to gain a foothold in other tin assets. So yeah, we think that there's strong potential for them to grow past the single asset that they're producing into other tin production assets over time. So that's one that we like for the medium to long term.

Chris Conway: We've had some interesting commodities so far. Rick, I'll swing back to you. What's your next pick? What does it mine and why do you like it?

DEVEX Resources (ASX: DEV)

Rick Squire: My next pick is DEVEX Resources. They're a uranium explorer. They have a really interesting project in the Northern Territory. So two of the major uranium districts in the world are the Athabasca Basin in Canada, and the other one is the McArthur Basin in Northern Australia. So it stretches from up near Kakadu and all the way down to the border. So it's a very large basin, and it's really well-endowed in terms of the Ranger Uranium Mine. And so it hasn't had as much exploration as the Athabasca Basin, but it produces some really nice, high-grade projects.

And the really good thing about DEVEX is that they recently acquired some ground from another company, Alligator Resources, which is focusing on their project in South Australia. And so they weren't committing the time to their Northern Territory project. So DEVEX managed to go and negotiate. They paid a reasonable amount of cash to pick it up. So that was a good outcome for Alligator that they got the cash to put into their development project, their Sandfire development project, but then it gave a much better ground holding to DEVEX. So they consolidated their ground.

And the really good thing about them is they've got ground at the Northwestern and the Southeastern end of the basin. So they've got some ground. There's Laramide Resources, another uranium explorer, which has the Westmoreland project. And they've got the ground surrounding or long strike from there. So they've got two regions where they're exploring.

It's run by Marnie Finlayson, and she's a really good leader. She came from Rio Tinto, but has moved into the smaller stocks. You really need a person like Marnie to actually get out there and negotiate with the traditional owners to get access to the land. And that's definitely one of her many skills and the ability to front markets and to explain and articulate their positions.

So really good geological team behind them. It's well-financed, has great leadership and great potential. So it is an explorer, so you never know what's around. It depends on the drill bit as to the success, but they're in the right neighbourhood and we've got the right team to do it.

Chris Conway: Another interesting name. Absolutely. Emanuel, I'll swing back to you for your third pick. What does it mine and why do you like it?

Deterra Royalties (ASX: DRR)

Emanuel Datt: So my third pick is Deterra Royalties. And so for those don't know, Deterra own a suite of royalty assets. The biggest and by far the best is the MAC royalty, which is basically a royalty over certain BHP producing assets that produce iron ore.

What we like about the model is that going back to the point I raised about diesel shortages and increased costs for miners across the board, that typically over the medium term leads to higher commodity prices because the smaller or more marginal miners end up just shutting production, and it requires higher prices to kick those assets back into production. However, holders of royalties, they collect revenue based on the top line. So the commodity value, the revenue generated. They have no exposure to the cost side and I think that's a really great place to be at the moment in the mining cycle.

Surprisingly, I would say we've seen iron ore prices remain quite resilient. So I think today they're about $105 US. Despite the threat of margin compression for the miners, I think Deterra is in a really good place, but also this acquisition that they have pursued, which I think was last year, has added a little bit more diversity.

So exposure to gold and lithium, rare earths, I believe as well, but those are really ancillary to the big MAC royalty. So I think that the company is attractive and there are probably many avenues they could pursue for growth in this sort of environment, especially with all the cost pressures and CapEx cost pressures as well. So I think that they're in a pretty good place in this environment.

Chris Conway: Now just quickly, Emanuel, remind me, you were talking about iron ore there at US$105. Was there not some predictions earlier this year that was going down to US$90 or sub-US$90? It just hasn't happened, has it?

Emanuel Datt: Exactly. Yeah, that's right. And part of it could be due to those cost pressures as well, right? You've seen other smaller producers like Fenix, I think is one of them, that have mentioned specifically cost pressures associated with trucking ore long distances, et cetera. So that really assists the big mines with scale.

Chris Conway: Rick, bring us home. We haven't had any crossover in commodities yet, so let's see if we can keep the streak going. What's your last pick, what does it mine and what do you like it?

Elevra Lithium (ASX: ELV)

Rick Squire: Well, you'll be happy. My final pick is Elevra Lithium. So obviously a lithium company. They're a lithium producer in Quebec in the eastern part of Canada. Lithium's been, it was in the doldrums there for a couple years, but it really picked up a lot of steam from about June, July last year. Elevra was one of the major beneficiaries of that, and its share price ran really strongly from deep lows around June last year. And it had a big run, but it's pulled back. It reset its guidance early this year, and that's just pulled the share price back. It shook out some of the traders and some of the euphoria-

Chris Conway: Some of the hot money...

Rick Squire: ... that was the hot money that was in the stock. But the thing that I like about it is, it's now reset that guidance. It's a little bit more realistic in terms of where it is. The valuation has come back into a more realistic area. But if you look at the fundamentals for lithium, we're now seeing a lot of the battery energy storage systems coming in.

So the market was very focused on what the demand was for electric vehicles. And that's what drove a lot of that pullback in the lithium price. But what we're seeing is it's not just electric vehicles, but it's these energy storage systems that are consuming a lot of the lithium. And so that's where a lot of the demand is. So we see that continuing with the outbreak of war, I think it's refocused again, the importance of energy security, but also taking that alliance away from oil for energy use.

So the fundamentals for lithium, I think, remain strong. Then it's a matter of picking a company that's making good margins, which is Elevra, but they've also got a really exciting development project in Moblan. And I think that's really important that without Moblan, it'd be a reasonable producer, but nothing too exciting. But it's actually got this really nice development project, which is close to infrastructure, it's large, it's high0-grade, a really transformative asset. And with that production base, it's something that they can grow their cash balance to actually fund a large part, if not all, of the development. And so, that ability to transition into a bigger company is something that I really like and I think the market will like too.

Chris Conway: There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. Six hot commodity stocks for your watch list. Massive thanks to Emanuel and Rick for this entire suite of commodities episodes. If you enjoyed this one, make sure to give it a like and don't forget to follow our YouTube channel. We're adding lots of great content every single week.