Colossal Laboratories and Biosciences have gone full John Hammond and are trying to resurrect the woolly mammoth.

The plan is to create a hybrid with cold-adapted genetic traits like small ears and more body fat than their elephant cousins – which can then wander the tundra, trampling snow and knocking down trees.

The idea is that this will restore grasslands that reflect more of the sun’s warmth, meaning the ground will stay frozen instead of releasing its store of carbon dioxide and methane greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change.

“Our true North Star is a successful restoration of the woolly mammoth, but also its successful rewilding into interbreeding herds in the Arctic,” Colossal co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm said.

“We’re now focusing on having our first calves in the next four to six years.”

 

To Markets …

The ASX 200 is down 38.50 points or 0.52% at midday today to 7,398.80.

Yesterday Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe said rates won’t rise until 2024, and Deep Data Analytics chief executive Mathan Somasundaram told Morningstar he thinks it’s great for markets — with the cost of borrowing not going up anytime soon.

“But the question is what’s going to happen in the US? The US sets the cost of borrowing for the world,” he said.

Overnight, headline US consumer prices rose by 0.3% in August — the slowest pace in six months. The core CPI gained only 0.1% to 4% year-on-year.

Analysts expect US core annual inflation to remain higher than four per cent – which Federal Reserve officials have said is temporary as the country’s economy recovers from its coronavirus recession.

Base metal prices decreased between 0.6-2.6% with aluminium down the most and nickel down the least.

The gold futures price rose by US$12.70 an ounce or 0.7% to U$1,807.10 an ounce, with spot gold trading near US$1,803 an ounce at the US close.

And Iron ore shed US$2.25 a tonne or 1.8% to US$120.35 a tonne.

Global oil prices reached six-week highs yesterday and investors are keeping an eye on the impact of tropical storm Nicholas on Texan oil refineries.

The Brent crude price rose by US9 cents or 0.1% to US$73.60 a barrel and the US Nymex crude price added just US1 cent or less than 0.1% to US$70.46 a barrel.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for September 15 [intraday]:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

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The biggest small cap winner today was Octanex (ASX:OXX), up 113% off the back of news that geochemical sampling is underway at its Sefton gold project in WA.

The sampling is expected to take three weeks to complete and will collect reconnaissance lag samples over areas that have not previously been sampled – as well as infill lag sample areas previously identified as gold and copper-gold anomalies to better define them.

“We are excited to be sending a field crew out to the Sefton region again this field season, and look forward to being able to uncover more mineralised structures,” director Rae Clark said.

Next up was Mindax Limited (ASX:MDX) up 38% on no news and Metalhawk (ASX:MHK) up 31% on no news.

Kingwest Resources (ASX:KWR) and Astro Resources (ASX:ARO) both gained 25% — also on no news.

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

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The biggest loser was Metals Australia (ASX:MLS) down 25% on no news.

Followed by Mastermyne (ASX:MYE) which dropped 18% after announcing the terrible news that coal mine worker was fatally injured in an underground incident at Crinum mine yesterday.

Another worker has been safely extracted from the mine and is being transported to hospital as a precaution.

The company is investigating the cause of the incident and has made counselling and support services available to staff and the employee’s family.

 

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