• ASX XEC gains 0.5% on Thursday as falling oil prices scuttle ASX 200
  • Iron ore cracks US$150, AUD steadies above 75 cents
  • Major movers today: Siren Gold (ASX:SRG), Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM)

The ASX200 – down 0.2% at the close – was tracking happily enough this morning, through volatile global conditions and seemed intent on nabbing an eighth-straight positive close. That’s looking less of a lock-in despite the top 200 index hitting a three-month high led by the big miners and energy names.

Then came word and/or rumour of the US President Joe Biden’s plan to release a good whack of the American strategic oil reserves – leading to a sudden dip in oil prices.

That doesn’t bother a little battler like the Emerging Companies (XEC) index, which is up 0.5%. And while it’s down over 2% for the year to date, the small caps index is up over 37% on this time last year.

With iron ore futures cracking the psychological (ie: my God that’s expensive) US$150 mark in Dalian, the commodity sensitive Aussie dollar is steady above 75 US cents.

 

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).

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Code Description Price % Volume
ALT Analytica Limited 0.002 100% 3,821,732
ANL Amani Gold Ltd 0.002 100% 27,044,542
TMX Terrain Minerals 0.013 86% 57,063,981
AHN Athena Resources 0.009 50% 2,992,053
ANW Aus Tin Mining 0.0015 50% 30,790,488
AVL Aust Vanadium Ltd 0.081 31% 97,521,746
TEM Tempest Minerals 0.1825 30% 105,010,859
GES Genesis Resources 0.013 30% 726,505
BNR Bulletin Res Ltd 0.255 28% 18,731,019
RGL Riversgold 0.072 26% 29,501,948
PYR Payright Limited 0.15 25% 46,062
TRM Truscott Mining Corp 0.04 25% 369,752
SNG Siren Gold 0.435 24% 6,977,189
REC Rechargemetals 0.45 23% 13,735,035
CUL Cullen Resources 0.016 23% 2,060,132
ENT Enterprise Metals 0.016 23% 4,080,321
VMS Venture Minerals 0.056 22% 24,643,639
QEM QEM Limited 0.255 21% 1,008,997
CXM Centrex Limited 0.2 21% 4,408,346
SOP Synertec Corporation 0.075 21% 588,212
ABE Ausbondexchange 0.44 21% 142,448
INR Ioneer Ltd 0.69 20% 22,766,837
SRN Surefire Rescs NL 0.015 20% 27,099,066
CT1 Constellation Tech 0.006 20% 2,566,071
PCL Pancontinental Energ 0.006 20% 17,520,251
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Golden assays for Siren Gold (ASX:SNG) are back from the lads in the lab revealing a 2.5m mineralised interval grading 358.2g/t, starring a gorgeous 60cm chunk grading 1,460g/t gold.

SNG says, the intersection, from the deepest hole ever drilled at the ‘Alexander River’ project, is comparable to drillhole intersections in the very high-grade Swan Zone at Fosterville.

The $36m market cap stock is up over 40%.

And I suppose someone should point out that the value of Tempest Minerals (ASX:TEM) shares has gone ionospheric – up well over five-fold since sharing news if its rather significant copper discovery. That was Monday.

Worth another look actually:

The first 709m-long hole of a two-hole diamond drilling program at ‘Orion’ — part of the flagship ‘Meleya’ project in WA  — pulled up three mineralised copper sections:

  • 8m of interbedded semi-massive (pretty high grade) base metal/magnetite minerals from 18m;
  • 10m of copper bearing semi-massive sulphides within a 20m disseminated sulphide zone from 422m; and
  • 18m of copper bearing disseminated and stringer veins within a broader ~100m disseminated sulphide zone from 610m to end of hole.

‘To end of hole’ means the third mineralised zone probably keeps going at depth.

TEM boss Don Smith called the outcome ‘spectacular.’ It was the right word.

Hot Chili’s (ASX:HCH) has reinforced its Costa Fuego copper-gold hub’s position as a top tier development project after upgrading its higher confidence Indicated Resource by a massive 67%.

The project developer’s plans are coming together in a spectacular fashion, as it reports an upgraded Costa Fuego now features an Indicated Resource of 725 million tonnes with grading 0.47% copper equivalent, or contained resources totalling 2.8Mt of copper, 2.6Moz of gold, 10.5Moz of silver and 67,000t of molybdenum.

The news comes on the back of a key offtake agreement that will see Glencore buy 60% of the project’s copper concentrate production for an eight-year period at “arm’s-length commercially-competitive” terms.

InteliCare Holdings (ASX:ICR) is up in double-digit territory. The aged care tech firm has opened up an entirely new and wonderful vertical –  entering the super-popular wearables market through a new global partnership with a Canadian digital health set up called Persona Informatics.

The partnership will see InteliCare instantly sync its tech with more than 60 TGA (US Therapeutic Goods Association ) and FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) approved devices and it’s the big name brands like FitBit, Garmin and iHealth.

 

TODAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Code Company Price % Volume
SFG Seafarms Group Ltd 0.015 -42% 102,768,739
IGN Ignite Ltd 0.14 -39% 108,468
KEY KEY Petroleum 0.0025 -17% 1,871,244
NZS New Zealand Coastal 0.005 -17% 12,431,660
PG1 Pearl Global Ltd 0.016 -16% 6,401,159
LCT Living Cell Tech. 0.007 -13% 200,000
BKY Berkeley Energia Ltd 0.455 -13% 774,177
ATR Astron Corp Ltd 0.575 -12% 15,116
DTI DTI Group Ltd 0.022 -12% 380,000
MRI Myrewardsinternation 0.07 -10% 232,175
AMD Arrow Minerals 0.0045 -10% 446,989
ARO Astro Resources NL 0.0045 -10% 1,503,737
ESH Esports Mogul Ltd 0.0045 -10% 10,811,015
RXH Rewardle Holding Ltd 0.009 -10% 116,637
ZMM Zimi Ltd 0.009 -10% 16,008
HTG Harvest Tech Grp Ltd 0.185 -10% 214,970
RAB Adrabbit Limited 0.014 -10% 202,631
GRL Godolphin Resources 0.14 -10% 80,469
TSO Tesoro Resources Ltd 0.086 -9% 9,980,155
PNT Panthermetalsltd 0.24 -9% 355,819
PYC PYC Therapeutics 0.089 -9% 623,132
EVZ EVZ Limited 0.15 -9% 70,428
BOA Boadicea Resources 0.205 -9% 105,998
DTM Dart Mining NL 0.072 -9% 739,680
DOU Douugh Limited 0.031 -9% 1,340,822
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ANNOUNCEMENTS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED

Flynn Gold (ASX:FG1) has announced its started phase 2 diamond drilling at the Grand Flaneur prospect, Portland Gold Project in Tasmania.

Drilling will test structural targets identified from previous drilling along the high priority Grand Flaneur – Blue Bell trend, where previously drilling has intersected anomalous gold over a 1.5km strike length, including: GFDD004: 1.4m @ 9.66 g/t Au from 45.6m, including 0.6m @ 20.3 g/t Au from 45.6m, GFDD002: 0.5m @ 12.75 g/t Au from 18.4m and BBRC16:[email protected]/tAu from 46.0m.

Forestry management and woodfibre exporters Midway (ASX:MWY) has announced its sold several plantation properties around Wandong, 50km north of Melbourne on the Hume Highway to an investor for $17 million.

The company said as part of the sale agreement, Midway has entered into a forestry right for the tree crop located on the properties. The agreement secures Midway’s interest in the tree crop and will allow the company to harvest the trees at a future date once they have reached optimal size.

Surefire Resources (ASX:SRN) has announced it is encouraged by the increased global commodity price of vanadium and considers the company is now well positioned to further develop and monetise its Victory Bore-Unaly Hill Vandium Project in Western Australia.

Victory Bore / Unaly Hill has Inferred Resources of vanadium of 237Mt @ 0.43% vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), 24.9% Fe, and 5.9% TiO2. Additional vanadium exploration target identified at Victory Bore include 150Mt – 200Mt @ 0.4% – 0.7% V2O5, 22% – 40% Fe, 6% – 8% TiO2.

 

TRADING HALTS

NeuRizer Ltd (ASX: NRZ) – trading halt, pending an announcement in relation to the NeuRizer Urea Project

Cannindah Resources Limited (ASX: CAE) – trading halt, pending a potential capital raising

Tennant Minerals Limited (ASX:TMS) – trading halt, pending a potential capital raising

Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX:PDN) – trading halt, pending a potential capital raising

Zenith Minerals Limited (ASX:ZNC) – trading halt, pending a potential capital raising

Buxton Resources Limited (ASX:BUX) – trading halt, pending a potential capital raising