Here we have Malcolm Turnbull, spotted while browsing for what became the albatross around Australia's neck we call "The NBN". Pic via Getty Images.
News
While not exactly a red letter day, we’re closing out the session ahead of where we started, making it 10 wins from 11 starts for the ASX 200 benchmark.
Sector-wise, it was InfoTech and Materials leading the charge, ending the day’s play 0.01% either side of +1.43%, with the nerds in front of the diggers when the bell rang.
The XJR ASX Resources index did the unthinkable, however, unseating the Goldies with a 1.15% lift for the day, 0.25% ahead of the XGD index.
Aussie investors now have the evening to hold their breath ahead of US consumer inflation data due tonight, which will give everyone an indication of whether America’s up to its knees or its chin in rising costs of living.
As if oil and gas company Santos (ASX:STO) didn’t have enough on its plate in the wake of its pre-Easter AGM, which turned into a hot, cross bunfight, the company is now under fire for using an image of an Aboriginal elder in its promo material, without his consent.
Kaurna and Ngarrindjeri elder Major “Moogy” Sumner has called Santos “bloody cheeky” for including him in a promotional video that was played at the company’s all-in brawl on 06 April, shortly before the company fessed up to pipeline explosion that occurred in South Australia in January, while an army of rainbow-haired malcontents gathered outside to shout zesty slogans at the front of the meeting venue.
Inside the meeting, several traditional owners staged a walkout after the microphones were reportedly turned off in the middle of them asking questions of the board.
Mr Sumner, who wasn’t at the meeting, says he’s unhappy with the company using his image in the promotional video, saying: “I’m known by a lot of people across this country and different parts of the world and if they say to people, ‘Moogy agrees with it’ — which I don’t — then other people will say, ‘Well it must be alright’.”
And not exactly Super Huge news, but still pretty amazing is this little snippet out of Malaysia, where an enterprising entrepreneurial type fella has been busted finagling the high-ish tech process used in that country for people to donate money to their local mosque.
The process there involves using your phone to punch in the amount of money you’d like to donate, pointing the camera at a QR code and – like magic – the money is moved from your account to that of the mosque.
So the man – whose name hasn’t been released because of… umm… the implications (I guess) – generated a QR code the pointed to his own personal account, printed them out, wandered into several mosques across South Jakarta, and stuck his own codes over the official ones.
Which sounds like a super-smart plan, except for the fact that he’d left behind a direct link to his own account, making this case the shortest whodunnit in world history.
Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
| Code | Company | Price | % | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FIJ | Fiji Kava Limited | 0.006 | 100% | 12,670,062 | $1,200,266 |
| PNTR | Panthermetalsltd | 0.002 | 100% | 119,000 | $27,313 |
| CDR | Codrus Minerals Ltd | 0.115 | 34% | 1,033,757 | $3,476,980 |
| BEZ | Besragoldinc | 0.245 | 32% | 13,832,688 | $65,464,449 |
| GIB | Gibb River Diamonds | 0.061 | 30% | 238,000 | $9,940,944 |
| SIO | Simonds Grp Ltd | 0.14 | 27% | 230,210 | $39,589,710 |
| MRL | Mayur Resources Ltd | 0.2 | 25% | 366,940 | $47,289,038 |
| OAK | Oakridge | 0.1 | 25% | 7,394 | $1,375,654 |
| AVM | Advance Metals Ltd | 0.01 | 25% | 1,903,657 | $4,656,353 |
| VAL | Valor Resources Ltd | 0.005 | 25% | 51,218 | $15,092,139 |
| OZM | Ozaurum Resources | 0.066 | 25% | 1,455,000 | $6,731,000 |
| SES | Secos Group Ltd | 0.0815 | 23% | 401,814 | $38,229,472 |
| JRV | Jervois Global Ltd | 0.1125 | 22% | 53,521,495 | $191,343,446 |
| TSL | Titanium Sands Ltd | 0.011 | 22% | 250,000 | $12,657,581 |
| AR3 | Austrare | 0.555 | 21% | 6,521,424 | $43,792,714 |
| HRE | Heavy Rare Earths | 0.12 | 20% | 1,635,580 | $5,948,793 |
| RLG | Roolife Group Ltd | 0.012 | 20% | 4,801,084 | $7,155,581 |
| CAI | Calidus Resources | 0.29 | 18% | 5,417,219 | $107,689,956 |
| 1AE | Auroraenergymetals | 0.13 | 18% | 205,861 | $13,502,960 |
| KRR | King River Resources | 0.013 | 18% | 2,103,211 | $17,088,774 |
| PXX | Polarx Limited | 0.013 | 18% | 872,118 | $14,882,416 |
| ASP | Aspermont Limited | 0.02 | 18% | 1,014,285 | $41,328,481 |
| 5EA | 5Eadvanced | 0.87 | 17% | 2,009,846 | $212,734,161 |
| LYK | Lykosmetalslimited | 0.07 | 17% | 133,460 | $3,744,000 |
| MME | Moneyme Limited | 0.14 | 17% | 707,402 | $33,989,667 |
Best performing Small Capper today was Codrus Minerals (ASX:CDR), with a climb cementing just how red-hot anything to do with Rare Earths is at the moment.
The company has stacked on a 39.5% climb on news that it’s started up the drills at its high-grade Karloning Rare Earth project – not news that it’s found anything, just that the drills are spinning.
Admittedly, early-stage rock/soil sampling returned very high grades up to 2.85% dysprosium and 6.41% niobium, and the drilling the company kicked off is to find out just how large the target is, but still… it’s a little bit bonkers.
Next best is Besra Gold (ASX:BEZ), which ended the day up 37.8% on no fresh news, but there’s little doubt that it’s flavour of the month for investors.
BEZ is up around 450% since revealing that it’s entered into a non-binding offtake and funding deal with bullion dealer and major shareholder Quantum Metal Recovery, bouncing higher again after Quantum sent through the first $2 million payment to Besra.
To sweeten the pot for investors even further, by the end of this month there’s another $3 million heading Besra’s way.
And last but not least for today, Heavy Rare Earths (ASX:HRE) went flying this morning on news that it’s drilled into high grade intercepts of up to 4839ppm TREO at its newly-discovered Western Zone at Cowalinya, where the company says 159 mineralised intercepts have been drilled, covering approximately 13km2.
The results confirm the potential to host a material increase in rare earths resources – which are so hot right now – with the company saying it’s working its way through the required process to upgrade its current Inferred Resource of 28Mt @ 625ppm TREO, once assays from another 36 holes are in.
At lunchtime, AR3 was up 35%, but has eased to a still-impressive +20.6% for the day.
Here are the least best performing ASX small cap stocks:
Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:
| Code | Company | Price | % | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ACS | Accent Resources NL | 0.006 | -76% | 13,000 | $11,828,182 |
| CCE | Carnegie Cln Energy | 0.001 | -50% | 169,298 | $31,285,147 |
| GGX | Gas2Grid Limited | 0.001 | -50% | 2,262,026 | $8,154,204 |
| ERAR | Energy Resources | 0.015 | -46% | 667,040 | $516,793,648 |
| ARE | Argonaut Resources | 0.0015 | -25% | 650,000 | $12,723,743 |
| DCX | Discovex Res Ltd | 0.003 | -25% | 28,482,478 | $13,210,272 |
| ANR | Anatara Ls Ltd | 0.03 | -23% | 30,516 | $4,677,035 |
| LER | Leaf Res Ltd | 0.017 | -23% | 1,861,442 | $45,364,855 |
| RR1 | Reach Resources Ltd | 0.004 | -20% | 4,001,735 | $12,387,753 |
| ADS | Adslot Ltd. | 0.005 | -17% | 2,207,326 | $13,226,090 |
| HHI | Health House Int Ltd | 0.005 | -17% | 301,627 | $847,978 |
| MTL | Mantle Minerals Ltd | 0.0025 | -17% | 490,000 | $16,036,815 |
| OAU | Ora Gold Limited | 0.0025 | -17% | 7,605,859 | $11,810,775 |
| CDT | Castle Minerals | 0.016 | -16% | 22,290,464 | $21,365,367 |
| PRS | Prospech Limited | 0.045 | -15% | 5,990,700 | $5,381,799 |
| ICN | Icon Energy Limited | 0.006 | -14% | 152,069 | $5,376,096 |
| MRD | Mount Ridley Mines | 0.003 | -14% | 1,412,496 | $27,247,090 |
| OAR | OAR Resources Ltd | 0.003 | -14% | 950,000 | $8,438,633 |
| MCM | Mc Mining Ltd | 0.155 | -14% | 77,106 | $71,939,736 |
| SHG | Singular Health | 0.058 | -13% | 1,874,821 | $7,600,924 |
| OLH | Oldfields Holdings | 0.065 | -13% | 5,000 | $14,981,696 |
| NAG | Nagambie Resources | 0.04 | -13% | 836,191 | $24,641,915 |
| LCY | Legacy Iron Ore | 0.014 | -13% | 726,764 | $102,509,219 |
| ROG | Red Sky Energy. | 0.0035 | -13% | 1,670,449 | $21,208,909 |
| IMB | Intelligent Monitor | 0.105 | -13% | 208 | $15,684,035 |
First up this afternoon will take a bit of unpacking, but bear with me… because it’s a harsh lesson in how things operate in “less than ideal working conditions” in certain parts of the world, which unfortunately AVZ Minerals (ASX:AVZ) is learning on our behalf.
For background, AVZ is by its own admission “an exploration company aspiring to become a mining company”, with all its current eggs in one basket; a 75% stake in the Manono project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The DRC is, AVZ says, “a developing (and challenging) jurisdiction for mining and mineral exploration” – and hats-off to AVZ for stopping at the word “challenging”, because it sounds like a proper nightmare.
The story so far is this: AVZ was on track to get all the right paperwork and permits and such for things to get moving at Manono, and on 04 May, 2022, the company announced to the ASX that the DRC Minister for Mines had signed a ministerial decree to award a mining licence for the project.
However, the actual decree never materialised (for reasons that remain unspecified, but it’s pretty easy to read between the lines) and since then AVZ has been in what looks to be a fraught battle on multiple fronts over the project.
There’s a bunch of stuff that today’s announcement to the ASX can’t shed much light on, because of ongoing legal battles and that sort of thing, but the gist of it is that “hostile non-state actors” who are “seeking to unlawfully acquire an interest in Manono … including through unlawful purported shares in Dathcom”.
Dathcom is the holding company for the project, and it sounds very much like some Very Bad Dudes are doing their best to ruin AVZ’s party.
The whole affair has really been dragging on, as well – it’s been nearly a year since AVZ voluntarily suspended trading on the ASX while the company works to figure a way through the mess.
To muddy the waters further, in early February the DRC government issued a new Ministerial Decree which cancelled the old one, while acknowledging “a requirement for harmonious and healthy cooperation between shareholders in Dathcom”.
Which is a very tall order, considering that (apparently) there are a few people who allegedly aren’t playing by the rules, by claiming to be shareholders when they’re not.
Greentech Metals (ASX:GRE) had a bit of a rollercoaster ride today, gaining well early on after the company showed off it’s brand-spanking-new JORC compliant mineral resource estimate for its delightfully-named Whundo copper-zinc play in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
GRE is no doubt feeling proud as punch that its 2022/23 drilling campaigns have boosted – quite significantly – the MRE for Whundo, adding a stunning 72% to the resource tonnes, +62% for copper and +24% for zinc.
The updated total for Whundo puts it at 4.4 Mt @ 1.03% Cu and 0.89% Zn for a total 45,000 tonnes Cu and 39,000 tonnes Zn metal in the Indicated Resource category and an additional approximately 0.9 Mt @ 1.4% Cu and 0.5% Zn, for a total 12,000 tonnes Cu and 4,000 tonnes Zn in the Inferred Resource category.
That combines with the company’s Ayshia project MRE to give Greentech a total JORC 2012 compliant Inferred + Indicated MRE of 6.19 Mt @ 1.12% Cu, 1.04% Zn.
The market reacted well to the announcement early on, with GRE adding 22% – however, support appeared to evaporate late in the session as profit takers got out early, leaving the company’s trading price close to break-even by close of play, which feels like it really doesn’t reflect the enormity of the boost the new MRE will provide.
And last one for today is from Avira Resources (ASX:AVW), following the company’s announcement this morning that it’s hit a 36m interval of massive sulphides within a 76m zone of disseminated to blebby magmatic sulphides at its Puolalaki project in Northern Sweden.
AVW was pretty excited about “initial visual logging [which] indicates the sulphide comprises a mix of pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite, with pXRF analyses indicating the presence of nickel, copper and cobalt within pyrrhotite-rich intervals. Laboratory assays of sulphide intervals are currently pending.”
That news hit the ASX shortly before 9:00am this morning, by 11.30am AVW was trading nearly 17% higher, the ASX threw the brakes on at 1:20pm for undisclosed reasons – and AVW went into a ‘voluntary’ halt at 2:37pm “to allow the company to prepare additional disclosure for the visual estimate of mineralisation contained in drill core”.
Which sounds an awful lot like someone suggested that “you can’t just eyeball stuff like that – there needs to be Proper Science” – or something like that.
So, AVW’s got some homework to do, and it’s off the table for investors until it’s able to provide more detail on its find.
WAM Leaders (ASX:WLE) – Placement to wholesale and sophisticated investors, and a capital raise for the rest of us plebs.
Battery Minerals (ASX:BAT) – Fund raising, possibly to convert the Batmobile from jet-powered to a more efficient EV setup.
Tivan (ASX:TVN) – Project facilitation agreement. I do not know what that means.
BikeExchange (ASX:BEX) – Capital raising.
Fiji Kava (ASX:FIJ) – Fiji Kava needs to issue a clarification to news of the RooLife distribution deal, with details due on Friday morning.
Avira Resources (ASX:AVW) – It looks like the ASX has issued a “please explain” over AVW’s announcement from earlier in the day. See above for the details.
Get the latest Stockhead news delivered free to your inbox.
