Lunchtime small cap wrap: who’s smoking hot and who’s burning out

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Here are the key ASX small cap winners and losers at lunchtime Tuesday June 5.

The ASX Small Ords index retreated 11 points to 2834.9 at 1pm AEST after hitting a seven-year high yesterday.

GOING UP

Castle Minerals (ASX:CDT) jumped 25 per cent to an intra-day high of 2.5c on Tuesday morning after the gold explorer “better defined” the location of prospective conglomerate targets in the Pilbara.

Conglomerate gold refers to nuggets hosted in rock containing rounded gray quartz pebbles and other minerals. The world’s most productive gold region, South Africa’s Witwatersrand Basin, is famous for its similar geological formation.

The news comes after panning at the company’s  Coolyia Creek and Beasley Creek projects revealed fine-grained gold from bulk samples of stream sediments draining the Hardey and Mt Roe conglomerates.

Nickel explorer St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) continued its run after yesterday putting on 21 per cent to 14.5c.

This morning the stock gained another 30 per cent to 17.5c.

St George yesterday confirmed tests showed “multiple significant intersections of high-grade nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE mineralisation” at its Mt Alexander Project.

“We are very pleased to see laboratory assays confirming the thick intersections of high-grade nickel-copper sulphides at Stricklands from the recently completed drill program,” said St George Mining chairman John Prineas said.

Shares in Integrated Research (ASX:IRI) surged 9 per cent to $3.45 in early trade as it told the ASX it knew of no reason for the recent sell off in its shares.

IRI shares fell to as low as $3.05 Monday, sold off partly on the back of the recent selling of Technology One which was hit by investor unease over the impact of accounting changes on earnings.

Alaska-focused oil explorer 88 Energy (ASX:88E) has continued a fairly steady eight-month share price march. 88 Energy today reported “encouraging” results from the latest drilling at a well at its Alaskan Project Icewine site.

The shares have nearly tripled since October. This morning they put on 9 per cent to an intraday high of 5c.

Tests indicated the well’s fracture system had “not undergone degradation” which meant “no remedial action will be required prior to commencement of flowback [a fraccing procedure]”.

Operations were “now in full swing” and flowback fraccing remained on schedule to start June 11.

Mount Ridley Mines (ASX:MRD) gained 25 per cent to 0.5c after an exploration update at its gold project near Esperance, WA.

Mount Ridley plans to start Air Core drilling of 100 holes to resolve underlying geology and locate the source of the surface gold geochemistry.

The drill rig has been mobilised to the site with support crews and drilling is due to start tomorrow morning.

Here’s a snapshot of the best performing ASX small caps at 12.15pm AEST Tuesday Jun 5:

GOING DOWN

AVZ Minerals (ASX:AVZ) has been heading south this week amid speculation on investor forums about delays and distribution costs.

The stock fell another 7 per cent to an intraday low of 11c today compared to 30c in mid-March.

The Congo-focused lithium miner was the most heavily traded stock on the ASX this morning with 26 million shares changing hands by 11.30am.

“The herd is running panicked and blind right now,” said one investor on Hot Copper.

AVZ boss Klaus Eckhof said on Monday that drilling at its Manono lithium project in the Congo was “building nicely” ahead of maiden resource numbers due next month.

“The drilling data set is now building nicely and will be forwarded to the independent consultants in June allowing a maiden resources calculation to be completed in July,” Mr Eckhof said.

Here’s a snapshot of the worst performing ASX small caps at 12.15pm AEST Tuesday Jun 5:

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