Good morning, and good luck handling those post Day-Off, Back to Work For One Day blues.

The good news is market watchers appear pretty bouyant about today’s action on the ASX, with SPI Futures up 31 points. That’s after a 22-point drop yesterday, so technically it’s a net +9 point pip since the last time locals took it seriously. Still good.

Put a lot of that down to the CPI read on Wednesday, which strongly hinted at at least one more rate rise in February.

US markets gave us a solid lead though, with the Dow up 0.61%, and the S&P 500 up 1.1%.

The big green tick went to the NASDAQ though, up 2% as Tesla soared (+10.97%), after beating earnings estimates and posting record revenue figures, and, as Insider puts it, “Elon Musk acting like a normal CEO” on the call.

All the major Euro markets were in the green too. No excuses today then.

Commodities followed suit across the board as well, with *checks notes* tin leading the charge, up 4.5%, while copper continued to climb on supply conerns. The only loser was gold, hit by a strengthening US Dollar.

The Aussie dollar rose 0.15% to 71.15c.

Crypto couldn’t give a rat’s about Australia Day and clearly has no semblance of a hangover. It’s rolling along just fine for the moment, pretty much where we left it the other day. Bitcoin is still teasing bulls and bears around the US$23k level, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index is still a bit of a head-scratching Neutral, and several altcoins, including Aptos and Fantom, have been outperforming the market over the past day or three.

ASX stocks to watch

Strandline Resources (ASX:STA)

Strandline has completed the second shipment of Heavy Mineral Concentrate (HMC) from its Coburn mineral sands project in WA, with around 8,600 metric tonnes (wet) of HMC product, containing valuable minerals of zircon sand, titanium ores and rare earth monazite, loaded at the Port of Geraldton.

The shipment is part of the company’s plan to transition into ore commissioning of the downstream MSP, with HMC product expected to be progressively introduced into the MSP in February – while product rates continue to ramp up at the mine, targeting nameplate capacity.

The value of the shipment is ~A$8 million CIF, with sales proceeds expected to be received within seven days.

Aguia Resources (ASX:AGR)

The miner has nabbed a $570,000 grant from the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology’s Research’s Study and Project Funding Agency (FINEP) to fund its work on green copper processing technologies (bio leaching and ore sorting) at its copper projects.

MD Dr Fernando Tallarico said the grant “demonstrates not only Aguia’s outstanding reputation in Brazil, but also the willingness of the Brazilian Government to support advanced technology, and innovative environmentally sustainable mining projects.”

Aguia’s contribution will be around A$200,000.

Elementos (ASX:ELT)

The company has kicked off exploration at its Oropesa Tin Project with an eight-hole program targeting shallow extensions to the Mineral Resource.

This follows the recent 10-hole infill drilling and geotechnical drill program in 2022, with ELT awaiting one batch of assays to finalise an update to the 2021 MRE and support Oropesa’s Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS).

“Exploration is underway during a time when the tin price is surging, based on what appears to be a return to fundamental supply-demand analysis which shows a significant deficit in the tin market from 2024/2025 onwards,” MD Joe David said.

Adavale Resources (ASX:ADD)

The explorer has intercepted nickel sulphide host rocks at the Hem 2 target of its Kabanga Jirani Nickel Project in Tanzania.
“The drilling provided a clear indication that the potential to host a more ‘primitive’ nickel sulphide rich ultramafic component exists at HEM 2 at depth and further to the east from the area currently drilled,” executive director David Riekie says.

“This area to the east will most definitely be the focus of exploration at the HEM 2 target in 2023.”

A soil geochemical survey has commenced and ADD has arranged a Downhole EM (DHEM) contractor to test the four completed drillholes in February 2023 – with diamond drilling to follow.

Dreadnought Resources (ASX:DRE)

Regional surface sampling has extended the current strike of the Yin Rare Earth Element (REE) Ironstone Complex by 30% to ~43km of strike at the Mangaroon project, in WA, emphasising the “ever-increasing scale of the critical minerals,” MD Dean Tuck says.

“With only one surface sampling program we have: increased the mineralised ironstones by over 40%; confirmed increasing NdPr:TREO ratios at Yin; discovered two new ironstones at Y9 and Y42; and confirmed that the C7 carbonatite is mineralised.”

“With over 43km of mineralised ironstones, a multi-metal, regional source at C3 and six more potential source carbonatites, we are extremely excited about what the drill rigs will deliver for us in 2023.”

Drilling will kick off in February/March.

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