After a promising start, local markets have slid to just below zero, the weekend was bonkers for anyone trying to stay on top of the news cycle out of the US and – as much as it might have been entertaining to keep going with our breathless reporting of Elon Musk’s wanton desire to drive Twitter into the ground like a tack, there’s a limit to the lunacy we’re prepared to indulge.

So, let’s instead just take some time to be thankful for the day that just happened, catch you up on a few bibs and bobs that might have escaped your attention and then settle in for an evening of unparalleled horizontality, grab some sleep and be ready for Tuesdays, because they’re always difficult… and tomorrow, it’s gonna be just that little bit more crowded than it was around here today.

 

FROM THE HEADLINES

Are you ready to celebrate a massive milestone in human history? We hope so because at some point tomorrow (15 November, 2022) the world’s population will tick over to lovely, round 8 billion people.

The ABC has put together a wonderfully-crafted and immensely positive presentation about it – which, of course, is actually a massive bummer about how it’s actually a bit of a tipping point and that it’s alllll downhill for humanity from here, unless something happens and a huge chunk of us die off.

Just quietly, it’s entirely possible that comedian Bill Burr got it entirely correct with his assessment of the global overpopulation problem a few years ago, by suggesting that if we just start to sink cruise ships, overpopulation would become a thing of the past.

No doubt the residents of Sydney would be giving it at least a passing glance as a solution, in light of the fact that they’ve just had a cruise ship with 800 Covid-positive people on board pull up in Sydney Harbour, and those passengers allowed to just wander off to start coughing up lungs among the rest of the population.

And speaking of health issues, news out of the US yesterday about disgraced former Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes, who is due to appear for sentencing on 18 November in federal court in San Jose, California, nearly a year after she was convicted of three felony counts of wire fraud and one felony count of conspiracy to commit fraud.

ABC News (not our one…  the other one) is reporting that when Holmes does show, prosecutors are set to ask the sentencing judge to put Holmes away for 15 years, after she chose “lies, hype and the prospect of billions of dollars over patient safety and fair dealing with investors”.

 

LAST ORDERS

Righto – Finder Energy Holdings (ASX:FDR) has had a bit of corro with the ASX over recent weeks, largely due to a Please Explain over the price and volume movements in the days leading up to 02 November.

The ASX in particular made note of a hike in the volume of FDR shares being traded, and a price increase from $0.094 on 31 October 2022 to an intra-day high of $0.15 on 02 November, and wanted to ask if there was something the rest of the class had missed.

Today, we got FDR’s full explanation, and it all hinges on when FDR was satisfied that a deal being negotiated had been finalised, and whether it was necessary (or even in a position) to release details of what was on the negotiation table at the time.

FDR says initial talks began way back in May 2022 – when the counterparty and Finder “entered into a Confidentiality Agreement permitting the counterparty to be given FDR’s confidential information relating to licences P2527, P2528 and P2530”.

“Given the identity of the counterparty, being a foreign government investor, those negotiations were conducted on the basis that there was no final or binding arrangement capable of coming into place unless and until the counterparty had obtained board and shareholder approvals for any transaction,” FDR adds.

Talks continued through September and into late October, and things were kept under wraps in the meantime as the agreement still needed the counterparty’s board and shareholder approval – and until that time, there was no guarantee that anything would be happening at all.

Then the price started to move around a bit, as noted by the ASX – however, FDR says complied at all times with its published continuous disclosure policy, and when it did finally receive the transaction documents in good order on the evening of 07 November, the announcement went out in time for market open on the 8th.

While it doesn’t quite 100% account for the sudden shift in price and volume prior to that announcement being made, FDR’s made the case that until the deal was stitched up completely, there was no need to drip-feed info about it out into the wild – we’ll see what the ASX has to say about it in due course.

Meanwhile, Vertex Minerals (ASX:VTX) has announced results from the 4th hole (Par 5, over water with a tricky dogleg, runs alongside the parking lot away from the clubhouse) at its Red Hill Project, returning 2m at 3.84g/t from 42m down hole and 15m at 1.4g/t from 67m down hole, including 1m at 8.25g/t from 70m, 1m at 2.68g/t from 77m and 1m at 1.30g/t from 67m.

And Lycopodium (ASX:LYL) is pleased to announce the execution of the contract to provide Engineering and Procurement and associated Project Management services for Leo Lithium’s (ASX:LLL) Goulamina Lithium Project Stage 1 in the Bougouni Region of southern Mali.

 

TRADING HALTS

Classic Minerals (ASX:CLZ) – CLZ has announcements relating to government approval for the Kat Gap processing plant on the way.

Globe Metals & Mining (ASX:GBE) – Capital raise.

Orbital Corporation (ASX:OEC) – Capital raise.

South Harz Potash (ASX:SHP) – Capital raise.

WA1 Resources (ASX:WA1) – More results on the way for WA1.

Magmatic Resources (ASX:MAG) – Capital raise.

Southern Gold (ASX:SAU) – Capital raise.

The GO2 People (ASX:GO2) – Capital raise.

Zenith Minerals (ASX:ZNC) – Zenith has “significant lithium drill results” on the way from its Split Rocks project.

Burley Minerals (ASX:BUR) – And lastly, Burley’s got some news about an acquisition. Neato.

 

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