Rise and Shine: Everything you need to know before the ASX opens

On Stockhead today, Australian miners are increasingly recognising the ASX-worthy prospects of South East Asia’s largely resources industry and are more willing to become a part of its mining ecosystem.

FTA’s inked with these ‘hidden dragons’ have now given an actual layer of protection for companies and investors –  unheard of a few decades ago – our man in the field, Cameron Drummond reports. With foreign mining investment flows into SE Asia more advanced and flexible, a quietly ambitious flurry of ASX-listed explorers are lining up to become SEA-Worthy.

The Canadians are undoubtedly muscling in right across the world of mining and exploration, so in the spirit of Canadian director James Cameron’s The Commonwealth Strikes Back – we’re striking back – by Unearthing Them: Reuben’s always kept his working eye on rocks ‘n stocks listed in Canada -mostly on the TSX and TSX.V. – and while they’re having a crap run, he says there’s still plenty of winners in the smaller end of Toronto, resources-wise.

But first, the day ahead.

TRADING HALTS

The following stocks went into trading halts Monday and are expected out in the coming days:

Sacgasco (ASX:SGC) – Capital raising.

Blue Star Helium (ASX:BNL) – Gas processing agreement announcement.

Stavely Minerals (ASX:SVY) – Capital raising.

Kairos Minerals (ASX:KAI) – Capital raising.

Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) – Material exploration results from its Aileron Project in the West Arunta.

Raiden Resources (ASX:RDN) – Acquisition of additional ground around its Roebourne Project.

Titomic (ASX: TTT) – Capital raising.

Quantum Graphite (ASX:QGL) – Thermal testing on samples of Uley Graphite results to report.

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: $US1915.20 (-0.87%)

Silver: $US22.47 (-0.82%)

Nickel (3mth): $US24,025/t (+2.02%)

Copper (3mth): $US9002.50/t (+0.27%)

Oil (WTI): $US69.27 (-4.49%)

Oil (Brent): $US74.13 (-3.90%)

Iron 62pc Fe: $US114.50/t (-1.72%)

AUD/USD: 0.6756  (-0.56%)

Bitcoin: $US30,083 (-0.86%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING?

Galan Lithium has taken a major step towards the construction of Argentina’s next major lithium brine operations, receiving development permits for the first stage of the Hombre Muerto West project. https://t.co/RSMmxC0Uzf #ad #ASX $GLN @GalanLithium

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) June 26, 2023

Keep up to date with Stockhead coverage or you’ll miss gold like that EVERY DAY. Follow our Twitter page.

For all you crypto lovers Stockhead’s Coinhead Facebook group is the place to share your views, insights, tips and ideas.

Also, be sure to check in preopen each day for ‘Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch’, and 10.30am for our daily ‘10 at 10’ column — a live summary of winners & losers at the opening bell.

MONDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

There is zero doubt that the day belonged to Metal Hawk (ASX:MHK), which climbed more than 140% on news that the company has hit wide zones of Rare Earth Element (REE) saprolite enrichment identified from maiden aircore drilling program at Fraser South.

The results are pretty juicy, including:

• 26m @ 1526ppm TREO from 16m to EOH, incl. 8m @ 3101ppm TREO from 32m
• 13m @ 1202ppm TREO from 36m, incl. 5m @ 2298ppm TREO from 44m
• 8m @ 1087ppm TREO from 36m and 10m @ 1781ppm TREO from 52m
• 19m @ 816ppm TREO from 8m, incl. 3m @ 2840ppm TREO from 24m to EOH

On top of that, the company reports that the mineralised intervals have an average of 20.5% Magnetic Rare Earth Oxides (MREO), and that the high grades of up to 4120ppm Total Rare Earth Element Oxides (TREO) 1 from 4m composite sampling confirms it’s a good spot.

Big in Sweden, Ragnar Metals (ASX:RAG) jumped 35% on Monday – with a lot to unpack – no less than 5 market-moving announcements in the space of 90 seconds and while the fickle truth of it all is known only to Reubs and his cabal of dedicated readers, this is the shell of it:

Dormant all year, RAG snapped up four lithium and REE projects and unloaded the ‘Tullsta’ nickel assets to mining major BHP for $9.8m.

The lightly explored ‘Halleberget’ and ‘Bergom’ hard rock lithium projects include low grade, but promising, surface sampling results like up to 0.473% Li2O, 196 ppm Ta and 4.48% Sn.

The ‘Olserum’ and ‘Gruvhagen’ REE projects come with historical exploration results of up to 3.7% TREO, including very high heavy REE and Nd/Pr ratios.

RAG is also about to sell its more advanced Tullsta project, also in Sweden, to mining behemoth BHP for a tidy $9.8m. RAG will retain a 1% smelter royalty, which BHP can buy for another $10m.

Limestone explorer Cassius Mining (ASX:CMD), on Monday reported 80% of drill assays from the ‘Soalara’ limestone project in Madagascar have returned an average grade of 97.44% calcium carbonate, classifying it as “high purity” limestone.

High (97-98.5%) to very high purity (+98.5%) limestone sequences remain open at 100m depth in all 9 holes, the company says, which has investors excited enough to drive up its price a tidy 35% for the day.

“With all nine vertical core holes to date confirming flat-bedded geology, encountering multiple thick sequences of Limestone at very shallow depths in every single hole in the two highest categories of purity and remaining open at depth in every hole, we are extremely optimistic on the future success of the project,” Cassius CEO James Arkoudis says.

“With the initial MRE scheduled for July, we are confident the outcome will raise many options for our forward work program, including consideration of development plans with or without potential JV partners,” Arkoudis said, not unlike the Cassius who got the ball rolling re: assassination of Julius Caesar.

TODAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the least best performing ASX small cap stocks:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort: