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Good morning everyone, and welcome to 17 April, 2024 – an important date in the history of the gentle and noble sport of boxing, as it was on this day in 1860 that a fight took place that is recognised as the first ever world title fight.

There’s a lot to be said about the match-up, between the champion of England, Tom Sayers, and American John Heenan – but most notably that the fight was, technically, illegal.

But that didn’t stop an eager crowd of spectators assembling at London’s train stations, purchasing tickets for the train – with those tickets marked “to nowhere” – to ride the rails to get to an otherwise unremarkable field outside a village called Farnborough.

It was there that the two combatants prepared for the fight, stripped to the waist and equally bare-knuckled, the 6ft 2in 195lb Heenan towering over the diminutive Englishman, a relatively miniscule 5ft 8in and 149lb.

The fight itself was about as brutal as you’d expect it to be – and took a lot longer than anyone had expected it to.

Severely battered and bloody, both men were still keen for the fight to continue, but local police had converged on the site and were ready to start making arrests, a full two hours and 27 minutes of horrific violent beating after the fight began.

And so, it was declared a draw, both fighters making separate escapes from the police after it was hurriedly decided that they could split the £400 fight purse – but neither of them were the same again.

Heenan’s eyes were so badly injured that he spent 48 hours in a darkened hotel room, waiting for his sight to return, before making his way back to the US, where he died in poverty in 1873, aged just 38.

Sayers met his end even sooner, after refusing to ever take to the boxing ring again, he also died in poverty just five years after the brawl, aged 39.

And thus, the sport of international boxing was born – and what a pleasant development that’s been for the human race.

Luckily for you, though, you won’t need to fight to get all you need to know stuffed into that punch-free noggin of yours before the market opens this morning.

The omniscient Guy Le Page wants to know if there’s any appetite for a slice of tasty American yellowcake and reporting season is under way. Josh has previews of what to expect from the Big End of Town, and Reuben’s more of a gold guy.

On top of all that, I’ve fired up a tired old laptop to shake the internet hard enough for a bunch of data to fall out and written it all down in some kind of order, so hopefully it all makes sense.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,385.17 (-0.07%)

Silver: US$28.12 (-0.35%)

Nickel (3mth): US$17,846/t (+0.28%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,576/t (+1.25%)

Oil (WTI): US$85.28 (-0.15%)

Oil (Brent): US$89.99 (-0.12%)

Iron ore: US$109.90/t (-2.1%)

AUD/USD: 0.6406 (-0.61%)

Bitcoin: US$63,694 (+1.17%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Josh Chiat caught up with Impact Minerals’ “mad scientist” Roland Gotthard, for a unique look into the kitchen that has the company really cooking.

 

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks:

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Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Explorer Dalaroo (ASX:DAL) rose after reporting a +200m long gold find at Goodbody West, part of the Lyons River project in the Gascoyne region of WA. The best of the results include 5m @ 0.85g/t Au from 9m, including 1m @ 1.83g/t Au from 9m and 1m @ 1.23g/t Au from 12m – a happy amount of gold and not far from the surface.

Hawsons Iron (ASX:HIO) revealed to the market that seven potential strategic investors had been handed a 350-page Information Memorandum, containing a comprehensive review of results from activity undertaken in line with the company’s strategic review, issued in February last year.

Western Mines Group (ASX:WMG) said assay results revealed the company is onto broad zones of nickel sulphide mineralisation – elevated Ni and S coincident with highly anomalous Cu and PGE, including a cumulative assay from one drill hole that totalled 184m at 0.27% Ni, 126ppm Co, 82ppm Cu, 18ppb Pt+Pd with S:Ni 0.9.

Locality Planning Energy (ASX:LPE) was rising on news of an unsolicited and “opportunistic” off-market takeover offer from River Capital, which the company has directed shareholders to ignore.

And Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR) announced a new high-grade discovery it’s dubbed the Pepper prospect only about a week after announcing visible gold sited 1km under Spartan’s Never Never deposit in the Murchison region of WA. That, reports the company, is a high-grade lode intersected immediately south of Never Never and has revealed similar high-grade mineralisation and grades. The Never Never gold deposit, and this new Pepper find, by the way, falls within the company’s 100%-owned Dalgaranga Gold Project.

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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TRADING HALTS 

Summit Minerals (ASX:SUM) – ending an announcement, as Summit is in the process of finalising an acquisition.

Alpha HPA (ASX:A4N) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a material development in relation to financing support for Stage 2 of the HPA First Project.

Macquarie Technology Group (ASX:MAQ) – pending an announcement in connection with a strategic land acquisition and a proposed equity raising.

Challenger Gold (ASX:CEL) – pending the release of a material announcement in relation to a capital raising.

Titan Minerals (ASX:TTM) – pending the release of an announcement in relation to a proposed joint venture transaction.

RPM Automotive (ASX:RPM) – pending an announcement by the Company in relation to a capital raising.

Cobalt Blue Holdings (ASX:COB) – pending an announcement regarding a capital raising.

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