Sponsored by Saxo

 

Good morning everyone, and welcome to 19 April, 2024 – an important date in the history of absurdly horrendous science, as it was on this date in 1619 that the city of Amsterdam opened the doors to one of its most curious buildings: the Theatricum Anatoticum.

You don’t need to be fluent in Latin to figure out what that translates to – but because it’s probably early in the morning when you’re reading this, it means Theatre of Anatomy, and it provided a space for fee-paying students and medical professionals to go and watch someone cut up a dead body, and talk about all the bits that came tumbling out.

The dissection itself was normally performed by a qualified man of science – or, in some instances, a very enthusiastic hobbyist – and it rapidly became much more popular than you could reasonably expect.

In later years, the requirement that an audience member be qualified, or studying towards some kind of medical degree went out the window, and before long it was seen by everyday residents of Amsterdam as a pretty decent afternoon excursion.

Kind of how most modern people would view a Sunday arvo trip to the cinema, only with less popcorn and a whole panoply of horrendous sights and odours to contend with – which, by quantity, would probably be around the same number as one might expect in a crowded movie theatre in modern times.

The fact that this is a notable event in Amsterdam’s already-weird history is overshadowed somewhat by the fact that this one wasn’t even the first theatre of it’s kind in The Netherlands.

An older one exists in the Dutch city of Leiden, which is where the earliest Dutch hipsters lived, because they were into watching people cutting up dead bodies for fun, like, years before those tryhards in Amsterdam.

Luckily for you, today’s lessons on the ASX are nowhere near as confronting, or gory – the likelihood of emerging from reading one of our great stories this morning spattered in someone else’s blood is vanishingly slim.

But not zero… just so we’re clear, and in case something happens. Not that it will, it’s just that it almost definitely won’t. Almost.

Josh has spoken to Lowell Resources Fund chief investment officer John Forwood and he reckons we’re on the cusp of ‘an everything rally’, plus Bevis has put pen to paper and typed up his illuminating report on what’s happening in the Energy market.

And I, gentle reader, have spent several gruelling minutes compiling some data, digits and highlights – all listed below – to help kickstart your morning better than two short blacks and a mega-bran muffin.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,379.06 (+0.75%)

Silver: US$28.45 (+0.75%)

Nickel (3mth): US$18,482.00/t (+3.48%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,573.50/t (+2.55%)

Oil (WTI): US$81.50 (-1.39%)

Oil (Brent): US$86.62 (-0.76%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$107.30/t (+1.15%)

AUD/USD: 0.6448 (+0.14%)

Bitcoin: US$60,991.30 (-0.45%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

 

Some Swedish boffins did a thing! They made a new semiconductor material called goldene – like graphene, but made from gold – and it could be a complete game changer for green hydrogen production.

 

YESTERDAY’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:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Nimy Resources (ASX:NIM) reported promising intercepts, coming from its Block 3 prospect, a large previously unexplored 3km magnetic anomaly. At Block 3 West, NIM pulled up elevated copper (0.20%), silver (2.2g/t) and sulphur (13%) values hosted by mafic rocks, highlighting potential for Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide (VMS) deposits – which often occur in clusters within a small area and are valuable sources of copper, zinc, lead, silver, and gold. Copper, rare-earth oxides and gallium (up to 495ppm) in ultramafic rocks (MgO to 28%) were also intersected at Block 3 East.

Burley Minerals (ASX:BUR) was continuing its good fortune from Wednesday, with investors impressed by a presentation outlining the company’s plans for maiden drilling planned at its Hamersley iron ore projects, and progress from its advanced lithium exploration in Quebec.

eLearning solutions provider Readcloud (ASX:RCL) was up after delivering its March quarterly, showing a record $5.22 million in cash receipts from customers (up 44% on the March 2023 quarter), and $1.94 million positive net cash from operations, up 52% on the March 2023 quarter.

New Age Exploration (ASX:NAE) has started the search for gold at its new Wagyu gold project in WA’s Central Pilbara, where promising intrusive and structural targets akin to the nearby ‘Hemi style’ gold deposit have been identified.

Castile Resources (ASX:CST) was up on news that its 100%-owned  Rover 1 iron oxide copper gold (IOCG) project located in the historically rich copper/gold fields of the Tennant Creek region has been awarded Major Project Status (MPS) by the Northern Territory Government.

And SciDev (ASX:SDV) has delivered a positive quarterly report, showing revenue of $29.1m, up 38% on Q3 FY23 and cash receipts of $31.3 million, while cashflow from operations of $3.8 million has delivered an underlying EBITDA of $3.6 million.

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

TRADING HALTS 

Lightning Minerals (ASX:L1M) – pending an announcement in relation to a proposed acquisition and capital raising.

Brazilian Critical Minerals (ASX:BCM) ) – pending release of a Mineral Resource Estimate statement for the Ema project.

Sparc Technologies (ASX:SPN) – pending an announcement in connection with a material capital raising.

Viridis Mining and Minerals (ASX:VMM) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raising.

Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR) – halt called for the purpose of considering, planning and executing a capital raising.

Aurora Labs (ASX:A3D) – pending an announcement regarding a proposed capital raising.

Larvotto Resources (ASX:LRV) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a proposed capital raising by way of a placement.

WIA Gold (ASX:WIA) – pending an announcement in relation to a proposed capital raising.

Mighty Kingdom (ASX:MKL) –  pending an announcement regarding capital raising initiatives.

Orion Minerals (ASX:ORN) – pending a material announcement in relation to exploration results at its Okiep Copper Project.

Cyclone Metals (ASX:CLE) – pending an announcement regarding results of the pilot plant test work.

DroneShield (ASX:DRO) – pending an announcement in connection with a proposed capital raising.