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Good morning everyone, and welcome to August 9, 2024 – an important date in the history of moral panics.

It was on this day in 1483 that the Sistine Chapel was opened in Rome, to much fanfare and celebration – although it was noted that the ceiling inside the chapel looked “a little bit bare” at the time.

That’s why, in 1508 Pope Julius II called in local graffiti expert Michaelangelo, and told him to paint some people up there, to brighten the place up a bit.

Michaelangelo was originally only tasked with painting figures of the 12 Apostles, but – as with most renovations – there was a bit of the dreaded “scope creep” and by the time he was done, the artist had covered just about every available square inch with about 300 mostly-nude Biblical figures.

This caused quite a bit of consternation among the assembled priests, who found the nude paintings offensive. Or distracting. Or something… I’m not sure.

Anyway, eventually the more prudish among them won the day, and brought in another artist, Daniele da Volterra, who spent months painting pants and strategically placed fig leaves on every set of genitals he could find.

The latter artist’s work was, thankfully, undone during restoration work hundreds of years later, so now visitors are able to be aggressively shushed by priests as they sit in the chapel and marvel at how detailed Michaelangelo’s painstakingly painted peckers really are.

Luckily for you, you won’t have to have a portrait of your dirty bits painted on the ceiling of a church in order to get your hands on good pre-market info today.

That’s because – as always – we’ve worked super-hard to gather together lots of fiddly little things below, so you don’t need to go ferreting all over the internet for your ASX info this morning.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,394.20  (+0.40%)

Silver: US$26.93(+1.08%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,233/t (-0.93%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,640/t (-1.28%)

Zinc: US$2,585/t (+0.70%)

Oil (WTI): US$75.44 (+0.30%)

Oil (Brent): US$78.44 (+0.15%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$99.45/t (-1.48%)

AUD/USD: 0.6557 (+0.03%)

Bitcoin: US$$57,471 (+0.3%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Despite the recent downturn, there’s still a handful of ressies doing well – and here’s the best of them from yesterday, to whet your appetite for today.

 

 

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:

Ovanti (ASX:OVT) was climbing this morning after delivering an update on some allegedly embezzled funds, revealing that court action is looming to recover approximately $6.5 million that the company has identified as missing, with a further $15.9 million in transfers out of its Malaysian subsidiaries that are being investigated.

Heavy Minerals (ASX:HVY) was one of today’s biggest market winners after completing Tranche 1 of non-dilutive royalty funding, raising a total of $2.1m. It’s executed a royalty agreement with Campbell Transport and raised $1.25m, adding to the previously raised $850,000 from investors so it can keep plugging away at its flagship Port Gregory garnet project near Geraldton, WA.

The royalty funding and cap raise clears the path for HVY to complete a PFS and kick off a bankable feasibility study for defined 166Mt at 4% total heavy minerals containing 5.9Mt of garnet.

Early doors findings from Kali Metals’ (ASX:KM1) review of historic drill core databases have revealed multiple spodumene occurrences at its Spargoville project in the Higginsville lithium district in WA, where Mineral Resources’ (ASX:MIN) 26.5Mt Bald Hill and 71.3Mt Mt Marion lithium operations are producing.

KM1 has pinpointed 170 pegmatite intervals that occur in 41 diamond drill holes and 37 RC holes, mainly west of Spargo’s Reward and says it will hit the ground to investigate the prospectivity further.

Four new copper and nickel targets have been sounded out at Asian Battery Metals’ (ASX: AZ9) Yambat project in Mongolia as the explorer has completed just over half of its 2500m drill campaign at the Oval prospect within the tenure. Meanwhile, while conducting regional exploration to the north of Oval, at a prospect now named Copper Ridge, gold mineralisation is showing up and has spurred the junior to get boots on the ground to investigate further.

 

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:

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TRADING HALTS 

Great Western Exploration (ASX:GTE) – pending the release of an announcement to the market regarding a fund raising.

Medallion Metals (ASX:MM8) – pending an announcement in relation to a capital raising.

St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) – pending an announcement correcting mis-information circulating in the market in relation to the Araxa Project.

BPH Energy (ASX:BPH) – pending a material announcement for the purpose of considering, planning and executing a capital raising.

Actinogen Medical (ASX:ACW) –  pending an announcement of the results of the XanaCIDD Phase-2a clinical trial.

Vertex Minerals (ASX:VTX) – pending release of an announcement in relation to a proposed capital raising.

Pacific Smiles (ASX:PSQ) – pending an announcement to the market regarding the outcome of a Scheme Meeting held at 11:30am, 8 August 2024.

Kincora Copper (ASX:KCC) – pending the execution of a material joint venture agreement.

PharmX Technologies (ASX:PHX) – pending an announcement regarding an impending decision of the Supreme Court of Victoria involving its wholly owned subsidiaries, Corum Systems and PharmX.

Woomera Mining (ASX:WML) – pending an announcement regarding a corporate transaction and capital raising.

Sarytogan Graphite (ASX:SGA) – pending release of an announcement regarding a capital raising.

 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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