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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to September 9, 2024 – an important date in the history of the always-happening wars between the Crown and the Church.

That’s because it was on this day in 1303 that King Philip IV of France finally managed to capture Pope Boniface VIII, after months of unsuccessful attempts to nab the holy man off the street.

According to some historians, Philip IV exhausted all the normal avenues for apprehending a slippery servant of the Lord, including the use of comically large nets to scoop him off the street, or waiting until Pope Boniface wandered to within range of the castle at Fontainebleau before hoisting a massive bible at his head.

In the end, however, the French King decided to go Ol’ Skool when he got tired of waiting for the pope to blunder into the giant artificial spider’s web the King had ordered to have constructed across the door to the Pope’s bathroom.

Instead, King Philip gathered a crew of heavies and popped round to the Pope’s place, and after a brief but violent struggle, the Pope was detained and held captive by the King.

It is unclear why the pair were fighting, but knowing those two, it was probably over something dumb like whose turn it was to scrub out the toilets at the palace.

Luckily for you, you won’t have to kick the Pope’s door down and take him hostage 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$2,487.12/oz (-1.20%)

Silver: US$27.92/oz (-3.14%)

Nickel (3mth): US$15,907/t (-1.13%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,012/t (+0.38%)

Zinc: US$2,705/t (-1.02%)

Oil (WTI): US$67.67/bbl (-2.14%)

Oil (Brent): US$71.06/bbl (-2.24%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$92.20/t (+1.30%)

AUD/USD: 0.669 (+0.04%)

Bitcoin: US$54,430.92 (+1.06%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Resources took a monstrous hammering last week – but there were a few that managed to buck the trend. These are their stories…

Resources Top 5: Osmond stocks initiate warp speed on Orion buy > https://t.co/eVhkJMChM8

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) September 6, 2024

FRIDAY’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:

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
LPD	Lepidico Ltd	0.002	100%	8,706,381	$8,589,125
CRB	Carbine Resources	0.004	33%	277,292	$1,655,213
EDE	Eden Inv Ltd	0.002	33%	500,373	$6,162,314
SMM	Somerset Minerals	0.004	33%	250,075	$3,092,996
EMD	Emyria Limited	0.048	33%	2,205,615	$14,723,618
AIV	Activex Limited	0.009	29%	310,000	$1,508,518
EME	Energy Metals Ltd	0.088	26%	4,455,774	$14,677,832
1CG	One Click Group Ltd	0.010	25%	97,800	$5,625,431
ECT	Env Clean Tech Ltd.	0.003	25%	218,047	$6,343,621
FGH	Foresta Group	0.005	25%	617,225	$9,421,516
IVX	Invion Ltd	0.003	25%	231,500	$13,275,731
TSL	Titanium Sands Ltd	0.005	25%	134,481	$8,846,989
TYX	Tyranna Res Ltd	0.005	25%	200,000	$13,151,701
VRC	Volt Resources Ltd	0.005	25%	2,513,110	$16,634,713
H2G	Greenhy2 Limited	0.006	20%	1,000,226	$2,990,921
SVG	Savannah Goldfields	0.025	19%	115,589	$5,902,783
PBL	Parabellumresources	0.045	18%	62,940	$2,367,400
SES	Secos Group Ltd	0.021	17%	216,544	$10,738,980
TAT	Tartana Minerals Ltd	0.029	16%	71,595	$4,566,147
M2R	Miramar	0.015	15%	8,547,843	$5,132,134
RSH	Respiri Limited	0.030	15%	1,446,797	$33,403,992
EVS	Envirosuite Ltd	0.062	15%	6,263,130	$68,486,699
MME	Moneyme Limited	0.120	14%	473,673	$84,008,240
SGI	Stealth Grp Holding	0.340	13%	1,898,698	$34,618,663
NOX	Noxopharm Limited	0.130	13%	776,198	$33,607,364

Friday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Osmond Resources (ASX:OSM) surged 160% after emerging from a halt and revealing its acquisition of an 80% stake in Iberian Critical Minerals, which holds the Orion EU critical minerals project in Spain. The project has promising deposits of rutile, zircon, and rare earths. The EU currently lacks local production for these critical materials, making the acquisition significant for the industry.

Prominence Energy (ASX:PRM) was also climbing on news that Hartshead Resources has taken up a strategic investment in Prominence, in a private placement to HHR of $389,000 (before costs), giving HHR a 19.9% stake in the company. Managing Director Alex Parks has indicated that he will be leaving the company, while Bevan Tarratt has joined PRM as Executive Director and Quinton Meyers has also agreed to join PRM as a Non-Executive Director.

Marquee Resources (ASX:MQR) has revealed that it has recently completed a slim-line RC drilling program at the Redlings Rare-Earth Element project, with assays coming back from the lab showing 10 holes from this first sample batch have each returned + 10m at >1,000ppm TREO, including multiple near surface intercepts with peak assays of up to 5,850 ppm TREO.

Axel REE (ASX:AXL) was up on an announcement that a geological reconnaissance and scouting program at its 100% owned, highly prospective and unexplored Itiquira Project is imminent, as the company goes in search of REE and niobium in Brazil. The project has 396km2 of granted exploration permits covering a significant portion of the Itiquira Complex, which is where the Araxá niobium mine is owned by CBMM, the world’s largest niobium producer and which accounts for approximately 80% of global supply.

Energy Resources of Australia (ASX:ERA) rose after minorities launched a Takeovers Panel application attempting to stop Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO), its 86% shareholder, from upping its voting power to 99.2% via an $880m entitlement offer. Zentree Investments and Packer & Co are using their combined almost 12% votes to allege that the mining giant is “taking advantage” of its position to take over ERA.

ERA ceased production at the Ranger uranium mine after a 40-year mine life that produced over 132,000 tonnes of U3O8, but minorities want to negotiate the development of the nearby Jabiluka mine, long opposed by the Mirarr traditional owners and that ERA has said it will not build as long as the Mirarr are opposed.

QMines (ASX:QML) said maiden metallurgical test work at its Develin Creek project near Rockhampton, QLD has successfully produced saleable copper and pyrite concentrates. The company in late 2023 engaged Como Engineers to supervise a test work program on drill core sourced from the project to define the metallurgical response of the Develin Creek deposit with respect to the process flowsheet for the proposed Mount Chalmers flotation plant.

This work successfully produced a copper concentrate containing 20% copper, which is higher than the targeted 15%, and a pyrite concentrate with 51% sulphur.

Gold explorer Predictive Discovery (ASX:PDI) also jumped after announcing that Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) has boosted its stake in the Guinea gold explorer to 19.9%.

FRIDAY’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:

Code	Name	Price	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
LSR	Lodestar Minerals	0.001	-50%	6,704,316	$5,301,560
BNL	Blue Star Helium Ltd	0.004	-33%	7,937,638	$11,669,312
BP8	Bph Global Ltd	0.002	-33%	483	$1,189,924
GCM	Green Critical Min	0.002	-33%	4,850,000	$4,405,628
FAL	Falconmetalsltd	0.220	-27%	2,540,090	$53,100,000
BCT	Bluechiip Limited	0.003	-25%	5,314,298	$4,728,158
MTL	Mantle Minerals Ltd	0.002	-25%	2,022,225	$12,394,892
WBE	Whitebark Energy	0.007	-22%	960	$2,271,001
ADG	Adelong Gold Limited	0.004	-20%	1,022,000	$5,589,945
AHN	Athena Resources	0.004	-20%	16,529	$5,352,338
EOF	Ecofibre Limited	0.025	-19%	11,985	$11,745,091
EMS	Eastern Metals	0.026	-19%	1,170,717	$3,637,640
SPQ	Superior Resources	0.009	-18%	2,055,334	$22,013,425
ICI	Icandy Interactive	0.023	-18%	1,410,341	$37,655,547
OPL	Opyl Limited	0.015	-17%	102,180	$3,072,863
HOR	Horseshoe Metals Ltd	0.005	-17%	3,747,290	$3,979,690
PUR	Pursuit Minerals	0.003	-17%	750,000	$10,906,200
ROG	Red Sky Energy.	0.005	-17%	15,889,954	$32,533,363
TX3	Trinex Minerals Ltd	0.003	-17%	410,000	$5,485,957
CRN	Coronado Global Res	0.915	-16%	11,946,573	$1,835,716,834
8VI	8Vi Holdings Limited	0.057	-16%	30	$2,849,977
LLI	Loyal Lithium Ltd	0.105	-16%	322,827	$11,591,633
HMD	Heramed Limited	0.022	-15%	65,000	$16,464,495
TSI	Top Shelf	0.050	-15%	270,924	$19,181,334
KPO	Kalina Power Limited	0.009	-15%	2,228,913	$24,863,940

TRADING HALTS

Rimfire Pacific Mining (ASX:RIM) – pending an announcement by the Company to the market regarding material information relating to the Golden Plains Resources court case.

Galan Lithium (ASX:GLN) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raise.

Equinox Resources (ASX:EQN) – pending an announcement regarding a proposed acquisition.

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.