Good morning everyone, and welcome to Friday, September 27, 2024 – an important date in the history of being a proper bastard.

That’s because on this day in 1066, the Duke of Normandy – aka William the Bastard – put thousands of angry French dudes in some boats and floated across the English Channel for an all-in brawl to see who was really the King of England.

The invasion took place to the obvious chagrin of King Harold II, who was already seated upon the throne of England, which wasn’t exactly built for more than one person at a time.

William, however, reckoned he totally had a legit claim to the throne, because of familial ties to the previous king, Edward the Confessor, who had become king following the death of his half-brother, King Harthacnut – don’t try to say it out loud, because it never ends well – whose other claim to fame was that he was the inventor of the humble business card, after a mispronunciation of his name resulted in a fight outside a pub.

King Edward died without siring an heir, which has led many scholars to believe that perhaps King Edward hadn’t quite confessed everything about himself, leaving Harold II to take the English throne – despite William and others deciding it shouldn’t really be Harold’s at all.

Waving a tattered photocopy of his Ancestry.com test results, William the Bastard arrived on English soil to confront King Harold and claim the throne. However, King Harold wasn’t in town to meet him, having ridden north with his army to fight off an invasion by his own brother, whose name was Tostig, and Norwegian King Harald “with an A, not an O” Hardrada.

English King Harold was victorious over those two on September 25, but just three days later on September 28, William the Bastard arrived in England forcing Harold to march south for another bloody battle, leaving behind a large number of troops to make sure no one got any silly ideas.

Two and a half weeks, a horrifying battle and one extremely long tapestry later, Willam the Bastard was upgraded to William the Conqueror when someone shot Harold in the eye with an arrow, scoring bonus damage for a precision head-shot and ending the fight.

Luckily for you, you won’t actually have to conquer England and seize the throne 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$2,674.66 (+0.68%)

Silver: US$32.46 (+2.02%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,833/t (+0.09%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,813/t (+0.17%)

Zinc: US$3,064/t (+2.24%)

Oil (WTI): US$68.02 (-2.37%)

Oil (Brent): US$71.71 (-2.34%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$99.80/t (+3.44%)

AUD/USD: 0.6875 (+0.94%)

Bitcoin: US$64,392.90 (+1.91%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Tim Boreham sat down with Recce Pharmaceuticals boss James Graham to find out what his company’s been up to in the hunt for synthetic antibiotics – which could be the answer to the rapidly growing problem of drug-resistant bacterial infections around the globe.

 

 

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:

Catalina Resources (ASX:CTN) was up after it delivered its annual report, which is 73 pages long. The rump of the info is that the company is progressing re-permitting to re-commence direct shipping ore project at the Nelson Bay River Iron project, along with gearing up for a diamond drilling program at its Lachlan Fold Belt project.

Additionally, aircore drilling totalling 25 holes for 1,593 metres has been completed at its Laverton project, returning anomalous gold and REE results up to 2.42g/t Au and 1m @ 16,426ppm TREO.

Alterity Therapeutics (ASX:ATH) was up by quite a lot, well ahead of it delivering its Annual Report this afternoon, which I haven’t read because it is 149 pages long and I only have one set of eyes. Let’s assume it was great news, and move on.

Bastion Minerals (ASX:BMO) was up after announcing that it has secured the services of Canadian Northwest Territories geological experts Aurora Geoscience to prepare an exploration plan to follow up historical work and gain a better understanding of a “large >520m long mineralised quartz vein” identified by previous owners Mariner Mines, during previous exploration that intersected grades up to 18.4% Cu.

Rincon Resources (ASX:RCR) was up on news that it is about to kick off a major new soil sampling program over several tenement areas at Laverton, where the company holds a land package of over 150 km2 within the highly endowed gold district.

Vital Metals (ASX:VML) was on the winner’s list, but the announcement today is just notice of the upcoming AGM – and the price movement was from $0.0020 to $0.0025.

Gladiator Resources (ASX:GLA) was rising sharply on news of a high-grade uranium find at the Mkuju Uranium Project, located in southern Tanzania, where drilling has confirmed six mineralised intervals including 7.1 metres averaging 1,963ppm eU3O81, from 63.1 metres depth.

Earlier in the day, Western Mines Group (ASX:WMG) was up after announcing assay results for three Phase 3 RC drilling holes at Mulga Tank, which show “broad zones of nickel sulphide mineralisation – elevated Ni and S coincident with highly anomalous Cu and PGE”. The intercepts include 188m at 0.28% Ni, 129ppm Co, 57ppm Cu, 23ppb Pt+Pd from 112m S:Ni 1.1.

Titomic (ASX:TTT) was rising this morning on news that it has sold its first D623 cold spray system to an Australian client, United Industrial Solutions, a specialist in coatings and corrosion mitigation for the resource sector, for $174,000. Titomic says the system’s primary application will be “the deposition of corrosion-resistant coatings on critical oil and gas assets, primarily in Western Australia”.

Arika Resources (ASX:ARI) – formerly known as Metalicity – was up on news that assays received from a further 9 holes at the Pennyweight Point prospect within the Yundamindra gold project, have returned “further exceptional results”, such as 30m @ 2.36 g/t Au from 64m, and 23m @ 2.84 g/t Au from 53m. Arika currently holds an 80% stake in the project, alongside 20% stakeholder Nex Metals (ASX:NME).

Premier1 Lithium (ASX:PLC) – formerly known as SensOre – was rising early after releasing the results of a strategic review of all exploration assets for their gold and copper potential based on all available historical exploration data. The company says the review has identified “significant untapped potential within the Yalgoo project area” in WA’s Murchison region, where historical drilling has revealed “numerous high-grade gold intercepts at near surface that have been largely untouched since the 1990s”.

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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TRADING HALTS 

Besra Gold (ASX:BEZ) – pending an announcement concerning legal proceedings.

RMA Global (ASX:RMY)  – pending an announcement concerning a major new partnership.

Qoria (ASX:QOR) – pending an announcement in relation to a potential strategic acquisition and associated capital raising.

Odessa Minerals (ASX:ODE) – pending an announcement in relation to a capital raise.

Trigg Minerals (ASX:TMG) – pending an announcement regarding a proposed acquisition.

Magnetic Resources (ASX:MAU) – pending an announcement in relation to a material capital raising.

Estrella Resources (ASX:ESR) – pending an announcement regarding the outcome of the grant ceremony in Laga for its Timor-Leste mineral concession applications and announcement regarding exploration results.

Buru Energy (ASX:BRU) – pending an update on recent asset transactions and executing 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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