Good morning everyone, and welcome to October 24, 2024 – an important date in the history of definitely needing a shower.

It was on this day in 1579 that Jesuit missionary Thomas Stephens arrived in the Indian state of Goa, becoming the first English bloke to move to India.

This had a number of unforeseen consequences, not least of which was 89 years of British colonial rule a few centuries later, and the English obsession with drinking tea – the most banal and unexceptional of all the hot beverages.

What most people don’t know is that when Stephens arrived in the seaside Indian state, he almost immediately set up a superclub, invented Goa / Psytrance music and made a small fortune selling substandard pingers to stinky backpackers on “a spiritual journey” through the region to find themselves and give each other HPV.

Luckily, you won’t have to have to pretend to like what is arguably the most tedious sub-genre of electronic music ever invented 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$2,750.30/oz (+0.06%)

Silver: US$34.74/oz (-0.34%)

Iron Ore: US$101.20/t (-0.01%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,306/t (-2.44%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,490/t (+0.74%)

Zinc: US$3,151/t (+0.92%)

Oil (WTI): US$71.60/bbl (+0.38%)

Oil (Brent): US$75.92/bbl (+0.37%)

AUD/USD: 0.6676 (-0.05%)

Bitcoin: US$67,103.47 (-0.42%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Think there are no good copper stocks on the ASX? Guy Le Page is having Nunavut.

 

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:

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Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Eastern Metals (ASX:EMS) was up on news that reconnaissance drilling completed at two new targets, Kelpie Hill and Windmill Dam, and at the advanced Evergreen prospect within the 100%-owned Cobar Project in NSW. Initial assays have come back with results such as 7m at 4.3g/t Au, 2.7g/t Ag, 0.3% Pb from 50m and 1m at 4.17g/t Au, 2.7g/t Ag from 82m, with the second and third holes returning 3.05m at 3.9% Zn, 2% Pb, 29.5g/t Ag from 298.5 and 0.5m at 7.2% Zn, 2.4% Pb from 299m.

Energy Resources of Australia (ASX:ERA) was up after letters went out to shareholders about the previously announced, Rio-backed pro-rata renounceable entitlement offer of new ERA ordinary shares to raise up to approximately $880 million.

Arrow Minerals (ASX:AMD) has taken a significant step forward in developing its projects by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Baosteel for potential sales of iron ore from its Simandou North Iron Project. This partnership will allow Arrow to access key infrastructure, including the Simandou port and rail.

The company has also started the next phase of metallurgical testwork to analyze different iron ore samples. These results will help outline the processing methods and estimate costs for building and operating a processing plant. Arrow’s project is located next to Baosteel’s large iron ore development, which further supports its growth potential.

Adisyn (ASX:AI1) was up  on news that it has entered into formal negotiations to acquire 100% of semiconductor IP business 2D Generation, with the goal of leveraging 2D Generation’s “innovative semiconductor solution” to generate opportunities in AI1’s target markets including defence applications, data centres and cybersecurity.

Resource Base (ASX:RBX) was up on the heels of a quarterly this morning, which outlined the company’s recent work in Canada’s James Bay, where completion of the 2024 summer field program following up anomalous targets at the Wali Project resulted in multiple lithium and gold anomalies, with a peak lithium value of 20ppm and peak gold value of 436ppb with associated pathfinder elements.

Nordic Nickel (ASX:NNL) has reported excellent metallurgical results from its Hotinvaara nickel-cobalt deposit in Finland. A composite sample produced a clean concentrate of 18.4% nickel and 0.66% cobalt, with a nickel recovery of 62% using a straightforward grinding and flotation process.

This indicates that the lower-grade nickel sulphides at Hotinvaara can be processed effectively to create a high-grade concentrate. The current resource estimate at Hotinvaara is 418 million tonnes at 0.21% nickel and 0.01% cobalt. The deposit has significant potential for growth, NNL said, as it covers just a small part of a much larger mineralised area.

 

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 

Podium Minerals (ASX:POD) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a proposed capital raising.

Pure Hydrogen Corporation (ASX:PH2) –  pending the disclosure of counter parties for transactions disclosed in a different announcement.

Poseidon Nickel (ASX:POS) – pending an announcement regarding a potential change of control transaction.

Horizon Minerals (ASX:HRZ) – pending an announcement in relation to a proposed material acquisition.

Javelin Minerals (ASX:JAV) – pending an announcement on the acquisition of a material asset and a capital raising.

 

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.