Good morning everyone, and welcome to 8 February, 2024 – a big day in the history of mining because apparently, on 08 February in 1627, gunpowder was first used in a working mine.

According to this thing I’m currently reading, it was the first time that the explosive powder was used for something other than military purposes in Banská Štiavnica – and that’s accordig to Ondrej Michna from Slovak mining museum in the afore-mentioned Banská Štiavnica, in modern day Slovakia.

Michna then goes on to explain that it’s the first time anything was written down about using it for industrial purposes, rather than what it was designed to do, which was – of course – kill lots of people.

According to those written reports, the explosives work was carried out by a German soldier with the incredibly unlikely name of Gaspar Weindl.

There’s no mention of whether Weindl survived the blast. However, the town remains famous (among locals, mostly) because of the building in which the area’s gunpowder supplies were kept.

It was called “Pracháreň”, which I suspect is simply local dialect for “NO SMOKING” – and it featured walls that are up to 16.5 metres thick in places, and also features one of the first-ever lightning rods in the region.

The idea being that if the lightning rod failed to direct God’s angry sparks from the sky away from the gunpowder, the 16.5 metre thick walls would maybe contain the worst of the resulting explosion, saving whoever survived the hassle of rebuilding the flattened ruins of the town.

So… there you go. Today is the anniversary of a German bloke throwing his pick-axe on the ground and deciding that life will be infinitely better for everyone if we just blow everything up.

To help mark that occasion this morning, we’ve got Earlybird Eddy Sunarto’s wrap up of all the news from the wild and wonderful world of weed stocks and Josh Chiat is here to save you from your terrible lithium investments with a look at LFP “adjacent” stocks.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,034.89 (-0.06%)

Silver: US$22.34 (-0.58%)

Nickel (3mth): US$15,616.00/t (-1.19%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,293.08/t (+0.56%)

Oil (WTI): US$73.53 (+0.10%)

Oil (Brent): US$78.77 (+0.00%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$128.94/t (+0.24%)

AUD/USD: 0.6526 (-0.02%)

Bitcoin: US$42,953.70 (-0.33%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Rob Badman’s run his eagle eye over the lithium market to see what’s cracking over there, all delivered under an absolute banger of a headline. Give that man a raise…

 

 

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:

Sunshine Metals (ASX:SHN) was out in front on Wednesday morning, popping a 40% spike on news that there’s been a significant upgrade to the company’s Liontown resource (not to be confused with Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR), which is a whole different company).

Sunshine’s Liontown resource (again, not the company) has increased 21% to 2.94mt @ 10.6% ZnEq, which includes a 116% increase in Indicated Resources to 1.85mt @ 10.9% ZnEq, now 63% of the total resource.

For what it’s worth, Liontown Resources (the company, not the resource) is also moving sharply – up nearly 10% last time I checked, without any announcement… so I am growing concerned that there might be investors throwing money at the wrong thing in their rush to get behind Sunshine’s fabulous news.

Direct-to-consumer unsecured personal loan specialists Harmoney Corp (ASX:HMY) posted a solid gain for the morning as well, up 28.6% despite not having much to say to the market for about a week.

Yowie Group (ASX:YOW) is up again as well, after the apparently-stalled takeover bid by Keybridge Capital (ASX:KBC) was thrown a lifeline by regulators late on Tuesday.

“Keybridge has sought, and received, consent from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) … to enable unaccepted offers under its takeover bid for Yowie,”  according to an announcement that arrived after hours on Tuesday.

There was, apparently, a SNAFU at Keybridge during the Christmas break, and I suspect someone forgot to put something in the mail – meaning Keybridge “did not dispatch the Bidder’s Statement within the 28-day time period prescribed by item 6 of subsection 633(1)”.

But, ASIC has seen fit to allow things to continue like nothing happened, and Keybridge is set to deliver a new bidder’s statement shortly as the takeover bidding continues.

Harris Technology (ASX:HT8) moved quickly in the afternoon, rising 38.5% to take the company’s gains to 50% for the week, and more than 68% for the month, after the company announced Q2 FY24 Sales of $4.9 million that led to positive operating cash flow of $235,000 for the quarter, which was reported to the market in late January.

NickelX (ASX:NKL) was likewise moving apparently on old news, up 28% after the company kicked off an RC program over at its Dalwallinu project in WA’s West Yilgarn a few days ago, testing for nickel, copper and PGE some 208km northeast of Perth.

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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TRADING HALTS

Rhythm Biosciences (ASX:RHY) – pending an announcement to the market regarding a proposed capital raising.

BMG Resources (ASX:BMG) – pending an announcement of a material agreement regarding a potential project acquisition.

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

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