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:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Code Company Price % Volume MARKET CAP
GTI Gratifii 0.009 50% 1,303,658 $8,215,336
PUA Peak Minerals Ltd 0.003 50% 90,085 $2,082,753
CC9 Chariot Corporation 0.355 39% 566,915 $20,855,521
HT8 Harris Technology Gl 0.018 38% 1,011,479 $3,888,761
PVL Powerhouse Ven Ltd 0.044 38% 3,836 $3,863,782
DCX Discovex Res Ltd 0.002 33% 447,530 $4,953,852
MRD Mount Ridley Mines 0.002 33% 158,227 $11,677,324
TD1 Tali Digital Limited 0.002 33% 2,638,000 $4,942,733
YPB YPB Group Ltd 0.002 33% 6,907,313 $1,185,692
ADY Admiralty Resources 0.009 29% 75,360 $9,125,054
CL8 Carly Holdings Ltd 0.018 29% 50,000 $3,757,185
NKL Nickelxltd 0.05 28% 246,072 $3,424,792
HTG Harvest Tech Group 0.029 26% 724,137 $16,237,157
CTT Cettire 3.99 26% 12,257,129 $1,208,525,157
ASV Assetvisonco 0.01 25% 1,923,580 $5,806,693
CTO Citigold Corp Ltd 0.005 25% 3,339,119 $12,000,000
DOU Douugh Limited 0.005 25% 100,000 $4,328,276
TMX Terrain Minerals 0.005 25% 200,000 $5,726,683
KGD Kula Gold Limited 0.008 23% 10,839,776 $2,750,877
ROC Rocketboots 0.11 22% 147,031 $2,928,465
HMY Harmoney Corp Ltd 0.64 22% 175,307 $53,531,177
FAU First Au Ltd 0.003 20% 330,016 $4,154,983
LML Lincoln Minerals 0.006 20% 2,377,335 $8,520,226
SHN Sunshine Metals Ltd 0.012 20% 19,340,244 $12,240,084
SIT Site Group Int Ltd 0.003 20% 750,000 $6,506,226
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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:

Swipe or scroll to reveal full table. Click headings to sort:

Code Company Price % Volume MARKET CAP
TTA TTA Holdings Ltd 0.003 -73% 1,642 $1,511,658
EE1 Earths Energy Ltd 0.015 -63% 31,756,157 $21,728,533
JAV Javelin Minerals Ltd 0.001 -50% 101,087 $3,267,458
SLB Stelar Metals 0.082 -43% 7,231,277 $7,599,149
T3D 333D Limited 0.011 -35% 4,325 $2,030,564
BOC Bougainville Copper 0.44 -26% 286,259 $238,632,188
BP8 BPH Global Ltd 0.0015 -25% 947,368 $3,671,126
MOH Moho Resources 0.006 -25% 2,615,400 $4,287,529
NRZ Neurizer Ltd 0.006 -25% 13,522,087 $11,273,566
CHK Cohiba Min Ltd 0.002 -20% 995,000 $6,325,575
CTN Catalina Resources 0.004 -20% 202,477 $6,192,434
RDS Redstone Resources 0.004 -20% 2,105,000 $4,626,892
MKG Mako Gold 0.025 -19% 20,696,864 $20,534,692
NFL Norfolk Metals 0.15 -19% 1,497,260 $6,535,124
MRZ Mont Royal Resources 0.09 -18% 75,101 $9,353,277
ART Airtasker Limited 0.22 -17% 1,036,949 $119,819,626
AHN Athena Resources 0.0025 -17% 19,000 $3,211,403
CCO The Calmer Co Int 0.005 -17% 8,215,234 $5,144,971
CCZ Castillo Copper Ltd 0.005 -17% 1,131,607 $7,797,032
NVQ Noviqtech Limited 0.0025 -17% 25,000 $3,928,336
OAR OAR Resources Ltd 0.0025 -17% 1,291,888 $7,931,183
RR1 Reach Resources Ltd 0.0025 -17% 4,747,675 $9,630,891
TMK TMK Energy Limited 0.005 -17% 784,112 $36,735,476
EEL Enrg Elements Ltd 0.011 -15% 2,150,000 $13,129,545
RRR Revolver Resources 0.073 -15% 379,858 $22,327,687
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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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