Good morning everyone, and welcome to 27 March, 2024 – an important day in the history of patent filing, because it was on this day in various years that some of the most important and influential patents were filed.
In 1790, the shoelace game was changed forever when the modern shoelace – with that little hard bit on the end, which is called an aglet – was patented in England by Harvey Kennedy.
In 1849, a fella called Joseph Couch patented steam-powered percussion rock drill, making my local council’s ongoing chore of digging up the street outside my house over and over again possible.
A scant six years later in 1855, a Canadian geologist with a penchant for setting stuff on fire – Abraham Genser – filed a patent for kerosene, paving the way for jet engines and hundreds of house fires.
Then, on this day in 1860, M L Byrn patented an object described as “a covered gimlet screw with a ‘T’ handle” – better known as a corkscrew – virtually scuttling the burgeoning cardboard wine cask industry overnight, setting their efforts to bring 4 litres of truly gruesome wine to a backyard party using only one hand back by close to a century.
Half a dozen years after that, American Andrew Rankin patented the humble urinal, after liberal use of Mr Byrn’s corkscrew led to the inadvertent invention of peeing standing up.
They’re not the only wonderfully inventive people in the world, of course – and we’re lucky to call a number of brilliantly creative thinkers and writers part of the Stockhead team.
They’ve put together a brilliant collection of stories for you to peruse across the site this morning. Stuff like Reuben talking to John Hathaway and Warwick Grigor about why no one’s buying gold stocks. Or Josh Chiat’s look at just how far this uranium bull run might go.
And – as always – there’s words and numbers down below for you to memorise now and then invent your own narrative as you do your due diligence, invest wisely and make your mates look like know-nothing fools.
You’re welcome.
COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES
Gold: US$2,172.71 (+0.02%)
Silver: US$24.60 (-0.28%)
Nickel (3mth): US$16,862.50/t (-1.67%)
Copper (3mth): US$8,743.35/t (+0.03%)
Oil (WTI): US$81.90 (-0.11%)
Oil (Brent): US$86.70 (+0.02%)
Iron 62pc Fe: US$110.67/t (+0.03%)
AUD/USD: 0.6542 (-0.02%)
Bitcoin: US$70,435.70 (+0.77%)
WHAT GOT YOU TALKING
If you’ve ever wondered what the dulcet tones of our very own Barry FitzGerald or C29 Metals’ CEO Shannon Green sound like, wonder no more – because here’s a wonderful interview by the former with the latter. Enjoy.
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 | Name | Price | % Change | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MPK | Many Peaks Minerals | 21.50 | 194.52 | 4,384,877 | $2,917,711 |
| WML | Woomera Mining Ltd | 0.60 | 50.00 | 2,236,720 | $4,872,556 |
| MSB | Mesoblast Limited | 47.00 | 42.42 | 49,569,423 | $376,434,878 |
| SRR | Saramaresourcesltd | 2.40 | 41.18 | 305,304 | $1,363,725 |
| JAV | Javelin Minerals Ltd | 0.20 | 33.33 | 2,128,725 | $3,264,346 |
| MRD | Mount Ridley Mines | 0.20 | 33.33 | 3,510,000 | $11,677,324 |
| BDX | Bcaldiagnostics | 12.00 | 27.66 | 1,347,128 | $23,715,703 |
| ASV | Assetvisonco | 1.90 | 26.67 | 9,207 | $10,887,548 |
| BNL | Blue Star Helium Ltd | 0.75 | 25.00 | 3,382,878 | $11,653,592 |
| GTI | Gratifii | 0.50 | 25.00 | 3,402,091 | $5,476,891 |
| PSL | Paterson Resources | 2.00 | 25.00 | 651,347 | $7,296,606 |
| SCT | Scout Security Ltd | 1.00 | 25.00 | 1,433 | $1,859,419 |
| EXT | Excite Technology | 1.10 | 22.22 | 22,836,215 | $11,963,176 |
| TNY | Tinybeans Group Ltd | 11.00 | 20.88 | 107,976 | $7,679,248 |
| 88E | 88 Energy Ltd | 0.60 | 20.00 | 12,059,203 | $125,620,313 |
| CRB | Carbine Resources | 0.60 | 20.00 | 1,100,000 | $2,758,689 |
| OXT | Orexploretechnologie | 2.40 | 20.00 | 69,853 | $3,908,313 |
| RML | Resolution Minerals | 0.30 | 20.00 | 133,333 | $3,149,992 |
| JPR | Jupiter Energy | 2.50 | 19.05 | 489,000 | $26,746,696 |
| BIT | Biotron Limited | 8.20 | 18.84 | 4,612,232 | $62,257,010 |
| CAT | Catapult Grp Int Ltd | 153.00 | 16.79 | 1,003,357 | $332,225,767 |
| AHN | Athena Resources | 0.35 | 16.67 | 5,117,689 | $3,211,403 |
| SI6 | SI6 Metals Limited | 0.35 | 16.67 | 1,000,113 | $7,106,578 |
| PFE | Panteraminerals | 5.00 | 16.28 | 1,079,826 | $11,200,729 |
| ZMI | Zinc of Ireland NL | 1.50 | 15.38 | 222,777 | $2,770,876 |
Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:
The clear standout was Many Peaks Minerals (ASX:MPK), which surged ahead by +174% for the day.
Many Peaks has entered into a binding agreement with Turaco Gold (ASX:TCG) to acquire 89% of CDI Holdings (Guernsey) – a holding company for the Ivorian subsidiary party to a JV which has earned into a 65% stake in four Ivorian permits, and holds the right to earn-in to an 85% interest by sole funding any project within four mineral licences in Cote d’Ivoire through feasibility study.
Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) jumped 50% after announcing that US FDA has informed the company that following additional consideration the available clinical data from its Phase 3 study MSB-GVHD001 appears sufficient to support submission of the proposed Biologics License Application (BLA) for remestemcel-L for treatment of pediatric patients with steroid-refractory acute graft versus host disease (SR-aGVHD). Mesoblast now intends to file the resubmission during the next quarter, seeking to address all remaining product characterisation issues.
Sarama Resources (ASX:SRR) also moved up nicely earlier in the day, probably because West African gold is looking like hot property, for obvious reasons.
Cokal (ASX:CKA) managed to secure itself a 12-month revenue stream by chartering barges to “ensure continuous delivery” of its coal to market. That revenue stream is in effect, with the company announcing it had received payment from the loading of 7,500 tonnes of product coal on to barges at the Batu Tuhup Jetty. Said barges will transport 7,500 tonnes of high-grade thermal coal product to Sumbar Global (SGE), which has been sold under the existing offtake contract.
Trek Metals (ASX:TKM) rose on good on news regarding its Champagne Pool epithermal gold target within the Pincunah Project in the Pilbara region of WA. The news is, basically, drilling has been announced to commence in the coming weeks at the untested, high-potential target. The company says there is every indication that strong surface geochemical indicators are suggestive of a cap to an epithermal gold system, with the gold zone likely ‘intact’ sub-surface.
Titomic (ASX:TTT) was celebrating a noteworthy sale, after the Netherlands Army purchased 10 of the company’s D523 Cold Spray systems, with the sale worth more than 770,000 Euros.
In the larger end of town, specialty retailer Premier Investments (ASX:PMV) rose 4% after reporting statutory first half NPAT of $177.2 million. The company also declared a record interim fully franked ordinary dividend of 63 cps, up 16.7% on the pcp.
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 | Name | Price | % Change | Volume | Market Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INP | Incentiapay Ltd | 0.40 | -33.33 | 800,000 | 7,463,580 |
| VPR | Volt Power Group | 0.10 | -33.33 | 4,131 | 16,074,312 |
| 29M | 29Metalslimited | 40.00 | -25.93 | 16,618,743 | 378,917,588 |
| AUK | Aumake Limited | 0.30 | -25.00 | 1,758,733 | 7,657,627 |
| CCO | The Calmer Co Int | 0.30 | -25.00 | 13,045,785 | 4,730,787 |
| CNJ | Conico Ltd | 0.15 | -25.00 | 15,029,791 | 3,140,190 |
| MTL | Mantle Minerals Ltd | 0.15 | -25.00 | 21,799,999 | 12,394,892 |
| HOR | Horseshoe Metals Ltd | 0.70 | -22.22 | 1,943,905 | 5,818,308 |
| RNE | Renu Energy Ltd | 0.70 | -22.22 | 8,220,593 | 6,074,706 |
| COD | Coda Minerals Ltd | 11.50 | -20.69 | 682,814 | 20,643,849 |
| HLX | Helix Resources | 0.40 | -20.00 | 250,000 | 11,615,729 |
| ROG | Red Sky Energy. | 0.40 | -20.00 | 6,150,000 | 27,111,136 |
| BEZ | Besragoldinc | 10.50 | -19.23 | 7,843,693 | 54,353,118 |
| LSA | Lachlan Star Ltd | 3.10 | -18.42 | 212,160 | 7,887,781 |
| MXR | Maximus Resources | 2.50 | -16.67 | 239,588 | 9,628,373 |
| CHK | Cohiba Min Ltd | 0.25 | -16.67 | 52,714 | 10,764,733 |
| ICG | Inca Minerals Ltd | 0.50 | -16.67 | 271,429 | 4,792,627 |
| LNR | Lanthanein Resources | 0.25 | -16.67 | 383,003 | 5,864,727 |
| MHC | Manhattan Corp Ltd | 0.25 | -16.67 | 100,000 | 8,810,939 |
| MOM | Moab Minerals Ltd | 0.50 | -16.67 | 1,996,282 | 4,271,781 |
| RR1 | Reach Resources Ltd | 0.25 | -16.67 | 174,096 | 9,836,169 |
| YAR | Yari Minerals Ltd | 0.50 | -16.67 | 20,466 | 2,894,147 |
| SOV | Sovereign Cloud Hldg | 3.60 | -16.28 | 706,723 | 14,594,229 |
| OKJ | Oakajee Corp Ltd | 1.60 | -15.79 | 45,000 | 1,737,475 |
| ICU | Investor Centre Ltd | 2.70 | -15.63 | 3,207 | 9,702,337 |
TRADING HALTS
Besra Gold (ASX:BEZ) – pending a response to an ASX price query.
Constellation Resources (ASX:CR1) – pending an announcement regarding a capital raising.
FireFly Metals (ASX:FFM) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a capital raising.
HyTerra (ASX:HYT) – for the purposes of considering, planning and executing a capital raising.
AML3D (ASX:AL3) – pending an announcement regarding a capital raising.
Astral Resources (ASX:AAR) – pending the release of an announcement in relation to a capital raising.