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Good morning everyone, and welcome to 04 April, 2024 – an important day in the history of freakishly terrifying things, as it was on this day in 2013 that Poecilotheria rajaei was discovered lurking in Sri Lanka.

And, in case you hadn’t figured it out already, that’s an utterly enormous species of tarantula, which boasts a 20cm leg span and enough spidery creepiness to give at least 26,000 fully grown men a severe case of the willies.

According to The Journal of the British Tarantula Society – which, as an aside, I am unreasonably thrilled is a thing that exists – the new species was discovered “during a survey of tarantulas in Sri Lanka”.

From my rudimentary understanding of science, that mean researchers were physically going door-to-door, asking large spiders who they were likely to vote for in the upcoming local municipal elections, and whether they preferred the refreshing taste of Coca Cola, or that bottled hippo piss that Pepsi has doggedly refused to stop selling despite the many thousands of letters and emails I send them each Tuesday.

So, when the gigantic Poecilotheria rajaei – remember… this is a previously unknown member of the tarantula family – answered the doorbell, it was a huge shock to everyone present.

Because its bathrobe was hanging open.

The spider’s scientific name Poecilotheria rajaei is derived from Ancient Greek, Poecilo meaning “spotted” and Therion, meaning “Wild Beast”.

I’m not sure where rajaei is derived from, but I believe it translates as either “kill it with fire” or “f@%k no”, depending on which regional dialect you’re working from.

I jest, of course … the spider is named after a local cop, sub inspector of police SI Michael Rajakumar Purajah, who I assume was not a particularly popular dude, because this thing is unpleasant to look at, and I 100% don’t fancy ever being stuck in a room alone with one.

Luckily for me, and for you, the Stockhead team hasn’t been left to fend for themselves against an army of oversized eight-legged freaks, which means we’ve all been hard at work writing lovely things about stuff to help you make money later today.

I’m leaving that paragraph to my editor to fill in later but I bet he’ll do it as bullet points or something because he wants to get to bed and read that Ian Fleming bio we suspect he was reading all day yesterday instead of actual working.

Told you.

Also, I have harnessed the incredible power of typing a URL into my laptop’s internet browser contraption, so down below there’s a bunch of facts and figures to help you look a little more adept at stocking and marketing, once your day is fully underway.

Because I get paid to, that’s why.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,300.63 (+0.91%)

Silver: US$27.22 (+4.18%)

Nickel (3mth): US$17,030/t (+1.68%)

Copper (3mth): US$8,991/t (+1.40%)

Oil (WTI): US$85.55 (+0.14%)

Oil (Brent): US$89.55 (+0.30%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$100.41/t (-2.43%)

AUD/USD: 0.6565 (+0.70%)

Bitcoin: US$66,011 (+0.37%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Health stocks are red-hot right now – and here’s an update to get you up to speed, in case you missed all the memos we’ve been faxing to that obviously fake number you gave us in the bar that night.

 

 

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:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

Yesterday’s Small Cap Winners included:

Acrux (ASX:ACR) and its partner TruPharma announced the launch of a generic of Dapsone 5% Gel, which is a prescription medicine used to treat acne vulgaris. The market in the US for this product is estimated to be worth around US$15 million a year – a large enough market to push Acrux up a staggering 70% in early trade, before easing to a far less blemish-covered +36% at close.

West African Resources (ASX:WAF) continued its recent run of gains on the back of a well-timed 2023 sustainability report that had lots of funky numbers in it, like “226,823 oz Annual gold production” and “$661 million Annual revenue” and other things that tend to make investors happy.

Clara Resources Australia (ASX:C7A) was up 25% on no news. It did get a Please Explain from the ASX on 26 March 2024 about its recent announcement of a scoping study for its Ashford coking coal project in NSW, and has responded. The response is thorough – 22 pages long, – with lots of details about the scoping study.

Perpetual Resources (ASX:PEC) announced “significant expansion” of its land in the Itinga region of Minas Gerais, Brazil – aka within ‘Lithium Valley’.

Two options agreements are in play here, with the new landholdings containing multiple confirmed lithium soil anomalies and peak value rock chips up to 2.1% Li2O (based on initial LIBS analysis, still to be confirmed by assay). The permits reportedly include “historic artisanal mines exploiting large pegmatites” with confirmed lithium soil anomalies.

Terra Uranium (ASX:T92) said it will very likely expand its Canadian uranium hunt further with a capital raise of $500,000 from “sophisticated professional investors” to help advance the company’s acquisition of another promising prospect – Amer Lake. Amer Lake is in a proven uranium field, with typical assay values ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 ppm U3O8 (0.5 to 1.5% U3O8). That, says Terra, is “over 0.2 metre thicknesses enclosed in greater thicknesses of 1.5 – 2.0 metres above cut-off of 100ppm U3O8″.

Pacific Nickel Mines (ASX:PNM) said its March Nickel DSO shipment from its 80% owned Kolosori Nickel Project in the Solomon Islands has now completed. As anticipated. The company notes that the loading of its third 60,000 tonne bulk carrier was completed in less than six days with the ship departing site on March 24.

Large cap Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) was up after hitting record gold production of ~87,000oz – and free cash flow of $125.3m – in the March quarter… a result that “obliterated guidance of 70,000 – 77,500oz”. RMS says Q3 AISC (all-in sustaining costs) will be materially lower than guidance due to record gold production.

 

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:

Wordpress Table Plugin

 

TRADING HALTS

Codrus Minerals Limited (ASX:CDR) – pending the release of an announcement regarding a proposed material acquisition and capital raising.

Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR) – ending the release of an announcement regarding a proposed capital raising.

E&P Financial Group (ASX:EP1) – pending the release of an announcement to ASX regarding the Federal Court of Australia settlement approval hearing scheduled for 03 April 2024, in relation to the representative proceeding filed by Shine Lawyers against Dixon Advisory & Superannuation Services (Administrators Appointed), EP1, Mr Alan Dixon, and Mr Christopher Brown.

Astute Metals (ASX:ASE) – pending an announcement regarding the results from the Scoping Study of the Governor Broome Project.

HeraMED (ASX:HMD) – pending an announcement in relation to changes in directors and management, restructure of the business and associated capital requirements including a shortfall of the Rights Issue.

Oar Resources (ASX:OAR) – pending an announcement by the company in relation to a capital raising to be managed by CPS Capital Group.

Alma Metals (ASX:ALM) – pending the planning and execution of a capital raising.

Lepidico (ASX:LPD) – pending the release to the market of an announcement in relation to a proposed capital raising.

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