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Good morning everyone, and welcome to 05 April, 2024 – an important day in the history of extreme survival skills, as it was on this day in 1943 that Chinese-born Poon Lim was rescued after drifting at sea for 133 days.

Lim was a Mess Steward on board British-captained cargo ship SS Benlomond during World War II, which had the huge misfortune of being torpedoed by a German sub while on its way from New York to Suez, via Cape Town.

In the immediate aftermath of the torpedo attack, Lim was preparing to hop onto a life raft with other crew when he was swept overboard, and by the time he had recovered to the surface, the ship was sinking rapidly and pretty much everyone around him was dead.

Climbing onto the first raft he could find, Lim was alone – a second raft with survivors was nearby, but despite calls to Lim to get him to switch rafts, he didn’t, and before long the two rafts drifted apart. Lim was on his own.

What came next was an ordeal at sea – with very little in the way of supplies, Lim resorted to snaring sea birds, eating what he could stomach and using the remains to catch other seafood, including a shark that attacked him when he dragged it onto the raft next him.

Curiously, the other notable thing Lim was missing was pants. He fashioned a crude skirt out of a hessian sack, and wore that until he was eventually spotted by three Brazilian fishermen, more than 1,200km from where he’d started 133 days before.

It’s a lesson in stoic determination, and a testament to the power of improvised non-gender confirming leisure wear – and the indomitable spirit of a man who floated for months, but managed to hang onto his will to survive, if not his trousers.

That’s the sort of hardy soul that makes up the team here at Stockhead, too – our writers regularly undergo training in horrendous conditions, like the time I had to travel to Canberra for four days to learn how to use Microsoft Excel in the early 1990s.

Never again.

But the team has applied their laser-like focus on some great stories for you today.

While that was happening, I have once again dived bravely into my browser’s bookmarks, and come up with a bunch of numbers and loads of words, which I’ve included in no particular order down below, so I hope it makes sense.

 

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$2,295.60 (-0.18%)

Silver: US$26.99 (-0.90%)

Nickel (3mth): US$16,865.00/t (-0.65%)

Copper (3mth): US$9,328.85/t (+4.43%)

Oil (WTI): US$85.64 (+0.28%)

Oil (Brent): US$89.60 (+0.27%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$100.41/t (+2.59%)

AUD/USD: 0.6589 (+0.79%)

Bitcoin: US$65,600.20 (-0.59%)

 

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

I made a thing and it looked okay so we put it on the internet… turns out, people actually do like short videos with terrible music, and will happily watch them to learn stuff it would have taken at least 30-45 seconds more to read about.

 

 

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:

Cycliq (ASX:CYQ) announced new product news that has investors excited about the future of riding bikes. It’s called the Fly-6 Pro, and it’s a headlight/4K Camera combo unit that has a list of features that far outstrips anything I thought would ever be needed on a bicycle headlight… but, it’s 2024, and if your gadget can connect to the internet and broadcast you riding full-tilt into a car door in the middle of the CBD, then it’s probably going to fly off the shelves.

RooLife Group (ASX:RLG) announced a proposed placement to China-based e-commerce and supply chain business, Fujian Jushi Supply Chain Management Co., at a proposed placement price of $0.0085 per fully paid ordinary share.

Blinklab (ASX:BB1) – “a company focused on developing new smartphone-based AI-powered mental healthcare solutions” – made its market debut. The stock closed the day at 25.5c, up 27.5% on the listing price of 20c.

Kula Gold (ASX:KGD) has reported results of a recent rock chipping and mapping programme in the vicinity of the historical Camilleri/Donnybrook Mine with an assay result of up to 11.19g/t gold, which is pretty juicy.

Westar Resources (ASX:WSR) announced it has commenced a detailed review of historic gold exploration activities as a first step in unlocking the gold potential at the Mindoolah Mining Centre, which is part of the company’s Mindoolah project in Western Australia’s Murchison Region.

Hillgrove Resources (ASX:HGO) has completed the second copper production campaign from the Kanmantoo underground copper mine. The copper production has ramped up from 239 tonnes in February to 589 tonnes in March. The next two-week milling campaign is underway, with copper sales planned next week. The copper price has risen above US$4/lb for the first time since April 2023.

Geopacific Resources (ASX:GPR) says detailed exploration assessment has identified known mineralisation and priority drill targets, with strong potential to increase the existing 1.56Moz Woodlark Resource. These new target areas are all close to the current Resources, and the known mineralisation in each remains open and largely untested.

Pioneer Lithium (ASX:PLN) announced that it has applied for 37 tenements for a total of 73,061ha in Bahia state in Brazil, prospective for Rare Earths. The newly defined ‘Verde Valor’ Project will complement Pioneer Lithium’s other critical minerals projects. The company considers the Verde Valor Project a valuable addition to its lithium tenements in Ontario, Canada.

 

YESTERDAY’S ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks:

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TRADING HALTS

Toro Energy (ASX:TOE) – pending the release of an announcement by the Company regarding a potential demerger.

Tennant Minerals (ASX:TMS) – pending the release of an announcement in relation to a capital raising.

Elixir Energy (ASX:EXR) – ending an announcement by the Company with respect to a development at Daydream-2.

AnteoTech (ASX:ADO) – pending an announcement by the Company concerning a capital raising.

Enova Mining (ASX:ENV) – pending an announcement by Enova Mining in relation to a capital raising.

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