Rise and Shine: What you need to know before the ASX opens

On Stockhead today, the best battery metals stocks so far in 2022, holiday stocks finally ready for a proper Aussie summer, and is it time to welcome Growth back?

But first … the day ahead.

TRADING HALTS

The following companies went into trading halts yesterday and are expected out in the next few days:
Global Lithium Resources (ASX:GL1) – Ooooh, fancy! GL1 has two things on the boil, a project acquisition and capital raising. Someone’s gonna be busy for a few days.

Widgie Nickel (ASX:WIN) – Widgie’s got Scoping Study results from its Mount Edwards Project.

Rent.com.au (ASX:RNT) – Capital Raise, as if rents weren’t high enough already. Sheesh.

Theta Gold Mines (ASX:TGM) – Cappy cappy, cap cap, capital raaaaaaaaise. Tada!

Noble Helium (ASX:NHE) – Oh, Noble Helium… Most Noble of Allll the Heliums… Tie thyself to more Capital, so that it may be Raised by your Bouyancy and your coffers are filled with Fungible, Foldable Fiat Funds. (It’s a capital raise).

Clean TeQ Water (ASX:CNQ) – CNQ is raising capital as well. I don’t blame them. All the cool kids are doing it.

FOS Capital (ASX:FOS) – FOS Capital is Raising Capital so that it has more Capital. Capital.

Breaker Resources (ASX:BRB) – Breaker breaker, Big Buddy. This is Rosco P Coltrane, you got your ears on little fat buddy? Breaker has breaking news about a sales transaction, and the company will BRB once it’s ready to release the details. 10-4, over and out.

QMines (ASX:QML) – QMines is holding an equity raise by way of a placement, to fund further mining for the second most rare letter in the English alphabet. In the meantime, “Kw” will be a suitable substitute until stocks are replenished.

Neurotech International (ASX:NTI) – Neurotech is hosting a capital raise… but first, there’s news regarding 20 week data from its ongoing phase I/II clinical trial. That’s a combo that bodes well.

COMMODITY/ FOREX/ CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: $US1,647.96 (-0.04%)

Silver: $US19.19 (-0.36%)

Nickel (3mth): $US22,248 /t

Copper (3mth): $US7,556/t

Lithium Carbonate, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, OCT 19): $US72,875/t (+111.6% year-to-date)

Lithium Hydroxide, China (Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, OCT 19): $US71,900/t (+151.9% year-to-date)

Oil (WTI): $US84.746 (+0.20%)

Oil (Brent): $US93.147 (-0.12%)

Iron 62pc Fe: $US95.50 (+1.06%)

AUD/USD: 0.63200 (+0.17%)

Bitcoin: $US19,336.81 (-0.01%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING YESTERDAY?

We would have put money on another lithium story but it was oil that caught your eye yesterday:

ADX is poised to become a significant Austrian oil producer with the start of commercial production at its Anshof-3 well being the harbinger of more to come.https://t.co/wKaKB9fTAz #ad #ASX $ADX

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) October 24, 2022

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Also, be sure to check in preopen each day for ‘Market highlights and 5 ASX small caps to watch’, and 10.30am for our daily ‘10 at 10’ column — a live summary of winners & losers at the opening bell.

YESTERDAY’s BIGGEST SMALL CAP WINNERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow rose after making announcements during the trading day).

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

The big news yesterday was junior explorer C29 Metals (ASX:C29) which secured an option over two lithium-bearing salars in Argentina’s Salta Province, part of the world renowned South American lithium triangle.

C29 will hit the ground running at the Pocitos projects with a drill team already secured to punch in some maiden reconnaissance exploration wells in December.

The aim is to rapidly establish a JORC compliant resource over this initial due diligence period.

“The Pocitos projects provide a real, potentially rapid pathway to production for the company in a high growth market,” C29 executive director Mark Major says.

“Most of the initial groundwork has been done, with the TEM geophysical surveys highlighting areas of prospectivity.”

“We have the required permits in place and the ability to undertake resource drilling as early as December this year.

“By the end of the option period, the company should be able to complete sufficient due diligence work in order to make a sound assessment of each project’s viability.”

Meanwhile, the company has signed a non-exclusive licence agreement with Ekosolve tech, a promising direct lithium extraction (DLE) process which has been in R&D for six years.

Lithium is fairly new to the DLE process, which promises to produce cheaper, higher quality, and more environmentally friendly lithium than incumbent processes – probably why companies like Lake Resources (ASX:LKE), Vulcan (ASX:VUL) and Anson Resources (ASX:ASN) have it at the heart of their respective projects.

Also on the leader board was Ark Mines (ASX:AHK) who wrapped up the second phase of drilling at their Gunnawarra nickel-cobalt project in Queensland, with encouraging lateritic material on the western and southeastern margins of previous drilling and at surface.

“We plan to fast track assays and use the results from this campaign, and the first, to report our maiden Mineral Resource Estimate,” executive director Ben Emery said.

And then there’s Wisr (ASX:WZR) whose quarterly report flagged a whopping $21.2m in revenue. That’s up 75% on the previous corresponding period and a 20% increase from Q4 FY22.

YESTERDAY’S BIGGEST SMALL CAP LOSERS

(Stocks highlighted in yellow fell after making announcements during the trading day).

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort.

Ikwezi (ASX:IKW) announced its voluntary delisting yesterday, citing negative thermal coal perception in it’s reasoning (among others).

And Emperor Energy (ASX:EMP) was also in with the laggards, reporting it had raised $1.12m in a placement to fund “exploration activities.”