At 3pm Sydney time, the ASX Emerging Companies index (XEC) had taken a downward turn to the tune of almost 3%. The ASX 200 was shorter by 0.9%.

I’m pretty sure we said (paraphrasing) yesterday – keep an eye out for some volatility – and reports of Europe’s largest nuclear reactor on fire after getting shelled fits, we believe, snugly into that category.

Equities fell, while crude and gold and a lot of us here at Stockhead jumped.

Going macro, commodities wholesale posted their largest weekly gain since the release – fittingly – of Jaws circa November 1975.

Yes, everyone’s probably gonna need a bigger boat…

 

 

 

…but we’ll also settle for any boat

From Monday there’s been just enormous price rises across energy, grains and heaps of industrial metals.

Over the long-term, Fitch analysts also reckon iron ore prices will eventually lose a little steam, a little enthusiasm… perhaps as Chinese steel production eases or Brazil gets it’s act together…

But for now, that stuff is going off.

Iron ore has recouped everything it lost after touching record highs late last year and Dr Forrest (Marine Biology), aka ‘The Twigger’…

…well, he can certainly get back to saving the oceans from heavy industry.

 

WHO’S LISTED ON THE ASX THIS WEEK:

5E Advanced Materials (ASX:5EA), listed on Wednesday, its shares spiked at $2.95 , before settling 7.8% to close $2.72.

5EA is the new numerically-enhanced name of American Pacific Borates Limited’s (ASX:ABR) parent company.

All shares held by ABR shareholders will be transferred to 5EA – and ABR says it will be possible to transfer holdings from ASX CDIs to NASDAQ shares and vice versa.

The focus remains the Fort Cady Borate Project, where a multi-generational borate resource full of goodies like boric acid, borate specialty materials, gypsum and potassium sulphate (SOP) will be produced for the global market.

Omnia Metals Group (ASX:OM1) stood up and was counted on the local bourse on Thursday, bringing two projects – the Ord Basin on the border of NT and WA, and itsAlbany-Fraser project in the state’s southwest.

Omnia says the Ord Basin has been underexplored for a good half-century 50 years, making it “a district scale, greenfields exploration opportunity for copper, nickel and PGE deposit types.”

Omnia listed at $5.5m and peaked yesterday at $0.19.

On the list for a listing next week:

Catalano Seafood (ASX:CSF)

Listing: 9 March

IPO: $6m at $0.20

The seafood processor, wholesaler, retailer and exporter has plans to expand its distribution network, aiming to roll out its Seafood Management Solution to supermarkets.

Stelar Metals (ASX:SLB)

Listing: 7 March

IPO: $7m at $0.20

The company is exploring for copper and zinc with an eye on meeting the demand from the tech, battery and renewable energy markets as the world leans towards a low-emission future.

US Student Housing REIT (ASX:USQ)

Listing: 7 March

IPO: $45m at $1.38

The REIT aims to acquire and manage high-quality purpose-built student housing assets in close proximity to top-tier public universities across the United States, the only Australian-listed property trust to do so, leaning heavily on joint venture partners Auctus Investments Group (ASX:AVC).

Pinnacle Minerals (ASX:PIM)

Listing: 11 March

IPO: $5.5m at $0.20

This explorer is focused on kaolin and holds the Bobalong and Holly projects in WA and the White Knight and Camel Lake projects in SA.

 

ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS:

Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for February 28 – March – 4:

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Metals Australia (ASX:MLS), up 120%.

This week wasn’t ALL about MLS. But the bits that weren’t were boring in comparison.

Thebattery metals minnow is was already up 75% for 2022 and then came this wonderful Wednesday of rock chip samples grading up 2.3% lithium and 0.7% rubidium at the diggers’‘Mandini’ project in WA.

Hard rock lithium mines usually grade between 1-1.5% lithium, but high grade rock chips aren’t much to get excited about on their own. Reuben Adams Stockhead deputy editor knows much of such things.

“They could’ve been transported to this location from elsewhere by an ancient river or earthquake, for example, he says. The only way to prove if there is economic mineralisation is by drilling.

Which is well underway, MLS says.

The identification of significant Reubenidium?

The identification of significant rubidium at Mandini is also highly encouraging, and investors seem to agree.

“Rubidium is a rare metal mostly employed in high-technology industries such as biomedical research, electronics, specialty glass and pyrotechnics as well as traditional uses in electronic devices, specialised glass and catalysts,” MLS said.

Turns out – Reuben looked this up – rubidium carbonate is circa 75 times the current price of lithium. So, that’s particularly nice.

Golden Cross Resources (ASX:GCR) already one of February biggest movers this bad boy with no news that this informed person can see, maintained some crackerjack momentum into March.

Marching into March, really…

This formerly snoozy China-backed copper-gold explorer came out of a two-and-a-half-year suspension in Feb after completing a $1.5m cap raise and satisfying the ASX’s conditions of reinstatement.

GCR’s focus is the ‘Copper Hill’ project in the Macquarie Arc in NSW, home to porphyry copper-gold deposits at Cadia (Newcrest), Northparkes (China Molybdenum) and Cowal (Evolution Mining).

Copper Hill has an existing resource of 87Mt at 0.36% copper and 0.32g/t, which hasn’t been updated since 2015 and sparsely drilled below 350m vertically.

GCR: there is good potential for depth extensions and “occurrences of mineralisation along strike from Copper Hill in a 5km-long corridor also provide scope for further resources in satellite deposits.”

 

 

ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS

Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for February 28 – March – 4:

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Kalium Lakes (ASX:KLL)  started the week in a trading halt, and things really got worse from there.

The company’s pre-feasibility study got a little whack after KLL realised it’s going to need a lot more money, after realising it’s got a lot more of that potassium salt stuff to lay its hands on. Kalium said it it’ll want that external funding before the September quarter.

Zebit (ASX:ZBT) despite a momentary lapse of reason is back getting smacked.

The BNPL/Ecommerce stock cannot get off this death train from hell we call the ASX quick enough.

It’s in dire straits and please someone let it all end soon

Zebit now trades at 5.5c, after raising $35 million in October 2020 at $1.58 per share.