When Anthony Burgess popularised the term ‘horrorshow’ in his novel A Clockwork Orange, the ultraviolence loving hoodlums who populated his weirdo version of England were saying things were ‘good’.

ASX mining investors would have the contemporary meaning on their mind as the materials sector – and close to the whole of the ASX 200 – suffered some ultraviolence of their own today.

The price of iron ore dived on Friday to a touch over US$100/t, a 14-month low, continuing its rapid retrace from records of US$233/t seen in mid May.

While the Dalian Commodities Exchange took a breather with China celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival, Singapore is open, with 62% iron ore for January delivery dropping 8.51% to US$90.80/t as of 4pm AEST.

The ASX 200 slipped 2.10% into the red while the materials sector led the losses with a 3.74% slide.

BHP (down 4.16%), Rio (-3.6%) and FMG (-3.73%) were all big losers, but not as starkly as they were in mid-session trade, when they wiped 30 points off the ASX 200 on their own.

Negative sentiment extended outside of iron ore to stocks in just about every commodity, with recent market darlings the victims of bearish sentiment. Rare earths miner Lynas (ASX:LYC) was down 11.8% while lithium boomers Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) and Orocobre (ASX:ORE) were down 9.61% and 8.66% respectively.

 

Which miners swam against the tide?

Just one — lithium developer Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR), which managed to find enough favour to record a 0.32% or half a cent gain to $1.55.

~$3 billion capped Liontown, plans to have the Kathleen Valley lithium mine in the Goldfields up and running in 2024, and has ridden the lithium wave this year to a more than 600% gain over the past 12 months.

What else was up at the big end of resources town? The Physical Gold ETF (ASX:GOLD), trading up 0.18%.

 

Liontown Resources share price today: