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

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Wednesday, 1 November.

On Stockhead today…

If there’s one maxim that is true for resource explorers, it is that they live or die by the drill bit. Stockhead’s ‘On the Drill Bit’ column looks at the ASX explorers that have announced plans to start drilling in November. ‎

mRNA is set to be the new frontier in vaccines, but has serious side effects including inflammation. ASX listed Noxopharm has a program to tackle this problem, and Eddy Sunarto (that’s me) talks to its CEO, Gisela Mautner.

But first..

COMMODITY/FOREX/CRYPTO MARKET PRICES

Gold: US$1,996.51(+0.04%)

Silver: US$23.15 (-0.65%)

Nickel (3mth): US$18,079/t (-1.30%)

Copper (3mth): US$7,985.50/t (-0.58%)

Oil (WTI): US$82.64 (+0.41%)

Oil (Brent): US$86.49 (+0.19%)

Iron 62pc Fe: US$118.70/t (+0.13%)

AUD/USD: 0.6360 (-0.18%)

Bitcoin: US$34,120 (-0.11%)

WHAT GOT YOU TALKING

Now Australia’s largest listed nickel producer, Indonesian-focused Nickel Industries (ASX:NIC) says it is talking to as many as 20 EV makers about battery nickel supply, saying Western automakers are recognising they need to deal with the world’s biggest nickel supplier to feed their businesses.

A widely anticipated scoping study shows Lithium Energy (ASX:LEL)’s 3.3Mt Solaroz lithium brine project comes with an impressive IRR of 41-44% and will take just 2-2.5 years to pay back development costs once in production.

And this…

Horseshoe is pursuing significant early cash flow opportunities from direct shipping ore sales of existing high-grade copper stockpiles at the Horseshoe Lights project in WA.https://t.co/7kT6pC4L6E #ad #ASX $HOR @HorseshoeMetals

— Stockhead (@StockheadAU) October 31, 2023

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:

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap WCG Webcentral Ltd 0.305 177% 34,029,854 $36,203,885 IND Industrial Minerals 1.005 123% 5,770,692 $28,971,000 NZS New Zealand Coastal 0.003 50% 9,752,952 $3,334,020 TOR Torque Met 0.22 42% 2,739,165 $18,704,626 AYT Austin Metals Ltd 0.007 40% 62,882 $5,079,373 IVX Invion Ltd 0.007 40% 3,887,216 $32,108,161 BNR Bulletin Res Ltd 0.17 36% 4,303,400 $36,698,888 HRE Heavy Rare Earths 0.095 36% 209,881 $4,234,155 AVW Avira Resources Ltd 0.002 33% 248,516 $3,200,685 MSI Multistack International 0.004 33% 86,000 $408,912 MTL Mantle Minerals Ltd 0.004 33% 41,523,795 $18,442,338 SIS Simble Solutions 0.004 33% 800,109 $1,808,852 PEC Perpetual Res Ltd 0.021 31% 1,054,797 $9,898,653 ZGL Zicom Group Limited 0.06 30% 200,000 $9,869,760 AMM Armada Metals 0.026 30% 37,021 $2,571,361 LBT LBT Innovations 0.005 25% 1,750,400 $1,423,601 OAR OAR Resources Ltd 0.005 25% 1,328,648 $10,452,543 SFG Seafarms Group Ltd 0.005 25% 500,427 $19,346,397 TMX Terrain Minerals 0.005 25% 320,000 $5,030,575 YPB YPB Group Ltd 0.0025 25% 125,000 $1,486,923 MTC Metalstech Ltd 0.18 24% 7,560 $27,347,666 1CG One Click Group Ltd 0.016 23% 23,986,148 $7,996,277 CAI Calidus Resources 0.195 22% 5,427,225 $97,260,778 TPC TPC Consolidated Ltd 7.6 22% 19,331 $70,892,856 ERW Errawarra Resources 0.175 21% 2,572,553 $10,078,080

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Yesterday’s Small Caps highlights:

Patriot Lithium (ASX:PAT) has been climbing happily all day, pleased as it was to announce the acquisition of “multiple claim packages” in the lithium rich “Electric Avenue” region in Ontario, Canada.

This region is already blowing minds for its reputedly very high-grade lithium deposits, containing the world-class PAK-Spark Project, owned by Frontier Lithium (TSXV: FL).

Patriot already has confirmed high grade lithium mineralisation at Gorman within a 5.2km trend of outcropping pegmatites (including rock chip samples up to 3.71% Li2O and sawn channel samples of 12.8 metres at 1.3% Li2O, 5.0 metres at 2.0% Li2O and 5.0 metres at 2.0% Li2O).

Shares in the Aussie flag-flyer for US giant Toys R Us (ASX:Toy) are way out in front on Tuesday, up 36% at the close.

All we’ve got for now is that the Aussie arm of the business entered voluntary administration in 2018, shuttering some 45 stores after it failed to find a local buyer.

In 2021, ASX-listed toy punter Funtastic rescued the stores and adopted the fateful Toys“R”Us branding. But they also recently were discussing a deal to distribute on Disney cruise ships too.

Easing back on the accelerator in afternoon play, Chimeric Therapeutics (ASX:CHM), is still doing well after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its Investigational New Drug (IND) application of CHM 2101 – Chimeric’s first in class CDH17 CAR T cell therapy for gastrointestinal cancers.

The Australian firm, which says it’s among the leaders in cell therapy, plans to investigate CHM 2101 in a multi-centre, open label Phase 1A/B clinical trial for patients with advanced colorectal cancer, gastric cancer and neuroendocrine tumours.

Xianxin Hua, MD, PhD, and his team at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania called it “exciting to see the advancement from discovery of the CDH17 target and CAR T therapy in preclinical studies to the initiation of clinical trials in patients with GI-cancers and neuroendocrine tumors.”

Everyone hates cancer. Up 75%.

Finally a shout out to the copper, lithium and REEs explorer, Encounter Resources (ASX:ENR), which has made a close encounter of the third kind on that list – new niobium-REE carbonatites in the West Arunta region of WA.

ENR jumped about 20% when the news dropped before lunch.

At Emily, meanwhile, a magnetic low located 2km northwest of WA1 Resources’ (ASX:WA1) Luni discovery, has intersected carbonatites from ~50m depth which Encounter says were variably mineralised in niobium-REE to the end of the hole.

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:

Code Company Price % Volume Market Cap CLE Cyclone Metals 0.001 -50% 3,979,292 $20,529,010 MXC MGC Pharmaceuticals 0.001 -50% 2,180,264 $8,855,936 CC9 Chariot Corporation 0.255 -43% 4,097,408 $32,999,206 HCT Holista CollTech Ltd 0.009 -31% 514,492 $3,624,401 AHN Athena Resources 0.003 -25% 2,517,894 $4,281,870 CCE Carnegie Cln Energy 0.0015 -25% 467,729 $31,285,147 DXN DXN Limited 0.0015 -25% 141,752 $3,446,680 PNX PNX Metals Limited 0.003 -25% 650,000 $21,522,499 LPD Lepidico Ltd 0.008 -20% 31,249,601 $76,383,079 RLC Reedy Lagoon Corp. 0.004 -20% 1,190,663 $3,083,418 SMS Star Minerals 0.035 -19% 106,044 $1,558,870 AUE Aurum Resources 0.11 -19% 449,333 $4,240,227 CBY Canterbury Resources 0.022 -19% 135,000 $3,902,135 CRS Caprice Resources 0.031 -18% 171,781 $4,436,763 KP2 Kore Potash PLC 0.009 -18% 106,571 $7,345,837 BOD BOD Science Ltd 0.05 -17% 340,000 $10,640,310 ADV Ardiden Ltd 0.005 -17% 4,572,479 $16,130,012 EPM Eclipse Metals 0.01 -17% 2,774,644 $24,336,718 FFG Fatfish Group 0.01 -17% 1,761,412 $14,282,876 TAS Tasman Resources Ltd 0.005 -17% 45,145 $4,276,016 AKN Auking Mining Ltd 0.037 -16% 370,000 $8,980,563 ESR Estrella Res Ltd 0.006 -14% 38,337,988 $10,385,003 EXL Elixinol Wellness 0.006 -14% 2,323,377 $4,419,407 HTG Harvest Tech Grp Ltd 0.024 -14% 1,107,375 $19,780,973 M24 Mamba Exploration 0.03 -14% 312,785 $2,134,417

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