Top 10 at 11: ASX crashes hard in early trade as small cap miners drill big

The ASX has fallen sharply this morning, shedding almost 1pc with 11 sectors in the red. Small cap miners are offering a silver lining.

Small cap miners are finding success at the drill bit despite general market malaise this morning. Pic: Getty Images.

Morning, and welcome to Stockhead’s Top 10 (at 11… ish), highlighting the movers and shakers on the ASX in early-doors trading.

With the market opening at 10am sharp eastern time, the data is taken at 10.15am, once trading kicks off in earnest.

In brief, this is what the market has been up to this morning.

ASX freefalls in first hour

The market has reversed course this morning, undoing much of the gains from yesterday and trending sharply down from our new closing high reached on Tuesday afternoon.

The ASX plunged almost 1% in opening trade, falling 0.92% by about 10:30 AEST with every single sector flashing red across the board.

There’s no relief to be found in the indices either – the All Tech index is performing best at present, down only 0.35%.

While the market may be having a terrible day, some of our small cap miners are presenting a silver lining, offering up some impressive results with the drill bit.

WINNERS

Code	Name	Last	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
SFG	Seafarms Group Ltd	0.002	100%	2080905	$4,836,599
CTN	Catalina Resources	0.005	67%	34826265	$7,278,057
SKN	Skin Elements Ltd	0.003	50%	230300	$2,150,428
UBI	Universal Biosensors	0.03	43%	632511	$6,259,416
BMO	Bastion Minerals	0.002	33%	250000	$2,372,022
WCE	Westcoast Silver Ltd	0.12	25%	3833709	$24,971,614
JAV	Javelin Minerals Ltd	0.0025	25%	39383	$12,504,450
SPQ	Superior Resources	0.005	25%	229524	$9,483,931
ARV	Artemis Resources	0.006	20%	520000	$12,678,361
AUK	Aumake Limited	0.003	20%	3293399	$7,558,397

In the news...

Catalina Resources (ASX:CTN) is chasing up a stellar rare earth drill hit at the Laverton project that closely mirrors mineralisation found at the nearby Mt Weld mine (ASX:LYC), one of the most valuable rare earth deposits in the world.

On top of following up on the 9m at 7565 parts per million total rare earth oxide result, CTN is also exploring for gold in the Barnicoat Shear Zone at Laverton, host to several existing gold deposits.

West Coast Silver (ASX:WCE) hit 21m at 1047 g/t silver from just 10 metres of depth at the Elizabeth Hill project in WA’s Pilbara region, with a second diamond hole hitting 15 metres at 729 g/t silver from 1m below surface.

WCE’s results peaked at 1m at 15,071 g/t silver from 27 metres, an exceptionally high-grade result.

Javelin Minerals (ASX:JAV) has lifted the grade and confidence levels of its Eureka gold project resource estimate, lifting the overall resource grade 16% to 1.69 g/t gold for 110,687 ounces.

The update also added more tonnes to the indicated category, lifting it to 1.36Mt at 1.8 g/t gold for 78,678 ounces, a 27% increase.

LAGGARDS

Code	Name	Last	% Change	Volume	Market Cap
MOM	Moab Minerals Ltd	0.001	-33%	1100000	$2,811,999
SHP	South Harz Potash	0.003	-25%	110045	$5,132,248
PIL	Peppermint Inv Ltd	0.002	-20%	120000	$5,752,724
FBR	FBR Ltd	0.005	-17%	733725	$34,136,713
IPB	IPB Petroleum Ltd	0.005	-17%	5000	$4,238,418
LML	Lincoln Minerals	0.006	-14%	19269	$14,717,988
RKT	Rocketdna Ltd.	0.012	-14%	385994	$12,817,325
DGR	DGR Global Ltd	0.007	-13%	500020	$8,349,568
LU7	Lithium Universe Ltd	0.007	-13%	10314308	$7,487,837
AQC	Auspaccoal Ltd	0.015	-12%	1385621	$11,907,949

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Javelin Minerals and West Coast Silver are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

Originally published as Top 10 at 11: ASX crashes hard in early trade as small cap miners drill big