Today's movers and shakers

Whilst the Aussie market is trading sideways and still attempting to stay above that 4650 level, there's definitely a lot of money to be made in the smaller cap stocks with most days now showing some top gainers with share price movements of 40% and above.  Stocks that come to mind include Northern Uranium, Orion Metals, Avanco Resources and Peak Resources.

Today Avanco Resources received much attention today with it's announcement 'Iron Ore Project Update'.  Whilst there was information confirming the receipt of the initial payment from Vale for the Trindade North project the announcement also detailed the conditions of the purchase of the project all of which we have heard before.  Those that read the announcement more closely would have come across the statement "pending drill holes assays are expected soon, with abundant copper mineralization having been already logged for many of these holes. The Company is anticipating to be able to report further results in the coming weeks." in regards to the drilling completed at the Rio Verde Copper Project.  The shares finished up $0.026 to $0.096 on volume of a massive 306 million.

Galaxy Resources (GXY) had a nice little spike in it's share price before the company decided to put it's shares into trading halt.  The company is due to provide an update on the Mt Cattlin project and future financing arrangements.

Capital Mining (CMY) showed that anything rare earths is still the flavour of the month by surging 33% to $0.12 after hitting a high of $0.15.  The company copped a speeding ticket from the ASX for it's efforts.

Finally, I recently mentioned Apollo Consolidated (AOP) in a post regarding how it could be one to watch however had reservations about the number of shares that would flood the market (issued to Patersons clients).  Well, it appears that the overhang of stock is easily being soaked up by the market.  It also appears that the Patersons clients aren't selling the stock down but rather drip feeding it into the market.  This is evident today with nearly 35 million shares changing hands and the stock only increasing by $0.002.  I dont think it will be too long before it really starts to move.

***Apollo Consolidated shares to come on

I recently blogged about Apollo Consolidated (AOP) and it's option to acquire a gold project in West Africa.  There's been plenty of interest with the shares trading good volume.  Today we received information via an announcement that the company has finalised a placement through Patersons Securities in which their clients have collectively paid $0.005 so Apollo Consolidated could raise $1,000,000.  Whilst we knew that this was coming I do believe it is reason to possibly sit on the sidelines for a bit.  200,000,000 is a lot of shares to come onto the market.  Clients of Patersons will be sitting on almost a 240% gain on their investment and that will be too greater temptation to sell. 

As an aside, access to these kinds of placements to clients show one key advantage of being with a full service broker.  As a person that likes to take full responsibility for my own trades and investment I tend to trade online for the cheaper brokerage costs however throwing a bit of business towards a full service broker will remind him/her to think of you when such deals come along.

Apollo Consolidated into West African Gold

With the gold price at current highs it seems that every junior is either switching their exploration focus to their gold projects, vending a gold project into their company or completely changing their company activites to gold exploration.

Apollo Consolidated (AOP) is one such company.  It used to be a biotech and has come back out of administration with a now focus on gold exploration.  It's first foray into the gold sector was it's purchase of an 80% interest in the Rebecca Gold Project located 150km east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.  It appears however that the company is really starting to gain interest following it's announcement in July and presentation last week regarding the option it has to acquire Aspire Minerals Pty Ltd, a company with tenements within Cote d Ivoire.  Apollo Consolidated has sprouted off in the recent announcement that not only are the guys that helped get Gryphon Minerals (GRY) and Ampella Mining (AMX) get off the ground are involved but the project does have some 'nearology' to Perseus Mining (PRU).  These are some big names and very successful explorers in the West African gold game.

Today's share price action is strong with the shares currently up $0.002 to $0.017 with good volume.  The sell side is reasonably thin however with over 484 million shares on issue I do have reservations about how many of those will come on to the market.  I also need to take a closer look at the terms of the option (to buy Aspire Minerals Pty Ltd) but one thing is for sure, and that is there's quite a lot of interest in this one.