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.

Morning Briefs

All eyes will be on Avanco Resources (AVB) after it's surge yesterday.  The company announced that drilling confirmed 'existence of a exceptionally high grade copper zone' including one spectacular hit of '9 metres at 50.49% copper from 18 metres.'  Not all of the assay results have been sampled so there's chances there could be more good news on the way.  There's plenty of bids in the market depth this morning and the stock will probably gap up on open above $0.07.

After accumulating a stake in Northern Uranium (NTU) Conglin Yue has now moved on to Orion Metals (ORM) too.  He filed a substantial holder notice on Monday evening helping the share price along yesterday.  He filed another notice yesterday afternoon confirming his stake increase to 12.05%.

It seems like a few are catching on the to the potential of Botswana coal play African Energy (AFR).  The share price has seen some awesome gains the last week and surprisingly avoided receiving a speeding ticket from the ASX.  Today the company has announced a price sensitive update and exploration target.

Gryphon Minerals (GRY) remains in trading halt pending a capital raising.  It's no wondering the directors have decided to do so considering the share price has risen from $0.84 a month ago to last trade of $1.45.

Orion Metals flies on rock chips

Orion Metals (ORM) surged 72% to $0.215 today after announcing results of rock chip samples taken at it's Killi Killi Hills project.  Nearly half of the samples showed presence of heavy rare earth elements whilst some of the samples also showed anomalous levels of gold.  Considering the market cap of this company is still very small there could be a lot more share price appreciation in this one.

Orion Metals (ORM) now next to Northern Uranium (NTU)...

Orion Metals (ORM) has staged a massive 76% increase in it's share price to $0.15 after announcing today that it has acquired the Killi Killi Hills rare earth project in Western Australian close by to Northern Uranium (NTU) tenements.  The company picked up the tenements on the cheap by paying only $55,000 (cash and scrip) and a possible future maximum royalty of $100,000 to Mount Resources Pty Ltd.  I tweeted about the announcement a little after 3pm and luckily took a small position at $0.11 at the time.

Reading the forums online there has been a lot of chatter about the stock and it's potential upside for a number of reasons.  These reasons include:

• Small market cap of only $8 million undiluted (Northern Uranium's is approximately $40 million)
• Lack of shares on issue (approximately 55 million) which will make it hard to stifle the share price
• Rock chip samples recently taken with results due in the next week.  Anticipation of these results will help the share price.
• 'Nearology' to Northern Uranium.  Traders and investors will be wanting to ride the next share price burst after the performance of NTU shares.

The company also has other rare earth tenements in Queensland plus a copper-gold project near CuDeco Limited (CDU).  Tomorrow will be an interesting day, hold on to your hats ladies and gentleman.

As an aside and interesting to note, Areva has taken it's chance to exit the share registry of Northern Uranium.  Areva filed a 'ceasing to be substantial shareholder' notice to the ASX today.