Day Three Delivers Some Ups and Some Downs

THE CONFERENCE CALLER: The market greeted Day Three presenters at Diggers and Dealers in a good mood with only a few companies with their toes in negative territory.

Strangely enough it was the local gold plays of Gold Road Resources (ASX: GOR), Kin Mining (ASX: KIN) and Metals X (ASX: MLX) who woke up a bit sluggish.

Having said that, of those who hadn’t risen to bad news, only five of the remaining thirteen companies to present for the day had shown any signs of life.

Fellow gold producer Dacian Gold (ASX: DCN) had played its hand early by releasing news of a 2.3 metres at 311.3 grams per tonne gold intercept from the Cameron Well prospect at the company’s Mt Morgans gold project in Western Australia.

“The early signs are very encouraging and suggest that Cameron Well has excellent potential to become the third major gold system at Mt Morgans,” Dacian managing director Rohan Williams said in Tuesday’s release.

From the bunch of companies that presented after the market had closed yesterday, St Barbara seemed to impress some Norwegian investors, who gave its share price a six cent morning glory by the time we looked in.

The playground scuttlebutt surrounding the possible winner of the Dealer of the Year Award wasn’t enough to drag Gold Road into positive territory, a fate shared by eventual winner of the Emerging Company Award, Kin Mining.

St Barbara defied the pundits to pull of both the Digger Award and easing back to a gain of 4.5 cents for the day.

The trifecta of companies to present just before the market close Regis Resources (ASX: RRL), Western Areas (ASX: WSA), and Gascoyne Resources (ASX: GCY) all enjoyed a buoyant day, while the afternoon kiss of death haunted Metals X, Dacian.

BHP (ASX: BHP) shares rode a wave of optimism after BHP Nickel West president Eduard Haegel informed delegates that the Big Achiever’s Nickel West division would spend $US43.2 million ($54.8 million) on building the world’s largest nickel sulphate plant at the Kwinana Refinery in Western Australia.

Haegel declared the facility would produce 100,000 tonnes of nickel sulphate a year, making it the world’s largest exporter.

“Our position in Australia with free trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea – the three largest producers and consumers – is a significant competitive advantage compared to other international competitors,” Haegel said.

“We expect to achieve first production in April 2019, subject to receiving the necessary approvals to construct and operate the plant.”