Insider Trades: Directors are buying shares in these 13 small cap ASX explorers

A summary of small cap mining director transactions valued at more than $10,000 between 4-11 April.

Top small cap director buys

Interesting Observations

A broad theme: Several of the above director transactions break a rather prolonged dry spell for insider buying for the respective companies. The latest trades (excluding the ones from above) include:

• Leo Lithium: September 2022

• Arrow Minerals: September 2022

• Nico Resources: June 2022

• Great Southern Mining: December 2022

• Horizon Minerals: July 2022

• Dreadnought Resources: September 2021

• Peregrine Gold: April 2021

• CI Resources: September 2016

Nico Resources: Former Managing Director and CEO purchased parcels every week between March and June 2022. This was during a time when the stock was running pretty hot, from around 50 cents to highs of $1.87. As the stock started to lose traction, so did the director transactions. The buy from Non-executive Managing Director Peter Cook marks the first insider buy since June 2022. Since then, the stock’s down almost 40%. Last December, the company completed a Pre-Feasibility Study for its flagship Wingellina Nickel-Cobalt Project, which revealed a base post-tax NPV of $3.3bn and 42-year mine life. 

Dreadnought Resources: The buy from Non-Executive Director Philip Crutchfield breaks an even larger insider drought – with the last one dating back to September 2021, when Dreadnought shares were trading at just 1 cent. Rare earth stocks have taken quite a hit in the past few months amid declining spot prices and Tesla’s announcement about working towards a rare earths free EV model. 

Cooper Energy: Insider buying started to ramp up after a six month break, with seven transactions taking place since March – totaling almost $340,000. The company is a ~$400m market cap gas supplier in the south-east coast of Australia.