Insider Trades: Directors are buying shares in these 9 ASX small caps
Omega Oil & Gas' CEO and its largest shareholder, the Flannery family bought shares last week.
Source: iStock
Mentioned
KEY POINTS
- Omega Oil & Gas CEO Lauren Bennett and its largest shareholder, the Flannery family, bought almost $1 million worth of shares last week
- Ausgold is set to become Australia's next mid-tier gold miner and insiders are buying
- Hastings is an emerging rare earths producer but its shares are down almost 70% year-to-date. Directors are beginning to nibble
Welcome back to the Insider Trades series – A summary of small cap mining director transactions that have taken place between 2 June and 29 May.
Top small cap director trades
Code | Company | Date | Director | Type | Price | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Omega Oil & Gas | 31/05/23 | Quentin Flannery | Buy | $0.22 | $670,834 | On-market trade | |
Ausgold | 2/06/23 | Richard Lockwood | Buy | $0.05 | $153,034 | On-market trade | |
Omega Oil & Gas | 1/06/23 | Quentin Flannery | Buy | $0.22 | $136,108 | On-market trade | |
Hastings Technology Metals | 1/06/23 | Charles Lew | Buy | $1.56 | $127,841 | On-market trade | |
Omega Oil & Gas | 2/06/23 | Quentin Flannery | Buy | $0.23 | $106,954 | On-market trade | |
American Rare Earths | 31/05/23 | Geoffrey Hill | Buy | $0.15 | $60,095 | On-market trade | |
Hartshead Resources | 31/05/23 | Bevan Tarratt | Buy | $0.02 | $46,000 | On-market trade | |
Brightstar Resources | 30/05/23 | Alex Rovira | Buy | $0.01 | $27,000 | On-market trade | |
Ausgold | 31/05/23 | Matthew Greentree | Buy | $0.05 | $24,560 | On-market trade | |
Omega Oil & Gas | 31/05/23 | Lauren Bennett | Buy | $0.21 | $19,950 | On-market trade | |
Toubani Resources | 1/06/23 | Mark Strizek | Buy | $0.19 | $17,649 | On-market trade | |
Hartshead Resources | 2/06/23 | Bevan Tarratt | Buy | $0.03 | $13,500 | On-market trade | |
Horseshoe Metals | 2/06/23 | Alan Still | Sell | $0.02 | $10,200 | On-market trade |
Interesting Observations
CEO and largest shareholder load up: Omega Oil & Gas is backed by the billionaire Flannery family, which committed $4.2 million of the $15.1 million that Omega was seeking to raise as part of its IPO back in October 2022. Last week, Quentin Flannery – also a non-Executive Director of OMA – bought approximately $915,000 worth of shares. At the same time, CEO Lauren Bennett also purchased $19,950 worth of shares.
The Queensland-based explorer successfully wrapped up a drilling campaign that marked two major gas discoveries in the Surat Basin in Queensland last month – which seeks to derisk a prospective 3 trillion cubic feet of gas and 233 million barrels of oil. The stock is up around 21% to 23.5 cents since it started releasing drill results and updates in early April. It experienced a brief dip to 19 cents on 31 May, which was when Flannery and Bennett started buying shares.
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Omega Oil and Gas price chart (Source: Market Index)
An emerging mid-tier goldie: Ausgold believes its on the right track to become Australia’s next mid-tier gold producer. The company is progressing the Katanning Gold project which is targeting 136,000 ounces of gold production per annum over the course of its 10 year mine life. A recent scoping study suggests a post-tax NPV of $541 million (current market cap of $120 million). The stock has mostly been trading sideways for the past 18 months but we’re starting to see insiders begin to nibble.
Date | Director | Type | Price | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
02/06/23 | Richard Lockwood | Buy | $0.051 | $153,034 | On-market trade |
31/05/23 | Matthew Greentree | Buy | $0.049 | $24,560 | On-market trade |
06/04/23 | Denis Rakich | Buy | $0.050 | $150,000 | As advised by the company |
06/04/23 | Denis Rakich | Buy | $0.050 | $12,500 | As advised by the company |
%20Share%20Price%20-%20Market%20Index.png)
Ausgold 12-month price chart (Source: Market Index)
Rare earth hopeful obliterated: Hastings Technology Metals said its Yangibana project will now be developed in two stages, with the first stage focused on producing a rare earth concentrate from the mine. To make things worse, the Stage 1 cash costs were 44% higher than what Macquarie was expecting. This announcement triggered an almost 30% selloff across two days. Hastings has underperformed rare earths peers like Lynas, Iluka and Arafura by a wide margin – down 68.9% year-to-date. Executive Chairman Charles Lew bought $127,800 worth of shares last week – Is he seeing value after such a selloff?
%20Share%20Price%20-%20Market%20Index.png)
Hastings Technology Metals 12-month price chart (Source: Market Index)
