He banked a much-needed profit, but almost immediately regretted it.

If the Punter’s hunch is correct, there is more and worse to come.

The attempt by Adelaide Resources (ADN) to sell off its Peninsula Resources collapsed because applications for the shares were so low.

As a result ADN’s distribution of Peninsula shares to ADN shareholders has also been axed, and so out goes one of the Punter’s main reasons for buying ADN in the first place.

The company’s Rover prospect in the Northern Territory may yet prove a winner, but the Punter has dumped the shares at a substantial loss.

Drilling suggests that Altura Mining (AJM) has a 60 per cent bigger lithium find at Pilgangoora than it thought.

Moreover, AJM’s thermal coal operation in Kalimantan, with a measured resource of just under four million tonnes, is in the final stages of getting formal approval to start mining.

So the Punter is happy to hold this one.

Struggling farmers may take some comfort from the announcement by Syngas (SYS) that excess residual wheat straw may be a viable source of biofuel for power generation in Australia.

It bases this on field trials over two months in the SA wheat belt, but says the results should be applicable in other areas.

The results are preliminary, and did nothing for the shares.

Renison Consolidated Mines (RSN) jumped 50pc last Friday on the news they are going to investigate an old gold field near Armidale, using the latest techniques.

The Sydney Flat field was apparently very productive in the old pick-and-shovel days.

But Friday’s rise only took the shares up to one third of one cent each – not surprising when you realise that RSN burns between $400,000 and $600,000 every three months, and at the end of December had only $25,000 in the bank.

Punter is watching RSN.

The Punter has no financial qualifications and no links to the financial services industry. He owns shares in a number of companies in this column.