http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/cash-crunc...

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/cash-crunch-for-the-minnows/story-e6frg9ex-1226078136236

Slow response

AND still talking about rare earths, there was some fast talking out of DataMotion Asia Pacific (DMN) after a rather sharp note from the ASX.

On Tuesday, the stock plunged by 33.3 per cent without explanation and a trading halt was called only in the last hour of trade. At 7.17pm, DMN released news that a visual inspection of drilling at the Mt Barrett project had produced "no evidence" of the geology that would host rare earth elements.

The ASX was not best pleased about this timeline. A subsequent long explanation by the company was that it had become aware of the drilling information at 2.10pm AEST on Tuesday - huge volumes of stock had been traded for several hours already - and then there was a conference call between several parties including the field geologist, described only as Dr Zang, and consulting geologist Anthony Rechner.

Phone calls continued about the draft of a release but it was not until 3.25pm AEST that a call was made to the ASX requesting a trading halt. Considering that 190.9 million shares went through before the trading halt was imposed, the news had clearly got around from somewhere. The shares then fell another 50 per cent on Wednesday to 0.1c.

Surely not just another of the many cases of extraordinary intuition we see in the market? Over to you, ASX.