The mining sector's average day followed on from drops in spot and three-month contract prices across every metal on the London Metal Exchange.
The biggest news was, instead, the latest commodity bull run (or will that be bubble?). After nickel, uranium and iron ore's time in the sun, the baton has now passed to phosphate.
Today Uramet followed on from fellow phosphate hopefuls Minemakers and Syndicated Metals, which both had share price flurries on the back of news about the fertiliser ingredient.
Uramet's shares today boomed 248% after it announced some phosphate-bearing samples from two prospects in the Georgina Basin in the Northern Territory.
Phosphate has become quite the commodity du jour. Prices are reportedly around the $US400 per tonne level - up from $50 last year - and it seems a small contingent of juniors are dusting off exploration results in light of the increasing demand for fertiliser from China and other growing third-world economies.
After hitting a high of A33c, up from the previous day's close of 8.9c, Uramet's shares cooled to 26c as some 17 million shares in the company changed hands.
At the other end of the pool, Convergent Minerals had a bruising session, falling 4c or 25% to 12c, as did Territory Resources' erstwhile takeover target, Olympia Resources.
That company slipped 2c down to 7c, down from 10.96c in March when Michael Kiernan's iron ore vehicle first made a move on the company.
The big boys also had a difficult session. Choppy trading kept their shares bouncing around, but by the end of the day Rio Tinto was up only 14c to $145.40, while BHP Billiton was down 34c to $44.95.
BHP boss Marius Kloppers spent hours last night telling investors all about the company's excellent petroleum division and its prospects, and refuting Rio's claims that oil and gas are bad fits for its aggressive suitor, but that failed to enliven the company's share price.
Out of the mid-tiers, the better gainers were Gloucester Coal, up 36c to $10.73, while fellow coal play, Riversdale Mining, also posted a solid 22c gain to $8.55.
Meanwhile, in other energy news, Merrill Lynch initiated coverage of uranium plays Energy Resources of Australia, giving it a neutral rating, and Paladin Energy, giving it a buy.
According to Dow Jones Newswires, the brokerage said the uranium price is about as low as it will go. Shares in ERA were last at $21, down 33c while Paladin closed at $4.90, up 19c.
Another African-focused uranium play, African Energy, had a solid session after announcing an updated resource at its Chirundi uranium joint venture with nickel hopeful Albidon. African Energy's shares rose 3c to 29c, while Albidon's were up 12c to $4.08.
And finally, in macroeconomic news, the latest Australian jobs data shows employment tightness easing slightly, with the unemployment rate up a little and job ads also falling.
While this may have some miners breathing sighs of relief - but jobseekers feeling a little less secure than before -Dow Jones Newswires quoted several economists saying the slowdown will be gradual rather than hard and fast. So the skills shortage will be around for a while yet.
