Sunday Edition: 10th August

Disclosure: S3 Consortium Pty Ltd and its associated entities may hold direct or indirect interests in securities referred to in this publication and may receive fees or other forms of consideration from entities mentioned. These interests and arrangements may create a potential conflict of interest in the preparation of this material.

The information contained in this communication is provided for general information purposes only and may relate to speculative investments. It does not constitute financial product advice, and has been prepared without taking into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider obtaining independent financial advice before making any investment decision.

Yesterday we wrote about macro investment themes that we think are coming next.

The US critical metals theme is starting to gain momentum...

And we think silver is going on a generational run in the next 12 months.

We are looking to add more investments in silver and US critical metals as both macro themes move to "Stage 3 - it's getting real” in our model.

Got a silver story for us?

If you know about any pre-IPO’s, IPO’s, private assets or even undiscovered listed companies in silver or US critical metals, please email [email protected] and let us know.

(there aren’t many silver companies on the ASX, we are hoping that a few new ones will come on soon as interest grows in silver)

For more about why we think silver, US critical metals and gold will be the big themes of the next couple of years, see our Saturday note here: Silver, Gold and US Critical Metals Macro Themes.

Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY | OTC: LKYRF)

On Monday LKY lodged an “expanded plan of operations” to upsize its upcoming drill program.

Then later in the week LKY appointed Tribeca Capital as a strategic advisor on the company’s US critical metals growth strategy.

A big part of the Tribeca mandate is to advise LKY “on downstream processing, technology collaborations, government engagement, funding programs”.

We Invested in LKY because it is the only ASX listed company with permitted, drill ready ground right next door to one of the most well known mining companies in the world right now - MP Materials.

MP Materials owns the USA’s only rare earths mine and this week it was front and centre of a joint press conference held by the US president Donald Trump and Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook.

(Source)

LKY holds ground right next door (~1.4km away from MP).

And will be drilling in September - for rare earths and antimony.

Canyon Resources (ASX:CAY)

CAY drew down the first US$26M tranche of its U$140M loan facility...

... to “purchase rolling stock” and “progress key infrastructure workstreams”.

CAY is currently in the early stages of developing its giant bauxite project in Cameroon.

CAY owns one of the world’s biggest undeveloped bauxite deposits with an estimated 1 billion tonne JORC resource.

CAY has already started ordering locomotives and wagons for its project with first deliveries expected in Q1-2026 - ahead of the first bauxite shipments that CAY is targeting in H1-2026.

With the latest draw down CAY is progressing mine, haul road, rail and port infrastructure works.

CAY had already started infrastructure works ~2.5 weeks ago - at the time it held a big cutting ceremony to celebrate works starting at CAY’s project:

(Source)

Solis Minerals (ASX:SLM)

SLM received the final approvals to drill its second copper target this year.

SLM is currently drilling the first of three projects it plans to drill all before the end of the year.

The next target is Ilo Este where SLM is targeting a big porphyry discovery.

Ilo Este is our favourite of SLM’s prospects.

This project had previously been drilled, returning intercepts of ~472m at 0.11% copper with 0.09g/t gold grades.

That is already a giant intercept on its own (which we think the market would like if it was announced in isolation)...

BUT it turns out the old drilling just missed the main geophysical targets...

SLM ran an IP survey (geophysics) in 2022 which showed just how close that old drilling got:

(The bright purple is the centre of the geophysical anomaly, the old drilling is shown in red dots with the arrows showing which direction the drilling was done in)

We are looking forward to drilling at Ilo Este because:

1. The giant intercepts from all the old drilling (albeit at lowish grades), and
2. SLM will be the first company to drill into the guts of those NEW IP (geophysical) anomalies.

See our deep dive on Ilo Este here: Ilo Este, SLM’s best target - final permits expected in coming weeks, then drilling to immediately begin

AML3D (ASX:AL3)

This week AL3 had two bits of news.

First, AL3’s $2.27M 3D system is now confirmed as operational at the Tennessee Valley Authority - the largest public utility in the USA,

This is the first system that AL3 has delivered from its US Technology Centre located in Stow Ohio

Here is a picture of what AL3’s systems look like:

Second, AL3 signed a two-year, non-exclusive distribution deal with a company inside the EU - this is the second distribution deal AL3 has signed across the UK/EU markets.

We said in our last note that we think AL3’s market opportunity could grow into other sectors outside of the defence space.

AL3’s US expansion to date has predominantly focused on the US military industrial complex.

So far AL3 has received a letter of interest (LOI) from the US Navy and the expansion of the “Marine Industrial Base” to include the Department of Army and the Air Force means AL3’s target market has grown 3 fold.

We initially invested in AL3 because we thought US expansion can be accelerated through the defence customers and from there to adjacent industries (as seen with TVA).

This strategy is intended to be repeated in multiple markets such as the UK, EU and Australia.

Minbos Resources (ASX:MNB)

On Friday, MNB announced that the concrete slab for its Angolan fertilizer plant had been poured.

(Source)

Next for MNB is civil works around the plant site before assembly of the plant begins.

Once in production MNB’s phosphate project mine is forecast to deliver ~US$55M in EBITDA per year (base case, on average) mine, over a 20 year mine life.

According to the DFS.

MNB has already got most of the parts ordered for the next stage of construction and these are sitting in storage right now around 20 minutes from the site.

We actually saw these plant parts arriving in port while we visited MNB’s project in February 2023:

Here is how MNB’s plant will look when it's built:

(MNB’s proposed plant - Source)

Once construction is completed, MNB will be capable of producing Angola’s first locally produced phosphate fertilizer, with “first production targeted for 2026”.

Now it's all about MNB closing out its final financing deals and finishing off the build.

Our New Portfolio Addition: West Coast Silver (ASX:WCE)

This week we added West Coast Silver (ASX:WCE) to our Catalyst Hunter Portfolio for early stage exploration companies.

WCE owns 70% of the Elizabeth Hill Mine in WA.

When it was in production, WCE’s project was one of the highest grade silver producers in Australia.

It was also home to the biggest silver nugget find in Australian history:

Then the silver price fell to ~US$5 per ounce and mining abruptly ceased in a single day due to a fall out between the project’s JV partners at the time, leaving a considerable untapped resource. (source)

WCE’s project once produced 1.2M ounces of silver from just 16,830 tonnes of ore.

That means average grades during production were ~2,194g/t silver...

For some context, most operations these days are happy if grades are north of 50g/t...

A big part of the reason we are Invested in WCE is because we think that the company could make new discoveries similar to what was mined at Elizabeth Hill in the past - both next to its existing mine infrastructure AND regionally:

Read our full WCE initiation note, where you can find:

• 9 key reasons why we are Invested in WCE:
• Why we think silver is about to go on a generational price run
• Our deep dive on WCE’s project

And of course our WCE Investment Memo which outlines:

• What does WCE do?
• The macro theme for WCE
• Our WCE Big Bet
• What we want to see WCE achieve
• Why we are Invested in WCE
• The key risks to our Investment Thesis
• Our Investment Plan

Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY | OTC: LKYRF)

On Thursday morning the CEO of US$3.3 Trillion iPhone maker Apple posted on X about an increased US$600 Billion commitment to US manufacturing (see it here).

The Apple CEO’s X post came with a 27 second video showcasing Apple’s current commitments in the US.

And the first example Apple used in its video was MP Materials - the USA’s only rare earths mine and rare earth magnet producer...

...and our Investment Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY | OTC: LKYRF)’s next door neighbor:

(Source)

The post had been viewed 1M times at the time of our note - it's now been viewed almost ~2.5M times...

(The US market was closed at the time of the X post but MP Materials was up ~7% in “after market” trading)

And since then MP Materials has gone even higher.

Across the last 5 trading sessions MP Materials is up over 25%...

We think the current amount of US attention and money flowing into its direct neighbor MP Materials could bring more attention to the much smaller and much earlier stage LKY...

A rising share price and big US attention on MP Materials close to LKY’s drilling program can only be good for LKY.

If the next door neighbour is capped at $20BN - then the risk/reward on offer for a company drilling next door becomes a lot more attractive.

LKY’s plan is to drill its projects this quarter.

Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML)

On Wednesday RML came out of a trading halt and announced that it had received an A$225M offer from a NASDAQ listed company...

RML said that an UNSOLICITED non-binding bid was received last Saturday for its gold-antimony-tungsten project.

(Source - Wednesday's RML announcement)

The indicative non-binding offer of A$225M to RML is split between cash and shares in NASDAQ listed Snow Lake Resources, with the cash to shares ratio to be agreed at a later date.

IF the deal progresses as it stands today, the $225M would imply a share price somewhere between 14 and 15c per share (on a fully diluted basis) for RML’s US asset.

With Snow Lake capped at ~A$50M, if this deal goes ahead, it would be a fast way for RML’s US critical metals assets to be quickly accessible to large US investors via the NASDAQ (sort of like a reverse take over).

Just as the US critical metals theme emerges in the US.

Of course being non-binding, there is no guarantee a transaction proceeds.

Snow Lake requested a period of “exclusivity to conduct due diligence and finalise negotiations with RML on the terms of the Offer”.

This means we will probably know a lot more on the details of any deal (and whether or not RML’s board recommends it to shareholders) within the coming weeks...

Exclusive: Lula plans new 'national sovereignty' policy for strategic minerals (Reuters)

Right now, Brazil and the US are in the midst of a tariff tit-for-tat.

Brazil has been hit with one of the highest tariffs by the US with a 50% tariff on imports.

We know from Trump’s past behaviour that these tariffs tend to be a starting point for a negotiation and don’t tend to be permanent.

However, these tariffs have encouraged Brazil to reflect inwards on its own critical minerals supply chain, with Brazilian president Lula De Silva unveiling a new national sovereignty policy on strategic minerals.

He said: "We won't allow what happened in the last century to happen again, where Brazil exports raw minerals and then buys products with very high added value... We want to add value in Brazil."

These statements come right as our Investment St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) is drilling out its rare earths and niobium resource in Brazil.

Rare earths have been a commodity of significant interest to Trump with the US government looking to use “pandemic era levels of urgency” to build up the US’ supply chain (source).

The availability for local downstream processing in Brazil plays directly into SGQ’s strategic roadmap as it recently announced that it had joined forces with MagBras.

MagBras is a Brazilian joint public/private organisation tasked to build a rare earths mining to magnet production supply chain within the region.

Lula’s strategic minerals agenda appears to be more than political, it is looking like it could be economically nation building should it come to fruition.

This sets the stage for SGQ’s project to become one of national importance enabling it to make the leap from explorer to producer.

(provided that the project feasibility stacks up)

Recently cashed up from a $5m raise, SGQ has upsized its drill program from 3 to 5 drill rigs right, so there will be plenty of results on the way having recently shown 13.5m at 12% TREO results outside of the currently known resource area.

St George (ASX: SGQ) - Araxa keeps getting bigger (Pitt Street Research)

Global Uranium & Enrichment (ASX: GUE) - Pine Ridge Drilling Underway (MST Access)

Is 3 Moz of Gold Really Enough in Mexico? Mithril Gold & Silver (ASX:MTH)

Investor Webinar - 7 August 2025: GTI Energy (ASX:GTR)

Luke Gromen + Darius Dale: Why 'Money Printer Go Brrrrr' Is Our Inescapable Fate

Top 3: The Horse Heaven Project with Brill Breen: Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML)

Iondrive's Bold Battery Bet: Iondrive (ASX:ION), Intelligent Investor

A word of caution...

While we aim to highlight developments in the small cap space, investing in early-stage and small cap companies - like those we cover - is inherently risky.

These companies often face funding challenges, regulatory hurdles, and market volatility. Announcements may reflect aspirations more than guaranteed outcomes.

Things can, and often do, change.

Just because a company has signed a deal, released drill results, or appointed a new director doesn’t mean success is assured.

Always assume delays, cost overruns, or results that don’t pan out.

We’re here to share insights, not offer personal financial advice - so please do your own research and speak with a licensed adviser before acting on anything mentioned.

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Bye for now.