Sunday Edition: 12th July

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.

Any forward-looking statements are uncertain and not a guaranteed outcome.

Below you can find short overviews of all the content we published last week, plus links to each full note.

Further down, there’s also some links to other interesting stuff we came across on our travels around the internet.

Yesterday’s Saturday note: We are saying it again - "Not wrong, just early"

Quick Takes: PR1, AVM, IVZ, TG1, PFE, WAU, OD6, LKY, LSR

Deep Dives: SPA, ILA, CND, WCE, PAT

Other content: VKA, EMD, ILA, ONE, ION, AVM, SGQ, EIQ, PUR

IIQ is hosting a webinar on Tuesday 14th July AEST. The agenda includes the recent study outcome with the key findings, what’s being done to advance EXO-OC and the pathway to commercialisation.

You can register for the IIQ webinar here

PR1's carbon nanotube fibre tech received peer reviewed validation.

PR1’s tech has “directional heat routing” capabilities.

At a very high level that means PR1’s material can be engineered to direct heat in specific directions - unlike copper and aluminium, which naturally spread heat outward evenly in every direction.

That ticks off the third of PR1’s key technical milestones:

1. ✅ Conductivity (~1.5x copper, ~2.5-3x aluminium)
2. ✅ Weight efficiency (~5.5x lighter than copper)
3. ✅ Thermal anisotropy (directional heat routing)

Next PR1 will test its tech in a real life environment - that’s when we get to see how much better the carbon nanotubes can work relative to copper and aluminium.

🔲 System-level heat performance - "the big one" (bench scale tests vs copper/aluminium - underway)

(source)

AVM hit 131.5g/t gold from its Victorian gold project, developing a new 3D geological model.

This was the final batch of assays from AVM’s Victorian gold asset - now integrated into a 3D geological model for the project.

The key takeaway for us is the vertical sheets of gold AVM is now modelling - multiple layers running down to ~500m below surface.

AND AVM’s theory is there could be more of these regionally:

(source)

IVZ awarded contracts for its Musuma-1 well - on track for spud this half

IVZ awarded the following contracts:

1. Wellpad construction and civil works - including access road upgrades and water supply.
   
   
2. Rig mobilisation - A team is now on the way to Zimbabwe.

Alongside those contracts, IVZ set out the packages it is still finalising:

1. Long-lead equipment (wellheads and tubulars)
   
   
2. Well services - contract award targeted "in the coming weeks"

The announcement highlights section gave a spud date of H2-2026 - i.e this half.

But we did notice IVZ’s image later in the announcement says an estimated spud date of “Q3 2026”... which is this quarter. So hopefully not too long now.

On this imminent well, IVZ is targeting ~1.2 Tcf gas and 73 million barrels of condensate resource (gross mean unrisked).

(source)

TG1 is now drill-ready for big WA copper-gold targets

This week TG1 confirmed all the permitting is done for the long awaited drilling of its Blue Devil and Red Devil copper-gold targets.

The only things left to do now are lock in rigs and get drilling.

TG1’s been somewhat lucky so far - all of the time waiting for permitting has meant that drilling will happen with copper trading near all time highs around ~US$6 per pound.

Hopefully TG1 has the same luck when drilling...

This will be the first ever drilling into these large targets.

(source)

PFE’s ~A$42M private investment received a US$225M investment from $97BN Eni.

Italian energy supermajor Eni committed US$225M to acquire a 25% equity interest in private company EnergyX’s Chilean Black Giant lithium brine project.

(you can do the math on the look-through valuation they are giving the asset)

Good news for our Investment PFE because it has a ~A$42M shareholding in EnergyX (indicative carrying value based on most recent priced capital raising), which came from the sale of its Arkansas lithium project.

PFE also has a $2M cash payment from EnergyX due this month and another in H1 next year which should give PFE a nice little runway to drill tests its US silver-antimony project.

Eni has just started construction in Italy for a battery gigafactory, so no wonder they have looked to shore up lithium supply:

(source)(source)

WAU is now 7 holes into drilling at 518k oz WA gold project - assays due this month.

That’s the first phase of drilling done - assays are due this month.

WAU still has another ~6,000m of drilling to come on the asset later this quarter.

The key takeaway for us this week was that WAU is already talking about doing “geotechnical” drilling - the type of drilling companies do when thinking about how to develop a deposit - less so when doing exploration.

That matters because this is the project WAU has an MoU with Wiluna Mining (the owner of nearby processing infrastructure) AND a recent scoping study which showed the project could generate NPV of $205-253M from just ~$8M in pre production capital. (source)

A lot is happening for WAU... it’s a shame the gold price has taken a bit of momentum out of the stock.

WAU is also drilling next door to $4.5BN Minerals 260 right now at its other WA gold asset AND Minerals 260 just upgraded its JORC resource estimate at its deposit to 6.2m ounces... a real monster now).

(source)

OD6 channel sampled 50m of fluorspar grading 63.9% from surface in Nevada, USA.

Before this week's result, the strongest channel samples from the project were ~10-15m in width, Now OD6 has sampled a ~50m area inside one of the old pits that were mined on the asset.

So ~5x bigger and the grade is still above where a “DSO” (Direct Shipping Ore) operation stacks up.

Our “iceberg theory” for OD6 is slowly being substantiated.

Also this week OD6 posted a clip of strategic advisor the Hon. Julie Bishop with some words on the project.

Bishop is an Australian former politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2013 to 2018 and deputy leader of the Liberal Party from 2007 to 2018. The Hon Julie Bishop and her advisory firm, Julie Bishop & Partners, serve as Strategic Advisor to OD6.

(source)

LKY produced 93% antimony product in the US - pilot scale tests next.

The extraction numbers were from the “DeepSolv” tech LKY that is being developed at Rice University - an environmentally friendly non-toxic solvent to recover antimony.

This is what LKY's 100% US "mine-to-market" strategy is built around - taking ore and processing it using its own developed processing tech.

The USGS has estimated that the US imports 91% of its antimony needs (the rest came from domestic recycling).

The US was estimated by the USGS to have imported 91% of its antimony needs in 2025 (the rest came from domestic recycling). (source)

China, which controls ~80% of global antimony processing, has cut exports by ~97% (source).

So the US bottleneck isn't just mining but also requires solutions on the processing side - which LKY has made a key part of its strategy.

Any IP generated through the program is jointly owned by LKY and Rice, so it is able to use it for a potential mining operation (or even just processing).

Next for this workstream: further process optimisation, solvent recyclability testing and evaluation of pilot-scale equipment (reactors and filtration systems).

Just on this, LKY has even designed a conceptual processing plant for the project: Watch: LKY Desert Antimony Mine Restart Plan

LSR hits 16m at 3.23g/t gold from WA project - maiden resource due this year.

Another round of high-grade gold assay results from LSR’s recently completed drilling campaign at its 100% owned WA gold project.

LSR has previously released an exploration target of 250,000 to 300,000 ounces of gold, with a maiden resource estimate expected before the end of the year.

(source)

Spacetalk (ASX:SPA)

Our tech Investment Spacetalk (ASX:SPA) is already a leading provider of family and child safety tech in Australia (kids safety watches).

~$24M capped SPA generated ~$10.9M in Annual Recurring Revenues (ARR) inside the last nine months.

A few years ago SPA commenced a strategy to add a full family safety software platform and mobile app.

To try to emulate some of ~$6.7BN Life360’s family safety app success.

(ie the success of Life360 means we already know there is mega demand out there for family safety technology)

Instead of selling directly to customers (parents), SPA came up with a clever model:

Partner with telcos and have them distribute SPA’s app to their billions of customers.

Today we have seen the first major, commercially material, proof point of this model working.

SPA just got access to millions of postpaid mobile customers of $7.1BN TPG Telecom (Vodafone Australia) in Australia.

(read the full announcement)

Vodafone will offer the premium tier for SPA’s family safety app to its customer base (~2.8M post-paid mobile plan users).

This is the first big commercial agreement in SPA’s “telco partnership led growth” strategy.

We think SPA’s “telco partnership led growth” plan is a win-win-win:

• Families get peace of mind from family safety tech.
  
• Telcos get better client engagement embedding family safety, engagement and insight directly into the telco customer experience for their billions of customers.
  
• SPA gets access to revenue and rapid customer growth.

Telcos have spent years trying to move from selling one product to one person (a single SIM card) toward bundling multiple services, mobile, home broadband/NBN, content.

AND selling them across a whole household rather than to individuals.

SPA has purpose built its family safety app and platform to solve problems for families AND telcos.

(and all it asks for in return is for direct access to billions of telco customers around the world).

This week we saw SPA lock in its first commercial telco deal with access to millions of customers.

Read more: SPA: Vodafone Australia to offer SPA family safety app to its millions of customers...

Island Pharmaceuticals (ASX:ILA)

Ebola is a rare but severe and often fatal disease caused by a group of viruses.

The world is ~8 weeks into a major new Ebola outbreak in Africa. As of Monday, there were 1,481 cases, 454 deaths, and a rising case fatality rate of 31%.

Currently the third largest ever on record.

UPDATE: Ebola deaths have now climbed to 600 since we published this content earlier in the week - this current Ebola outbreak is the ‘fastest growing yet’.

During the last major Ebola outbreak, US government agencies deployed over US$70M in funding to test a drug called Galidesivir against viral diseases.

Including against Ebola.

Galidesivir has Phase 1 safety data (in humans) and effectiveness (in animals) against Ebola, Marburg and 17+ other viral diseases.

Our 2025 Biotech Pick of The Year - Island Pharmaceuticals (ASX:ILA) acquired Galidesiver in 2025, after the prior owner shifted strategic focus to other diseases.

ILA decided to develop it for Marburg first.

(ILA decided to pursue Marburg first because while the disease does naturally occur, it's also a major bioterror threat. There is no approved treatment and hence no biodefence treatment stockpile, and approval can be fasttracked with the FDA)

ILA’s animal trials for Marburg are due to start any day now with ILA going for accelerated FDA approvals in Q1 2027 (submissions).

(Animal trials because you can't ethically deliberately infect humans with a deadly disease to test a treatment. Placebo control groups are unethical and outbreaks to find test patients are rare and unpredictable - so ILA is able to seek FDA approvals from animal data alone - more on that in the link below)

Eight weeks ago an Ebola outbreak was first reported, this current outbreak is the third largest in history (and it's still going):

(source)(source)(source)(source)(source)(source)

We wrote about ILA when the Ebola outbreak was first reported because ILA’s drug is effective against Ebola in animals.

And we thought ILA’s drug could suddenly gain a lot of attention given the energy and capital pouring in to contain this major new Ebola outbreak (read our previous commentary here).

It looks like this week that happened.

This week ILA announced that its drug is going to be used to urgently help in the current major Ebola outbreak in central Africa.

ILA has obtained full government and regulatory approvals to deploy Galidesivir under a WHO emergency-use framework in the current Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak in Uganda.

Creating the first opportunity to collect HUMAN efficacy, safety and virological data in infected patients.

(source - Read the ILA announcement)

And just if a major Ebola outbreak wasn’t bad enough....

Six days ago there was also a reported Ebola death... that actually turned out to be from the even worse Marburg virus.

(source)

So now we have Marburg mixed in with an Ebola outbreak - both with similar early symptoms.

ILA’s Galidisivir drug has already demonstrated effectiveness in treating Ebola AND Marburg.

Yep, both from the same drug.

Read more: ILA’s drug approved for urgent use in the current ongoing major Ebola outbreak. Funded trial to generate rare human data in emergency, real world deadly virus outbreak situation.

Read even more:

There was some wide mainstream media coverage on ILA during the week:

AFR - ILA received urgent regulatory clearance to deploy its antiviral drug Galidesivir in East Africa to combat a deadly Ebola outbreak.

Bloomberg - ILA’s shares jumped 47% after securing the emergency regulatory approvals to deploy its broad-spectrum antiviral countermeasure Galidesivir against Ebola within Uganda today.

And this one on the Ebola situation generally:

Medical Express - Virologist Nancy Sullivan warns the spreading Bundibugyo ebolavirus outbreak exposes a critical global unpreparedness for rare, highly lethal pathogens today.

And this one from today:

Bloomberg - A US humanitarian worker in the DRC has tested positive for Ebola and will be evacuated to Europe, as the CDC confirms a second American case amid an outbreak totalling 1,800 infections now.

Condor Energy (ASX:CND)

Why is this oil & gas explorer capped at just $12M?

And what key event is about to happen in the coming weeks that could change that?

(The answer is below - and no, it’s NOT drilling...yet)

Our microcap Investment $12M capped Condor Energy (ASX:CND) has a Technical Evaluation Agreement (TEA) on 100% of an offshore exploration block in Peru, with:

• 3.3 billion barrels of unrisked prospective oil resources (2U), AND
• An existing 1 trillion cubic feet gas DISCOVERY (contingent resource, 2C).

In the coming weeks we are hoping for the Peruvian government to convert this TEA agreement to a full Exploration License, which will allow CND to drill test its oil prospects (more on this imminent share price catalyst in the link below).

The gas is an existing discovery that has previously been flow tested.

The oil is the “swing for the fences” exploration, with billions of barrels of exploration upside, right next to producing fields. CND has identified over 20 leads and prospects so far.

CND’s block sits inside Peru’s Tumbes and Talara basins which are responsible for ~1.7BN barrels of oil production historically.

Tiny CND is surrounded by ~US$180BN energy supermajor TotalEnergies:

(source)

Read more: CND: TEA to full license conversion in coming weeks to rerate $12M CND?

West Coast Silver (ASX:WCE)

A new discovery at the highest grade silver project on the ASX.

Our silver Investment West Coast Silver (ASX:WCE) just hit a new high grade pocket of silver.

Just below its existing defined resource and already interpreted to be ~50m long.

We call those mineralised zones ‘worms’ in the image below (because they look like worms).

(source)

WCE’s historic Elizabeth Hill mine last produced silver between 1998-2000.

It was the highest grade silver producing mine in Australia - spitting out 16,830t of ore at ~2,194g/t average grade.

From that 16,830t of ore, ~1.2M ounces of silver was produced (~A$101M of silver in today’s money).

WCE owns 70% of the project, which is on a granted Mining Lease, and includes the historic mine plus a land package of 180 square kilometres around it.

WCE is currently capped at $35M and held $5M cash at the end of the March quarter. (source)

We Invested in WCE to see the company do two things:

• Discover extensions to the highest grade producing silver mine in Australian history, and
• The big one - find a NEW Elizabeth Hill deposit - something very high grade, modest in size - but that WCE can do a short and very profitable mining run (while the silver price is high).

This week’s hits could be either of those scenarios...

Read more: WCE finds new 50m high grade silver zone below historic high grade Elizabeth Mine

Watch More: WCE Executive Chairman Bruce Garlick on West Coast Silver's new high-grade discovery at Elizabeth Hill

Patriot Resources (ASX:PAT)

A new “high grade copper discovery” next door to $10BN mining major Sinomine’s new copper mine that is about to start producing in the coming months?

In Africa?

From our 31.4M ounce silver equivalent JORC “we are a silver company in Peru” Investment Patriot Resources (ASX:PAT).

There wasn’t even a “copper drilling in Africa commenced” announcement on this one.

So we probably aren’t the only ones thinking WTF?

(in a good way)

How does a company gearing up to drill a giant silver project in Peru which has a 31.4M ounce silver equivalent JORC resource estimate AND a giant JORC exploration target of between 559 Million ounces to 774 Million ounces silver equivalent...

Announce out of nowhere a new greenfield high grade copper discovery in Africa?

(while copper prices are trading near all time highs... robots, AI datacentres, electrification and all that)

We Invested in PAT because it acquired the Tassa Silver-Gold Project in Peru back in March - we are waiting to see it drill.

BEFORE PAT acquired this silver project (and well before we came along), PAT owned a greenfield copper exploration project in Zambia, Africa.

While all the focus (including ours) has been on the silver in Peru, in the background PAT still followed through with the originally planned and funded drilling of its African copper project.

And as we have occasionally seen in small caps, the “side salad” project delivers, after being pushed to the side of the plate, and nobody is paying attention to it - it doesn't happen often but it has happened in the past.

Remember when we Invested in Latin Resources (ASX: LRS) for its WA halloysite project and it subsequently made a lithium discovery on its side salad Brazilian project that nobody really cared about?

LRS ended up being one of our best ever Investments and got taken out for $500M+ for that lithium asset.

(the past performance of LRS’s side salad is not an indicator of the future performance of PAT’s side salad)

PAT just declared a “high grade” copper discovery from its own side salad project in Zambia hitting 17m at 0.41% copper, 4.7g/t silver and 0.30% zinc from 29m.

With high-grade intervals within broader mineralised zones up to 1m @ 2.56% copper (source).

A nice first hit from a project on which we didn't even see a “drilling started” announcement.

(source)

The next thing we want to see is more drill holes into this new copper discovery ASAP.

(plus drilling to start on the silver project in Peru AND the silver price going to $200 please)

One of the biggest kickers for us is how PAT’s new copper discovery sits ~18km from $10BN Sinomine's Kitumba copper project.

Sinomine is currently building a processing plant and copper smelter here and expects to have it online by the end of this year.

PAT’s chair Hugh Warner has a history with Sinomine - doing placement and offtake deals with Sinomine on a lithium project in Zimbabwe which ended in a US$378M cash pay day to shareholders.

By the time the takeover happened, Sinomine was one of Hugh’s biggest backers as a major shareholder of that company.

Hopefully Hugh is picking up the phone to his mates over at Sinomine and informing them of what PAT has just found next to their new mine.

(and reminding them of the last time he made them a bunch of money...)

Here is PAT’s ground surrounding Sinomine:

(source)

Read more: PAT: New greenfield copper discovery (wait, what?). Next to $10BN Sinomine. PAT chairman previously done successful deals with Sinomine.

Bloomberg - Even with some political frictions, the US dollar remains the undisputed world reserve currency, backed by a US$81TN dollar stock market attracting vast foreign capital inflows today.

SMM - Global central banks are actively seizing the recent gold price slump to aggressively accumulate reserves as part of a long-term strategic de-dollarisation push today. China alone purchased 15 tonnes of gold last month.

FT - Honeywell spin-off Solstice Advanced Materials will acquire Element Solutions for US$14.5BN to create an advanced electronics and AI data center cooling supplier.

National Defense - US defense manufacturing faces a critical samarium shortage for high-performance magnets after China cut off rare earth exports amid trade tariff restrictions.

Mining technology - Guardian Metal Resources partnered with the Montana Mining Association to launch a pilot program extracting defense-grade tungsten metal powder from legacy stockpiles today.

Our tungsten Investment VKA is also Nevada based plus has historic stockpiles, so it’s an opportune time to get drilling underway this month.

Mining Weekly - Teck Resources secured up to C$400M in Canadian government funding to expand critical metals processing (germanium, gallium and antimony) at its Trail smelter.

FT - Chinese manufacturers are exploiting Beijing's rare earth export restrictions against Japan to squeeze foreign rivals and aggressively capture global high technology value chains.

FT - Washington-backed rare earth miners are exporting critical materials to Japan and South Korea because US domestic magnet manufacturing demand has not yet materialised.

Bloomberg - The Trump administration's multi-billion-dollar critical mineral push faces a severe talent shortage, leaving domestic rare earth companies scrambling to hire specialised chemical engineering experts.

Mining Weekly - Corporate warnings regarding critical rare earth shortages have doubled across Japan as strict Chinese export restrictions continue to strain manufacturing supply chains today.

“Chinese customs data last month showed there were no exports to Japan of terbium or dysprosium oxide from November through May and minuscule shipments of yttrium oxide since December, cutting off supplies critical to making powerful magnets.”

Bloomberg - The United States Department of Defense has launched a US$300M tender to stockpile lithium carbonate, establishing a major strategic policy price floor.

Bloomberg - Global superpowers are rapidly weaponising artificial intelligence, autonomous drone swarms, and Low Earth Orbit systems, fundamentally rewriting the historical doctrines of strategic military deterrence.

Al Jazeera - NATO allies pledged €70BN for Ukraine in Ankara, while President Trump expressed optimism for peace and offered domestic Patriot production today.

Reuters - SpaceX officially joined the prestigious Nasdaq-100 index on Tuesday, unleashing US$4.3BN in mandatory passive buying from global benchmark-tracking funds.

AFR - Breathe Life Sciences is legally manufacturing pharmaceutical-grade MDMA and psilocybin capsules within high-security Brisbane laboratories to supply medical clinics across Australia.

This is the same type of treatment our Investment EMD utilises in its PTSD and depression treatments, good to see EMD get a mention in this article as a player in the sector.

ILA - Galidesivir approved for use in Ebola epidemic - RAAS

ONE - From patient experience to the orchestration of care - AUSTRALIAN HEALTHCARE AI SUMMIT · 9 JULY 2026

ION - Iondrive (ASX:ION) - Investor Webinar - 7 July 2026

AVM - High-Grade Silver in Mexico, But Can it Become a Meaningful Resource? | Advance Metals CEO Interview

SGQ - Executive Chairman John Prineas was interviewed by Stuart Roberts of Pit Street Research

EIQ was at ASE (American Society of Echocardiography) in Denver, the theme on the floor was not just platforms using AI, but more importantly whether it was any good.

PUR posted a 60 sec update clip where MD Aaron Revelle went through what PUR has been up to, including drilling now underway at its Argentinian lithium project Rio Grande Sur (see our coverage last week).

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.

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