Sunday Edition: 12th October

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.

Below you can read about every stock we wrote about this week:

TG1, SGQ, EIQ, ROC, HAR, LKY, GEN, EXR, IVR, MTH, AVM, KAU, PNN, JBY, WCE

The US critical metals theme is kicking off...

Silver just hit the highest it’s ever been (next week will be very fun to watch).

Gold also just casually broke through US$4,000/oz.

In the last 48 hours China announced “dramatic” new restrictions on rare earth exports.

And the USA fired back with increased tariffs and reciprocal export controls on all “critical software”.

Both the USA and China look like they are trying to hobble each other's military and AI efforts.

This global uncertainty is driving capital into precious metals.

PLUS it has accelerated the USA’s push to secure its own domestic supply of critical metals, and they have shown they are willing to throw big dollars around to solve the problem.

We predict the US government will be stuffing more money into companies with critical metals projects in the USA and other friendly countries.

The coming months are going to be fascinating to watch.

Remember a few months ago when you couldn’t remember why you ever participated in the high risk small cap markets?

After years of pain and horror during the excruciating three year bear market in small cap stocks...

We think the coming months will remind everyone why small cap stocks can actually be fun.

Silver is traditionally MORE ignored in mainstream media than gold.

Not in the last 24 hours.

Today Bloomberg published a lengthy piece on the silver surge over the last couple of weeks:

(Source)

Even Reuters journos decided they couldn't stay silent on silver any longer:

(Source)

But the most surprising mention was in our favourite podcast, the All In Podcast (which we helped save), that usually talks about big tech investing, AI and US politics.

(it’s mostly about gold, but JCal does say the “S” word at the start - watch the precious metals section of the podcast here. Love the guys but they don’t look very comfortable talking about precious metals which is not their usual area of expertise...)

Point being, is silver finally starting to go mainstream?

Layered on top are those sudden China rare earths export controls.

We wrote about silver’s surge and China’s “dramatic” new rare earth controls in our Saturday edition yesterday - you can read that here.

Here is what else we wrote about this week.

Roll on, small cap bull market, it's been a long time since we actually looked forward to Monday market open each week.

TG1 put out an exploration update across its two WA copper-gold-silver and antimony prospects.

The recent geophysical surveys have now ranked a fair few interesting targets and TG1 is hoping to be drilling both projects before the end of this year (pending heritage approvals).

TG1 is capped at ~$11M which is a good starting point going into two high impact drill programs... fingers crossed we get lucky when the rig starts turning in the next few months.

SGQ received government support for a pilot plant at its Rare Earths Project in Brazil.

So SGQ will have a government backed pilot plant to show its rare earths can be treated into finished products... Ultimately, we think that the results from the test work will be what attracts potential offtake/strategic partners to SGQ’s project.

SGQ went into a trading halt on Thursday for a capital raise. We saw the following in the AFR on that raise: Niobium hopeful St George Mining launches $40m raising.

EIQ put out an update on its application for a category III reimbursement code for its Aortic Stenosis tech.

Unfortunately the application was unsuccessful, but we noticed discussion in that announcement about potential changes to the way the regulatory body (AMA) treats AI tech and reimbursement codes which could be implemented next year.

To us, that’s a good sign EIQ will get another chance for approvals.

ROC appointed Maria Phillips as its new Chief Financial/Operating Officer.

Maria’s CV is seriously strong coming into a small cap company like ROC, having worked at large caps like Nine Entertainment. Hopefully her appointment kicks off a run of new deals for ROC.

HAR released updated drilling results from its project in Senegal.

There were some strong improvements in the previous set of results announced to the market and the results dropped in the same week that gold hit new all time highs above US$4,000/oz.

HAR was one of the biggest winners for us this week and we are starting to get the feeling this Senegal asset might be the real deal...

Additionally, drilling HAR expects to start drilling its US gold project this month...

LKY produced a high grade antimony concentrate from its Desert Antimony Mine in California.

LKY produced a 68.1% grade antimony concentrate (which is above the marketable spec of 55% and almost at the theoretical maximum of 71.68%). Fingers crossed, we weren't the only ones reading that announcement, and anyone looking to buy antimony from a domestic supplier was also having a look...

Also this week, LKY 4x’ed the prospective area at its Desert Antimony Mine (DAM).

GEN received additional funding from one of its directors.

The additional funding of $800k brings the total from entities related to directors to $4.3M. This came after it was mentioned recently that discussions are advancing with potential Chinese funding sources through its partner PowerChina.

Directors willing to tip in their own cash is a good signal for us that they are confident in being repaid (hopefully with a big financing deal).

EXR put out an update on one of the wells being drilled on its QLD gas blocks.

The results looked good technically on first glance and it feels like there could be more news to come from the project over the coming weeks with wireline logging yet to be completed.

A 181 metre “hydrocarbon-prone sequence” and gas being flared is always good to see.

IVR put out an update on the progress of its Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for its 57M ounce silver project.

It looks like IVR is laser focused on “right sizing” its project to make it as financeable as possible...

The DFS is expected to be released early 2026. Since the prior study was done the silver price has more than doubled...

MTH has completed 9 holes on one of our favourite targets from its gold-silver project in Mexico.

Target 5 (where MTH is drilling now) is now bigger at 2x2km, with a bunch of historic multi-leveled underground mines where MTH is sampling 3.1 m @ 2.02 g/t gold, 1,938 g/t silver. No wonder the old timers were building multi-layered mines to get to that stuff, fingers crossed the assay results hit similar grades...

We also noticed MTH extend the mineralisation near its 373k ounces gold and ~11m ounces of silver ~300m to the west (ahead of a resource upgrade targeted for this year).

Oh and a 3rd drill rig is set to arrive in early 2026 which will be deployed to Target 3.

Advance Metals (ASX:AVM)

Our silver Investment Advance Metals (ASX:AVM) added some heavy hitting institutional investors to its register this week...

AVM raised $13M at 10c (at a premium to its last traded price before the capital raise) attracting the likes of:

• Jupiter Asset Management,
• Tribeca Investment Partners,
• Lowell Resources Fund,
• APAC Resources.

Jupiter and Tribeca alone took up half the placement ($6.5M of the total $13M raised).

And yes, we also added to our Position in the AVM capital raise.

AVM also said it is planning a North American listing.

Read more: AVM: We just increased our position (yep, after two weeks)

Kaiser Reef (ASX:KAU)

The only company in our Portfolio producing gold right now is Kaiser Reef (ASX:KAU).

Just as gold hit over A$6,000 per ounce for the first time ever...

KAU announced that its Henty mine in Tasmania produced ~8,115 ounces of gold in the September quarter. (Source)

Gold traded at a minimum of US$3,250 per ounce for the quarter, but spent most of the quarter closer to recent highs.

Using the minimum gold price for the quarter, that would put the MINIMUM production revenue at US$26M (~A$40M) for $172M capped KAU...

We will now have to sit and wait til the end of October to see just how big KAU’s revenue number will be - along with the cost to mine.

Read more: KAU produces 8,115 ounces in 90 days as gold hits new all time highs... plus blue sky gold drilling results any day now.

NEW INVESTMENT - Power Minerals Ltd (ASX:PNN)

We added Power Minerals Ltd (ASX:PNN) to our Portfolio this week.

PNN announced the acquisition of a heavy rare earths project in California, USA.

PNN also has an interest hard rock rare earth project in Brazil.

Rare earths (especially in the US) also became a lot more interesting after the China export controls were placed later in the week.

Rare earth elements are critical for modern technologies, including electronics, medicine and military applications like F-35 fighter jets, Tomahawk missiles and the advanced magnets needed for motion in AI robots...

(yep, apparently AI robots will fight the wars of the future).

The US is suddenly scrambling for domestic rare earths supply, because China dominates global production and processing and has started withholding supply from the USA for leverage in various geopolitical spats...

PNN’s new USA project is prospective for HEAVY rare earths. (Source)

Read more: Our New Investment: Power Minerals Ltd (ASX: PNN)

James Bay Minerals (ASX: JBY)

Our 2025 Small Cap Pick of The Year James Bay Minerals (ASX: JBY), announced plans to list on a US OTC exchange, to attract more US investors to the stock.

Just as gold and silver both hit new all time highs...

JBY now owns two advanced projects in the US - one for silver and the other for gold.

The silver asset has already produced ~35 million ounces of silver over its history...

The project has ~$150M in existing project infrastructure including a processing plant that was built back in 2011.

JBY is aiming to bring the project back into production (hopefully at the same time as the silver price rips into uncharted territory).

(not a guarantee)

We think JBY’s gold project alone, with a 1.37M ounce JORC resource estimate, justifies its current market cap.

Especially in the current market, where gold and silver rock chips in the US are enough to push junior explorer market caps to $30-40M.

And more advanced gold projects like Dateline Resources in California are being valued at $2BN+.

Read more: JBY - Our 2025 Small Cap Pick of the Year - USA gold and silver - now to list on US stock exchange...

West Coast Silver (ASX:WCE)

One of the earlier silver Investments we made this year West Coast Silver (ASX:WCE) said it would start phase 2 drilling at its Elizabeth Hill Mine on Friday (10th of October).

Elizabeth Hill was one of the highest grade silver mines to ever produce in Australia.

When WCE’s Elizabeth Hill mine was operating over 20 years ago, it produced 1.2M ounces of silver from just 16,830 tonnes of ore - meaning average production grades were ~2,194g/t silver...

With this next round of drilling WCE is going for extensions to the remnant resource on the project at depth and near surface.

IF WCE keep hitting silver from surface, it could build a case to restart mining on Elizabeth Hill - but this time potentially via some sort of big open pit instead of having to go underground.

Read more: WCE: High grade silver drilling starts today as silver price hits all time highs overnight - above US $51 per ounce.

When Will Silver Top Its Hunt Brothers High? It’s Complicated - Bloomberg

David Hunter upgrades his Silver price forecast to US$100/oz

BIOTECH EXITS, Part 1 of 2 The Realities of Getting Acquired

(Source)

St George Mining (SGQ ASX) launches $40 million raise for Brazil niobium project

China Widens Rare Earth Curbs Ahead of Key Xi-Trump Meeting - Bloomberg

A 754% Rally in Drone Defense Firm Lifts Australia Small Caps - Bloomberg

‘Gold-plated Fomo’ powers bullion’s record-breaking rally

Lower Gold Exports Push Canada to Near-Record Trade Deficit - Bloomberg

Gold Price Tops Record $4,000 for First Time Fueled by US Shutdown - Bloomberg

(Source)

ASX:IVR - Paris DFS - Finance Testing Supports 1.5 Mtpa Design

Australia’s Most Successful Gold Explorer - YouTube

Citadel’s Griffin Calls Rush to Gold as Safer Asset ‘Concerning’ (full interview)

Idaho’s Antimony Play Next to Stibnite: Resolution Minerals

Locksley’s big antimony play - from battery chemistry to defence tech

Silver Hits All-Time Highs, Retreats Sharply | Craig Hemke, David Morgan, Michael Oliver

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.