Sunday Edition: 1st November

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.

Our Brazilian rare earths Investment Power Minerals (ASX:PNN) went into a trading halt last week in relation to a proposed “material strategic investment”.

PNN is expected to come out of halt tomorrow.

We are looking forward to seeing what kind of deal it has pulled together... and from who...

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: Happy Halloween? The scariest thing in the house is my Portfolio

Quick Takes: PUR (x2), RML, TG1, OD6, IVZ, ONE, PAT

Deep Dives: AL3, RCM, MNE (🚨New Investment), MNB, AUZ

Other content: RML, PKP, EMD, ILA, AL3, PNN, WCE, LSR, MNE, VKA, IVZ, PAT, SGQ, PUR, RCM, ION, CAY, CND

PUR expanded its drill program for its gold project in Argentina.

PUR was initially planning six holes here - now it's planning eight, a total of 3,350m of diamond drilling.

This is the early stage exploration project where PUR is going for a discovery like the 8M ounce Cerro Negro gold mine ~100km to the south of PUR’s project.

That project is owned by $162BN Newmont.

Cerro Negro was found by drilling beneath a "silica cap", and that is exactly where PUR thinks its gold and silver sits.

PUR expects to be drilling this "in the near term".

(source)

PUR also hit record grades at its lithium brine project in Argentina.

This is PUR’s more advanced asset - where PUR has a JORC resource estimate of 1.26Mt LCE (Lithium Carbonate Equivalent), and a completed Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) showing a US$364M NPV from US$135M in upfront CAPEX.

PUR has delivered record grades from the latest batch of results - some more than double the average grade of its resource.

Hopefully that means we see the resource get bigger, and the grades get higher.

PUR is already drilling its fourth hole on the project - so we could see more results in the near term.

(source)

RML extended its US gold discovery with a 300m+ intercept.

RML made its gold discovery in October last year - now it has extended the discovery at depth and along strike with a 324m at 0.49g/t gold from surface.

RML now has gold hits across ~2km and some of those hitting gold down to 300-350m depths.

RML still has 32 assays pending, and is targeting a maiden JORC resource estimate in the first quarter of next year (Jan to Mar 2027).

(source)

TG1 is preparing to drill its “El Donna” WA gold project.

TG1’s plan on this upcoming drilling is to follow up a set of old results including 2m at 17g/t gold, at depths shallower than 50m.

A thin intercept, yes - but very high grade - worth poking a few holes around to see if it was something isolated or part of a bigger system.

20 RC drill holes for a total of 2,500m are planned.

This week TG1 started earthworks for the drillpads.

(source)

OD6's geophysics extended its fluorspar potential at depth.

Fluorspar is another of those critical minerals that the USA needs but is lacking in terms of secure supply.

OD6 is working up a fluorspar asset in Nevada. Here’s what we know right now:

• OD6 has fluorspar sticking out of the ground across ~8km of strike.
• Some of those structures have been mined in the past, and
• OD6 has historical drilling data showing there are 10-20m extensions to the structures below ground.

What we don't know is whether they are all connected underneath, or individual mineralised "icebergs".

Now we have geophysics showing some of the structures could extend more than 500m below surface.

And a potential structure that could be linking them together - the "connected underneath" part of the “iceberg” theory.

OD6 expects to start drilling early next year, once its drill permits are approved.

(source)

IVZ completed the rig move to its 1.2tcf gas, 73m barrel oil target - drilling is starting this month.

Musuma-1 will be the first well IVZ has drilled since its Mukuyu discovery in 2022/2023.

Which was the second largest discovery in Sub-Saharan Africa for 2023.

This week IVZ re-affirmed drilling would start in “November 2026” - which technically means drilling could start any day within the next 29 days.

We aren’t drilling contractors, but judging by this photo below, we think it could be a week or two before the rig is put together and ready to go - don’t hold us to it though.

(source)

ONE signed on six new customers, including its first four Bedside Hub customers, adding ~5,000 new beds.

The big surprise for us was how quickly ONE has signed up customers for its Bedside Hub product being delivered in partnership with Epic.

That is the new revenue channel ONE launched with the largest provider of hospital software in the USA - Epic Systems.

(Epic’s systems run in 43.7% of acute hospitals in the USA, 56.9% of hospital beds)

Epic mainly provides Electronic Health Records (EHR) - Epic doesn't provide entertainment, meal ordering, or hardware like ONE does.

The partnership was only launched in May and already it has landed 4 new customer logos for ONE.

A cracking start and hopefully a lot more where that came from. ONE expects to finish the year with between 8-10 new customer logos.

(source)

PAT identified targets ~2km to the north of its 774 million ounce silver exploration target.

PAT's silver project in Peru has a giant 559M to 774Moz silver equivalent JORC exploration target - what PAT calls "one of the largest undeveloped silver systems globally".

Inside that exploration target sits a 31.4Moz silver equivalent JORC resource estimate.

And now PAT has identified a ~200m x 60m zone to the north of what we already know.

PAT thinks the samples could be part of the same structure hosting PAT’s current resource.

An extension 2km away would be a massive game changer, especially for an asset with an exploration target that is already so big.

All we need now is for PAT to drill this thing - drill permits are pending.

(source)

AML3D (ASX:AL3)

AML3D (ASX:AL3) is one of our favourite stocks for the current market and geopolitical climate.

AL3 sells defence/military manufacturing tech (3D printing metals parts) that helps speed up military manufacturing.

Faster, better, stronger and cheaper than traditional methods.

Leaders across the US military and government, including the US President, have all stated that military manufacturing needs to be much faster and more efficient (check out the direct quotes in the link below).

AL3 has a US advanced manufacturing facility and a letter from the US Navy saying AL3’s tech will be pivotal in rolling out 100x 3D printing systems AND printing ~1600 complex metal parts per year by 2030. (source)

On Monday AL3 announced a $2.2M sale to Northrop Grumman - one of the four major military industrial base companies.

Less than 90 days ago, the US Pentagon started signing deals to triple missile and quadruple interceptor rocket production:

(source)

One of the companies helping deliver that production is $111BN Northrop Grumman.

A US Navy Prime Contractor - and the fourth-largest defence contractor on the planet in terms of revenues.

Today, Northrop Grumman became a customer of our small cap defence Investment AL3.

... ordering one of AL3’s ~$2.2M large-scale metal 3D printing systems - “to support critical US Navy submarine industrial base manufacturing”

Including a two-year maintenance and services package.

Aside from supporting critical US Navy submarines, Northrop Grumman also builds stealth bombers, military drones, satellites, rocket motors, radar and electronic warfare systems.

Hopefully they are impressed with AL3’s tech and this first deal leads to many more? Let’s see.

(source)

Read more: AL3: ~$2.2M sale to Northrop Grumman - one of the ‘big four’ US military contractors. $78M sales pipeline. ~$60M market cap with $24.4M cash in the bank.

Rapid Critical Metals (ASX:RCM)

Us (and Eric Sprott) Invested in Rapid Critical Metals (ASX:RCM) for the silver.

While the silver price is going sideways, RCM decided to put a couple of drill holes into a gallium and germanium project it owned BEFORE it became a silver company.

On Tuesday RCM released some photos of the drill cores (lab testing to confirm what they have is coming in the next few weeks).

We didn’t really care too much about this project...

BUT here is why we are now suddenly very interested in the upcoming assay results to test for the critical minerals germanium and gallium:

(source)

RCM has these lab assays on a rush turnaround, with results expected in mid-November.

(rush turnaround at the lab? RCM sounds keen too...)

First of all, germanium is one of those critical minerals where the USA needs it, China controls global supply.

Germanium is used in fibre-optic networks supporting AI data centres, infrared optics for thermal vision in robots and drones, and military thermal-imaging, surveillance and targeting systems.

Below is why the RCM core visuals just released make us very interested to see the upcoming assay results where they test for the actual germanium content.

The “I’m too busy for geological details” summary is that based on the drill core visuals, if RCM’s assay results come back in the hundreds ppm of germanium - it could be onto a potential new critical minerals discovery in Canada.

We will find out when the assay results come in, due mid November - so only a few weeks to go.

Read more: RCM: Germanium...? Host mineral spotted in drill cores. Assays now a few weeks away...

Macallum New Energy (ASX:MNE) - New Investment

Our latest Investment is Macallum New Energy (ASX:MNE).

The Perth Basin in Western Australia has delivered multiple gas discoveries, takeovers and new gas producers on the ASX over the last 10 years.

(and with that came a number of successful outcomes for ASX small cap investors. Our head analyst laments missing his first 30 bagger that was a Perth Basin stock - he says he sold too early for 33% profit.)

This is the same gas province where major companies, plus mining billionaires Gina Rinehart and Chris Ellison, have been jockeying for positions and cutting deals trying to secure strategic onshore WA gas supply.

MNE holds 100% of “the largest undrilled gas structure in the entire Perth Basin”, and wants to drill test it for a discovery next year.

MNE is the only pure-play ASX small cap currently listed and trading with undrilled Perth Basin targets, sitting next to existing gas plants and pipelines.

MNE’s CEO Andy Furniss was previously Exploration Manager at the company that made the gas discovery which kicked off the Perth Basin exploration wave in 2014.

(and after that, worked at the giant company that acquired it)

Now he is CEO at our new Investment MNE, sitting on 100% ownership of three of the most compelling (in our opinion) conventional seismically defined targets in Australia.

MNE is targeting a first exploration well in H2 next year.

MNE is also anticipating a “farm-in partner soon” - ‘strong industry interest’ has been received to date, and multiple parties are in the data room... (source)

(a “farm-in partner” basically means a bigger oil & gas company paying for all or part of the drilling in return for some share of the upside)

MNE just raised $3M at 14c, we Invested in this round, this is our Initial Entry Price.

Below are some of the key gas discoveries, JVs, M&A and new production that happened in the Perth Basin since AWE made that gas discovery in ~2014:

The Perth Basin gas rush was kicked off in 2014 courtesy of AWE’s discovery.

After which, a few ASX micro-caps became real companies...

On making a discovery in the Perth Basin, Norwest Energy ran from 0.3c to ~7c - a gain of over ~2,200% - eventually it was taken out for ~$497M post-discovery. (source)

(the past performance of Norwest is not an indicator of the future performance of MNE.)

Coming back to AWE - it was the company where MNE CEO Andy Furniss was the Exploration Manager when they made their discovery.

Here is what Andy said in a MNE investor presentation at RIU’s Good Oil conference last month:

"Every company in the Perth Basin that's made a significant discovery has been taken out before their second well"

We also liked the below section of the presentation - it's a 30 second watch.

(or you can watch the whole presentation video in the link underneath):

(watch it in full here: MNE investor presentation from a month ago)

Andy was the General Manager of Exploration at AWE from 2009 to 2018 - as we noted above, this was the company that opened up the entire Perth Basin in 2014 with the Waitsia discovery. (source)

Andy was with AWE all the way through to the eventual $602M takeover.

And then he spent ~7 years as Vice President of Exploration at the company that bought AWE - the Japanese giant Mitsui.

(source - Andy’s LinkedIn profile)

We have been watching MNE for a couple of years, moving from being a private company to an ASX listing in February this year.

Since then MNE has shot 3D seismic, increased the size of one of its prospects by ~70%, added 52M barrels of oil to its prospect inventory, has drill ready targets, and a data room open to potential farm in partners.

Read more: Our New Investment is Macallum New Energy (ASX: MNE)

Minbos Resources (ASX:MNB)

This week, our Investment Minbos Resources (ASX:MNB) said it has commenced early stage mining operations - now mining phosphate rock at its project in Angola.

(read the announcement here)

We have also been shown over the last few weeks some serious progress on their phosphate processing plant construction:

(read our commentary on the plant build from last week here)

MNB is starting to stockpile ore ahead of its plant being constructed and commissioning, which is planned for Q2 2027.

MNB has a Ministerial site visit scheduled for December - when Angolan government representatives are expected to “inspect the completed plant structures”. (source - 29 July project update)

So there is a soft deadline to at least have the processing plant put together by then.

Meaning we COULD now be just a few months away from MNB producing its first sack of phosphate fertiliser.

Read more: MNB: Commences early stage mining of phosphate rock

Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ)

Why was our Investment Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ)’s share price running on strong volumes and no news this week?

The ASX was wondering the same thing on Thursday...

and sent AUZ a “please explain why your share price is going up so much when you haven't released any news” information request.

AUZ’s response was:

(source)

AUZ reckons it was recent media about $211BN US military contractor Lockheed Martin’s interest in scandium that contributed to its share price run.

AUZ went on to say it has also been hitting a few investor conferences and is soon changing its name to “First Scandium” - read the full response to the ASX here.

AUZ owns 100% of one of the highest grade scandium assets in the world capable of providing scandium into the west’s supply chains.

(and is directly next to $2.3BN Sunrise Energy Metals which received a US$400M commitment from the DoW and a shout out from Trump.)

(Here is that Trump shoutout)

Scandium is used in AI data centres and has military applications in fighter jets, missile systems and AI robots.

The scandium media we saw in recent days was around the deal signed between USA defence giant Lockheed Martin and AUZ’s neighbour, the $2.3BN Sunrise Energy Metals:

(source)

Lockheed Martin is the world’s largest defence contractor by revenue.

It’s the company that builds F-35 fighter jets and PAC-3 missiles - and it has an offtake option deal with AUZ’s direct neighbour Sunrise.

In August, Lockheed Martin did a deal with another scandium company based in the US as part of its “Skunk Works joint development program” (source) being partially funded by a US$10M Department of War grant. (source)

Skunk Works is the Lockheed division that built the U-2, the SR-71 Blackbird and the F-117 stealth fighter - i.e. the “secret-projects” shop.

We have previously written about the AI data centre demand story for the critical mineral scandium (more on that in the link below).

However in parallel, aside from data centres, it looks like Lockheed is cooking something big up in the military space too (perhaps akin to what the Soviets did with their military in the 70s and 80s).

Fun Fact - during the 1980s, Soviet metallurgists started using aluminium-scandium alloys in fighter jets like the MiG-21 and MiG-29, keeping the application classified for years.

(a lot more on this in the link below.)

We think scandium demand is going to surge - and we may not even know why... yet.

BUT if we look at where the USA is throwing the most money and the most quickly...

THAT is where we start to think about what the public DOESN’T know about supply and projected demand.

(especially for military and advanced weapons uses)

and what DON’T we know about future scandium demand that is causing the US Department of War to throw so much money at it so quickly?

It’s secret military stuff - why would they publish what they need all this scandium for?

Anyways, we could be overthinking it - AUZ’s share price could have just been responding to the big green day US critical minerals stocks had on Tuesday (after a pretty rough couple of months):

(source)

Read more: AUZ: Why is our scandium Investment running on strong volumes and (almost) no news?

Bloomberg - US Treasury Borrows Record $839BN in Auctions This Week

Financial Times - EU weighs mirroring Donald Trump in securing critical minerals

Equedia - America's Biggest Bank and the World's Most Powerful Country Are Buying What You're Selling.

Mining.com - Perpetua Resources gets $40M US Army funding to advance tungsten production in Idaho

PR Newswire - RML: Perpetua Resources awarded up to $40M in US Army funding to advance domestic US tungsten supply

We are Invested in Perpetua’s next door neighbour RML.

Financial Times - Cannabis drinks boom sparks rift in US alcohol industry

The shift from alcohol to THC drinks in the US looks like it's happening - very good for our Investment PKP.

UC Santa Cruz News - How psilocybin reshapes brain circuits

This is the same psychedelic-assisted therapy our Investment EMD administers to “treatment-resistant depression” patients.

Fierce Pharma - Regeneron lands $270M in renewed US supply pact for approved Ebola med Inmazeb.

A couple of years ago Ebanga obtained a US$704M contract for 10 year supply and now Inmazeb, both of these still aren’t near actually helping in the current outbreak.

So that is almost $1BN in forward orders for Ebola treatments that are not yet proven to work against the current Bundibugyo type of Ebola virus spreading in Africa.

Some interesting benchmarks here for supply contracts in the context of our biotech Investment ILA who is developing its own Ebola treatment.

ILA has secured government and regulatory approvals for compassionate use in Uganda.

700-800 treatment courses are targeted for availability this quarter, with drug shipments to Africa expected to start before the end of the year.

Read our full ILA coverage here.

Bloomberg - US, Australia Pledge to Swiftly Execute Defense Collaboration

More strong AUKUS signals - good for our Investment AL3.

Fox News - Inside the Pentagon's doomsday plan to keep America fighting if global war erupts

Bloomberg - Rio Tinto Halts Underground Operations at Major Copper Mine

WSJ - Chevron Is Back to Searching for Oil and Gas in Far-Flung Places

PNN - Focusing on three early Brazilian-based rare earth plays - Far East Capital

PNN - The Power of Grade (Initiation Report) - MST Financial

WCE - Advancing Australia's Highest-Grade ASX-Listed Silver Project

LSR - Gold growth at Ned's Creek, WA - 221,000oz Maiden Inferred Gold Resource

MNE - Unlocking the Underexplored South: Leading the next wave of exploration in the Perth Basin - CEO Andy Furniss

VKA - Discusses Linka tungsten drilling and upcoming assays (MD interview)

IVZ - Musuma-1 progress update (MD update)

PAT - Developing the Tassa silver-gold project in southern Peru (MD/CEO interview)

RML - Eyeing larger Golden Gate gold play (CEO interview)

SGQ - Araxá Project Update: October 2026 (Company video update)

EMD - Executive Chairman Greg Hutchinson | Australian Growth and US Expansion (Chairman speech)

PUR - Ignite Investment Summit, Hong Kong, October 2026 (CEO presentation)

PUR - CEO & MD Aaron Revelle on Lithium Production and Development Priorities (MD/CEO interview)

PUR - Ignite Investment Summit, Hong Kong, October 2026 (MD/CEO presentation)

RCM - Targets major gallium-germanium find (MD interview)

PNN - JMM Sydney Investor Lunch 2026 (CEO presentation)

ION - JMM Sydney Investor Lunch 2026 (CEO presentation)

WCE - South-West Connect 2026 (CEO presentation)

Activist investor - Jeremy Raper Is Coming for Busted Mining Microcaps (Money of Mine)

A good chat here with Jeremy who was recently appointed to run a US$50M special Opportunities Fund in the US.

He has gotten a reputation for some positive minority shareholder activism recently, including CAY during the week with shareholders having a small win for minority CAY holders from TOV (Takeovers Panel) since the podcast was recorded.

The takeover watchdog found A2MP’s 5c bid was unfairly handled: shareholders weren’t given the full story, confidential company information was improperly used, and shareholders could have felt pressured to sell cheaply.

Wonder what happens next.

Silver - Silver's Brutal Crash May Be Setting Up Its Biggest Rally in 25 Years | Ed Steer (Liberty and Finance)

SGQ - compared Araxá's valuation to what Lynas Rare Earths paid for Meteoric's Caldeira project:

CND - Posted this article welcoming Cheiron's Peru licence grant as further international interest in its Tumbes Basin region.

Cheiron is the biggest independent E&P company from the MENA (Middle East and North Africa region)

(source)

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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