Sunday Edition: 26th 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: Bonds stopped doing their job - Commodities are auditioning to replace them

Quick Takes: ION, PNN, TTM, RCM, VKA, MNB

Deep Dives: MNB, Critical Minerals Executive Order (ION, RML, VKA, OD6, AW1, SS1, BKB, RCM, LKY, LSR, PFE), HTG, PAT

Other content: OD6, MNB, PFE, SGQ, ION, RCM, AVM, TTM, LSR, ONE, EIQ, CAY, BKB, AW1, PNN, SPA

ION appointed a former BHP Head of Innovation as new CEO.

Dr Grant Caffery, the former Head of Innovation at BHP, starts as CEO of ION on 1 August 2026.

At BHP, Caffery led the identification, development and commercial application of new technologies across one of the world's largest mining companies.

A nice fit for ION, which is commercialising its 'Deep Eutectic' solvent tech, which recovers critical minerals like rare earths, cobalt, lithium and silver from e-waste, old batteries and solar panels.

And the right timing as ION’s US rare earths business is starting to build momentum.

ION is aiming to deliver a circular domestic rare earth supply chain in the USA.

ION has a Letter of Support from the Oklahoma Department of Commerce for more than ~US$15M in financial incentives for a rare earth recycling facility in the state.

(source)

PNN completed the first holes at its rare earths project - assays due early August.

PNN now has two holes completed (with assays due in a few weeks), and the company is drilling a third hole now at its rare earths project in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

There’s a second rig due on site “shortly” to speed things up.

This will be the first time PNN reports its own drill results on a project with some of the highest grade historic hits we have ever seen - 60m+ intercepts grading above 8% TREO from surface.

Those historic hits also carry high magnet rare earth oxide (MREO) grades - the magnet rare earths that go into EV, robot and defence system magnets.

So even just confirming the old hits could bring a fair bit of market interest into PNN. A maiden JORC resource estimate is the target for later this year.

(source)

TTM - Gina Rinehart's Hancock Prospecting has earned into 51% of TTM’s copper project.

This asset is separate to TTM’s 100% owned 3.9M oz gold and 26.1M oz silver project in Ecuador.

Hancock is earning into just one of TTM’s three copper exploration projects under a deal that sees Hancock earn-in ~80% of the project via a decision to mine or US$120M in total spend.

On those earn-in numbers, TTM's residual 20% would carry a look-through value of ~US$30M (A$42M).

This week, Hancock hit the 51% ownership milestone, with US$20M spent on the asset to date.

The drilling results look like they are delivering (hits like 700.4m at 0.36% copper equivalent) with a system now defined over ~1km length and ~1km deep, still open to the south and at depth.

Under the JV terms Hancock had 7 years to spend US$20M but has done this in two years, so it's obviously seen enough to continue to rapidly build its ownership position through the exploration spend.

(source)

RCM delivered testwork with over 1,000g/t silver grades from its NSW silver project.

RCM applied “X-ray Ore Sorting” to identify low grade or barren rock and reject it before the material goes through any more processing.

(essentially this is a machine that throws out rocks it thinks are barren and keeps the good ones - before they hit the processing plant)

In theory that should mean the feedstock going into the processing plant starts at a higher grade (meaning lower processing costs).

The results confirmed that:

• Previously mined but unprocessed ore was upgraded from 565g/t silver to 994g/t silver, AND
  
• Previously processed waste ore grades were upgraded from ~164.6g/t silver to 1,120g/t silver (almost 10x higher).

Now, RCM can plug these learnings into its scoping study which is underway across its NSW assets. The outcomes of this will be the first time the market will get a look at the potential economics of developing its ~67M ounce silver equivalent resource base.

(source)

VKA to start drilling its US tungsten project within days.

This week VKA confirmed a drill rig was on the way to its project in Nevada.

Drilling is expected to start this week - the first drilling at the project in over 40 years.

This project produced tungsten from 1941 to 1956, before the US government suspended its tungsten buying program.

Now Washington is pushing hard the other way - with Trump this week signing an Executive Order forcing US military suppliers to source critical minerals from within US borders. More on those new macro tailwinds later in today’s email.

VKA’s 63-hole drill campaign will test the extent of mineralisation around the old high grade workings, an ~800m extension that has never been drilled, and regional targets along a ~7km geophysical anomaly.

Roughly 89% of the project area has never been tested.

We expect the drill bit to start spinning this week.

(source)

MNB - Trump declared a phosphate fertiliser emergency with a signed Executive Order

Trump signed an Executive Order declaring a national emergency over phosphate fertiliser supply. Essentially this is the world's biggest economy publicly saying it doesn't have enough fertiliser to feed the crops that feed its people - unless it takes action.

This is the 'food security' macro behind our MNB Investment thesis playing out - where governments treat fertiliser as a strategic resource.

We just didn’t expect our MNB Investment to all of a sudden have some sort of US connection.

MNB is building Angola's only integrated phosphate mine and fertiliser plant, where it plans to sell into the local market AND has export shipments planned through a deepwater port targeted in H1 2027.

The US suspending duties on Moroccan phosphate shows it is willing to look more toward Africa for supply, which may have just made MNB's export story a lot more interesting.

More on MNB in the Deep Dive section below.

(source)

Minbos Resources (ASX:MNB)

Have you ever been holding a promising stock for years and years... and years?

And after delays, setbacks and a share price way lower than your average entry price...

The company has FINALLY pulled it all together and could be about to deliver the objective you originally invested for many years ago?

And a bunch of new investors get to swoop in at the much lower share price than your original entry, enjoy the progress made by the company...

AND

get to ride the “good bit” without suffering the years of pain like you did?

Long time readers will know we have been holding Minbos Resources (ASX:MNB) for 6 years now.

MNB owns a world-class, high-grade phosphate deposit in Angola.

Phosphate is the key ingredient in fertiliser, which is used to grow our food.

We think the global “food security” theme is due for a flare up during the geopolitical world power reshuffling that is currently playing out.

MNB has previously said that it can build a phosphate (fertiliser) plant for ~US$30M-US$40M that will generate US$55M EBITDA per year (base case, on average) over a 20 year mine life. (source: 2022 Definitive Feasibility Study)

Note: those numbers above are early stage desktop economic numbers pre production, with a lot of assumptions baked in, things can and will change. There’s no guarantee MNB will generate these numbers.

MNB closed on Friday at 1.7c, capped at ~$22M.

In years when it looked like MNB was about to start building this phosphate (fertiliser) plant, MNB traded above 15c, even as high as 20c - approaching a $100M market cap.

In recent years, the market punished MNB’s share price for years of delays in securing the full funding package to build the plant and get the mine into production.

And like we always say - the past performance is not an indicator of future performance.

The market stopped believing that the financing would be secured...

BUT... over the last 12 months, MNB has secured the major financing deals it needed, and is now in a position to actually finish the build - which is already well underway.

Read more: We just put more money into MNB...here’s why

Critical Minerals Executive Order - ION, RML, VKA, OD6, AW1, SS1, BKB, RCM, LKY, LSR, PFE

Remember how we never shut up about the USA urgently needing to secure domestic supply of critical minerals?

(how many times have we said “the USA needs this critical mineral for military/advanced weapons/AI, but USA has no domestic supply, and China controls nearly all global supply”)

And over the last couple of years we have added a bunch of stocks with USA based critical projects to our Portfolio?

🚨BREAKING NEWS:

This week US president Donald Trump signed a critical minerals Executive Order:

"Securing America's Defense Supply Chains and Ensuring Domestic Acquisition of Critical Materials".

(Read the full Executive Order here)

What it means for the trillion dollar US military Industrial complex (i.e. companies that supply the US military):

these companies can no longer get the required US government waiver allowing importing of critical minerals from non-compliant sources (i.e. China).

UNLESS they demonstrate SERIOUS efforts to source these critical minerals domestically INSIDE US borders first.

So the trillion dollar machine that is the USA military industrial complex has suddenly been told, by the US President, to urgently prioritise the domestic USA supply of critical minerals.

And not just told... there are now real, financial AND legal repercussions IF they don’t (more on this in a second).

What it means for our Portfolio stocks with USA based critical minerals projects:

In the near to medium term, for US military suppliers to get the US government waivers they need to import critical minerals, FIRST they need to demonstrate SERIOUS efforts to procure a domestic supply.

Which we think means finding “up and coming” US based critical minerals projects, and:

• Early testing and qualification of mineral samples.
• Paying for test work, pilot plants, and sample programs.
• Signing offtake agreements (with pre-payments).
• Capital injections (equity investment and other project financing) to secure this future domestic supply.

So for our critical minerals stocks, could we see a long term offtake agreement with a pre-payment upfront from a major military supplier?

Or funding a demonstration plant?

Maybe even mine build financing? Who knows?

Urgency is what moves money into small cap stocks like these - and now major US military contractors can no longer sit on their hands and just file paperwork.

This money is a tiny drop in the ocean for them, but it could be a “company making” cash injection for our small stocks to fast track their US based critical mineral project.

Our US critical minerals Investments and links to our Investment Memo for each one:

• ION - Rare earths recycling tech in Oklahoma. (read our Investment Memo)
• RML - Antimony, tungsten + gold in Idaho. (read our Investment Memo)
• VKA - Tungsten in Nevada. (read our Investment Memo)
• OD6 - Fluorspar in Nevada. (read our Investment Memo)
• AW1 - Indium, gallium, germanium + copper in Utah. (read our Investment Memo)
• SS1 - Silver + (potentially antimony) in Nevada. (read our Investment Memo)
• BKB - Silver in Texas (+ gold in Nevada). (read our Investment Memo)
• RCM - Gallium and Germanium in Canada. (read our Investment Memo)
• LKY - Antimony + rare earths in California. (read our Investment Memo)
• LSR - Heavy rare earths in Arizona. (read our Investment Memo)
• PFE - Antimony + silver in Arkansas. (read our Investment Memo)

Read more: BREAKING: Trump signs executive forcing US military suppliers to source critical minerals from inside US borders

Harvest Technology Group (ASX:HTG)

The EU just launched an EU-Ukraine "Drone Deal" worth ~€1BN.

(source)

Meaning the EU is going to spend €1BN on drones (and drone tech) tested and in use in Ukraine...

Makes sense the EU is going so hard on drones given Ukraine's development and use of small drones and remotely operated vehicles has turned the direction of the war in their favour.

More than 80% of strikes in Ukraine are now being carried out by drones (source)

...and every military around the world is watching and rethinking their strategies and procurement decisions.

With the rise of comms reliant small drones and remote operated vehicles on the battlefield - comms jamming has become a key tactic.

Resilient communications connections have become mission critical.

Here is where comms is critical on the modern battlefield:

Our Investment Harvest Technology Group (ASX:HTG)’s “communication resilience” tech keeps communication links open even in the most degraded network environments.

HTG is already generating revenue from selling its commercially proven tech in civilian applications like shipping and oil & gas - where stable comms in remote areas with little to no internet is critical.

We Invested in HTG because we like its plan to adapt its commercially proven tech to military applications, to help solve a new and urgent battlefield problem.

Where resilient comms are the difference between winning and losing a battle.

HTG reminds us of ASX listed Elsight - after years of selling its own comms resilience tech in the civilian commercial space, 18 months ago it pivoted to defence and the share price went up 30x since (after a string of military deals).

(the past performance of Elsight is not an indicator of the future performance of HTG)

🚨THIS WEEK:

HTG signed its first non-binding MoU in Ukraine.

(Where the war is in its fifth year and has become the birthing ground for battle ready small, remote operated drones)

Partnering with a Ukrainian technology and research organisation to look at ways to integrate HTG’s tech into drones, ground robots and de-mining platforms.

AND the big one - to field test it under real electronic warfare conditions.

Read more: HTG: Signs MoU in Ukraine to test its comms strengthening tech in “unmanned aerial systems (drones), ground robotic platforms and AI-enabled systems” - on real battlefield.

Patriot Resources (ASX:PAT)

You can't have an AI and data centre “global arms race” without the metals that carry the electricity.

Which is why we think copper and silver demand is going to surge once the trillions of dollars raised to build AI data centres is deployed and construction ramps up

($7 trillion by 2030 according to McKinsey).

Copper carries the electricity - every AI data centre needs hundreds of tonnes of it just for wiring, cooling and grid connections

(not to mention upgrading the power grid to bring in the electricity)

Silver helps carry the signal - it's in the chips, circuit boards and switches that make AI hardware actually run.

We Invested in Patriot Resources (ASX:PAT) for its silver project in Peru (and because we think the silver price is going higher).

That project has a 31.4M ounce silver equivalent JORC resource sitting inside a giant JORC exploration target of 559 to 774 million ounces silver equivalent.

(one of the largest undeveloped silver systems in the world if proven with drilling)

Two weeks ago PAT announced a copper discovery on its other project in Zambia.

PAT’s new copper discovery is ~18km from the Kitumba deposit being developed by Chinese conglomerate ~$8BN Sinomine.

(Sinomine recently raised $760M for African resources assets and there’s already a personal connection between PAT and Sinomine too... more on that in the link below)

(source)

China is one of the two major players in the global AI arms race (the other is the USA).

China is well known for funding and buying African resource projects to fuel their global manufacturing and metals dominance.

China has spent the last few years quietly buying up copper, lithium and cobalt projects across Africa and South America - from Zambian copper mines to Congolese cobalt to Argentine lithium brines - and now controls around 79% of Africa's lithium production.

ON FRIDAY: PAT revealed two new targets on its new Zambia copper discovery, mapping out a 5.5km corridor, on trend to the same fault zone that hosts the giant Kitumba deposit up the road.

Meaning PAT’s new copper discovery may not be a small isolated pocket of copper but could be part of a bigger structure...

Read more: PAT: New Copper discovery extends to 5.5km target corridor... 18km from $860M Chinese copper mine

CNBC - Gold hits a two-week high above US$4,115 an ounce on safe-haven and technical buying, with markets pricing a 68 per cent chance of a September Fed rate hike as the Middle East conflict widens.

Kitco - Schroders sees a "very long runway" for central bank gold demand as eastern banks buy June's near-12 per cent dip, China's PBOC lifts purchases to 15 tonnes, while Western investors liquidate.

Bloomberg - Gold rebounds 2 per cent to above US$4,080 an ounce and silver jumps 5 per cent to near US$60 on dip-buying, as traders weigh Middle East energy inflation against soft US economic data.

Mining.com - Silver jumps as much as 5 per cent, its biggest gain in over five weeks, as copper's rally lifts industrial metals sentiment, while gold clears US$4,080 on dip-buying after a two-week slide.

Bloomberg - China shipped just 479 tonnes of rare-earth magnets to the US monthly in H1 2026, twenty percent below 2022-24 levels despite last year's trade truce, reviving doubts over Beijing's supply commitments.

DIGITIMES - China's rare earth magnet exports hit record levels in H1 2026, but customs data show Beijing controls the tap through export licensing, supplying most of the world freely while squeezing shipments to the US.

ABC News - WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala tells the UN Security Council critical minerals demand is a "once-in-a-lifetime chance" for resource-rich nations yet fuels violence, from smuggled cobalt in eastern Congo to Sudan's gold-funded war.

Reuters - Trump signs an executive order forcing US defense contractors seeking waivers to buy Chinese critical minerals to prove they searched for alternatives, disclose material origins and plan reduced reliance, or risk losing contracts.

South China Morning Post - Trump signs an executive order forcing defence contractors to purge China-linked critical minerals from supply chains starting January 2027, targeting Beijing's roughly 90 per cent grip on global rare earth refining.

TechCrunch - Travis Kalanick's industrial robotics venture Atoms raises US$1.7BN led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Uber and Bain Capital participating, to automate manufacturing, mining and other heavy industries.

Reuters - Samsung Electronics creates a robotics division reporting directly to its CEO, appoints ex-Hyundai and Boston Dynamics strategist Lee Dongkun to lead strategy, and plans research hubs in the US, China and Japan.

pv magazine Australia - Adelaide-based Lunio Energy brings its first project online, a 5 MW / 20 MWh battery at Strathalbyn and is now trading in the National Electricity Market, the first of a planned South Australian storage portfolio.

Bloomberg - Copper is holding near US$14,000 a tonne on the LME awaiting Trump's tariff decision, with Chinese import premiums at their highest since 2023 and cancelled warrants topping 170,000 tonnes.

The Northern Miner - Comex copper jumps 3.3 per cent to US$14,440 a tonne, within 2 per cent of June's record, as the New York premium over LME doubles to nearly US$600 and Shanghai deliverable stocks collapse 82 per cent.

Bloomberg - China's imported-copper premium has hit a one-year-high US$100 a tonne, up from US$20 in January, as Beijing's tax crackdown chokes scrap supply and drags LME stockpiles to their lowest since March.

The Northern Miner - Sprott calls the uranium equity selloff a buying opportunity, with the long-term price at an 18-year high of US$94/lb while the miners fell 3.9 per cent and juniors 7.4 per cent over the half.

Bloomberg - Trump signs a nuclear sharing pact letting Saudi Arabia potentially enrich its own uranium, breaking decades of nonproliferation policy and opening work for Westinghouse.

CNBC - Oil climbs more than 3 per cent, Brent settling near US$94 and WTI near US$87, after Secretary of State Rubio says Iran is not serious about a deal amid an eleventh straight night of US strikes.

Bloomberg - Iranian strikes on two Dynacom-managed tankers have brought visible Strait of Hormuz transits to a near standstill, with crews going dark as oil and European gas prices jumped after the weekend.

Al Jazeera - Yemen's Houthis claim missile and drone strikes on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, with Saudi authorities confirming the Encelia was hit, days after the group declared a naval blockade.

The Defense Post - Ukraine signs drone procurement contracts worth US$7.6BN in the first half of 2026, more than double the same period last year, with average delivery times of just nine days.

Bloomberg - BloombergNEF projects US data centre electricity demand will hit 194 gigawatts by 2035, 20% of total consumption (5.9% today), warning of a 19 gigawatt shortfall unless grid connections accelerate.

CNBC - Alphabet lifts 2026 AI capex guidance to US$195BN to US$205BN (upped by US$15BN), showing the cost of the data centre race continuing to climb.

OD6 - Corporate Update EGM 20 July 2026 - Quinn Fluorspar Acquisition A Strategic US Critical Mineral Opportunity

MNB - Feeding Africa, From the Ground Up. - Angola's Only Fully Integrated Resource And Fertiliser Project

PFE - Unlocking Resource Value in the United States - U.S.-focused strategic metals company targeting critical supply-chain minerals essential for defense, energy and industrial security

SGQ - Niobium. Rare earths. World class. - 22 July 2026 Investor Presentation

ION - Securing a Circular Domestic Rare Earth Supply Chain in the United States - One platform. Multiple value-upgrade pathways.

RCM - Australian high-grade silver explorer - with strategic critical-metals optionality - silver + germanium & gallium, two drill-ready assets in 2026

AVM - JMM Noosa Investor Lunch - Advancing High Grade Silver and Gold Discoveries Across Mexico and Australia

TTM - Dynasty Gold Project - Rapidly Growing 3.9M ounces Gold & 26.1M ounces Silver - Ecuador's Next Major Gold Camp - Significant upside remaining

SPA - Household Graph in Action: Strategy, Proof and Platform (we saw this in the flesh last week in Sydney - you can read our write up of it in our Saturday note from last week).

LSR - Lodestar Minerals (ASX:LSR) CEO Coraline Blaud on Virgin Mountain's Next Catalyst

ONE - Ord Minnett Australian Healthcare AI Summit – From Patient Experience to Care Orchestration: Oneview's AI Vision

EIQ - EchoIQ (ASX:EIQ): AI-powered heart diagnostics targeting global healthcare scale

SGQ - St George Mining Limited: Investor Webinar Presentation and Exploration Update

TTM - Titan Minerals (ASX:TTM) - Expert Insights - July 2026

AVM - Advance Metals (ASX:AVM) - Expert Insights - July 2026

IIQ - CEO outlines commercialisation pathway for EXO-OC ovarian cancer blood test - LinkedIn

Commodity Culture - Luke Gromen: 'GOLD Has to Soar' as War Ramps Up and Debt 'Doom Loop' Accelerates

CAY - shared a video of locomotives undergoing brake testing/commissioning ahead of initial ore transport commencing Q3 2026 at Minim Martap:

LSR - posted some field photos from its Virgin Mountain Heavy Rare Earths Project in Arizona showing the outcrop that returned 14.68% TREO and 59% HREE:

ONE - Chief Product Officer Niall O’Neill had a quarterly product update post highlighting a range of platform updates for its healthcare organisations:

BKB - CEO Dennis Lindgren video on broader critical-minerals potential beyond silver at Shafter Silver Project, potential polymetallic credits may add value:

OD6 - The Hon. Julie Bishop outlines how Australia's Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve could strengthen the development pathway for projects like OD6 and how she is helping:

AW1 - American West Metals’ MD Dave O'Neill's is appearing at SmallCaps' 'The Newer Case for Copper' webinar on 29 July:

PNN - Hole 4 is underway at the Morro do Ferro Rare Earth Project, Brazil, with first samples from earlier holes submitted for lab analysis:

SPA - CEO Simon Crowther & COO Craig Boshier showcased SPA's telco SaaS platform and Household Graph demo for household-level customer engagement, built on enterprise AI and data technology (watch the full presentation in the VIDEOS section above):

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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