Sunday Edition: 8th February

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 everything we wrote about last week, plus some interesting stuff we came across on our travels.

Read what we wrote in yesterday’s Saturday note - click here to read.

Our new Investment: BMG

Quick Takes: LSR, EMD, GGE, LKY, RML, BPM, VKA, SS1, SGQ, TTM, MAN, AVM, GEN, RCM, TG1

Deep Dives: PUR, BMG, ILA, WCE, ION

Our latest Investment BMG is hosting a webinar on Tuesday, 10th February at 12:00 AEDT.

LSR acquired an option on a Chilean copper-molybdenum-gold project.

The project is ~30km from a port and has historic hits of 20m at 3.67g/t gold and 136m at 0.20% copper equivalent.

LSR’s plan is to drill test the project in April.

EMD put out long-term results for its psychedelics PTSD treatment protocol.

EMD’s PTSD treatment program demonstrated that ~76% of patients had clinically significant benefits and ~67% were in durable remission 12+ months post-treatment.

Over 100 patients have either just begun or are in the queue for treatment that is being funded by insurer Medibank through a reimbursement deal signed last year.

Hopefully, Medibank (and other potential payers) are seeing the results from EMD and liking what they see from a long-term benefit perspective for their members.

GGE acquired a US critical minerals asset.

GGE acquired an option on an antimony project in Utah.

The same day the Trump administration announced a US$12BN commitment to expand the US critical minerals stockpile.

It's still early days for the asset - but GGE might be coming into US critical minerals just before a much bigger wave of capital comes into the sector.

RML (OTC: RLMLF) submitted its application to list on the NASDAQ markets in the US.

RML officially submitted its application for a NASDAQ listing and has also set up an ADR facility on the OTCQB to help further bridge access for US investors.

This move coincides with the Trump administration’s announcement of a US$12BN (~A$17BN) critical minerals stockpile.

This news and update could significantly boost interest in RML’s US antimony and tungsten assets which have historically supplied US defense needs and this isn’t factoring in the recent gold discovery.

LKY (OTC: LKYRF) released high grade antimony samples from its project in California, USA.

LKY took a total of ~287kg of material with weighted average antimony grades of ~18.7% from the historic Desert Antimony Mine (which produced antimony back during WW1 and WW2).

LKY plans to use the material for met testwork that will go into designing a flowsheet to restart its old mine.

After the critical minerals stockpiling announcement from the US government, we think potential domestic producers could see more interest coming into them in 2026.

BPM expanded its gold target in WA (Beachcomber) across ~700m of strike.

BPM recently finished its first round of drilling and hit results like 9m @ 7.7g/tonne Au (which make the next round of drilling very interesting).

BPM has plans for a 2,500m follow up drill program for late February/early March - so only a few weeks to go until BPM is out drilling again.

BPM is looking for a discovery like the 8Moz Tropicana gold deposit in WA - even a fraction of this would be an incredible result.

VKA sampled 14.7% tungsten grades from its Linka project in Nevada, USA.

Linka is a historically producing mine, with combined production of ~123kt at 0.54% tungsten.

Typical production grades for global tungsten mines is currently as low as ~0.2% - so a 14.7% tungsten sample is truly outrageous (even though it is a rock chip sample).

VKA’s project is ~200km away from where the US government plans to build a new critical minerals stockpile. With the US 100% import reliant on tungsten for military use, VKA’s results came at a fairly good time (given that US$12BN stockpiling news).

SS1 (OTC: SSLVF) appointed consultants to lead mine permitting for its giant silver deposit in Nevada, USA.

SS1 expects to have its project fully permitted within ~24 months from now. So a 539M ounce silver equivalent resource could be ready to go from a permitting perspective by early 2028.

(OR sooner IF SS1 can get its project to qualify for the “FAST-41” permitting program the Trump administration introduced for major projects inside US borders).

Silver is a critical mineral AND SS1 is working on a maiden antimony resource (another critical mineral). Hopefully that opens the door to fast tracked permitting.

SGQ keeps hitting high grade rare earths and niobium from its project in Brazil.

SGQ has a resource upgrade coming this quarter.

With drilling results like the ones we have been seeing in the last few updates, we would hope the resource upgrade is a material one.

SGQ’s project is already the largest and highest-grade carbonatite-hosted REE deposit in South America (40.6Mt @ 4.13% TREO).

TTM released results from its 3.1M ounce gold, 22M ounce silver Dynasty project in Ecuador.

TTM now has a JORC resource upgrade planned for the project this quarter.

Fingers crossed the number gets closer to TTM’s 5M ounce target.

Next for TTM is the drill results from the deeper porphyry targets AND an update on the corporate discussions going on with its major shareholder - Hong Kong listed Lingbao.

MAN will now benefit from US$1M funding out of the US Department of Energy.

The US Department of Energy gave the “Paradox Basin Lithium Group” US$1M in funding to “Characterise and Estimate Reserves of Lithium and Other Critical Minerals”.

Which is a group that MAN is a part of.

MAN already has a 3.3Mt lithium carbonate equivalent resource in the basin and with lithium prices now starting to move up, MAN is considering re-entering the old oil and gas wells on the project.

AVM announced assays from a resampling program on its silver project in Mexico.

AVM put out results from ~3,516m of historical drill core and had ~519m of that come back mineralised with grades >4g/t silver equivalent (including much higher grade intervals of 0.9m at 766g/t silver equivalent).

AVM will now use that data to put together a JORC resource estimate for the project later this month.

GEN extended three offtake MoUs on its iron ore project in Gabon.

GEN already had four non-binding offtake MOU’s with Chinese steel manufacturers (China Minmetals, Jianlong Group, and Hunan-Valin).

Now, three of the four deals are valid through to June 2027. GEN’s aim is to try and convert a few of those into binding deals by mid-2026 to support a Final Investment Decision (FID) on its iron ore project.

RCM released the final batch of assay results from a drill program at its silver project in NSW.

RCM had silver hits just outside of the interpreted “silver lode” that hosts the current ~14.2M ounces of silver equivalent resources at its Webbs project.

This is the second time RCM’s drill results have shown there is potential for repeat silver structures across the Webbs system. RCM’s plan is to run a bigger 15,000m drill program on its projects in Q2 (subject to approvals and logistics), aiming for significant resource growth.

TG1 started earthworks ahead of a drill program at its WA copper-gold-antimony project.

Earthworks are underway on the same drill pads that major miner Newcrest drilled from back in the 1990s.

Newcrest’s holes ended in sulphides (the right type of rocks), but according to TG1’s MD Ashley Hood back in September, “there are four historic Newcrest drill holes from the 1990s, all missing the top of the MB1 chargeability target by only a matter of ten to twenty metres”. (source)

Drilling appears to be on track to follow later this month, with the campaign covering 4 targets.

(with copper prices running, TG1 might be drilling the right targets at the right time, all the company needs is a bit of exploration luck to be on its side too)

CAY put out a project update for its giant bauxite project in Cameroon.

While surface miner commissioning is on track for this month, slight delays in locomotive delivery mean the first bauxite shipments are now expected in Q3 2026, with full-scale shipments slated for Q4 2026.

BMG Resources (ASX:BMG) 🚨New Investment🚨

We think ASX gold juniors will be the next batch of stocks to move in this “new normal” higher gold price market.

Especially the juniors with existing gold deposits (that could get even bigger)...

In mature gold regions surrounded by gold mines.

Close to existing processing infrastructure...

Sitting on Mining Leases... with realistic pathways to monetise their gold resources in a high gold price environment.

That’s why we added BMG to our Portfolio this week.

BMG owns 100% of a WA gold project with:

• 518k ounce gold resource (gold is currently at ~$6,850 per ounce - drilling to grow this resource starts in ~8 weeks)
• In the famous WA “Northern Goldfields” region hosting many, multi-million ounce gold deposits.
• Sitting within trucking distance to two giant mills - with one mill owner planning to raise $200-300M via a ~$400M ASX listing and has publicly stated they are looking at “growth initiatives, and/or corporate transactions” (and BMG already has a toll treatment MoU with this company)
• “Scoping study into a potential low-capex, fast payback mining proposal” due this quarter
  
• and the “moonshot” exploration theory - BMG says the project could host a similar style deposit to the $2.5BN, 2.1M ounce “Never Never” discovery made by Spartan Resources.

(plus BMG also has another “moonshot” gold exploration project which could be a possible extension of a 4.5M ounce gold deposit)

(source)

Read more: Our Latest Investment: BMG Resources (ASX: BMG)

Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR)

This week PUR put out a Pre Feasibility Study (PFS) for its lithium project in Argentina.

PUR has been quietly working on a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) on its 100% owned, development stage lithium carbonate project in the Lithium Triangle of Argentina.

PUR’s project has a 1.264Mt lithium carbonate equivalent resource estimate, averaging grades of ~424 mg/L Li with an ore reserve announced in the week for a total of ~125kt lithium carbonate equivalent (grading even higher at ~670 mg/L Li).

PUR’s ore reserves are big enough now, for 25+ years of mining based on its forecast stage 1 production target of 5,000tpa.

PUR’s PFS Stage 1 economics delivered an NPV ~US$364M, a CAPEX ~US$135M and operating costs of ~US$6,500/t.

(costs in the lowest quartile of the global cost curve).

One of the best parts of the study for us was that PUR used a pretty conservative lithium price - almost ~80-90% below the peaks we saw in 2021-2022...

IF PUR were to plug in prices just 30% higher (still well below the all time highs for lithium),- the NPV of the project goes up to US$601M.

All of that from just Stage 1 of the development plan.

At full production, PUR’s project generates approximately US$138M per annum in revenue and ~US$55M per annum in free cash flow.

(Note - these financials are based on a number of assumptions which may not prove to be correct. Project economics are highly sensitive to lithium pricing and variations in price may have a material impact on cash flows, project value, development timing, and financing outcomes.)

PUR is also set to drill its gold-silver project in Argentina early this year. The target is a discovery similar to 8M ounce Cerro Negro currently being mined by the world’s largest gold company, the $207BN capped Newmont.

So PUR is progressing both:

• A gold exploration asset which could deliver a company making discovery, AND;
• an advanced stage lithium project with strong economics.

PUR is capped at ~$24M post the just completed raise, after just raising $7M at 9.5c (no options).

Read more: PUR: Lithium up 400% in 6 months - PUR’s lithium project is back. Gold up 45% in 6 months - PUR drilling for gold soon too.

Island Pharmaceuticals (ASX:ILA)

Our 2025 Biotech Pick of the Year, ILA, is developing a treatment for a deadly viral disease called Marburg Disease.

The US government classifies Marburg Disease as a Category A bioterrorism threat - the highest level.

Marburg is the only Category A biothreat with NO current vaccine or FDA approved treatment - making it a significant biowarfare risk.

As a result, Marburg is the only Category A bioterror threat gap that remains unfilled within the US’s Strategic National Stockpile.

An FDA-approved Marburg drug could lead ILA to US Government National Stockpiling deals, potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

FDA approvals could also mean ILA is eligible for a “Priority Review Voucher” (PRV).

PRV’s are a tool the FDA uses to incentivise companies to develop treatments for viral diseases - these are tradeable on the open market with one selling for US$200M (A$284M) recently.

This week ILA announced that the US FDA has given it a clear pathway to fast track approvals.

Now, ILA’s approach is in line with six other APPROVED Animal Rule applications.

The first of those stages (an optimisation study) is “commencing immediately”....

(to work out the optimal dose and when the best time to administer that dose is)

And the second “pivotal confirmatory study” will follow right after.

The pivotal study will be when we see how effective ILA’s Marburg drug really is.

(fingers crossed it improves on the previous studies which had survival rates averaging 94%)

ILA is capped at ~A$103M - at the 35c raise price where the company just raised $9M.

(We Invested in this raise)

Read more: ILA - our bioterrorism defence stock. Now with clear line of sight to ~US$200M cash AND sales to US gov’ment stockpile?

More on ILA below too.

West Coast Silver (ASX:WCE)

WCE owns 70% of the Elizabeth Hill Silver Mine - one of the highest grade silver mines to ever produce in Australia.

And they weren't kidding - this week, WCE announced one of the most outrageous high grade drill hits we have seen...

27.4m at 1,314g/t silver.

(source)

We occasionally see companies announce high silver grades (above 1,000 g/t) like this,but usually the interval is less than a metre.

WCE’s is across a 27.4m long interval.

Another thing we also don't see everyday, is the grade in that smaller 0.35m interval... 33,106g/t silver (~1,064 ounces per tonne).

WCE’s giant high grade intercept was near surface in and around the old mine workings at Elizabeth Hill.

(near surface hits are good - because all that precious silver is closer to the surface and cheaper to dig up)

We want to see WCE quickly start mining, processing and selling silver while prices look to be in a “new normal” of higher prices.

When WCE’s Elizabeth Hill mine was operating over 20 years ago, it produced 1.2M ounces of silver with average production grades of ~2,194g/t silver.

WCE’s project already has a non-JORC ~46.8kt @ 2,700g/t silver for 4.05Moz remnant resource. (source)

Here is where that hit this week came from relative to the remnant ore:

(source)

Ultimately we are Invested in WCE to see it:

• Drill out, make near-mine discoveries next to the Elizabeth Hill mine and eventually bring the project back online (WCE ran two drill programs hitting silver near the old mine workings and is now moving to economic modelling). (source)
• Drill, discover and define Elizabeth Hill look-a-likes across its ~20 regional targets (WCE has drill results pending from its regional targets right now).

Read more: WCE: Hits 27.4m at 1,314g/t silver - including a 0.35m interval... 33,106g/t silver (that’s bonanza grades)

Iondrive (ASX:ION)

We think critical minerals recycling tech companies like our Investment ION will be some of the biggest winners from the East/West divide in critical minerals markets.

Especially within the US (and allied countries) where prices trade at different levels to the rest of the world.

ION is developing Deep Eutectic Solvents (DES) recycling tech.

It sounds complicated but it's essentially just applying biodegradable, benign solvents to recover metals and critical minerals.

Metals and minerals like rare earths, copper, gold, cobalt, lithium, gallium, silver and antimony from things like e-waste, printed circuit boards and solar panels.

Here is a list of everything ION’s tech could potentially be applied to:

(Source)

Note: this chart shows metals amenable to Deep Eutectic Solvent chemistry in general, and have not necessarily been specifically tested by ION.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted a Critical Minerals Ministerial “with partners and allies” centered around a “whole of supply chain” fix for the critical minerals in the west, specifically including processing and recycling:

Last year, the US also put billions behind “minerals recycling tech”:

(source)

All of this tells us that companies with recycling tech that can be rolled out across a range of different minerals will be big winners in what we think is a coming “everything boom”.

Basically a setup of macro tailwinds blowing in favour of ION.

(hopefully long enough for ION to commercialise its tech and multiply its valuation)

ION is currently most advanced on applying its tech to black mass (waste batteries) - to extract target metals - e.g. lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese.

ION is currently building a pilot plant (mostly with government grants in Australia) that can be shipped anywhere (like the US or EU) for production.

(Having a running pilot plant - and a pathway to a bigger demo plant, opens the doors to some big US funding opportunities)

ION is also advanced in the US rare earths space - working with a major North American eWaste recycler whose parent company operates in 20+ countries.

Earlier this week ION announced results from its first move into solar panel recycling, showing its tech can recover silver and silicon from scrap solar panels.

In Australia alone, there are ~120M installed solar panels, and by 2030 there are ~100,000 tonnes of panels expected to be considered “end-of-life” - which is estimated will have recoverable materials worth over $1 billion in silver, silicon, aluminium, and glass...

(that estimate was from back in 2022 - silver for example was trading at US$18-26/oz back then, now silver is at US$73 (~3.3x) - so the size of the market could actually be a lot bigger)

(Source)

The silicon market is especially interesting and one space we hadn't thought of when thinking of what market ION could tackle.

Silicon (depending on the end market) can sell for astronomical prices:

• Metallurgical-grade material (typically $1,500 - $4,600 per tonne)
• Solar-grade silicon ($15,000 - $46,000 per tonne)
• Electronic-grade silicon used in advanced battery anodes and semiconductor wafers ($77,000 - $308,000 per tonne)

A nice addition to that chart we showed above.

Read more: ION: Our Critical Minerals Recycling Stock - Targeting First Revenues in the next 24 months

Bloomberg - China’s central bank has continued its gold buying in January despite the price fall, perhaps showing a long term strategic push to diversify reserves and reduce their reliance on the dollar.

FT - Shenzhen traders remain bullish despite gold’s crash in response to the nomination of Kevin Warsh as the US Federal Reserve Chair.

AFR - Vance and Rubio proposed a muti-national trade bloc using price floors and tariffs to block Chinese mineral dumping and secure materials for AI and defence industries.

Reuters - Argentina signed a critical minerals deal with the US on February 4 to secure supply chains and drive economic growth, marking a major step in mineral diplomacy.

Visual Capitalist - (not a lot of the USA flag represented on this...)

El Pais - The US and EU are competing for Brazil's massive mineral reserves, while President Lula is demanding a role in processing rather than sole raw exporting.

FT - The US, EU, and China are battling for Brazil's rare earths, with US$700M of mostly Western funding over the past couple of years already, aiming to break China’s global stranglehold on these critical minerals.

This theme playing out could benefit our Brazilian rare earths Investment SGQ.

SGQ’s Executive Chairman John Prineas is even quoted in the article:

“We have been approached by Chinese entities interested in our rare earths and niobium in Brazil . . . We have also had discussions with potential investors from Europe”

“The US is more likely to be our strategic partner.”

American West Metals Ltd (ASX: AW1) - Storm Grows - More to Come - MST Access

SGQ - February 2026 - Investor Presentation

EMD - Responding To Australia’s Mental Health Crisis

RCM - Australian high-grade silver explorer

Island Pharmaceuticals (ASX:ILA) Investor Webinar: COMBATTING URGENT VIRAL DISEASE THREATS -

A few pretty strong comments from ILA’s Chairman Jason Carroll:

1:22min in “we are stepping into a role that sits at the intersection of science, national security and government stability".

“The FDA's confirmation to us doesn't just clear a path and open a door for those that are wondering. It effectively rolls out a pathway that no Australian biotech company has ever been given the opportunity to take.”

“So we now have the ability to deliver not just a Marburg bioterror counter measure but multiple counter measures, some of the planet's most lethal biothreats and in doing so, to strengthen the backbone of preparedness for nations that actually depend on projecting to the world absolute strength, rock solid stability and continuity of government in moments of crisis”.

Tour Heavy Minerals’ new garnet project within Hillgrove’s Kanmantoo Copper Mine

A nice overview from management of the recent agreement signed between Hillgrove and HVY.

Michael Oliver on the January 30, 2026 Silver Market Crash

China Buying 'Huge Quantities' of SILVER - Will They Use It To Back the Yuan? Alasdair Macleod

ONE posted that it had Sharp Healthcare’s Chula Vista facility go live with over 100 of ONE’s Digital Door Signs.

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.