Sunday Edition: 8th March

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.

Index re-balancing time...

On Friday afternoon after market, the S&P Dow Jones Indices announced changes to the ASX indices, which will be effective from Monday March 23rd.

A few of our Portfolio Stocks are climbing into the All Ordinaries Index.

The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) tracks the top 500 companies on the ASX by market cap and serves as a key benchmark for the Australian stock market.

Congratulations to our Portfolio companies entering the top 500:

• Sun Silver Ltd (ASX: SS1)
• St George Mining (ASX: SGQ)
• EchoIQ (ASX :EIQ)
• Titan Minerals (ASX: TTM)

Indexes (namely the stocks within an index) are generally bought by big institutional funds that just want leverage to a specifically themed basket.

The broader the basket, the more access to new capital.

This time last year we wrote a piece about what it means for a stock to get into a coveted index - you can check that out here.

Yesterday’s Saturday note : AI taking jobs, WW3, total financial system reset - but there is a silver lining... and the sectors we are Investing in for the current global conditions click here to read.

Quick Takes: RML, KAU, WCE, MNB, PKP, LKY, VKA, ILA, AVM, BKB

Our new Investment: OD6

Deep Dives: BMG, IVR, SGQ, SS1, PNN

RML (OTC: RLMLF) completed the acquisition of the Johnson Creek Tungsten & Antimony Mine.

RML has now secured 25 acres of private land, industrial water rights, electrical infrastructure, a processing mill, and tungsten ore stockpiles.

This site historically supplied tungsten during major conflicts (WW1, WW2, Korean War).

This all happened the same week the US Pentagon was out soliciting domestic tungsten production from over 1,500 companies in the US.

KAU became an unhedged gold producer this week - meaning the company has full exposure to spot gold prices.

KAU delivered its final gold call options to Auramet, officially removing its price hedges.

Previously KAU was obligated to sell 6,000 ounces of gold at A$5,300/oz as part of its Henty Gold Mine acquisition funding.

KAU is now fully exposed to unhedged spot gold prices, which are currently trading near record highs over A$7,600/oz.

This means that KAU should stack more than the $13.7M free cash flow that was banked in Q1 2026 (KAU had estimated $15.9M excluding this and other one off costs (source), plus the price of gold is currently higher).

WCE - drilling starts next month, following up shallow aircore results at the Elizabeth Hill silver Mine in WA.

WCE confirmed it will recommence drilling at its Elizabeth Hill Mine in WA this month using a deeper RC drill rig (targeting depths around 150m).

The program will follow up on recent shallow aircore (AC) results that identified a potential silver corridor extending to the north, as well as mineralisation to the south along the Munni Munni fault.

The results from this upcoming campaign will be incorporated into a maiden JORC resource, which WCE expects to publish in H2 2026.

MNB signed a formal debt agreement for US$16M with the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (IDC).

The debt agreement will be used to fund the next major construction phase of its phosphate fertiliser project in Angola.

The 7 year loan allows MNB to transition from site preparation to structural installation, with the first drawdown expected in late March.

PKP signed an expansion deal with one of the big THC beverage brands in Canada.

The expansion deal with Electric Brands will continue manufacturing of the “Sweet Justice” cannabis drink portfolio, one of Canada's top-selling brands and represents one of PKP's longest-running manufacturing deals.

This newly expanded agreement totals ~1.4 million units per annum and combined with recent deals with Organigram/Collective and St Peters, PKP has now secured close to 3 million cans of production.

This cements PKP’s ~33% market share in Canada's THC-infused beverage manufacturing sector.

LKY (OTC: LKYRF) is drill testing its Desert Antimony Mine right now (DAM).

The drilling is supported by a newly released batch of high-grade rock chip "grab samples" that confirm antimony mineralisation trends north to south through the old mine workings.

LKY is employing a "fast-to-market" mine restart strategy: concurrently advancing downstream processing tech with university partners, producing antimony ingots for customer qualification, and pursuing major non-dilutive government funding (including a US$191M LOI from US EXIM).

So all the while that goes on, drilling is now happening to prove the scale of the mineralisation.

VKA announced initial metallurgical testing results from its project in Nevada, USA.

VKA upgraded its feed grade by ~16x from 1.4% tungsten ore into a 22.9% tungsten concentrate.

16x upgrade with only one processing technique (gravity separation). Simple, easy processing makes it more likely a low-capex, fast-to-market production strategy could be executed here - which VKA is already working on, considering modular processing units.

AND all of this happened while the US Pentagon was out soliciting tungsten ore from 1,500 companies inside the US.

Later in the week, VKA released the results of geophysical surveys run on the project (magnetic and gravity surveys which align with all the old production from the project - and more importantly are showing potential extensions to those workings.

Bring on drilling in Q2.

ILA signed a 3-year Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with:

• USAMRIID - the US Army's premier infectious disease research institute, equipped with Biosafety Level 4 labs), and;
• The Geneva Foundation -a military medical research non-profit.

This grants ILA access to Biosafety Level 4 labs to finalise animal efficacy studies for its Marburg virus antiviral, Galidesivir.

ILA is utilising the FDA’s "Animal Rule" fast-tracks potential approval, paving the way for lucrative US biodefence stockpiling contracts.

USAMRIID and Geneva provide ILA with direct access to the entire federal biodefense ecosystem.

Where most biotechs spend years trying to navigate BARDA relationships or DoD procurement processes, ILA now has immediate institutional access to all federal agencies simultaneously.

USAMRIID and Geneva's infrastructure means ILA can move from positive Q2 results directly to potentially very lucrative government stockpile negotiations.

AVM hit more mineralisation from drilling at its Yoquivo Silver-Gold Project in Mexico.

The highlight was a 67.88m at 134g/t silver equivalent which was a scissored hole, showing resource continuity.

This drilling is aimed at upgrading Yoquivo’s 17.2M oz silver equivalent foreign resource into a JORC-compliant resource by the end of March.

BKB (OTC: BKBMF) Our 2025 Small Cap Pick of the Year hit more silver from its project in Texas, USA.

The initial silver and base metal drilling results came in, notably intersecting 9.1m at 240g/t silver (plus lead and zinc) outside the current 17.6Moz foreign resource area.

BKB is running an 11-hole diamond drill program to convert and expand this resource, so it is a positive to see silver mineralisation continues and is still open to the north.

With ~$150M in existing infrastructure and all required permits in place, BKB has engaged Ausenco recently to study a rapid restart of the mine.

OD6 Metals (ASX:OD6) New Investment

Our latest Investment is OD6 Metals (ASX:OD6).

This week the $13.5M capped OD6 acquired an option on an asset in the USA with historic production for the US critical mineral of...

Fluorspar.

(fluor-what now? Hang in there for one second...)

Fluorspar might just be the critical mineral you have never heard of - until today.

Fluorspar is used in the production of missile systems, military electronics and jet fuel, and it has been on the US Critical Minerals List since 2018.

Fluorspar also plays an essential role in AI semiconductor chips, batteries, nuclear power, aerospace and defense.

Fluorspar has been identified as one of the nine materials with the highest shortfall risk for the US military in a major conflict scenario.

... and China controls 60% of global supply.

Just six weeks ago the Department of War awarded a US$168.9M supply contract to a company with a development-stage fluorspar project in the USA.

OD6’s new project already produced fluorspar from a small-scale mining operation in the 1950s - producing ~26,000 tonnes of material at an estimated grade of 44.9% fluorite.

This project DOES have a historic resource - but it can’t be announced because it was estimated in 1956 and has not been verified under current JORC guidelines.

Despite the history of production and a mysterious historic resource (non-JORC compliant), the project has NEVER been drilled before...

Which OD6 plans to do ASAP.

Read more: Our Latest Investment: OD6 Metals (ASX: OD6)

OD6 Investor Presentation: Quinn Fluorspar Project Acquisition.

Register for Tuesday 10th March, 1pm AEDT OD6 webinar:

OD6 Webinar registration here

BMG Resources (ASX:BMG)

We are now in a gold market where the major gold producers are making record free cash, looking to acquire mid size producers or gold development projects.

And the market is finally prepared to re-rate the juniors with defined resources and exploration upside.

Our Investment, BMG Resources (ASX:BMG), owns 100% of a 518K ounce gold resource in WA’s Northern Goldfields region.

...amongst multi-million ounce mega deposits and two processing plants owned by majors.

This week BMG kicked off a 10,000m drill program - the first major drill program on the deposit since the maiden resource back in 2023.

(source)

The previous drill results made us do a double-take - we think anything remotely close to those old results could bring a lot more market interest into BMG:

(especially that first one 57.5m at 5.73g/t gold from just 80m)

(source)

BMG’s drilling with the moonshot exploration theory to turn its existing resource into a discovery similar to the 2.1M ounce “Never Never” discovery made by Spartan Resources (taken over for $2.5BN).

No guarantees of course, this is early stage speculative resource investing - it’s possible that BMG does not hit economic mineralisation or something unexpected goes wrong.

While drilling is ongoing, BMG is already thinking about production as well, with a “Scoping Study into a potential low-capex, fast payback mining proposal” due this quarter.

With gold at ~A$7,530 per ounce - “fast to production” seems to be a strategy working right now, especially in WA.

Read more: BMG: WA gold drilling started. Gold price rises after global chaos ensues?

Investigator Silver (ASX:IVR)

Investigator Silver (ASX:IVR) has made two big steps forward in building Australia’s only pure play silver mine over recent days.

On Friday 26th February, IVR went into a trading halt and delivered its Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) for its Paris silver project in South Australia.

The DFS demonstrates a high-margin, finance-ready silver development project with strong leverage to the silver price and a practical near-term pathway to silver production.

The headline economic number was a $1.15BN pre-tax NPV using a US$80 silver price.

Early this week IVR confirmed a $55M institutional capital raise was completed at 8.6c/share.

IVR’s major holder Jupiter Asset Management (who held 14% of IVR before this raise) participated in the new round.

We did too (we bid $100k and got $39k - telling us the round was substantially overbid).

With a strengthened balance sheet (as well as the new $55M, IVR also had ~$13M cash at the end of last quarter), IVR has made an immediate shift into execution mode.

IVR is now funded to a Final Investment Decision on building its silver mine.

The new capital will allow IVR to move fast in the next level of engineering and approvals readiness, and it can start early stage construction works aimed at bringing forward first silver production.

We Invested in IVR because we think it could be one of the few companies to get its silver project financed, developed and into production during the current silver bull run.

(assuming silver keeps going, which we think it will. However at the same time, there are no guarantees it will - past performance of commodity prices is not an indicator of future performance)

IVR owns 100% of the 57M ounce Paris silver project in South Australia - one of Australia’s highest grade, pure play silver projects.

IVR’s DFS demonstrated:

• Pre-tax Net Present Value (NPV) of A$1.154BN,
• CAPEX of A$260M,
• Internal Rate Of Return (IRR) of 93%,
• And an 11-month payback on the CAPEX of just 11 months from first production.

Over the 11 year mine life, the project is capable of generating ~$1.86BN in free cash.

Those economics are based on an US$80 silver price.

For every US$1/oz increase in the silver price the project’s NPV increases by ~A$27M.

At the cap raise price of 8.6c per share IVR will be capped at ~A$225M with ~$68M in cash ($55M capital raised and $13M cash at 31 Dec 2025).

So, every time the silver price goes up US$1 per ounce, IVR’s project’s NPV increases by more than ~1/10th of its current market cap.

Read more: IVR’s Paris silver project in South Australia shows $1.15BN pre-tax NPV, 93% IRR, 11 month payback... and the silver price is rising

St George Mining (ASX:SGQ)

The largest and highest-grade carbonatite-hosted rare earths deposit in South America.

The highest grade undeveloped rare earths asset in the Western world.

And it just got 75% bigger...

Today our Investment St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) significantly increased the size of its rare earths-niobium project in Brazil.

(source)

SGQ isn't stopping here though - the company has four rigs drilling right now on a 24/7 basis (3 diamond and 1 RC) - so something tells us this won't be the last time SGQ upgrades its resource.

SGQ owns 100% of one of the top three biggest/highest grade hard rock, carbonatite hosted rare earths deposits globally.

The only other two are already in production and owned by:

1. ~A$16BN MP Materials - USA’s only rare earth mine that received US$400M from the Department of War and signed a US$500M deal with Apple last year. AND
2. ~A$20BN Lynas Rare Earths - a global operator with a mine in WA and a refinery in Malaysia.

Prior to the trading halt, SGQ was capped at ~A$515M (at 13.5c per share)

SGQ’s asset ranks third for grade out of the three projects and second in terms of size - SGQ’s asset is pre development, while the other two are in production.

We are Invested in SGQ to see its valuation grow closer to its multi-billion dollar producer peers over time.

Here is how the projects compare to each other after today’s announcement:

(source)

And here are the resources for the three projects side by side:

Note: SGQ’s market cap is based on a 13.5c share price in the table above.

One thing all three companies have in common is a major shareholder - Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart.

Read more: SGQ: New upgraded resource: 75% bigger at 70.91Mt @ 4.06% TREO (and 0.62% niobium) - with drilling ongoing...

Sun Silver (ASX:SS1 | OTC: SSLVF)

Our Investment Sun Silver (🇦🇺 SS1, 🇺🇸 SSLVF) already had the largest pre production silver resource on the ASX.

SS1 has a giant 539M oz silver equivalent resource estimate - in Nevada, USA.

Over the last year, the silver price has risen over 150%, and is now trading at US$83 per ounce.

(past performance is not an indicator of future performance)

Making the in-ground estimated value of SS1’s silver $63BN (US$44.7BN).

(inground $ value for illustrative purposes only. Ignoring all costs to dig out and process the ore, along with the time value of money (the silver price varies wildly in any given year). Never take a back of a napkin in ground resource value literally.)

So why is SS1 trading at $1.82/share with a market cap of ~$350M?

Yes, 539M ounces of silver equivalent is huge...

But the market wants to know if the silver can be extracted and processed.

This week SS1 announced that YES it can - showing silver recovery rates on the higher end compared to other mines in the region.

Here is what testwork from SS1’s deposit showed:

Silver recoveries reached 78% under early stage heap leach conditions.

The biggest silver-producing mine in Nevada, $22BN Coeur’s Rochester mine, delivers recovery rates between 48% and 60% from heap leaching.

(source)

We think confirmation that SS1’s silver can be recovered at excellent rates using standard processes was a key de-risking that the market was watching for.

(especially sophisticated resource funds.)

In our SS1 note this week, we covered:

• Our key takeaways from SS1’s metwork announcement - why it's important
• Our recipe of six ingredients for an 8,000% Vulcan Energy sized return - can SS1 repeat it? (... as always, no guarantees)
• How SS1 could also become a Hycroft Mining 2.0 (Hycroft is A$5.5BN NASDAQ listed beast)
• How SS1 could also define a maiden antimony resource estimate on its deposit.
• How government funding could be what unlocks a mine build.
• 10 reasons we invested in SS1.
• Major updates over our two-year journey (sort of like a greatest hits over the years).

Read more: SS1: Giant USA silver resource. NEW: metwork demonstrates conventional processing and excellent recoveries

Power Minerals (ASX:PNN)

Our Brazilian rare earths Investment Power Minerals (ASX:PNN) announced a new project:

An advanced stage, rare earths asset in Brazil.

Kinda like when our other Investment SGQ acquired an advanced stage Brazil rare earths asset 6 months ago and went from 2.5c to 13.5c.

(past performance is not an indicator of future performance)

PNN has the same corporate advisor that did the SGQ deal.

PNN raised $10.25M to fund the acquisition, which was “strongly supported by US institutions”.

We also put cash into this raise, hoping for an SGQ 2.0 style result...

(past performance of SGQ does not indicate future performance of PNN - see risks we have identified and accepted in the link below)

PNN’s new project is already relatively advanced with high grade rare earth hits from surface.

It has already had 50 drill holes for a total of over 4,000m of diamond core drilling

AND

106 holes for a total of 846.5m of auger drilling.

(but no resource defined...yet - PNN expects to be drilling soon - which we hope starts building toward a maiden resource on the project.)

PNN’s new project has multiple 60m+ drill intercepts where grades are coming in above 8% TREO - from surface all the way down to the end of holes.

(and a few smaller 2m intervals where grades are as high as 24.13% TREO)

Highlight drilling results include:

(see all the drill results in PNN announcement here)

PNN’s new asset is in the same region of Brazil home to two other ASX listed companies valued much higher than PNN - the $522M capped Meteoric Resources and the $266M capped Viridis Mining.

(We hope with a bit of work and exploration success PNN can start to catch up to its more advanced peers in the area)

And it sits on a special type of permit called a “manifesto” - meaning PNN gets unencumbered access to the project.

So PNN can start drilling almost immediately with only environmental approvals required to drill.

(source)

Read more: PNN: New Brazil rare earths project. 156 drill holes. High grade hits. SGQ 2.0?

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Bloomberg - Early in the week Wall Street adopted a "haven-first" strategy as US-Israeli strikes on Iran killed leadership, spiked oil prices and sent traders fleeing to gold, Treasuries, and the Swiss franc.

Reuters - The Pentagon issued an emergency order for 13 critical minerals the day before attacking Iran, securing domestic supplies of antimony and rare earths for a protracted conflict.

The New Money - REalloys secured a Pentagon contract to manufacture rare earth magnets, strengthening the US defence supply chain and reducing reliance on Chinese materials during the Middle East conflict.

Our Investment SGQ has an MoU with REalloys for an offtake deal which was extended back in January, so news like this would only have REalloys in further need of rare earths ore supply.

Bloomberg - Following on from Iran retaliation early in the week, European gas prices rallied 30% after Qatar halted LNG production due to the Middle East conflict, sparking supply fears.

See our note from yesterday for our take on what’s happening in energy markets here.

Bloomberg - China is upgrading solar panel recycling to manage a wave of aging hardware and recover critical minerals like silver and copper amid global supply chain disruptions.

This theme is why we are Invested in ION. Solar panels contain a few valuable inputs including silver, silicon and aluminium, we covered this in a deep dive article last month.

Bloomberg - Aluminium recorded its largest weekly gain since 2024 as the Iran crisis spiked energy costs and threatened Middle Eastern supply chains, heightening fears of global production shortages.

If this conflict and supply issues were to drag on for months, this may be positive for our Investment CAY, which is looking into building a downstream business to process its bauxite in Cameroon.

Cameroon has vast quantities of hydroelectric power, so the results of the study CAY is doing could come back positive in a world with high energy costs.

Island Pharmaceuticals (ASX: ILA) - Regulatory Alignment and Strategic Partnerships Accelerate Galidesivir Toward Animal Rule Approval - Prenzler Group

St George Mining (ASX: SGQ) - Araxá on the Rise: Resource Grows 75% - Evolution Capital

BPM - A major gold system, a major gold discovery in the making Forelands Gold Project, WA: High-grade Beachcomber + Bonnie & Clyde unlocked

MTH - Exploring Mexico’s Sierra Madre Gold-Silver Trend High Grade, Fully Funded and Ready to Grow (PDAC 1 - 4 March 2026)

SGQ - Niobium. Rare earths. World class. (PDAC, 3 March 2026 Investor Presentation)

WCE - Elizabeth Hill Silver Project Grade is King: Future growth and mine restart potential March 2026

OD6 - Quinn Fluorspar Project Acquisition A Strategic US Critical Mineral Opportunity

Advance Metals (ASX:AVM) - Perth Investor Lunch - February 2026

Canyon Resources (ASX: CAY) - uploaded a video showing the surface miner on site and moving around plus haul road progress

Silver Price Breaks the 50-Year Range, Most Gains By Summer | Michael Oliver

WW3 Threat Assessment: Trump Bombing Iran Makes WW3 More Likely! - The Diary Of A CEO and EverydaySpy Podcast - From 19:40 the podcast discusses specifically that the USA’s concern with Iran is primarily to do with Iran focusing efforts and research into biological and chemical weapons.

It goes over how the 2025 National Threat Assessment (produced ~12 months ago) clearly stated that Iran was unlikely to pursue the development of nuclear enrichment/weapons.

This storyline could be positive for our Investment ILA which is looking to gain approvals for its Galidesivir drug, which already has positive data in its treatment of Marburg.

For context - Marburg is classified as a Category A bioterrorism threat (the highest level threat) by the US government (source), so success could lead to government stockpiling contracts.

IVR MD Lachlan Wallace posted this following the DFS release and $55M raise - more steps being taken to go mining:

(source - IVR’s Managing director Lachlan Wallace)

ONE posted during the week that the 7th floor at University of IOW Health Care went live, with integrated TV and tablet solutions helping to connect carers, patients and family:

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.