Next Investors logo grey

Green Hydrogen in the news, Investment Milestones released, stock portfolio news

Published 29-MAY-2021 16:22 P.M.

|

6 minute read

This week we covered our two favourite battery metals stocks Vulcan Energy (ASX:VUL) and Euro Manganese (ASX:EMN) and provided an update on 88 Energy’s (ASX:88E) continued analysis of its recently drilled well.

Investment Milestones: We have started rolling out our “investment milestones and company investment strategies” for each of our portfolio companies.

You can see the first few for ASX:ONE, ASX:BPM, ASX:EMN, ASX:PRL, ASX:88E and ASX:VUL, with the rest of our portfolio companies coming over the next few weeks.

Relevant Mainstream Media: We do a lot of reading to keep up to date with global themes affecting our portfolio companies and today we are sharing the main news articles that mattered to us from the last week.

At the end of this email we have shared global news relating to PRL, WHK, VUL, EMN, AHI, MNB, ONE, IVZ, CPH and 88E. Let us know if you find this useful and we’ll keep it up.

Big thanks to our reader Phil who found and sent through a great article about IVZ from the Zimbabwe Herald - we encourage you all to reply to any of our emails and share anything you discover about our portfolio companies (good or bad) and we will try to comment on it in our next write up.

Why the selling?: EXR now has well over $30M in the bank and will be drilling DOZENS of exploration and appraisal wells over the next 12 months, with two drill teams now on the ground and success on 10 out of 12 wells to date, we were surprised to see a sell down after the first of MANY, MANY upcoming drilling events didn’t return a positive result. It’s like throwing away a lotto ticket after the first of 40 lines doesn't win. We expect that sell pressure should wash out quickly, we will send a note on EXR shortly....

Biggest macro news of the week: Green Hydrogen hopeful and our 2021 small cap pick of the year PRL (who just raised $18M) has a binding MoU with Oil Super Major Total to build and fund the entire wind and solar renewable energy side of the project (and half of PRLs Hydrogen plant).

Overnight news came out that Total shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of Totals Shift into renewable energy and its name change to TotalEnergies to reflect its new green focus. We suspect that suddenly Total’s renewables project with PRL is going to be getting some attention pretty high up the chain at Total... with post 15c placement selling looking to have slowed we are expecting a big week from PRL on the back of the Total news, we will provide an update very soon.

In our other portfolios: Our later stage portfolio Wise-Owl just added a new investment in iron ore called Iron Road (ASX:IRD) - you can read Wise-Owl’s Friday IRD initiation note here. Our early stage, higher risk portfolio Catalyst Hunter is eagerly awaiting news from one of it’s biggest investments in Latin Resources (ASX:LRS) who are coming out of trading halt early this week with news of a JORC resource...

Here is what happened this week on Next Investors:

VUL Achieves Target 90% Lithium Extraction while Billionaires Buying on Market

This week VUL achieved 90% recovery rate on its recently operating direct lithium extraction (DLE) pilot plant.

VUL was in the news this week, with some great coverage from the Australian Financial Review (AFR), which reported on fellow early stage VUL investor John Hancock revealing that he is currently buying more VUL on market.

Read it all here: ASX: VUL Achieves Target 90% Lithium Extraction while Billionaires Buying on Market

EMN Releases Operations Update as Global Manganese Supply Tightens

EMN is another of our favourite battery stocks. EMN is developing a Green and European source of ultra high purity manganese for Electric Vehicle batteries developed from the recycling of a tailings deposit located in the Czech Republic.

The Wall Street Journal published this story on manganese demand and how the European manganese price has almost doubled in the past few months, and continues to trend upwards.

We are looking forward to EMN’s Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), which will get us an updated look at EMN’s project economics. This is on track for completion in Q1 of 2022.

Read it all here: ASX: EMN Releases Operations Update as Global Manganese Supply Tightens

88E Oil Discovery? 88E’s Lab Results Reveal More..

This week 88E announced additional lab results from its most recent drilling campaign.

We have been investing in 88E since they first started Alaskan exploration, and the Merlin-1 well was definitely 88E’s best ever drilling outcome to date, despite the operational issues that occurred during drilling.

Merlin-1 was “almost’ a discovery which was very encouraging.

Further investigation is required to validate actual % of hydrocarbon in samples.

And in the news US President Joe Biden defends Alaskan oil projects

We also understand that 88E also finalised the costs associated with Merlin-1 drilling, paying vendors out in shares.

This has left 88E with a strong cash position ahead of another drilling event next Alaskan winter.

Read it here: ASX:88E Oil Discovery? 88E’s Lab Results Reveal More.

What happened this week on mainstream media:

Here’s a list of interesting mainstream media that has implications for our portfolio stocks - plenty of weekend reading below.

Green Energy (ASX: PRL)

Reuters: Total shareholders back strategy, including on climate, CEO says
Yahoo Finance: Energy giant Total rebrands as shareholders back climate plan
Financial Times: Total/Exxon: a playbook for climate clashes
La Tribune: Stratégie climat de Total : la rébellion des actionnaires fait pshitt, les ONG voient rouge

Cyber Security (ASX:WHK)

BBC: US passes emergency waiver over fuel pipeline cyber-attack
Bloomberg: Pipelines Balked When ‘Blinking Red’ Hack Alert Went Off in 201

Battery Metals (ASX:VUL, ASX:EMN)

SMH: Rinehart-backed Vulcan in quest for zero carbon lithium
SMH: Electric car battery demand puts lithium in pole position
WSJ: China Hones Control Over Manganese, a Rising Star in Battery Metals
Reuters: Exclusive: Biden looks abroad for electric vehicle metals, in blow to U.S. miners
Bloomberg: Singapore Exchange Eyes Battery Metals Contracts to Tap EV Boom

Health Tech / Data (ASX:AHI, ASX:ONE)

Forbes: The Billionaire Who Controls Your Medical Records
Bloomberg: Investors Bet Billions That Health Care's Long Overdue Digital Shift Is Finally Here

African Energy (ASX:IVZ)

The Herald Zimbabwe: Invictus engages 80 locals for gas project

African Development Bank (ASX:MNB)

AFDB.org : Angola: African Development Bank funds $530 million electricity project to expand renewable energy and regional connectivity

Psychedelic Medicine (ASX:CPH)

Financial Review: Psychedelics are psychiatry’s new hope

Alaskan Oil (ASX:88E)

NY Times: Biden Administration Defends Huge Alaska Oil Drilling Project

ESG Investing

Financial Review: Rich List Renews and Repurposes
Financial Review: Dutch court rules oil giant Shell must cut carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 in landmark case
Reuters: Exxon loses board seats to activist hedge fund in landmark climate vote



General Information Only

S3 Consortium Pty Ltd (S3, ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘our’) (CAR No. 433913) is a corporate authorised representative of LeMessurier Securities Pty Ltd (AFSL No. 296877). The information contained in this article is general information and is for informational purposes only. Any advice is general advice only. Any advice contained in this article does not constitute personal advice and S3 has not taken into consideration your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Please seek your own independent professional advice before making any financial investment decision. Those persons acting upon information contained in this article do so entirely at their own risk.

Conflicts of Interest Notice

S3 and its associated entities may hold investments in companies featured in its articles, including through being paid in the securities of the companies we provide commentary on. We disclose the securities held in relation to a particular company that we provide commentary on. Refer to our Disclosure Policy for information on our self-imposed trading blackouts, hold conditions and de-risking (sell conditions) which seek to mitigate against any potential conflicts of interest.

Publication Notice and Disclaimer

The information contained in this article is current as at the publication date. At the time of publishing, the information contained in this article is based on sources which are available in the public domain that we consider to be reliable, and our own analysis of those sources. The views of the author may not reflect the views of the AFSL holder. Any decision by you to purchase securities in the companies featured in this article should be done so after you have sought your own independent professional advice regarding this information and made your own inquiries as to the validity of any information in this article.

Any forward-looking statements contained in this article are not guarantees or predictions of future performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond our control, and which may cause actual results or performance of companies featured to differ materially from those expressed in the statements contained in this article. S3 cannot and does not give any assurance that the results or performance expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements contained in this article will actually occur and readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

This article may include references to our past investing performance. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of our future investing performance.