PFE - update on $42.6M US lithium Investment - EnergyX

Our US critical minerals Investment Pantera Minerals (ASX: PFE | OTC: PTMLF) just put out an update on its shareholding in unlisted US lithium developer EnergyX.

Last year PFE sold its lithium project to EnergyX in a deal at the time valued at a total of $40M.

The most recent raising round valuing the shares alone at $42.6M (plus cash of $2M received and another $4M to come, split between the coming July and April next year).

So ~$48.6M all up - for $9.3M capped PFE.

This week EnergyX signed a non-binding MOU with ~A$1.8BN Compass Minerals (NYSE: CMP) to progress a second US lithium project - Project Powder Hound.

The idea being to create a commercial-scale Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) and refinery facility on Compass Minerals’ owned land near the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

Here is an artist's impression of what the project could look like:

(source)

What this means for PFE is that it expands the underlying portfolio of US lithium projects that PFE's EnergyX shareholding is exposed to.

From one flagship (Smackover which spans Texas and Arkansas and the associated DLE technology from EnergyX to process it) to two projects.

Currently PFE can’t exactly access the value of the EnergyX holding (unless it were to organise a private sale of its holding) as EnergyX is a private company.

EnergyX has stated its intentions to publicly list in the near future, which if it did, we could then easily see the price its share price trades at and directly apply this to PFE’s shareholding.

So for this reason the market is putting minimal value on this, because there is a risk that EnergyX never lists or if it does, the value may no longer be there.

What else is PFE up to?

Last year, PFE acquired the Gillham Silver-Antimony Project in Arkansas.

This came with 18+ historic antimony and silver mines, no modern exploration and no drilling.

Here is a look at the initial sampling across the project areas:

(source)

The most recent update on that project was the Phase 2 sampling program completed just last week, with assays expected in ~4 weeks.

This will be ahead of the maiden drill program planned for July/August 2026, that'll be the first drilling on the project in close to 100 years.

(source)

We covered that last update here: PFE to drill US antimony-silver project in July

So PFE shareholders currently have:

1. A ~A$42M carrying value EnergyX stake (now backed by a broader US lithium platform)
2. A$2M deferred cash due in July 2026, and another A$2M in April 2027
3. The Gillham antimony-silver project heading into its maiden drill program in July/August

What do we want to see PFE do next?

Target Generation on US critical minerals project

We want to see PFE sample, map and run geophysics on its US asset to identify drill targets.

Milestones:

🔄Mapping and sampling (soil and rock chips assays received recently) (source), further samples taken today

🔲 Geophysics

🔲 Drill targets confirmed

Drilling on PFE’s US critical minerals project

After PFE has identified priority drill targets, we want to see the company drill test the project.

Milestones:

🔲 Drill permitting

🔲 Drilling

🔲 Drilling results