Sunday Edition: 16th August

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.

Yesterday’s Saturday note: You can't print your way out of a metal problem... Or a scandium one

Quick Takes: BPM, AVM, SS1, MNB, OD6, PAT, WCE, NS1

Deep Dives: AUZ (New Investment), Trump mining roundtable (ION, RML, VKA, OD6, AW1, SS1, BKB, RCM, LKY, LSR, PFE), SGQ, TG1

Other content: PKP, ILA, SGQ, IVZ, OD6, RML, WCE, ION, ONE, TTM

BPM - 20,000m gold drilling program underway - undrilled 6km long target to be tested in the coming weeks.

This is the third time BPM will drill this project ahead of a maiden JORC resource estimate targeted for next quarter.

After that, it's all about the ~10,000m of drilling BPM has planned for the undrilled “Bonnie & Clyde” prospect.

A ~6km long gold in soil anomaly that’s never been drilled before.

(source)

AVM hit a 311g/t extension to its high grade project in Mexico.

All four of AVM’s holes so far have hit silver. This week’s result was AVM’s strongest result so far from a silver perspective (311g/t over 13.2m).

Importantly, the potential for a copper system at depth is still very much alive.

Lets see what comes from holes 5 and 6 - the big step-outs to the south.

We don’t mind the hole by hole update approach by AVM - helps occupy parts of our brain subconsciously - maybe more companies should do this more often...

AVM MD& CEO Dr Adam McKinnon will be holding a webinar next week to discuss the latest results and what’s to come:

Register here for the AVM Webinar on Thursday 20th August at 11:30AM AEST

(source)

SS1 mapped a potential extension 2km north of its 539M ounce silver equivalent resource estimate.

SS1’s project is already the largest pre-production primary silver project in the USA (and on the ASX) - a 539Moz silver equivalent JORC resource estimate.

SS1 has drilled to the north of its deposit before and had success. Now it has a second target area across ~2km (almost the same footprint of the current resource), to the north.

SS1 will now interpret the data to firm up new drill targets, while four rigs keep drilling ahead of a scoping study due next quarter.

(source)

MNB upsized its placement to $6M following strong investor demand.

The extra $2M came in on the same terms as the $4M placement from three weeks ago, and the board and management put in a further $150k of their own cash.

(on top of the $550k the board invested in the original placement)

Normally it wouldn’t make much sense to upsize a raise so long after a recent placement BUT anyone who has built anything before will know that any extra funds are always welcome.

So we don't mind seeing the upsized raise.

MNB is expecting first production later this year - here are the latest pictures from site:

(source)

OD6 upgraded the fluorspar grades at its US project using ore sorting technology.

Ore sorting tech is exactly what you think it is... technology that... sorts ore (separating waste rock from mineralised rock).

OD6’s tech of choice is from a Germany based company “TOMRA” whose sensor tech is currently being used to remove waste at the world's largest fluorspar mine in Mexico (source).

Nice to see the tech is working on OD6’s material - upgrading the grades to ~98.3% fluorspar - above the 97% threshold to classify it as “acidspar” which is used in AI chip, batteries and defence tech markets.

(source)

PAT secured community approvals for exploration at its silver project in Peru.

PAT has now got approvals to explore the northern end of its 31.4Moz silver equivalent JORC resource which sits inside a 559 to 774Moz silver equivalent exploration target.

PAT will now run a three month mapping and sampling program to rank drill targets across the project.

Next we want to see is the same access agreements get signed across the rest of the project:

(source)

WCE hits extensions to previously producing silver mine in WA.

In April this year WCE put together a maiden 2.8Moz resource at 617g/t silver - the highest grade silver project on the ASX.

This week WCE hits extensions to that resource - lower grades then we would have hoped (given the very high grades across the rest of the project).

BUT the silver mineralisation looks like it sits inside the open-pit design that WCE has been putting together for its project.

(source)

NS1 engaged US advisory firm to drive its US defence strategy.

NS1 engaged Waypoint Strategic Partners to provide “executive leadership and operational support” in the US as well as:

• US corporate and compliance setup,
• Partnering opportunities with defence contractors
• Partnering opportunities with Aerospace contractors, and
• Program-readiness steps (registrations and certification).

Waypoint is led by Nate Notargiacomo, who previously ran the US arm of Australian space technology company HEO Robotics.

Here is Nate’s CV (solid experience in the areas that NS1 is looking to sell its tech to).

(source)

Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ) - New Investment 🚨

Our latest Investment is Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ).

AUZ owns a development stage scandium asset in Australia.

We think scandium demand is going to surge - and we may not even know why... yet.

(What? Explanation a few lines below)

AUZ is right next door to $3.2BN scandium developer Sunrise Energy Metals that is up 80x in the last 18 months...

and just popped as high as 29% a couple of days ago after this happened:

(past performance is not an indicator of future performance)

(listen to it here)

Big money from the Department of War into a tiny rare earth mineral that many have never heard of - scandium.

There is a lot of talk about different critical minerals the US is trying to secure.

And a lot of publicly available information and pundit commentary on supply and future demand.

BUT if we look at where the USA is throwing the most money and the most quickly...

THAT is where we start to think about what the public DOESN’T know about supply and projected demand.

(especially for military and advanced weapons uses)

What we do know - Scandium makes aluminium stronger and weldable for fighter jets, missiles, drone frames etc.

It’s also critical for fuel cells that power AI data centres... and how many of those are about to get built around the world.

Currently the world produces only ~80 tonnes of scandium per year, and...

(you guessed it)

China's got most of it (80% of supply, 100% of processing)... and has placed an export ban on it.

So that leads us to the news from last weekend, when the US Department of War announced US$400M funding for a scandium project all the way over here in Australia.

The project that got a direct mention from President Trump and was all over the news in recent days:

(sources)

And ~12 months before that, the biggest defence contractor in the world - Lockheed Martin - signed an option for offtake from that same project.

AUZ is directly next door to this project AND its resource is higher grade - why this matters in a second.

The USA must be dead serious about securing scandium supply ASAP.

Sunrise Energy Metals, the company receiving all this attention, is now capped at nearly $3.2BN and is up ~80x in the last 18 months.

Yep ~80x.

Sunrise is the best performing mining stock in the world over the past ~18 months and is backed by billionaire mining maverick, Robert Friedland.

(source)

The past performance is not and should not be taken as an indication of future performance. Caution should be exercised in assessing past performance. This product, like all other financial products, is subject to market forces and unpredictable events that may adversely affect future performance.

Our Investment - AUZ - is also ASX listed, sits next door to Sunrise, on the same geological structure.

(source)(source)(source)(source)

AUZ owns 100% of one of “the highest grade scandium resources in the world”.

Read more: Our Latest Investment is Australian Mines Ltd (ASX: AUZ)

Watch more: AUZ held a webinar on Wednesday following up on the recent neighboring SRL funding news and gave a general update: Australian Mines (ASX: AUZ) Investor Webinar

US President Donald Trump hosts mining roundtable

Last weekend, US President Donald Trump announced over US$2BN in deals with mining/refining companies.

(one of those companies was next door to our new Investment AUZ - see above)

(source)

In addition to the $2BN plus in funding for critical mineral projects there was also over US$180M set aside for mining schools around America.

Trump said in his speech after the roundtable that the US graduates "less than 170 mining engineers each year while China graduates more than 3,000".(source)

So the US plan isn’t just to pump hot money into the sector - but to also build a generation of Americans with mining/refining expertise.

Another signal for us that the US minerals macro thematic may be a multi-decade longer term trend.

Here is the full ~30 minute video of Trump's speech and the mining industry roundtable:

(source)

The key takeaway for us from that speech:

Mine funding and permits are no longer the bottleneck for US mining projects.

When this much capital and attention is swirling around a small sector, M&A and takeovers usually follow.

Big cashed up companies will now have a mandate (and political cover) to roll up US mining projects into the "new BHPs and RIOs".

On funding and permitting Trump explicitly said:

• "Over the past 18 months, our administration has signed or approved more than 160 minerals deals worth nearly $40 billion." and
  
  
• "Before I took office, federal mining permits took three, four, or even five years. Now they take as little as 25 days." - the example mentioned in the speech was the Resolution copper mine which started permitting in 2005 and got permitted earlier this year.

Here are timestamps to other pretty powerful moments during the speech:

• 1:46 - "We're putting our miners back to work and we're reclaiming America's rightful place as the minerals superpower of the world" And at 3:27 - "...never again reliant on hostile foreign nations for the resources our country needs"
  
  
• 6:35 - "...rebuilding the national defense stockpile and investing more than $12 billion in a brand new strategic mineral reserve"
  
  
• 8:02 - "...an unprecedented $100 billion to underwrite critical investments in our mineral supply"
  
  
• 8:09 - "For the first time ever, we are even making direct equity investments in critical mineral production"
  
  
• 21:02 - US secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick: "Critical minerals are more than an economic issue. They are a national security issue"
  
  
• 23:37 - Lutnick: "...make sure the United States, not our adversaries, controls the supply chains"

(so many mentions of national security...)

Believe it or not - 40 years ago the USA was the undisputed world mining and refining superpower.

Trump talked to this in his speech too, saying “The United States lost more than 3,400 mines over the past three decades."

Then globalisation came in and the US started slowly outsourcing mining to cheaper countries.

Making China the new mining and refining superpower.

No one really cared for a while because everything was becoming cheaper, but then China started withholding supply of these critical minerals to gain leverage in geopolitical stoushes.

And now the US is trying to reverse decades of outsourcing ASAP.

Read more: Trump hosts mining roundtable - announces over $2BN in investments. Here’s how we are positioned.

St George Mining (ASX:SGQ)

Brazil is shaping up to be a key player in the USA vs China race to secure valuable rare earths.

This week our development stage Brazilian rare earths Investment St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) just released a big new resource upgrade, confirming it owns a global Tier 1 asset.

Rare earths assets comparable to SGQ’s are owned by companies ~30-40x bigger than SGQ.

We are Invested in SGQ to see it close that valuation gap as it progresses toward production over the coming years.

A NASDAQ listed company recently paid US$2.8BN to get its hands on a Brazilian rare earths asset (with assistance from ~US$565M in US government funding).

So there is capital attention on Brazil. SGQ’s latest rare earths (and niobium) resource upgrade comes at a pretty good time...

After this week’s big resource upgrade, SGQ now owns 100% of:

1. The highest grade, undeveloped, rare earths asset in the Western world.
2. The single biggest measured and indicated NdPr resource in the world.
3. The largest carbonatite-hosted rare earths deposit in South America.
4. The highest-grade carbonatite-hosted rare earths deposit in South America.

Those two rare earth types we mention above, Nd + Pr, are two rare earths that go into making magnets used in missile guidance systems, fighter jets and unmanned drones.

Making them command a premium in global markets.

The $391M capped SGQ now has more Nd + Pr than the two western rare earth heavyweights - $17BN Lynas and $14BN MP Materials.

(source - presentation)

As of this week, SGQ is capped at ~$391M, and held ~$98M cash (as at June 30th plus July T2 placement funds, source)

Meaning SGQ’s enterprise value is ~$293M.

Despite having an asset that in some aspects (in particular that image above) beats out MP and Lynas.

MP has a market cap ~40x SGQ and Lynas ~43x SGQ:

1. ~A$16BN MP Materials - USA’s only rare earth mine. MP received US$400M from the Department of War and signed a US$500M deal with Apple last year.
2. ~A$17BN Lynas Rare Earths operating its mine in WA and a refinery in Malaysia.

SGQ’s asset is the biggest in terms of tonnage (size) out of MP and Lynas.

Here are the resources and market caps for the three companies side by side:

Read more: SGQ: 155% increase, higher grade. Now for the share price to catch up to its bigger peers...

TechGen Metals (ASX:TG1)

Only a few more days to go...

Our microcap exploration Investment TechGen Metals (ASX:TG1)’s moonshot (but backed up by plenty of pre drill work) copper drilling event now has a rig mobilisation date:

20th of August.

Over the coming weeks, TG1 will be drill testing these two giant copper-gold prospects:

(source)

More on TG1’s drill targets and what they offer in a second.

With high risk early stage exploration, despite doing a lot of due diligence and work, a lot of it comes down to getting lucky.

Drilling success of course is most important - but also when that success happens matters too.

IF the underlying commodity sentiment isn’t strong, sometimes it just doesn't matter how good of a drill hit you get on a greenfield target - the market just might not care.

(Long time TG1 investors might recall its gold discovery in NSW where it hit 94m of gold at 0.95g/t - however gold was out of favour when that news came out. We think that this same result earlier this year would have got the market’s blood pumping)

Of course, the opposite is also true - IF the commodity price IS strong, sometimes you don't even need a home-run hit, a sniff of a discovery is enough for a re-rate.

(Copper is very hot at the moment - AI data centre build-out demand, supply shortages and very few new mine supplies coming into the market...)

So we think it's a good time to be drilling for a major NEW copper discovery.

(more on why in the link below)

TG1 has spent almost two years preparing for this moment - geophysical surveys, rock chip sampling, soil sampling, heritage surveys and permitting.

And in the coming days, drilling begins.

A few weeks after that we should know if tiny TG1 can deliver a brand new tier 1 copper discovery.

(or announce a couple of dusters - i.e., no valuable minerals are found - that is where the risk-reward trade off is.)

Read more: TG1 Drill Testing Potential Large Copper Discovery in ~ 7 days

Reuters - China's central bank added 640koz of gold in July, close to 20t and its biggest monthly purchase since October 2023, extending its buying run to 21 straight months now.

Bloomberg - Wall Street is reading US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's moves, including the first yen intervention since 1998 and hints at cutting long bond sales, as an effort to stop yields spiking from 19 year highs.

FT - Venezuela's government and opposition agreed on one demand after two weeks of talks backed by the US, the return of US$4BN in gold, 31t of bullion the Bank of England has blocked since 2018.

GoldSilver - GoldSilver discussed how solid state batteries could be silver's Tesla moment, noting lithium rallied over 600% in the two years after Battery Day, with the new cells needing far more silver per vehicle.

AFR - The AFR went inside the Pentagon's backing of Sunrise Energy Metals, whose Syerston scandium project in NSW could replace almost the entire Chinese supply in one hit.

During the week we added AUZ to our portfolio, which has a scandium project next door to Sunrise, with a higher resource grade. We think there could be a much larger scandium market if supply commits to coming online.

Rare Earth Exchanges - An Atlantic Council analysis said Europe can’t replicate China's full rare earth ecosystem by 2030 and should instead look towards allied suppliers, price floors and offtakes, pointing to Caremag's EUR216M raise and a Neo Performance Materials magnet plant.

Bloomberg - The US and Japan advanced plans for the world's deepest undersea mine, targeting rare earths 6km below the Pacific near Minamitorishima that could meet centuries worth of industrial demand.

Bloomberg - Copper held above US$14,000 a tonne for an unprecedented run of sessions after a Grasberg smelter outage compounded a supply squeeze, with AI data centre and grid demand continuing to feed the rally.

Bloomberg - Codelco abandoned its 1.34Mt copper growth target for this year as mine setbacks mounted, with the Chilean state miner now stabilising output at 28 year lows under a US$27BN debt pile.

Al Jazeera - The Pentagon gave contractors 21 days to submit faster delivery plans after Patriot interceptor stocks fell 65% and THAAD stocks fell 38% from pre war levels during the Iran conflict.

Bloomberg - A Bloomberg opinion piece that argued the US ammo crunch is a global disaster, with the military reported to have used virtually all of its stockpile of high precision offensive missiles in the Iran conflict.

Defense One - Space Force General Michael Guetlein warned the Golden Dome missile shield could grind to a halt as soon as October without fresh funding, saying that the program has no path without congressional money.

Bloomberg - Chinese humanoid robot makers shipped about 19.1k units in the first half of 2026, more than triple the year earlier, which accounts for over 97% of global shipments as Morgan Stanley lifted its full year forecast.

Bloomberg - Unitree's Shanghai IPO drew 5,526 times in oversubscriptions from retail buyers on 10 August, valuing China's first listed humanoid robot maker near US$9BN ahead of its share debut.

Some commentary from the world's biggest oil producer, Aramco’s Q2 conference call -

(source)

Forbes - US lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to regulate hemp THC drinks like alcohol, exempting beverages with up to 5mg THC from a looming federal ban threatening the US$28BN industry.

This could be a key catalyst for our Investment PKP, which recently signed an agreement with Ice Cube’s Fryday Kush brand to manufacture drinks into the US market.

The Guardian - The DRC Ebola outbreak spread to a sixth province, with deaths passing 2,100 from over 4,500 cases, and the WHO warned it was on track to become the deadliest ever.

Our Investment ILA is developing a treatment for Ebola. ILA already has an agreement with neighbouring Uganda to treat infected patients under the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s internationally recognised emergency clinical framework.

SGQ - Niobium. Rare earths. World class. - 11 August 2026 Investor Presentation

IVZ - Operational update August 2026 (MD update)

OD6 - Advancing Critical Mineral Projects in the US & Australia (MD/CEO interview)

RML - Says Tungsten Revenue Could Be Less Than a Year Away (CEO interview)

WCE - Serge Smolonogov on Growing Elizabeth Hill into Australia's Next Silver Mine

WCE - Positioning Elizabeth Hill for growth

ION - JMM Noosa Mining Investor Lunch - July 2026 (CS&CO presentation)

Gold/Dedollaristion/Debasement Trade - ‘We’ll Wake Up One Day to Find a Different World’: The BRICS+ Shift Is Here | Andy Schectman (Miles Franklin Media)

Silver - SILVER About To 'Go Berserk' - $1,000 'Wouldn't Shock Me': Michael Oliver (Commodity Culture)

USA critical minerals - US Weapons Crunch Raises Risks Beyond Iran (Bloomberg Television)

USA critical minerals - US, China Gap on Critical Minerals 'Won't Change Overnight,' Say REalloys CEO (Bloomberg Podcasts)

Copper - “There Is Going To Be A Problem” - Metal Shortage Could Last Decades | Ian Harris (Liberty and Finance)

Robots - The ChatGPT Moment For Physical AI Is Here (Equity Mates Clips)

Lithium - 5 Reasons the Lithium Bears Are Wrong (Rock Stock Channel)

Lithium - Joe Lowry on lithium, ASX juniors, and what investors still don’t get (Mining Intelligence and Miningcomau)

Oil & Gas - Oil Producers, Buyers Looking at Long-Term Alternatives to Hormuz, Says Clara Gillispie (Bloomberg Podcasts)

ONE - Self service meal ordering should be an expectation rather than a nice to have, ONE & EPIC allows patients to be given more control to browse, select and order meals directly from the bedside TV. On the back of this and the recent partnership agreement for Bedside TV, ONE is heading to EPIC’s UGM (Users Group Meeting) at EPIC’s campus:

TTM - CEO Melanie Leighton is heading back to site in Ecuador at the Dynasty Gold Project, which currently has three diamond rigs running plus an RC rig set to join soon:

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.