IGGY TAN’S LU7 RECORDS A THREE-FOLD SHARE PRICE INCREASE IN TWO WEEKS!
PEERING SATELLITES
ASX STARTUP
TARGETS SATELLITE SPIES
AZURE MINERALS - THE MARKET DARLING ANDOVER | TIER 1 DEPOSIT IN MAKING
THE LIZARD KING INVESTIGATES
RUSSIAN CRASHES AND BOND VILLIANS
26th August 2023
The first Russian lunar mission in decades crashed into the moon’s surface, striking a blow against that vile object for mighty Russia! Therewas also a slightly more intentional explosion closer to Moscow, with would-be coup leader Yevgeny Prigozhin presumed dead in a plane crash.
Say what you will about the Russians, but their eye for espionage is unparalleled. Whoever ends up playing the next 007 is a solid bet to go up against his old nemesis, but probably without the flagrant racism and good plots that defined the works of Ian Fleming.
Publishers have tried sanitising Bond books for a modern audience, but surely that’d leave Dr No as about a three-page read. Try to make Mein Kampf politically correct.
Speaking of Bond Villains, Peter Dutton keeps honking on for an Australian nuclear resurgence, causing a pause of doubt in even staunchly pronuclear lizards like me, given that the opposition leader appears like something that crawled out from the very shadows of Chernobyl. But our Prime Minister, too, bears his troubles right now, not just with Junior’s Qantas Club membership.
We’ll see if he leaps onto boards like Mark
McGowan did after leaving office. However, making Clive Palmer seethe uncontrollably will likely keep McGowan in Western Australia’s good graces for now.
And we will get little political entertainment out of US politics for a while with Trump not showing up for the primaries. Maybe he’s still workshopping nicknames for his opponents, “Ron DeSanctimonious” isn’t exactly his finest work. Going for his second non-consecutive term, the would-be Grover Cleveland had some choice words for the US soccer team on their defeat, saying, “WOKE EQUALS FAILURE” and “The USA is going to Hell!! MAGA” in a remarkably restrained outburst on Truth Social.
Our Matildas got a little more support from our politicians, but I’m sure we will all go back to not caring about soccer soon enough; attention is a fickle thing, after all. The West Aussie AFL teams have not given us much cause to celebrate this season. The Eagles even managed to screw up losing last week, for god’s sake.
Though you must celebrate a victory while youcan, the local bourse wasn’t providing too many of those this week, but there’s always a winner somewhere.
This week, many companies reported their earnings on the ASX, with Nearmap, Temple & Webster, IPH, Brambles, and BHP emerging as the winners due to their strong revenue growth and acquisitions. On the other hand, Redbubble, Pact Group, TPG Telecom, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, and Beach Energy were the losers due to weak earnings or disappointing results. Next week, companies like Wesfarmers, Woolworths, Coles, and Qantas Airways will be reporting their results, which will undoubtedly impact share prices. During earnings season, there can be a lot of volatility in the market, depending on how investors react to a company’s results and dividend payouts, and in today’s uncertain economic climate, many companies are worried about being overexposed to illiquid assets and equities but feel stuck due to a lack of options. Some are holding onto overvalued assets that offer little return and may need to decline significantly before they become profitable. Unfortunately, illiquid assets are slow to adjust, and the current economic conditions. This has led to the worst default cycle since the global financial crisis! Interest rates are not expected to decline anytime soon, and there is even a chance they could rise. Contributing to the issue are Bidenomics and profligate fiscal policy. The outlook for equities is not looking good, with the lowest expected returns in a decade due to high price/earnings multiples. Let us hope the battery revolution and the qualitative change it promises make good.
Rueben Hale MarketOpen(ed) Editor
In Canada’s James Bay lithium centre, LU7 initiated its Apollo project with a commitment to sink $4.5 million raised during its IPO to the ground.
Spirits ran high following the long-awaited return of Tan and his ambitious plans to bring his Apollo lithium venture into production as quickly as possible.
Opening trading with a modest $12 million market cap and shares at 2 cents apiece, buyers lined up, lifting the stock 185% to close at 5.7c on the first day.
But unlike so many shooting stars of late, LU7 shows few signs of cooling in these bearish times. By the end of its first week of trading, shares had peaked at 6.6c and continued to hold the line 13 days later.
Could this be just down to impeccable timing?
In the weeks leading up to LU7’s debut, big hitters Allkem, Patriot Battery Metals, and Cygnus Metals had already announced jawdropping estimates, generating a ‘SuperPumped’ market.
But Market Open analyst Mansoor Jan says LU7 investors have moved on from the hype and focused on the land package’s correct geological structure and proximity to Patriot and other world-class projects in areas with significant lithium deposits.
“Apollo’s fundamentals stack up extremely well alongside its famous peers on the Greenstone belt,” he explains.
“Apollo’s 24,000 hectares of land across a Greenstone Belt with 17 known pegmatite occurrences and a mediumlow gravity signature. If you compare Apollo with Winsome’s Adina, which had only two events with similar gravity-low signatures at the start of its exploration
program, its unique value becomes apparent.” But It’s not only the fascinating mineralogy that makes LU7 stand out. Tan’s “Dream Team” is a field of unrivalled expertise and wear-with-all to build and operate a lithium production business successfully.
Iggy and his team are early pioneers in a rapidly developing sector. Each member holds an impressive resume, with ample experience in developing greenfield projects into successful lithium-producing operations. They are also instrumental in expanding Australia’s most prominent lithium production.
The team knows how to get things done, having already obtained all necessary work permits and having consultants and contractors lined up to carry out their plans.
According to CEO Alex Hanly, the high support level enables Apollo to advance swiftly.
“The company’s vision is clear, and we plan to move quickly at Apollo while assessing opportunities within the broader environment within James Bay aligned with the country’s critical minerals strategy,” Hanly says.
Apollo Project – Local Geology with Outcrops
Lithium Universe’s share price has more than tripled since debuting on the Australian Stock Exchange a little under a fortnight ago. The fact that Iggy Tan’s comeback venture has withstood a challenging market could be down to some good timing, but look closer, and you will see it is more than just good luck.
In January 2023, minnow junior exploration company Azure Minerals’ with its Andover Project came onto every one’s radar after SQM, the lithium behemoth, announced a $20M investment.
The market has seen Azure Minerals’ share price growth, which is instrumental. SQM’s entry on register has given them an ~8-10X return in just seven months.
SQM had an advantage due to its directors’ close involvement with ASX:AZS’s technical exploration committee, providing them with a detailed understanding of the Andover ground. As a result, SQM witnessed a Tier 1 asset unfolding before their eyes. With this knowledge, they made a takeover offer of approximately A$1bn to Azure, but it was declined by their management.
Azure acted swiftly by raising capital after carefully analysing the wind conditions. They identified Andover as a discovery of global significance and secured $120M without a fuss. The potential deposit of 150 to 240Mt is unprecedented and worth exploring. Analysts are spruiking Andover as having the potential to bring lithium supply into equilibrium. They have become acutely aware that Azure could be the real deal, possessing
Azure’s last five drilling announcements have confirmed broad and high-grade lithium mineralisation. DD017 is ~ 210m at 1.42% Li2O DD0228 is ~183m at 1.3% Li2O. Both the holes are ~400m apart.
an extraordinarily long life, tier-1 projects, and assets.
Companies with a potential discovery run, they run and run hard, even after the takeover offer. Azure Andover is a lead character on centre stage for at least the next six months.
17,000 meters were drilled using RC and DD methods, confirming a large, mineralised zone in pegmatite. Three target areas (TA1, TA2, TA3) are being drilled by Azure, and significant intercepts and grades have been found. The Andover pegmatite swarm extends over 9km (east-west) and up to 5km (north-south). Azure has identified several hundred outcropping pegmatites from extensive surface sampling and mapping, with many containing high lithium grades.
Azure updated the market with the target Area 2 plan and highlighted three targets with ~500m strike length and width from ~50m to ~150m. All three marks appear to have trend extension potential towards the northwest.
Azure’s $130M raise is used to drill ~100,000 meters, almost 4X the current meters drilled. It has highlighted a mid-point of 170Mt resource estimate by Q1 calendar year 2024. Analysis suggests that a midpoint resource estimate is achievable. A significant intercept of all three target areas and interconnectivity at depth will significantly increase the resource estimate beyond a high calculation of 240 Mt.
Azure is raising $120M as part of its capital to fund 100,000m of drilling. This will help the company gain a better understanding of its three targets. Based on market estimates, a resource of 50Mt is typically valued at around $500M. Independent research suggests a potential upside of approximately 70% share price, with a target price of $4.63.
Note: This analysis is based on high level assessment and some guestimates are used
Commercial satellite services and their data are critical, and the worrying trend has spurred an Australian startup to raise $12 million in funding to find out who is watching the watchers.
Most cameras circling in outer space point towards Earth. However, Sydney-based HEO Robotics installs cameras on satellites, helping minimise collisions, assist with maintenance, and look at who else is watching – and why. The versatile software platform has shown promise for commercial, governmental, and military applications and was notably backed by Salus Ventures, a fund focused on building Australia’s hi-tech sovereign defences. Unlike most startups in the tech space, HEO was already on the trail to becoming cash-positive and could have happily kept on pace, making around $3 million in yearly revenue from highpaying customers.
But those customers wanted to know why their satellites were repeatedly being infringed upon and for the first time since 2021, when HEO brought in $3 million from startup accelerator Y Combinator, a YouTube co-founder, and contributions from family and friends, it needed
a capital raise.
The foreign satellites were passing within tens of kilometres, enough to feel their breath in human terms, and there was no explanation as to why they should be so close.
“A lot of commercial satellites are being approached by satellites from other nations, and we’re not confident that they’re just passing by,” HEO co-founder and Chief Executive Dr William Crowe said.
“We don’t know what they’re doing, and that’s a problem. We’re all trying to understand their intentions because it could be a security risk. Many of our data is passing through these satellites.”
And given that the space-borne assets are hovering over 35,000 kilometres above the Earth, it requires a long reach to determine what interlopers might be up to.
“It could be robot arms to interfere with other satellites, they might be intercepting data or preparing to use lasers to jam the commercial satellites’ signals, or indeed they might be doing nothing – and it makes it very expensive to get cameras up there to look,” Dr Crowe said.
“I would say that the majority of the time, there’s
Far above the Earth’s surface, around the commercial satellites that form the backbone of global communications, many foreign satellites are cozying up to Western operations.
that we don’t know.”
Dr Crowe refused to say what nations he believed were probing the assets of a commercial satellite industry, which in 2022 generated $US281 billion for a global space industry expected to reach a trillion dollars in revenue by 2040. Still, it is easy to make an educated guess.
While Russia continues launching U.S. astronauts through a no-funds-exchanged agreement with NASA, U.K. and E.U. sanctions in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, have prevented the export of a wide range of space technology to Russia –effectively crippling their industry.
The European Space Agency terminated a Mars exploration partnership with Moscow after the invasion, and companies in Europe, Japan, South Korea, and other Western-aligned nations swiftly moved their satellites off Russian rockets and onto alternative launchers in SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and India.
In April, Russia had its first liftoff since the invasion. The launch carried satellites with commercial technology from Western companies and smaller ones from Russian companies and universities. The launch had additional payloads from Belarus, the United Arab Emirates, and Malaysia. Belarus is closely aligned with Russia, but the other two nations were alarming.
“What surprised me about the others is they both have commercial elements with ties to the West,” Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Space, a satellite industry analytics and advisory firm, said.
SpaceX’s Starlink satellite system has seen
successful use in the Ukrainian war and Chinese military researchers are concerned that commercial satellites pose a significant security risk. They have urged Beijing to expedite the deployment of a national satellite network to compete.
A mega-constellation of 13,000 low-orbit satellites is being planned, and there are concerns that military scientists are looking for ways to suppress or damage Musk’s Starlink in a wartime scenario.
Both powers have historically dismissed allegations of infiltrating Western space systems. Still, US intelligence is warning its stateside industry of a growing risk of espionage and satellite attacks from its adversaries.
Last week, a bulletin jointly released by the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, the FBI, and the U.S. Air Force advised companies to log anomalies, establish a program to hunt out moles and be wary of outreaches from foreign companies.
Satellite licensing laws which previously prevented US companies from pointing cameras where HEO points their own had given the Australian company something of a monopoly in the sector.
But as the US government moves on repealing those laws and keeping its massive space industry ahead of the pack, it isn’t a concern for HEO, but instead opens the hatch for the Sydney startup to be a greater part of a massive commercial outreach into outer space.
Systematic exploration over its namesake project continues to unearth signs of a significant lithium discovery for Forrestania Resources, with its latest drill results from the South Iron Cap East confirming shallow spodumene-bearing mineralisation at the prospect.
Approvals are in place for an imminent follow-up and the company has been spurred on by lithium grades at multiple prospects across Forrestania, which have demonstrated the potential for the pegmatite systems to host ore-grade mineralisation.
And further north, wildfire restrictions have abated, and Forrestania is back on track at its large lithium holdings in a James Bay province which continues to yield world class discoveries.
On the trail to production at its flagship Whim Creek copper-zinc project, Anax Metals has encountered pegmatite swarms far more extensive than previously thought at the adjacent Whim Maar and Loudens Patch prospects.
219 rock chip samples have been rushed to the lab for analysis from the swarms, which could reveal a new lustre for white gold adjacent to 3.8 million tonnes of zinc and copper resources scheduled for production at Whim Creek.
Field observations have further encouraged potential lithium fertility east of the Andover discovery, and ongoing soil sampling is directed at defining the extent of geochemical anomalies as Anax awaits the assays’ return.
A JORC resource expanded by 67 per cent and past three million tonnes at 20.2 per cent manganese is beyond the critical mass milestone for Bryah Resources. It is now on the path to production at its namesake Western Australian Bryah Basin.
The large-scale resource allows the company’s JV with OM Holdings to advance mining studies and planning to the production stage, and the partners see plenty of room left to grow a manganese mountain with a cut-off grade superior tomay of its peers.
On the US critical list, manganese is on the global agenda as one of the battery metals still dominated by Chinese production.
Mt Isa is the heart of a Queensland North West Mineral Province proven as one of the earth’s most prosperous. Cooper Metals has just extended the copper-gold footprint of five prospects ready for drilling at its Mt Isa East Project.
All lying within 10 kilometres of each other, Cooper can run the gauntlet across its high-priority prospects in a single campaign, all showing strong anomalism in favourable lithologies and structural settings.
Queensland is moving to develop the region further and backing companies like Cooper to make discoveries in the famed copper district.
