Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech Lithium, explains why CTL acquired the 23 Laguna Verde licenses. Watch the video here.
One more thing, I also got chatting to one of EEE's market makers last night. He said there are 6 MM's involved in the stock but 2 or 3 of them (can't remember) seldom get involved. I said I'd like to be a fly on the wall at their place and he told me that everyone says that but that MM's don't operate as many people suspect. He says he's not privvy to anything that we don't know and he only knows what the order book tells him. He mentioned the perennial fear of getting caught in a short position when the price takes off. (presumably he can have his pants pulled down when the SP drops quickly too). A very interesting and down to earth fella.
I was fortunate to have met a few guys from Shard last night. This was at a presentation by Empire Metals (EEE) in the City.
I was hesitant to deviate too far from the subject of EEE but I did so anyway and we discussed ZIOC for a while. I told Shard that IMO ZIOC have been poor at investor relations for many years and that presentation evenings similar to EEE's would be very helpful and appreciated. Point taken I think.
We discussed the various spikes we've seen in the SP this year and before. We talked about recent events - pretty much everything that has been discussed here (less the more wacky stuff).
Before long we had a small audience of PI's listening in. I commented that the recent events with Glencore's ZIOC repositioning, the management fee haircut, electric power talks, slurry pipeline talks etc, etc point towards a news-rich couple of months and there must be something brewing. They did not disagree. Interestingly, the Shard guys I spoke to seemed to not be familiar with the Pointe Noire / AD Ports news release earlier this year. The Shard guys agreed that it is a news rich period but didn't give much away if they indeed know what may be coming. The Shard guys are aware of Saudi's interest in steel for their giga projects and we discussed the attractiveness of high grades to new low CO2 steel production processes. I suggested that the Saudis were strong candidates to take Zanaga. The best way I can describe their reaction is that nobody disagreed. The Shard guys remained throughly professional and I thank them for their time.
I do believe that ZIOC could do much better in terms of IR and Shard would appear to be a capable partner to facilitate this with event ssuch as last night's. Maybe it's too close to the end game now.
Sorry I don't have a major scoop here but I thought this was worth sharing and please bear in mind that this was not a ZIOC evening.
GLA
Manlord, irony noted :-)
How can I hold a notepad and pen whilst still drinking my glass of red?
(the wine and beer were free-flowing last night (thanks again Shard) - I'm surprised I can remember anything!)
Another couple of things from my chat with SB...
- I told him I saw the video released via Proactive this week. I told him these are useful but I prefer the style of interviews at Crux Investor. SB says he has a good relationship with Matthew at Crux and there will be a new Crux video next week. There will be another one with Proactive also. SB freely acknowledged that these are paid-for advertising pieces. I like to think of them as PR. It looks like these will be timed for the 1st diamond drill RNS.
I told SB that as a PI I have maxed-out my commitment to EEE and asked if he was in London to speak with institutions to take the SP to the next level. He said that II's are not interested in mkt caps under £50m. I asked about family offices and suggested that Matthew at Crux would be well-connected in this respect. I'm not sure but he may have been interested in this idea.
I asked SB if he would consider an ASX listing. He said that ASX is more onerous than AIM and it would take more time from his team who were busy enough on the ground. So no to a dual listing.
I told SB that other AIM-listed Aussie prospectors (Wishbone and Artemis) had received grants from WA state government to drill. I asked if EEE had pursued such an option. Watch this space! :-)
Overall, SB seems genuinely super-excited about Pitfield. The main challenge seems to be that it is so vast and geologically weird that he doesn't know what it is yet. It's challenging to fully monetise something of this nature if you don't know how to sell it yet. It seems that the (fully-funded) RC campaign which will target the eastern gravity anomaly, etc should be very revealing. The RC drill crew is mobilising now and the drills will start going in imminently (think this week or next)
I'll probably wrap it up there unless anyone has any specific questions.
...continued
-SB was asked if a maiden resource estimate could result from the scheduled drilling. He said that one of the requirements of JORC (etc) codes is to demonstrate commercial viability which includes processing of the mined material. (I hope I understand this correctly). The Ti at Pitfield is hosted in Sedimentary rock and is globally unique to date so the method and cost of processing is not known. For this reason a compliant reserve/resource statement would be challenging in the near future. Again, I hope I understand this correctly.
- SB discussed with me options for monetising the Pitfield asset. He left me in no doubt that he is a shrewd strategist and understands the art of negotiation.
- Greg Kuenzel was also present but I did not have an opportunity to chat with him.
- The Shard guys spoke to me of the doldrums that AIM is currently in and how this is a headwind for EEE. My personal view is that AIM is suffering because it is mostly made of garbage lifestyle companies.
- SB spoke of the high Ti grades at Pitfield, the soft sedimentary host rock and he this may lead to a lower cost of production versus competitors. Sand-hosted (lower grade) and hard rock (igneous) are typical elsewhere in the world.
- SB did talk about EEE's assets aside from Pitfield. He is upbeat but it is clear that Pitfield is the star of the EEE show. EEE will be spending some cash on other assets in order to keep the licences but this is not a significant expense.
-SB spoke of the other Pitfield licence holders. These guys are useful and helpful geologists who are on a free carry 30% as far as development. Thereafter these guys will have 3 choices.
- SB says that the wheat farmers at Pitfield also own the land. They are very cooperative.
- SB admits that he does not yet understand how Ti can be present in high concentrations to such depths at Pitfield. He seems to be expecting more surprises. He mentioned copper a few times. Silver also.
So, I need to go to bed. I'll add more as I think of it. Feel free to ask me questions.
Yes I was there tonight and it was very interesting indeed. Hats off to Shard for organising the event and I am honoured to have been there.
SB gave a truncated version of his full pitch (omitting company history, etc) and took questions from the audience. There was a lot covered and I managed to collar SB afterwards for about 30mins along with another investor.
- the 1st diamond drill assay will hopefully be RNS'd next week. Others will be RNS'd as they arrive.
- I asked SB if the 1st diamond drill was targeting the site of the 17% Cu samples previously reported. The answer was yes. He said that he was expecting more Ti from this hole and could not say if Cu would be present.
- SB had been surprised at how long the diamond drilling and testing processes had taken.
- SB said that the RC campaign can do 2 drills per day. They will stop over Christmas and resume in January.
-SB is excited by the gravity anomaly to the east of the the magnetics hot spots. I asked if he thinks that's where the copper is. His face lit up like a child but without committing in words.
- SB seems very positive about the prospects for this gravity anomaly and laments the absence of this data when the maiden RC and diamond drills were banged in.
- my belief is that the next RC campaign will be very interesting indeed.
- SB told me that although the portable XRF gear was excellent at detecting Ti, Cu and other minerals he would not use this data to RNS such findings. This is partly due to the XRF kit sampling a very small area of the core. He added that the cores were sampled in numerous locations and he did seem confident that all 3 diamond cores showed Ti mineralisation open at depth.
- I asked SB about how shocked he was to discover Ti rather than Cu. He said the assay lab tests for 30-something elements. These come back in alphabetical order with Cu on the 1st page. Nothing. He flipped over the page - nothing. Next page, nothing again until Ti appeared on the 4th page. Quite a relief and surprise at once.
To be continued
Agreed Manlord
An RNS should be in by Tuesday at the latest (pre-market probably) if SB is to have any substantive news to talk about with investors at Shard's do in the evening. Of course SB does not control the output of the lab but I'd say he wouldn't be making the trip if he thought the first diamond hole would be a duster. (he's seen the XRF results after all)
EEE seem to run a pretty tight ship in terms of leaks so I don't consider the current modest trading volumes to be meaningful.
EEE's full market cap potential will only be realised when the institutional investor herd joins the party. I believe we are being watched but these guys will need to see a lot more drill core evidence before they risk their reputations on this AIM-listed minnow. This is one of the few advantages of being a PI. I think a spike to 10p is possible this month but the big money will be waiting for the RC campaign before risking their cash and reputations. The RC campaign IMO could result in many multiples of the current SP especially if it results in a maiden JORC compliant statement.
The first diamond drill I believe was put into a fascinating spot and I cannot wait to see the results. GLA
I'm not normally bothered to attend this sort of thing but I'd be very interested in such an EEE gig. Please share details if anyone finds out more. It would be great to meet SB and fun to meet some of you guys also.
I spent a few minutes looking again at the October 2023 corporate presentation and in particular the location of the 3 diamond drill holes.
Hole 1 looks like it is targetting the site of the rock samples where they found 17.88% Cu and 125.46 g/t Ag. (see pages 14 & 15 of the presentation). Zinc and nickel has also been mentioned in the vicinity.
Hole 1 therefore could be most interesting to put it mildly.
https://wp-empire-metals-2018.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/2023/09/EmpireMetals_Powerpoint_Static_2023-10-26_Rev1.pdf
I'm a bit confused about the Oberon holding. From the 1st Nov RNS..
"following an acquisition of ordinary shares in the Company on 24 October 2023, Oberon Investments Limited (Discretionary Account), is now interested in 17,357,280 shares"
But looking at page 18 of Empire's corporate presentation dated October 2023 I read this...
Oberon Investments Limited 25,361,833
This suggests that Oberon's holding has reduced by 8 million and not increased.
What am I missing?
Link to corporate presentation (see page 18)
https://www.empiremetals.co.uk/
Big sells towards the close. More placement shares? Whatever, believe it's mere noise compared with the unfolding story here.
In around 32 hours SB will have done his pitch in Sydney. Next week I hope for the first diamond core assays. So 2 potential catalysts just in the next week or so.
GLA
It would be a pleasant surprise if the assays came in before SB's presentation on Wednesday night (GMT). More likely I think the first assays will be in next week but with a new class of investor looking out for them with fat fingers hovering over the buy button. GLA.
Bluke,
A long time ago (slightly before then actually) Darth Vader's Mk1 Death Star was fabricated from titanium. A clumsy oaf stormtrooper spilled a cup of tea into the navigation computer and the giant globe spinned out of control impacting into what we now know as Western Australia. Coward Vader abandoned his crew and managed to jettison before the impact. The rest is history.
(No dinosaurs were harmed in this movie)