great post....! Yes there is no doubt these guys knew what they were getting into when they paid a premium at 9 cents. After Oaktree had Saloro dumped in their lap by Ormonde, they scoured the globe looking for a capable operations team to breathe life into Barruecopardo as it was suffering from recovery issues. After lengthy due diligence they chose Kevin and team and were clearly more than happy to put some pretty serious skin in the game. Then along comes Elmet, agents for the US Dept of Defence, and these guys have a different perspective on "due diligence - these guys will be looking for a supply line they can rely on, a supply line that will be SECURE into the future,
They will almost certainly have placed a heavy priority on both a capable operations team who can extract with minimal waste but also a team who have plenty of resource into the future - there is only one western company who fits that bill with 3 mines of very decent resource, two of which are currently (yes, currently) producing profitably. The inter governmental alliances that have developed over the last few years between Australia, USA, Vietnam, UK and Europe and so on will only serve to expand and facilitate the production and supply of those critical minerals for which those Govts seek to safeguard - this can only be seen as a major positive for EQR as these Govts position themselves to extend grant funding to those projects demonstrably capable of providing that supply. This granting funding will ensure that that supply can be delivered sooner rather than "organically later".
Very soon, the world will be in a massive rush to secure supply.
The acquisition strategy of having 2 tungsten mine clusters in Qld and Iberia hasnt fully played out yet but you can be certain there is some lobbying going on right now that will be going a long way to securing western supply as we advance towards the deadline of China supply sanctions by the USA in 2026
EQR Price at posting:
4.8¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
