Well, for me, that announcement was as good as pitch perfect, a...

Well, for me, that announcement was as good as pitch perfect, a jaffa of a delivery, an absolute fn pearler!

So what have we got?

• Well, we were off to a happy start: new zone, shallow, wide, high grade, hits - even adjusting for true widths a couple of the hits reported today from the central part of the James Bay region (Rose, James Bay, Whabouchi, Moblan) are closer in line with some of the hits from the northern part of the JB region (Adina, not quite Corvette yet but in the same league). Big crystals too (although again not as big as some found in the north at Cancet). Sayona want to take Moblan up to 100mt and Allkem might have reason to think similarly for its project.

• Also they were not messing around reporting on a few rock chips and a couple of shallow holes but reported on over 70% of a 130 hole 29km drilling campaign, covering infill, exploration and extensional drilling and still with 27% of assays yet to be received so the potential for even more good news for this campaign in the near future. A seriously substantial update as I guess you would expect from one of the lithium sector's heavy punchers.

• Updated MRE for James Bay due out mid-year including all assays from this campaign. Again not messing around on the edges, seriously substantial progress to be expected.

• More geo studies of the new North West zone to be completed over the northern summer.

• And to top it off, a happy ending in that Allkem has been stealthily increasing its land holding around its existing site. How good is that!?! Looks like they might have staked some claims next to Patriot Battery's small holding in the Cyr district (I think Galaxy must have changed the name of its project from Cyr to James Bay because adjacent projects are called Cyr South and Cyr-Kapiwak - Allkem should change it back). They've bought a small block to the west of their existing holding and much bigger block to the north. Wonder who owns the claims to the north west? Medaro and Lithium One, both tiddlers, have claims to the south. I totally support Allkem looking to expand its holding around what will be one of the few permitted lithium concentrators in Quebec.

This announcement is a major report, in my view, that will surely get the attention of the industry. After NAL, Rose and Whabouchi JB should be the next major lithium producer in Quebec and its potential scope and scale have just been materially increased. So what if the market is still in voting mode, not weighing mode. I am old enough to remember when Tubby Taylor kept blocking fellow opener Matty Hayden from test cricket even though MH was destroying the Sheffield Shield record books. In the end Stevie Waugh fixed that and Hayden never looked back. Allkem: the Matty Hayden of the lithium sector!