This from AFR would have sparked some interest! I won't copy the...

This from AFR would have sparked some interest! I won't copy the whole article here but couple intro pars as background then the main bit relevant to Iondrive (rest is behind a paywall).

https://www.copyright link/markets/equity-markets/little-known-critical-minerals-stocks-fuelling-terra-s-42pc-return-20250703-p5mcd1

Terra Capital fund celebrated its 15th anniversary in June with a 9.5 per cent gain for the month, sealing a whopping 42.7 per cent return for the 2025 financial year. It means Australia’s longest-running natural resources fund has returned 15 per cent each year since its inception in 2010.

“If a company has made it into the portfolio, it has done so because it has a high-quality management team, asset or catalyst, so even if the commodity price is flat or down, the value of the company should still increase over the next six to 12 months,” he said.

“Any companies that can provide Western-friendly alternative sources of these metals will be in high demand,” Langsford added.

Terra is bullish on ASX micro-cap Iondrive for the same reason.

The company’s deep eutectic solvent technology extracts critical metals – including nickel, cobalt, lithium, and manganese – from black mass, a mix of shredded cathodes and anodes from battery waste.

“Their method of extracting minerals from waste is more efficient than incumbents, which is a key problem with many recycling businesses,” he explains. “It’s all well and good to recycle, but only if you can do it in a cost-competitive manner.”

Shares in Iondrive have more than quadrupled over the past year to trade around 4.7¢.Terra’s success in the so-called “minerals for defence” thematic has coincided with a heavy exposure to precious metals. The fund’s biggest commodity exposure by far is gold, accounting for nearly a quarter of the entire portfolio.