"The Malibu Cup currently feels like it's a race to the bottom...

"The Malibu Cup currently feels like it's a race to the bottom LOL." Yes, indeed, malibu. We must continue to soldier on, notwithstanding...

Here's a few random observations from me and then some numbers. If you want to keep up with what is really happening in the world of upstream lithium and the James Bay region make sure to keep an eye out for the regular updates from malibu_tan who is a dedicated and generous JB guru (hence the naming of the Cup).

Loyal's gone backwards for the month but its MOU with Winsome is another indicator that this company might actually have serious intent and prospect of becoming a player in the sector.

Cygnus - what more can I say about Shady Dave and the Bellevue Crew. I am a long-time holder of Ramelius Resources of which Mr Southam is a non-exec director and I'm not sure that position is compatible with him and his mates carrying on at Cygnus like a bunch of Chinese tourists at a buffet sitting. It might have been forgivable if Dave was actually making an effort but looking at the continued state of neglect of the Cygnus website - at least the links to announcements now work - and his apparent disinterest in promoting the company it seems to me that he really could not give a toss.

A good example of what a bit of effort can do is how Burley Minerals share price seems to have got a kick in interest on the back of them participating in the New World Metals roadshow earlier this month in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. Obviously there's no performance rights in marketing Cygnus so old mate Dave was a no-show.

Rubix seems to have got a slight kick on the back of some mapping they did on the Ceiling project in Quebec. Early days though.

A couple of newbies this month: James Bay Minerals (JBY) has options on some blocks running along the northern east-west road, the Trans Taiga H'way, towards Cancet and Corvette which they call The Big project (or in French, La Grande Project) and a block in the central zone of James Bay quite close to Sayona's Moblan project. Sayona is currently putting 60km of drill holes into Moblan and say they intend to push hard in moving it towards an investment decision. Seems there is good nearology for JBY's Troilus block.

Another one that recently listed, Pioneer Lithium, has a couple of blocks in Ontario and a couple up in the same area as JBY's The Big Project which Pioneer has called .... The Big Project (I reckon the geos at both companies were given the job of naming the projects - yeah I know that's the name of the greenstone belt but anything else would surely have been better for naming individual properties). Also Riversgold is diversifying into the JB region with an option on Abigail which is between Whabouchi and Rose projects - not sure if this is likely to be anything more than moose pasture.

And, finally, I think, a European focussed operator, Metalstech, has picked up a block quite near to Winsome's Adina. Did not know that Winsome is a spin-off from Metalstech. Metalstech look not to be exploring for performance rights but, again, very early days (ten months ago Cygnus also presented itself as being fair dinkum and look where it has descended to).

With the decision of Winsome to hold back releasing its maiden MRE at its Adina project until next year (Jan/Feb) and Corvette moving into the valley of death stage of development there is not much exogenous sizzle in the northern zone of the James Bay region at the moment, and none of the northern contenders in the Malibu(_tan) Cup seem to be doing much to generate their own sizzle: so everything is meh.

I understand that the delays caused by the forest fires have taken the wind out of the sails of much of the exploration work in Quebec. But the fact is that at this point in time pretty much all the Cup contenders are running dead. I had assumed that maybe one in ten would be showing some vigour and promise but other than Iggy throwing a couple of potato peelers in with the steak knives and Burley doing a roadshow there is not much fight at all, it seems to me.

Interesting alternative move by a WA gold tiddler, Ozaurum (ASX:OZM), in having a crack at lithium in an area in Brazil worked over by artisan miners but for other minerals. The boss of Ozaurum is a geo and owns his own diamond drilling rig in WA and is heading back over to Brazil in the next couple of weeks to buy a dd rig and get right into kicking rocks and drilling stuff. Should know in the next couple of months if the blocks are a dud or not, so yeah, no sitting around with that one.

So here is the monthly (mostly red) update: