Firstly - Nice to see my FIRST milestone of 22 & 22.5 getting hit and ' holding ' in the 2 days time-frames previously mentioned.
And nice work on your research not as well. Keep it up. Good to see those who would prefer to research than spend their time blowing smoke , venting , and pointing fingers at others.
On that note , apart from enjoying a day at Brighton Beach yesterday and now off to Gunnamatta ....... to say the recent ' Public ' article in La Presse is interesting would be quite the understatement.
Because what sort of private journalism institution has its article endorsed by virtually the highest recognized Geological personality in Quebec - One which visited the NAL operation in October 2022.
I'm speaking of course of Michel Jébrak. I mean when you look into this Guy's credentials......Couple of Doctorates in Science as well as Geology , Professor at University of Quebec's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Geology , Dean of Science at University of Quebec , contributor to the founding of the Order of Geologist of Quebec and founding member of the Quebec branch of Geological Association of CANADA.
And that just to summarize his many achievements and accreditations.
So what's a Guy of this calibre hitching his interests and endorsements to Sayona and NAL which began back in October 2022 ( ? ).
And this isn't the only common link that is happening here either.
But we'll begin with what exactly started in October 2022.
And I'll tell you what that exactly was. It was the Sayona ASX announcement on 5th October which was not just the almost exact 12 months anniversary of the Moblan acquisition , but the day Sayona announced :-
MOBLAN PFS TARGETS QUÉBEC LITHIUM EXPANSION
Now you all might say well what's all this got to do with anything ( ? ) .
We'll , apart from the fact that it was ONLY 5 weeks and a couple of days that they announced BOTH the Jourdan acquisition and JV as well as the Troilus claims acquisition - Some of the answers and linkages to that question can be found in a single paragraph in that 5th October announcement as follows :-
"Based in Val d’Or, InnovExplo is a leader in mineral resource and reserve estimation, mining engineering, economic studies and mining optimisation. The company will be assisted in its work by the firms SNC‐Lavalin, Primero and Journeaux Assoc. InnovExplo will work closely with Sayona’s Québec team, with work expected to begin in the next few days. "
Now we all know it's common knowledge in the lithium Industry of just how prestigious the Engineering firm Primero's is.
So whether it's their involvement with Sayona and its original NAL ' world class ' BID team , or its involvement with Sigma , the former Altura , and even where they had over 65 sets of employee boots on the ground working on Tianqi lithium Hydroxide conversion facility .the Mt Holland Lithium project and its .... They were also had a team at the SQM / Wesfarmers covalent lithium JV present at the Mt Hollan lithium project around 2 months ago as well. So we all know and are aware of what they do.
However it's the FIRST time we had heard some of the other names which popped up in this announcement ine early October.
Now you can say what you like about the many certain surrounding Controversy and scandals involving political kickbacks and contract failures , SNC - Lavalin is an engineering and design outfit involved in some of the BIGGEST projects in Canada , including but not limited to those cutting across Public Hospitals , Stadium's , Infrastructure roads , airports and bridges to MASSIVE power projects involving the Oil & Gas , Hydro , Power Stations , and carbon capture components.
There was a time they were even involved in Nuclear when they bought the commercial reactor division off of Atomic Energy of Canada and was even involved in creating and marketing of the Canadian namesake and prized CANDU reactors by creating CANDU energy.
More specifically in so far as relating to Sayona's project activities at Moblan , they ( Lavalin ) were involved in the feasibility studies for the Lac Dore Vanadium project being the largest of its kind in North America at the time in 2002 / 2003. More recently in 2018 they partnered with ABB .... on various electrical substation projects through the creation of a JV company Linxon which was to specialise in transport , utilities , and ' electrical generation and transmission .
So a couple of interesting and common themes here is a.) Lavalin's largest shareholder is the much spoken about Caisse de depot et placement du Quebecwith its just under 20% as of Jan 3rd 2023........and b.) that when Lavalin had been on the verge of speculations of takeover on account on account of its fledgling share price under the weight of repeated scandals and public controversies , the current Quebec Premier in 2019 said this :-
Quebec Premier Francois Legault said that " SNC-Lavalin was one of ten publicly-traded companies headquartered in Quebec that the province considers to be "strategic" and therefore in need of protection from a takeover that would force the company to leave the province "
So then we move onto the next ' commonality ' and connection which you can then begin to see how it ALL threads through and back to this guy Dr. Michel Jébrak.
So it should be no surprise then that the other new entity mentioned being InnvoExplo was in fact charged with putting together the extensive geological compilation report for Beaufied Explorations in March 2017 for their NorthEastern Tortigny - Troilus claims which ends up being ONLY 5 months before O3 Mining , a subsidiary of Osisko Mining makes an ALL script takeover of Beaufield in Aug 2018.
So it would seem that InnovExplo had ALREADY gone a long way to compiling most ALL of the geological information pertaining to this vast under explored Frotet-Evans Greenstone Belt area of Quebec and its no wonder that Sayona has now commissioned them to assist in this further Geological understanding.
But on whose advice ? Most likely the good Doctor Michel Jébrak I would say. The gentleman who was magically attended the NAL site in October 2022.
And it's interesting that of most of his ( Jebrak's ) 41 Linkedin companies he follows and which obviously are represented more by academic ' institutions ' than companies - out of these 41 followings , only 6 are actually mining companies with Sayona being one of them. Now it seems a bit odd right that someone of his distinguishing high regards in the field of Geology and mining that one of his only mining company followings is Sayona.
Not to mention the common link from most of the supporting technical staff at InnovExplo right down to the likes of Daniel Turgeon with his mining lineage tenures through the likes of amex explorations , eastmain resources and the giant malartic mine. There is also Denis Gourde with his background from Agnico - Eagle Mines. You also have the support of Louise Charbonneau assisting in the tech / CAD documentation of ALL the collated geological results. Now is this the same Louise Charbonneau ( ? ) who is also charged with Global Mobility at IamGold , Director of Mobility at Bombardier ( which incidentally is part owned by Airbus and Investment Quebec ) with I.Q's over US$1.3 billion invested in Airbus's A220 program since 2016 was written down and value at NIL as at March 31st 2021.
Of course Airbus had agreed to buy Quebec's share back by 2026 , but has now been bumped out to 2030 with Quebec just wanting to hang onto the approximate 2,500 jobs which would have been at stake had the program just collapsed. So while I digress , it is interesting to what lengths Quebec will go to retain and promote jobs , technology , and clean energy , and like every Government will continue to have to reassess what industries are more likely to pay its constituents its dividends and returns from its investments. So this Louise Charbonneau ( if that's who she is as well ) is ALSO the mobility director at RIO as well as CAE which is the the full service Canadian defense company ' Canadian Aviation Electronics ' .
Interesting as well this not so subtle connection to ' Mobility ' and defense with BODs of companies - as can be seen with Piedmonts recent ' Ivy league ' appointment (s) , and particularly that of Ms Alvord who " Before joining Vulcan, Ms. Alvord held variousexecutive management positions at GE Aviation, including serving as President of GEAviation-Unison Industries and GE Aviation-Middle River Aircraft Systems.
So lots of Rare Earth byproducts metals like Scandium etc... required here. And hence why all the Doctorates of Geology and Critical Mineral Centres like that of RIO's are all over it.
But the main takeaways from this background research are these points :-
1. How such a HIGH profile Quebec Professor , Geologist and revered Institutional science expert is a.) visiting the NAL operations and b.) he visits in such a timely way that virtually a month later , its ALL on with Jordan followed by Troilus.
2. How his visit to the NAL operation in October just so coincides with the Moblan PFS announcement on 5th October and how this timely visit translates to TWO acquisition ventures of Jourdan & Troilus just over 1 month later.
3. The connections to partnering Organisations strongly affiliated with both Troilus as well as the CDPQ - and from this obviously signally the significant ' vested ' interest Quebec has in this particular Moblan project.
Interesting also that this ' Public ' article can quote actual figures of Sayona having projects ' identified ' worth $2.7 billion ....and that Quebec will be the ' Partner of Choice '. Well we can ALL see that happening right before our eyes with BOTH the calibre of Individuals as well as the calibre of Quebec home grown businesses getting involved in support for Sayona. Like the Val d'Or based InnovExplo or the major holding partner of the CDPQ's high profile engineering company SNC- Lavalin ......as well as the CDPQ support of Troilus ......not to mention one of the highest respected founding members of the order of Quebec Geologists and Doctorate Scientist Michael Jebrak visiting our NAL site in October 2022.
Have a great weekend all and will very much look forward to Monday's market opening.........
(20min delay)