04/07/2023

Financial Services & Markets Act 2023

This week saw Royal Assent for the Financial Services & Markets Act 2023. Ironically, it may be something that upsets both sides of Brexit / Remain. The former because it does not go far enough to undo Blob / EU destruction of the City of London, and the latter, because they have been blocking / delaying it, as it would have been one of the easy wins as far as being a Brexit dividend. That said, the momentum as far degrading the City, and all that is best in the country is so strong, one doubts if we are going to see a Big Bang type of effect off the back of this new piece of legislation. We really would have to be treated to a bonfire of regulation / red tape, and a complete change in the mindset of those who regulate. This is highly unlikely, especially as new edicts are coming on tap all the time to do with ESG, political correctness et al, that all cost money and time.

Winners Without News

One of the highlights of the past week was the way that there were number of shares that rose, despite having no RNS announcements. Orcadian (ORCA), Scotgold (SGZ), San Leon (SLE), Oneiro (ONE), Berkeley Energy (BKY), and Proteome Sciences (PRM). All of these stocks rose by between a quarter and a half, all the more impressive with new news and in current market conditions. What is also interesting that in most of these case investors are waiting on significant news, or this is overdue. The fact that they have managed to get away without having to put out “speeding ticket” RNS updates, also suggests that at least some of them are sitting on something of value.

Thor Explorations

There was also no news from Thor explorations this week. However, it should be the case that the shares do respond to being mentioned in the Midas column of the Mail On Sunday. Indeed, it was good to see Joanne Hart singing the praises of the company, where its CEO Segun Lawson, has toiled away for so long. Of course, the market has already been familiar with Thor’s prospects regarding the potential to produce 100,000 ounces or more of gold per annum. But it is surprising that the recent acquisition of a large lithium site in southwest Nigeria has not already caused a massive re-rate for the shares. Hopefully, the combination of Joanne’s write up (and this one) should remind the market of the way that Thor has added a significant new string to its bow.

First Class Metals

As mentioned in last week’s Week in Small Caps, there have been plenty of pre holiday season fund raising within this area of the stock market. A company that has done particularly well in terms of financing itself is First Class Metals. We saw this on June 26 with the announcement that the UK metals exploration company focused on its Canadian – northwest Ontario land holding, raised just under £1m at 10p. This time last year the company came to market raising 1.13 million at 10p to gain admission to the AIM market. Given the lay of the land over the intervening 12 months one has to say that FCM has certainly delivered the goods. It can now plough ahead with its ongoing campaign to prove up resources. The company said the primary focus is now on diamond drilling (up to 3,000m total planned) at the Sunbeam & North Hemlo Properties.

Golden Metal Resources

GMET has been particularly impressive since it came to market in May, after a £2m fundraise. This week was a busy one, with key RNS’s on consecutive days. It was a decent combo, in the sense that the first announcement referred to a letter of intent regarding an offtake letter of intent. The second news was regarding a non-dilutive funding strategy. The first news leads to the second, in the sense that funding tends to be built off the back of offtake agreements. I interviewed Oliver Friesen, CEO of GMET during the week.

Oliver Friesen, CEO Golden Metal Resources

ZaksTradersCafe Podcast / Kinesis

Finally, this week witnessed the first ZaksTradersCafe Weekly Podcast, of which one is of course very proud. The first guest was Mike Ingram, Senior Market Analyst at Kinesis. He very told us how he would solve our economic problems better than the Government and central banks. Kinesis, is the way to invest in gold and silver, and sponsors the ZaksTradersCafe Podcast.

ZaksTradersCafe Podcast: Mike Ingram, Senior Market Analyst, Kinesis