Download your free Thematic Insights report HERE.

The region’s governments are becoming increasingly aware of the need to shore up future supplies of a wide range of commodities and are working to attract more activity.

The region has been perhaps best recognised for lithium and the ‘Lithium Triangle’ spanning Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. However, with lower lithium pricing, the focus has shifted to include materials including gold, silver, copper, mineral sands, phosphate, uranium, and more.

Because many jurisdictions have been under-explored in Latin America, ASX-listed companies are finding projects of a quality that’s now very difficult to secure in Australia.

What’s also pleasing those companies working in the region is that operational costs, such as power and labour, are dramatically cheaper. They are finding that approval processes are moving faster.

In this webinar, you’ll hear about the risks and the potential rewards – with facts and figures for investors to consider.

We ask company leaders what attracted them to Latin American projects, we discuss the potential impacts of Donald Trump’s tariffs, and we look at their experiences in developing a variety of projects.

Our guests include experts and company leaders:

Join the discussion: See what’s trending right now on Australia’s largest stock forum and be part of the conversations that move the markets.

The material provided in this article is for information only and should not be treated as investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a certified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. For full disclaimer information, please click here.

Our webinar explores what it takes for ASX-listed companies to get new health care developments – whether that be drugs, apps or other technologies – through the complexities of Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Association approvals process.

The TGA sits under the Federal Department of Health, and regulates the safety, efficacy and quality of everything from sunscreens to vitamin supplements, prescription medicines and medical devices. America’s big brother to the TGA is the US Food and Drug Administration. Some companies target the FDA first – looking to tap into a bigger market from the start.

Our webinar guests are:

We also feature insights from Bioshares editor, Mark Pachacz.

Bioshares is an online investor resource delivering research notes specific to Health Care sector companies. Bioshares also has a Biotech Summit which will be held in Fremantle, July 12-13.

While the TGA did not respond to our invitations to join the webinar panel, you can also look at our special report on the topic – which can be downloaded free from The Market Online here. The report is titled: What it takes to get a new drug to market in Australia – Demystifying the clinical trials and approvals process.

The material provided in this article is for information only and should not be treated as investment advice. Viewers are encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a certified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. For full disclaimer information, please click here.

This time around, we’re looking at the ASX-listed pharmaceutical space.

Our readers wanted to know what it takes for a company to list a new drug in the Australian market – a complicated process.

To that end, this report looks at what companies must do under the Australian drug regulator to bring a new product to pharmacy or supermarket shelves.

Our domestic regulator is the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) – think of it as the lesser known cousin to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This report describes the TGA-regulated clinical trial process, ethics and legal considerations companies must satisfy, and other steps on the path to final approval.

Finally, this article looks at a number of companies in the space who are progressing medical technologies in Australia under the TGA regime.

What this report is designed to afford the reader an understanding of the ins-and-outs of the Australian pharmaceutical regulatory landscape.

Click here to read the latest Thematic Insights.

Hear from:

With the population rising, healthcare costs rising, and an aging population – our domestic healthcare sector has many potential tailwinds. 

Globally – since the winners and losers of the vaccine race were picked – healthcare’s on the backseat. That feels to be playing out in Australia, too, where lithium has been the centrepiece of the zeitgeist for years. 

But the healthcare sector could be worthy of more attention. 

Australia’s population is growing year on year as Indian migration picks up at the same time Australia’s established population continues to age out of the workforce.

Artificial Intelligence is sure to shake up the medical analytics world and the remote from-home medical market has proven to be something many consumers prefer. 

So how can investors exploit these trends for upside?

In this special report, we look at the trends, outlook, and 10 stocks to watch.

Download your free Thematic Insights report HERE.

It sparked a new wave of AI understanding and more deliberate usage, given we were already relying on machine learning through our conversations with Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa, facial recognition and fingerprint scanning technologies – to name just a few.

Also in 2023, US Walmart stores introduced robots to scan shelves for inventory, Ford introduced it to optimise factory systems and detect failures, and Air India became the first airline to introduce a robot virtual agent, Maharaja, to answer more than 6000 customer questions across four languages.

Pardon the pun, but AI is literally taking off…

Dr Tiongliang Liu from the University of Sydney is a machine learning specialist. He is also the Director of the Sydney Artificial Intelligence Centre. He agrees it’s been a big year for machine learning.

“There’s a new wave of AI, and especially the development of foundation models, they have very good performance,” he said.

“For many tasks, they have comparable performance with human beings – that’s why they are very influential and they can be used for many sectors to improve our lives. This is really an exciting moment.”

Just as humans draw on past learnings and experiences to solve problems, machines could use the accumulation of learnings, patterns of data and experience to do the same.

“The philosophy of AI is to analyse the data, find the patterns by using the machine learning algorithms that can be fast, very efficient and very accurate, so it can save a lot of human labour,” Dr Liu said.

Dr Liu said AI was being used in many sectors, including health, education, sustainable energy development and marketing.

But areas of machine learning that Dr Liu expects will improve by 2025 include weather forecasting and predictions, agricultural and environmental applications and the accuracy of medical imaging-led diagnosis.

“With AI technology we can detect which decisions are more reliable and which decisions may be incorrect and then we can invite more experts to investigate those not very reliable cases and help them to further improvement … this actually would be very helpful and could be used to save lives for very complicated cases,” he said.

Dr Liu said there were significant improvements in creating digital people, which were now looking very natural. That’s something ASX-listed company Unith (ASX:UNT) for example, has been developing.

Other ASX-listed plays are also building their strategies on machine learning, tapping into emerging technologies. Examples include Appen (ASX:APX) which provides AI training data and annotation services and Dubber Corporation (ASX:DUB) which offers AI-powered speech recognition and capturing technology.

Brainchip Holdings (ASX:BRN) claims to be developing spiking neutral processors for AI applications, Volpara Health Technologies (ASX:VHT) is using AI for screening for breast cancer and Telix Pharmaceuticals (ASX:TLX) is using AI to progress drug discovery and developments.

“Australia has a very good history of developing machine learning and AI, we have many very outstanding researchers who’re now, for example, overseas,” Dr Liu said.

“I know there’s a lot of discussions about how the Government, how many different sectors can be involved with developing AI.

“AI is very hot and now many researchers are working on this.”

AI’s developing quickly thanks to the experts committed to the cause, along with hardware improvements.

AI is a tool that could be developed and used for good and bad outcomes.

“This (AI) is a tool which could be used for something negative, we should be very careful about this,” he said.

He also warned that decisions made by AI were not always correct, even though there was a high probability of accuracy.

Other risks exist too, especially around privacy and discrimination.

“If we do more research and put more regulations, I believe those concerns can be very well addressed,” he said.

“AI can also greatly improve the quality of human life (…) combined with human jobs we can do better things in the future.”

COVID-19, inflation, and the war on Ukraine have all had lasting impacts on West African nations in particular, and in recent times, stressors have been high.

While ASX-listed companies continue to operate across the region, with varying levels of operational success, it cannot be ignored that nine coups have taken place in the last three years.

And yet, Australian companies remain – highlighting just how true the maxim about Africa remains: it depends where you are.

Africa’s population is expected to overtake both China and India’s by the end of the decade, and while poverty and corruption remain huge issues – as do roving Islamic radical groups – digitisation is spreading and most West African nations are slowly developing a middle-class.

The region is worthy of proper insight and analysis – which is what this report intends to provide.

Download your free Thematica Report ‘Working Out West: Why ASX-listed companies are breaking ground in West Africa’ HERE.

The first half of this year has seen a sharp correction, leaving many investors wondering if they’ve missed the boat. Is it too late to have a win with exposure to the light silvery-white metal? Or, are we about to see a third wave of success?

Lithium companies scooped every major prize at the Kalgoorlie Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum Awards this year. For the first time ever, there were more presenters for battery metals companies than for gold.

Only this week, at the Kwinana Major Project Conference, Tesla called on Australia to increase its refining capacity and cut red tape.

The tailwinds are strong, with Governments around the world providing incentives and support for aligned battery metals projects, because the one thing that’s certain is electrification is happening globally. At this point in time, when it comes to batteries, lithium is in the lead.

In this thematic investing report, we look at lithium now and why it’s still in the lead for the green energy transition. We explore threats to its success and look at ASX-listed companies taking on lithium-based opportunities throughout the world.

Access the report here.

Speaking to The Market Herald for the latest Thematica report, Still in the Lead: Lithium’s Place in the Green Energy Transition, he said there was a ‘solid higher trend for growth’.

“As people would be aware, lithium prices went very high last year and then they’ve come off maybe as much as 50 per cent or more,” he said.

“But the risks are these little hiccups along the way when you’re trying to grow an industry so fast. 

“So just be aware that you don’t want to be shaken out of a good company simply because the market is volatile.”

He said companies may have rallied because they’d completed early-stage project development. They may have mapped out the size of their resource, determined the metallurgy and ‘there may be a slow burn ahead’. 

“Pilbara Minerals (PLS), are already there in the sense that they’ve been producing for a while,” he said. 

“Obviously investors now would be missing that early stupendous uplift that we saw when they moved from being an explorer. But they still have significant production growth opportunities … they’re looking quite hard at doing further value add in Australia.”

Another example he mentioned was Liontown Resources (LTR) and the Kathleen Valley hard rock lithium deposit.

“Obviously that’s a really great resource and they’re making progress in bringing that into production,” he said.

“The stock’s price now, of course, is going sideways because we’ve seen such a big rally.” 

NYSE-listed Albemarle had attempted to acquire Liontown more than once, in April its offer valued the company at $5.5 billion.

“I think Liontown did the right thing in saying ‘no’,” Mr Jones said.

“We think there’s further upside in Liontown, but it might be a bit quiet until they’re producing.”

He said once a company was producing it was a matter of appraising future growth potential. 

Mr Jones tipped other key lithium players could include Wesfarmers (WES) with the Mt Holland lithium operation, but costs had blown out.

“That’s the thing I’ve warned about in Australia,” he said, “we are a bit of a high-cost environment.”

He said companies may look to companies including Thailand and Vietnam for downstream processing.

“For Australian companies to be effective and to do well in this space, they don’t necessarily have to have their plant in Australia,” he said.

“We’re starting to see some activities in places like Thailand and Vietnam and not only in lithium, also in rare earths and other areas.

“There may be some plants start up in Australia, which would be a good thing. I think the thing we need to be cautious of, though, is whether their cost structure will be really set right to be competitive.

“So if they’re doing that, they probably want to be competing more at the high end.”

As for smaller caps in Australia, he said that companies assaying for gold in greenstone country, including the Pilbara, could be sitting on valuable hard rock lithium resources.

Mr Jones mentioned Kairos Minerals (KAI), Kalamazoo Resources (KZR) as well as TSE-listed Novo Resources, which is preparing to list on the ASX next month. All three have gold and lithium projects in the region.

Disclaimer

This article contains information and educational content provided by Jevons Global Pty Ltd, a Corporate Authorised Representative (AR1250727) of BR Securities Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 92 168 734 530) which holds an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL 456663). The Market Herald does not operate under a financial services licence and relies on the exemption available under section 911A(2)(eb) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) in respect of any advice given.

The information is intended to be general in nature and is not personal financial advice. It does not take into account your personal financial situation or objectives and you should consider consulting a qualified financial professional before making any investment decision. All brands and trademarks included in this report remain the property of their owners.

AI has been integrated into the day-to-day operations of many sectors. Legal, healthcare, education, banking, and journalism are already finding it useful.

The main question that unites everyone at the moment is whether some sectors will start replacing human knowledge and traditional resources with AI.

The Market Herald’s Fouad Haidar spoke with business growth expert Jeff Pedowitz, who has just released a book titled ‘AI Revenue Architect’, and international tech expert and Unith (UNT) CEO, Idan Schmorak.

They delve into this fascinating human invention: What it means for companies and future operations, both locally and globally, and most importantly, what it means for investors.

With offices in Melbourne and Jakarta, the diversified oil and gas production company holds a suite of strong-performing projects in Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand.

During the last quarter, the company secured $13 million in revenue with a healthy $3.6 million in net cash flow. Ending the period with $18.4 million in cash, Cue has the balance sheet for long-term growth potential with secure funding and strong support from major shareholders.

In Australia, Cue supplies gas to the domestic market via its Mereenie, Palm Valley, and Dingo Fields projects in the Northern Territory. Strong gas prices and a new production well, PV-12, drilled in the Palm Valley field are providing increased revenue generation.

Current production from the fields stands at around 45 terajoules per day (Tj/d) with long field lives underpinning a positive outlook.

The joint ventures in these fields are focused on increasing gas production and market supply with new well results expected from the Mereenie field during 2023.

In Indonesia, Cue holds an interest in two onshore and offshore oil and gas production projects, Mahato and Sampang.

Cue holds a 12.5 per cent stake in the low-cost onshore oil production at Mahato in Indonesia, with current production at approximately 6300 barrels of oil per day from 15 wells and increasing with ongoing development drilling.

As part of this ongoing development drilling, the company recently announced its PB-20 production well produced up to 800 barrels of oil per day (bopd), pushing current field productions up 33 per cent higher than levels at the start of FY2023.

“PB-20’s successful completion and the increase in field production demonstrate the ongoing success of the development drilling campaign and the tremendous potential of the Mahato PSC,” Cue Energy Resources CEO Matthew Boyall said.

At Sampang, offshore gas production powers the East Java province via its two gas fields, Oyong and Wortel. The project reduces reliance on coal, supporting the nation’s growing energy demand, and East Java’s industrial and economic development.

Moving forward, the company anticipates additional new gas production in 2025 at Sampang, with government approvals expected in the September quarter at the Paus Biru gas field. Cue is expecting first production at 20 million to 25 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, the company produces oil at more than 5000 bopd from seven wells in the Maari field.

Cue recently reported solid results at its Maari oilfield, with $3.2 million in cash receipts in Q3 FY23. The oil from Maari attracted a high premium compared to the Brent benchmark price, with one cargo holding 24,100 barrels sold by Cue at an average price of $127.2 per barrel.

“Post the strong production and cash flow results reported in FY22, we are delighted with the start Cue has made to FY23 and look forward to our extensive development and exploration pipeline sustaining this performance over the remainder of the year,” Mr Boyall said.

Backed by major strategic shareholders NZOG/Ofer Global and SPC/PetroChina, Cue is focused on maximising production from its existing asset base, while also investing in a pipeline of future attractive growth opportunities. With strong cash flow generation and balance sheet, Cue is readied to make the most of its development, exploration and new venture opportunities. A strong and busy start to 2023 looks set to continue.

Australia and the entire Western world is completely reliant on China for the permanent magnets that drive wind turbines, electric vehicle motors and are important in defence, aerospace and other applications. 

Governments are becoming increasingly concerned about this supply chain vulnerability, given REE magnets will be key to achieving looming clean energy targets.

There are Australian companies working to build mineable and viable REE resources, with a handful moving into early production stages. 

The Federal Government is joining allies in working to fast-track the industry through the introduction of a Critical Minerals Strategy later this year.

So it’s hard to imagine there could be a better time for investors to learn about exposure to Rare Earth Elements – a market expected to be worth AUD$23 billion by 2030.

Download your free Thematica Report ‘From Mine to Magnet: An Investor’s Roadmap to Rare Earth Elements’ HERE.

What’s most unique about gold is that it can also perform well in buoyant times when consumers are confident and spending, thanks to the jewellery and technology sectors. 

However, while gold has been a store of wealth since ancient times, it is a finite resource and traditional goldfields are depleting. Large gold players are keen to shore up their future supplies.

So how can investors gain exposure to gold and what opportunities can reap the greatest rewards?

This deep-dive report offers expert insights and reveals ASX-listed gold companies that are well-placed to meet future global demand.

Download your free Thematica report HERE.

Consumer demand in Australia last year grew 8 per cent to 30.9 tonnes of gold, but that quantity is just a drop in the ocean when you consider global demand rose 18 per cent to 4741 tonnes — its highest annual total since 2011. And that was before global banks began to teeter.

World Gold Council Regional CEO for Asia Pacific Andrew Naylor said demand was propelled by central bank-buying — which more than doubled to 1136 tonnes last year — complemented by strong retail investment.

“Central bank demand was at a 55-year high, and that did take gold demand to its highest in 10 years,” Mr Naylor said.

“The big driver of that really is concern about inflation.

“Gold can be an effective inflation hedge. It’s not the only inflation hedge out there, but for many, it seems to be the most effective inflation hedge.

“At the moment there is certainly renewed investment interest in gold, but we see it as a strategic asset. 

“The main reason gold is seen as a safe haven and is a risk mitigator is gold’s diverse sources of demand. You’ve got central bank demand, you’ve got jewellery demand, tech demand, bar and coin demand, and each of those sectors of demand reacts to different economic scenarios.

“If you look at gold’s performance over time (and of course there’s volatility and it can go down one year, be up the next), it has been a source of returns and has outperformed many other asset classes.”

Mr Naylor said gold’s liquidity was important to investors, and more than US$145 billion dollars of gold was traded every day.

Aside from gold bars, coins and gold-backed ETFs, gold is sought after by the jewellery industry, for technology and industrial applications, gold leafing and gilding, medical devices and in dentistry.

To learn more about gold and investment exposure, download The Market Herald Thematica, Shining in the Dark: Why Gold holds its Ground HERE.

The Mint is a major supplier of gold globally, refining more than 250 tonnes of gold a year.

It also stores gold, silver and platinum worth $6 billion for more than 70,000 clients around the world.

Perth Mint General Manager of Commercial Development Cameron Alexander said most gold refined was exported to the major markets of India and China.

“The market is still quite bullish for the gold price; we see that through our interactions with the banking world — they are still looking to supply China over the longer term. 

“Our orders over the next 12 months look very solid.” 

The Perth Mint has this year come under scrutiny amid allegations that gold sold to China was substandard.

“I’d like to assure investors if they buy a Perth Mint product that’s stated as four nines gold, it will be 99.9 per cent pure at a minimum,” Mr Alexander said.

“We always adhere to this specification at a minimum, and when we’re talking about China, every delivery that’s gone to China — a very important client of ours — has been a minimum of 99.99 per cent pure for all deliveries.”

The Perth Mint reported that the gold supply chain in Australia was “healthy”.

“There are not many big projects coming online in the short term, but we’re seeing a lot of smaller operations coming back on stream — a lot of projects that perhaps weren’t financially viable five or six years ago, when the gold price was lower. Now that’s changed,” Mr Alexander said.

For more about gold supply in Australia and options for investment exposure, download your free The Market Herald Thematica report HERE.

The country, which is rich in materials, agricultural land and human resources, is offering incentives and tax concessions on a first-in, best-served basis.

But the opportunities for investment extend well beyond Ukraine’s borders. The devastating destruction and trade sanctions imposed on the aggressor and its allies, have resulted in global supply chain issues and inflation.

So where do the opportunities lie and which ASX sectors and companies will be well placed to play a part? What’s likely to happen post-war?

For insights, download your free The Market Herald Thematica Insights Report here.  

In an interview with The Market Herald Thematica, Australian National University, Centre for European Studies, Research Fellow Dr Sonia Mycak said the invasion fulfilled Putin’s imperialistic ambitions to ‘re-establish a Russian Empire’.

“Ukraine is excellent real estate,” Dr Mycak said.

“It has extremely fertile agricultural land with black soil – nearly a quarter of the world’s most fertile soil is in Ukraine.

“Ukraine is rich in metal and mineral deposits, including coal, iron ore, natural gas, manganese, salt, oil, graphite, sulfur, kaolin, titanium, nickel, magnesium and mercury.

“The east of Ukraine is a steel and iron industrial centre. Ukraine has highly developed heavy industries (aviation and ship building) and a highly advanced technology sector.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is an attempt to seize and take control of very valuable territory.”

More than 1000 companies have pulled out of Russia in protest, including BP, Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Shell, Starbucks, Prada, Chanel and Unilever.

But despite this, and mounting sanctions, there’s no end in sight for the conflict.

But Ukrainians are incredibly resilient. Farmland is already being de-mined, buildings are already being repaired, and they’re talking investment and business opportunities.

There’s a country to be rebuilt and supply chains with missing links that need to be replaced.

For your free copy of The Market Herald’s latest Thematica report, Turning around troubled times, click here.

Yet Ukraine is calling out with a different message, urging companies and investors to act now.

In an interview with The Market Herald Thematica, UkraineInvest CEO Sergio Tsivkach said despite the ongoing conflict, Ukraine is open and ready to talk business, and investment in his country would help Ukraine into the future.

“It’s an honourable thing to do business in Ukraine because we are not only fighting for ourselves, but for democracy,” Mr Tsivkach said from Kyiv.

“Start planning your investment right now, it will take between 12 to maybe 18 months to plan your investment properly, to start implementing your project on the ground in Ukraine.

“UkraineInvest – as the Government of Ukraine’s investment promotion agency – is your reliable partner in this area, so please get in touch with us and we’ll tell you what kind of incentives are currently being provided by the Government of Ukraine – and there are a few.”

There are opportunities on offer in war-torn Ukraine, a country that needs expertise and materials to recover.

There are also global supply chain gaps caused by the conflict and related sanctions that need to be filled.

Russia’s attack has created the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. Millions are displaced, cities and towns are destroyed, with critical infrastructure, utilities and agricultural assets.

In the latest Thematica investor report, “Turning Around Troubled Times: the $1 trillion investment opportunity,” The Market Herald looks at how Ukraine generally punches above its weight in terms of feeding the world, mining, providing energy, manufacturing, and technology. It also looks at what materials, commodities and expertise are required for Ukraine’s recovery and what global supply gaps need to be filled over the short and longer terms.

Download your free copy of the report here.

Every new year brings a certain amount of anticipation with it, but at Arcadia Minerals (AM7) the excitement is building even more frenetically than usual.

Things are beginning to move very quickly on the Arcadia-owned tantalum and lithium prospect in Namibia, known as the Swanson tantalite project. The company owns the project through local Namibian-registered company Orange River Pegmatite (ORP).

The source of the enthusiasm is an agreement in the making with a Chinese construction company located in Namibia. But before we get into the detail on this, let’s explore the context of the deal.

China – land of the voracious appetite.

Everything about China is big. It has the world’s largest population and the world’s largest economy (according to the IMF). So when the Chinese take an interest in something, that something has the potential to go huge – especially when it involves manufacturing and consumption.

Right now, China is intensely focused on the field of environment, social and governance (ESG) as it strives to change its status as the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter. To help achieve that, the country has embarked on an ambitious plan to realise net zero emissions by 2060 – and according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), China could bring its peak CO2 emissions forward from a planned 2030 to as early as 2026.

The role of lithium.

One of the key elements of China’s emissions reductions strategies is to achieve a decline in demand for oil for transport, which accounts for up to 17 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

That means more electric vehicles (EV) on the road, and that’s where China is absolutely leading the world. The country recorded an estimated EV sales volume of 3.82 million vehicles in China alone for 2022 and is investing billions in rolling out charging stations.

With over 450 registered EV manufacturers in China and a booming export market estimated to provide 15 percent of the world EV market by 2025, it’s a seismic change for China and the world.

Given your average Tesla has about 5 kilograms of lithium in its batteries, that’s an awful lot of demand for the metal coming down the pipe if, as predicted, this trend continues.

The extraordinary growth in demand over the last several years is reflected in the fact that the price of lithium jumped from under USD$10,000 per tonne (A$14,295) in late 2020, pushed through $USD40,000 in January 2022, and now sits above USD$70,000. The price of spodumene, a lithium source mineral, has experienced similar leaps over the last eighteen months.

Chinese companies getting in on the action.

No wonder the humming lithium market is attracting plenty of interest and activity from major Chinese players. One of the biggest stories to emerge this year has been the joint venture between China’s Tianqi and Australia’s IGO to buy Aussie lithium developer Essential Metals for a cool AUD$136 million.

Similar stories have been played out from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Argentina over the last couple of years, as Chinese companies reach out to the limited number of high volume lithium producers around the world to secure supplies.

Now – back to Arcadia.

Against this galvanising background, Arcadia’s announcement of a letter of intent to complete a deal with Chinese multinational group HeBei Xinjian Construction CC has the company and a great many investors abuzz.

Once completed, hopefully in the first quarter of this year, the deal will combine HeBei funding of both a tantalum and a lithium processing facility, and an ever-green take-off of both metals from the Swanson deposit.

HeBei is keen.

It’s interesting to note that Hebei recently acquired the nearby Homestead mine from AIM listed Kazera Global, gaining a foothold in the area Kazera shares with the Swanson Project. The deal included USD$13 million (A$18.5 million) payment and ongoing sales share, indicating the value with which the Chinese corporation views the purchase.

The mineral resource at Kazera amounts to some 668,000 tonnes in total, while the JORC declaration of the Swanson mineral resource is more than five times as big, at around 3.6 million tonnes. Unlike Kazera’s property, which has been explored exhaustively, Arcadia owns large tracts of unexplored prospective land in region, adding additional value to the Swanson project.

 A swift negotiation.

The speed of the negotiation and the obvious enthusiasm of both partners to get the transaction finalised as early as possible this year indicate the strong potential for the Swanson Project to become what Executive Chairman of Arcadia Jurie Wessels calls an “early cash generator.” 

Mr Wessels also said that “Our next steps are to engage with HeBei and other suitors through negotiation to possibly conclude a transaction as early as is reasonably possible.”

On Tuesday 10 January, Arcadia (ASX: AM7) shares were trading at $0.24, up from the previous day’s $0.19 – so it’s entirely possible that the excitement immersing the company is spreading.

Most recently, in November 2022, Putejurra woman Kate George accepted the position of Non-Executive Chair for gold miner Ten Sixty Four.

But back in 2017, Katina Law made history when she became the first Aboriginal woman to Chair an ASX listed company when she led the IPO of Ardea Resources.

Fast forward to the present day, and Katina is a powerhouse: she runs an Aboriginal-lead corporate consulting firm, IPS Management Consultants; she sits on the boards of multiple companies, including not-for-profits such as the Beananging Kwuurt Institute; and she has started a number of businesses with a strong focus on supporting Aboriginal people.

A humble woman, Katina makes you feel like you’re speaking to your mum’s best friend, despite the fact she’s a seriously impressive business leader.

One of the first things she mentioned at the beginning of our interview:

“I don’t really do a lot of publicity.”

Katina grew up in Derby, Western Australia — a country town in the Kimberley, North of Broome, that was the main regional centre when Katina was growing up.

“My mother was a teacher, and she was very focused on education,” Katina told me.

She recounted trips to Perth during school holidays where her mother would take Katina and her brother to visit the University of Western Australia.

“I must have been, like, eight or nine, and my brother was a bit younger, and she took us to UWA and she said, ‘This is where you’re gonna come to university.'”

Less than a decade later, Katina went on to study commerce at UWA and became an accountant.

Growing up, Katina didn’t know who her Aboriginal family were. She knew she was Aboriginal, but she said “it just wasn’t something that you talked about.”

“It wasn’t until I was about 20 that I went back and met my relatives … I knew them, and I didn’t even know they were my relatives, and they lived in the community down the road.

“It was lovely, they were very welcoming and friendly.”

After completing her commerce degree, Katina was accepted into a graduate program with Argyle diamonds.

She was based on-site at the mine, then upon completing the program, became a site accountant for around four years.

When everyone was moved from the mine site to Perth, Katina took a redundancy before accepting a job with BHP Iron Ore for a year.

It was during this time Katina applied for a job as a consultant in Indonesia.

“I always had a strong sense of adventure, and I always wanted to live and work overseas,” she said.

“So I applied and got the job and went to Indonesia, and my very first day there, they sent me to the island of Kalimantan, Borneo.”

Katina worked at a number of mines across Indonesia before getting a job with Newmont, which was in the process of building the Batu Hijau copper-gold mine — one of the largest construction projects in the world at the time.

Katina lived on the island of Lombok for around two and a half years with her husband before moving to London, where she completed her MBA at the London Business School.

In the middle of her MBA, Katina did an internship in Hong Kong and had a baby as well: her firstborn son, Joshua.

The family then moved to Denver, Colorado, where Katina got a job with Newmont, putting together all the financial plans for around 40 mines.

A number of years later, she moved back to Australia, where she got a job with LionOre as a business developer and consultant.

She then took the step into working for herself for around 10 years, before accepting the role of CEO of East Africa Resources in 2012.

During that time, Katina and her business partner founded former ASX-listed Ampella mining, which, according to Katina, “went on to do very very well” as one of the first mining companies in Burkina Faso.

In 2015, East Africa Resources went through a takeover, and Katina decided to diversify what she was doing.

This was when she started IPS Management Consultants — a majority Indigenous-owned management consultant company that services government, tier-one corporates, and small businesses, with a particular passion for Indigenous engagement and supporting Indigenous businesses.

A large part of IPS involves Aboriginal business mentoring, which is also something Katina has done on a personal level.

“It’s being available to people who you know might be interested in going into business, just having a conversation to either encourage them or discourage them, because this isn’t for everyone,” she explained

“It’s great to see how many opportunities there are now for Aboriginal people in business and how that’s really grown as a sector.

“Loads of larger corporations have Aboriginal purchasing policies and create opportunities in their supply chains for Indigenous businesses.”

In November 2022, IPS became a finalist in the Telstra Best of Business awards, with results to be announced in February.

At the same time as starting IPS, Katina also founded Dutjahn Sandalwood Oils — a business that manufactures Australian Sandalwood Oil at a factory in Kalgoorlie. 

DSO supports Indigenous people to sustainably harvest wildwood from native title lands and is the only Australian entity to have received the United Nation’s Equator Prize

She also joined the boards of Ardea Resources (ARL) and Headspace, and in recent years has joined the boards of other not-for-profits, such as stepping in as Chair of the Beananging Kwuurt Institute and Director of the K Farmer Dutjahn Foundation.

Katina managed to crack into the corporate leadership world, and she wants others in minority groups to know it’s possible.

“It can be done, it has been done,” she said.

“Hopefully there will be other people that come behind … It might seem really difficult, but it can be done.”

Katina believes big-cap companies — the likes of BHP and Rio Tinto — are taking the right approach to meet diversity targets, specifically related to gender.

However, she believes it’s the small to mid-cap companies who are still struggling to shake up the gender, ethnicity and background of their boards, and that’s what’s holding many of them back.

“Just be open to the possibility of having a woman, be willing to give someone who maybe doesn’t have board experience but does have a strong background in mining or whatever you’re looking for … an opportunity, and just be open about having some diversity at the table. You will have a better conversation around your board table.”

Katina feels humbled to have made history.

“I guess it’s a privilege and an honour, and I guess it’s interesting now that … the world is changing and Australia is changing.”

She’s thrilled to see other Indigenous women now stepping in to lead ASX-listed corporates in Australia.

“It’s great! We should start a little committee.”