Holed up alone in a Subiaco office for days, Charles Armstrong was running against the clock trying to find one last piece for an exploration puzzle being put together for the ASX listing of Infini Resources (ASX: I88) in January.
Then a consultant for the ASX newcomer, Armstrong painstakingly scoured the internet, hour after long hour, until he settled on a remote plot of Portland Creek ground in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador that had “fallen through the cracks”.
And that very piece of land – which featured what he described as a “whopper of a soil anomaly” – has in the past fortnight been at the centre of a wild share price ride for Infini and its savvy early investors after the company’s stock jumped more than 520 per cent on the back of lab-busting uranium soil results going up to 74,997 parts per million (7.5 per cent). The company has described the findings as arguably the highest uranium soil grades in the world.
Armstrong – who had later taken the role as Infini chief executive officer and was on Wednesday rewarded for his work by being elevated to the managing director’s chair – says it is a little surreal now to think back to the hours when he had been tearing into his online task with a tenacity akin to that of a disgruntled keyboard warrior.
“I started looking through all the uranium anomalies through eastern Canada, where they were available, and Portland Creek was the only one that fell through the cracks,” Armstrong, a University of WA-schooled exploration geologist of nine years, told Bulls N’ Bears.
“I said to the boys, ‘I’m telling you right now, this is an amazing anomaly and there’s probably going to be something there’. When you’ve got such a large extent of regional anomalism, as a geologist, nine times out of 10 there is a reason for it … and I know that these things are not normally isolated.
“But it’s exceeded expectations and I’m just very grateful. We had flat-lined and looked dead on the bed, so to speak … and then, BOOM.
“These are quite rare occasions in exploration, but I’m stoked … and its only early days. Every bit of data we collect, it’s just getting better.”
In the world of investing, pundits often lament that “hindsight is a wonderful thing”. But for those clever enough to be able to read the tea leaves, the signs were always there that Infini thought plenty about its budding uranium project.
Portland Creek, one of eight projects on Infini’s books, has been a recurring theme for the company since its inception. Out of its 12 ASX announcements since listing, no less than half of them were devoted to Portland Creek.
It also took centre stage in Infini’s corporate presentation in March and featured prominently in four of the top six bullet points in its quarterly report that same month. It now seems clear that a spotlight has been shining on a project that has had just $35,000 spent on it and which has only a modest year-one exploration budget of $137,000.
But management has made it clear that once drill targets have been carefully constructed, it will dive in all guns blazing in a bid to unlock Portland Creek’s true value.
The project sits inshore from the west coast of Newfoundland and Labrador – a province with a reputation for not only being the iceberg capital of the world, but less salubriously, as the centre for rum-running from Europe during the United States’ prohibition period in the 1920s. In more recent times, Rio Tinto’s Carol Lake and Cliff Natural Resources’ Scully iron ore projects have dominated the local economy.
Late last year, the province released a critical metals plan to “help unlock the full potential and maximize the value of Newfoundland and Labrador’s critical mineral resources”. As well as spending money on updating the geoscience data base using AI, the local government has made funding available to junior exploration companies looking for critical metals.
With uranium one of 34 minerals listed as critical, it is not surprising, perhaps, that Infini found a friendly jurisdiction when applying for the three leases that make up the 108 square kilometres of the Portland Creek project area.
Evidence of historical work at the site had been minimal except for a single sample from a uranium anomaly in lake sediments during a 1976 program conducted by the Newfoundland Government that recorded a grade of 2180 parts per million. It was hardly the sort of data that would normally excite the average rock-kicker, but Armstrong was unphased and with modern exploration technology now available to the keen-eyed explorer, it shouted “opportunity”.
As an energy metal, uranium stands out for its remarkable energy density qualities and the minimal impact its cost has on overall expenses. In the realm of baseload power from nuclear energy production, uranium’s contribution to total input costs is less than five per cent – a stark contrast to other energy sources such as oil, coal, or gas.
That results in uranium demand being remarkably inelastic to price fluctuations. Even an eye-watering 300 per cent price surge from US$20 (AU$29.57) per pound in 2016 to today’s US$85 (AU$125.65) per pound, only nudges total input costs up by 16 per cent at a nuclear power plant.
The secret to the inelasticity lies in uranium’s extraordinary energy density. Imagine a uranium pellet the size of a gummy bear lolly – the tiny powerhouse contains as much energy as 454 litres of oil or a full tonne of thermal coal.
In terms of sheer power output, a single gigawatt from a nuclear plant equates to the energy produced by 431 wind turbines or a mind-boggling 3.1 million solar panels.
But despite stubborn resistance from some corners, including Australia, global leaders are increasingly recognising the crucial role nuclear power will play in the burgeoning green revolution. As they grapple with the urgent need to meet Paris Agreement emission targets and seek sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, nuclear energy is emerging as a vital clean-energy source for providing consistent baseload power to industries worldwide.
With the seasonal exploration period on the Canadian archipelago coming to a close shortly, and with the latest results already in the bag, Infini is urgently pushing forward with fieldwork including sampling radon anomalies and any other anomalous structures that are yet to be tested. The company believes follow-up unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) geophysics, structural interpretation and geochemical pathfinder studies will enable it to define the geometry of the mineralisation and its controlling structures.
Remarkably, Armstrong has not yet set foot on the ground he cleverly isolated through his online forensics, but plans to soon change that – a bit like having an urge to give his new baby a cuddle.
There are things I want to see … I’m an exploration geo and there are a few pieces of the puzzle I think I’ll be able to put together.
Infini Resources Managing Director Charles Armstrong
Interestingly, the land includes a now relinquished smallish area that had originally been pegged by a private “mum-and-dad outfit”.
It is a rare sight when a newcomer to the market, fresh from its listing, bursts to life with revelations of spectacular findings. Yet Infini has done just that, unveiling exceptional grades of up to 7.5 per cent uranium from its initial geochemical sampling.
It is little wonder management is still buzzing with excitement after turning a fortunate few investors into overnight millionaires.
With its saddlebags still full from the recent float, the tightly-held company that has just 61 million shares on issue will use the cash for the extensive work needed at Portland Creek and its seven other projects.
The Infini story already appears to be shaping up as a thriller. Yet, it is clearly Portland Creek that is generating the real excitement, with geological suggestions that the company might just be on the brink of an extraordinary discovery.
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