Re-Charged Jervois Starts Its Engine With One Eye On The Battery Space

By Barry Fitzgerald | More Articles by Barry Fitzgerald

Jervois (ASX:JRV) has been knocking around the junior end of the mining market since before most of us were born.

And it was involved in some grand old tales over the decades that would make great reading in a book one day. But the truth is the stock has not been worth knowing about for the past 20 years or so.

But all that has changed with a new board and management team wresting control of Jervois last year from long-time gate-keeper and octogenarian Duncan Pursell.

Pursell’s reign lasted 28 year years which has got to be some sort of record in both the junior and senior ends of the market.

But he was seen off in fairly acrimonious style and it has got to be said that there has been no looking back by Jervois shareholders.

The market is waking up to the fact that the cleaned-up and fixed-up Jervois is one asset-rich outfit. And more to the point, it is now in the control of a bunch of guys with individual 40-year experience in how juniors should go about maximising their value and share price.

All that has been reflected in the wriggle-on in Jervois’ share price of late. It has motored on from 5c a share in the opening months of the year to 9.6c, valuing the ordinary shares at $14 million.

Where the share price is going to pull up is anyone’s guess but what can be said is that a quick assessment of the asset base quickly arrives at a 20c a share valuation, plus the sort of upside that the weighting of Jervois’ assets to the battery materials sector might be expected to deliver over time.

Little wonder then that the new guard at Jervois was able to easily pull in $1 million from a recent placement of shares at 6c each to a group of professional and institutional shareholders brought together by BW Equities. Melbourne’s bustling Tolga Kumova is believed to have taken a whack.

A run through of the asset base tells the Jervois story. But just as important is the new board and management team that is calling the shots – Steve van der Sluys (executive chairman), John Joseph Byrne (director) and John Newton (director).

Plus, Breaker’s growing gold discovery puts it on the takeover radar. Read more +

About Barry Fitzgerald

Barry Fitzgerald has covered the resources industry for 30 years. His column highlights the issues, opportunities and challenges for small and mid-cap resources stocks - most recently penned his column for The Australian newspaper and before that, The Age.

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