JMM Noosa lunch a smorgasbord for investors

Rick Anthon, EMN, Chairman, Dean Fredericksen, MMA, Project Director, David Newling, AR1, Chairman, Alex Passmore, NMG, CEO, Melanie Leighton, TTM, MD, Andrew Sparke, QML, MD, Jane Morgan, JMM Founder, Alex Cheeseman, GRV, MD, Alex Rovira, BTR, MD, Adam McKinnon, AVM, CEO, Paul Loyd, PL9, Chairman, Cameron Henry, MRZ, Non-Exec Chairman

With the financial sector returning from their European summer holidays and the western Australians looking for an excuse to escape the cold, Hasting Street was awash with suits and boots for the annual Noosa Mining Conference.

The event has again pulled more than 70 ASX-listed resources companies to Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, drawing the usual mix of mining identities, fund managers, self-managed super fund investors and market watchers for three days of pitches, deal-making and long lunches.

Jane Morgan Management hosted its own slice of the action Thursday with an oversubscribed lunch at Locale on Hastings Street, bringing together management from a cross-section of the sector. Investors heard from a smorgasbord of opportunities from copper in Queensland, to gold in the Western Australian, to manganese in the Czech Republic,  to uranium in the Northern Territory and plenty more in between. It made for a lively room.

An early AV hiccup had New Murchison (NMG) Gold’s CEO Alex Passmore battling a temperamental microphone but it couldn’t put a dampener on the outstanding year the company is having. The emerging gold producer reported a 47% increase in its Garden Gully resource, alongside a June-quarter cash build of $46.1 million from strong production. Cash flow is thick and fast for the NMG team making them one of great interest to more than just the gold punters.

NMG Market Cap $510.61M Share price 0.0480 as per ASX 23/07/26

Now mining in Mexico might make some nervous, but not so with Advance Metals (AVM) CEO Adam McKinnon. McKinnon is in his sweet spot as a highly experienced exploration leader and having a fully funded exploration program, backed by institutional investors. They have a dual-continent portfolio spanning high grade silver and gold projects in Mexico’s Sierra Madre Silver Belt and the Victorian Goldfields in Australia.  McKinnon’s calm, steady demeanor serves the company well as they push forward with their international projects.

AVM Market Cap $33M Share price 0.067 as per ASX 23/07/26

Paul Lloyd wearing his Prairie Lithium (PL9) Executive Chairman hat let everyone know, the lithium developer is advancing their project in Canada. The Duperow Formation brine project in Saskatchewan uses direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology rather than conventional hard-rock mining. The company has secured all necessary regulatory approvals and a binding offtake agreement covering 100% of Phase 1 production, and has taken delivery of what it describes as North America’s largest commercial-scale DLE unit. Lloyd is steering the project from construction into first production, positioning Prairie Lithium as a near-term producer rather than a pure explorer.

PL9 Market Cap $39.6M Share price 0.006 as per ASX 23/07/26

Managing Director Alex Rovira, took to the stage for the gold consolidator operating across the Laverton, Menzies and Sandstone hubs in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields. They control roughly 3.9 million ounces of resources and he spoke to their cash-flowing, multi-asset approach; with operations and growth projects across the Goldfields and Sandstone regions and two operating underground mines. Rovira is driving the build-out of a new processing hub at Sandstone to underpin the next phase of production growth.

Market Cap $367.8 Share price 0.34 as per ASX 23/07/26

CEO Melanie Leighton oversees the explorer and developer focused on gold, silver and copper in southern Ecuador, with its flagship Dynasty Gold Project sitting near the Peruvian border. Leighton had big news from the week after their JV partner Hancock Prospecting, from their copper Linderos project completed their 51% earn in requirements. Overall it was a story of value from Leighton, leaning on scale-versus-cost, emphasising the sheer volume of contained gold relative to the project’s low operating cost base.

TTM Market Cap $167.04 Shareprice 0.59 as per ASX 23/07/26

The room hushed in anticipation of news from Chairman David Newling. Their recent bid for Hammer was on everyone’s mind but Newling kept the message clear as always – AR1 a highly focused copper player, with dual processing capability, making its way to the targeted production goal of 50k tonnes per annum. They are serious about the target and show the drive and focus of a team set on making it happen.

AR1 Market Cap $164.67M Share price 0.069 as per ASX 23/07/26

Euro Manganese (EMN)

For something a little European, Rick Anthon, Chairman of EMN brought everyone’s attention to their high-purity manganese project in the Czech Republic. They are working to reprocess historic mine tailings into high-purity manganese products for batteries rather than mining a new orebody. His presentation leaned into geopolitics, stressing that high-purity manganese supply is currently dominated by China and framing Chvaletice’s de-risking of that supply chain as a win for the defence and electric vehicle battery industries alike.

EMN Market Cap $12.86M Share price 0.09 as per ASX 23/07/26

Managing Director Peter Wright kept the theme international with the critical minerals explorer spanning lithium, graphite and polymetallic assets across Argentina, Madagascar and Tasmania. At Noosa, Peter’s pitch was understated but pointed: a $40 million company with three projects working through a scoping/feasibility study with three very clear plans for each project. He argued the stock is materially underpriced and well placed to benefit from a range of shifting trends including data-centre-driven demand for critical minerals.

GW1 Market Cap $37.68 Share price 0.087 as per ASX 23/07/26

Project Director Dean Fredericksen gave everyone a very clear picture of their orebody, drawing comparison between its size and the length of Hasting St. Maronan Metals is an explorer advancing its namesake silver-lead and copper-gold deposit in Queensland’s North West Minerals Province, near Cloncurry. He highlighted the orebody’s similarity to South32’s nearby Cannington deposit, with the added upside of copper and gold, noting the deposit was discovered in the 1980s some 60km south of Cloncurry and remains under-appreciated by the market. With the scoping study underway, Fredericksen advised the room to watch this space.

MMA Market Cap $133.56 share price 0.415 as per ASX 23/07/26

Managing Director Alex Cheeseman, gave not only Greenvale Energy a great plug but also the Northern Territory for its favourable uranium conditions.  In his first JMM-run presentation for Greenvale at Noosa, Cheeseman described a small, hands-on team with a three-person board that has shifted its uranium focus from Queensland to the Northern Territory, with Thunderball, well located near existing infrastructure and operating mines, the most advanced asset. He gave a shout out of appreciation to the company’s General Manager of Exploration Asha Rao, a nice touch of recognition to the team.

GRV Market Cap $23.11M Share price 0.0380 as per ASX 23/07/26

Outgoing CEO Lewis Utting explained ION is not a conventional miner or explorer but a battery-recycling and critical minerals technology company, commercialising its deep eutectic solvent (DES) process for recovering lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese and rare earths from spent batteries and e-waste. They are making big strides in America with grants forthcoming and a recently US-based hire Kevin Hobbe leading the charge. At Noosa, Utting used his presentation to flag his transition away from the CEO role to strategic advisory role, as the company bolsters its leadership with a former BHP innovation executive and Hobbe, while reiterating Iondrive’s ambition to have its first commercial facility by the end of 2027.

ION Market Cap $46.66M Share price 0.038 as per ASX 23/07/26

If there was an award for the most rousing speech it would have to go to the ever so passionate QML Founder and MD Andrew Sparke. The copper-gold developer is transitioning from explorer to producer at its Mt Chalmers project near Rockhampton, Queensland, alongside the satellite Develin Creek and Mt Mackenzie deposits. Sparke delivered what was arguably the most personal address of the Noosa conference, tying the company’s plan to build a processing plant in Rockhampton next year to his own upbringing as the son of a builder and plumber, and noting that all 25 QMines staff hold stock in the $40 million company, which has $20 million cash and eight resource upgrades in five years behind it.

QML Market Cap $40.14 Share price 0.052 as per ASX 23/07/26

Last man standing was Non-Executive Chairman Cameron Henry from Mont Royal Resources. The critical minerals developer and explorer focused on Quebec, Canada, anchored by its 100%-owned Ashram rare earth and fluorspar deposit in Nunavik, which carries a substantial JORC-compliant resource of 204.3 million tonnes at 1.90% TREO. Alongside Ashram, the company also holds the earlier-stage Northern Lights lithium-gold and Eldor niobium projects. Closing out the Noosa program, Henry highlighted his background in process plant construction and pitched his edge as a willingness to take on the harder, more technically complex projects that other companies pass over.

MRZ Market Cap $23.09M Share price 0.105 as per ASX 23/07/26