By Dr. Michael Green

There was good news from Two Shields Investments (TSI) yesterday concerning its interest in Cobalt Blue Holdings (CBH) which holds a strategic licence position in an area in Cameroon renowned as the home of world class cobalt deposits. Just to recap, CBH holds four prospecting licences and two prospecting licence applications in this area that sports significant cobalt mineralisation. Most importantly, these prospecting licences actually lie contiguous to the world class Nkamouna and Mada deposits where previous studies have defined a total of 59.8Mt grading at an average grade of 0.24% cobalt, 0.68% nickel and 1.37% manganese.

Firstly, the company has upped its stake from 25% to 49% in CBH for US$200,000, compared to the previously agreed US$800,000. This smart move was encouraged by the results of early stage exploration results which have shown big similarities between CBH’s licences and the proven resources that have been discovered at those nearby world class deposits. Secondly, TSI has gone onto vend its 49% interest in CBH into AIM-quoted African Battery Metals (ABM) for shares taking a 11.26% interest in the enlarged equity of this company.

Moving ahead, TSI will have continued exposure from the future development of CBH’s highly prospective cobalt licences as well as gaining exposure to ABM’s fast-growing portfolio of technology metals licences. This transaction also delivers diversification not only in geopolitical exposure but also commodity exposure within the battery metals arena.

This looks, to us, like a shrewd move by the board of TSI as, in one fell swoop, the company has really upped its chances of successful mineral exploration and now benefits from a wider portfolio as well as having a decent interest in a quoted vehicle which rather increases TSI’s options going forward. However, the real story is what ABM may become as it looks like it has become a vehicle for Stephen Dattels, Mike Beck and Ian Stalker – established mining professionals with track records of building high value resources companies. Stephen Dattels is a seasoned mining executive and resource financier who has been successful over the past three decades in numerous mining ventures. He certainly enjoys a following and so we are likely to see his supporters buying into the stock to back him once again.

There is no doubt that ABM has an impressive and rapidly growing portfolio of technology metals licences which includes cobalt assets in the DRC along with the Lizetta II chrome, nickel, cobalt exploration licences in Cote d’Ivorie through it’s very recent acquisition of Regent Resources Interests Corp (RRIC), which was announced on 08 August 2018. RRIC has the right to earn up to a 71% interest in the 380km² Lizetta II project. This transaction by ABM has served to strengthen the shareholder base and ushered in the top flight corporate mining players .

In the future, the development of CBH’s assets will benefit from ABM’s highly experienced and qualified team. At the same time, the board of TSI was able to report that activity was underway across the company’s dual-focused investment portfolio. At the time, Charlie Wood, TSI Chairman, marked investors’ cards by pointing out that there will be a lot of news flow over the coming months which will apparently involve drilling and upcoming results from the company’s highly prospective lithium assets as well as progress updates from the cyber-technology interests.

Investors, it seems, are keen to learn about the latest developments at BrandShield which in recent months launched the world’s first decentralised online anti-scam platform based on blockchain technology and which now seems to be gaining serious traction. Earlier on in the year, BrandShield embarked on a global roadshow which seems to have put the company onto the radar of the serious players in the crypto world. We point out that there are well-financed vehicles which have corporate strategies based on the long game in this fast-developing industry and the use of such a centralised system across a number of large sectors such as: banks, insurance and medical arenas –all industries which could really benefit from BrandShield’s decentralised online anti-scam platform based on blockchain technology thus making this company a very real potential acquisition target.

However, the real focus in the short term is likely to be focused on TSI’s decent early stage stake in ABM as it becomes crafted into an out and out UK growth stock focused on the cobalt opportunity. It looks likely that the management team will be setting their eyes on bigger deals which could well drive the price of ABM comfortably higher given the pedigree of their investors all of which we believe will reflect well on TSI and lead to a well overdue re-rating.

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