Insider alert at Nel ASA, Freyr Battery reassures shareholders, and Blackrock Silver doubles its resource

Buying opportunity at Blackrock Silver? Resource +139% and share price 80% lower

Blackrock Silver specializes in the development of precious metal mines. The gold and silver projects are located in the US state of Nevada. This allows investors to exclude regional and political risks. The flagship project, Tonopah West, is particularly promising. More than 150,000 meters of exploratory drilling have been carried out there since 2020. It has emerged that Tonopah West is one of the most silver-rich undeveloped projects in the world.

Only recently, the resource estimate was significantly increased once again. According to the official technical report, Tonopah West now has 570,000 ounces of gold and 47.74 million ounces of silver. This is 135% more than in the first resource estimate in April 2022. Incidentally, Blackrock Silver shares stood at EUR 0.83 at that time - yesterday at EUR 0.18. That is how irrational the stock market sometimes is. The discovery costs are USD 0.29 per ounce of silver equivalent. At the same time, the Company points out that silver and gold mineralization remains open in several places. This means there is a high probability that the resource estimate has room for improvement.

So, for those who find established precious metal companies like Barrick Gold & Co. too dull, looking at Blackrock Silver at the current price level is advisable.

Nel: Management buys

Investors have been unhappy with the Nel share in recent months. Although the Norwegians have been quite convincing in terms of sales growth in the current year, investors have focused on loss reduction in an environment of high interest rates. This is precisely where the problem lies: Progress toward a profitable business model is slow. Too slow for investors. Nel shares have lost around 50% of their value in the current year alone. Yesterday, however, it sent out a sign of life with a rise of over 9%.

Although there was no operational company news, there have been several insider purchases since the quarterly figures - the first in 2023 according to the Nel website. Board member Charlotta Falvin bought 46,000 shares at a price of NOK 8.01. CFO Kjell Christian Bjørnsen bought 20,000 shares at NOK 6.976, and CPO Hans Hide bought 10,000 shares at NOK 8.014. These are not large purchases, but at least they are a sign.

Freyr Battery: Management tries to reassure

The management of Freyr Battery also wants to set an example. This year alone, the developer of next-generation batteries has lost over 80% of its value and is now trading at just EUR 1.66. However, the market capitalization is still USD 244 million. On December 15, 2023, the Company is inviting shareholders to an Extraordinary General Meeting. A resolution is to be passed there to relocate the Company's headquarters from Luxembourg to the US. The management justifies the plan by stating that the US is not only the primary market in operational terms but also where most shareholders are located.

The management has taken the upcoming date as an opportunity to publish a letter to shareholders. The letter discusses the strategy and delays in the ramp-up of fully automated production at the Customer Qualification Plant in Norway. This news led to a renewed sell-off of the share when the quarterly report was published.

Freyr is relying on a partnership with 24M Technologies Inc. for its battery technology. The licensed 24M technology offers a potential improvement in performance and costs when operating on a GWh scale. Freyr emphasized that the 24M technology is already being used by several companies, such as Kyocera, and has proven itself in practice.

Although the commissioning process is taking longer than planned, management is confident that the problems will be solved for the following reasons: All equipment units of the production line have been successfully installed, 87% of the commissioning is complete, and several batteries in the plant have been semi-automatically produced and successfully charged and discharged. The remaining difficulties are not of a fundamental nature but can be resolved through software/hardware adjustments. Customers and partners remain committed to Freyr.

There is currently no positive share price reaction to the letter to shareholders at Freyr Battery. With seemingly groundbreaking battery technology but scalability issues, the Company remains a true hot stock. Of course, regarding Nel, we cannot yet speak of a turnaround after yesterday's price jump. Blackrock Silver, on the other hand, offers operative arguments for a turnaround of the share.