I think of it like this. To see material upside, the investment thesis does not require all three funded JVs. That is the striking feature of this setup. Any one of the funded JVs, on its own, can transform the business and the share price. Two successful partnerships delivers the kind of re-rate juniors almost never see. All three would put EST into the £/£s (vs the current 9p). Endeavour have already told us the size of their targets. The beauty of it is that you only need one to see outsized returns. It is a fabulous model.

As promised, much more detail below (a lot to read!) on EAST STAR RESOURCES (#EST).  A gold and copper play that I believe has major upside ahead. Due to posting this via mobile, I am splitting this longer commentary into multiple posts.   1/6 Who are they? East Star are a £40 million valued metals explorer that over the past 10 months have transformed themselves from an independent explorer into a business with three fully funded joint ventures. Two of these deals see this current small cap fully funded to copper production, whilst a jv with Endeavour Mining (a top 10 global gold producer valued at £11 billion) see’s this gold giant positioning for a multi-million-ounce discovery. Beyond the jv, Endeavour have injected capital into the company for a 14% stake and appointed a member of the Endeavour Executive Management (the VP of Exploration and Growth) to the East Star board.   As a Kazakhstan-focused operator, East Stars assets sit in one of the world's most under-explored but mining-friendly jurisdictions.  The deals offer transformative upside for the business and it’s striking they have managed to retain meaningful equity position in these partnerships on fully funded terms.  Separate to these JV’d assets, East Star owns 100% interests in other porphery and epithermal projects with the CEO Alex Walker making it clear that “If a partner came along at the right valuation we’d be happy to entertain” further deals*. He has an explicit ambition to build East Star into a $1 billion+ company and is clearly incentivised by his 10% shareholding.  His public commitment to a long-dated equity story rather than a short-term promote sits particularly well with me.  As someone who lives in the country and sits on the board of the Kazakstan Chamber of mines he brings a level of in-country credibility that matters. 2.Why Kazakhstan? This pro mining country ranks No.1 globally in uranium production, No.3 in copper, and No.5 in gold and is amongst the lowest-cost producing jurisdictions in the world.   East Star was an early mover into the jurisdiction with the majors BHP, Rio Tinto, First Quantum, Fortescue, Ivanhoe and Barrick also positioned.  The specific region East Star operates in is a hotbed for activity with major deposits surrounding their JV’d assets Verkhuba and Rulikha. Some examples here and all within 20-50km of their assets: •Sekisovskoye. 6.7Moz @ 3g/t Au •KAZ Minerals' Irtyshsky. 30Mt @ 2.2% Cu, 5.1% Zn •KAZ Minerals' Artemyevsky. 51Mt @ 1.9% Cu, 6.4% Zn, 2% Pb •KAZ Minerals' Nikolaevsky. 40Mt @ 2.4% Cu, 3.2% Zn, 1.1% Au •Glencore's Ridder. 225Mt @ 0.4% Cu, 1.7% Zn