As I continue exploring my interest/investing thesis in Space, Infrastructure, and Transportation, a OTC Pink Sheet stock caught my attention and led me to initiate a position earlier this week.

Jervois Global Limited ($JRVMF) is a mining company based in Cremorne, Australia that holds a 100% interest in the Idaho Cobalt Operations project in the United States, a nickel cobalt refinery in Brazil, a nickel-cobalt mine in Australia, and a production facility located in Finland.

Similar to what $MP brought to fruition in 2017 (another stock in my portfolio) in reviving the Mountain Pass Mine in Nevada, Jervois has restored a previous shuttered cobalt mine in 2022, 40 years after originally shutting down.

With the continuing tensions between China and the United States surrounding minerals, manufacturing, and myriad of other issues, the United States Government has become invested in the success of locally sourced supply chains for rare earth minerals. Currently, the ICO mine is the only cobalt mine operational within the United States.

Most of the world's cobalt in mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with widespread child labor and other human rights issues, with most of the production goes to China, which also controls most of the cobalt refining globally. While although the initially explored deposits only amount to about 10% of the United States demand for cobalt, Jervois is setting the table for future cobalt mining operations in Idaho and Missouri where large deposits of cobalt have already been discovered.

Currently, the mine is stagnant in operations, due to the major downturn in cobalt prices. Sitting at ~$15 per pound, Jervois has stated their cobalt break even price is $25 per pound. However, the Department of Defense and Jervois entered into a $15 million agreement to advance the U.S. cobalt supply chain security. In addition to supporting the mining operation itself, the funding will support a feasibility study based on building a cobalt refinery in the United States.

Rare earth mineral supply chain security is still years off, but from what I've seen, $JRVMF may be the kindling for the reshoring effort if they can effectively pull off a safe, profitable, and environmentally conscious cobalt mining operation. With a market cap of ~100 million, I'm taking a flier on this stock that has upside once cobalt prices regain value and if there is a viable way forward to developing not only a mining operation, but refinery operations within the lower 48.