It’s not often that investors come across an ASX stock that the analyst community has no opinion on.

So when you find a gem that no one else seems to have noticed, you run with it.

This is the situation in which the chief investment officer of Collins Street Asset Management, Vasilios Piperoglou, finds himself.

“Astron Pty Ltd (ASX:ATR) is an interesting explorer and hopefully on the verge of being a producer,” he said. a video Reaching Markets.

“It’s interesting in that… it’s clearly under the radar. Because no broker follows them yet.

“Tier 1 asset in a Tier 1 jurisdiction”

Astron is a resource company seeking to produce zircon and titanium from mineral sands mining operations.

The current target is the Donald Mineral Sands project in Victoria, for which Piperoglou has high hopes.

“They have a very large, I believe one of the largest undeveloped zirconium and rare earth projects in the world.

“The potential mine life is 50 years. It could be said to be a Tier 1 asset in a Tier 1 jurisdiction.”

He added that Astron has all of its approvals in place except for the final mine site permit, which it expects early in the new year.

The company purchased $18 million in water rights for the site a few years ago, which have since doubled in value, according to Piperoglou.

“He checked all the boxes, and they will release their final DFS [definitive feasibility study] early next year.

Who knows what it will be worth in the future

Collins Street Asset Management gained exposure to Astron after recently issuing it with convertible notes.

Regardless of that or buying stocks outright, Piperoglou believes investors are going to have a good time.

“The brokers were not informed about the company… With these types of companies, it is very difficult to put a valuation.”

But what advantage does the Collins Street team think Astron shares have?

“What do we think Astron is worth per share? Actually, I don’t know,” Piperoglou said.

“We have not made a precisely specific NPV [net present value] ourselves. The reason is that we think it is at multiples of what it is now.

Astron’s share price is up 18.75% so far this year.

The Hong Kong company is listed as a CHESS custodian, meaning one ASX share represents one real share.