The Northern Miner June 12 2023 Issue 12

McEwen calls for Uber moment to kickstart mining industry talent

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

The mining industry needs radical change, like how Uber slew taxis, if it wants to get more youth involved in the metals for a greener planet, veteran project developer Rob McEwen says.

One option is to develop sustainable mines that slash water use, grow their own food and generate reusable energy. That’s how McEwen Mining (TSX: MUX; NYSE: MUX) wants to develop its US$2.4 billion Los Azules copper project in Argentina with the backing of Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; ASX RIO) and automaker Stellantis.

“Uber addressed most of the concerns about the taxi industry and they decimated the taxi industry,” McEwen, chairman of the company, told The Northern Miner’s Global Mining Symposium on May 25 at the TSX in Toronto.

“Why don’t we look at the mining industry and say what are the issues, the behaviours that the general public doesn’t like?”

Canada has less than half the mining and geology students it had in 1970, while electric batteries will require 336 new mines globally by 2035, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. McEwen, who developed Goldcorp into an $8 billion behemoth, likes to cite Finland’s Geological Society, which has estimated that just one genera tion of renewable technologies to address climate change needs 4.5 billion tonnes of copper. That’s six times the volume of all copper mined throughout history.

Compared to that, even the Los Azules project, the world’s ninth-largest undeveloped copper deposit, would only produce 415 million lb. of copper annually for the first 13 years of a 36-year life.

However, the project envisions a solar-powered year-round residence that’s three football fields long and collects its own water to cut usage by 90%. It features terraced gardens for growing food hydroponically and aeroponically (in mist) in a closed ecosystem with ponds where fish excrement becomes fertilizer.

Residents would also benefit from higher oxygen levels indoors than prevailing at 3,000 metres above sea level. For the fit, there’s an outdoor soccer field. Going

green is one way to ease project approvals and should be a flag to attract youth to the industry, McEwen says.

“The mining industry is one of the highest paying industries in the country and in most countries around the world. But why is it unattractive? Because most people have thought this is something they don’t want to do. But it uses so many skills of today.”

Bumpy road to green energy Consultancy PwC forecasts there will be US$33.9 trillion of assets under management related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues by 2026, up 84% from US$18.4 trillion in 2021. ESG assets held by institutional investors may reach 21.5% of total global assets under management in less than five

years, it said.

“Just think if our industry could get some of that money by changing our ways,” McEwen said.

“To me an added expense to get through that doorway and get part of that US$20 trillion, it’s worth the price.”

Still, skeptics say the road to sustainable green energy won’t necessarily be smooth as we replace dirty but abundant and cheap fossil fuels with unprecedented mining and new technology. Many minerals require poisonous processing and some jurisdictions in Africa and the Far East can be just as toxic politically and environmentally.

And despite all the talk of incipient shortages in most metals, the price of copper itself has been languishing far below the US$4 per lb. threshold that miners want to see to develop projects.

Lower-than-expected copper prices are just a short-term product of high interest rates and concerns over an incipient recession that has investors opting for bonds, McEwen said. Widespread forecasts predict supply gaps in critical minerals as automakers race to snap up supplies, he said.

The Los Azules project, with its proposed residence and outdoor

soccer field pictured above, boasts 14% stakes held each by Rio Tinto, Stellantis and McEwen himself, plus 52% with McEwen Mining. The Toronto-based company filed an environmental impact statement in April. Government approvals may take 18 months, a feasibility study may be completed by early 2025 and construction could start near the end of this decade, McEwen said.

Initial ore processing would be 125,000 tonnes a year, ramping up to 175,000 tonnes, he said. The 2017 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) envisioned starting at 80,000 tonnes and increasing to 120,000 tonnes in the firth year.

Los Azules holds 962 million indicated tonnes grading 0.48% copper, 0.06 gram gold per tonne and 1.8 grams silver for 10.2 billion lb. copper, 1.7 million oz. gold and 55.7 million oz. silver, according to the 2017 PEA. The project has an after-tax net present value of US$2.2 billion at an 8% discount rate for an internal rate of return of 20% and a 3.6-year payback period. Cash cost would be US$1.14 per lb. copper.

South American headwinds

Operating in Argentina faces headwinds of inflation at more than 100% a year and an uncertain mining rulebook, which McEwen says is part of a populist movement sweeping South America. The com-

pany also faces political challenges in Mexico at the El Gallo gold project where the Fenix expansion envisions a new process.

“We’re uncertain, because it is definitely not a mining-friendly government right now,” he said. “Chile and Peru send shivers down the spine of everybody in the copper industry and that worsens the deficit that’s being projected, because Chile and Peru produce 40% of the world’s copper.”

McEwen is open to new technology, whether it’s hypersonic plugs fired at rock faces to mine faster and easier than blasting, or Rio Tinto’s Nuton unit adding a catalyst to the heap bleach process to slash water use while nearly matching conventional flotation mills for recovery.

“I remember walking through the SpaceX factory — just gleaming white floors, long, beautiful stainless steel, people moving with purpose — I’d like to see a mine like that,” he said. “We can involve the most current technologies and philosophies about what a mine could look like.” TNM

Above: McEwen envisions mining’s future. Inset: Los Azules, Argentina.

Volt Lithium stock leaps amid claims of oil-brine recovery breakthrough

ALBERTA | 90% recovery for lithium levels as low as 34 mg per litre

BY BLAIR MCBRIDE

Volt Lithium (TSXV:

VLT)

shares jumped by almost 20% on May 24 after it announced lithium recoveries of 90% at relatively low operating costs,testing at its Rainbow Lake lithium property in northwestern Alberta shows.

The pilot project, using Volt’s patented direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology achieved 90% lithium recoveries at concentrations as low as 34 mg per litre, the company said in a release. It also simulated operating conditions at concentrations of 120 mg per litre and recovered up to 97% lithium. Assuming average annual production of 20,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide monohydrate, operating costs would be under $4,000 per tonne.

In the coming weeks\, Volt aims to process brines with concentrations of 120 mg per litre to validate the simulated results of the pilot project.

The results come as the Vancouver-based lithium developer looks to finish a preliminary economic assessment for Rainbow Lake by the end of the summer.

“It’s been a technological breakthrough,” said Volt president and CEO Alex Wylie, in a webinar on

May 24. “We’ve proved the technology side and we’ve shown we can do it economically. We’re able to…open up any major oil field across North America that has lith-

ium in it.”

Volt started the project in March, which was designed to simulate a commercial operating environment and allow the to confirm

economic recoveries of the battery mineral from oil field brines.

Volt noted that the recovery concentrations of up to 120 mg lithium per litre are equivalent to concentrations found in the Muskeg aquifer at Rainbow Lake. A technical report published on May 18 stated the property hosts an inferred resource of 4.3 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent in the Sulphur Point, Muskeg and Key River aquifers. In total, the property contains about 15.7 billion cubic metres of brine, with lithium concentrations as high as 121 mg per litre, with an average associated lithium concentration of 51 mg per litre.

Wylie said the company aims to start commercial production by the second half of 2024, with output of 1,000 tonnes per year of lithium in the first stage and up to 7,500 tonnes per year in the second.

Wylie said Volt could reach 20,000 tonnes per year by 2026 or 2027.

“It’s not just Rainbow Lake,” he said. “I’d like to plant my flag on a number of fields as we start the business.”

The company’s DLE technology extracts lithium from oilfield brine in a two-stage process. In the first stage, the brine is treated to remove contaminants, and in the second,

Volt’s IES-300 technology extracts the lithium which is concentrated down to a lithium chloride solution. That solution is eventually upgraded to lithium hydroxide monohydrate, a raw material needed for electric vehicle batteries. Its operating costs in the pilot translate to recoveries of $3,944 per tonne at concentrations of 120 mg per litre, $5,951 per tonne at 75 mg per litre and $8,627 at 50 mg per litre.

Wylie said its pilot and Rainbow Lake fit into a larger “North American solution” to lithium prices.

“The [lithium] market is really controlled a lot out of China. As we bring on North American production it’ll change the price because there’ll be a lot of demand. At US$40,000 to US$50,000 per tonne I think it’s a big opportunity for brine companies.”

Volt is looking to establish a permanent pilot plant to continue refining the IES-300 technology and improving operating conditions to keep reducing operating costs.

Volt shares rose by 19% on the morning of May 24, spiking to 55¢ and setting a new 52-week high, before declining to 24¢ just before press time. Its yearly low was 6¢. The company has a market capitalization of $33.8 million. TNM

LithiumBank stock soars on US$2 billion Alberta project economics

BATTERY METALS | Direct extraction brine process to slash water use

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Shares in Alberta-focused LithiumBank Resources (TSXV: LBNK; US-OTC: LBNKF) jumped after a new study shows its Boardwalk project using an uncommon technique could operate at about a quarter of the lithium hydroxide spot price.

The shares gained more than 16% on the May 26 news to $1.42 apiece before easing to $1.35 closer to press time, within a 52-week range of 62¢ and $1.72, valuing the company at $52.2 million.

Operating costs at the Boardwalk brine project in west-central Alberta would be US$6,807 per tonne of lithium hydroxide while the study envisions the project at a long-term metal price US$26,000 per tonne, according to the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) released on May 25. The spot price was US$41,100 per tonne approaching press time, according to The Wall St. Journal

“Boardwalk is unique with an uncomplicated mineral title containing a 6.2 million-tonne lithium carbonate equivalent brine resource that has the potential to produce battery grade lithium hydroxide for 20 years right here in North America,” LithiumBank executive chairman Paul Matysek said in a news release accompanying the study.

“There is potential for substantial upside on these economics from the recently announced Canadian Investment Tax Credit and other numerous optimization

opportunities.”

Calgary-based LithiumBank plans a direct lithium extraction process, one of only a handful in the world it says have been the focus of economic studies. It would use less water than conventional brine evaporation methods and only a fraction of the surface footprint of hard rock lithium mining.

Neighbour E3 Lithium (TSXV: ETL; US-OTC: EEMMF) plans to use similar technology to develop the province’s Bashaw district, Canada’s largest brine project. While demand for lithium continues to grow for electric vehicles as automakers secure off-take

agreements, surpluses are likely from next year before sinking into a deficit again from 2029, according to data in April from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.

Bullish metrics Boardwalk would have an aftertax net present value of US$1.7 billion at an 8% discount rate with an internal rate of return of 17.8%, the study shows. It would produce 31,350 tonnes per year of battery-grade lithium hydroxide over a 20-year period, the largest proposed output in North America, the company says.

The operation would cost almost

US$2.1 billion to build, including a US$575 million processing plant, US$276 for brine wellfield services, US$265 in other infrastructure and US$360 million for contingencies, the early-stage study shows.

The project envisions pumping lithium-rich brine from the historic Leduc oil field, where Alberta’s petroleum boom started in the 1940s, to a processing plant. Ion-exchange technology is to extract lithium from the brine before purification, concentration and conversion to battery-grade lithium hydroxide.

Boardwalk also intends to capture and sequester CO2 emissions to

produce carbon credits, and extract magnesium from barren brine to produce low-carbon cement that will lower brine reinjection amounts by at least 10%. Power is to be generated on site using gas turbines to help lower the project’s carbon footprint. The proposed gas turbine units may be run on 80% hydrogen when a reliable supply is available, LithiumBank said.

The company intends to apply for federal tax credits for critical mineral extraction as mentioned in this year’s federal budget. It plans to cut costs by using recently-developed brine reagents, submersible electric pumps, 3-D modelling of reservoirs, and existing roads, well pads, pipelines and utilities as shown in the study.

“It sets the stage for our team to now pursue lithium resource development in western Canada with a significantly enhanced environmental, social and governance profile compared to other forms of lithium mining,” Rob Shewchuk CEO and director of LithiumBank, said in the release.

LithiumBank plans to soon file another PEA, on the Park Place lithium brine project 50 km to the south, and by the end of this year start pilot plant studies on both sites. The parallel developments could cut costs and improve net present value and rates of return, Shewchuk said.

“We believe this has the potential to place both the Boardwalk and Park Place districts among the most attractive direct brine projects.” TNM

Lithium carbonate precipitate floating on brine. JOHN NAKATAADOBE IMAGES

LithiumBank’s Boardwalk brine project in Alberta is planning to use the direct lithium extraction method. LITHIUMBANK

Copper loses battle in fight for critical mineral status in the US

POLICY | U.S. Geological Survey says copper doesn’t meet critical status threshold

BY MINING.COM EDITOR

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has told congressmen and senators that copper has not reached the status of critical minerals needed to be added to the official list of commodities at risk of undersupply, the Copper Development Association (CDA) said.

The USGS decision comes despite some high-ranking political allies throwing their support behind the local copper sector.

The copper marketing body says the metal’s supply risk score is now above the threshold for automatic inclusion on the 2022 Critical Minerals list. It adds the USGS justified its decision by quoting misleading arguments that were not part of its own official 2022 methodology.

“Unlike in Europe, where copper was recently added to its proposed Critical Raw Material and Strategic Raw Material lists based on forecasting future supply and demand projections, USGS addresses supply risk with a rearward looking analysis,” the CDA said.

It noted the USGS did not address current and forward-looking policy demands that can leave domestic supply chains short of copper.

“Continued supply trends and solid data confirm that the supply risk for copper is not a short-term issue that will self-correct without determined, immediate, and strategic action,” CDA’s president and

CEO Andrew G. Kireta said in the statement.

The USGS’s last official evaluation for the 2022 Critical Minerals List is based on copper trade data that represents supply risk from 2014 to 2018, which is too old to be meaningful, Kireta noted.

Early this year, Senator Kyrsten Sinema, an Independent from Arizona, sent a letter urging Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to “revisit and reconsider the designation of copper as a critical mineral.”

Supporters included other senators whose home states are hubs of copper production and manufacturing, including Mark Kelly of Arizona, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Indiana’s Mike Braun, Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Mitt Romney of Utah.

“This should be a no-brainer,” Sinema said in an interview with Bloomberg in February. “We have major gaps in both our ability to mine and process these minerals to ensure our energy security for the future, and the administration knows how important copper is to our domestic and national security.”

CDA members include some of the biggest copper miner including Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO; ASX: RIO), BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP), and Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX), as well as manufacturers such as Mueller Industries Inc.

Pending approval of First Quantum deal with Panama haunts miner

COPPER

| Fitch gives company’s notes negative outlook, B+ rating

BY CECILIA JAMASMIE

The pending congressional approval of a new contract agreed between First Quantum Minerals (TSX: FM) and the Panamanian government over the Canadian miner’s giant Cobre Panama copper mine continues to weigh on the company.

In mid-May, First Quantum completed the pricing for a US$1.3 billion offering of senior notes, with proceeds earmarked for debt repayment.

Analysts did not seem impressed by the move, with Credit ratings agency Fitch giving First Quantum’s notes, which are due in 2031, a ‘B+’ with a negative outlook.

“Following a recent agreement reached in principle between First Quantum Minerals and the government, we expect to resolve the [negative outlook] once the agreement has been formalized,” Fitch said in the statement.

Production at Cobre Panama was halted in February amid a dispute with authorities over tax and royalty payments.

During the weeks the mine remained shut, First Quantum said it lost US$8 million a day in terms of costs that would never be recovered.

First Quantum reached a new deal with Panama in March, with mining operations ramping up to full production levels within two days and five shipments of copper sailing during the month.

Lawmakers are expected to formalize the agreement between the company and Panama during the term starting Jul. 1. They will only be able to do so after a period for public comment concludes and all permits are acquired.

First Quantum’s earnings in the first quarter of the year fell by more than 80% to US$75 million from the US$385 million recorded in the same period of 2022. TNM

The U.S. critical minerals list is updated every three years and includes key battery metals needed for electric vehicle production such as nickel, lithium and zinc.

Eight Escondida mines needed

Based on studies conducted by the world’s largest copper miner, Chile’s Codelco, the world’s energy transition to address climate

change will take demand for the metal from 25 million tonnes per year now to just over 31 million tonnes in 2032.

This means the world would need to build eight projects the size of BHP’s Escondida in Chile, the world’s largest copper mine, over the next eight years.

In terms of investment, experts estimate the industry needs more than US$100 billion to build mines able to close what could be an annual supply deficit of 4.7 million tonnes expected by 2030. TNM

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BHP’s Escondida mine in Chile. BHP

First Quantum Minerals’ Cobre Panama copper mine. FIRST QUANTUM MINERALS

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New Alternative Minimum Tax measures a death knell to junior finance

Metals Commentary: Platinum Investment Council forecasts

deepening deficit

PLATINUM | Market deficit of 983,000 oz. on stronger demand and weaker supply

BY HENRY LAZENBY

The recently announced changes to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) calculation effective in 2024 have sent shockwaves through the finance industry, raising concerns about their impact on junior finance and philanthropic activities. These measures, intended to ensure a minimum level of tax payment, may have unintended consequences that undermine investment, charitable giving, and the mineral exploration sector. It is crucial to understand the potentially far-reaching implications of these changes and their negative impact on various sectors of the economy.

One of the major consequences of the new AMT rules is the significant reduction in the volume of flow-through share finance activity. A very small group of Canadian high net-worth taxpayers – less than 2,000 – provide about three-quarters of all flow-through share exploration capital driving critical mineral and metals exploration. The current AMT rules already limit this investment incentive. The 2024 implementation is expected to result in a one-third reduction in flow-through exploration financing representing at least $250 million in lost exploration jobs in northern and remote communities with particular impact on Indigenous communities.

As these rules reduce the availability of credits, fewer individuals will be able to invest, leading to issuers having to reduce their premiums, resulting in increased dilution. This contraction of flow-through share activity threatens to hamper the growth and development of junior finance, a vital sector that drives innovation and economic progress.

Furthermore, these changes have dire consequences for philanthropy and foreign investment. Those familiar with the flow-through share regime know that about 75% of all flow-through share financing is through the operation of what is now known as Charitable Flow-Through in which Canadian taxpayers interested in giving more to charity buy flow-through shares which are immediately donated and then sold by charities to global end buyers. This approach results in a double win for Canada, increased philanthropy, and northern job creation. Most of the critical mineral end buyers over the past year were Australian. The new AMT rules will go a long way in killing what was a very successful low-cost government initiative.

The AMT calculation penalizes individuals who selflessly choose to give away their money by subjecting them to taxation on their donations. This disincentive to give away money will undoubtedly impact the ability of charitable organizations to carry out their essential work and positively impact society.

The mineral exploration sector, too, will be hit hard by the changes to the AMT calculation. The flow-through share format has become Canada’s preferred method for funding exploration activities, accounting for about $1 billion in activity last year. However, the new rules will limit the ability of individuals to invest in flow-through shares, resulting in a contraction of available funds. This, in turn, will hinder the exploration sector’s ability to access capital and carry out vital mineral exploration projects, which are crucial for economic growth and resource development.

Fluctuations in prices and demand can substantially impact investment decisions, making it essential to provide the best possible tax incentives during cooperative market conditions. While gold and other traditional resources may have lost their lustre recently, the focus has shifted towards critical minerals such as lithium, which hold immense promise for the future.

It is worth noting that the exploration sector, particularly in critical minerals, faces vulnerability to fast money investors seeking quick returns. When marijuana investment was in vogue the junior resource sector investment saw high risk investment migrate away from junior exploration. Currently, the rise of artificial intelligence investments emphasizes the need for a robust tax incentive framework to ensure the continued growth and stability of the critical mineral sector funding Canadian jobs.

The availability of funds and the number of participants are key factors influencing the sector’s success. While a small group of individuals has been instrumental in driving investments, there is a pressing need to broaden the base of participants to ensure sustained growth. The recent influx of funds from Australia highlights the international interest in Canadian critical mineral resources. However, Canada must improve its regulatory framework to attract and retain investments, as the country’s potential may remain untapped if progress is hindered.

While it is essential to strike a balance and risk-adjust certain activities, tax credits have proven to be a powerful tool in stimulating investment.

The Critical Mineral Tax Credit was introduced in the federal March 2022 budget. Coincidentally the world came to understand that critical miner-

The following is an excerpt from the World Platinum Investment Council’s May 15 Platinum Quarterly report, accessible at https://platinuminvestment.com.

There were a number of developments during the first quarter of 2023 that in aggregate had a significant impact on market balances and provide read-throughs to the outlook for the year as a whole.

Starting with supply, mine supply was significantly curtailed in South Africa by the worsening electricity shortage there. This led to increased work-in-progress concentrate at the major producers, the unwinding of which is uncertain from a timing perspective as utilizing excess smelting capacity is dependent upon the availability of electricity.

On the other hand, Russian mine supply increased on the release of some work in progress inventory. The net impact was a 7% year-on-year decline in total mine supply to 1.2 million ounces.

Recycling supply also struggled, down 12% year-on-year at 413,000 oz., due to an ongoing shortage of automotive scrap availability as users are forced to run older vehicles for longer, while jewelry recycling was impacted by lower new jewelry sales in China.

Total supply in Q1 came to 1.6 million oz., down 9% year-onyear and 8% quarter-on-quarter.

Demand, meanwhile, remained robust at 2 million oz., up 28% yearon-year due to continued strength in demand from the automotive and industrial sectors (+112,000 oz. year-on-year) and a 340,000 oz. improvement in quarterly investment demand year-on-year.

Automotive demand in the first quarter rose by 9% year-onyear on increasing platinum for palladium substitution, growing vehicle numbers and higher platinum group metal loadings due to tighter emissions legislation. Industrial demand rose by 8% with a number of capacity additions in the chemicals industry offsetting weaker to stable demand elsewhere, while jewelry demand fell 2% year-on-year mainly due to ongoing weakness in China. Bar and coin investment demand of 102,000 oz. in Q1 was complemented by a move from significant ETF and exchange stock outflows in Q1’21 (-224,000 oz.) moving to net positive demand in Q1’22 (+73,000 ounces).

The net impact was a significant quarterly deficit of 392,000 oz. in Q1’23, which represents the first substantial quarterly deficit since Q3’20.

The forecast deficit for 2023 (-983,000 oz.) is 77% deeper than projected in the Q4’22 Platinum Quarterly in March 2023, and reflects a 1% decline in total supply and a 28% increase in demand versus 2022.

Year-long view

The full year 2023 outlook for total mine supply is 62,000 oz. lower than the outlook included in the last Platinum Quarterly. This reduced forecast could be further restricted by electricity shortages in South Africa and,

potentially, sanctions-related operational challenges in Russia. The electricity crisis in South Africa will, at best, keep output constrained to 2022 levels, which was itself down 6% versus the average production level since 2013.

Similarly, in Russia, operational challenges are projected to cap production at 8% below average production rates over the same time period. Whilst operating challenges are factored into the outlook on a global basis, mine supply risks are biased to the downside. Recycling supply chain constraints experienced in 2022 are continuing into 2023 causing more disruption than originally anticipated. In aggregate, recycling supply is down by 174,000 oz. versus previous expectations.

Consequently, total supply for 2023 is 236,000 oz. lower than previously forecast at 7.2 million oz., down 1% versus 2022.

Automotive demand is expected to total 3.3 million oz., up 12% on 2022 and 9,000 oz. up versus previous estimates due to ongoing strong substitution of platinum for palladium in gasoline vehicles as well as higher overall loadings, particularly in the heavy duty and non-road vehicle categories. Jewelry demand continues to face headwinds (China revised lower) and is expected to be down 2% year-on-year at 1.9 million oz. Total industrial demand is forecast at 2.6 million oz., up 17% year-on-year, which means 2023 is on-track to be the strongest year for industrial demand on record.

Glass capacity additions and to a lesser extent chemical capacity additions are the big drivers of the year-on-year growth of total industrial demand, offsetting slightly weaker year-on-year demand from the petroleum and electrical segments.

Investment demand has seen significant changes versus the last Platinum Quarterly outlook. Total investment demand for 2023 is expected to come to 433,000 oz., which is up 135,000 oz. versus last quarter’s outlook. Within this increase, however, is a 48,000 oz. reduction to bar and coin demand after a challenging start to 2023, although this is now showing signs of improvement. Bar and coin weakness is more than offset by a 162,000 oz. improvement in the outlook for ETF flows for the year and a 20,000 oz. increase in exchange stock flows. Previously expected to be negative in 2023, ETF flows are now projected to creep into positive territory (plus-30,000 oz.), while exchange stocks are expected to remain flat on 2022.

The net impact is for total demand of 8.2 million oz. in 2023, up 192,000 oz. from our last update.

Combining the weaker supply outlook and strong demand projections results in the projected deficit for 2023 increasing from 556,000 oz. (per the previous Platinum Quarterly) to a more significant deficit of 983,000 oz. This would be the deepest deficit in the current time-series going back to 2013. TNM

TNM DRILL DOWN:

Australia delivers week’s hottest gold assays

BY HENRY LAZENBY

Our TNM Drill Down features highlights of the top gold assays of the past week (May 26-June 2). Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by our data provider Mining Intelligence. (www.miningintelligence.com).

Two Australian and one Canada-based gold projects topped this week’s ranking of the best gold assays. On Jun. 1, Catalyst Metals (ASX: CYL) reported the week’s best assay at the Four Eagles project, which the company believes has the potential to entail an extension of the historical 22 million oz. Bendigo Goldfield of Victoria. The company reported that hole FEDD150 cut 6.5 metres grading 197.2 grams gold per tonne from 6293.8 metres depth for a width x grade value of 1,282. The latest assays show drilling intersected gold in seven holes at the Iris Zone. This takes the total number of holes reporting gold to 14 and extends the strike length of the known mineralization from 350 metres to 500 metres. The Iris Zone sits about 150 metres below the shallow mineralization at Boyd’s Dam, within a near-vertical shear zone striking almost north-south and containing rich quartz, often laminated with arsenopyrite and native gold.

Kaiser Reef (ASX: KAU) reported the week’s next-best intercept at the A1 gold mine in

Victoria. On May 29, the company said that hole A1UDG528 returned 0.3 metres grading 1,715 grams gold per tonne from 25.4 metres depth for a width x grade value of 515. The hole is part of the company’s 1410 South drilling program targeting the southern A1 Dyke between the 1410mRL to just below the 1350mRL areas. The target zone represents one of, if not the most, under-drilled portions of the A1 mine, which is much higher (more than 100 metres) in the mine than the

current production centre below the 1250mRL. Drilling resumed in the 1410 South Drive site testing a window of dyke around the historically mined Victory, Welcome and Dawn Reefs, as well as likely repeat structures in footwall and hanging-wall positions to these historically rich reefs. There is almost no exploration drilling data in this area. This historical data gap artifact may be attributed mainly to stope shadows and lack of historical investment in developing optimal drilling positions.

A Canada-focused joint venture reported the week’s third-best drill result. Kenorland Minerals (TSXV: KLD) and Sumitomo Metal Mining said on May 31 that hole 23RDD167 had cut 3.2 metres grading 138.74 grams gold per tonne from a depth of 466.45 metres for a width x grade value of 443.9. The 2023 winter drill program was mainly designed to test the strike and depth of several new vein discoveries of 2022, including the R5, R6, R7, and R8 structures. Drilling was

focused in an area between these new vein discoveries to the east and the R2 and R3 structures to the west, where there had been limited drilling to date. All drill holes intersected significant gold mineralization across multiple structures, linking the eastern vein discoveries to the western structures and defining a corridor of up to 1.8 kilometres of strike containing multiple sub-parallel vein structures hosting high-grade gold mineralization. TNM

Probe Gold’s Novador may hold 6M oz., Quebec project’s assays indicate

GOLD | Large regional players might want to buy it, analysts say

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Probe Gold’s (TSXV: PRB) latest assays from its Novador gold project in Quebec’s Abitibi region lengthen the strike, likely increase the resource and make it an acquisition target.

Toronto-based Probe’s 175-sq.-km Novador project, about 500 km northwest of Montreal, holds the past-producing Beliveau, Bussière and Monique mines. The site, 25 km east of Val-d’Or consists of three satellite areas, Monique, Pascalis and Courvan. Probe issued assay results for Novador, which used to be called Val-d’Or East, in a news release on May 30.

“At least 500 metres of strike length has been added to the known Courvan resource size between two previously defined open-pits,” Barry Allan, a mining analyst for Laurentian Bank, wrote in a note on May 30. “The high success rate of drilling suggests a total resource increase of 1 million oz. or more to over 6 million oz. total.”

The improved resource potential, following the tripling of the indicated gold resource at the Monique deposit in January, places the Novador project on a path to be acquired by an established mine builder with experience in the region, such as Agnico Eagle

Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM), Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD; NYSE: EGO) or Iamgold (TSX: IMG; NYSE: IAG), Allan said.

The new assays should lower the overall strip ratio when Probe updates a prefeasibility study later this year, the analyst said. It will incorporate an updated resource estimate for the Courvan and Pas-

calis deposits due next month. Standout assays include expansion drill hole CO-22-324 north of the former Bussiere mine, which cut 17.9 metres grading 9.2 grams gold per tonne from 63.1 metres downhole, Probe said. It’s one of 67 assays issued totalling 19,400 meters that all reported intercepts above a cutoff level of 0.4 gram gold per tonne.

Probe president and CEO David Palmer said the results align with success across the project as the company continues with more expansion drilling.

“We are seeing additional improvement in both grade and thickness and are achieving our objectives of resource improvement across all three deposits,”

Palmer said in the release. “With the exceptional drill results that have been coming in from the 2022 program, we will evaluate potential increases in annual production.”

Andrew Mikitchook, a mining analyst at BMO Capital Markets, also said Novador’s resource will increase and looks forward to results from the company’s exploration program this year, which has already drilled 45,000 metres.

“New parallel gold zones near the Bussiere and Creek deposits were identified through last year’s expansion drilling,” Mikitchook said in a note on May 30. “The Bussiere and Creek deposits have been drilled only at shallow depth. A few drill intercepts below 350 metres at the Creek deposit returned positive results, a potential indication that the deposit may remain open at depths.”

Allan said selling Novador would allow Probe to focus on the La Peltrie project near Detour Lake, Que., a copper-gold-silver-molybdenum deposit about 190 km north of Rouyn-Noranda in the Abitibi region. Probe is exploring it with Midland Exploration (TSXV: MD). Probe shares rose 7¢ to $1.68 each on the news before easing to $1.62 closer to press time, within 52-week range of $1.09 and $1.90, valuing the company at $257.4 million. TNM

Probe Gold’s Novador project sits on three past producing mines. PROBE GOLD

YMP Scholarship Fund offers 45 awards this year

HONOURS | $200,000, potential internships targeted for students

BY NORM TOLLINSKY

Applications for the 2023 Young Mining Professionals (YMP) Scholarship Fund are now open for students in mining-related programs at Canadian post-secondary institutions.

A total of 45 scholarships ranging in value from $2,000 to $15,000 will be awarded this year, up from 44 last year, courtesy of 23 sponsors. Reputed to be the largest mining scholarship program in the world, the YMP Scholarship Fund has grown from $12,000 in 2018, when it was co-founded by Stephen Stewart, chairman of the Ore Group, and Anthony Moreau, CEO of American Eagle Gold, to $200,000 this year. Since its inception, the fund has attracted sponsorships totalling $650,000.

In addition to the cash awards, many of the scholarships include opportunities for internships, offering students valuable experience in the mining industry. Many of these internships and relationships between scholarship winners and donors also lead to full time employment The deadline for applications is Aug. 31, 2023, with successful applicants to be announced on Oct. 1.

The Scholarship Fund’s mandate to support students pursuing post-secondary studies in a mining-related discipline also benefits sponsoring mining companies who use it as a means of identifying and recruiting “the best of the best to their organizations,” said Moreau, director of the scholarship program.

“If you’re a mining company looking for top talent, look no further than the YMP Scholarship Fund,” he said. “Last year, we received over 1,500 applications, so it’s an ideal way to recruit graduates of mining-related programs to your organization.”

Illustrating the importance of the fund to participating sponsors, Moreau cites the example of Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow, who personally called the winner of Barrick’s 2022 Peter Munk Scholarship to offer them employment.

“This individual had a job with

a company in another industry but was persuaded to join Barrick and stay in the mining industry that he had spent four years studying to join,” said Moreau. “It’s not every day that a student receives a call from the CEO of a $40-billion company, and it shows how much our

sponsors value the opportunity to recruit top talent by leveraging the Scholarship Fund.”

The fact that the fund is managed entirely by volunteers and that 100% of all money donated goes to students is also a factor in its success.

Many of the scholarships generally target students in mining programs, while others are available specifically to women, Indigenous students, new Canadians or residents of a region or province. Applicants are selected based on a combination of academic achievement, extracurricular activities, and essays or other submissions demonstrating innovative ideas and a commitment to the mining industry.

Applicants who are not successful scholarship recipients are automatically enrolled in a $5,000 Mining Lottery sponsored by YMP Toronto, Kinross and Sprott Inc. that will award a $500 prize to 10 students.

A complete list of YMP scholarships as well as eligibility and application requirements are on the YMP Scholarship website at www. ympscholarships.com/applications-2023.

Students may apply for as many scholarships as they qualify for.

The YMP Scholarship Fund, a registered Canadian charity offering tax receipts to donors, is always open to new sponsors both for this year’s program and future years. Companies and individuals interested in sponsoring a scholarship are encouraged to email scholarships@youngminingprofessionals. com. TNM

Ambler road decision in Alaska delayed again, this time to

mid-2024

INFRASTRUCTURE | 340-km road would link access to large copper-zinc projects

BY CECILIA JAMASMIE

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) has once again delayed the release of the record of decision (RoD) for the Ambler road project, which will give access to untouched deposits of copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold in northwestern Alaska.

The resolution on Trilogy Met als’ (TSX: TMQ; NYSE: TMQ) and South32’s (LSE: S32; ASX: S32; JSE: S32) proposed 340-km road from the Upper Kobuk Mineral Projects (UKMP) to the Dalton Highway is now expected in the second quar ter of 2024.

As of the late-May status report, the DOI was promising a decision by the end of the year.

The need for an industrial access road has been recognized by U.S. lawmakers for decades, but it wasn’t until 2020 that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) the Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Park Service issued a joint decision providing the federal authorizations needed to build it.

Last year, however, BLM suspended the permits issued under the Trump administration, citing a

lack of adequate consultation with Alaska tribes and evaluation of the road’s potential impacts on fish and caribou habitats. The Biden administration sus-

pended at the time the issuing of permits for all projects that cross federal lands. The Ambler access road would cut through gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve,

crossing 11 major rivers and thousands of streams.

Ambler Metals, formed in 2019 by Trilogy Metals and South32, said the fresh “unnecessary” delay

threatened a project that will provide much-needed jobs and economic growth for Alaskans.

“We are obviously disappointed to hear the latest status update from the DOI,” president and CEO Ramzi Fawaz said in the statement.

“It has been a year since the court granted DOI’s request for a voluntary remand of the permit, providing ample time for the department to conduct the needed supplemental work on the EIS”, Fawaz added.

The UKMP projects, consisting of Arctic and earlier-stage Bornite copper assets, have a combined resource of 8 billion lb. of copper, 3 billion lb. of zinc and 1 million oz. of gold equivalent.

The proposed mine is expected to produce more than 159 million lb. of copper, 199 million lb. of zinc, 33 million lb. of lead, 30,600 oz. of gold and 3.3 million oz. of silver annually over a 12-year mine life.

Based on studies conducted by Chile’s Codelco, the global energy transition to confront climate change will raise demand for the metal from 25 million tonnes per year now to just over 31 million tonnes in 2032. TNM

Some of the winners of Young Mining Professionals’ scholarships in 2022. JONAH ODLOZINSKI

The route of the proposed Ambler Access Project in Alaska. TRILOGY METALS

Worker pay to beat oil as mine’s biggest expense, new data indicate

COSTMINE | Inflation hits opex harder than capex

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Labour is replacing oil products as a mine’s most expensive item as inflation impacts operating expenses more than capital costs, new reports show.

Wages for some copper and gold mine employees in the southwest United States increased by around 10% in the last year and a half, helping raise hourly pay by 4% at unionized and non-union surface and underground metal and industrial mineral mines across the U.S., according to Costmine Intelligence, a unit of The Northern Miner Group.

The trend is part of 30% higher labour costs since the 2015 commodity bear market, Costmine vice-president Mike Sinden said in an interview in early June. Barring another oil price shock, U.S. workforce costs are expected to be the fastest increasing element in a mine’s expenses, Sinden said. For open pit mines, he says labour could exceed half of their costs.

“As non-unionized labour gains bargaining power and union contracts roll off, we expect to see double-digit labour costs,” Sinden said. “That could really add fuel to the fire if energy prices stay strong.”

Labour costs are rising in Canada and the U.S. at a similar pace when accounting for foreign exchange. Until 2021, wage cost increases largely matched inflation at around 2% to 4%, but last year saw some pay increases of 5% to 12%, Costmine data show. Salaried staff saw similar increases.

The workforce accounts for some 43% of operating costs at a surface mine while oil-based products — such as fuel, explosives and tires — account for just less than half, Costmine data show. Labour at 24% is less of a component to run a mill, where 21.5% of operating costs is grinding media. But oilbased products make up about half

of the mill’s operating costs.

The price of a common big-ticket item, a 100-ton hauling truck, has increased little from US$1.6 million eight years ago, but the cost of running it has rocketed the most on a Costmine index of operating expenses that also included a locomotive and a conveyor belt.

The inflation factor

A truck that was US$108 an hour to run in 2015, cost US$175 an hour last year. There have also been several reports of underground jumbo drill operators earning US$100 an hour, two to three times what Costmine has tallied in the past, Sinden said. As forecasts call for constructing hundreds of mines for the metals to tackle climate change, there’s bound to be a crunch.

“The theme is going to be cost inflation,” Sinden said. “Everyone’s going to rush to develop a mine, going to want labour, want a jumbo drill and 100-ton trucks. And the next 10 years are going to be really spicy when it comes to inflation.”

One somewhat hidden aspect of the pay raises is the role bonuses have increasingly played over

recent decades, Sinden said. Some 70% of U.S. mines offer bonuses, many tied to production, attendance and commodity prices. They will further drive wage inflation if shortages spur metal price hikes.

The bonus figure for Canada is about 41% of mines, but data are incomplete, Costmine says. In the U.S., bonus plans are found at about 90% of coal mines, which can siphon 5% to 15% of a mine’s profit. Coal prices shot up after the war in Ukraine cut off Russian gas supplies to Europe, and metallurgical coal for steel production similarly rocketed. Only about 20% of coal mines offered bonuses in the 1980s, Sinden said.

Globally, a semblance of parity in surface mine operating costs is emerging among jurisdictions, Costmine data show. Australia has the smoothest trends compared with the U.S. and Canada because 52% of its costs are attributable to unionized labour. Still, Canada has just under 90% of its mine employees unionized, while it’s about 43% in the U.S., Costmine says.

That means the impact of inflation would be felt slower in Canada

because of “sticky” contracts compared with the more flexible U.S. labour market, the analysis unit says.

In capital costs, economies reopening in 2020-21 after the worst of the pandemic drove steel prices higher, then the Russia-Ukraine war increased energy prices, especially metallurgical coal for steel, and supply chain constraints kept prices elevated. Steel prices have since eased but the potential for volatility remains, Sinden said.

Equipment that is more special-

ized, such as conveyor belts linking specific operations, tends to show higher inflation than haulage trucks that are common across mines, the data show.

“Ultimately, capex will rely on your view of steel prices and to some degree, copper, zinc and nickel,” Sinden said. “But again, labour could creep into this equation. At current levels, a flattening of capex escalation would be a reasonable assumption, but the labour component of capex could drive the next leg higher in inflation.” TNM

Dundee’s process innovations help miners get greener

ENVIRONMENT | Firm’s tech scrubs toxins from extraction, processing at mines

BY NORTHERN MINER STAFF

The mining and smelting industry has faced environmental risks for decades, but now new mineral extraction and metallurgical technologies are helping to mitigate them.

Dundee Sustainable Technologies has developed two key technologies: CLEVR, a cyanide-free gold extraction process; and GlassLock, a process for the removal and stabilization of arsenic.

“What we were really trying to do was address some of the challenges that the industry is facing in terms of environmental challenges and metallurgical challenges and that’s what really drove us [to innovate],” the company’s president and CEO, Jean-Philippe Mai, said on the Process Innovation Panel at the Global Mining Symposium at the TSX on May 25. “Both of our processes have been developed and demonstrated at the industrial scale and we are now commercializing them within the mining industry.”

The CLEVR process offers a cleaner, more efficient, and cost-effective alternative for gold extraction, Mai said. It doesn’t use cyanide or produce toxic liq-

uid or gaseous effluents. The process cuts contact times from more than 36 hours to about two hours, and is a closed loop, which means all reagents are re-circulated. That eliminates the need for tailings ponds.

The company’s GlassLock process removes the arsenic often linked to gold, copper, silver or polymetallic deposits, and incorporates it into a stable and insoluble glass product that can contain up to 20% arsenic.

Applications can include metal-

lurgical flue dusts (smelting); mineral concentrates (arsenopyrite, cobaltite, enargite, and tennantite); soluble arsenic in Pregnant Leach Solutions (PLS), acidic or alkaline; and arsenic in tailings, tailing drainages and wastewater.

Novel technologies like these ones are critical for a greener future, he argued.

“We know that mining is a rather conservative industry, however there’s always been a desire and a strong interest for project developers and miners to innovate and

improve their projects through processes, improved ESG policies and actions,” he told The Northern Miner’s Editor-in-Chief Alisha Hiyate, who moderated the panel. “With a lack of or very few really novel innovations and processes to be offered to the industry I think now we are filling in one of these gaps here.”

Mai, who has spent more than 15 years in the mining industry as a geologist, senior project manager and executive in coal, base metals and gold projects in Canada, Australia and South America, noted

that the new technologies will cut costs as well as meet increasingly stringent environmental requirements.

“A true definition of innovation is processes that are improving operational efficiencies and improving environmental practices,” he said, adding that changing recovery methods has a huge impact on the project, whether it is reducing its footprint, eliminating the use of tailings ponds, using dry stack tailings or removing contaminants. “All of these aspects can definitely improve the economics of a project,” he said.

Dundee works with project developers and miners to test and apply its processes on specific projects, ore, and mineralogy.

“Typically, a company can send us some samples, we’ll run some preliminary test work, some optimization test work and then using the data that is generated by using our industrial demonstration campaign, we can build numeric process models and then output opex and capital costs associated with the incorporation of our processes within a specific project,” Mai said.

The Montreal-headquartered Dundee has more than 50 patents in more than 15 countries. TNM

Costmine vice-president Mike Sinden speaks at GMS in Toronto. ERIK ROTTER PHOTOGRAPHY

Dundee Sustainable Technologies president and CEO, Jean-Philippe Mai (second from left), participates in a thought-leadership panel during the recent GMS event ERIK ROTTER PHOTOGRAPHY

Quebec touts funding from $400 billion pension for battery metal projects

GMS | Unique financing model helps advance exploration, mining

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Quebec is becoming known for mining project funding that hands out several hundred million dollars a year and promotes the province as a battery metals hotspot.

The province’s funding structure features Investment Quebec with its ability to tap funds from the province’s $402 billion pension plan, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Resources Quebec, a unit of Investment Quebec, oversees mining funding from the $1 billion Natural Resources and Energy Fund, and $600 million held by Resources Quebec.

There are no set limits, but it averages about $200 million a year in exploration and project funding, Amyot Choquette, senior director of investment at Resources Quebec, told The Northern Miner’s Global Mining Symposium on May 25 at the Toronto Stock Exchange. Last year’s amount was $116.8 million, less than half the previous year’s $259.2 million because some investment decisions landed after the year-end, he said.

“It’s just a question of timing of projects coming in,” Choquette said. “We invest in construction projects and we can write large investments a big ticket, $5 million or $100 million and more.”

Quebec holds a handful of debt and royalties in companies and equity stakes in about a dozen others including Nouveau Monde Graphite (TSXV: NOU; NYSE: NMG) and Mason Graphite (TSXV: LLG; US-OTC: MGPHF), which are advancing the Uatnan project. It also owns part of North American Lithium, which restarted its plant 60 km north of Val-d’Or in March and is controlled by Sayona Mining (ASX: SYA) and Piedmont Lithium (NASDAQ: PLL, ASX: PLL).

The Société Québécoise d’explo-

ration minière, known as Soquem, also funds about $15 million a year in exploration. And separate from Investment Quebec is the smaller Diversification of Exploration Investment Partnership (Sidex) with a funding budget of about $7 million a year.

Formed in 2001 by the province and its largest labour union, the FTQ, Sidex grants $50,000 to $1.5 million each in equity investments to about 25 mostly exploration projects a year, president and CEO Paul Carmel told the symposium.

Sidex has aided many of the lithium projects in a hotspot east of James Bay making up almost half of Canada’s more than 400 mostly early-stage lithium projects. Quebec is keen to invest in battery metal exploration to become a major supplier to North American automakers. The province wants to expand its mineral success beyond the nearly half of its investments in gold, copper and zinc, and a con-

centration in the Abitibi region which has Canada’s largest gold mine, Canadian Malartic, run by Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM).

“We really like to encourage exploration in new geological contexts and in a variety of commodities,” Carmel said. “So if you come to us with a gold propped in the Abitibi, we go okay, you know, we’ll look at it, it’s interesting. But if you come to us with a nickel project in a different geological context altogether, it kind of goes to the top of the pile and gets our attention.”

Support pays off

Quebec also owns half of Nemaska Lithium after an earlier version of the company failed in 2019 and the province lost $71 million, showing that even the green energy transition has risks. The other half is held by Livent (NYSE: LTHM) and Allkem (TSX: AKE; ASX: AKE) which merged last month to form

the third-largest lithium miner. Nemaska was boosted last month with the signing of a deal to annually supply Ford with 13,000 tonnes of lithium for 11 years.

“When you start seeing off-take agreements, that means it’s getting really hot and it’s become the next kind of frontier,” Carmel said. “What’s different is that it’s actually led to economic mines, juniors are actually putting these things into production.”

Quebec has incentives including unique-in-Canada refunds of 8% of exploration-related development or 16% of pre-production development; allowances for projects in northern Quebec that cover 25% of exploration expenses and for bringing projects into production; and a 15-year tax holiday for major investment projects.

There’s also the resource tax credit, which provides a refund of up to 38.75% of eligible exploration expenses; and a bonus to the typi-

SCP Resource Finance enters the critical fray

GMS | New firm forms amid precious, critical metal tailwinds

BY BLAIR MCBRIDE

Mere weeks after its formation, SCP Resource Finance is ready to bring its mining finance expertise offering to clients.

The newly constituted Toronto-based company developed from a management-led buyout from Sprott Inc in early May, with a resulting name change from Sprott Capital Partners to SCP Resource Finance LP.

“[We’re] a sell-side broker, but mining specialist. We focus on finding world class assets across multiple commodities,” Brandon Gaspar, vice president, research analyst at SCP Resource Finance told The Northern Miner in a May 25 interview at the GMS in Toronto.

Gaspar also joined Northern Miner Group president Anthony Vaccaro on stage at GMS for a discussion on commodities and critical minerals.

While SCP’s name might be new, its day-to-day operations are largely the same and it aims to continue bringing its expertise and

knowledge to its work with clients.

“Everybody on our team has significant industry experience in commodities, from lithium to rare earths; [we have] mining engineers, geologists, chemical engineers. It’s unique and definitely a strong suit of ours,” Gaspar said, adding that the team’s knowledge equips it to

find quality assets for foreign investments and institutional clients.

SCP’s entry into the mining finance sector also comes as critical minerals grow to be an ever-larger concern in Canada, with explorers such as LithiumBank Resources and Volt Lithium in Alberta experiencing share price peaks on the

news last month of new recovery methods in oil well brines. In late May, Quebec’s Nemaska Lithium also inked an agreement with Ford Motor Co to supply the automaker with up to 13,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide per year, produced at the company’s plant in Bécancour, Que.

Those developments come as lithium carbonate prices, at US$42,100 per tonne, are still far below record highs from a year ago of US$69,450, according to data from the Wall Street Journal

“Precious metals [are] looking very strong here. And then you also have the critical mineral movements and it’s sort of a double avenue for unprecedented growth on multiple fronts,” Gaspar said. “For us at SCP it’s a very important year… because we’re just getting started…and now we’re fully independent and have that flexibility to capitalize on multiple avenues of what’s happening in the mining sector right now. It’s perfect timing.”

cal Canadian flow-through share system, where investors in Quebec can deduct up to 120% of the cost of their investment.

Sidex, which began with a $50 million cash pool, is valued at $75 million this year and has a portfolio invested in about 50 companies, Carmel said.

The province’s penchant for investing in mines stretches across political parties and back to when Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A, TECK.B; NYSE: TECK) and Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) were small and the provincial pension plan bought the third-highest stakes in each, recalled Carmel, who worked at the plan years ago.

“Investing is just in our DNA, it sort of has to be there,” Carmel said. “l’ve had calls from other provinces trying to duplicate a Sidex. But you really have to have the desire, the government has to actually want to do it. You know, you can lead a horse to water.” TNM

EDITORIAL from 4

als are essential and many critical minerals including lithium were at all time commodity highs. The combination of the Critical Mineral Tax Credit and the Charity Flow-through structure resulted in over $350 million invested in Canada in the first 12 months. Commodity prices have fallen with the falling pricing resuting in reduced financing activity. The new AMT rules will take the wind out of what was a great incentive. Comparatively, if grants were used instead of tax credits, progress would have been sluggish, plagued by endless deliberations and bureaucratic processes.

The impact of these changes extends beyond a specific group; it affects all stakeholders. Ultimately, everybody loses in this scenario, and the consequences are far-reaching.

The new AMT measures threaten to derail the progress made in the junior finance sector, limit funding for crucial exploration projects, and discourage individuals from supporting charitable causes. These unintended consequences must be taken seriously, and policymakers need to reconsider the impact of these measures on the overall economy. Striking a balance between tax fairness and supporting economic growth is essential. TNM

Sidex president and CEO Paul Carmel (L) and Amyot Choquette (middle), senior director of investment at Resources Quebec in conversation. ERIK ROTTER PHOTOGRAPHY

Peter Grosskopf, who was CEO of Sprott from 2010 — 2022 will continue as CEO of SCP. TNM

Brandon Gaspar (L), VP, research analyst at SCP Resource Finance. ERIK ROTTER

Canadian Mining Hall of Fame looks to the future with newest inductees

HONOURS | New members hailed for enhancing environmental ethics, innovation and prominence of Canadian mining industry

BY BLAIR MCBRIDE

The Canadian Mining Hall of Fame (CMHF) held its 35th annual induction ceremony on May 24 at the Carlu in Toronto, welcoming three new honourees, and bringing total membership up to 203.

The gala celebration, attended by around 530 people, was hosted by The Northern Miner Group’s president, Anthony Vaccaro, and the president and CEO of the Mining Association of Canada, Pierre Gratton.

Jim Cooney:

A non-miner no longer

The first inductee of the night was Jim Cooney, who promoted the concept of sustainable development and encouraged the adoption of policies to improve mining’s environmental and social impacts.

In 1976, he was hired “as an outsider” by Cominco (now Teck Resources) as a researcher with the company’s strategic planning group. He would eventually become a leading advocate for sustainable development in mining, particularly at Placer Dome which became the first mining company to adopt a corporate sustainable development policy in 1997.

In a video interview, Cooney said his first assignment was to go to Tanzania to prepare a country risk assessment, a task he was given for his unique perspectives based on his study of political science at Georgetown University and Asian languages and philosophy at the University of Toronto. Those perspectives set him apart from most people in the business.

He was inspired by the UN’s Brundtland Commission’s 1987 report “Our Common Future,” which formally introduced sustainable development in its report. But, five years later when Cooney learned that no mining companies had attended the Rio Earth Summit, he realized the mining world

was lagging behind.

“There was resistance to sustainable development when I first proposed it,” he said.

In a meeting with the World Bank in 1997, he introduced the concept of “social licence to operate” to explain the risk of conflicts between the mining industry and host communities. That concept has since spread throughout the industry.

Before presenting the Hall of Fame award to Cooney, MAC’s Gratton recalled how Cooney had inspired him in Gratton’s first address to the Vancouver Board of Trade several years ago.

“Jim gave me the idea… on how our sector’s complexity calls for an immense diversity of talent, including even theologians and linguists like Jim,” Gratton said. “Sustainable mining, which is now being implemented in 13 countries worldwide continues to expand. It would not have been possible if there hadn’t been a Jim Cooney laying the groundwork for all of this work.”

In his acceptance speech, Cooney received roaring applause when told the audience the Hall of Fame event symbolizes that his transformation from non-miner to miner is complete.

“My three children... were the primary motivators of my career in the mining industry, inspiring me to do whatever I could think of to stay employed, so essentially,

I started thinking of sustainable development and social licence, and it worked. I kept my job!” he joked.

“Sustainable development essentially means that the economic, environmental and social dimensions of any industrial activity... must be continuously rebalanced and reintegrated, always with a focus on the long- term well-being of humanity and the planet. This means that the mining industry must engage in a never- ending effort to find compromise, and build consensus with those whose values and priorities differ from ours.”

While Cooney said he was alone in the industry when he first advocated for sustainable development and introduced social licence, he noted that he wasn’t alone for long.

He singled out John Wilson, CEO of Placer from 1993 to 2000, whose encouragement and enthusiasm made possible Cooney’s contributions to mining.

“I feel proud, very proud that Placer Dome became the first mining company to embrace sustainable development and social licence and that so many other mining companies individually and through their industry associations followed suit,” Cooney said. “This industry’s ability to redefine itself and adapt to changing expectations and demands is truly extraordinary.”

Douglas Balfour Silver: Infinitely curious

The second inductee was Douglas Balfour Silver, whose unique skills in valuations and appraisals helped improve due diligence in the mining industry, and he created several highly valuable royalty portfolios in Canada.

Raised in New Jersey, Silver studied zoology and geology before completing a master’s degree in economic geology at the University of Arizona. Not one to sit still, Silver explained in a tribute video that he inherited a “genetic disorder” from his mother that makes him infinitely curious.

“I’ve switched about five or six times in different aspects of the

mining industry, always because it just sounded more interesting or it was new, and I wanted change,” he said. “Change is good. I’ve always benefited from change.”

In 1987, he launched Colorado-based Balfour Holdings, and built comprehensive databases on mining issues as his fascination with data propelled him forward.

He recalled in a tribute video being one of the first discoverers of the high-grade Silver Creek molybdenum deposit in Colorado, although it was too deep to develop into a mine. He recounted how in those pre-computer days, his team spent eight months drawing isometric diagrams by hand trying to figure out where the deposit was.

“The thrill you get from making major mineral discoveries is

Jim Cooney

Douglas Balfour Silver

“I feel proud, very proud that Placer Dome became the first mining company to embrace sustainable development and social licence.” — JIM COONEY

Phillip John Mackey, inducted into the hall of fame in 2022, sits with his wife Angele at the gala dinner on May 25. MORGAN HOTSTON/CMHF

like nothing else in the world. But what it did was put me on a path of thinking about doing things first. Your life is actually a series of firsts,” he said.

When the industry went into a downturn, Silver went back to school to study appraisal theory. He leveraged that education into Balfour Holdings.

“At the time, I don’t think there were five people in the world that had both a mining background and an appraisal background,” he said. “Balfour Holdings became a premier place for people to get appraisals because I had this dual skill set. It was a marvelous way to be very heavily embedded in the acquisition and mergers business.”

His foray into Canadian mining began with his founding of the Denver Gold Group in 1989, a forum to link gold companies with institutional investors.

Several years later, Silver joined private equity firm Orion Resource Partners, and built a royalty portfolio that eventually sold for $1.1 billion to Osisko Gold Royalties, one of the largest royalty transactions ever.

But Silver’s career has been about more than big deals. He has always valued education and people, making donations to higher education in the mineral sector, as well as time and effort to mentoring students. He has also supported the advancement of women in mining.

“That never made sense to me about this glass ceiling,” he said in a video. “Women can multitask and one industry that needs multitasking is mining. We’re seeing a lot more women CEOs, we’re seeing a lot more women on boards, but it’s been long overdue, and I did what I could to break the glass.”

After TNM’s Vaccaro presented the award to Silver, he said he’s been a closet Canadian for decades and the CMHF gala is his coming out party.

“There are more public mineral and mining companies in Canada than anywhere else in the world. This is like… winning an Olympic gold medal in hockey and dare I say against the Americans.”

Silver closed by thanking his ex-wife for raising their children, allowing him the freedom to do the work that made him successful.

“I think a lot of times recipients of awards don’t appreciate what their significant others do for them. Thank you and for all the significant others regardless of pronoun, thank you.”

Alexander John Davidson: From the bush to the biggest deposits in Peru

Alex Davidson, the final inductee of 2023, has been behind the discovery of major deposits in Canada and South America, and his leadership within Barrick Gold helped advance the company into the world’s leading gold producer.

Born in Montreal, Davidson graduated from McGill University in 1976 with a M.Sc. degree in economic geology.

His drive to apply geology in a hands-on way soon took him to an exploration project in northern Quebec, where Indigenous people taught him how to survive in the bush.

“They taught me how to capture rabbits with a snare, fish with a broken line, never wash because the soap attracts mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies, and also how to strike a tent and put up camp in the rain. It was an invaluable exercise,” he recalled in a tribute video.

Not long after, he was leading an exploration program for a predecessor of Cameco in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin, where his team drilled the discovery hole at the McArthur Lake uranium deposit.

After joining Falconbridge Cop-

per in Ontario in 1980, Davidson helped discover the high-grade Winston Lake zinc deposit, which produced from 1988 to 1999.

His success led him to Barrick in 1993, a firm that he described as very small but with big ambitions, and led at the time by CMHF inductees Peter Munk and Robert Smith.

“That’s why we went down to Peru. It was a very motivated team and it was a lot of fun to work there,” Davidson said.

After the company discovered the Pierina deposit in Peru, Davidson’s team found the even-larger Lagunas Norte deposit. It eventually produced more than 10 million oz. of gold.

His work helped raise the profile of Canadian mining and earned him the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s Prospector of the Year Award in 2003, the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum’s A.O. Dufresne Award in 2005 and the Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration’s Charles F. Rand Gold Medal in 2019.

After accepting his award onstage, Davidson noted the rich history of mining in Canada and its contribution to employment and as a driver of innovation, technology and sustainability.

“I’m proud to be part of an industry that has had such a positive impact on the lives of people not only here in Canada, but around the world,” he said.

While he acknowledged that some of the largest historical Cana-

dian mining companies like Falconbridge, Noranda and Alcan are gone, Davidson said their important components are still here.

“We didn’t lose their orebodies or their mines. They didn’t move an inch. We didn’t lose their people either.

“Here in Canada, we have an amazing ability to create new wealth, with many new successful companies doing excellent exploration. Just think about how many new mining companies we’ve created and how many new mines we have found here in Canada… since the Leafs last won the Stanley Cup.”

A key path to keeping the industry alive is education, a cause that Davidson and his wife Gillian champion through their $1-million Alex and Gillian Davidson Family Endowment for Indigenous Students in Canada.

“I think Indigenous students can become strong proponents of and indeed leaders of its industry, but we have to provide the means for those students to get through their studies.” TNM

Alexander John Davidson

“They taught me how to capture rabbits with a snare, fish with a broken line, never wash because it attracts mosquitoes, black flies and deer flies, and also how to strike a tent and put up camp in the rain. It was an invaluable experience.”

– ALEXANDER JOHN DAVIDSON

The yearly CMHF induction ceremony is a glamorous affair. MORGAN HOTSTON/CMHF

2022 inductee Maureen C. Jensen was among the 530 people who attended this year’s event. MORGAN HOTSTON/CMHF

Mining Association of Canada CEO Pierre Gratton speaks about Jim Cooney’s influence on mining. MORGAN HOTSTON/CMHF

How big can MPD get? Kodiak Copper drilling to expand mineral footprint

SITE VISIT | MPD has all the hallmarks of a district-scale, multi-centered porphyry system

BY HENRY LAZENBY

When mineral mastermind Chris Taylor gets behind a grassroots exploration project it behooves investors to sit up and pay attention – he did after all sell an Ontario pre-resource stage gold project for $1.8 billion in hard cash and is looking to repeat that success with brainchild Kodiak Copper (TSXV: KDK; USOTC: KDKCF).

Kodiak’s most advanced asset is its MPD copper-gold porphyry project in the Quesnel Trough in south-central British Columbia –a multi-centered porphyry system that is slowly giving up its secrets.

The explorer’s share price gathered momentum since 2020 after discovering the Gate Zone, which has high-grade mineralization within a wide mineralized envelope. President and CEO Claudia Tornquist tells The Northern Miner that while Kodiak could ostensibly work towards a resource estimate, its chosen strategy entails continuing with an aggressive drilling program using up to three rigs this year to find other Gate Zone-like porphyries on the property.

Kodiak was founded by chairman Taylor, the founder and CEO of Great Bear Resources which was acquired by Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) for its Dixie gold project early last year.

Tornquist says MPD hosts several targets with similar discovery potential, much like Great Bear was able to find the LP Fault zone where others had looked but couldn’t quite figure it out. Kodiak benefits from a consolidated land package, and is armed with new geotechnical data overlaying the historical data left by prior project proponents.

“Kodiak is in many ways a similar story to Great Bear. We took a project that lots of people had already looked at. Chris with his creativity and out-of-the-box thinking came up with a different approach, a different model and that led to a big discovery success,” Tornquist said during a recent site visit.

The company hosted a group of analysts and media representatives at its field office in Merritt, about three hours east of Vancouver, at the MPD project site, another hour south by forest service road. At the Merritt core shack, the geology team enthused about the most recent drill cores, while at MPD, tour attendees saw many blue-coloured rocks of azurite, malachite and magnetic magnetite scattered in kilometres-long trenches dug by previous explorers.

The project is near producing mines — Copper Mountain, Highland Valley and New Afton. And what’s more, Teck Resources (TSX: TECK.A/TECK.B; NYSE: TECK) took a 9.9% interest in Kodiak soon after the Gate Zone discovery was announced.

“Teck invested right after our discovery in 2020 and in our most recent financing they have been a very supportive partner,” Tornquist says.

Consolidated package

While the MPD property has seen more than 50,000 metres of drilling since the 1960s through to 2018, with previous operators including Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM), Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO; LSE: RIO), Cominco and Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO), Taylor was able to consolidate the separate land packages for the first time, allowing for

the first detailed regional analysis of historical data.

Kodiak’s MPD project encompasses 226 sq. km and although it’s located amidst well-developed infrastructure in highly prospective copper country, the project had seen shallow drilling that rarely reached below 400 metres.

The property is in rolling terrain with a maximum elevation of 1,735 metres above sea level. The vegetation includes commercial stands of fir and lodgepole pine. A large portion of the property is covered by forestry cut blocks and logging roads which some of the geologists on the team say they often follow to prospect for mineralized outcrops.

The local infrastructure also includes a 238 kV power transmission corridor on the southwestern

(Axe) portion of the property that parallels highway 5A.

The team identified many mineralized showings and trends with copper confirmed across several large areas by soils, rock, drilling and trenches.

The work culminated in 2019 with the company’s initial drill program with immediate success. The Gate Zone discovery hole returned 102 metres of 0.53% copper and 0.16 grams gold per tonne (or 0.68% copper-equivalent) which was the best hole in the property’s 50-year history.

By 2022, Kodiak had extended the Gate Zone discovery to one kilometre in a north-south orientation 350 metres east-west and to 900 metres deep. It also identified a 400 metre-long, parallel cop-

des hosted by variably to intensely altered porphyritic diorite, associated breccia systems, and altered intermediate volcanic host rocks.

The current drill programs are focused on determining the alteration and structural controls and the orientation of mineralization within each porphyritic system.

This year, the company has set itself a budget for 25,000 metres of drilling. The team has identified 18 prospective target areas, only three of which have seen significant drilling by the company — the Gate, Prime and Dillard zones.

Ward says the plan this year entails targeting the original MPD North claims, including the Man, Beyer, Dillard East, Blue, Sky and Eclipse areas. The MPD South claims (formerly called the Axe zone), include the 1516, South and West Zones.

Kodiak also plans to undertake 25-line kilometres of new 3D induced polarization surveying and take about 1,500 soil samples to advance newer prospects to drill-readiness.

Further, in the Man Zone, new 3D induced polarization anomalies (chargeability and resistivity) define a drill target to a depth of 600 metres and below historic depths of drilling, according to Ward.

There’s more upside at the MPD South zone too. Ward says several porphyry copper-gold mineralization centres underlie the claims which host the highest-grade historical copper-gold values reported in drill core on the project. There were 111 metres of 0.56% copper at Adit, 124.5 metres of 0.38% copper and 0.22 grams gold per tonne at the West Zone.

“I’m as excited about MPD South as about Gate. With this round of drilling we’re going in with much more data and information. I mean we’ve already drilled into bornite –the holy grail for high-grade porphyry copper,” Ward says.

He says that like the Gate Zone, the MPD South zones exhibit corresponding chargeability and conductivity geophysical anomalies located on a north-westerly trending magnetic low structural break. “We’re paying close attention to the geochemistry which no-one had access to before due to the fragmented land package.”

Meanwhile, work last year confirmed significant copper-gold-molybdenum anomalies in soil at the 1516 target area, within a broader 2,200 by 400 metre anomalous zone identified by previous operators.

per-porphyry trend at the nearby Prime Zone, and started testing the Dillard area.

Last year, Kodiak announced the high-grade gold-silver Beyer Zone discovery during trenching which returned 3.02 grams gold per tonne and 24.18 grams silver over 12 metres, and 9.11 grams gold and 24 grams silver over 2 metres.

Big game hunting MPD has all the hallmarks of a district-scale, multi-centered porphyry system with several previously drilled targets with similar signatures to the Gate Zone yet to be tested, VP for exploration Jeff Ward tells the tour group.

He explains the copper-gold mineralization occurs as disseminations and fracture-filling sulphi-

While Kodiak chose to examine how big MPD’s footprint and how high the grades can get before constraining a resource, Tornquist pointed out that GT Gold’s 2021 acquisition by Newmont for $393 million was a good example of what could happen. GT Gold made two significant discoveries on the Tatogga property, in B.C. — Saddle South, a precious metal rich vein system and Saddle North, a goldrich copper porphyry system.

“They got taken out the moment they released a resource,” Tornquist says. “We’re still in discovery mode – if Gate is our gateway, there is plenty more porphyry upside to seize.”

Kodiak shares are down nearly 40% since the start of the year, but are still up 27% since the Gate discovery was announced in 2020. The stock had tested 50¢ and $1.48 over the past 12 months and has a current market capitalization of $44.7 million. TNM

“I MEAN WE’VE ALREADY DRILLED INTO BORNITE –THE HOLY GRAIL FOR HIGH-GRADE PORPHYRY COPPER.”

JEFF WARD, VP FOR EXPLORATION

Left: Kodiak Copper CEO Claudia Tornquist. Right: An XRF gun shows a strong copper reading of a grab sample taken from Kodiak Copper s MPD project in southern B.C. HENRY LAZENBY

Kodiak Copper s 2023 drilling gets underway at the West target at MPD South. HENRY LAZENBY

TOP 10 AUSTRALIAN JUNIORS EXPLORING IN CANADA

AUSTRALIAN PROSPECTORS SHOW PROMISE IN CANADA

BY SARAH HAHN

The following companies are the Top Ten Australianheadquartered juniors with a market capitalization of less than $1 billion, and have one or more active exploration projects in Canada, ranked according to market capitalization as of May 15 and compiled by Mining Intelligence.

1 WINSOME RESOURCES MARKET CAP: $257.6 million

Lithium explorer and developer Winsome Resources (ASX: WR1) is focused on advancing its flagship Cancet project, located in the James Bay region of Quebec, 155 km east of the town of Radisson.

To date, 5,216 metres have been drilled across 59 holes on the 200-sq.-km project. After conducting metallurgical test work, the company believes it can produce low-cost, low-impact concentrate at Cancet.

Winsome plans to increase the project’s lithium tonnage by exploring additional targets identified to the east and west.

The company’s portfolio includes four other projects in Quebec: Adina and Sirmac-Clappier in the James Bay region, and Decelles and Mazarac near Val-d’Or.

Further drilling in 2023 is also planned at Adina, where previous drill results returned 107.6 metres grading 1.34% lithium oxide (Li2O) starting from 2.3 metres, including 30 metres grading 2.21% from 41 metres.

In addition to its Quebec projects, Winsome holds a 10% stake in Power Metals (TSXV: PWM), which owns the lithium-cesium-tantalum Case Lake property near the Ontario-Quebec border.

2 BURGUNDY DIAMOND MINES

MARKET CAP: $93.2 million Burgundy Diamond Mines (ASX: BDM) holds a 40% interest in the Naujaat Diamond Project, with North Arrow Minerals (TSXV: NAR) owning the other 60%.

The 107.4-sq-km property is located 9 km northeast of the hamlet of Naujaat in Nunavut and is Canada’s largest undeveloped diamond property controlled by a junior.

Eight kimberlite pipes have been identified at the project, with the Q1-4 kimberlite pipe being the most diamondiferous. It has been estimated that the Q1-4 pipe hosts inferred resources of 48.8 million tonnes grading 26.1 million carats for an average total diamond content of 53.6 carats per hundred tonnes, according to a May 2013 resource estimate.

In 2021, two fancy colour dia-

monds were recovered from a bulk sample from the Q1-4 deposit. Weighing 0.31 and 0.21 carats, they are the two largest polished fancy colour diamonds produced from Naujaat to date, with a yield of approximately 38% each. The yield of a rough diamond is determined by the rough diamond’s shape, size, and quality, as well as the desired specifications of the finished diamond. The diamonds were cut and polished at the Burgundy facility in Perth, Australia.

Drilling at Naujaat is tentatively planned for summer 2023, with an updated NI 43-101 resource statement to follow.

Burgundy has also agreed to acquire the Ekati diamond mine in the Northwest Territories, the company announced in a Mar. 14 news release.

Located 300 km northeast of Yellowknife, Ekati hosts the Sable open pit mine and Misery underground operations and has produced high-quality diamonds since 1998 (though operations temporarily ceased in 2020 due to the Covid19 pandemic).

The current mine life of Ekati is set to run until 2028 but it could extend longer if deeper resources can be successfully extracted.

Burgundy also has the La Victoria gold and silver project in Peru and is working towards a discovery in Botswana in collaboration with Diamond Exploration Strategies Ltd.

3 ASTON MINERALS

MARKET CAP: $80.9 million

Aston Minerals (ASX: ASO), a nickel-cobalt and gold exploration company, continues advancing its Edleston project within the Abitibi greenstone belt. The project sits approximately 60 km south of Timmins, Ont. between Alamos Gold’s (TSX: AGI; NYSE: AGI)

Young-Davidson mine and Iamgold’s (TSX: IMG; NYSE: IAG)

Côté Gold project.

An initial resource estimate released in January for the Edleston Main and Sirola gold prospects pegged indicated resources at 14 million tonnes grading 0.9 gram gold per tonne for 400,200 oz. of contained gold. Inferred resources

NATURAL RESOURCES

Trusted. Independent. Committed.

add

34.1 million tonnes grading 1 gram gold for 1.09 million oz. of contained gold. A 0.4-gram gold-equivalent per tonne cut-off grade was used.

Aston will continue to explore the area around Sirola, which remains open to the east. The com-

Delivering fit-for-purpose solutions across the entire mining life cycle

Our fit-for-purpose solutions encompass the skills of qualified geologists, geostaticians, analytical chemists, mineralogists, metallurgists, process engineers and mining engineers brought together to provide accurate and timely mineral and process evaluation services across the entire mining life cycle.

Winsome Resources’ managing director Chris Evans at the Adina project in Quebec. WINSOME RESOURCES

pany plans to drill 4,800 metres across 14 diamond drill holes.

The project also hosts the Boomerang nickel-sulphide target, which has a strike length of 6,500 metres, a width of 500 to 1,500 metres, and a depth of over 500 metres.

The company shared an initial resource statement for Boomerang in a February news release. The target’s indicated resources stand at 155 million tonnes grading 0.28% nickel and 0.01% copper. Inferred resources add 889 million tonnes grading 0.27% nickel and 0.011% copper. The estimate used a 0.27% nickel-equivalent cut-off.

Aston’s portfolio also includes the Dobsina cobalt project in central Slovakia, the Jouhineva cobalt-copper and gold project in Finland, and the Basinga cobalt-copper-nickel-gold project in Sweden.

4 CRITICAL RESOURCES MARKET CAP: $68.8 million

Based out of Perth, Critical Resources (ASX: CRR) is focused on its flagship Mavis Lake lithium project in northwestern Ontario, 19 km east-northeast of the township of Dryden.

Acquired by Critical Resources in January 2022, Mavis Lake hosts more than 20 lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatites with true thicknesses measuring more than 20 metres wide.

Highlights from last year’s 19,878-metre drilling campaign include hole MF22-156, which intersected 8.1 metres grading 1.2% Li2O

starting from 94.4 metres downhole, including 2.6 metres grading 3.28% Li2O from 97.5 metres.

Using assay results from April 2022 to March 2023, the company completed an initial resource estimate for Mavis Lake, which pegs inferred resources at 8 million tonnes grading 1.07% Li2O using a cut-off grade of 0.3%.

Critical Resources recently started its spring 2023 explora-

tion program at the project’s Gullwing-Tot prospects. Work will include geological mapping and bedrock sampling, identifying pegmatite trends along the prospective area, and establishing targets for the summer drilling program.

The company expects to complete 20,000 metres this year to support infill drilling and extend the current resource as it approaches the development stage.

TOP 10 AUSTRALIAN JUNIORS

EXPLORING IN CANADA

Crow

Critical Resources has three other lithium projects in Ontario, including Graphic Lake, Plaid, and Whiteloon Lake. Abroad, the company has the Halls Peak base metals project in New South Wales, Australia and the Sohar copper project in northern Oman.

5 AUTECO MINERALS MARKET CAP: $56.3 million

Auteco Minerals (ASX: AUT) is advancing its Pickle Crow gold project 400 km north of Thunder Bay, Ont.

A successful 2022 drilling campaign resulted in a JORC-compliant resource update that pegs current inferred resources at 11.9 million tonnes grading 7.2 grams gold per tonne for 2.8 million oz. of contained gold, the company announced in a May news release.

The resource had increased by 244% (2 million oz.) since March 2020, when Auteco first acquired the project.

Previous drill results from the Tyson vein include hole AUDD0347, which cut 2.7 metres grading 16.1 grams gold from 309.6 metres downhole. Another hole, AUDD0334, cut 1.8 metres grading 5.5 grams gold from 346 metres.

“Auteco is fully funded to continue the exploration and growth campaign and we expect to complete another 50,000 metres of drill-

ing by early 2023,” commented executive chairman Ray Shorrocks in a release.

The company also plans to consider open-pit mining and underground access options.

In addition to Pickle Lake, Auteco holds a 90% interest in the Limestone Well vanadium-titanium project in Western Australia.

6 Cygnus Metals Market Cap: $38.4 million Cygnus Metals (ASX: CY5) — formerly Cygnus Gold — continues advancing its Pontax lithium project in the James Bay region of Quebec. The 145-sq.-km project has a strike length of more than 700 metres and hosts spodumene-bearing lithium-cesium-tantalum pegmatites.

The company recently completed 11,328 metres with three rigs. Highlights shared in April include hole DDH975-23-040, which cut 23.4 metres grading 1.4% Li2O starting from 367.8 metres, including 11.8 metres grading 1.9% Li2O and 2.9 metres grading 2.3% Li2O. The company says this is the best intercept to date at Pontax, and it is on track to deliver an initial resource estimate scheduled for mid2023.

Past high-grade intercepts at Central Pontax include 9 metres grading 1.7% Li2O starting from 46.9 metres and 15.6 metres grading 1.6% Li2O from 83.9 metres.

Cygnus has three other lithium projects in Quebec: Mitsumis located east of Pontax, Sakami also in the James Bay region, and the Auclair project, which was recently acquired from Osisko (TSX: OSK).

In Western Australia, the company has Bencubbin (lithium) and Stanley (gold), the company’s most advanced exploration project.

Assay results from Auclair announced in May include hole AC2010-004, which returned 9.8 metres grading 0.8% lithium oxide from 212.8 metres, including 5.1 metres grading 1% Li2O.

Cygnus will begin its 2023 exploration program in July, including drilling, geophysics, mapping, and sampling at Pontax, Auclair and Sakami.

7 92 ENERGY MARKET CAP: $35.7 million 92 Energy (ASX: 92E) is focused on advancing its 100%-owned Gemini uranium project. Discovered in 2021, the project is in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin and is part of the company’s 1,095-sq.-km land package.

92 Energy has identified a 2.8-km prospective corridor and has been working on expanding mineralization through continued drilling.

The company reported results from its 4,385-metre winter 2023 drill program in May. Highlights from the 16 holes drilled include GEM23-061, which returned 5 metres grading 1.47% triuranium octoxide (U3O8) starting from 263 metres, including 1.5 metres grading 4.69% U3O8 from 263.5 metres and 0.5 metres grading 9.66% U3O8 from 264 metres.

Previously, hole GEM22-025 cut

Above: Drill core from Aston Minerals’ Edleston project in northern Ontario

Left: A drill shack at the Edleston project. ASTON MINERALS

Cygnus Metals’ Pontax lithium project in Quebec’s James Bay region. CYGNUS METALS

43 metres grading 0.62% U3O8, including 18 metres grading 1.16% U3O8, putting it among the top uranium intercepts of 2022, according to MinerDeck.

92 Energy is planning a followup summer drill campaign at Gemini.

The company has six other uranium projects in the same district, including Tower, Clover, Powerline, Cypress, Wormboiler, and Wares.

Last year, the company completed an initial drill program at Tower, which comprised 1,919 metres across four holes. Results confirmed high concentrations of anomalous uranium, including 570 parts per million U3O8 in hole

TOW22-004. Tower is about 10 km from Cameco’s (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) Cigar Lake uranium mine.

8 JAMESON RESOURCES

MARKET CAP: $25.9 million Jameson Resources (ASX: JAL), headquartered in Sydney, Australia, is focused on its Crown Mountain Hard Coking coal project in British Columbia. The project is in the Elk Valley of the southeastern Kootenay region.

Crown Mountain, a premium steelmaking coal project, is being developed through Jameson’s Canadian subsidiary, NWP Coal Canada Ltd. Jameson holds a 77.9% interest in NWP, a joint venture with Bathurst Resources (ASX: BRL), which has the remaining 22.06%.

A July 2020 bankable feasibility study for the greenfield project outlines an average annual production of 1.7 million clean tonnes of coal over a 15-year mine life. Mining will take place from three open

pits — north, east, and south — and is expected to produce an average of 86% hard coking coal and 14% pulverized coal injection over the life of the mine.

According to the company, due to its scale and location, the project has the potential to make a significantly lower environmental impact compared to previous and present coal production.

Jameson announced in a Jan. 16 news release that NWP and the Yaqit?a knuqli’it First Nation (YQT) signed a landmark agreement, under which the First Nation community will act as a regulator and reviewer of the Crown Mountain project, allowing YQT to be involved in the project’s environmental assessment.

“This is a huge step in the new era for natural resource development in [B.C.],” commented Michael Gray, managing director. “Having support and a strongly built relationship with YQT throughout the process…ensures that NWP will understand the impacts of the project on Indigenous Nations in natural resource development.”

Production at Crown Mountain is expected to start in 2026.

Jameson also has a 100% interest in the Dunlevy project located in northeastern B.C. within the Peace River coal field district.

9 METALS AUSTRALIA

MARKET CAP: $18.7 million

Metals Australia (ASX: MLS) has a 100% interest in the Lac Rainy graphite project in central Quebec. Covering 45.5 sq. km, the project is located 22 km southwest of the mining town of Fermont and holds 92 mineral claims.

According to a resource estimate released in June 2020, the project hosts indicated resources of 9.6 million tonnes grading 13.1% total graphitic carbon (TGC) for 1.25 million tonnes of contained graphite. Inferred resources add 3.7 million tonnes grading 7.3% TGC for 270,000 tonnes. The estimate used a 5% TGC cut-off and more than 90% of the resource is defined within the first 100 metres.

The deposit can potentially develop into a high-grade graphite operation with a long mine life, the company shared in a release.

In May, Metals Australia released battery test results, which confirm that the graphite at Lac Rainy exceeds the charging and durability standards required by lithium-ion battery and electric vehicle manufacturers worldwide.

The graphite yielded 65% into battery quality spherical graphite while the industry average is approximately 40%. Test results also showed spherical graphitic carbon (Cg) purity of 99.96% Cg.

With these results, the company plans to conduct feasibility studies

The locations of the Cape Ray and Hermitage projects in Newfoundland.

Jameson Resources’ Crown Mountain steelmaking coal project in southeastern B.C. JAMESON RESOURCES

Burgundy Diamond Mines’ Naujaat project in Nunavut.

BURGUNDY DIAMOND MINES

Right: A selection of diamonds from Burgundy Diamond Mines’ Naujaat project in Nunavut. BURGUNDY DIAMOND

to develop the Lac Rainy project.

In addition to Lac Rainy, the company has three gold projects in Quebec — Eade, Pontois, and Felicie — all located in the Lac Guyer greenstone belt. In Western Australia, the company has the Manindi zinc project located 500 km northeast of Perth.

10 MATADOR MINING

MARKET CAP: $17.8 million Perth-based Matador Mining (ASX: MZZ; US-OTC: MZZMF) is focused on its two gold projects in Newfoundland: Cape Ray and Hermitage.

Located along the Cape Ray Shear, Cape Ray hosts 3.5 million tonnes of indicated resources grading 3.15 grams gold per tonne for 356,000 oz. of contained gold and 918,000 oz. of contained silver. Inferred resources add 9.4 million tonnes grading 1.6 grams gold and 7 grams silver for 481,000 oz. gold and 2.09 million oz. silver.

A scoping study of Cape Ray from May 2020 outlined a seven-year mine life with average annual production of 88,000 oz. of gold during its first four years, all-in sustaining operating costs of $1,108 per oz., and a payback period of 1.75 years.

In 2023, Matador will conduct a two-phase diamond drill program at the project’s Malachite target. The company expects to drill between 100 and 200 metres for each hole and plans to complete 2,000 to 3,000 metres during phase one.

In addition, Matador will be releasing an updated resource estimate in the first half of the year. The resource will include an additional 37,000 metres completed between 2020 to 2022. The last statement was published in May 2020.

The company has started its 2023 exploration program at Hermitage, which includes prospecting, mapping, and sampling. In a May 18 news release, Matador announced that it has already identified highgrade mineralization. Highlights include grades of 7.31 grams gold and 2.1 grams gold from the outcrop.

In November 2022, B2Gold (TSX: BTO; NYSE: BTG) completed a A$3.6 million ($3.1 million) investment, representing a 9.9% interest in Matador. TNM

SNAPSHOT from / 15

Auteco Minerals plans to complete 50,000 metres of drilling at Pickle Crow, Ontario this summer. AUTECO MINERALS

Critical Resources geologists display Mavis pegmatite grab samples, in northwest Ontario. CRITICAL RESOURCES

The location of the Lac Rainy graphite project in central Quebec. METALS AUSTRALIA

92 Energy’s Gemini uranium project in Saskatchewan. 92 ENERGY

TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE / MAY 29—JUNE 2, 2023

The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 104.32 points or 0.5% to 20,024.63 during the May 29-June 2 trading week, with the S&P/TSX Global Mining Index rising 2.55 points or 2.4% to 108.01, and the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index gaining 5.58 points or 3.1% to 185.7. The S&P/TSX Global Gold Index rose 3.52 points or 1.2% to 295.54, and spot gold ended the week at US$15.35 per oz. higher, or up 0.8%, at US$1,963.25 per ounce.

Centerra Gold rose 19% during the week to close at $8.20 after receiving approval from the Turkish government for an environmental impact assessment of the Öksüt mine 295 km southeast of Ankara. Toronto-based Centerra said on May 31 it expected to restart full operations at the mine, which has been on care and maintenance, within weeks.

The shares bounced back after Centerra reported last month that the Mt. Milligan mine in British Columbia had lower-than-expected production in the first quarter. Centerra supports three assets on care and maintenance — Kemess, Thompson Creek and Endako — besides Öksüt.

However, management expects cash consumption to improve this year, grades to improve at Mt. Milligan and rising costs to slow at molybdenum mines in Utah and B.C.

Troilus Gold gained 12% to close at 56¢ after reporting plans May 31 for a feasibility

study and resource update this year to revive the Troilus gold-copper mine in Quebec. Troilus, located northeast of Val-d’Or, produced 2 million oz. of gold and almost 70,000 tonnes of copper between 1996 and 2010.

The Montreal-based company has about $30 million as it also explores three main targets Testard, Cressida and Rocket 10 to 40 km southwest of the Troilus mineral corridor.

“Results from our regional activities have been very encouraging, demonstrating the potential of the Troilus property and the Frôtet-Evans Greenstone Belt as a district-scale gold system,” Troilus CEO Justin Reid said in the release. “The geological understanding of our property continues to improve.”

Filo Mining added 8.6% or $1.81 to close at $22.85 after saying on Jun. 2 it raised $30

TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE / MAY 29—JUNE 2, 2023

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index rose by 4.99 points or 0.83% over the May 29-June 2 trading session, ending at 609.08.

This week, the TSXV’s top value gainer was Electra Battery Materials, which added 33¢ to close Friday at $1.70 apiece. The company’s stock is recovering following its early May announcement of a cost overrun at the cobalt sulphate refinery it is building in Ontario. The company will require additional capital of up to US$80 million to complete the construction and final commissioning of the plant. A recent re-baseline engineering report has determined that the total capital costs are now estimated at US$110 to $121 million, of which approximately US$48.6 million has been spent as of Apr. 30, 2023. The increase in capital costs has been driven by changes in scope, including increasing production capacity from 5,000 to 6,500 tonnes yearly of cobalt contained in sulphate, supply chain disruptions, and inflationary price pressures over the past 18 months. The timeline for completing the refinery project will be contingent on securing the needed capital.

Another top value gainer this past week was New Found Gold, which added 32¢ to close at $5.94 on Friday. Shares in the company rose more than 5% on May 31 on high-

grade drill results that extended the strike length of the Iceberg zone at its Queensway project in central Newfoundland. Diamond drill hole NFGC-23-1217 cut 5.25 metres, grading 19.6 grams gold per tonne from a depth of 206.2 metres; hole NFGC-23-1222 returned 6.6 metres grading 12.36 grams per tonne from 98.6 metres depth; and NFGC23-1285 cut 4.45 metres at 21.7 grams gold from 78 metres downhole. The results extend the strike length of Iceberg to 550 metres and within the corridor of the 1.8-km strike of the Keats Baseline fault zone. The Queensway project is located near others that are part of a Newfoundland exploration surge, such as Labrador Gold, Exploits Discovery and Marathon Gold

U.S. MARKETS / MAY 29—JUNE 2, 2023

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 580.28 points or 1.8% to 33,673.62 and the S&P 500 gained 87.7 points or 1% over the week to 4,293.13.

Among the top gainers this week was Teck Resources, which closed US$5.09 higher Friday at US$43.40 per share. The Northern Miner reported on Jun. 2 that Canada’s largest diversified miner is struggling to secure the support of top shareholder China Investment Corporation (CIC) for a plan to exit coal. The Vancouver-based miner denied a Bloomberg report Friday claiming that CIC, China’s sovereign wealth fund, favoured Glencore’s bid to buy the miner. CIC has not disclosed how it voted, but it is said to support any plan that would allow investors to end their coal exposure cleanly for an attractive cash return, people close to the matter told Bloomberg News on Thursday. Teck, which continues to fend off a takeover push from Glencore, had to withdraw its original proposal to split the company into two units — base metals and coal — just hours ahead of a shareholder meeting in April.

The top percentage gainer was Nexgen Energy which added 16.8% to close Friday at US$4.44 per share, mainly due to spot uranium prices continuing an upwards trajec-

tory. According to UxC and TradeTech, the price has increased 14.4% to US$54.55 per lb. Through June 2, compared with US$47.68 on Dec. 31, 2022. Nexgen reported on May 1 that financial institutions had expressed interest in lending it more than US$1 billion to build its Rook I uranium project in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin. The non-binding expressions of interest from unnamed commercial lenders and export credit agencies are available to provide debt for Rook I, subject to financing terms and conditions, due diligence and documentation. The company expects to finalize financing in the fourth quarter.

US-based copper major Freeport-McMoRan was one of the week’s most active issuers, seeing 77.4 million shares change ownership

million more than expected for a total of $130 million in a private placement for its Filo del Sol copper project in Argentina.

On May 29, Filo reported assays from the same project showing 291.7 metres grading 0.7% copper equivalent from 910.4 metres down hole FSDH075 in the Bonita Zone, and 354.9 metres at 1% copper equivalent from 496 metres depth in hole FSDH076 in the Aurora Zone.

“Our recently completed magnetotelluric geophysical survey strongly indicates continuity between Aurora and Bonita across the undrilled gap of 1.3 km between hole FSDH083 in the south and hole FSDH075 in the north,” Filo president and CEO Jamie Beck said in the release. “We are currently setting drills up to test this gap, which offers the potential to almost double the size of the deposit if the grade is there.” TNM

GoviEx Uranium was the most active TSXV issue during the trading week, with 6.2 million shares changing hands. The stock closed 4¢ higher on Friday at 16¢ apiece. The Africa-focused explorer is, among other companies in the uranium space, benefitting from rising spot prices of the energy metal, which had climbed by 14.4% since Dec. 31, 2022, when they were $50.53 per lb. By Apr. 30, the price

was at $52.93; at press time, they sat at $54.55 per lb. GoviEx’s flagship project is Madaouela, located in the Timer Sol basin of central Niger, where several companies are exploring for uranium. Madaouela hosts 100 million measured and indicated lb. of U308 and 20 million inferred lb. The Vancouver-based company also has the Muntanga and Falea uranium projects in Zambia and Mali. TNM

to close Friday up US$2.42 at US$37.19 apiece. The value of Freeport shares has been on the up, with copper adding 1.4% in the week to close at US$3.73 per lb. Freeport recently made headlines when it reported its first-quarter operational and earnings results that showed profit halved due to tight labour market conditions across the base metals industry. Copper mining giants are scrambling to attract

and retain workers, especially in the U.S., amid surging demand for the metal, which anchors the green energy transition. Apart from protests in Peru, production was also hit in February after the firm was forced to stop operations for over two weeks at its Grasberg mine in Indonesia due to floods. Copper production in the quarter fell to 965 million lb. from 1.01 billion lb. a year earlier. TNM

METALS, MINING AND MONEY MARKETS

TSX WARRANTS

PRODUCER AND DEALER PRICES

LME WAREHOUSE LEVELS

Metal stocks (in tonnes) held in London Metal Exchange warehouses at opening on June 1, 2023 (change from May 24, 2023 in brackets):

Alio Gold Inc. (ALO.WT) - 10 Warrants to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $7.00 until expiry Alio Gold Inc. J (ALO.WT.A) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $8.00 until expiry

Aris Gold Corporation (ARIS.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one Common Share of the Issuer at $2.75 until expiry.

Aris Gold Corporation (ARIS.WT.A) - One

Warrant to purchase 0.5 of one Common Share of the Issuer at $2.75 until expiry

Aris Gold Corporation (ARIS.WT.B) - One Warrant to purchase of one Common Share of the Issuer at $2.21 until expiry

eCobalt Solutions Inc. J (ECS.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at US$1.95 per share until expiry

Excellon Resources Inc (EXN.WT.A) - One warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $2.80 until expiry Excellon Resources Inc. (EXN.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the issuer at $1.40 per share until expiry Excelsior Mining Corp. (MIN.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one Common Share of the Issuer at $1.25 until expiry.

ABE Resources Inc. (ABE.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.15 per share.

Alpha Lithium Corporation (ALLI.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.10 per share.

Alpha Lithium Corporation (ALLI.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.10 per share.

American Cumo Mining Corp. (MLY.RT)2 rights and $0.07 are required to purchase one share

American Lithium Corp. (LI.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.30 per share.

Antioquia Gold Inc. (AGD.RT) - One (1) Right and $0.042 are required to purchase one share.

Aurania Resources Ltd. (ARU.RT)Fourteen (14) Rights exercisable for one common share at $2.70 per common share.

Aurania Resources Ltd. (ARU.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $5.50 per share.

Aurania Resources Ltd. (ARU.WT.A) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $4.25 per share.

Aurania Resources Ltd. (ARU.WT.B) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $2.20 per share.

Avidian Gold Corp. (AVG.RT) - Three rights and $0.11 are required to purchase one Share.

Boreal Metals Corp. (BMX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.50 per share.

Boreal Metals Corp. (BMX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.30 per share.

Cabral Gold Inc. (CBR.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.80 per share.

Caldas Gold Corp. (CGC.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $2.75 per share.

Cascadero Copper Corporation (CCD.RT)One right and $0.015 are required to purchase one Share.

Cordoba Minerals Corp (CDB.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.08 per share.

Cordoba Minerals Corp (CDB.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.08 per share.

Cordoba Minerals Corp. (CDB.RT) - One (1)

Right exercisable for One (1) Rights Share at $0.05 per Share.

Cordoba Minerals Corp. (CDB.RT) - One right to purchase one common share at $0.54 per share.

Denarius Silver Corp. (DSLV.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.80 per share.

Elevation Gold Mining Corporation (ELVT. WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $4.80 per share.

Elevation Gold Mining Corporation (ELVT. WT.A) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.70 per share.

Empress Royalty Corp. (EMPR.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.75 per share.

Gran Colombia Gold (GCM.WT.B) - One

warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $2.21 until expiry.

Karora Resources Inc. (KRR.WT) - One

Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.50 until expiry.

Liberty Gold Corp. Wt (LGD.WT) - One

Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.90 until expiry may 16, 2019

Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.WT) - One

Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.90 until expiry

Lydian International Limited (LYD.WT) -

One Warrant to purchase one additional ordinary share of the Issuer at $0.36 per share until expiry

Nevada Copper Corp. (NCU.WT) - One

Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.20 until expiry

Nevada Copper Corp. (NCU.WT.A) - One

Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.22 until expiry

Nomad Royalty Company Ltd. (NSR.WT) -

One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $1.71 until expiry.

Novo Resources Corp. (NOVO.WT.A) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of

TSX VENTURE WARRANTS

Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $3.00 per share.

Eros Resources Corp. (ERC.WT) - One (1) Right exercisable for (1) Unit at $0.05 per Unit.

Falco Resources Ltd. (FPC.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.70 per share.

Firefox Gold Corp. (FFOX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.60 per share.

Firefox Gold Corp. (FFOX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $3.00 per share.

Freeman Gold Corp (FMAN.WT.U) - One warrant to purchase one common share at US$0.65 per share.

Giga Metals Corporation (GIGA.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.60 per share.

Giga Metals Corporation (GIGA.WT.A)One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.45 per share.

Giyani Metals Corp. (EMM.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.60 per share.

Goldstar Minerals (GDM.RT) - One Right to purchase one common share at $0.03 per share.

Goldstar Minerals Inc. (GDM.RT) - One (1) Right and $0.05 are required to purchase one common share. Hot Chili Limited (HCH.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $2.50 per share.

Kaizen Discovery Inc. (KZD.RT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.51 per share.

LaSalle Exploration Corp. (LSX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.15 per share.

Lion One Metals Limited (LIO.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $2.75 per share.

LithiumBank Resources Corp. (LBNK.WT)One warrant to purchase one common share at $2.00 per share.

LSC Lithium Corporation (LSC.RT) - One (1) right exercisable for One (1) Unit at $0.40 per Unit.

Mako Mining Corp. (MKO.RT) - Rights exercisable for One (1) share at $0.10 per share.

Mako Mining Corp. (MKO.WT.A) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.60 per share.

Manganese X Energy Corp. (MN.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.15 per share.

Maple Gold Mines Ltd. (MGM.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.40 per share

Maple Gold Mines Ltd. (MGM.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.40 per share

Mexican Gold Corp. (MEX.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.12 per share.

Millennial Lithium Corp. (ML.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at

the Issuer at $3.00 until expiry.

Novo Resources Corp. (NVO.WT.A) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $3.00 until expiry.

Platinum Group Metals Ltd. (PTM.WT.U) -

One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at US$0.17 until expiry

Royal Nickel Corporation (RNX.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.50 until expiry.

Sandstorm Gold (SSL.WT.B) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at US $14.00 until expiry.

Sherritt International Corporation (S.WT)Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to acquire between 1.00 and 1.25 additional common shares (as bulletin 2018-0062 table ) determined based on the Applicable Reference Cobalt Price at an exercise price of $1.95 per Warrant at any time prior to the Expiry Date Treasury Metals Inc. Wt (TML.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $1.50 until expiry.

Trevali Mining Corporation (TV.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.23 until expiry.

$4.25 per share.

Millennial Lithium Corp. (ML.WT) - One right to purchase one common share at $4.80 per share.

Millennial Precious Metals Corp. (MPM. WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.50 per share.

Mineworx Technologies Ltd. (MWX.RT)For every one (1) Share held, Shareholders will receive one (1) Right exercisable for One (1) Share at $0.015 per Share.

Mineworx Technologies Ltd. (MWX.RT) -

One right to purchase one common share at $0.015 per share.

Northern Vertex Mining Corp. (NEE.WT)One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.80 per share.

Novo Resources Corp. (NVO.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $4.40 per share.

Orezone Gold Corporation (ORE.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.80 per share.

Orezone Gold Corporation (ORE.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.80 per share.

Osisko Development Corp. (ODV.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $10.00 per share. Rock Tech Lithium Inc. (RCK.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $4.50 per share.

Sandfire Resources America Inc. (SFR.RT)

- Forty one (41) Rights exercisable for One

(1) Share at $0.15 per Share.

Sandfire Resources America Inc. (SFR. RT) - Eight (8) Rights exercisable for One (1) share at $0.06 per unit.

Silver Mountain Resources Inc. (AGMR. WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.70 per share.

Silver Mountain Resources Inc. (AGMR. WT.A) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.45 per share.

Star Royalties Ltd. (STRR.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.00 per share.

Three Valley Copper Corp. (TVC.WT) - 20 warrants to purchase one Class A common share at $6.66 per share.

Tintina Resources Inc. (TAU.RT) - Nine(9) Rights exercisable for one share at $0.06 per share.

Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (UCU.RT) - One (1) right exercisable for one share at $4.00 per share.

Vision Lithium Inc. (VLI.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $0.15 per share.

Vizsla Silver Corp. (VZLA.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $3.25 per share.

Westhaven Gold Corp. (WHN.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $1.00 per share. Yellowhead Mining Inc. (YMI.RT) - One (1) Right and $0.12 are required to prchase one Share

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