The Northern Miner October 17 2022 Issue 21

SILVER AND PGMS

Burkina Faso’s second military coup of 2022 raises risks for miners

Lessons from Great Bear’s smashing $2B success at Dixie

BY ALISHA HIYATE

One of the most exciting gold exploration stories in recent years has been Great Bear Resources and its Dixie gold project near Red Lake, Ont. The company was acquired by Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) in February — even before it had a chance to compile an ini tial resource for the high-grade, large-scale project. In September, Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD) bought Great Bear Resources — a spinout of Great Bear whose only asset was a 2% net smelter return royalty on Dixie — for $200 mil lion, bringing the total value of Great Bear’s assets to $2 billion.

Follow the data

BY HENRY LAZENBY

Burkina

Faso-focused miners say operations have not been affected following a second coup d’état on Sept. 30 that saw the country’s president Lt.-Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba over thrown after only nine months in power.

While local mining operators face growing security, logistical and financing issues, they appear to remain bullish on the jurisdiction, with no announcements emerging of reduced exploration and mine development budgets to date.

Burkina Faso is Africa’s fourth-largest gold producer, and gold makes up a significant part of its GDP and national exports.

The change of leadership appears to have its roots in a disagreement within the Burkina Faso military on security issues in the north and east of the country, areas which have been hard-hit by Islamic-associ ated terrorist insurgencies in recent years.

The nation’s new military leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, said on Oct. 2 that the country was facing an emergency in every sector, “from security to defence, to health, to social action, to infrastructure,” and it was time for the government to “abandon the unnecessary red tape.”

An analyst with global risk con

sultancy Control Risks says that, at first glance, the development is unlikely to directly impact the min ing sector from a regulatory per spective. The current leadership has gone so far as to say no additional constraints will be placed on the mining sector, given its economic importance.

“The succession of coups in Burkina Faso, and more broadly persistent discontent in the armed forces, is driven by worsening mil itancy and repeated failure of suc cessive governments to improve security,” said analyst Tristan Gue ret in response to emailed questions.

Since 2015 Islamist militants have made significant gains across the country, expanding their influ ence in rural areas and carrying out frequent and deadly attacks against civilians and security forces.

According to Gueret, the Burki nabe security apparatus has long suffered from capacity issues,

including manpower, air sup port, intelligence, and personal equipment. Such challenges were also made worse by divisions and rivalry between different branches of the security forces.

“Deteriorating militancy, high casualty rates among troops, capac ity issues, and grievances in the rank-and-file, both against the political class and senior officers who are seen as out of touch and disconnected from the day-to-day realities of the counterinsurgency, have been the main drivers of dis content,” Gueret said.

Before the coup against Presi

Great Bear Resources’ former president and CEO Chris Taylor joined The Northern Miner’s Q3 Global Mining Symposium on Sept. 29 to discuss the company’s success, and what other explora tion companies can learn from it. Taylor was previously named The Northern Miner‘s 2021 Person of the Year.

Be prepared for personal sacrifice

Great Bear’s story is a classic one of an exploration discov ery, entailing years of hard work and personal sacrifice to reach the prize. Taylor, a structural and economic geologist, financed the project personally in the early days when investors were skep tical and it was difficult to raise money. He racked up $300,000 worth of personal debt on his line of credit, because he believed in the project.

“If you have a story you really believe in, you have to be able to stick with your guns,” he said. For him and his family, that meant many years of “paying more into the company than you ever take out of it.”

While the slumps in the indus try are difficult, they are great times to pick up projects, he noted.

“The Dixie acquisition, now the Great Bear project, was about a $200,000 total acquisition that ended up with a $2 billion total valuation only seven years later. This is the kind of thing that can happen in a bad market. So stick with it… (and) look for those opportunities.”

While Red Lake is a historic gold mining camp, Great Bear’s dis covery was in an area that wasn’t thought to be prospective and in host rocks that weren’t supposed to carry gold.

“In the Red Lake camp, you’re not going to be looking for a major gold system in the area that

GMS

Chris Taylor shares his playbook

“SUCCESSIVE COUPS, ALONGSIDE DETERIORATING SECURITY, ARE LIKELY TO CONTINUE DAMPENING INVESTOR CONFIDENCE IN BURKINA FASO.” TRISTAN GUERET, ANALYST WITH CONTROL RISKS

Endeavour

Burkina Faso

Former Great Bear Resources president and CEO Chris Taylor.

Equinox Partners takes a stand against mining’s nonaligned directors

BY AMANDA STUTT AND HENRY LAZENBY

When Equinox Partners

Investment Management adopted a strict voting policy against industry directors who have served for two or more years but have invested less than two years of director’s fees into the un derlying equity, it took a stand for shareholder value rarely seen in the junior space.

The New York-based hedge fund, with over US$700 million in total assets under management — more than half of that in gold and silver junior miners — announced its new investment stewardship policy toward directors of public companies last month.

It sets “a clear, lower-bound for director share ownership,” accord ing to chief investment officer Sean Fieler.

He said Equinox Partners intends to push back on the growing indif ference of boards to non-executive director stock ownership and the decision of some companies to pro hibit non-executive directors from owning stock altogether.

“We have seen a troubling de-emphasis of financial alignment among international mining com panies,” Fieler said in an interview.

The executive underlined that the company was not acting as an activist investor, but looking out

for its interests as a long-term value investor.

Equinox has put in a rigid policy of not voting for nonaligned direc tors, even if they’re running in an uncontested election.

“If those directors don’t own at least a very lower bound of stock, which we determined to be two years of their board compensation

if they served for two years or more, and we feel like that’s an incredibly generous, probably too low, lower bound, they have really a different view of the role of a director than we do,” he said.

“The policy gets that 10% of the very worst actors.”

By elevating individuals who do not own stock and are unlikely to

acquire a significant financial inter est in the company they oversee, the board is adding colleagues who will tend to prioritize “collegiality” and “reputation” over its compa ny’s financial interests, particularly in the junior gold space, the execu tive argues.

‘Clubby’ boardrooms

Fieler said he had witnessed declin ing levels of insider ownership across a swath of gold mining com panies in the last seven years.

“You see a meaningful drop in insider ownership, and we really see a growing number of boards treating a director posi tion as really a slot to fill rather than a technically competent per son that’s going to be aligned with shareholders, and we think that’s problematic,” he said.

Fieler points to Gold Fields’ (NYSE: GFI; JSE: GFI) proposed acquisition of Yamana Gold (TSX: YRI; NYSE: AUY) as a “particularly interesting wrinkle on this whole problem.”

The context of the Yamana deal is an excellent example of how when one works through the list of reasons to pursue a merger, the valuation is not amongst them, he argued.

And if one has a majority on the board that has no alignment with shareholders, it spells trouble for investors.

Since the Johannesburg-based miner approached its target, share holders have criticized the pro posed all-stock merger, arguing the friendly approach does not guaran tee growth and profitability.

Fieler noted Gold Fields’ case as being peculiar in its policy as it states non-executive directors shouldn’t have alignment with shareholders so they can better rep resent all stakeholders.

“It’s very much not a random thing that is happening in that case — it’s kind of a natural outcome of a potential policy to disentan gle the company’s owners from the board. It’s more so than has usually been done in the ‘clubby’ nature of boardrooms,” Fieler said.

While pointing out there is no law against having a ‘clubby’ a boardroom, Fieler said boards and their chairs don’t want dissidents in the boardrooms as it makes it harder to govern those companies.

“But as a general rule, in the junior mining space, we don’t see an effort on the part of insid ers to invite shareholders onto the board,” he said.

“That’s not the norm. And because of that, you can really get divergent interests between the shareholders, even substantial shareholders and insiders at these companies. And then that leads to various unattractive behaviours from a shareholder perspective.”

TNM

Element 29 Resources defines first copper-moly resource in mineral-rich Peru

BY NORTHERN MINER STAFF

Element 29 Resources (TSXV: ECU)

a Vancouver-based copper explorer with projects in Peru, has released its first resource estimates for the Elida project in the Andean nation, with an initial resource soon to follow from its Flor de Cobre project.

Both properties were previously drilled and returned intercepts of potentially economic grades with low observed levels of deleterious elements like arsenic.

“I think this is a very significant initial copper resource estimate that we’ve delivered,” said CEO Steve Stakiw, a geologist who joined the company in April. “The potential to grow this is great. Also, the molybdenum is almost double global average moly grades in copper-porphyry systems and has the potential to enhance the economics of the deposit.”

The initial estimate at Elida, located 250 km north of Lima, outlines 321.7 million inferred tonnes grading 0.32% copper, 0.03% molybdenum and 2.6 grams silver per tonne with a low modeled 0.74:1 strip ratio on the Zone 1 porphyry, one of five porphyry centres on the project. Stakiw said that resource growth potential on Zone 1 remains open.

Element 29 is also initiating its next phase of drilling on the project to test the other porphyry zones at Elida. Stakiw noted that additional metallurgical studies are planned.

A near-surface higher-grade subset of the resource consisting of 34.1 million tonnes inferred at 0.55%

copper, 0.037% molybdenum and 4.4 grams silver per tonne at a cutoff grade of 0.45% copper has the potential to be mined with minimal stripping in the initial years of mining at Elida, said Stakiw.

“For me, it’s the ability to take this from an exploration stage project to what I think is a very material copper resource,” he said. “In terms of pounds in the ground we’re at about 2.2 billion contained pounds of copper in just a portion of one of five porphyries.”

E29 is also planning to deliver a resource estimate in late 2022 on the Candelaria zone at Flor de Cobre, which is 250 km northwest of the Chilean border near Arequipa in the Southern Peru Copper Belt.

There is a historical copper resource at Candelaria of 57.4 million

tonnes of 0.67% copper that was outlined by Rio Amarillo and Phelps Dodge – now Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX) in the 1990s. E29 will be updating that resource with data from a recently completed drill program, said Stakiw.

The Southern Peru Copper Belt is a portion of the Andean magmatic arc that hosts numerous economic copper-gold porphyry and skarn deposits.

The Flor de Cobre project also hosts the large Atravesado porphyry target, supported by coincident outcrop geology, surface geochemistry and geophysical responses. Atravesado is located approximately 2 km northwest of Candelaria and is a 1.5-km by 1.6-km circular zone characterized by outcropping copper oxide

mineralization in association with quartz vein stockworks and potassic alteration, said Stakiw.

As a junior that’s moving from early exploration to defined resources at its projects, he notes that this transition usually benefits a company’s stock price.

“You look at the opportunity for the company to get that re-rating out there, because as you transition from an explorer to a company with delineated or proven resources, then you’re moving down the development pathway,” he said. “That’s when you ideally start to get better valuations in the market.”

Both E29 projects are at compara tively low altitudes, making explo ration and potential development easier, said Stakiw. Some mines in the region are at 4,500 to 5,000 metres elevation. Also, Elida and Flor de Cobre are close to paved regional highways and other infrastructure in pro-development jurisdictions of Peru, he said.

“There are mines and a skilled workforce around us,” Stakiw said. “So, it checks all those boxes. Both our projects have that luxury. For us, that de-risks the development pathway. It’s one thing exploring and finding stuff, but if it’s at high altitude in a remote area that’s anti-mining we know how that ends.”

E29 is in regular dialogue with adjacent communities, maintaining relationships that are open and transparent, said Stakiw, noting some other Peruvian mining projects can be fraught with challenges.

“There are projects like the Las

Bambas mine, which is a big copper operation in Peru, it’s near the Southern Peru Copper Belt, but it’s inland a bit, so you’re getting into the agricultural and tourist areas near Cusco and into those areas where it’s much more challenging. The communities can be tougher to negotiate with as there is increased competition for land use.”

Added scrutiny of mining projects around the world is a good thing, said Stakiw, noting responsible companies have an opportunity to set an example. Taking shortcuts isn’t something he’s interested in.

“We do like Peru,” he said.

“Obviously, we are biased because that’s where we operate. It’s a great place to be doing business, especially for a copper explorer, because it’s the number two copper producer in the world and has strong exploration and discovery potential given its metal endowment.”

Out of the world’s top 10 largest copper mines, three or four are in Peru, Stakiw said. Most of the rest, he explained, are in Chile, which is the world’s number one copper producer.

“We are in the same belt and just over 20 km on trend from the large Cerro Verde mine,” he said. “I think that’s the number five copper producer in the world, so we’re in a great neighbourhood.”

The preceding Joint Venture Article is PROMOTED CONTENT sponsored by ELEMENT 29 RESOURCES and produced in co-operation with The Northern Miner. Visit www.e29copper.com for more information.

Junior-focused hedge fund targets ‘troubling’ decline in insider ownership

View eastward across the E29’s Elida Porphyry Cluster. Note the drilling equipment on the left side of the photograph. ELEMENT 29 PHOTO

Material is loaded into a haul truck at Gold Fields’ Agnew gold mine in Western Australia.

PRESIDENT THE NORTHERN MINER GROUP: Anthony Vaccaro, CFA, MBA avaccaro@northernminer.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Alisha Hiyate, BA (Poli Sci, Hist) ahiyate@northernminer.com

MULTIMEDIA SPECIALIST: Henry Lazenby hlazenby@northernminer.com

STAFF WRITER: Colin McClelland cmcclelland@northernminer.com

COPY EDITOR AND PRODUCTION EDITOR: Blair McBride bmcbride@northernminer.com

PHOTO EDITOR AND PODCAST HOST: Adrian Pocobelli, MA (ENGL) apocobelli@northernminer.com

ADVERTISING: Robert Hertzman (416) 898-6654 rhertzman@northernminer.com

Michael Winter (416) 510-6772 mwinter@northernminer.com

SUBSCRIPTION SALES/ APPOINTMENT NOTICES/ CAREER ADS George Agelopoulos (416) 510-5104 (Toll free) 1-888-502-3456, ext. 43702 gagelopoulos@northernminer.com

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Jessica Jubb (416) 510-5213 jjubb@northernminer.com

CIRCULATION/CUSTOMER SERVICE: (416) 510-6789 | 1-888-502-3456 northernminer2@northernminer.com

REPUBLISHING: (416) 510-6768 moliveira@northernminer.com

ADDRESS: Toronto Head Office 225 Duncan Mill Road, Suite 320 Toronto, ON, M3B 3K9 (416) 510-6789 tnm@northernminer.com

SUBSCRIPTION RATES:

BY ALISHA HIYATE

BY DR CHRIS HINDE Special to The Northern Miner

Lithium

prices continue to hold near historic highs, even in the face of an anticipated global recession. Spot prices for both lithium carbonate and hydroxide are now hovering around US$70,000 per tonne, and prices are expected to remain high through 2024 or longer.

In an early October report, Bank of America analysts forecast demand for the energy metal will grow by 20% on a compound annual basis between 2021 and 2030, from 700,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) last year to 2.7 mil lion tonnes in 2030. That level of growth will require 50 new mines pro ducing an average of 40,000 tonnes of LCE, BofA estimates.

But there’s a problem. Ironically, while it is climate concerns that are driving demand for lithium higher through the EV revolution, environ mental issues are also limiting supplies.

Lithium production simply can’t be scaled up to meet the level of expected future demand without new technology that reduces its environ mental impact.

Permitting delays and long development timelines are already big bar riers to new supply — but growing opposition to projects is compounding the problem.

In an August report, Fitch Solutions analysts noted a “sharp uptick” in community opposition to brine-based lithium projects in Latin America.

Much of global lithium production comes from brine operations, which concentrate the critical mineral by relying on evaporation of water from brine pumped to surface. In spite of their large footprint (brine produc tion occupies over 3,100 sq. metres of land per tonne of lithium hydrox ide produced vs. hard rock operations at 464 sq. metres per tonne) only about 50% of the precious white metal is typically recovered from brines. (On the other hand, hard rock operations emit three times the greenhouse gases of brines.)

Opposition to brine operations is linked largely to competition for water. Chile, the world’s number two lithium producer, has endured 13 years of drought, putting lithium companies SQM and Albemarle on a colli sion course with other water users. Their operations, located in salt flats in the Atacama Desert, have come under increasing scrutiny for their use of scarce groundwater.

SQM got into trouble in 2016 for pumping more brine than its permits allowed and has had to redraft its environmental compliance plans. Since then, the company has committed to using less fresh water and building a desalination plant so it can use seawater, and to reducing the amount of brine it pumps by 50% (compared with 2019 levels) by 2030. SQM, which wants to be recognized as a “green” company by 2030, is spending US$1.5 billion to reduce its water use.

But it’s not just brine projects that have proven contentious. Thacker Pass, an open pit clay lithium project in Nevada, also faces stiff opposition on environmental grounds, including for its planned use of groundwater. A coalition of Native American tribes, environmental groups, and a local rancher, have challenged the project’s approval by for mer president Donald Trump. The appeal is scheduled to be heard by a federal court early next year.

And Rio Tinto’s Jadar project in Serbia — despite being an under ground mine rather than a brine or open pit operation — also attracted protests. As a result, the government revoked Jadar’s permits in January this year. If developed, the US$2.4-billion project would produce close to 60,000 tonnes LCE annually over a 40-year mine life.

As the green credentials of lithium projects are crucial to end users and the viability of the growing EV market, the mining sector is finding allies to help make lithium production more sustainable. Automakers, bat tery makers and governments are just as motivated to find solutions — undoubtedly a requirement for the world’s decarbonization efforts — to lithium’s environmental footprint.

For example, in 2021, SQM and partners in the battery and auto sec tors established the Responsible Lithium Partnership to invest in studies to quantify the impact of lithium mining on groundwater in the Atacama.

Analysts are looking to direct lithium extraction (DLE) — which has also attracted support from governments and end users in the battery chain — as a potential gamechanger. The technology, which has the poten tial for 90% recoveries, is already being used commercially in combination with evaporation at Livent’s Fenix operation in Argentina, as well as sev eral projects in China, according to a recent report by Red Cloud Securi ties. It also is being tested for use in geothermal brine projects in California and Europe, and by E3 Lithium at its petrobrine project in Alberta; and Rio Tinto’s recently acquired Rincon brine project in Argentina.

DLE from geothermal brines has raised hopes for their potential for extremely low-impact lithium production, although Berkshire Hathaway has reportedly encountered technical obstacles in its efforts to produce lithium from one such project as part of its geothermal energy infrastruc ture in California’s Salton Sea.

While BofA analysts note that DLE is not a new technology, they acknowledge it is still in its “relative infancy.”

“No two brines are the same, and brine composition can even vary across a specific resource. This creates complications in DLE technology selection and deployment, often overcome by significant process flow tin kering and demonstration production hours,” they wrote in an October report.

Despite the challenges, the near-term should be very exciting as the innovative solutions that will square the circle of sustainable lithium emerge.

TNM

Theworld’s first, and still larg est, broadcaster is 100 years old. The British Broadcast ing Company (BBC) was formed on Oct.18, 1922, by a group of leading wireless manufacturers, including the Italian inventor and electrical engineer Guglielmo Mar coni (1874-1937). The company became a corporation when it was nationalized in 1927.

Marconi had been building transmitting devices since 1894, and moved to Wales in 1896 at the instigation of his mentor, Caernar fon-born Sir William Preece (the General Post Office’s chief engi neer). Marconi sent the world’s first wireless transmission (from Flat Holm island in the Bristol Channel to Lavernock Point near Cardiff) on May 13, 1897, and transmitted the first transatlantic radio signal in December 1901.

Marconi went on to deliver Britain’s first live public trans mission in 1920, and began daily radio broadcasts, for the BBC, from his London studio (2LO on the Strand) on Nov.14, 1922.

Television (literally ‘far off sight’) wasn’t broadcast by the BBC for another 14 years (Novem ber 1936), but Scottish electrical engineer John Baird (1888-1946) had conducted the world’s first demonstration of transmitting images to multiple sites (albeit only silhouettes) in March 1925 from Selfridge’s department store in London. Baird was a prolific inventor, including attempts in his 20s to create diamonds by heating graphite. His first ‘proper’ broadcast (of human faces) was on Jan. 26, 1926 to scientists at the Royal Institution.

During its founding years, in the aftermath of WWI, the BBC was guided by the Victorian pater nalism of its first director-general, the imposing Scottish mechanical engineer John Reith (1889-1971).

A strict Presbyterian, Reith stood almost two metres tall (6 foot 6 inches) and had a pronounced scar on his cheek from a sniper’s bullet.

Reith helped establish the state broadcaster’s enduring reputa tion for clarity and impartiality. He summarized the BBC’s pur pose in three words: inform, edu cate and entertain (which remain part of the organization’s mission statement).

The first two of Reith’s simple corporate instructions, to inform and to educate, are useful guide lines for business communica tions today. They are also invoked in a book published in February by marketing expert Kevin Dun can. In his ‘Bullshit-Free Book’, Duncan argues that we need to reclaim our language by commu nicating clearly.

The book starts with an exam

ination of why we use so much jargon and non-sensical phrases (for example “reaching out,” and any percentages over 100%), and then lists and analyzes 100 exam ples of bullshit. The book ends with a manifesto to help anyone achieve clear communications.

Corporate ‘guff’ is certainly not a new concept. In the mid-1990s, for example, Financial Times col umnist Lucy Kellaway was mock ing business jargon, and exposing the hidden meanings behind cor porate press releases.

The English language is full of ambiguities, especially when used by the British. For example, when we say “with all due respect,” it means nothing of the sort, we actually mean “I think you are wrong.” Similarly, “that is an orig inal idea” means not that you are a genius, rather you’re daft. For some reason we are often misun derstood by foreigners.

An article by Gillian Tett in the Financial Times earlier this year applauded Duncan’s crusade, and discussed the need for clar ity. Tett noted that many linguis tic characteristics are cultural (the English dislike giving offence) but can cause confusion and misinter pretation. Most people who use English as a foreign language are much more direct than the British in their translation, they speak/ write what they see.

Hollywood and the internet have facilitated global communica tion, and English (or is that Amer ican) has become the lingua franca for large parts of the business world. This penetration is mon itored annually by Miami-based Education First in its English Pro ficiency Index (most recently pub lished in December 2021), which ranks 112 countries and regions by their levels of English usage and comprehension.

There are some 7,000 languages in the world, yet more than half of the population speak just 23 of them. Of these languages, English is the most understood (followed closely by Mandarin), with 18% of the global population able to communicate in it. English is spo ken by some 400 million people as a native language (it is an offi cial language in 67 countries), and spoken by a further 1 billion as a foreign language.

In business communication, we need to avoid corporate confus cation, jargon and the vernacular of local speech, and learn to speak and write like fluent foreigners; clearly and to the point. Unlike the BBC, mining companies don’t need to entertain, but they do need to inform and educate; Reith would surely approve.

Chris Hinde is a mining engineer and the director of Pick and Pen Ltd., a U.K.-based consulting firm. He previously worked for S&P Global Market Intelligence’s Metals and Mining division.

right

Mining’s problems are now the world’s problems, as lithium scale-up issues show

Exploits hopes to make the next big gold discovery in Newfoundland

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND IN GANDER, N.L.

Exploits Discovery (CSE: NFLD) chief executive officer

Jeff Swinoga has come from away, leaving high-crime Mexico for the warm-hearted community of Gander, NL.

After helping raise US$400 mil lion as chief financial officer of Torex Gold Resources’ (TSX: TXG) El Limon Guajes mine in Guerrero state and stints at First Mining (TSX: FF) and consul tantcy EY Canada, his new proj ect is developing stakes near the heart of Newfoundland’s multi-bil lion-dollar gold rush that saw Exploits stock surge by more than a third last week to 23¢ a share.

It was after the company pounced on a claim it’s calling Block H for now, right beside New Found Gold’s (TSXV: NFG) Queensway project, which hit 92.86 grams per tonne gold over 19 metres in its 2020 discovery hole and is now in the midst of a 400,000-metre drill program. New Found owns about 11% of Exploits. Also next door is Labrador Gold (CVE: LAB) with its Golden Glove and Big Vein sites reporting 6.22 grams per tonne gold over 4 metres and 44.08 grams gold over 4.28 metres, respectively.

“We’re thrilled to acquire this property, it’s one of the best claims in the province,” Swinoga, 55, said during an interview en route to the site just outside Gander, the small community known for hosting thousands of temporary 9-11 trans plants as recounted in the musical Come From Away. “We just can’t wait to get at it.”

The stake adds to the more than 2,000 sq. km controlled by Exploits in central Newfoundland, stretch ing from the island’s north coast to near its southern shore and hold ing nine projects. The zone is sliced by fault lines — the Valentine, Dog Bay, Appleton and the Gander River Ultramafic Belt or GRUB — all formed about 480 million years ago during the closing of the Iapetus Ocean that allowed gold to migrate up from the earth’s mantle.

After Marathon Gold (TSX: MOZ) posted measured and indi cated resources (inclusive of reserves) of 64.6 million tonnes grading 1.9 grams gold per tonne for 4 million oz. contained gold at its almost $500-million Valentine open pit project near Grand Falls, N.L, geologists consider the prov ince’s central region one of the top gold zones in Canada. It ben efits from Gander’s mining infra structure, power supplies and access through a network of for estry roads. The region could rank after the Abitibi area straddling the Ontario — Quebec border, north west Ontario around Red Lake and the golden triangle in northwest British Columbia. Analysts forecast first gold from Valentine in early 2025.

Still, Exploits hasn’t made a big find yet, and the five drilling tar gets across three projects last year “didn’t offer meaningful gold val ues,” Swinoga said. The CEO was measured but not tight-lipped, affable but not boisterous, as he told how the stock rose to a high of $1.54 in July last year on the back of additional backing from lead inves tor Eric Sprott, who holds 18% as well as the 6% held by Sprott Asset Management. Investors were riding a wave of optimism that Exploits would surely soon announce another opportunity like

“Then our stock slid as froth came off the market and labs were backed up six to eight months for our assay results,” said Swinoga, who replaced company co-founder and CEO Michael Collins a year ago.

After the region’s initial mon ey-raising frenzy, large discoveries remain rare and some of the lus tre of piling into the area may have worn off, Red Cloud Securities ana lyst Koby Kushner said in a phone interview.

“Area plays, very rarely are they successful,” Kushner said. “Closeology doesn’t mean prospectivity.”

Exploits senior geologist Mark Richardson cautioned how pin pointing finds in the region requires extensive analysis of the orogenic structures of thrusting, folding and cross-shearing along faults when the two ancient continents of Gan deria and Laurentia collided hun dreds of millions of years ago.

“The gold can be nuggety and

difficult to trace,” Richardson said beside Angie’s Vein (named after a favourite local restaurant), a quartz outcropping on the North Gazee bow project. “That’s why drilling is easy to miss it, and why some companies around here space their holes just 25 metres apart.”

New methodology

Exploits, with $10 million in cash and no debt, adopted a new meth odology this year with a 10-point checklist to pinpoint targets before drilling. Swinoga cut back the amount of drilling, frustrating some investors eager for a big dis covery, to concentrate on research. Measure twice, cut once, as the say ing goes.

“We believe our probability of a gold discovery has significantly increased with our new meth odology and our newly acquired claims,” the CEO said.

Round-the-clock diamond drill ing started in August at the Titan site, 42 km north of the Keats proj ect held by New Found Gold. Drill

results could be released in two months, depending on the findings, Swinoga said.

“We are confident that we should intersect gold at Titan because it has been found historically, which is very encouraging,” the CEO said. “We’ll just need to wait for the assay results to see how much.”

Part of the confidence comes from Swinoga’s belief in his team. It has a tech startup feel with young people who have also come from

away. Exploration manager Nick Ryan, 35, returned to St. John’s after several years at the Coffee gold project in the Yukon; geologist Nate Costello, 6’4” tall and growing a beard to rival ZZ Top, has worked in Greenland, Peru and Nevada at just 29; and low-key geologist Brad Smith, 30, brings experience from offshore oil rigs. Geologist Kasey Stone, 26, joined just two months ago from New Found Gold after she worked at national educational charity Mining Matters.

The team’s youth is tempered by veteran guidance from Swinoga, who started with seven years at Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) where he helped raise $200 million for the Bulyanhulu mine in Tanzania among other projects before spells at Hudbay Miner als (TSX: HBM), where the stock rocketed from $2 to $28, Mag Industries, North American Palla dium (TSX: PDL) and Golden Star Resources.

There are also Ken Tylee, 64, vice-president of exploration, with experience at McEwen Mining (TSX: MUX; NYSE: MUX), Kinross Gold (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC), and the former Goldcorp; Doug Cater, 65, who conducted due diligence on Kirkland Lake Gold’s $1-bil lion acquisition of Newmarket Gold in 2016, and advice from David Groves, 80, a Perth, Australia-based industry-leading expert in geology.

The crew is analyzing some 10,000 soil samples across the Appleton North, Duder Lake and Titan South areas and intends to release a “heat map” of mineral ization in a month or so showing a “smoke trail” back to a gold source, Swinoga said.

The billowing where there’s fire image evokes the time Swinoga and a nervous Torex lawyer scuttled across the dusty Mexican desert in a decrepit red sedan, seemingly under the radar of armed thugs backing union unrest, but really in their sights all along.

If analysts often assign a 5% dis count rate on the stock of opera

tors in riskier mining areas, what’s the premium for operating in the land of Come From Away? Swinoga laughed then pondered.

“I joined Exploits because New foundland is a great province with great people, we’ve got talented exploration staff and we’re wellfunded,” he said. “Having a big brother like New Found Gold was a great opportunity to be on the front lines of a potential billion-dollar company.”

Exploits Discovery CEO Jeff Swinoga at the company office in Gander with drill core from the Titan site. COLIN MCCLELLAND

SITE VISIT | Stakes ‘one of the best claims in the province’ next to New Found Gold’s Queensway

Keats at New Found Gold’s Queen sway, which had exploded on the scene in November 2019.

Exploits Discovery geologist Paul Delaney examines a quartz sample at Angie’s Vein on the Gazeebow site just north of Gander, N.L. COLIN MCCLELLAND

Exploits exploration manager Nick Ryan with CEO Jeff Swinoga. COLIN MCCLELLAND

SolGold becomes sole owner of Cascabel with Cornerstone buy

BY CECILIA JAMASMIE

Ecuador-focused Australian miner SolGold (TSX: SOLG; LSE: SOLG) is merging with Canadian junior Cornerstone Capital Resources (TSXV: CGP) to secure a 100% ownership of the Cascabel copper-gold project in the South American country.

The friendly deal, SolGold’s third official attempt to take over the Ottawa-headquartered junior, val ues it at £96.7 million (US$107.9 million).

Under the terms of the agree ment, Cornerstone shares will be exchanged for SolGold’s on the basis of 15 SolGold shares for every Cornerstone share. SolGold has the option to pay up to 20% of the deal in cash. If it chooses not to do so, its shareholders will hold 80% of the new enlarged firm.

The firm noted the 80/20 split is consistent with the current effec tive exposure both companies have to the Cascabel project.

Cornerstone’s shares skyrock eted on the news, climbing as much as 35% in Toronto to $3.69 each on Oct. 7. SolGold’s shares closed down 1.37% in London on the same day at 17.22 pence (26¢), but were almost 17% higher in Toronto on the news, leaving the company with market capitalization of almost £388 million (US$431 million).

SolGold said the merger will consolidate ownership of Casca bel, in which it currently holds an 85% stake, along with a strong portfolio of other projects.

The miner also said it is under taking a strategic review which

may include evaluating financing alternatives and a spinout of assets other than the Cascabel project.

“This merger transaction makes sense for both sets of shareholders. The merger allows our sharehold ers to maintain exposure to the world class Cascabel project and is a step towards maximizing value,” Cornerstone president and CEO, Brooke Macdonald, added.

SolGold had tried and failed to take over Cornerstone in 2017 and 2018. And in 2019, it made its first disclosed attempt, which was fol lowed by another offer in 2020.

The parties ended the two-year standoff that cost SolGold’s chief executive his post in June last year, agreeing to jointly advance the copper-gold project in Ecuador.

In August, the miner announced

a round of management changes, which included newly appointed chief financial officer Ayten Sari das stepping down after only six weeks in the job, after an unsuc cessful equity rise.

In top 20 copper mines

The Cascabel project, located in the Imbabura province of north west Ecuador, is one of the most

ambitious mining projects in a country that is keen to develop mineral resources to spur its slug gish economy.

According to the pre-feasibility study published in April, annual production will average 132,000 tonnes of copper, 358,000 oz. of gold and 1 million oz. of silver during Cascabel’s 55-year mine life.

That means the asset has the potential to become one of the 20 largest copper-gold mines in South America.

Alpala, the largest deposit found at Cascabel so far, has measured and indicated resources of 2.7 bil lion tonnes grading 0.53% cop per-equivalent (0.37% copper, 0.25 gram gold per tonne, and 1.08 parts per million silver) for 9.9 million tonnes of contained cop per, 21.7 million oz. gold and 92.2 million oz. of silver.

During the first 25 years of min ing, Cascabel is expected to have an average annual production of 207,000 tonnes of copper, 438,000 oz. of gold and 1.4 million oz. of silver.

Over the last two years, Ecua dor has attracted a flurry of inter est from big miners looking to increase their exposure to cop per. The highly conductive metal is in demand for use in renewable energy and electric vehicles, but big, new deposits are rare.

It is estimated that the global copper industry needs to spend more than $100 billion to build mines able to close what could be an annual supply deficit of 4.7 mil lion tonnes by 2030.

BURKINA FASO from 1

dent Roch Marc Christian Kabore in January 2022, there had been several incidents of mutinies by disgruntled troops. The January 2022 coup came after more than 50 gendarmes were killed in Inata in November 2021, and reports later emerged that the authorities had abandoned them.

Similarly, the intervention on Sept. 30 occurred after at least 27 soldiers were killed during an ambush on a convoy on Sept. 26.

“Successive coups, alongside deteriorating security, are likely to continue dampening investor con fidence in Burkina Faso. This is particularly pertinent for the min ing sector, which has been under considerable pressure over the past 18 months, with mining operators facing growing security, logistical and financing issues,” Gueret said.

Even so, the analyst does not expect authorities to place addi tional constraints on the mining sec tor, given its economic importance.

“There are also no signs that ECOWAS would be willing to impose sanctions on the country that would cause further financial or logistical challenges for min ing operators. That said, security remains the main challenge for the sector, and unless there are signif icant measures taken to enhance security around mining assets, it is unclear how long some mining sites will be able to continue oper ating, particularly in the north and east of the country,” Gueret said.

Meanwhile, he adds that uncer tainty and insecurity will continue to depress investment in explo ration, weakening the pipeline of future projects in the longer term.

Russian interference?

The latest Burkina Faso coup saw many younger people waving Rus sian flags in the capital’s streets, Ouagadougou.

Although relatively small in number, it has prompted specula tion that there may have been some Russian involvement in the events that saw Traoré seize power in a nation beset by growing jihadist violence.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch close to Russian President Vlad imir Putin and the founder of the

Wagner Group, a shadowy merce nary organization active in several African countries, congratulated the young junta leader, describing him as “a truly worthy and coura geous son of his motherland.”

“The people of Burkina Faso were under the yoke of the colo nialists, who robbed the people and played their vile games, trained, supported gangs of bandits and caused much grief to the local pop ulation.”

According to local media reports, he was referring to former colo

nial power France, and those wel coming the coup not only waved Russian flags but attacked French institutions, including the embassy.

The violence sent shockwaves across the region, demonstrating the strength of anti-French resent ment in many of France’s former African colonies.

Burkina Faso has been desta bilized by a decade-long Islamist insurgency that leaders have failed to suppress.

More than 40% of the country, a former French colony, is currently

outside government control. Thou sands have been killed, and about 2 million people have been displaced by fighting since 2015, when an insurgency that began in Mali in 2012 spread to Burkina Faso and other countries in the Sahel region, south of the Sahara Desert.

Operations unaffected Soon after the turbulent events of the first weekend of October, min ers and explorers were quick to publish statements saying busi ness was more or less continuing unhindered.

West African Resources (ASX: WAF), an Australian gold miner that gets all its revenue from Burkina Faso, saw its shares dive 10% on the news to A95¢ per share in the immediate aftermath. That’s the lowest the stock has closed at this year.

The company said the new mil itary leadership had released a statement urging the people of Burkina Faso to “go about their business in peace.” It added it remained on track to meet 2022 production guidance of 220,000240,000 oz. gold.

Endeavour Mining (TSX: EDV; LSE: EDV) also said its mines were unaffected. The company is Burkina Faso’s top miner with four operations — Houndé, Mana, Boungou and Wahgnion – and two exploration projects.

Canada’s Iamgold (TSX: IMG; NYSE: IAG), which owns the Essakane mine, said that all employees and contractors were safe. Essakane, located about 330 km northeast of the country’s capital, Ouagadougou, is Iamgold’s biggest operating mine.

copper-gold

Visitors at the Alpala outcrop at the Cascabel concession in Ecuador in September 2022. SOLGOLD

Endeavour Mining believes the second Burkina Faso coup d’état this year is not of material concern to its ongoing operations in the country. ENDEAVOUR MINING

Top gold assays for the week of Sept 30-Oct 7

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Our TNM Drill Down feature highlights the top gold assays of the past week.

Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by our sister company Mining Intelligence (www.miningintelligence.com).

This week’s top three assays take us around the world, to Alaska, Morocco and Fiji, with projects by Nova Minerals (ASX: NVA), Stellar AfricaGold (TSXV: SPX) and Lion One Met als (TSXV: LIO), respectively.

The top hole came from Nova’s Estelle Gold project 150 km north west of Anchorage, AK. Diamond drill hole RPM-022 hit 67 metres of 10.4 grams gold per tonne start ing from 112 metres depth for a grade x width of 696.8. The hole returned an overall average grade of 3.9 grams gold over 193 metres.

The hole was drilled in the RPM North zone to complete explora tion there while “a large number” of holes from RPM North and RPM South have yet to be reported because of laboratory backlogs, the company said. Infill drilling con tinues at the site’s Cathedral and Korbel zones.

“I am pleased to report more shallow high‐grade broad min eralization from our drilling at RPM,” Nova chief executive officer Christopher Gerteisen said. “This program is part of a targeted pro gram designed to allow for further increases to potential measured and indicated resources.”

Nova’s Estelle project has 21 prospects in a 35 km-long area in Alaska’s Tintina Gold Belt, which is known for Victoria Gold’s (TSX: VGCX) Eagle Mine and

USGS,

TNM DRILL DOWN

Top gold assays of the week

RANK

DRILL

(m) (m) (G/T

1 Estelle United States Nova Minerals (ASX: NVA) RPM-022 112 67.0 10.40 697

Tichka Est Morocco Stellar Africagold (TSXV: SPX) TB2022P01 75 155.7 3.50 545

Tuvatu Fiji Lion One Metals (LIO) TUDDM-001 81.8 24.0 14.96 359

Lamaque Canada Eldorado Gold (TSX: ELD) LS-21-086 413.4 22.1 16.14

Treaty Creek Canada Tudor Gold (TSXV: TUD) GS-22-151-W1 744.0 300.0 0.95

Sunday Creek Australia Souther n Cross Gold (ASX: SGX) SDDSC046 183.6 21.5 12.20

Cakmaktepe Turkey SSR Mining (TSX: SSRM; ASX: SSR) AR461 138.0 28.3 8.23

Colorado V Ecuador Challenger Exploration (ASX: CEL) CVDD-22-010

Goldwedge United States

Gold (TSXV: SGN)

Alice River Australia Pacgold Ltd. (ASX:

Kinross Gold’s (TSX: K) Fort Knox Gold Mine. The RPM North zone has an inferred resource of 23 million tonnes at 2 grams gold per tonne for 1.5 million oz. with a cut-off of 0.3 gram gold per tonne.

A phase two scoping study and resource updates for Korbel and RPM are due in the near term, the company said.

Stellar AfricaGold came second for the week after its diamond drill hole TB2022P01 at the Tichka Est project intersected 165 metres of 3.5 grams gold per tonne starting from 75 metres depth for a grade x width of 545.

Stellar completed 13 of 20 planned drill holes at zone B of the Tichka Est project in Moroc co’s Atlas Mountains, about 80 km southwest of Marrakech. The com pany adjusted the targeting as it

became clear results were poor in a sub-vertical sheared structure and better near the surface in the upper part of a diorite sill. Crews dug a 240-metre trench which assayed an average of 3.5 grams gold per tonne over 155.7 metres, the com pany said.

Five holes hit gold mineraliza tion, including intersections of 3.71 grams gold per tonne over 9 metres, 3.03 grams gold per tonne over 6 metres and 3.3 grams gold over 4 metres, the company said.

“While the initial drill program did not support our first theory of the source of the gold at Zone B, it did provide us with fresh insight into the Zone B’s complex geol ogy,” vice-president of exploration Maurice Giroux said in a news release. “We do consider the over all program to be encouraging and

to map southwestern US for critical mineral potential

DATA |

BY STAFF WRITER

773.9

41.2 3.89

14.9

are looking forward to continuing the exploration at Tichka Est at Zone B with now the new geolog ical model factored in and also at Zones A and C which also include diorite intrusives.”

Stellar is in the midst of a US$2.1-million exploration pro gram across the three zones at Tichka Est after signing an agree ment with the Moroccan gov ernment in August 2020. The company also has the Namarana gold project in Mali.

Lion One Metals scored third this week with its Tuvatu alkaline gold project on the island of Viti Levu in Fiji. The diamond drill hole TUDDM-001 hit 14.96 grams gold per tonne over 24 metres from a depth of 81.8 metres for a grade x width of 359.04.

The hole was one of six drilled

during June, July and August in the URW1, Murau and SKL lodes, part of the Navilawa Caldera, a 7-km diameter alkaline gold sys tem, the company said. An indi cated resource from 2018 estimates 1 million tonnes of 8.5 grams gold per tonne with a cut-off grade of 3 grams gold per tonne for 274,600 oz. gold. A resource update is planned for the first quarter of next year, the company said.

“These latest results underscore the continuous, high-grade nature of the mineralization at Tuvatu,” Lion One chief executive officer Walter Berukoff said in a news release. “Each batch of drill results adds enormous value to the proj ect in both addition of ounces to the total metal budget as well as clarification of important upside potential.”

TNM

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA IN THE MATTER OF THE COMPANIES’ CREDITORS ARRANGEMENT ACT, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-36, AS AMENDED (THE “CCAA”) AND GREAT PANTHER MINING LIMITED (“GPR”)

The

Geological Sur vey (USGS) and NASA are teaming up to map portions of California, Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah for critical mineral potential.

US$16-million, five-year, government-funded project will employ NASA’s Airborne Visible/ Infrared Imaging Spectrometer high-altitude earth remote sensing platform and MODIS/ASTER Air borne Simulator to collect hyper spectral data over large regions in the arid and semi-arid western United States.

Hyperspectral data are reflec tions of light from surfaces, mea sured across hundreds of frequency bands. These measurements cap ture not only light visible to our eyes, but also bands of light beyond the visible, into the infrared.

According to the USGS and NASA, the data collected can be very useful in studying sur face rock formations because each mineral in rocks has its own

unique reflection characteristics across the various bands of light. Thus, looking for these patterns or ‘spectral signatures’ can help iden tify locations with high potential for mineral resources.

The research will also include evaluating critical mineral poten tial in mine waste.

“Mine waste is receiving increas ing attention for its potential to contain critical mineral resources, particularly those that are most often produced as by-products, while also offering an opportu nity for remediation of contami nated sites,” the agencies said in a media statement. “For instance, the USGS recently analyzed mine tailings from historical iron pro duction in the Adirondacks of New York for rare earth element potential.”

The Geological Survey has also used hyperspectral data in the past to analyze mineral potential in Alaska and has found these data useful for understanding a variety of other earth science and biolog ical issues including geologic acid

mine drainage, debris flows, agri culture, wildfires and biodiversity.

“This exciting scientific effort is made possible through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s investments and will enable NASA and the USGS to leverage our unique capabilities toward a common goal,” USGS Director David Applegate said in a news release. “The data we’re collecting will be foundational for not only critical minerals research but also for a wide range of other scientific applications, from natural haz ards mitigation to ecosystem res toration.”

The US$16 million allocated to this project is part of a larger, US$510.7-million investment pro vided by the Bipartisan Infrastruc ture Law for the USGS to support integrated mapping and interpre tation of mineral resources data, the preservation of data from geo chemical samples from the Earth Mapping Resource Initiative, and the construction of a USGS energy and minerals research center in Golden, Colo. TNM

TAKE NOTICE THAT on October 4, 2022, GPR commenced proceedings under the CCAA (the “CCAA Proceedings”) in the Supreme Court of British Columbia (the “Court”) and was granted an order (the “Initial Order”) protecting GPR from its creditors.

The Initial Order, among other things, stays all proceedings against the creditors of GPR. Pursuant to the Initial Order, Alvarez & Marsal Canada Inc. was appointed Monitor (the “Monitor”) of the business and financial affairs of the GPR.

A copy of the Initial Order has been posted on the Monitor’s website at: www.alvarezandmarsal.com/GPR

The Monitor will post additional relevant information and

the CCAA Proceedings

parties

the Monitor’s

contact the

related

they become available.

further

Alvarez & Marsal Canada Inc.

Cathedral Place Building 925 West Georgia Street, Suite 902 Vancouver, BC V6C 3L2 Telephone: (+1) 604-639-0852

Facsimile: (+1) 604-638-7441 Email: gpr@alvarezandmarsal.com

at:

Panel tackles next iteration of ESG in mining – including Indigenous equity in projects

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

The future of environmen tal, social and governance (ESG) issues in the mining industry will see Indigenous com munities commonly hold equity stakes in projects while companies become fully transparent about all operations, not just information to meet laws. These were just a couple of points to come out of a six-per son thought-leadership panel on ESG presented by SLR Consulting at The Northern Miner’s Q3 Global Mining Symposium on Sept. 28-29.

Mining companies are spend ing billions on ESG as movements such as Black Lives Matter, climate change activism and Indigenous rights gather momentum through social media and a generational shift in attitudes towards corporate responsibility. And the federal gov ernment is offering tax credits for adopting net-zero technologies and carbon capture concepts, as well as $600 million for a renewables and electrification program as part of the up to $3.8 billion announced this year to boost critical minerals mining.

“The needle is moving and now faster than ever before,” Kevin D’Souza, chief sustainability officer with Resource Capital Fund, said during the 45-minute session. “The themes that we won’t have seen really on our radars up until a few years ago, you know, diversity and equity inclusion is one that’s really come full speed.”

Panelists in the session, moder ated by SLR managing principal Stephan Theben, said the indus try has been proactive in ESG for

decades although the goalposts have moved on many issues as wider society becomes more aware and demanding. They cautioned that there was no going back to transgres sive times and that mining compa nies must fully adopt ESG measures in their culture to avoid accusations of greenwashing, when companies follow fake or misleading ESG pol icies for the sake of image.

Stephen Crozier, vice-presi dent sustainability at Ring of Fire Metals, told the session there’s an industry-wide tension concern ing how much information about operations companies should share with the public. The public won’t settle just for disclosures to meet laws, so companies had better pre pare, he said.

“We are set up for a collision here, which doesn’t have to be, you know, a destructive collision,” Cro zier said. “But there is still a big ten sion here, and the reluctance to be more specific and more transpar ent at sites is currently not helping. The sooner it is addressed, the bet ter because it’s inevitable that it will have to be addressed.”

Diversity and inclusion have become buzzwords in recent years amid the upheaval following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in the United States, the revelations of unmarked graves at former residential schools for Indigenous children in Canada, and the wider acknowledgement of trans people, among other LGTBQ issues. That inclusion is now broad ening to more calls for mining companies to give local commu nities, especially Indigenous com munities, equity stakes in projects, Resource Capital’s D’Souza said.

“In the near future, I really do expect to see community and Indig enous community equity in mining projects,” he said. “That’s true part nership going forward. And that’s where this new ESG approach is fundamentally seen as creating that sustainable culture, not just finan cial.”

Issues such as gender parity are gaining traction, yet Pierre Grat ton, president and chief executive officer of the Mining Association of Canada, noted how skilled trade schools channel fewer women than

men into the mining work force.

“We do need to work with the schools to try to convince many more people and visible minori ties as well,” Gratton said. “A lot of immigrants come to Canada, they never think of working in the min ing sector, tend often to congregate primarily in urban areas, and our jobs are, many of them are not in urban areas.”

Part of the transformation required among mining compa nies is to move away from lingo like “social licence” and toward concepts such as creating value for communities.

“A social licence is solely about benefit to a company and the desire to secure this acceptance to oper ate,” D’Souza said. “In my entire thirty-year career, I’ve never ever once heard a community request a social licence or celebrate its exis tence, whereas creating social value is about that equity benefit sharing, maximizing procurement, employ ment and being that true partner in a community.”

Another point in a sounder approach to ESG is to become less

beholden to achieving measurable goals and more aware of meaning ful contributions that often can’t be quantified.

“There is a temptation within the ESG space to kind of reduce the effort across these really increas ingly complex domains into digest ible data points,” Crozier said. “The challenge is that in some of these areas, they’re not easily reducible to very simplified data points, or mile stones.”

Climate change remains another big ESG issue and the industry needs to embrace more electrifica tion, Jean-Marie Clouet, director of investor relations at Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM) in Canada, said.

“If it’s an underground mine, when you have diesel equipment, you need to push a lot of air, it’s a lot of energy, you can actually reduce costs, but there’s a transi tion to be done,” he said. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done, not just with the industry, but really with all the partners, including gov ernment, that needs to happen on a societal level.”

The panel dismissed examples of recent pushback from some inves tors on whether ESG is absolutely necessary, as coming from relics who will soon fade away.

“It’s political shenanigans,” D’Souza said, referring to com ments in the United States. “It’s making ESG politicized, which is a shame. But I think we’re just going to see it dwindle out, because these are the same people who are going to be fighting when their parts of the world are going to be suffering from climate change.”

Quantifying the ‘massive role’ of Canadians in global mining

BY ALISHA HIYATE

Canadians may be a modest bunch, but when it comes to our importance in the glob al mining industry, we have a lot to be proud of.

At The Northern Miner’s Q3 Global Mining Symposium in late September, Douglas Silver pre sented data showing Canada leads the world in exploration spend ing (US$800 million per year vs. US$530 million for runner-up Australia); in capital spending on mining (accounting for 35% of the total compared to 13% for Austra lia); and the number of listed min eral companies (more than 1,400 compared with 661 for Australia).

The figures all show the “massive role” Canadians play in global min ing, said Silver, a U.S.-based geolo gist and executive who founded the Denver Gold Group. “They over shadow all the other nationalities when it comes to capital spending.”

Silver noted that Canada’s TMX Group, which operates three of the country’s five stock exchanges, and regulators such as the Ontario Securities Commission have a lot to do with our strength in mining.

“In the corporate world, money is the food that allows companies

to operate and grow. And having had the privilege of interacting with both of these groups, I can say with great conviction that their corporate cultures are one of help ing and not hindering. Their rules have been tested by time and make sense — and I can’t say that about some of the other exchanges, par ticularly ones near my home.”

The result, said Silver, is that combined, the companies listed on the TSX and TSX Venture Exchange have grown more than 160% in cumulative listed market

capitalization over the last 10 years — despite market downturns and the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The TSX and Venture exchanges complete more than 1,300 financ ings each year for mineral compa nies and this leads to literally billions of dollars in capital raised, which is what we need to go and discover, develop and operate mines,” said the 40-year mining veteran.

Silver, who started his career as an exploration geologist, has also been an executive in mining royalty and private equity firms, including Red Kite Management and its spinout company Orion Resource Partners – both major players in mine finance. Silver also founded the Denver Gold Group, and was inducted into the U.S. National Mining Hall of Fame in 2018.

Globally, Canadian companies own more than 6,100 projects in 97 countries, with the vast major ity of these projects located in North America.

Through their leadership in global mineral activity, Canadian companies have also become lead ers in creating global mining stan dards, Silver said.

“When Canadian companies operate in foreign jurisdictions,

they also take these standards with them and share them. And this elevates the world in mining practices, which is, with the cur rent emphasis on ESG, very, very important.”

Threat to Canadian mining

During a Q&A session, moderator and Northern Miner Group pres ident Anthony Vaccaro asked Sil ver what he believes is the biggest threat to Canada’s dominance of the mining sector.

“I think the biggest threat to Canadian mining is the internet,” he replied. “Because what it allows is people that are anti-mining have an easier way to get together and fundraise.”

Silver is currently studying the root causes behind the surge in opposition to mining projects — which is coming at the same time as the EV transition, and global elec trification requires more metals.

“It sounds like a great idea,” he said of global electrification. “But there’s simply not enough deposits in the world and permitting is tak ing longer and longer to put them into production.

Governments of the world are “absolutely ignorant” on the whole subject of copper, Silver said.

“Take Resolution or Rosemont (both copper projects) in Arizona where they’re pushing 20 years since they started permitting. The governments can’t have it both ways. They can’t demand that we develop more copper mines, and then not allow us to develop them.

“So this supply delay will con tinue. And as long as the anti-min ing forces have the microphone, they will continue to delay, stall, cheat whatever it takes to prevent new mines from being built.”

Both governments and the public have important choices to make, he noted.

“Governments are going to have to decide whether they want to serve the people and upgrade their infrastructure, or whether they want to simply sit on social issues, and not have these privileges.”

Silver added: “I think the world has to decide what that balance is, between what society needs to evolve and be more innovative, and how we get those metals.”

Ultimately, Silver said that proj ect delays will just mean higher prices. “If the demand is higher than the supply, the price is going up. So what a wonderful time to be 40 years old and having a big career in the mining business!”

GMS | Goalposts moving as society becomes ‘more aware and demanding’

Doug Silver

GMS | Permitting woes will feed metals supply crunch, warns industry veteran Doug Silver

SLR Consulting’s throught leadership panel: Pierre Gratton, Kevin D’Souza, Stephen Crozier and Jean-Marie Clouet.

Proactive Quebec government makes for a top-tier mining investment destination

GMS | Province offers fast-track permitting process, high-quality geological data

investment attractiveness.

BY HENRY LAZENBY

The Quebec government has formed specialized units to help mineral explorers and mine developers navigate the prov ince’s regulatory system from the discovery stage through produc tion and closure, The Northern Miner’s recent Q3 Global Mining Symposium heard.

A thought leadership panel fea turing four Quebec government representatives underlined the vast exploration potential in the province.

According to Jonathan Lafon taine, mining exploration activity monitor with the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, there cur rently are more than 220,000 active claims in Quebec, yet they only cover about 6% of the province.

“There’s still lots of room and an incredibly vast space to explore,” he said.

$964M in exploration spending

According to government data, in 2021, exploration and development spending totalled about $964 mil lion in Quebec, placing it among the top Canadian destinations for mining investment.

Quebec has one of the most diverse commodity bases in the world, from precious metals, including gold, to bulks like highgrade iron ore and critical metals such as nickel, copper, and lithium. The province used to be a lithium producer and is now regaining that role. The panel also singled out the rare earth niobium as a high-poten

tial commodity in the context of the energy revolution.

Quebec currently has about 22 mines in operation, three in care and maintenance and 33 min ing projects. They include projects owned by major players such as Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO), Glencore (LSE: GLEN), Arcelor Mittal, Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM), Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM; NYSE: AEM), and BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP).

James Moorhead, the province’s resident geologist, said Quebec has one of the best geoscientific data bases globally.

“The province’s large explora tion potential is expressed yearly through the discoveries that keep

coming,” he said.

Moorhead said gold attracts the lion’s share of exploration budgets, with about 70% of expenditures directed at finding and mining the yellow metal.

High-quality data

The panel stressed how all this activity is made possible by the government’s proactive approach in making free high-quality geo logical survey datasets available to explorers

“We receive about $12 to $16 million per year to send out geo logical survey teams of geologists to update our maps and to keep our data present,” Moorhead said.

Lafontaine said the government

was eager to interact with compa nies to find a collaborative and suc cessful outcome for the proponent.

“The idea is that we want to dis tribute this information as much as possible as easily as possible to various exploration groups. Explo ration done on fundamental prin ciples needs good data, and that’s what we strive to provide,” he said.

Top-tier jurisdiction

Vincent Fréchette, a mining engi neer with the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, said Quebec has a well-developed and transpar ent regulatory and administrative system designed to assist miners in all phases, from exploration through development, operation and mine closure. It has helped the province earn a top 10 position in the Fraser Institute’s annual survey of mining

Aside from government vehicles designed to benefit from the mineral exploration and mining business, such as Investissement Québec and Soquem, Fréchette explained that the provincial government created a Coordination Office three years ago to fast-track the mineral permitting process in Quebec.

“Through this office, we aim at ensuring a better management of timelines in issuing permits and optimize the exchange of infor mation between proponents and departments,” he said.

The office currently has four proj ects in progress. One of the cases is establishing interdepartmental tables that make it possible to offer mining proponents a personalized level of support adapted to regional realities, explained Fréchette.

He also explained how, in Que bec, the management of mining titles is computerized and easily accessible online.

The Gestion des titres miniers (GESTIM) website offers, through a geomatics application, instant access to updated data from the Register of Mining, Real and Immovable Rights of Quebec.

GESTIM can help users reduce the cost of acquiring and moni toring mining titles; consult and download data from the public register of mining rights by select ing the desired parameters; gener ate mining title maps adapted to one’s specific needs; view mining title maps and download them for free in PDF format; and to request a claim designation, among other functions.

EY’s Theo Yameogo on ESG and digital transformation — ‘We need to communicate’

BY BLAIR MCBRIDE

Are ESG ratings for min ers clear enough? Are ESG principles clearly under stood by most people? What role can digital transformation play in mining?

Theo Yameogo, sector leader for EY Americas & EY Canada Min ing & Metals joined a conversation centred on the evolution of ESG and digital transformation at The Northern Miner’s Q3 Global Min ing Symposium on Sept. 29.

Towards unified principles

The current ESG landscape in Canada is characterized by a broad set of principles adopted by indus try organizations like the Mining Association of Canada, Yameogo explained.

He pointed to the TSM (Towards Sustainable Mining) and Copper Mark principles as examples, though he noted there isn’t yet consensus on which ESG standards are better than others.

EY is working with other com panies to “see if there’s some sort of a framework that actually makes it simple,” targeting listed compa

nies in North America, Yameogo said.

One benefit of a framework and more clarity around ESG prin ciples is connecting better with investors, many of whom lose interest in mining when they learn it can take 10 to 15 years until a mine starts production.

“We need to get a new set of investors that we haven’t originally tapped into,” Yameogo said. “But at this point, it’s still tough to raise money. That’s how I see us as an industry dealing with ESG imper atives, because they’re not really defined. We need to help define them. And we need to communi

cate. People don’t understand the essential role of mining and met als. We need to think about it as a sector and we need to tell the story.”

Building ESG structure

While Yameogo acknowledged that ESG is facing pushback in some quarters, mainly from CFOs towards rating agencies and “gre enwashing,” he believes the momentum of ESG is heading in the right direction.

“Many companies have been aware of ESG way before we cre ated ESG. Health and safety, [the] environment, community [health]

have always been around. We used to call them EHS [Environment, Health and Safety]…all sorts of names.

“But today, ESG is basically a formula. It is the formulation of all of this under some sort of report ing structure.”

Digital transformation

Turning to the issue of digi tal transformation in mining, Yameogo said his approach has three steps: replicate home prac tices at work, focus on the digital purpose and structure data in a way that is meaningful for regular people.

One example that mining could replicate is from banking. While years ago when people had to wait until the end of the month to see paper statements from their banks, or go to the bank in person to see the statements, today customers can log on to an app and see their information instantly.

“Why is it that in mining, we still have month-end reports?” he asked in contrast. “These are the little steps that people should think about because this resonates with people. Why am I walking

around with paper? I don’t really use paper in my house.”

In terms of digital purpose, companies need to define what they want to be known for and lay out a roadmap instead of “run ning to every conference and buy ing the next big thing and testing this and running that,” he said. “It confuses the hell out of the work force because they don’t know the objective. What’s the purpose of the transformation? That’s usually what we talk to clients about.”

And when it comes to structur ing data, Yameogo said it’s useful to consider how exploration com panies present a project to com munities.

“How do you structure that data? How do you make it mean ingful for others? How do you… think about all your environmen tal footprint mapping?”

He gave the example of a com pany in South Africa that mod els mines in a three-dimensional, virtual reality format, giving peo ple goggles to view the model in a more engaging way.

“It’s like VR of your mine, rather than [going through] a bunch of slides.”

GMS | Clearer ESG principles key to ‘tapping into’ new investors

The Quebec thought leadership presentation at The Northern Miner’s Q3 Global Mining Symposium featured (clockwise from top-left) moderator Henry Lazenby; Jonathan Lafontaine, James Moorhead, Vincent Fréchette, and Christian Goulet.

Adrian Pocobelli, left, speaks with Theo Yameogo about ESG and digital transformation at the Q3 Global Mining Symposium.

Sense of purpose a key solution to industry doldrums, says Hemingway

GMS | Miners must highlight ‘the good they do for society’

BY BLAIR MCBRIDE

Educational data from the last several years reveals that young people in Canada are choosing careers other than min ing. Forecasts from the industry show that demand for mining-re lated labour will only increase this decade. It all makes for an indus try-wide dilemma and raises ques tions of how Canada can reach its potential, especially as the “EV rev olution” gathers momentum.

George Hemingway, managing partner and Innovation Practice lead at Stratalis Group joined The Northern Miner’s Q3 Global Mining Symposium on Sept. 28 to discuss job trends in mining, cultivating a sense of purpose in employees and diversity and inclusion.

Finding purpose

The issue of sectors lacking suffi cient workforces isn’t unique to mining. Hemingway stated that in his research more broadly, 40% of the workforce was “looking to leave” their jobs in 2023, another quarter plan to leave in the next five years and others would completely change their industry.

But he noted that even though companies might be making more money than before, labour issues can’t be solved only with money.

“I think that people need a rea son to wake up in the morning, they need a reason to work, they need a reason that is more than a pay

cheque,” Hemingway said. “They need to know not just what they do, but they need to understand why they do what they do. The truth is that a lot of folks, given the choice in the work that they have today, are relatively discontent.”

The challenge of disinterest or labour shortages will continue in various sectors — including min ing — until the industries can effec tively communicate the value of the work and connect that with the needs of younger generations, Hemingway explained.

Growing need for collaboration

But he offered another way of looking at data showing declining interest in mining careers, and sug gested that a narrow focus on spe

cific occupations misses the bigger picture.

Miners seeking to be on the cut ting edge of technology might be recruiting tech wizards, but Hem ingway questions if more isn’t needed to tackle problems in a col laborative way.

“I think that what’s going to hap pen is we’re actually going to need less of the people that we think we need in the jobs that we think we need them in. The real challenge… will be even if you have the right people, even if you have the right technology, are you actually going to be able to transform with those people?”

As an example, he cited tailings management, a complicated pro cess that requires examining the mining process, downstream activ

ities, closure and long-term assets.

“The kind of collaborative mind set that’s needed isn’t necessarily the kind of collaborative mindset we’ve hired for,” he said. “We hire people not to be Renaissance think ers, but to be experts at what they do. It’s that white collar collabora tive thinking and that mindset of hiring people with that mold, that is going to become one of the chal lenges as well.”

Changing narratives on the environment

Despite some efforts by miners to address public concerns that the industry wrecks the environment, Hemingway said they don’t do enough to “move the needle” and help people trust the industry.

It just doesn’t help align its pur pose enough with the values of the public.

“I think that the way that the public perception can be changed for the mining industry, is by tak ing the focus — ironically — off of mining,” he said.

He gave the example of an energy analyst working for a mining com pany in greenhouse gas reductions monitoring.

“[If] you ask them, what’s the good they do for society? Why did they do it? Well, someone that is reducing GHGs is protecting the planet. [Or] someone who is work ing in tailings isn’t just monitoring for static liquefaction or piezome ters. They are protecting communi

www.northernminer.com

ties. I don’t think we do a good job at all of helping people bring that message out.”

Diversity of thought

Before the discussion closed, Hem ingway turned to the issue of diversity and inclusion, and asked whether mining companies really want to deliver on that.

“Do you really? And why? So, if the answer is, ‘well, because every body says so. And that’s what the world looks like. And if we don’t do it, we’re going to get in trou ble.’ It’s a bit of a challenge, because you don’t actually understand the value of diversity, you don’t actu ally understand the value of differ ent thinking.”

Hemingway said that diversity initiatives should focus also on diversity-of-thought.

“First having that understanding that people with diverse thoughts, different thinking, different points of view, can actually add value to how you work, and how you improve, and the kind of company you are and actually codifying what the heck that actually means. And bringing that to life is something that most companies don’t do.

“You’ve got to be able to attract that more diverse group that is com ing up through the ranks by giving them a reason why your industry is an industry that appeals to them deeply. And then… you have to make it safe to be diverse.”TNM

Aurora Hydrogen aims to produce low-cost distributed hydrogen

BY HENRY LAZENBY

Canada is a global hydrogen leader, yet there is ample potential to reduce, or even eliminate, the lightest element’s carbon emissions-heavy current production methods, says Erin Bobicki, a minerals processing and microwave researcher with the University of Alberta.

Bobicki is also a founding direc tor of Aurora Hydrogen, a start-up developing technology for emis sion-free hydrogen production, which aims to fill a perceived lowcost distributed hydrogen market gap.

Bobicki explained during The Northern Miner’s recent Global Mining Symposium that the global hydrogen market entails around 90 million tonnes per year, split between about 45% to upgrade heavy oil and petroleum produc tion, and another 45% to make ammonia and the balance for other industrial uses.

As the world looks to quickly decarbonize transportation and industry, hydrogen demand is expected to increase dramatically, from US$130 billion worth today to US$2.5 trillion in 2025, accord

ing to the Hydrogen Council.

Bobicki stressed that there is an urgent need to develop new lowcost and low-carbon technologies for hydrogen production.

“There’s a lot of hydrogen con sumed today, and decarboniz ing those processes and producing clean hydrogen is important for many industries as they navigate along the path to achieving netzero emissions targets,” Bobicki said.

The researcher notes that hydro gen has become an accepted pil lar on that path since it’s a cleaner alternative to fossil-fuelled technol ogies and for applications where electricity is not suitable. Its appli cations are multiplying rapidly.

“Where a chemical fuel is desir able, hydrogen fits the bill in many respects. In applications like longhaul transportation, when you need assets available 24/7, you don’t have time to stop and charge for a period when you want to be hauling goods instead of waiting. So, batteries are hefty to lug around if we look at the long haul, trucking, trains and shipping applications.

“And so, hydrogen has been identified as a better fit for the decarbonization of those indus tries, compared to electric vehi cles,” she said.

Even household applications stand to benefit from hydrogen, such as for space heating in a cold climate like Canada’s. She suggests

blending hydrogen with natural gas is a crucial way to decarbonize many industries.

Importantly, Bobicki also pointed out that when it comes to transportation applications, hydro gen is not beholden for use only in platinum-heavy fuel cells in a vehi cle since it can be blended with diesel and used in the regular oper ation of an internal combustion engine.

“Those engines are commercial. You can buy those,” Bobicki said. “In addition, you can blend up to 5% hydrogen into natural gas with out much of an issue and use it in most home appliances available today.”

While the applications for hydrogen use are multiplying, so is the realization that it’s expensive to compress hydrogen for long-dis tance transport. Not to mention the requirement that the export destination needs sophisticated infrastructure to receive and safely handle and distribute the gas.

Bobicki argues that current hydrogen production is either expensive and distributed or lowcost and centralized, requiring addi tional costs to transport. “Aurora’s technology has the potential to

unlock many new hydrogen mar kets and applications by providing low-cost hydrogen at the point of use, fast-tracking the path to decar bonization in heavy transporta tion, residential and commercial heating, and many industrial pro cesses,” she said.

The academic views the market gap as lacking low-cost distributed or decentralized hydrogen produc tion. “We’re developing a technol ogy to produce low-cost distributed hydrogen with no carbon dioxide emissions,” she said.

Aurora is working on technol ogy that uses efficient microwave energy to heat natural gas without oxygen and water (pyrolysis) to produce hydrogen and solid car bon while avoiding the generation of carbon dioxide.

The technology is scalable and modular; units can be installed any where there is natural gas and elec tricity. Hydrogen production using Aurora’s technology can poten tially reduce global carbon emis sions by over 500 million tonnes per year, according to Bobicki.

The company plans to build and operate a 200 kg per day hydrogen demonstration plant for field trials in Edmonton.

George Hemingway

GMS | Start-up’s technology might cut carbon emissions by 500M tonnes per year

Erin Bobicki (right), associate professor of mineral processing in the department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Alberta, speaks to The Northern Miner’s Henry Lazenby.

SILVER AND PGMS

Bunker Hill Mining on a fast track to generating cash flow by Q3/23

BY HENRY LAZENBY

The legacy Bunker Hill zinclead-silver mine in Shosho ne County, Idaho, is set for a near-term revival with proponent Bunker Hill Mining (CSE: BNKR; US-OTC: BHLL) on track to deliv er cash flow by the third quarter of 2023.

The Toronto-headquartered company plans to restart opera tions at the mine in short order after the asset languished on care and maintenance for more than 30 years. Over nearly a century, it has produced more than 165 million oz. of silver and 5 million tons of base metals.

“Many project proponents are watching our progress closely since the Bunker Hill restart would prove to the market that stranded brown fields sites such as Bunker Hill with legacy environmental challenges can indeed be funded for rede velopment and production,” said executive chair and former Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) executive Richard Williams during a tour of the site in late September.

The Northern Miner witnessed underground development and rehabilitation of the old equipment in progress on the outskirts of the twin cities of Kellogg and Wardner during the visit. The key takeaway from the visit is that the histori cal asset is in the right hands at the right time, considering the experi enced team driving the restart amid compelling fundamentals for the metals it will produce.

Bunker Hill published a prefea sibility study for the mine early in September, outlining a rapid restart for a total investment of US$54.8 million, which includes contin gency. The company has decided to go ahead with production with out completing a bankable feasibil ity study.

The prefeasibility covers the first phase of the restart, with an esti mated life of mine (LOM) of five years. A second-phase expansion is expected to provide upside poten tial from resource conversion, met allurgical optimization, and mine life extension.

According to the prefeasibil ity, the project is expected to gen erate an after-tax free cash flow of US$130 million over the initial mine plan (average of US$26 mil lion per year).

The study outlined an after-tax net present value (8% discount) of US$52 million and an internal rate of return of 36%.

Probable reserves at Bunker Hill are estimated at 3.2 million short tons (2.9 million tonnes), grading 5.3% zinc, 2.4% lead and 1.02 oz. silver per ton.

Historical mine

Development of the Bunker Hill property dates back to 1885, with the mine closing in 1981 due to low base metal prices. The decision to suspend mining was also forced by financial reasons as the new envi ronmental regulations at that time required significant capital invest

ment to upgrade the processing and smelting operations.

The mine was reopened in 1988 and operated until 1991. Since then, it has been under care and maintenance.

The mine produced 42.8 million tons at an average grade of 8.43% lead, 3.52 oz. silver per tonne, and 4.52% zinc.

The lead smelter and zinc pro cessing plants were dismantled fol lowing the final closure.

The federal government had to step in to remedy acid water dis charge from the mine, requiring significant investment to set up a state-run water treatment facility near the mine site. Site clean-up activities were also completed to comply with environmental regula tions under the auspices of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agen cy’s Superfund program.

Bunker Hill acquired the mine, including the mineral titles and surface rights in January this year.

As part of the agreement, it took on an environmental bonding payment of US$17 million due by November 2024.

Bunker Hill also acquired Teck Resources’ (TSX: TCK.A/TCK.B; NYSE: TCK) Pend Oreille process plant, with the mill delivered to site in August. However, the com pany recently announced that it had secured a larger ball mill with 2,100 tons per day capacity. That is enough for the first phase’s envis aged 1,800 tons per day through put, with expansion upside built in.

“Given the potentially very long life of the Bunker Hill mine, this optionality represents an obvious source of value creation,” said CEO Sam Ash, another former Barrick

manager and a mining engineer by trade.

The new ball mill will replace the three other mills procured from Pend Oreille, and will be integrated into the company’s mill construc tion plans.

In preparation for the redevelop ment work, Bunker Hill executed a non-binding term sheet with Sprott Private Resource Streaming and Royalty for a US$50-million project finance package in December 2021.

Teck also holds an exclusive

option to acquire all the zinc and lead concentrate produced from the Bunker Hill mine for five years.

The company has appointed Strike Group as its PCM partner for the mine restart activities.

“We have a low-cost producer of metals here in a top-tier jurisdic tion which ranked first in the Fraser Institute’s 2020 survey, and in the most prolific global silver region in the Silver Valley,” Williams said.

He added that the company has no permitting constraints since the asset is on patented claims and pri vate ground, which should allow for a rapid restart.

In Williams’ view, the critical risk to the company’s success lies in exe cution. However, he can see a poten tial future where the cash-flowing company pivots to becoming a growth company. “When the mine starts producing free cash flow, we can see a clear path to value cre ation through strategic mergers and acquisitions opportunities in the zinc-silver space and apply the turn around strategy to other stranded assets,” he said.

The mine plan

The Bunker Hill team is confident they can conduct business in a lowcost, sustainable way, capitalizing on historically higher metal prices and significant infrastructure in place, including the ongoing treat ment of acid wastewater streams.

According to the prefeasibil ity study, the Newgard and Quill zones will be mined first via longhole open stoping with backfill. Stopes are proposed to be accessed through lateral shafts from the Newgard ramp.

New excavations are under way to provide primary access to the new stoping areas and connect to some of the existing lower lev els, which are to be dewatered over time and rehabilitated, or in some cases, completely rebuilt.

NATURAL

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

metallurgists, process

Above: Bunker Hill CEO Sam Ash at one of the incline hoist shafts. Right: The rehabilitated suface portal at Wardner.

HENRY LAZENBY

SILVER & PGMs SNAPSHOT: EIGHT JUNIORS TO WATCH

BY CARL A. WILLIAMS

Silver remains a prime target for mineral explorers and miners, and platinum group metals (PGM) such as platinum and palladium are of increasing interest due to their use in electric vehicles and fuel cell technologies. Here is a look at eight juniors exploring for and developing silver and PGM projects.

n BRAVO MINING

Based in Canada and Brazil, Bravo Mining (TSXV: BRVO) is focused on advancing its 100%owned Luanga platinum group metals-gold-nickel project. The 78.1-sq.-km property lies within the Carajás mineral province of Brazil in the central-eastern region of Pará state, about 500 km south of Pará’s capital city of Belém.

In September, Bravo reported assay results from the re-analysis of five historic drill holes on Luanga, which the company says continue to correlate closely with the origi nal assay results in both tenor and mineralized thickness.

Highlights from the re-analy sis included PPT-LUAN-FD0014, which intersected 12 metres grad ing 5.42 grams palladium per tonne, 2.62 grams platinum, 0.41 gram rhodium, and 0.04 gram gold (8.49 grams PGM+gold per tonne) starting from 10 metres downhole. The interval included a shorter 2-metre section of 15.3 grams pal ladium, 7.51 grams platinum, 1.14 gram rhodium, and 0.08 gram gold (24.03 grams PGM+gold).

Commenting in a Sept. 13 press release announcing the re-analy sis, Luis Azevedo, Bravo’s CEO, said the company was encouraged that the results correlated well with Vale’s historic results in both thick nesses and grades, “further increas

ing our confidence in the prior work completed at Luanga.”

The company said that drilling has already started on the next drill section to the north of the highgrade nickel/copper massive sul phides intersected in a previous hole, DDH22LU047, with six drill rigs operating on the site. A surface fixed-loop transient electromag netic survey is also expected to start shortly.

To date, 71 drill holes have been completed, for a total of 11,770 metres (or 46% of the first phase of drilling), including five twin holes and six metallurgical holes, with assay results pending for 38 holes, including 16 historic re-assay drill holes.

Bravo Mining has a market cap of $171.7 million.

n CANADIAN NORTH RESOURCES

Ontario-headquartered Canadian North Resources (TSXV: CNRI) is advancing its 100%-owned Fer guson Lake base metal and PGM

project in the Kivalliq region of Nunavut, about 250 km west of Rankin Inlet.

The Ferguson Lake area cov ers an extension of the Yathkyed greenstone belt and totals 253.8 sq. km, including 96.9 sq. km of mining leases and 156.9 sq. km of exploration claims. The prop erty comprises the South Discov ery zone, 119 zone, West zone, West Extension zone, West South zone, Central zone, East zones I and II, the M-zone, and Anom aly 51, which lies along the over 15-km-long magmatic sulphide mineralization belt.

In September, Canadian North released assay results for the first 28 holes (7,594 metres) of drill ing on Ferguson Lake. Highlights included holes FL22-442, which intersected 31 metres grading 1.28% copper, 0.81% nickel, 0.09% cobalt, 2.02 grams palladium per tonne, and 0.29 gram platinum per tonne from 55 metres downhole; FL22443, which returned 28.5 metres of 0.8% copper, 0.52% nickel, 0.06% cobalt, 1.38 grams palladium, and 0.19 gram platinum from 30 metres; and FL21-436, which hit 10 metres of 1.72% copper, 0.81% nickel, 0.07% cobalt, 2.07 grams palladium, and 0.23 gram platinum from 123 metres.

The company said that drill ing is part of the ongoing 2022 drill program consisting of 15,000

metres in 60 holes and is focused on expanding and upgrading min eral resources along the West and East zones of the main mineral ized horizon. Of the 28 holes with returned assay results, eight holes were drilled to infill previous drill ing in the West zone, with the holes confirming the continuity of known zones. Canadian North said that the results from these infill holes will be added to the dataset to improve the block model for the resource estimate and to upgrade the mineral resources.

Ferguson Lake currently con tains 24.3 million indicated tonnes grading 0.85% copper, 0.6% nickel, 0.07% cobalt, 1.38 grams palladium per tonne, and 0.23 gram platinum for 455.4 million lb. contained cop per, 321.4 million lb. nickel, 37.5 million lb. cobalt, 1.1 million oz. pal ladium, and 180,000 oz. platinum. Inferred resources add 47.2 million tonnes grading 0.91% copper, 0.53% nickel, 0.06% cobalt, 1.4 grams pal ladium, and 0.25 gram platinum for 946.9 million lb. copper, 551.5 million lb. nickel, 62.4 million lb. cobalt, 2.1 million oz. palladium, and 380,000 oz. platinum.

Canadian North Resources has a market cap of $259.2 million.

n CLEAN AIR METALS

Clean Air Metals (TSXV: AIR;

US-OTC: CLRMF) is a Canadi an-based platinum and palladium

explorer focused on advancing its flagship 100%-owned Thunder Bay North project, located about 50 km northeast of the city of Thunder Bay in northwestern Ontario.

In August, Clean Air released new assay results from its 2022 drill campaign at both the Escape and Current PGM-copper-nickel deposits on Thunder Bay North.

Three metallurgical bulk sam ple holes were highlighted in an Aug. 25 press release announcing the results. These included CLM22007, which intersected 19 metres grading 3.92 grams platinum per tonne, 3.9 gram palladium, 0.98% copper, and 0.56% nickel from 153 metres downhole, including 13.4 metres of 5.06 grams platinum, 5.14 grams palladium, 0.98% copper, and 0.56% nickel. Hole CLM22008 returned 37.8 metres grading 2.91 grams platinum, 2.8 grams palladium, 0.7% copper, and 0.39% nickel from 107 metres, including 19.2 metres of 4.25 grams platinum, 4.14 grams palladium, 0.99% cop per and 0.55% nickel; and CLM22010 cut 22.6 metres of 2.33 grams platinum, 2.17 grams palladium, 0.62% copper, and 0.41% nickel from 332 metres.

“The drilling assay results are in line with expectations for peer-lead ing mill head grade in the first seven years of mining at Thunder Bay

An outcrop showing copper mineralization at Magna Mining’s past-producing Shakespeare nickel-copper-PGM mine in Ontario. MAGNA MINING

The mining camp at Canadian North Resources’ Ferguson Lake project, in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut. CANADIAN NORTH RESOURCES

Gatos Silver trims reserves at Cerro Los Gatos by a third

MEXICO | Company identifies two

BY BLAIR MCBRIDE

Gatos Silver (TSX: GATO; NYSE: GATO) shares rose almost 10% on Oct. 3 despite the release of a resource update that reduced reserves at its Cerro Los Gatos (CLG) mine in northern Mexico by more than one third.

The miner had previously an nounced an issue with its resources and reserve statement in January this year, noting that there were er rors and overestimations in its 2020 technical report. Gatos said the re vised reserve for contained metals is now lower by 32% for silver, 37% for zinc, 36% for lead and 35% for gold, after accounting for depletion.

The reduction was in line with the company’s expectations; it had previously estimated a 30% to 50% reduction in metal content.

The Denver, Colo.-based com pany, which is in the process of transitioning its executive office to Vancouver, has a 70% interest in CLG, located about 120 km south of Chihuahua City in the northern state of Chihuahua. Dowa Metals and Mining holds a 30% interest.

The updated proven and proba ble reserve now comes to 6.1 mil lion tonnes grading 244 grams silver per tonne, 4.48% zinc, 2.14% lead and 0.27 gram gold per tonne, containing 47.7 million oz. silver, 599.1 million lb. zinc, 286.7 million lb. lead and 51,800 oz. gold.

In the 2020 technical report, total reserves were estimated at 9.6 million tonnes grading 306 grams

silver per tonne, 0.35 gram gold, 2.76% lead and 5.65% zinc.

Updated measured and indicated resources — exclusive of reserves — are now 1.9 million tonnes grading 96 grams silver, 3.01% zinc, 1.56% lead and 0.19 gram gold.

Inferred resources come to to 2.1 million tonnes grading 113 grams silver, 4.3% zinc, 2.45% lead and 0.2 gram gold.

Material errors

Gatos said in a news release that the reduced metal content in the reserve is due to updates to geolog ical modelling, mining dilution and recovery assumptions, increased operating cost assumptions and decreased zinc plant recoveries.

The company said there were two “material and compounding errors” that resulted in an overestimation of grades in the 2020 technical report.

“First, the block model used in preparation of the reserve esti mate was distorted during transfer between software packages result ing in reduced block dimensions and unestimated spaces between blocks,” it said in the release.

“Second, an incorrect software parameter was used in calculating tonnes and grades within designed stope solids that resulted in any unestimated volume (both planned intentional dilution outside the estimated vein and unestimated spaces resulting from the distor tion) being applied at the average mineralized grade instead of zero grade for dilution.”

Mine life CLG’s mine life has also been revised downwards, from 11 years in the 2020 report to six years.

Gatos estimates average annual production will be 7.4 million oz. silver at average all-in sustaining costs of US$7.06 per payable ounce. At US$22 per oz. silver, the new life-of-mine plan projects average annual cash flow of US$79 million after taxes until 2028. It pegs the project’s pre-tax net present value (using a 5% discount rate) at $491 million, with sustaining capital costs at $123.4 million.

However, Gatos also noted that

despite the issues with the 2020 technical report, operations at CLG have performed well so far in 2022 because of underground drilling, geological mapping and sampling and short-term mine planning.

In addition, it said that recent exploration at CLG has shown the potential for an extended mine life.

Drilling at the North-West, Cen tral and South-East zones returned 17 metres at 291 grams silver per tonne, 5.55% zinc, 6.14% lead and 1.01% copper.

Under the South-East zone, drill ing returned 7.5 metres at 247 grams silver per tonne, 5.97% zinc and

3.58% lead in hole GA-SEE-477. Hole GA-SE-475 intercepted 16 metres at 135 grams silver per tonne and 1.34% copper.

Gatos CEO Dale Andres said in a comment that the company had taken the time to “rebuild” the 2022 mineral reserve and resource “from the ground up.”

“Now that we have the solid foun dation with this updated reserve, we can return our attention towards realizing our district-scale upside with further exploration,” he said.

BMO Capital Markets analyst Ryan Thompson said in a note on Oct. 3 that in BMO’s modelling, CLG’s net asset value rose 27% to $215 million from $169 million due to higher-than-expected zinc pro duction over the mine life and low er-than-expected operating costs.

“Following conversations with management, we are now model ling lower per tonne costs (in line with the assumptions in today’s release),” he said. “Costs on a per tonne basis are expected to be driven lower, mostly as a result of pushing higher throughput (2,900 tonnes per day), a new energy con tract and other site-level initiatives (more long hole; paste plant).”

Thompson added that BMO sees the potential for conversion of the higher-grade portion of the inferred resource to add to mine life.

Gatos shares were trading at $3.94 in Toronto at press time, in a 52-week window of $3.06 and $18.46. It has a market cap of $272 million. TNM

VENTURE ARTICLE

Discovery Silver plumbs massive deposit in Mexico’s mining heartland

BY NORTHERN MINER STAFF

Having acquired 100% of the Cordero silver project in 2019, Discovery Silver (TSXV: DSV; US-OTC: DSVSF) is wasting no time making it one of Mexico’s most important silver producers.

The Cordero project in Chihuahua state can be a Tier 1 silver producer, says Discovery. Indicators point to a mine that will be among the world’s top five producers at a rate of 26 million oz. of silver-equivalent annually from the world’s third largest silver deposit.

Heading up the Discovery team is COO Tony Esplin. He brings more than two decades of experience at Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM) and Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD). Other key members are country manager for Mexico, Roman Solis, an exploration geologist with 20 years of experience; and vice-president of exploration Gernot Wober, with 36 years of experience in Latin America and recently with Osisko Mining (TSX: OSK) in Quebec.

This is an opportune time for a topnotch team to concentrate on silver. The price of the metal is going up as its importance for a green future increases. It has growing use in solar panels and electric vehicles as well as jewelry, coins and bars.

“Forecast silver demand is expected to surge thanks to its use in solar technology,” said vice-president Forbes Gemmell. “Cordero is emerging as one of the world’s top three primary silver mines at a time when this global shift to green energy takes off.”

Located in the heartland of Mexico’s mining industry, the Cordero project has tremendous potential. It is surrounded by silver producers including the Dolores, Pinos Altos, Santa Barbara, and La Platosa mines as well as the Parral tailings project.

However, Cordero is unique in that it is a large, disseminated silver deposit, unlike others that are vein deposits. The nature of the Cordero deposit considerably lowers the risk of mining and improves the economic outlook.

The distribution of the orebody lends itself to a phased development, which is the approach Discovery took in the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on Cordero. A phased prefeasibility study is slated for the first quarter of 2023.

The measured and indicated sulphide resource at Cordero totals

541 million tonnes grading 20 grams silver per tonne, 0.06 gram gold per tonne, 0.29% lead, and 0.51% zinc for a silver-equivalent grade of 48 grams. The inferred resource is 108 million tonnes at 14 grams silver, 0.03 gram gold, 0.19% lead, and 0.38% zinc. Total contained silver-equivalent in sulphides is 956 million ounces.

“Our drilling in the far northeast of the deposit continues to intercept zones of high-grade mineralization well beyond the limits of our current resource,” said interim CEO Tony Makuch in a recent press release.

“Highlight intercepts from … two holes include 33 metres of 388 grams silver-equivalent per tonne, 33 metres of 150 grams, and 16 metres of 147 grams silver-equivalent. These intercepts correspond with historic surface workings that extend more than 200 metres further to the northeast.”

The deposit at Cordero is amenable to open pit mining with a strip ratio of only 2.2:1. The resource is very well defined; 99% is in the measured and indicated category. Metallurgical results have been excellent with recovery from sulphides being 85% to 95% for silver-lead-zinc at a coarse grind to produce clean, saleable concentrates.

A PEA released in 2021 gave Cordero an after-tax net present value (5% discount) of US$1.2 billion and an internal rate of return of 38%. Payback would occur after two years. This is the base case, using a silver price of US$22 per ounce.

Using prices of US$27.50 per oz. silver, US$1,880 per oz. gold, US$1 per lb. lead, and US$1.45 per lb. zinc, the project carries an even more robust upside. In that scenario, the after-tax NPV rises to US$1.9 billion, the IRR to 55% and the payback period shortens to 1.4 years.

With a 16-year life, Cordero would have an all-in sustaining cost per silver-equivalent oz. of US$12.35. Over its life, the mine would produce 164.8 million oz. silver, 83,000 oz. gold, 1.6 million lb. lead, and 2.3 million lb. zinc — or 372.4 million total payable ounces of silver-equivalent.

The initial capital requirement will be US$368 million, followed by US$129 million in expansion capital, and US$186 million in sustaining costs. Discovery estimates the closure costs at US$44 million.

Mineral processing

Discovery is planning a two-phase execution for the mill in the upcoming

pre-feasibility study. In the early years the throughput rate is expected to be 25,000 tonnes per day. This will then increase to 50,000 tonnes per day. Recent metallurgical test work demonstrated that oxide mineralization could be co-processed with sulphide mineralization allowing for the elimination of a heap leach circuit. This is a change from the PEA that should reduce the upfront capex and simplify the permitting process.

In addition, the metallurgical test program also confirmed higher recoveries and lower reagent consumption than what was assumed in the PEA. The newest numbers will be included in the prefeasibility study, which is due in the first quarter of next year, with the feasibility study and construction decision perhaps a year after that.

Next steps

Meanwhile, Discovery Silver continues the third phase of drilling that will be included in the feasibility study. The company is also pursuing the needed permits.

So as not to miss an opportunity on the 394 sq. km that make up its property, the company is identifying and drilling regional targets while not losing sight of its main task: to get the Cordero mine and mill into production in a timely manner.

The preceding Joint Venture Article is PROMOTED CONTENT sponsored by DISCOVERY SILVER and produced in co-operation with The Northern Miner. Visit www.discoverysilver.com for more information.

The Cordero difference

The experienced team at the Cordero project, soon to be one of the world’s largest primary silver producers. DISCOVERY SILVER

An aerial view of the Cerro Los Gatos mine. GATOS SILVER/BUSINESS WIRE

SNAPSHOT from 12 North,” said Abraham Drost, Clean Air CEO, in a press release. “Con siderable upside exploration poten tial for massive sulphides outside the [assessment] production area remains at the base of the Escape and Current magma conduits along the Escape Lake fault.”

The company said that it is expanding its work permit foot print to accommodate a drill pro gram on these targets this winter. In addition to metallurgical drill ing, Clean Air is also conduct ing a 17,000-metre expansion drill program this year at Thunder Bay North and expects to release a pre feasibility study in May or June 2023, with environmental baseline fieldwork, engineering studies, and hydrogeological drilling test work all under way.

Clean Air Metals has a market cap of $33.4 million.

n DISCOVERY SILVER

Toronto-headquartered Discov ery Silver (TSXV: DSV; US-OTC: DSVSF) is developing its Cordero silver-lead-zinc project in Mexi co’s Chihuahua state, roughly 300 km southwest of Chihuahua City and 600 km from the border with the United States. According to the company, Cordero is one of the world’s largest undeveloped silver resources.

In August, the Canadian junior reported results from metallurgical testing as part of an upcoming pre feasibility study on the property.

Discovery Silver says that the tests were performed on several types of samples, with the high est-grade recoveries returning 94% to 98% silver, 89% to 97% lead, and 92% to 96% zinc. Medium-grade samples of blended rock types had recoveries of 83% to 92% silver, 84% to 92% lead, and 81% to 89% zinc. When oxide and sulphide samples were blended, it said that oxide-specific recoveries were 60% silver, 40% lead, and 85% zinc via flotation.

“Our PFS metallurgical test results demonstrate the excep tional metallurgical properties of our Cordero deposit,” said Tony Makuch, the company’s interim CEO, in an Aug. 29 press release. Makuch noted that recoveries typ ically ranged from 85-95% at an extremely coarse grind size of roughly 210 microns. “On average recoveries came in higher than what was assumed in our PEA and were achieved at significantly reduced reagent consumption highlighting the potential for reduced operating costs for our PFS.”

He added that the company’s first ever flotation testwork of an oxide-sulphide blend returned “very positive results,” with eco nomic recoveries for oxide min eralization for silver, lead and zinc

through flotation. “These results allow for the elimination of the heap leach circuit in our PFS; this will streamline the crushing/grind ing circuit, reduce upfront capital expenditures and simplify the per mitting process,” Makuch said.

Discovery Silver has a market cap of $322.9 million.

n MAGNA MINING

Magna Mining (TSXV: NICU) is an exploration and development company focused on nickel, cop per, and PGM projects near Sud bury, Ont.

The Canadian junior’s flagship asset is the past-producing Shake speare mine, which is permitted for the construction of a 4,500-tonneper-day open-pit mine, processing plant, and tailings storage facil ity and is surrounded by a contig uous 180-sq.-km prospective land package. The project is about 70 km south of Sudbury.

In September, Magna announced that it had received conditional approval from the TSX Venture Exchange of its proposed acqui sition of 100% of Lonmin Canada Inc., whose assets include the Deni son project and the past-producing Crean Hill nickel-copper-platinum group elements (PGE) mine, both located in the Sudbury basin and about 37 km east of Shakespeare.

Magna will pay a total of $16 million for the assets, as per a share purchase agreement between Magna, Loncan, and current Lon can shareholders — being Sibanye UK Ltd. (formerly Lonmin Ltd., and a subsidiary of Sibanye Still water [NYSE: SBSW]), Wallbridge Mining (TSX: WM), which holds 16.5% ownership, and certain other minority shareholders. The pur chase price for the outstanding

shares of Loncan includes a closing payment of $13 million in cash and a deferred payment of $3 million.

“The Crean Hill mine was a significant producer in the Sud bury basin for more than 80 years and we believe the Denison proj ect has potential to add tremen dous value through development of the remaining historical mineral resources and additional explora tion on the property,” said Jason Jessup, Magna’s CEO in an Aug. 16 press release announcing the proposed acquisition. He added

that the successful closing of the transaction “will be transformative for Magna and has several poten tial synergies with Magna’s fully permitted, advanced stage Shake speare project.”

In early October, the com pany released results from five holes drilled at Shakespeare that expanded the West zone by 150 metres along strike and downdip of the current resource. The assays also included the project’s high est-grade combined platinum, pal ladium and gold grades yet, with

Hole MMC-22-43 cutting 0.35 metre of 15.5 grams platinum per tonne, 1.46 grams palladium and 1.31 gram gold from 284 metres.

Magna Mining has a market cap of $21.5 million.

n NEW AGE METALS

New Age Metals (TSXV: NAM; US-OTC: NMTLF) is a Cana dian exploration and development company focused on green met als projects in North America. The

Clean Air Metals’ Thunder Bay North site in Ontario.

ETHAN BEARDY, CLEAN AIR METALS

Outcrop Silver’s drilling crew carries out the ground preparation work for drilling platforms. OUTCROP SILVER AND GOLD

Reyna Silver’s Guigui silver-lead-zinc project is located within the Santa Eulalia mining district in Chihuahua, Mexico.

SILVER

company has two divisions — one for platinum group metals and one for lithium/rare earth elements.

The British Columbia-based junior is advancing its flagship 100%-owned, district-scale River Valley palladium project in Ontario, about 100 km northeast of Sudbury. The project is considered one of the largest undeveloped primary pal ladium projects in North America, says New Age.

In September, the company announced updated exploration plans for the project. It said that exploration will focus on drill tar gets ranked and prioritized from drill testing in the fall of 2022 and winter of 2023, with the high est-ranked for testing on the Dana South Zone-Extension target, the Dana South Zone-SET target, Pine zone, and Banshee Zone.

New Age says that a diamond drill rig has been mobilized to site and is set to begin the first phase of drilling at the Dana South Zone-Ex tension, which was recently iden tified from assays from previously reported drillhole KP21-05. That hole intersected 84 metres grading 1.129 grams palladium+platinum+ gold (3E) per tonne and 0.108% copper starting from 197 metres downhole, including 30 metres of 1.918 gram 3E and 0.183% copper and 18 metres of 2.373 gram 3E.

The company plans to test the target with a five-hole, 1,550-metre drilling campaign during Septem ber, and will be completed on two cross-sections to test for the pres ence of the higher-grade mineral ization many tens of metres up-dip, down-dip and southeast along strike of the KP21-05 intersection.

Following completion of the drill program at the Dana South Zone-Extension target, New Age says the drill rig may then be moved to the next priority ranking target, likely the nearby Dana South Zone-SET or the Pine Zone, 1 km to the north, which remains open to expansion down-dip.

A prefeasibility study for River Valley is also ongoing, and it is expected to be released sometime this year, says the company.

New Age Metals has a market cap of $14.4 million.

n OUTCROP SILVER & GOLD

Outcrop Silver & Gold (TSXV: OCG; US-OTC: OCGSF) is a Cana dian explorer focused on precious metals in Colombia. The company is advancing its exploration of five silver and gold projects in the his toric Santa Ana high-grade silver district, including Santa Ana, Mal lama, Antares, Oribella, and Argelia.

In August, Outcrop announced that it continues to generate new exploration targets through map ping, trenching, and sampling on its 100%-owned Santa Ana high-

grade silver project, with the focus of the work along the 8.5-km long Frias-La Ye trend south of the Agu ilar vein system.

Highlights from the sampling include three new high-quality tar

gets generated along Frias-La Ye.

In the Los Mangos target, dump and outcrop samples returned up to 9,738 and 4,545 grams silver per tonne, respectively; in La Ye, an outcrop sample yielded 5.48 grams

gold and 2,141 grams silver, and an associated float sample from trenching returned 11.39 grams gold and 4,043 grams silver; in Frias, a float sample returned 29.63 grams gold and an outcrop sample returned 1,181 grams silver. Three additional targets were generated on the Aguilar, which the company says may be the northern extension of the Frias vein system.

“We are thrilled with the results from our comprehensive target generation program, and we are working hard to prepare even more targets to drill later in the year,” said Guillermo Hernandez, Out crop’s vice-president of explora tion, in an Aug. 23 news release.

“As we progress in our efforts to generate our first compliant resource estimation at the end of the year, we continue to advance prospects in the property, with the objective to quickly add more

potential resource areas.”

Outcrop Silver & Gold has a market cap of $32.9 million.

n REYNA SILVER

Headquartered in Vancouver, Reyna Silver (TSXV: RSLV; US-OTC: RSNVF) has a portfolio of high-grade, district-scale silver projects in North America. These include El Duranzo, Matilde, Batopilas, La Reyna, and Guigui in Mexico; Medicine Springs in Nevada; and the Trudeau gold project in Quebec.

In September, the Canadian junior reported high-grade silver and gold results from its late 2021 and mid-2022 surface and in-mine sampling program. It focused on the area surrounding the Silver zone of the historic Batopilas district in Chi huahua state. Reyna says that Bato pilas is believed to be one of the highest-grade silver systems in Mex ico, having produced more than an estimated 300 million oz. of native silver from ores that averaged over 1,500 grams silver per tonne.

The company said that out of nearly 1,500 samples, over 10% reported between 1.1 and 32.6 grams gold per tonne, 6% reported between 199 and 14,170 grams silver per tonne, and about 25% reported a combination of gold and silver, with 16 samples return ing over 1 gram gold per tonne plus over 100 grams silver per tonne.

These results, it said, extend several known Silver zone vein structures by 300 metres to 1,200 metres and identify three new sil ver and multiple new gold-silver veins in the largely unexplored East Belt. Furthermore, the geochemi cal results appear to indicate that there are two separate gold stages superimposed on the silver min eralization in different parts of the camp, which indicates at least three mineralization stages, and are a hallmark of large, long-lived min eralization systems, said Reyna.

“Our results from applying mod ern exploration techniques into the underexplored parts of the his toric Batopilas district reinforce our belief that exploration has only scratched the surface in Mexico,” Jorge Ramiro Monroy, the compa ny’s president and CEO, said in a Sept. 13 press release. “We are very excited to see what the drill reveals next, not only in these new addi tions to the Silver Zone, but in the new East Belt gold zone in the east ern part of the district.”

Reyna Silver has a market cap of $36 million. TNM

Drill core from Bravo Mining’s Luanga project in Brazil. BRAVO MINING

Left: Inspecting core at Discovery Silver’s Cordero project in Mexico. DISCOVERY SILVER

Above: Drill core from the Cordero project. DISCOVERY SILVER

Bravo Mining’s Luanga project in Brazil. BRAVO MINING

Vital Metals bails on Quebec REE projects

BY CECILIA JAMASMIE

Australia’s Vital Metals (ASX: VML), the first rare earths producer in Cana da, has walked away from a deal with Quebec Precious Metals (TSXV: QPM) to buy the junior’s Zeus project and a 68% stake in the Kipawa heavy rare earths, inked last year.

Vital’s new management informed QPM that it had not been satisfied with the results of its due diligence on the projects, in particular the ability to prog ress its understanding of the Kip awa (Kebaowek) First Nation’s position.

The Australian miner also noted it was discontent with the technical due diligence com pleted by the company’s former management.

QPM, which will continue to seek a buyer for its projects, said Vital’s decision came after not being able to agree on terms to extend the due diligence period to enable the Sydney-based com pany to further reduce risk.

“We believe that significant value can be realized for our shareholders through the mone tization of the Kipawa and Zeus projects,” QPM’s CEO Normand Champigny said in a statement. “With the current market condi tions for rare earth projects, we expect that we will receive further

expressions of interest for these projects”.

Vital also felt that proceeding with the acquisition of Kipawa and Zeus would have diverted funds from its current high-pri ority Nechalacho rare earths mine, in Canada’s Northwest Territories, and that the develop ment of the QPM projects would not occur for several years.

Vital began operations at Nechalacho last year, becom ing North America’s second producer of the elements used in magnets for electric vehicles, aerospace, defence and electron ics, after California’s Mountain Pass mine. The regulatory author ity of the N.W.T, the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board currently classifies Nechalacho as a demonstration project.

Vital aims to produce a min imum of 5,000 tonnes of con tained rare earth oxide (REO) by 2025 at Nechalacho.

The company is focusing on its Saskatoon rare earths production facility and development of the Tardiff deposit at Nechalacho, which will consume all resources in the short to medium term.

Vital has already signed an off-take agreement with Norwe gian company REEtec for Stage 1 production with the supply of 1,000 tonnes of cerium-reduced REO a year for an initial five-year period. TNM

A hydraulic backfill plant and distribution system will provide the backfill for the operations.

The process flow sheet calls for run-of-mine ore to be transferred to a mobile jaw crusher at the sur face portal in Wardner and trucked to the secondary crushing circuit after the crushing process using a haul road bypassing the two cities.

be filtered to produce a tailings fil ter cake, explained Ash.

Existing infrastructure includes the Kellogg Tunnel, which opened in 1893 and is next to the mine offices, and two shafts providing access to the lower levels of the mine.

Management says the site has enough power for the initial restart of operations, with plans to upgrade the substation by the third year of operation.

ounces of silver at depths well exceeding the maximum developed depth of the Bunker Hill mine. He emphasizes that there is excel lent exploration potential for highgrade silver mineralization below the 1,220-metre level, representing one of the shallowest underground mine bottom levels in the Silver Valley.

TAYLOR from 1

we were, and you weren’t going to be looking for it in the felsic rocks that we were finding all this gold in. So initially, there was a lot of skepticism in the market,” Taylor recalled.

However, the project came with data generated by past operators that showed the geology had been previously misinterpreted.

It was Taylor’s partner in Great Bear, Bob Singh, the company’s VP exploration and chief geologist who first flagged the project’s potential.

“Bob had been working in the Red Lake area and seen drill core from this project going back about 10 years ago,” Taylor said, adding that not only was it prospective, but it was in an area with solid infra structure and community support for mining.

“This was one of those rare opportunities where we had a suite of over 150 drill holes, and Bob had identified the prospectivity on the system.”

Being stuck in a certain way of thinking about a camp or region limited previous explorers from finding the big deposit, which even tually became clear to the Great Bear team as they sorted through the data.

“One of the most interesting things about being a geologist is when you have a project that’s rich in data, you have the ability to go through and filter that data and evaluate it with fresh eyes. And what you’ll see if [there are] dif ferent generations of operators on a project [is they] will often have very different interpretations of the rocks,” he said.

Taylor, who’s intensely inter ested in puzzles and strategy games, likened the process to solving a puzzle —which drew him into min

eral exploration in the first place.

“Geology, especially exploration geology, is one of these fields where if you can think creatively, think outside the box. Mother nature has provided you these enormous puzzles that you can unravel. You always have incomplete informa tion, you’re always using your sci ence training and your intuition to try to figure out what may lie out of view in the ground,” he said.

“The mineral exploration busi ness is really that science element and the puzzle solving, and then these incredibly complex vari ables of the market. So how are you going to tell a story? How are you going to raise the money that keeps people interested and compelled to keep investing with your com pany instead of somebody else, and you’re mixing together those fac tors with the puzzle solving aspect of figuring out what’s in the ground before you actually know, and then testing it. There aren’t very many careers like this on the planet.”

With enough data to reevaluate the project, Great Bear was able to see beyond what it was supposed to find in the storied Red Lake camp.

“What we found… is something that was completely new to that dis trict.”

Instead of discontinuous highgrade, vein-hosted gold mineraliza tion typical of Red Lake, Great Bear found continuous sheet-like min eralization with high-grade gold occurring within a lower-grade mineralized halo.

Drilling has shown continu ity over 4.2 km of the 10.8-km LP Fault at the Great Bear project so far. While Kinross plans to release a first resource for the project in early 2023, Taylor said that he believes “it’s only going to be a representa tion of the near-surface portion of that mineralized system.”

The central processing facility and secondary crusher will be in the Kellogg yard, which lies adjacent to the Kellogg adit. A new concentra tor facility will also be built at the existing Bunker Hill maintenance building site. There are also negoti ations underway to use other exist ing infrastructure such as a truck wash before loaded trucks head out on the open road to deliver their concentrates to Teck’s Trail smelter in British Columbia.

The new concentrator facility will house a primary ball milling circuit that feeds a conventional differential flotation circuit for lead and zinc. The north end of the con centrator site will be used for con centrate dewatering and loadout to support the loading of concentrate trucks. Concentrator tailings will

The company will tap into underground water sources for the mine and process distribution. The freshwater needs of the concentra tor are expected to be met from mine water sources or a water treat ment facility within the concentra tor plant. An on-site pilot water treatment plant became opera tional in May. It is designed to treat the effluent before the final treat ment by the government-owned water treatment plant. A longterm, on-site pilot water treatment plant is planned at the mine.

As for the continued exploration potential at Bunker Hill, Ash is opti mistic. He said most of the signifi cant Silver Valley mines, including Sunshine, Galena, Star-Morning and Lucky Friday, have produced, in total, hundreds of millions of

The property is within the Coeur d’Alene silver district in the North ern Idaho Panhandle region, which is underlain by sedimentary rocks of the middle Proterozoic-aged Belt-Purcell Supergroup, technical services lead Kyle Ermann told the tour delegates.

Mineralization at Bunker Hill occurs as mineralized shoots hosted in quartzite units intersected by vein structures.

Williams says the company will seek to upgrade its CSE list ing to the higher-tier TSX Venture Exchange. “Our market cap is not even 1x our expected cash flow next year,” he said.

Bunker Hill Mining’s shares last traded at 11.5¢ apiece, giving it a market capitalization of $25.3 mil lion. The equity is down just over 36% in the past 12 months, within a range of 11.5¢ and 42¢. TNM

Don’t ignore retail shareholders

“A lot of the time, money is hard to find, and you’ll kind of take it from whoever you can get it from,” Tay lor acknowledged. “But if you can be more discriminating on who becomes a shareholder, you can

have a very loyal shareholder base that follows your story with a great deal of interest.”

While Taylor admitted that the attention he paid to retail share holders — which included return ing phone calls at all hours — wasn’t conducive to work-life balance, he said that it was well worth the effort.

“Retail sets the price in the market a lot of the time,” he said. “Institutions are a bit more passive — I mean, if they’re going to buy, they’re going to buy, and if they’re going to sell they’re gonna sell. But it’s the retail guy who’s following your story and engaged in it, who will pick up a bit of stock here and there and keep that keep that price set in the market. So don’t neglect it,” he advised.

Build value over time Taylor put just as much time and effort into Great Bear’s communi cation strategy as the company put into its technical work. He took investor presentations to another level, infusing a clear story into PowerPoint presentations and bringing the story to life on webi nars where he’d draw on the screen to illustrate his point, engaging

investors in a way that most juniors do not.

He also deliberately avoided get ting the market too excited about drill results before the team knew what they meant.

“One of the traps that companies fall into is… they’ll put out pictures of the drill core, they’ll show all the gold in it, and they’ll tell you to wait for assays,” Taylor said. “It’s like getting an audience that’s just look ing for an adrenaline hit or a drug hit… it’s not the best way to build the company over time.”

The best way, Taylor said, is to build a narrative over time, like writing a novel.

Despite that, Taylor said he understands being tempted by the “Dark Side of the Force” to take the short cut and showcase the “great-looking gold intercepts,” especially when it’s hard to raise money.

“I always had Bob Singh sitting there on my right shoulder, as that sort of angel, saying, ‘Don’t do it, Chris, don’t put up pictures of the gold before we get the assays,’” Tay lor said. “Working with good peo ple keeps you on the straight and narrow.”

“IF YOU CAN BE MORE DISCRIMINATING ON WHO BECOMES A SHAREHOLDER, YOU CAN HAVE A VERY LOYAL SHAREHOLDER BASE THAT FOLLOWS YOUR STORY WITH A GREAT DEAL OF INTEREST. ” CHRIS TAYLOR FORMER CEO OF GREAT BEAR RESOURCES

M&A

Aussie company developing NWT mine

BUNKER HILL from 11

Technical services lead Kyle Ermann inspects galena in the new Newgard decline development. HENRY LAZENBY

MARKET

TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE / OCTOBER 3 –7, 2022

Stocks rose slightly over the Oct. 3-7 trad ing period as the Organization of Petro leum Exporting Countries and 10 other large crude oil producers such as Russia (OPEC+) agreed to limit output, helping energy and gold company shares. Stock markets contin ued to show volatility while digesting central banks’ drive for higher interest rates to quell inflation while the United States dollar eased.

The S&P/TSX Composite Index gained 138.91 points or 0.8% to 18,583.13. The S&P/ TSX Global Mining Index increased 2.1 points or 2.3% to 93.43, and the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index gained 5.14 points or 3.4% to 155.7. The S&P/TSX Global Gold Index added 1.32 points or 0.5% to 243.12, and spot gold ended the week at US$24.40 per oz. higher, or 1.5%, at US$1,696.15 per ounce.

Suncor Energy, the Calgary-based pro ducer of oil from the Alberta oilsands, shot up 15.8% to $45.04 after OPEC+ agreed to slash production by 2 million barrels a day starting in November. The cartel’s cut comes as energy prices are surging in Europe and developing countries, while economists debate how badly a likely recession will bite. Also, Suncor said Oct. 5 it would sell its wind and solar assets to concentrate its environ mental efforts on areas complementary to its

core business such as lower emission plants and carbon capture technology.

Gold miners Barrick Gold and Kinross Gold shares saw high trading volumes, but lost ground (13¢ and 6¢ per share, respec tively).

Developer Augusta Gold, on the other hand, rose by 16.9% to end the week at $1.59. The company aims to start production at its fully permitted, heap-leach Reward project in Nevada, in late 2023.

Copper Mountain Mining also rose by 28¢ or 18.2% to $1.82, after announcing plans to expand its mine in southern British Columbia and increase its reserve estimates. The company intends to increase production

TSX MOST ACTIVE ISSUES

VOLUME WEEK

by 65,000 tonnes a day in 2028 from 45,000 tonnes and lengthen the Copper Moun tain mine’s life to 32 years. As electrification continues apace in automobiles, renewable energy and consumer products, copper is forecast to remain in high demand.

On the losing side, Lithium Americas saw the biggest value decline of the week, retreat

TSX GREATEST PERCENTAGE CHANGE

VOLUME WEEK

Yorbeau Res YRB 5005 0.06 0.04 0.05 + 42.9

Black Iron BKI 1079 0.10 0.08 0.09 + 20.0

Copper Mtn Mng CMMC 10936 2.17 1.52 1.82 + 18.2

Belo Sun Mng BSX 291 0.29 0.24 0.28 + 17.0

Augusta Gold G 151 1.59 1.31 1.59 + 16.9

Northcliff Res NCF 27 0.04 0.00 0.04 + 16.7

McEwen Mng MUX 179 5.75 4.57 5.27 + 16.3

Suncor Energy SU 40924 45.79 40.34 45.04 + 15.8

Almaden Min AMM 111 0.34 0.00 0.34 + 15.5

Serabi Gold SBI 4 0.50 0.00 0.50 + 14.9

Nickel Creek NCP 1148 0.06 0.00 0.04 33.3

NextSource Mat NEXT 382 2.66 2.00 2.00 15.6

Starcore Intl SAM 81 0.18 0.00 0.14 15.2

NorZinc NZC 9250 0.04 0.03 0.03 14.3

Avalon Advance AVL 2391 0.19 0.15 0.16 11.4

Lithium Amer LAC 3705 39.72 32.28 32.52 10.3

ing $3.73 to $32.52 per share. On Oct. 7, the lithium developer announced a court date for a legal challenge to its Thacker Pass lithium clay project in Nevada is set for early January. The project’s approval has been appealed by a coalition including local Indigenous com munities, a local rancher and environmental organizations.

TNM

TSX GREATEST VALUE CHANGE

Suncor Energy SU 40924 45.04 + 6.14

Teck Res TECK.A 4 44.01 + 2.61

Teck Res TECK.B 6325 43.90 + 1.89

Ero Copper ERO 1481 16.69 + 1.42

Energy Fuels EFR 2618 9.26 + 0.83

MAG Silver MAG 906 18.08 + 0.79

First Majestic FR 4419 11.32 + 0.76

5.27

McEwen

Aya Gold

Eldorado Gold

Lithium Amer

Triple

Labrador IOR

Endeavour

Victoria Gold

SSR Mining

Lundin

Argonaut

Copper

NorZinc

HudBay

TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE / OCTOBER 3 –7, 2022

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index gained 13.89 points or 2.3% over the Oct. 3-7 trading session to end at 608.02, after reach ing an intra-week high of 623.23 on Oct. 4. Sigma Lithium was this week’s top value gainer, adding $1.37 per share to close the week at $38.84. Sigma’s share price has surged more than 270% in the past 12 months as lithium prices continue to rise, bolstered by renewed awareness about its critical role as the “gasoline” of the energy revolution. Lithium carbonate prices have recently jumped to a new record of 500,500 yuan (US$71,315) per ton in China, accord ing to data from Asian Metal Inc. The bat tery material has roughly tripled in the past year and is more than 1,150% higher than a pandemic low touched in July 2020. Lithium hydroxide prices are also gaining and closing in on an all-time high set in April. Amid the bullish backdrop, Sigma is only three weeks away from starting production at its Grota do Cirilo project in Brazil, which includes a state-of-the-art, green-tech processing plant that uses only renewable energy, recycled water and dry-stack tailings. The project rep resents one of the largest and highest-grade hard rock lithium spodumene deposits in the Americas. The company also recently installed Ana Cabral Gardner as co-chairper son and co-CEO to lead the transition from

development to lithium producer.

Western Alaska Minerals was the sec ond-best value gainer, adding 79¢ per share to close at $3. The company reported on Sept. 22 that drilling had encountered a zone that fed multiple stages of alternating zinc-dom inant sphalerite and lead-silver-dominant galena sulphide mineralization in the highgrade Waterpump Creek carbonate replace ment deposit at its Illinois Creek project.

Previous exploration carried out by Ana conda Minerals Co., and Novagold Resources outlined 166,000 tons of historical resources averaging 295 grams silver per tonne, 16.1% lead, and 5.5% zinc. Over the past two years, Drilling by Western Alaska has shown that Waterpump Creek is larger and likely higher grade than the historical resource indicates.

TSX-V MOST ACTIVE ISSUES

VOLUME WEEK (OOOs) HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE

Intl Tower Hil ITH 52 0.76 0.62 0.64 9.9

Victoria Gold VGCX 2428 8.70 7.13 7.45 9.0

Marathon Gold MOZ 6901 1.08 0.95 0.97 8.5

Niocorp Dev NB 2336 1.71 1.30

The latest batch of results encountered 102 metres of high-grade mineralization in what appears to be a feeder to the high-grade min eralization at the deposit.

Cornerstone Capital Resources was the third-biggest value gainer, adding 55¢ per share to close at $3.25 on Oct. 7. Australian gold mining company SolGold has signed an agreement to buy the remaining shares of the Canada-based Cornerstone that will

TSX-V GREATEST PERCENTAGE CHANGE

Nippon Dragon GETT 168 0.02 0.00 0.02 +100.0

Adex Mining ADE 2 0.01 0.00 0.01 +100.0

Delta Resource DLTA 1530 0.22 0.10 0.18 + 94.4

Indigo Expl IXI 288 0.04 0.02 0.04 + 75.0

Gold Bull Res GBRC 1324 0.08 0.04 0.07 + 75.0

Kesselrun Res KES 4930 0.08 0.00 0.05 + 66.7

RecycLiCo Batt AMY 587 0.50 0.31 0.49 + 63.3

European Elect EVX 86 0.14 0.00 0.13 + 62.5

Xali Gold XGC 210 0.09 0.00 0.08 + 60.0

Infinite Ore ILI 1212 0.10 0.00 0.10 + 58.3

MacDonald Mns BMK 596 0.01 0.01 0.01 50.0

Sandstorm

0.72

0.66

Pure

GoviEx

Vertical

0.01

Silver X AGX 6706 0.27 0.23 0.25 + 0.03

Aranjin Res ARJN 6404 0.03 0.00 0.02 0.01

Xander Res XND 5982 0.06 0.04 0.04 + 0.01

Kesselrun Res KES 4930 0.08 0.00 0.05 + 0.02

Guanajuato Sil GSVR 4825 0.46 0.37 0.42 + 0.05

Anfield Energy AEC 4140 0.08 0.06 0.07 + 0.01

Lomiko Mtls LMR 4106 0.04 0.03 0.03 unch 0.00

U.S. MARKETS / OCTOBER 3 –7, 2022

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 571.28 points or 1.99% to 29,296.79 and the S&P 500 gained 55.04 points or 1.51% over the Oct. 3-7 trading week to finish at 3,639.66.

Vale added US$1.10 to US$14.42, though down from the week’s high of US$15.19 per share, after the world’s largest nickel and iron ore producer said it would reorganize its Bra zilian base metals operations to be more effi cient. The company’s copper assets in the country are to be transferred to Salobo Metais and its nickel assets are to be part of a new com pany Vale plans to set up. Vale said it will con tinue to wholly own all the assets. It also said it has retained advisors “to assess alternatives to unlock long-term value to its shareholders,” which could mean potential asset sales.

Shares in Freeport-McMoran, the world’s second-largest copper producer, gained US$1.62 to close the week at US$28.95 apiece. Some investors note the stock is attrac tive because the company invests its free cash flow in dividends and copper demand remains high despite the impact of inflation on producing the mineral. Investors may find the stock undervalued when the average 12-month price target issued over the past three months is US$36.75, according to Nas daq Analyst Research.

Shares in Cleveland-Cliffs, North Amer

ica’s largest flat-rolled steel producer, rose US$1.36 to US$14.83 after General Motors and Ford reported better-than-expected pro duction figures. Cleveland-Cliffs supplies more steel to the automotive industry than any other steelmaker. The sector is rebound ing as computer chip supply shortages ease and demand remains strong for vehicles. The company is also benefiting after sign ing a union employee contract, and compet itor U.S. Steel cut production. U.S. Steel also gained over the week on the vehicle industry news, adding 69¢ to close at US$18.81.

Shares in Newmont, the world’s larg est gold producer, rose US57¢ to US$42.60 apiece as gold companies benefitted from a weaker U.S. dollar during the period mak

Great Quest Fe GQ 239 0.01 0.00 0.01 50.0

Blue River Res BXR 866 0.02 0.01 0.01 50.0

Nortec Mnls NVT 105 0.01 0.00 0.01 50.0

Graphano Egy GEL 1134 0.32 0.16 0.18 47.0

Jasper Mining JSP 34 0.24 0.00 0.15 43.1

Terreno Res TNO.H 385 0.04 0.00 0.02 42.9

Essex Minerals ESX 173 0.02 0.00 0.02 40.0

Canoe Mng Vent CLV 2 0.05 0.00 0.05 40.0

Wolfeye Res LXG 1571 0.14 0.08 0.08 36.0

give SolGold sole ownership of the Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador. Under the agreed terms, SolGold will issue 15 ordinary shares for each Cornerstone common share held. SolGold will have the option to pay up to 20% of the consideration in cash, which would be pro-rated among all Cornerstone shareholders, and the number of SolGold shares issuable to Cornerstone shareholders would be reduced. TNM

TSX-V GREATEST VALUE CHANGE

Sigma Lithium SGML 276 38.84 + 1.37

Tanqueray Expl IPA 72 6.45 + 0.95

Western Alaska WAM 153 3.00 + 0.79

Cornerstone Ca CGP 661 3.25 +

Electra

Saturn

Prime

Rock

Amex

Inter-Rock

Desert

IsoEnergy

Laurion

ing it more affordable for investors to buy gold using other currencies. The OPEC+ cut in oil production due in November that was announced during the week, and widespread acceptance among economists of a looming recession brought on by higher interest rates to tackle inflation is pushing more investors into gold as a safe haven. Newmont also said its CFO, Nancy Buese, is resigning and being

replaced on an interim basis by controller and chief accounting officer Brian Tabolt. Gold Fields and Yamana Gold, soon to be merged in a US$6.7-billion deal, followed the gold trend higher, adding US48¢ to US$8.57 and US31¢ to US$4.84 per share, respec tively. Barrick Gold and Kinross Gold each shed 2¢ to US$15.48 and US$3.74 per share, respectively. TNM

METALS, MINING AND MONEY MARKETS

WAREHOUSE

Aluminium

(12475)

PRODUCER AND DEALER PRICES

Coal: Central Appalachia, 12,500 Btu, 1.2 S02-R,W: US$204.95

Coal: Powder River Basin, 8,800 Btu, 0.8 S02-R, W: US$16.25

Cobalt: US$23.26/lb.

Copper: US$3.44/lb.

Copper: CME Group Futures November 2022: US$3.46/lb.;

December 2022: US$3.44/lb.

Iridium: NY Dealer Mid-mkt US$4,040/tr oz.

Iron Ore 62% Fe CFR China-S: US$98.08

Lead: US$0.94/lb.

Rhodium: Mid-mkt US$13,990/tr. oz.

Ruthenium: Mid-mkt US$493 per oz.

Silver: Handy & Harman Base: US$19.63 per oz.; Handy & Harman

Fabricated: US$24.54 per oz.

Tin: US$9.07/lb.

Uranium: U3O8, Trading Economics spot price: US$48.80 per lb.

U308

Zinc: US$1.39 per lb.

Prices current Oct. 10, 2022

TSX VENTURE SHORT POSITIONS

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.

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.

TSX WARRANTS

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.

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.

TSX SHORT POSITIONS

Short positions outstanding as of Sep 15, 2022 (with changes from Aug 31, 2022)

Largest short positions

Ivanhoe Mines IVN 20583196 197139 8/31/2022

Barrick Gold ABX 15931289 8336429 8/31/2022

Suncor Energy SU 15212024 4118286 8/31/2022

Kinross Gold K 14469840 -1311300 8/31/2022

Lundin Mng LUN 13443975 4253096 8/31/2022

New Gold NGD 12059303 -17482 8/31/2022

Copper Mtn Mng CMMC 11240373 -13750 8/31/2022

Fortuna Silvr FVI 10445354 -411067 8/31/2022

B2Gold Corp BTO 10112653 2419823 8/31/2022

Marathon Gold MOZ 9335722 6843659 8/31/2022

First Quantum FM 9214783 2339421 8/31/2022

Denison Mines DML 8764481 -1885377 8/31/2022

Taseko Mines TKO 8700999 50172 8/31/2022

Sabina Gd&Slvr SBB 7186903 105300 8/31/2022

HudBay Min HBM 7087778 -568041 8/31/2022

Largest increase in short position

Barrick Gold ABX 15931289 8336429 8/31/2022

Marathon Gold MOZ 9335722 6843659 8/31/2022

Lundin Mng LUN 13443975 4253096 8/31/2022

Suncor Energy SU 15212024 4118286 8/31/2022

B2Gold Corp BTO 10112653 2419823 8/31/2022

Largest decrease in short position

IAMGOLD IMG 6847601 -2226783 8/31/2022

Denison Mines DML 8764481 -1885377 8/31/2022

Capstone Mng CS 2658518 -1616989 8/31/2022

Equinox Gold EQX 5136404 -1483727 8/31/2022

Kinross Gold K 14469840 -1311300 8/31/2022

Short positions outstanding as of Sep 15, 2022 (with changes from Aug 31, 2022)

Largest short positions Blackrock Silv BRC 2193931 128591 8/31/2022

Standard Uran STND 2097653 170266 8/31/2022

Strikepoint Gd SKP 2096070 -5538 8/31/2022

Pure Gold Mg PGM 1823809 122308 8/31/2022

GoviEx Uranium GXU 1798309 -434229 8/31/2022

Blue Sky Uran BSK 1786614 189853 8/31/2022

Artemis Gold ARTG 1477204 15896 8/31/2022

Alphamin Res AFM 1256553 1155879 8/31/2022

New Found Gold NFG 1175202 7075 8/31/2022

Guanajuato Sil GSVR 1115677 37496 8/31/2022

Giga Metals GIGA 1099438 -62989 8/31/2022

Sterling Metal SAG 1033182 998855 8/31/2022

Arianne Phosph DAN 912828 144699 8/31/2022

Doubleview Gld DBG 868828 821194 8/31/2022

Strongbow Expl CUSN 853954 -484150 8/31/2022

Largest increase in short position

Alphamin Res AFM 1256553 1155879 8/31/2022

Sterling Metal SAG 1033182 998855 8/31/2022

Doubleview

Anfield

Outcrop

Largest

Lion

EnCore

TVI

821194 8/31/2022

781917 565721 8/31/2022

403491 373465 8/31/2022

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

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.

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

Novo Resources Corp. (NVO.WT.A) - One

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.

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

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

Aluminum

2105.5/2128 2079/2102

Copper 7448/7347 7470/7395 7351/7290.5 7660/7555 7646/7540

Lead 1775/1788 1753/1765 1763/1774 1855/1865 1887/1886

21875/21960 21200/21250 22850/22700 22245/22300

20585/20400 20850/20850 20850/20900 20600/20550 20700/20700

2936/2920 2828/2810 3013/2970 2984/2955

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.

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

NORTH AMERICAN

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.

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

Re-Publishing