The Northern Miner Jan 16 2023 Issue 1

Manganese batteries market may face deficit in 2024

BY BRUNO VENDITTI

The high-purity manganese market may face tight supply as early as 2024, according to industry experts.

An essential component of the steel-making process, manganese has played an increasingly significant role in the battery market. The metal sulphate is an important stabilizing ingredient in the cathodes of batteries widely used in electric vehicles and electronics.

Volkswagen, Mercedes, Tesla, and GM are among the companies that have announced intentions to use high-purity manganese in their cars. A Chevy Bolt, for example, can contain over 24 kg of manganese.

“The reason nobody is talking about manganese is that it’s very cheap, and it’s taken for granted,” says Andrew Zemek, special adviser at CPM Group.

While the lithium price has skyrocketed over the last couple of years, passing US$80,000 per tonne and other metals like cobalt and copper reached over US$8,000 per tonne, manganese sulphate costs less than US$1,000 per tonne in China.

But rising demand from the EV industry and the subsequent deficit of high-purity manganese might impact the metal price in 18 or 24 months, according to Euro Manganese CEO Matt James.

“There’s been a build-out of manganese sulphate capacity in China and that has been enough to feed the current demands of the battery industry,” James said in an interview. “But going forward, we’re going to see significant growth in both the European and North American battery industry. Both of those will require their own supply chains.”

“As the market looks to source locally, in North America because of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) or Europe because of geopolitics, when they start to look at the high-purity capacity in both of

those regions, it is very, very small,” James said.

“The Chinese price does not reflect a western price. The price today in Europe and North America commands a significant premium,” he said .

People in the industry estimate the price will hit US$3,300 per tonne by 2027 — growing to US$4,000 by 2031 for Europe and North America, considering the cost of freight from China and costs with green credentials.

Reliance on China

Over 92% of high-purity manganese sulphate conversion capacity is in China. Currently, only two plants outside of China are in production, one in Japan and the other in Belgium.

Nippon Denko in Japan, uses imported ore, as does Vibrantz Technologies in Belgium, which produces high-purity manganese sourced from South Africa, Gabon, and Brazil.

Combined, those two facilities produce around 5% of the global high-purity manganese sulphate.

“I don’t see a risk of shortage in

the short term because so much capacity is being built in China,” said Aloys d’Harambure, executive director of the International Manganese Institute.

However, the market might have to adjust as the United States and Europe moves to build their own supply chain of battery materials.

“The environmental, social, and governance procedures in China are sometimes not as strict as in... European and North American and some African countries. The cost of high manganese sulphate that you see from China is not realistic from the rest of the industry,” d’Harambure said.

According to Sam Jaffe, vice-president of battery storage solutions for E Source, China can always “blow out” the North American and European competitors if it chooses to do so.

But that dynamic is changing.

“As we move to intra-continental supply chains, China remains a huge factor in the high-purity manganese market, but it’s not the single determinant of where those

BC mining and exploration off to a strong start after tumultuous 2022

ROUNDUP 2023 | Sector seeing strongest ever government support, says AME CEO

BY HENRY LAZENBY

High interest rates, high inflation and reduced access to finance made 2022 a challenging year for the mineral exploration sector.

But unofficial financial numbers point to a solid start in 2023 for exploration activity in British Columbia, says Kendra Johnston, the Association for Mineral Exploration B.C.’s president and CEO ahead of the organization’s annual Roundup event in Vancouver on Jan. 23-26.

“Our numbers are going to be quite strong this year,” she said in a recent interview. “Last year, we hit an almost-high of $660 million spent in the field, which was $8 million behind our previous high.”

Johnston notes that 2022 was marked by numerous financings for exploration before the market began to dry up.

During 2022, rampant inflation raised the cost of running exploration projects. “We look at the price of fuel and the war that’s happening overseas, there’s political upheaval in Peru, and most recently, it seems like there’s constant political upheaval to some degree in the United States. There’s just a lot going on in the world right now,” Johnston said.

“And it’s all overlaid by this conversation of the energy transition and the green future and the need for critical minerals that creates a push-pull dynamic of being able to get out into the field and explore for the critical minerals.”

Although the costs of exploration, including drilling and helicopter costs, were up this year, and financing was hard to capture, Johnston noted that the indus-

try has never before had all levels of government aligned on the importance of minerals and metals for the energy transition, and with that, public support for the

AME BC CEO Kendra Johnston AME BC

An electric vehicle battery. AdobeStock

Piedmont Lithium, Tesla ink new deal pivoting from delayed Carolina project

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Piedmont Lithium (NASDAQ: PLL; ASX: PLL) and automaker Tesla agreed to cut their supply agreement by tonnage and time while shifting the source away from a proposed mine stymied by the approvals process.

Piedmont is to send 125,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate to Tesla over three years (about 41,600 tonnes a year) starting in the second half of this year, according to the agreement announced in a Jan. 3 news release. There’s an option to extend it for another three years.

It replaces the September 2020 agreement that would have seen Piedmont supply about 53,300 tonnes a year of spodumene concentrate to the automaker for five years if deliveries started in the 12 months following last July.

The new agreement changes the source to a past-producing Quebec project called North America Lithium, which Piedmont bought into in 2021, instead of the US$840-million Carolina open pit project in North Carolina that has yet to secure permits.

“The electric vehicle and critical battery materials landscape

has changed significantly since 2020 and this agreement reflects the importance of — and growing demand for — a North American lithium supply chain,” Piedmont Lithium president and chief executive officer Keith Phillips said in the release.

Automakers and other technol-

ogy companies are scrambling to gather supplies of lithium to make batteries for their electric vehicles and gadgets like mobile phones. Tesla chief Elon Musk has mused more than once on the possibility of buying the company’s own lithium mining operations. The light metal is also important for his

New Pacific’s Silver Sand PEA outlines robust 14-year mine

BOLIVIA | Study pegs capex at US$308M capex for operation producing 12M oz silver per year

BY HENRY LAZENBY

New Pacific Metals (TSXV: UAG) has delivered a strong preliminary economic assessment for its Silver Sand project in Potosi department, Bolivia.

The PEA results, released on Jan. 9 confirm the potential to develop a low capital intensity conventional open pit and tank leach operation at Silver Sand. The project would produce about 12 million oz. of silver in doré bars per year over a 14-year mine life and generate solid financial metrics.

Under the base case scenario and at a 5% discount rate, the project has an estimated pre-tax net present value (NPV) of US$1.1 billion and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 52%. On an after-tax basis, the project generates a US$726 million NPV and an IRR of 39%.

The study assumed a base case silver price of US$22.50 per ounce.

Observers say the upfront capital cost of US$308 million, which includes a US$52-million contingency component, is reasonable.

The operation is expected to produce 171 million oz. of silver at an average life-of-mine cost of US$8.45 per ounce.

Under the current mine plan, the mine will produce more than 15 million oz. between years one through four, with life-of-mine (LOM) average annual payable metal production exceeding 12 million oz. silver.

Company founder and CEO Rui Feng suggests the study is a testament to the world-class nature of the deposit that could be developed into one of the world’s largest sil-

ver mines with long life and robust economics.

“We are very pleased with the results of this PEA. Given the robust economic parameters of the project, there is room to accommodate inflation pressure in capital or operating costs,” he said in a press release.

In a note to clients, BMO Capital Markets Research mining analyst Ryan Thompson said the PEA was encouraging. “In our view, the project has the potential to be a meaningful primary silver asset,” he said.

The analyst said incorporating the new data into his model held up well as expected. Using the longterm BMO price deck of US$20 per oz. silver, BMO had previously estimated the NPV of the project at US$630 million and assumed slightly lower upfront capital but higher sustaining capital.

“We had previously assumed

lower processing costs/recoveries (with a heap leach), but the PEA is now assuming a conventional processing plant, driving higher recoveries and processing costs. We are now also incorporating the updated resource estimate, which assumes more ounces over the LOM at modestly lower grades,” the analyst said.

“Our revised NPV of $621 million is broadly unchanged compared to our previous assumptions.”

Measured and indicated resources at Silver Sand are 54.3 million tonnes grading 116 grams silver per tonne for 201.8 million oz. Inferred resources add 4.6 million tonnes at 88 grams silver for 13 million oz.

The stock was trading at $3.42 at press time in Toronto, having traded between $2.55 and $5.58 over the past 12 months. The company has a market capitalization of $536 million.

TNM

rocket company, SpaceX.

But U.S. production of lithium hydroxide used in batteries is sparse at about 15,000 tonnes a year, Piedmont says. Lithium reserves across North America’s three countries total just 2.6 million tonnes compared with 9.2 million tonnes in China alone, according to a May 2022 report from McKinsey & Co.

Production start

Piedmont says it expects spodumene concentrate production to restart at its quarter-owned North American Lithium project by June, with first commercial shipments slated to follow in the summer.

The North Carolina-based company said it plans to deliver spodumene concentrate to Tesla from the Quebec project under Piedmont’s agreement with Sayona Mining (ASX: SYA), which owns three-quarters of it. The deal allows Piedmont to buy 113,000 tonnes

per year or half of the project’s spodumene concentrate production, whichever is greater.

The spodumene concentrate shipments to Tesla will be priced according to average market prices for lithium hydroxide monohydrate at the time of each delivery, Piedmont said.

The new agreement with Tesla helps keep the Quebec project’s output in North America, the miner said. It also supports efforts by the Biden administration to boost the supply of critical minerals like lithium, copper, nickel and cobalt needed for the clean energy economy, such as through the funding earmarked last year in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act.

Piedmont was among 20 companies awarded US$2.8 billion in U.S. government funding last year to help the critical minerals industry meet electric vehicle and other green energy targets. Washington is trying to loosen Beijing’s hold on the global supply of critical minerals. Experts say it controls some 80% of the market.

Piedmont Lithium said it plans to use the US$141.7 million from the program to build a US$600-million processing plant in Tennessee for material mined in Quebec and in Ghana. It is partnered in the West Africa country with Atlantic Lithium (AIM: ALL; ASX: A11).

Shares in Piedmont Lithium traded at US$48.43 in New York at press time, up 14% in the first week of January, giving the company a market cap of US$872 million. The stock has traded within a 52-week range of US$32.08 and US$79.99.

Shares in Sayona Mining in Australia rose A5¢ in the first week of the month to A22¢, within a 52-week range of A11¢ and A39¢, valuing the company at A$1.8 billion. TNM

BATTERY METALS | Quebec project tapped to supply automaker

The North American Lithium spodumene concentrator in Quebec. PIEDMONT LITHIUM/TWITTER

The Silver Sand project is located in Bolivia’s mineral-rich southwestern Potosi department. NEW PACIFIC METALS.

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EDITORIAL

Five trends that defined 2022

We’ve put together a list of five trends we believe encapsulate the drama of 2022.

1 Geopolitical ‘curveballs’

THE VIEW FROM ENGLAND: COLUMN | When copper production was dominated by the Welsh

BY DR CHRIS HINDE Special to The Northern Miner

mine in the world. The operation slowly became uneconomic, however, and closed in 1904.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was certainly the biggest geopolitical shock of 2022 — and one that continues to disrupt commodities markets and feed an energy crisis in Europe. While miners have benefitted from higher prices, it’s come at the cost of great uncertainty and volatility.

BY ALISHA HIYATE

Even so, the war wasn’t the only big shock of 2022. By one analyst’s count, there were at least six major events that made last year a rocky one, throwing “a geopolitical curveball” to investors every two months.

In a Jan. 6 note, Zoltan Pozsar, the global head of short-term interest rate strategy at Credit Suisse said the events all represent “fronts” in a global struggle for power as the world fragments into a multipolar order. They ranged from the G7’s “financial blockade” of Russia to China’s naval blockade of Taiwan and its challenge to the petrodollar by pushing for yuan-priced oil contracts. Underlining how different this environment really is from the previous status quo, Pozsar notes that investors haven’t had to consider geopolitical risk for generations because of the “cocoon” of a “unipolar world order, under the cover of Pax Americana.”

No wonder UBS analysts called 2022 “one of the most challenging years in history for investors,” in its 2023 outlook.

The geopolitical tensions are giving rise to resource nationalism and as UBS analysts wrote in their “Year Ahead 2023” note, a strong emphasis on security.

“We believe we are at the beginning of an era of security, in which energy security, food security, and technological security will be increasingly prioritized by governments and businesses, even if they come at the cost of efficiency,” they wrote.

The ‘silver’ lining?

“We expect the era of security to drive commodity prices higher over the long term. A focus on sourcing supplies from allied nations, structural underinvestment, efforts to achieve net-zero emissions, and a need to meet growing emerging market demand should all help support prices.”

2 Cost crunch

Miners saw intense cost inflation in 2022, both in operating costs and in capital costs at new developments and mine expansions.

Probably the most dramatic increase has been at the Côté gold joint venture in Ontario, where Iamgold revealed in May that the total price tag had reached US$3 billion, up from around US$1.3 billion in 2020. Argonaut Gold’s Magino, Teck Resources’ QB2 in Chile, and Rio Tinto’s Oyu Tolgoi expansion in Mongolia, and others have also experienced rising capital costs.

On the operations side, gold miners saw average all-in sustaining costs (AISC) climb to an all-time high of US$1,289 per oz. in the third quarter of 2022, according to the World Gold Council. That’s up 14% from the third quarter of 2021, and 32% higher than the same quarter two years ago, thanks to rising labour and input costs — including fuel, wrote Adam Webb, WGC’s director of mine supply, metals focus, in a mid-December post. In the third quarter, more than 9% of gold was produced at an AISC that was greater than the gold price.

Although costs may remain high this year, they only rose 1% in the most recent quarter, indicating a cool down in the trend. Prices are not expected to see the same steep rises this year, and could see a “modest contraction” in the second half, assuming a pullback of oil and gas prices, Webb wrote.

3 CEO turnover

In such a difficult environment, it’s no surprise that some CEOs lost their jobs last year. Agnico Eagle Mines, Gold Fields, Newcrest Mining, Iamgold, and Centerra Gold were just some of the companies that saw a change in leadership.

In some cases the changeout was due to underperformance, in others it was a reported culture clash (Agnico’s CEO Tony Makuch, who resigned less than two weeks after taking on the CEO role in early 2022) and in Gold Fields’ case, the failure of its planned merger with Yamana Gold.

4 Onshoring/reshoring

Not all of 2022’s trends were negative. With the Canadian and U.S. governments both getting serious about critical minerals policy and security last year, it was hard to keep up with the announcements for new investments by global companies in electric vehicle plants, EV battery manufacturing, and in critical minerals projects and companies — about two dozen in all amounting to more than $11 billion. The announcements also strengthened cooperation between Canadian and American, Japanese, Korean and German governments and industry, while the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act was a boon for investment, making EVs produced in Canada and with Canadian minerals eligible for U.S. EV incentives.

5 Selective M&A

The hunt for quality assets in a subdued market drove M&A in gold, copper, lithium — and even uranium in 2022.

The biggest deals were Agnico Eagle Mines and Pan American Silver’s US$4.8-billion bid for Yamana Gold (following Agnico’s US$10-billion takeover of Kirkland Lake Gold, which closed in early 2022) and Rio Tinto’s US$3.3-billion takeover of Turquoise Hill Resources.

While the dollar amounts were lower, there was notable consolidation in the royalty sector, which offers coveted protection from cost pressures, execution risk and diversification of geopolitical risk. Deals included Sandstorm Gold’s $646.4-million acquisition of Nomad Royalty; Triple Flag Precious Metals’ $606-million purchase of Maverix Metals, an all-share merger of Elemental Resources and Altus Strategies; and Royal Gold’s buyout of Great Bear Royalties for $200 million. TNM

The U.K. no longer springs to mind as a mining giant, but we used to have a dominant role in the global industry. The extraction of non-ferrous metals on these islands, particularly copper and tin, dates back to before 2000 BC, and surface workings for coal and iron ore were widespread after the beginning of the Iron Age around 750 BC. This mineral wealth was one of the things that attracted the attention of Rome.

The nation’s mining history comes to mind with the recent news (courtesy of the ‘North Wales Live’ website) that after 37 years of clearance work, volunteers are nearing their goal of breaking through to an unexplored section of Llandudno’s Ty Gwyn copper mine. Although worked for just 18 years in the mid-19th century, this mine was briefly thought to be the most profitable copper operation in the world.

Dating from only 1835, Ty Gwyn (meaning ‘white house’ in Welsh) started much later than the other two mines on the Gt Orme peninsula (the ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Great Orme operations) and was geographically separate.

Great Orme (Norse for sea serpent) is a carboniferous limestone hill immediately to the west of the seaside town of Llandudno. Mining of Great Orme’s dolomite-hosted malachite was extensive 3,500 years ago (circa 1700-1400 BC) and the main site was worked again from 1690 to 1860. The original Bronze Age tunnels (over 8 km of them) were only discovered in 1987, and the prehistoric site was opened to the public in 1991.

The Great Orme mines were part of a group of operations in Caernarfonshire (the others being in Snowdonia) but the estimated total output of 3,000 tonnes of copper metal was dwarfed by production at Parys Mountain on the nearby Welsh island of Anglesey.

Evidence of copper mining on this hill (it has an elevation of only 150 metres) dates back nearly 4,000 years. Originally called Mynydd Trysglwyn (a tree-topped hill) the ‘mountain’ was renamed in 1406 after Robert Parys, who had received the land from Henry IV (1367-1413) as a reward for collecting taxes and fines from inhabitants who had supported the Welsh rebellion of Owain Glyndwr.

Evidence of the earlier Bronze Age workings was found in 1761, but the site didn’t become economic until a rich copper seam was discovered in 1768. At its peak, Parys Mountain employed 1,500 people and was the largest copper

Parys Mountain was controlled in the 18th century by a local lawyer, Thomas Williams (1737-1802) of Llanidan, who also owned mines in Cornwall and operated copper smelters. Known as the Copper King, Williams was the richest man in Wales when he died, and at a Parliamentary monopoly investigation in 1800 admitted that half of the U.K.’s copper industry was in his hands.

Williams was instrumental in promoting the technique of covering ships hulls with copper sheets to protect them against molluscs and weeds. Williams sold to the navies of both England and her enemies, and the term ‘copper bottomed’ came to signify a sound investment.

The shareholders of Anglesey Mining Plc., which is the current owner of Parys Mountain, will be hoping the site is a copper-bottomed investment.

At the end of November, the company described Parys Mountain’s Northern Copper zone (NCZ) as “an exciting opportunity.” This deposit was discovered in 1962, and an estimate in 2012 gave the zone an inferred resource of 9.4 million tonnes at 1.27% copper, 0.38% zinc, 0.24% lead, as well as 5 grams silver per tonne and 0.1gram gold (net smelter return cut-off of US$48 per tonne). A preliminary economic assessment in January 2021 boosted 5.2 million tonnes of ore into the indicated category, with a further 11.7 inferred million tonnes at a grade of over 2% copper equivalent. Work in 2023 will include drilling into the NCZ to confirm historic grades and continuity and to seek further zones of high-grade mineralization.

In November 2022, Anglesey Mining’s CEO, Jo Battershill, spoke at the Mines and Money conference in London. He described Parys Mountain as having “world-class infrastructure, a supportive local community and, in terms of its geology, a lot of unfinished business.”

A geologist with over 25 years of experience in the industry, Battershill was appointed in August 2021 to lead Anglesey Mining’s investigation of the Parys Mountain deposit. There have been a number of failed attempts to restart the iconic mine over the past century; if Anglesey Mining succeeds, Battershill will join a long list of celebrated copper miners in North Wales. TNM

—Dr. 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.

sector is starting to emerge.

This year’s theme at AME BC is ‘Critical to Our Future,’ referring to not only critical minerals but also exploration’s importance to the B.C. economy, to reconciliation, to the energy transition and to future skills development as what has been seen as a ‘sunset industry’ becomes a ‘sunrise industry’, Johnston says.

Among the event highlights are Stephen D’Esposito from Regeneration; Cassie Boggs, Hecla Mining chair and director; and B.C. premier David Eby, who will address the AME’s opening ceremony.

Separately, AME BC has partnered with the B.C. Cancer Foundation on a fundraising event on Jan. 23, which will feature Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. The conference will be held at the Vancouver Convention Centre East.

Critical impetus

The energy transition is the driving force in getting all levels of government on the same page with mineral exploration and development.

Johnston says critical conversations are taking place at the federal level, and country to country, with critical minerals and partnership and trade deals being ironed out that will change the global mineral landscape.

“To get to that place, we need to have the expansions (and) the new projects approved, to get through the permitting process to be able to pull that material out of the ground and get it into the hands of the officials who are talking about trading it,” Johnston said. “That process is

not short. And then, of course, how we replace that material from the exploration perspective, the discoveries that need to be made, the dollars that need to be spent on the ground, on the 10,000 projects it takes to find the one that’s going to be advanced.”

Despite recognition of the need for the minerals and metals today, Johnston says there’s a lack of understanding of the time constraints and permitting hurdles that stand in the way of new production. “I think there’s a catch-22 on both the timing side of it and the financial side of it,” she said.

While B.C. is best known for its copper-gold porphyry deposits, Johnston quickly points out that copper is on Canada’s critical minerals list and on allied countries’ lists (other than the U.S.).

Mining’s biggest future challenges: meeting sustainability expectations — and adapting to the metaverse

AWARDS | Winner of the 2022 YMP Northern Miner Scholarship outlines emerging

pressures on the sector

BY JONATHAN UMBSAAR

We present the winner of the 2022 Northern Miner Scholarship, part of the Young Mining Professionals Scholarship Fund. Entrants were asked to write an essay outlining the mining industry’s biggest challenges over the next 10 years. For a list of all the 2022 YMP Scholarship winners, visit www.ympscholarships.com/2022winners.

Asocietal shift is happening — specifically in the mindset of first-world, capitalist countries: we are beginning to recognize that unsustainable practices are coming back to haunt us. Companies and consumers alike are transitioning towards products with lifetime guarantees, and products that limit waste and eliminate inefficiency. If the Covid-19 pandemic has proven anything, it is that a stay-at-home lifestyle is not only practical, but is often preferable for much of the population.

As a university student in the first year of my PhD program in economic geology, I believe that within my lifetime, there will be a global transition towards online workplaces and recreation that

is facilitated by VR technology within a metaverse. Physical products and services will be progressively replaced by virtualized NFTs (non-fungible tokens), which will be marketed as an environmentally friendly, inimitable, and unbreakable alternative to physically produced goods, and manufactured with minimal carbon emissions. I believe that the demand for physical goods will see an inverse correlation with adoption of metaverse technology, with a subsequent decline in the

“The conversation around electric vehicles and the technology upgrades that are required for everything that we want going forward all involve copper, and EVs just happen to be the poster child of that conversation,” Johnston said.

But B.C. also has substantial volumes of silver in the ground, which is crucial to industrial applications such as electronic circuitry.

Also adding to B.C.’s potential for critical minerals is its emerging nickel potential, as demonstrated by the rapid advances achieved by FPX Nickel (TSXV: FPX) at its largescale Decar district in central B.C.

Registration to attend the AME BC’s Roundup event is open, and more information is available here (https://roundup.amebc.ca/ register/). TNM

First Nations challenge to free-entry system headed to court

While B.C.’s evolving legislative environment that helps the province rank consistently among the top mining jurisdictions globally, one of the key issues currently under discussion is the Mineral Tenure Act, which allows claim staking using the free entry model.

Simple prospecting rights do not require proponents to engage and consult with Aboriginal host communities — or notify communities before staking a mineral claim, explains the Association for Mineral Exploration B.C.’s president and CEO, Kendra Johnston.

This is something that First Nations have challenged in court, arguing that it conflicts with the principle of free, prior and informed consent embedded in B.C.’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).

Last year, the Gitxaala First Nation filed a judicial review over mineral claims in its traditional territory on Banks Island. In June this year, the Ehattesaht First Nation also filed a similar judicial review challenging mineral claims in its traditional territory. The two First Nations have agreed to have both reviews tried simultaneously.

The case is scheduled to be heard in April 2023. The B.C. government is contesting the judicial review.

The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs called the Mineral Tenure Act “a relic of colonization.”

According to Johnston, the critical points in the First Nations’ case are very specific to individual tenure holders and an individual project. Still, the two that are more widespread relate to the need to modernize the mineral tenure grant and the timing of consultation.

“They want to see consultation before claim staking. We’re certainly in favour of opening up the Mineral Tenure Act and looking at it and talking about modernization, what that might look like. The act is old. There’s lots of stuff in there that could be modernized,” she said.

However, consultation before staking is a little more contentious, as that would remove the free entry system, Johnston notes.

“Free entry is not a lovely term — that’s maybe a good point to talk about in the modernization process. But the consultation prior to staking at that point means a proponent would be forced to share their ideas (intellectual property) gathered from mostly desktop studies with third parties before being able to test their theories in the field,” she said.

“Consulting before claim staking gives your knowledge out when you don’t have anything to protect it. It raises regulatory compliance issues relating to disclosure.”

AME BC’s popular Indigenous program, the Gathering Place, will host speakers on Jan. 24 and 25, tackling issues such as nation-tonation collaboration, the B.C. Regional Mining Alliance’s work to foster economic development through exploration and mining, incorporating Indigenous knowledge in project studies and highlighting career opportunities.

Jonathan Umbsaar, winner of the YMP Scholarship Fund’s 2022 Northern Miner scholarship.

FPX Nickel’s Decar project in central British Columbia. FPX NICKEL

BY HENRY LAZENBY

Our TNM Drill Down features highlights of 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 period’s top drill assays come from Canada, Peru and Australia. Scottie Resources (TSXV: SCOTT) reported the best assay in hole SR22-156, which intersected 2.4 metres, grading 194 grams gold per tonne from 148 metres depth for a width x grade value of 466 at its namesake gold project in British Columbia. According to the company, the intersection was the best recorded across all targets on the property to date. Its location significantly expands the bonanza grade zone at the north end of the Blueberry contact structure. Scottie is still waiting on additional assays down plunge from this sizeable gold hit.

The grades at depth reinforce that the junior is exploring a robust system with substantial upside. The Blueberry Contact zone is 2 km north-northeast of the company’s past-producing high-grade Scottie mine, 35 km north of Stewart, B.C.

Top Gold assays for Dec. 22-Jan. 6

TNM DRILL DOWN

Top gold assays of the week

1 Scottie

2 Cotabambas

Resources (TSXV: SCOTT) SR22-156 148.0 2.4 194.0 466.00

(TSXV: PML) CB-206 3.8 341.6 0.4 137.00

3 Nicolsons/Halls Creek Australia Pantoro (ASX: PNR) WNG22017* 45.42 3.58 28.63 103.00

4 Destiny Canada Big Ridge Gold (TSXV: BRAU) DES21-179 366.5 16.3 3.80 62.00

5 White Gold Canada White Gold (TSXV: WGO) WHTRS22D029 266.5 10.9 5.34 58.00

6 Thor n Canada Brixton Metals (TSX: BBB) THN22-213 534.0 709.0 0.06 43.00

7 Greenwood Canada Grizzly Discoveries (TSXV: GZD) 22DA-016 7.0 180.0 0.20 36.00

8 Chita Valley Argentina Minsud Resources (TSXV: MSR) CHDH22-57 484.0 354.0 0.10 35.00

9 Silver Strand United States Silver Hammer Mining (CSE: HAMR) SS22-017 29.7 8.4 2.90 24.00

10 Paulsens Australia Black Cat Syndicate (ASX: BC8) 22PGRD010 48.0 1.92 9.30 18.00

The second-best assay comes from Panoro Minerals’ (TSXV: PML) Cotabambas project in Peru, where hole CB-206 returned 341.6 metres grading 0.4 gram gold per tonne from 3.8 metres depth for a width x grade value of 137. Panoro says the drill hole delineated an extension of the high-grade zone to near surface at the west side of the North pit, intersecting 341.7 metres of primary copper sulphi-

des averaging 0.6% copper, 0.4 gram gold and 2.75 grams silver (0.91% copper equivalent). The drill hole is thought to relate to multiple porphyry dykes, including 115.6 metres averaging 2% copper equivalent and 68.6 metres grading 2.9% copper equivalent.

The results show potential to increase the size of the high-grade zone at both the North and South Pit, and indicates continuity at

depth below the pit shells’ limits. At the same time, local structure controls and correlation to geophysics results are considered excellent tools to trace the mineralization along strike.

The third-best drill assay comes from Australia-based Pantoro (ASX: PNR) and its Nicholsons/ Halls Creek project in Western Australia. The company released the results from hole WNG22017,

which returned 3.6 metres grading 28.6 grams gold per tonne from 45.4 metres depth for a width x grade value of 103. Pantoro notes the Wagtail South ore reserve at Halls Creek remains unmined, with development completed on two levels below the JORC-compliant reserve. Further, the Rowdies orebody, which is currently only partially developed, continues to return high-grade drill results at depth. TNM

South Star targets late 2023 start for Brazil graphite mine

BATTERY METALS | Permits in place for US$8M first phase

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

South Star Battery Metals

(TSXV: STS; OTCQB: STSBF)

says its Santa Cruz graphite project in eastern Brazil is on track to complete construction and commissioning by December this year.

Most large machinery has been contracted and the initial offices are to be completed in January at

company said last month.

Production is to begin in an US$8-million first phase at a rate of 5,000 tonnes of concentrate per year from an open pit. South Star then plans to complete US$27 million in upgrades to produce 25,000 tonnes a year. Phase one permits and licences are in place.

The Vancouver-based company wants to submit plans to Brazil’s

tonnes a year in a third phase, and file requests for environmental permits for phases two and three to municipal authorities, it said.

“Phase one commercial production is planned for December 2023,” chief executive Richard Pearce said in the release. “We are confident in delivering on our promise to be the first new graphite production in the Americas since 1996.”

South Star is developing what may be the largest industrial plant in the country, which is second only to China in graphite production. It’s seeking to tap into the surging demand for materi-

als to make electric vehicle batteries and other green technologies. South Star also has an early-stage graphite development project at a past-producing mine dating from World War II about 100 km north of Montgomery, AL.

The company says it expects permits and licences for Santa Cruz’s phases two and three to be approved late this year around when phase one operations are to start.

Including both the initial phase and the expansion, the Santa Cruz project has an after-tax net present value of US$81.2 million with a 5% discount rate for an annual

after-tax internal rate of return of 35%, according to a 2020 prefeasibility study. South Star calculated average operating costs for the 12-year life of the mine at US$396 per tonne of concentrate and used a price of US$1,287 per tonne of concentrate.

The project has proven and probable reserves of 12.3 million tonnes grading 2.4% graphitic carbon for 295,400 tonnes in-situ graphite.

South Star shares gained 1¢ to 54¢ apiece in Toronto at press time, valuing the company at $15 million. Its shares have traded in a 52-week window of 37¢ and $1.65. TNM

Space rock yields mysterious minerals

GEOLOGY | University of Alberta researchers ID minerals ‘new to science’ in 15-tonne meteorite discovered in Somalia

BY NORTHERN MINER STAFF

Ateam of researchers has discovered at least two minerals never before seen on earth in a 15-tonne meteorite discovered in Somalia — the ninth-largest meteorite ever found.

The two minerals, with a potential third mineral under consideration, came from a single 70-gram piece that was sent to the University of Alberta for classification.

“Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what’s been found before,” Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Collection, said in a media statement.

“That’s what makes this exciting. In this particular meteorite, you have two officially described minerals that are new to science.”

The new minerals — named elaliite and elkinstantonite — were quickly identified by Andrew Locock, head of the university’s Electron Microprobe Laboratory, because each had been synthetically created before. Elaliite is named after the meteorite itself, dubbed the El Ali meteorite for its discovery near El Ali, about 270 km north of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Herd named the second mineral after distinguished NASA scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton, for her studies on the cores of planets.

The research, conducted jointly with UCLA and the California

Institute of Technology, suggests that more minerals may be found if scientists can obtain more samples.

The problem is the future of the meteorite is uncertain. Researchers say it appears to have been moved to China, so it remains to be seen whether additional samples will be available for scientific purposes.

For now, the team continues to examine the minerals to determine what they can share about the conditions in the meteorite when it formed. Herd also noted that any new mineral discoveries could yield exciting new uses down the line.

“Whenever there’s a new material that’s known, material scientists are interested too because of the potential uses in a wide range of things in society,” he said. TNM

All data supplied by Mining Intelligence for the period of Dec. 22, 2022 – Jan. 6, 2023 for public companies from exploration stage to production. * indicates reverse circulation; otherwise all holes are diamond drill holes. Reported lengths are not necessarily true widths. Only the best hole per property is shown.

RANK PROPERTY COUNTRY OWNER

DRILL HOLE DEPTH WIDTH GRADE WIDTH ID FROM (m) (m) (G/T GOLD) X GRADE

Canada Scottie

Peru Panoro Minerals

Foran’s

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Foran Mining (TSXV: FOM; US-OTC: FMCXF) says it will use a US$150 million loan from Sprott Resource Lending to help construct its McIlvenna Bay copper project in Saskatchewan.

The funding from Toronto-based Sprott joins $200 million proposed by the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, which was announced in August and should be approved “in due course,” Foran said in a news release on Dec. 21.

The financing will almost cover the estimated $368 million cost to build the project about 330 km northeast of Prince Albert, Sask., according to a feasibility study released last February. It also forecasted $481 million in sustaining capital for the 18-year initial phase of the mine.

“We have been meticulously evaluating various financing proposals from numerous lenders to support the development,” Dan Myerson, Foran’s executive chairman and chief executive officer, said in the release. “This agreement maximizes risk-adjusted value per share for existing shareholders.”

The McIlvenna Bay project has probable reserves of 25.7 million tonnes grading 1.23% copper, 2.39% zinc, 0.47 gram gold per tonne and 15.3 grams silver. According to the study, an underground mine at McIlvenna Bay would produce 38.8 million lb. copper, 63.6 million lb. zinc, 20,000 oz. gold and 486,000 oz. silver annually over its first 15 years.

The study estimated the project will have an after-tax net present value of $1.1 billion at a 7% discount rate, and an internal rate of return of 54%. It used base case prices of US$3.50 per lb. copper, US$1.20 per lb. lead and US$1,600 per oz. gold.

Vancouver-based Foran said it has received an initial advance of US$29.5 million from the Sprott loan. Principal repayments are to start in mid-2026 and the loan accrues annual interest of at least 8.95%, the company said.

Active project region

Foran is developing the project in east-central Saskatchewan in a three-pronged strategy with its Bigstone copper-zinc project 25 km west of McIlvenna Bay and eight other targets the explorer is probing in the same area. Foran is planning to build a centralized mill and says the operation will be carbon neutral through the use of electric vehicles and hydro-electric power. In the bigger picture of green technology development, the project ticks off a few boxes, with copper and zinc included on the federal

government’s list of critical minerals considered essential. The age of electric vehicles and modern technologies depends on copper wiring, and there’s the push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.

“We look forward to partnering with Foran on its destination to become a premier critical metals producer,” Narinder Nagra, managing partner of Sprott, said in the same release. “Our financing of Foran is consistent with our strategy to provide innovative and flexible capital to maximize the value of exceptional projects.”

BMO Capital Markets said last month that Foran has so far kept its costs for the copper project in line with the feasibility study while planning to expand drilling on neighbouring targets to 35,000 metres next year after exploration at the Tesla site returned positive results this year.

“Foran continues to consolidate claims in proximity to McIlvenna Bay, providing the company an extensive land package,” mining analyst Rene Cartier wrote in a Nov. 30 note. “The proximity of Tesla offers the strong potential of additional resource growth.”

Shares in Foran traded at $2.97 apiece at press time in Toronto within a 52-week range of $1.93 and $3.25. The company has a market capitalization of about $678 million. TNM

Premium Nickel aims to re-open Selebi mine in Botswana

CRITICAL MINERALS | Past-producing deposits may be linked

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Premium Nickel Resources (TSXV: PNRL) says drill results from its Selebi nickelcopper-cobalt project in Botswana advance the concept that two past-producing deposits there are connected at depth.

The Toronto-based company acquired the project, 400 km north of the capital of Gaborone, a year ago and is aiming to find links between the Selebi north and south deposits, which are separated by about 3 km, the company said in a late December news release.

Highlights include diamond drill hole SMD-22-006a-W2, which cut 9.8 metres grading 0.97% nickel, 1.74% copper and 0.03% cobalt for 1.56% nickel equivalent from 1,581.5 metres down-hole. It included 6.8 metres of 1.28% nickel, 2.35% copper and 0.04% cobalt for 2.06% nickel equivalent.

The same hole also returned 4.7 metres grading 1.1% nickel, 1.24% copper and 0.04% cobalt for 1.55% nickel equivalent from 1,639.8 metres depth. It’s the first time Premium has found significant widths and grades in this deeper interval.

The drilling so far hasn’t fully defined the plunge direction or dip extent of the ore body’s thickening, Premium said. But borehole electromagnetic data is being analyzed to refine the location of the controlling structures for more precise drilling this year with additional rigs.

“Selebi mine could be a single continuous mineralized system,” chief executive officer Keith Morrison said in the release. “The borehole geophysics have been very successful in imaging highly conductive metallic mineralization along the down-dip structure possibly joining the two deposits.”

Past-producing focus

The surge in demand for nickel and copper to build electric vehicle batteries and other modern technologies is pushing some developers to consider past-producing mines. New projects can modernize operations to use less water and power while gaining more metal from the ore. Africa also benefits

from abundant solar energy and inexpensive labour.

The latest assays follow other drill results released in September and August. Drilling downdip to the west intercepted thicker intervals of mineralization than reported in 2016 by previous owners, Premium said.

The past-producing Selebi mine had two shafts — Selebi and Selebi North — situated about 6 km apart. Mining started in 1980 and ended in 2016, when the operations were placed on care and maintenance due to a failure in the offsite Phikwe processing facility, the company says.

Premium wants to reopen the Selebi mine as well as its past-producing Selkirk mine about 75 km to the north. Botswana parastatal company BCL ran Selebi and acquired Selkirk, which had been run by Russia’s Norilisk Nickel, shortly before BCL failed in 2016.

The Selebi south deposit has a resource of 11.3 million tonnes grading 0.98% nickel and 1.9% copper, according to a 2016 study that followed South African Mineral Resource Committee guidelines, but wasn’t compliant with NI 43-101. It also showed the Selebi

north deposit with 4.6 million tonnes grading 1.06% nickel and 0.96% copper.

Selkirk has 6 million indicated tonnes grading 1.06% nickel and 0.36% copper at a cut-off grade of 0.75% nickel, according to a 2007 NI 43-101 resource estimate.

Premium says its preparation of a preliminary economic assessment this year targets resources of 23 million tonnes at Selebi south, 10 million tonnes at Selebi north and 55 million tonnes at Selkirk.

Premium’s Selkirk would be an open pit operation. Anglo American (LSE: AAL) mined 1 million tonnes at Selkirk grading 2.6% nickel and 1.5% copper between 1989 and 2002 when the massive sulphide material was exhausted.

Premium also holds the Maniitsoq nickel-copper-cobalt project on the west coast of Greenland, the Post Creek/Halcyon property in Sudbury, Ont. and five exploration permits in Morocco.

Shares in Premium Nickel Resources rose more than 6% in the first week of January, reaching $1.74 at press time, within a 52-week range of $1.18 and $2.60, valuing the company at $202.7 million. TNM

Workers examine rock samples at the Selebi site, a past-producing nickel-cobaltcopper mine in eastern Botswana. PREMIUM NICKEL RESOURCES

The camp at Foran Mining’s McIlvenna Bay polymetallic project in east-central Saskatchewan. FORAN MINING

Electra Battery Materials readies black mass recycling plant

BY MOOSA IMRAN

Electra Battery Materials

(TSX-V: ELBM; NASDAQ: ELBM) says a battery materials recycling demonstration plant it launched in late December should be completed in the first quarter, and could pave the way for a 5,000-tonne-per-year commercial facility.

The demonstration plant at Temiskaming Shores, about 480 km north of Toronto is designed to recover and recycle high-value elements found in lithium-ion batteries, including nickel, cobalt, lithium, copper and graphite.

The black mass recycling plant is part of an integrated battery materials complex Electra is developing in northern Ontario.

Electra says it will process up to 75 tonnes of black mass material in batch mode using its proprietary hydrometallurgical process. Commissioning of the plant started in mid-October.

Once the demonstration plant is completed and operating, Electra says it will assess whether to continue processing black mass throughout 2023 with material

supplied by its business partners or from third parties.

“With the outlook for electric vehicle adoption in North America becoming increasingly bullish as a result of the recent passage of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act and the considerable investments made by automotive companies to electrify their fleet, the need for a domestic supply of battery-grade materials supply whether through primary

refining or recycling processes becomes critical,” Trent Mell, Electra’s CEO, stated in a news release.

The company noted that its battery recycling strategy is the second of a phased development plan for its integrated battery materials park near the Sudbury nickel basin that will recycle lithium batteries, produce cobalt, nickel and manganese sulphates from primary feeds and supply the battery grade material to

third-party cathode precursor manufacturers.

The company says that in 2023 it will commission North America’s only cobalt sulphate refinery at the same location with an initial production capacity of 5,000 tonnes of cobalt per year.

In September, Electra signed a three-year agreement to supply battery grade cobalt to LG Energy Solution, a global manufacturer of

lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. Under the deal, Electra will supply 1,000 tonnes of cobalt contained in a cobalt sulphate product in 2023 and a further 3,000 tonnes in each of 2024 and 2025.

Exploration projects

In December, Electra also optioned a 5.3-sq.-km cobalt property adjacent to its Iron Creek project in Idaho. The property includes an outcropping mesothermal quartz vein swarm with cobalt and gold mineralization, and historic drilling returned 6.25 metres grading 0.51% cobalt starting from 77.5 metres down hole.

The company also announced in early January that it will dispose of its non-core Canadian assets while retaining royalty interests in the properties.

Under a 2021 share purchase and option agreement, junior Kuya Silver (TSXV: KUYA) already had the right to earn up to 70% of Electra’s Silver Kings joint venture properties, which cover 166 sq. km in Ontario’s cobalt-silver district. Now, Kuya can earn up to 100% by making a $1 million payment in cash or shares by Jan. 31 this year. TNM

Colombians demand smooth transition after Glencore exits

Two B2Gold workers dead after robbery in Mali

WEST AFRICA | Fekola mine operations unaffected, company says

BY NORTHERN MINER STAFF

Two employees of B2Gold (TSX: BTO) in Mali were killed on Dec. 29 when their bus was attacked in an armed robbery, the miner says.

The incident occurred when the bus under police escort was transporting workers from the Fekola gold mine to Bamako, the capital of the west African country. They came upon a robbery in progress about 75 km west of the city, the company said in a statement.

“Security forces accompanying the bus transport supported the safety of B2Gold personnel but, unfortunately, the incident resulted in the death of two employees,” B2Gold said. “Initial reports indicate all other employees on the bus have been safely accounted for and are being transported to Bamako for assistance.”

The miner said operations at the gold mine weren’t affected and the incident wasn’t linked to terrorism.

Mali is one of several west African countries impacted by an influx of Islamic militants in recent years. France has pulled out many of its troops who used to patrol this Sahel region including several of its former colonies, such as Mali. The country has been in turmoil for at least a decade since a military coup allowed a jihadist insurgency to flourish. The Malian government has also deployed Russian mercenaries in an attempt to restore order.

Earlier in December, attackers in the northern city of Timbuktu killed two United Nations peacekeepers from Nigeria and wounded four others. TNM

BY NORTHERN MINER STAFF

Mayors of five municipalities in northern Colombia’s Cesar mining corridor want the government of President Gustavo Petro to phase out mining operations with a smooth transition into other industries instead of an abrupt halt.

About 90% of the corridor’s economy is based on mining and related activities.

The mayors expressed concern regarding Petro’s stance on mining, according to local media, particularly since little has been done after Glencore subsidiary Prodeco handed its coal mining concessions back to the Colombian state.

The move, which Glencore took in 2021 after the country’s National Mines Agency declined its request to keep its Calenturitas and La Jagua mines on care and maintenance, left almost 5,000 people unemployed. They’re surviving by working on nearby farms or by starting small business ventures. Local leaders say some municipalities are losing about $4 million in taxes and royalties because the mining industry is stagnant.

The process of finding a new owner for the mines has been suspended until Prodeco fulfills technical, environmental, labour and financial obligations, according to a report by Caracol, a local private television network. TNM

•

•

For further information, please contact: Qu Bo Liu at qubo.liu@dehua.ca

Electra Battery Materials’ cobalt refinery project in Temiskaming Shores, Ont. ELECTRA BATTERY MATERIALS

New Memoir by Raymond J. Mongeau The Man Who Licks Rocks

Amazing Canadian Geological & Exploration Journeys, leading to his deliberations on climate change, the global population and pandemics.

Canadian Dehua International Mines Group is Soliciting Offers for the coking coal mine projects in Northeastern BC

Canadian Dehua International Mines Group (“CDI”) is soliciting offers for the acquisition of CDI’s interest in the:

Murray River Project; or

Bullmoose Project.

or Hailey Liu at hailey.liu@fticonsulting.com.

RECYCLING | Northern Ontario demonstration plant to be completed in Q1

COAL | Quick end of operations leaves thousands jobless

Haul trucks near B2Gold’s

Fekola gold mine in Mali. B2GOLD

Prodeco railway cars transport coal in Colombia. PRODECO A Prodeco coal train in Colombia. PRODECO

demand for hydrocarbons.

What does this mean for the mining industry? Mining will be increasingly focused on electronic components, and hydro, wind, solar, and battery powered machines.

As evidenced by their recent price surges since 2020, metals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and even manganese will become incredibly valuable, as electric (and ideally selfdriven) automobiles take over the trucking and delivery-based industries, whereas some more common and traditionally mined materials will likely depreciate in value. Materials such as concrete, asphalt, and iron could become much less valuable, as public buildings see less use, resulting in cities that are less motivated to engage in publicly owned projects and spaces, as people become entrenched in private spaces and opt for the increasingly convenient and comfortable lifestyle of staying at home.

The mining industry’s biggest challenge will be to adapt to these changes, and to meet the demands of a highly sophisticated, and virtualized society. I believe the mining industry will increasingly “mine” old technology and infrastructure while opening and operating fewer traditional mines. With the transition to working from home, and an adoption of virtual lifestyles, we can already see that office spaces, town halls, libraries, universities, medical facilities, places of worship, grocery stores, and restaurants have all experienced a significant decline in foot traffic, and it may not be long before some of these institutions forego in-person activities altogether. Some may transition to a strictly online/delivery-based service in order to streamline efficiency and cut unnecessary costs amidst rapid inflation. Many of these old buildings could become obsolete, and could be demolished. Many common building components such as copper and iron will be salvaged from these buildings prior to demolition, further depreciating the value of some base metal deposits. I believe the mining industry is poised to take advantage of this societal shift to a virtual takeover, but many mining companies will likely fail to make the transition. Mining companies will need to adapt to survive, as society ventures into truly unexplored territory.

Seafloor Mining

Demand for materials involved in battery power will continue to increase, which may in turn lead to seafloor expeditions, specifically in search of manganese nodules, which are also a source of cobalt and nickel — metals that are invaluable for battery-powered technology. How-

ever, extracting these materials from the seafloor comes with several different challenges, specifically the environmental impacts, permitting regimes, and its potential to inflame political disputes over territory. The world’s oceans do not belong to any one country, so who has the authority to determine who gets to mine what, and where, and define what is a reasonable degree of environmental disturbance? Unless ore deposits can be found within a country’s exclusive economic zone, mining corporations must appeal to globalized institutions such as the International Seabed Authority, which has thus far granted 19 exploration licences within the Pacific Ocean’s Clarion Clipperton Zone — an area renowned for its abundance of polymetallic manganese nodules. These discussions open the door beyond manganese nodules to the mining of other seafloor deposits such as seafloor massive sulphides, which host especially unique and fragile faunal abundances that are restricted to these hydrothermal settings.

With the rise of seafloor mining, the mining industry may be challenged by even greater political interference, as governments may choose to create public mining corporations that are perceived as acting in the public interest, rather than allowing private companies to access seafloor mining opportunities. This will present huge challenges for the mining industry, as companies may be forced to compete with government-owned mining corporations.

The ongoing virtualization of work and recreation demonstrates challenges for the mining industry. These societal shifts have repercussions for the demands of metals, specifically for those involved in battery-powered technology. These metals tend to be particularly abundant in seafloor deposits such as manganese nodules, but the logistics surrounding seafloor mining remain uncertain.

The future of the mining industry is closely intertwined with political, social, and environmental concerns, all of which are prone to unpredictable fluctuations in public sentiment. Only one thing is certain: mining is here to stay, but the concerns and demands of this sector will always be in flux, as rising sustainability expectations, environmental concerns, and social restructuring will all directly impact the demand for resources in the coming decades.

— Jonathan Umbsaar is a firstyear PhD student at the University of Toronto, researching the critical metal distributions of seafloor massive sulphides and how these deposits compare to the ancient analogues that we mine on land.

Copper Mountain reopens mine after ransomware attack

CYBERSECURITY | Operation intact, but unclear if demands were met

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Copper Mountain Mining (TSX: CMMC; ASX: C6C) said it reopened its mine in southern British Columbia within days of a Dec. 27 ransomware attack that left deliveries unaffected.

The Vancouver-based company restarted the primary crusher on Jan. 1 at its mine near Princeton, about 300 km east of Vancouver, and resumed operations at the mill “shortly thereafter,” Copper Mountain said in a Jan. 6 news release.

“On Jan. 4, the mill was at full production and the operation is currently being stabilized as the remaining business systems are fully restored,” the company said.

“Throughout this downtime, which resulted from the attack on its IT systems, the company has been shipping copper concentrate to the port of Vancouver from mine inventory and has maintained its planned shipping schedule.”

Manganese pipeline

By 2031, North America is expected to require over 200,000 tonnes of high-purity manganese annually.

The continent, however, has no current high-purity manganese processing capacity to supply a large number of battery gigafactories and cathode plants under development.

South32 (LSE: S32; ASX: S32) is developing the first new U.S. manganese mine in decades. The company has allocated $55 million of capital expenditure to work on the Hermosa project in Arizona for the current fiscal year and expects to begin a pre-feasibility study before mid-2023.

In Europe, Euro Manganese (TSXV: EMN; ASX: EMN) is developing its Chvaletice project in the Czech Republic, the only sizeable, classified resource of manganese in the European Union.

The project entails re-processing manganese deposits contained in waste (tailings) from a decommissioned mine that operated between 1951 and 1975.

The company plans to convert the carbonate to high-purity manganese metal and sulphate and send it to Euro Manganese’s planned processing facility in Quebec where it will be converted into a liquid sulphate. The site is adjacent to two proposed cathode plants allowing the liquid sulphate to be piped directly into the cathode production processes.

“Going forward, we’re going to see a European battery industry and a North American battery industry,” said Jaffe. “Both of those are growing at a tremendous pace and are going to require their own supply chains, including a supply chain for manganese. And when you think about moving forward, I would talk about 10 years from now or over the next five years.” TNM

The shutdown was a preventative measure as Copper Mountain assessed the extent of the attack on its systems at the mine and its corporate offices, the company said. Copper Mine’s Jan. 6 update didn’t mention any damage, the identity of the attackers, dollar amounts they may have sought or any amounts paid to the hackers. A spokesperson for the company didn’t reply to emailed questions by press time.

All the mine’s environmental management systems operated during the outage and there were no incidents or injuries to personnel, the company said. Its information technology teams and cybersecurity consultants are setting up safeguards against further risks, it said.

The company said at the time of the attack it isolated operations, switched to manual processes where possible and contacted authorities.

Copper Mountain owns three-quarters of the open-pit mine operation, which produces an average of about 100 million lbs. of copper equivalent a year. Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials owns

the remaining quarter.

There are plans to expand the mill to 65,000 tonnes per day from 45,000 tonnes and increase average annual production to 138 million lbs. of copper equivalent.

The mine has proven and probable reserves of 650 million tonnes grading 0.25% copper, 0.11 gram gold per tonne, and 0.73 gram silver for 3.6 million lbs. contained copper, 2.2 million oz. gold and 15.2 million oz. silver.

Shares in Copper Mountain erased losses suffered from the attack. They had gained more than 12% by press time in Toronto to $2.14 each, within a 52-week range of $1.23 and $4.38, valuing the company at $409 million. TNM

MANGANESE from 1 markets will move,” Jaffe said.

An electric haul truck at Copper Mountain Mining’s open pit mine in B.C.

COPPER MOUNTAIN MINING

Copper Mountain Mining’s operation is located about 300 km east of Vancouver near Princeton, B.C.

COPPER MOUNTAIN MINING

MINING IN BC, YUKON & NWT

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Arctic Canadian Diamond, operator of the Ekati mine in the Northwest Territories, is on track to expand revenue by more than half as it aims to be the only miner using a remote underwater vehicle with a cutting drum.

The Calgary-based unlisted company will likely record 2022 income of about $500 million, an increase of more than 60% from the previous year’s 11 months of operations, because of higher output and market prices plus a month more of business, chief executive officer Rory Moore said in a December interview with The Northern Miner

“For the first time in a long time we’re making money,” Moore said by phone from Vancouver, although the miner says it has been in the black since it formed in early 2021 from the ashes of former owner Dominion Diamonds.

The first part of an underwater remote mining system to process 600 tonnes an hour and slash ore volume by up to 20% is due to arrive next month at Ekati, about 300 km northeast of Yellowknife. Built by Rotterdam-based IHC Mining, it will be the first underwater system to burrow into the walls of flooded open pits to mine kimberlite, not just suck gemstone-bearing sediment off the ocean floor like the operations off Namibia’s coast held by the Namdeb joint venture between De Beers and Namibia.

The potential for strong 2022 financial results and the prospect of underwater technology to cut costs marks a turning point for Ekati after the demise of former owner Dominion almost two years ago. As a private operator, disclosures are very limited, but Arctic Canadian appears to be performing well even though Covid-19 reduced labour, raised costs and hindered production. Almost 25 years after Ekati started as Canada’s first diamond mine, Moore wants to exploit

Below: The remote operated underwater mining crawler excavates with a drum cutter in small layers and eliminates the need for blasting explosives.

deposits with lower margins and extend its life by a decade or more.

Even though one of Ekati’s main deposits, Sable, wasn’t mined for a third of the year, the mine’s output may miss its 2022 target of 5 million carats by just 14%, Moore said. Waste rock had built up in the mine during Dominion’s ownership when it only targeted the gem-bearing kimberlite for removal, the CEO said.

“This last year there’s been a lot of focus on stripping waste at Sable, which meant that for four months we didn’t mine ore at Sable,” he said. “We just took the pain.”

Debt payments

Now, Arctic is using its success to pay down its debt. The first lien debt to banks of about $85 million has been paid off, the highest priority debt that came out of the creditor restructuring process after Dominion failed, Moore said.

The next debt to be repaid is capital invested by new owners DDJ Capital, Brigade Capital, and Western Asset Management. Arctic is also starting to collateralize an environmental surety of several hundred million dollars with cash, he said.

Still, diamond markets are notoriously volatile and some of the latest curve balls include sanctions against Russia — the world’s largest producer — as well as decades-high inflation and forecasts of widespread recession this year. And then there’s what happens after the war with Ukraine ends and gems may flood the market.

“The hardship that’s going on in the world at the moment is not conducive to luxury goods,” Moore said. “Everyone’s got their safety belts on and it’s unpredictable at the moment because of the Ukraine-Russia conflict.”

Diamond prices fell a moderate 4% last year, buoyed in part

by trading restrictions on Russian gems, after prices rose by 30% in 2021 to a record high in January 2022, according to diamond analyst Paul Zimnisky.

“Global natural diamond supply is forecast to remain around multi-decade lows for at least the next five years, which should be somewhat supportive of prices,” Zimnisky said by email.

Arctic is focusing on mining out Sable, developing the Point Lake open-pit project, testing the underwater remote mining system and extending the life at Ekati’s Misery underground mine, Moore said.

A 71.26-carat yellow stone from Misery, the site’s highest-revenue ore source, was sold at auction on Dec. 15 in Antwerp for an undisclosed amount that exceeded expectations, Arctic said. Industry experts said it’s probably the largest fancy vivid yellow gemstone discovered in Canada.

Underwater mining

The deposits of Sable Deep, Fox Deep and Point Lake Deep are the company’s three targets for underwater remote mining. The Point Lake project, about 33 km south of Ekati’s processing plant, has all its permits. Although a water draining operation hit an environmental limit in September, the project won’t be delayed, Moore said.

“We’ll start work on Point Lake this summer which doesn’t affect the overall timeline for the project because we’re a little bit behind at Sable, which will go a little bit longer,” he said. “Point Lake and Sable will share equipment, so the delay at Sable actually works great for Point Lake.”

The Jay deposit is permitted for open pit mining, but is being shelved for now because it may cost US$600 million to develop conventionally by constructing dykes to hold back the water and access the orebody, Moore said. Underwater mining would lower costs significantly, he said.

Arctic plans to test the system at the depleted Lynx deposit in 2024. In February, the surface platform is expected to arrive at Ekati. It will launch and recover a bulldozer-sized crawler with teeth on a drum that cuts about a foot of kimberlite on each pass into fist-sized chunks and pumps them to the surface. The ore slurry is then sent to a dewatering plant.

Of course, the industry routinely

uses remote mining machines on land. Arctic even used one at its Fox deposit for two years. The new IHC Mining technology uses environmentally safe hydraulic fluids, but there are other challenges, such as managing a water recirculation process to keep the slurry out of local pristine lakes, and just working a submersible by remote-control.

“You’re working remotely under water, which is a whole lot different to driving on the surface where you can see exactly what you’re doing,” Moore said. “The critical point is that the sediment-charged water needs to be kept out of the natural environment.”

Arctic is discussing safeguards with the territorial government, environmental watch dogs, Indigenous partners and local communities. The CEO said this year’s focus is getting permits for the Lynx testing, which will inform how the proposed commercial underwater mining is regulated.

Moore sees “game-changing” efficiencies on several fronts that could extend Ekati’s life by more than a decade. There could be 15-20% less ore transported by truck to the processing plant, which is about 30 km north of the Misery and Point Lake deposits and 18 km south of Sable.

Also, the crawler will produce smaller chunks of ore than normal open-pit blasting and mining, easing processing and improving reclamation ratios. Usual open pit mining has a ratio of waste to ore of seven to one, he says.

“We pay for seven loads before we get paid for one,” Moore said. “With underwater remote mining, everything we mine is ore. That’s where the big breakthrough is in cost and revenue.”

And the 180,000-tonne production sample from Lynx should supply enough revenue from its diamonds to pay the capital cost of the system, he said. If the tests go well, the company plans to buy two of the all-electric units, which are powered by diesel generators. The company is studying renewable energy options but the cost could be prohibitive, Moore said.

“The remote underwater mining strategy at Ekati is interesting,” analyst Zimnisky said. “I see it as one of the directions the diamond mining industry could go as new technology is implemented, especially as conventional mining becomes less economic at some of these older legacy mines.”

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES | First test of remote mining system slated for early 2024

IHC MINING AND ARCTIC CANADIAN DIAMOND

Above: The Ekati mine. ARCTIC CANADIAN DIAMOND

Vital Metals pivots to Nechalacho permitting as plant capex doubles

RARE EARTHS | Miner to seek permits for ‘multigenerational’ NWT mine

White Gold seeks Klondike rush source in Yukon drill results

YUKON | Explorer cofounded by Shawn Ryan wants to brew more ‘Coffee’

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

White Gold (TSXV: WGO; US-OTC: WHGOF) says drilling on its Ryan’s Surprise target south of the historic Klondike gold rush territory in the Yukon bodes well for an initial resource estimate.

BY HENRY LAZENBY AND BLAIR MCBRIDE

As the costs of its processing facility in Saskatoon have doubled, Australia-based Vital Metals (ASX: VML; US-OTC: VTMXF) says it is pivoting from completing the rare earths separation plant to permitting at its Northwest Territories mining project.

The change in focus will better align it with the schedule of its Norwegian offtake partner while preserving the junior’s remaining cash.

The cost of the Saskatoon plant has been estimated at “over $20 million” as recently as Vital’s Sept. 20 press release. It now says the amount spent to date totals $18 million, and it expects the cost to complete the entire Saskatoon processing facility at $37 million, for a revised total cost of about $55 million for the complete project.

The company announced it will defer completing the facility’s rare earth hydrometallurgical leaching, purification and rare earth precipitation circuits until 2024. It says the deferment will have the benefit of preserving up to $15.8 million in cash reserves while aligning the timing of the production of rare earth carbonate until Vital’s offtake partner.

In the interim, Vital will continue construction to complete the calcine circuit at Saskatoon by the third quarter of 2023, in time to process material from the Nechalacho mine in the Northwest Territories and produce an intermediate rare earth oxide product.

Vital intends to sell the product to third parties before starting deliveries of the final rare earth carbonate product to REEtec.

Mine permit priority

Vital says it will sharpen its focus on completing the permitting process for the high-grade Tardiff deposit at Nechalacho, located 110 km southeast of Yellowknife. Nechalacho includes the not-yet-developed Tardiff deposit and the North T zone, from which the company sources rare earth oxides for the Saskatoon plant. The Nechalacho project is still only classified

as a demonstration project by the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board and not as a producing mine.

However, the company plans to seek a two-year extension to the land use permit for North T after more ore was found at the site, David Connelly, vice-president of strategy and corporate affairs with Vital’s Yellowknife-based subsidiary Cheetah Resources, told The Northern Miner. Further drilling is planned this winter.

“The purpose of North T was always to have it as a small deposit to demonstrate to the world that Canadian rare earths could meet technical requirements, and to Indigenous communities to show we can meet ESG goals,” Connelly said. “Having done that for a couple years and being satisfied with the demonstration, we’re now moving on to permitting the multigenerational Tardiff mine which is a much bigger deposit.”

The company plans to apply for the water and land use permits for Tardiff later this year, Connelly added.

Vital acquired the near-surface resources at Nechalacho from Avalon Advanced Materials (TSX: AVL; US-OTC: AVLNF) in 2019. Avalon retains ownership of resources beneath 150 metres depth.

Vital’s portion of the Tardiff zone contains an inferred resource of 1.3 million tonnes at 2.2% total rare earth oxides including 0.3% neodymium oxide.

The bastnaesite subzone of the North T Zone (also owned by Vital) has an indicated resource of 33,000 tonnes at 7.8% light rare earth oxides for 2,574 tonnes of light rare earth oxides, according to the company. It calls it one of the world’s highest-grade rare-earth projects.

Vital says it will fast-track an initial economic assessment by mid2023 for Nechalacho, incorporating an impending initial resource. A definitive feasibility study is planned following further drilling in 2023 and early 2024.

The stock traded at A2.2¢ in Sydney at press time, up slightly from its 12-month low of A1.7¢ on Dec. 23. The company has a market cap of A$106.1 million.

The Toronto-based explorer, backed by Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX: AEM, NYSE: AEM) and Kinross Gold (TSX: K, NYSE: KGC) spent $6 million last year on a diamond drilling program showing gold mineralization over a 450 metres east-west by 450 metres north-south to a vertical depth of 450 metres footprint at Ryan’s Surprise, White Gold said in a news release on Jan. 5. The mineralization remains open in all directions, it said.

The target, named after veteran prospector and White Gold co-founder Shawn Ryan, lies 2 km west of the explorer’s primary Golden Saddle and Arc deposits and 95 km south of Dawson City where miners flocked more than a century ago.

Diamond drill hole WHTRS22D029 cut 10.9 metres grading 5.34 grams gold per tonne from 266.5 metres depth, including 0.9 metre of 37.7 grams gold, 11.2 metres of 1.26 grams gold from 99.9 metres depth, and 4.5 metres of 2.74 grams gold from 75 metres depth, the explorer said. The hole extended mineralization by 50 metres along strike to the southeast, which continues to remain open, it said.

Hole WHTRS22D032 returned 1.4 metres grading 4.47 grams gold per tonne from 95.3 metres depth; 17.5 metres of 0.58 gram from 179 metres depth; 0.6 metre of 8.03 grams from 219.65 metres; and 14.4 metres of 0.69 gram gold from 315.3 metres.

“We are very pleased to have further expanded and infilled the large footprint of gold mineralization at Ryan’s Surprise,” chief executive officer David D’Onofrio said in the release. “The Ryan’s Surprise target has the ability to meaningfully increase the size of our significant gold resources.”

Yukon surge

White Gold, which positions itself as the leader in a modern-day Yukon gold surge, says it wants to find the source of the Klondike boom of the 1890s, which helped form a young Canada and inspire writers like Pierre Berton. Its team includes Ryan, who also discovered the Coffee gold deposit being advanced by Newmont (TSX: NGT; NYSE: NEM), and Terry Brace with more than 25 years of exploration and development experience, running 20-odd early-stage properties.

The explorer says it’s planning more drilling along the Ryan’s Trend, a 6.5-km long by 1-km wide area running north-northwest with anomalous gold and arsenic in soils, as it readies for an initial resource estimate, although it hasn’t said exactly when that would happen.

Agnico Eagle holds nearly 20% of White Gold and Kinross has about 16% of the explorer operat-

KLONDIKE

Vital Metals’ Nechalacho rare earths project, located 110 km southeast of Yellowknife, in the Northwest Territories. VITAL METALS

White Gold has drills turning south of Dawson City at several targets in the Yukon’s White Gold district. WHITE GOLD

Transformed Dolly Varden Silver in discovery mode, says CEO

BY HENRY LAZENBY

Looking back on the past two years since he took the reins as president and CEO of Dolly Varden Silver (TSXV: DV) in February 2020, Shawn Khunkhun points to a critical acquisition the company made in December 2021 as being the lynchpin to the company’s recent exploration and fundraising success.

The British Columbia-focused explorer has district-scale holdings called the Kitsault Valley project, in the southern leg of the province’s Golden Triangle.

In 2021, it acquired Fury Gold Mines’ (TSX: FURY; NYSE-AM: FURY) Homestake Ridge gold and silver project in a cash-and-scrip deal valued at $50 million.

Homestake Ridge is next to Dolly Varden’s namesake project and sits about 32 km southeast of Stewart and 113 km from the town of Terrace.

Khunkhun says the acquisition was crucial for solidifying the company’s position in the prospective Kitsault Trend and added critical mass to the combined Kitsault Valley project.

“Our goal is to either groom this project into a saleable asset in the next 36 months or to have it ready for a construction decision for ourselves,” he says. “If someone like Hecla were to acquire us today, we’d comprise about 15% of their total resource base,” he adds.

Hecla Mining (NYSE: HL) is a major shareholder in the com-

pany, and recently participated in a $22.6-million private placement to maintain its 10.21% interest in Dolly Varden. The junior now heads into the New Year with $28 million of cash in the bank and is fully funded for a planned $21-million drilling campaign to execute its de-risking, growth and discovery strategy.

When Khunkhun first came to Dolly, it held a 44 million oz. high-

grade silver resource, but it had already seen 20 million oz. of production. The former 100-year-old Dolly Varden silver mining camp covers four historic mines that produced more than 19 million oz. of silver over four decades beginning in 1919.

“We set to work to bring in the right shareholders and cash infusion. The strategic alignment with key investors such as Hecla and

mining entrepreneur Eric Sprott helped us have one of the strongest shareholder registries out there.”

Kitsault Valley project

The combined project hosts 34.7 million oz. silver in indicated resources, comprising 3.4 million tonnes at 299.8 grams silver per tonne at the Dolly Varden project, and 736,000 tonnes grading 74.8 grams at the Homestake Ridge deposit. Homestake also has a gold component of 165,993 oz. held in 1.8 million tonnes at 1.02 grams per tonne.

A further 29.3 million oz. silver is inferred, comprising 1.3 million tonnes grading 277 grams per tonne at the Dolly Varden deposit, and 5.5 million tonnes at 100 grams silver per tonne at Homestake Ridge, which again also includes a gold component of 17.4 million tonnes at 4.58 grams per tonne.

On an equivalent basis, the project hosts about 140 million oz. across all categories.

Since completing the acquisition, under the leadership of VP Exploration Robert van Egmond, appointed in March, the company has been focusing on converting the existing Homestake resource to higher-confidence categories.

It has released regular drill results through 2022, reporting wide intercepts that include bonanza silver and high gold values.

results from the emerging Wolf target. A highlight intercept from the 2022 season at Wolf returned 412 grams of silver per tonne over 12.8 metres (5.4 metres actual width), including 2.2 metres (0.9 metres true width) grading 1,646 grams silver, 2.4% lead, 3.1% zinc and 0.1 grams gold.

The program has significantly expanded the high-grade silver mineralization, which occurs in wide, as well as localized shoots hosted within silica vein and breccia sets, Khunkhun says.

“The continuity of silver mineralization underneath the sedimentary cover near the bottom of the Kitsault Valley results in new blind discoveries within the Dolly Varden mining camp. It’s a result of innovative exploration and modelling techniques,” he said.

Additional results from step-out drill holes testing for deeper, downplunge mineralization from DV22316 at the Wolf Vein are currently pending.

“Torbrit represents a 50 million ounce silver deposit, which after depletion over the years currently sits at around 35 million oz. left in the ground. I want to find another Torbrit, and I suspect we are finding that in Wolf,” he said.

• Projects located in miningfriendly Canadian territories, the Yukon and Northwest Territories

• Macmillan Pass is a clear standout in terms of scale, economics, and upside potential

• Mactung-Macpass synergiescombined, these projects create even more value than they could alone

• Updated resource statement and new economic studies are slated for 2023

Khunkhun says the 2022 exploration drilling program was split equally between the resource expansion and upgrading at Homestake, and the Torbrit deposits and looking for additional discoveries along the Kitsault Valley trend.

It has completed an expanded program of 37,000 metres in 108 drill holes, for which results for 50 drill holes remain pending from Homestake Ridge and Dolly Varden.

The company deployed three diamond drill rigs, with a fourth added during the season on new zones.

It has also completed ground geophysics along the 5.4 km central valley area, which generated new targets.

Discovery potential

Most importantly, Khunkhun says, the team completed geological field work, with structural mapping leading to discovery targeting.

On Nov. 20, Dolly Varden released promising exploration

During the summer, the company drill-tested below the sediments and hit the important Hazelton Volcanic Sequence that delivered the high-grade intercepts.

It represents a volcanogenic system with 30-40-metre-thick intervals, with more mineralization at up to 300 metres depth emplaced during a secondary epithermal mineralizing event. This event is responsible for the kilogram silver hits reported so far.

“While it’s early stage, we can already see a conceptual bulk mining operation here in the future, and what’s more, we’re starting to see more gold at depth at Wolf. It spells mineral upside,” said Khunkhun.

“We’re starting to get gold in the system as well. If you study the Golden Triangle and look at Eskay Creek, the Premier, and Bruce Jack deposits – they all started as highgrade silver deposits and then later morphed into some of the biggest and richest gold mines in the planet,” said Khunkhun.

Company shares have traded between 35¢ and $1.02 over the past 12 months, last trading at 85¢ per share. It has a current market cap of $198 million.

BRITISH COLUMBIA | Plans $21M drilling campaign for 2023 in Golden Triangle

Dolly Varden Silver is planning a $21-million drilling program at its Kitsault Valley project in B.C.’s Golden Triangle. DOLLY VARDEN SILVER

“IF YOU STUDY THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE AND LOOK AT ESKAY CREEK, THE PREMIER, AND BRUCE JACK DEPOSITS –THEY ALL STARTED AS HIGH-GRADE SILVER DEPOSITS AND THEN LATER MORPHED INTO SOME OF THE BIGGEST AND RICHEST GOLD MINES IN THE PLANET.”

SHAWN KHUNKHUN CEO OF DOLLY VARDEN SILVER

BC, YUKON AND NWT SNAPSHOT: EIGHT COMPANIES TO WATCH

BY SARAH HAHN

Canada’s western and northwestern reaches are a vast hub for mineral exploration and mining. Here’s a glimpse of eight companies exploring for precious and base metals in British Columbia, Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

n AMARC RESOURCES

Amarc Resources (TSXV: AHR; US-OTCQB: AXREF), a Vancouver-based mineral exploration and development company, recently initiated a new drilling campaign at its DUKE deposit in central British Columbia.

The deposit is located within the 678-sq.-km DUKE district, 80 km northeast of Smithers within the Babine Region, one of the province’s most prolific porphyry copper-gold belts.

The company is working toward an initial resource, with an expanded drilling program funded by Boliden, which signed a deal with the junior in November to earn up to a 70% interest in DUKE by investing up to $90 million.

Previous assay results include hole DK17002, which returned 15 metres starting from 17 metres downhole grading 0.44% copper, 0.126 gram gold per tonne, 2.1 grams silver per tonne, and 0.019% molybdenum for a copper-equivalent of 0.59%.

Another hole, DK18005, returned 147.1 metres grading 0.27% copper, 0.046 gram gold, 1.1 grams silver, and 0.028% molybdenum (0.4% copper-equivalent) including a 12-metre sub-interval grading 0.32% copper, 0.072 gram gold, 1.1 grams silver, and 0.037% molybdenum (0.51% copper-equivalent) starting from 125 metres.

The copper-equivalent calculations were based on metal prices of US$4 per lb. copper, US$1,800 per oz. gold, US$24 per oz. silver, and US$15 per lb. molybdenum.

The company paused drilling at DUKE right before Christmas and is scheduled to resume it early this year. In addition to drilling, Amarc plans to carry out surface programs throughout 2023 that will test 12 prioritized deposit targets across the district.

Amarc’s two other 100%-owned properties, IKE and JOY, are located in southern and northern B.C., respectively. Together, the three properties host four deposits and 10 priority porphyry copper-gold deposit targets.

Amarc has also been advancing its 482-sq.-km JOY property with funding from Freeport-McMoRan (NYSE: FCX), through staged investments totalling $110 million. As of Oct. 2, 2022, it had completed 15,427 metres of helicopter-supported drilling across 37 holes.

Shareholders can expect a “steady flow of results” throughout this year from both the DUKE and JOY projects, commented Amarc president and CEO, Diane Nicolson, in a release.

Amarc Resources has a market capitalization of $27.9 million.

sources (TSXV: ATC; US-OTC: ATADF) is focused on expanding its Osiris deposit on the Nadaleen project, part of its 100%-owned Rackla gold property located in central Yukon.

In 2022, the company completed five diamond drill holes totaling 1,551 metres. Highlights include hole OS-22-283, which intersected 2.63 grams gold per tonne over 33.2 metres starting from 114.8 metres downhole including 9.29 grams gold over 6.7 metres. As well, hole OS-22-285 intersected 3.69 grams gold over 10.8 metres from 292 metres including 10.91 grams gold over 2.1 metres.

“These results are a great reminder of the high-grade nature of the Osiris deposit and the potential for significant resource growth through systematic step-outs along strike and at depth,” commented Graham Downs, ATAC president and CEO in a news release.

This was ATAC’s first time drilling at Nadaleen since 2018. The project hosts Canada’s first Carlintype gold discoveries and an indicated resource of 5.5 million tonnes grading 4.12 grams gold for 732,000 oz. gold. Inferred resources for the entire Osiris deposit add another

9.4 million tonnes grading 3.47 grams gold for 1 million oz. gold.

ATAC has three other projects in Yukon, including its wholly-owned Connaught property for which drill results are pending. In British Columbia, the company’s PIL property covers 151.5 sq. km and contains multiple highly prospective copper-gold targets.

“We look forward to returning to Nadaleen with a resource expansion program in the coming years, as well as further drilling at the Anubis target which hosts earlier-stage, high-grade Carlin-style mineralization along a 2.5-km fault structure,” Downs added.

ATAC Resources has a market capitalization of $16.5 million.

n BRIXTON METALS

Vancouver-based Brixton Metals (TSXV: BBB; US-OTCQB: BBBXF) is advancing its flagship Thorn copper-gold-silver-molybdenum project in northwestern British Columbia.

The wholly-owned 2,900-sq.-km property is located at the northern tip of the prolific Golden Triangle, and within the Taku River Tlingit and Tahltan First Nations’ traditional territories.

In early January, Brixton released drill results from its Camp Creek porphyry target at Thorn, including 709 metres of 0.34% copper-equivalent (0.24% copper, 0.06 gram gold per tonne, 2.42 grams silver and 140.54 parts per million molybdenum)  from 534 metres depth in hole THN22-213.

Also in early January, Brixton released new assays from the Trapper gold target at Thorn, including 304.5 metres of 1.19 grams gold from 4 metres depth in hole THN22-237. The results followed previous highlights released in December, with hole THN22-255 returning 262 metres of 1.04 grams gold per tonne from a depth of 12 metres, including 147.1 metres grading 1.59 grams gold. Hole THN22-254 returned 2.11 grams gold over 39 metres from 4 metres. The 2022 drilling campaign, which began in May, included 58 holes totalling 18,200 metres, with close to 6,500 drilled at Camp Creek and

Exploration at ATAC Resources’ Rackla gold property in central Yukon. ATAC RESOURCES

See SNAPSHOT / 14

Snowline Gold’s Einarson property in the Selwyn Basin in Yukon Territory. SNOWLINE GOLD

more than 9,100 metres at Trapper.

The company’s 2023 exploration program is fully funded thanks to a late 2022 $13.6-million private placement by BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP), which now owns just under 20% of the junior’s shares. Priority targets at Thorn include Camp Creek (copper-gold-silver-molybdenum porphyry), Trapper (gold), and Metla (copper-gold porphyry).

Brixton also owns 100% of its three other projects: Atlin, a gold property located north of Thorn; Langis, a silver-cobalt-nickel property located in eastern Ontario; and Hog Heaven, a silver-gold-copper project in Montana.

Hog Heaven is being advanced with funding from Ivanhoe Elec-

tric (TSX: IE; NYSE-AM: IE). The project, now in the advanced exploration stage, previously returned drill results of 445.7 grams silver, 1.4 grams gold, and 1.5% copper over 5.4 metres from 105.7 metres.

Brixton Metals has a market capitalization of $89.8 million.

n FIREWEED METALS

Fireweed Metals (TSXV: FWZ; US-OTC: FWEDF) is advancing three critical minerals projects in Canada’s North.

The company is planning to provide an updated PEA for its flagship asset Macmillan Pass, in Yukon, this year.

Based on a January 2018 resource estimate, the zinc resource at the 948-sq.-km property is among the world’s most significant. Two of the project’s larger deposits, Tom and

Jason, host a combined indicated resource of 11.2 million tonnes grading 21.33 grams silver per tonne, 6.59% zinc, and 2.48% lead and an inferred resource of 39.4 million tonnes grading 38.15 grams silver, 5.84% zinc, and 3.14% lead.

The property also consists of Boundary Zone, Boundary West,

and End Zone, which host distinct zinc-lead-silver mineralization. Previous drilling at Boundary Zone intersected high grades, including 75.7 grams silver, 23.77% zinc, and 3.44% lead over 10.4 metres.

Macmillan Pass is located north of Whitehorse and is accessible via the North Canol Road.

The company owns the Gayna River zinc property, 180 km west of Norman Wells, N.W.T; and the newly acquired Mactung tungsten site, which sits on the border of Yukon and the N.W.T.

Fireweed purchased Mactung in June for $15 million from the N.W.T. government. The property is one of the largest and highest-grade tungsten deposits in the world and is also accessible by the Canol Road. It hosts an indicated resource of 33 million tonnes grading 0.88% tungsten trioxide and 11.8 million inferred tonnes of 0.78% tungsten trioxide.

Highlights from the 2022 early stage exploration program at Gayna River include 10 soil samples that returned over 4,000 ppm lead, with one sample that contained 27.5% lead and 176 grams silver per tonne. These samples confirm the presence of an historical zinc and lead soil anomaly.

In addition, high-grade rock samples grading 7% zinc or higher confirmed massive sulphide mineralization. One sample also graded 51% zinc and another graded 74% lead. Multiple potential drill targets have been identified at the site.

Fireweed Metals has a market capitalization of $93.9 million.

n GOLIATH RESOURCES

Goliath Resources (TSXV: GOT; US-OTC: GOTRF), a Torontobased junior with properties in British Columbia and Quebec’s Abitibi greenstone belt, recently expanded its Golddigger property in B.C.’s Golden Triangle.

The company’s 2022 drilling program, which was completed in October, consisted of 86 holes (from 20 drill pads) totalling 26,321 metres. Assay results confirmed the presence of high-grade gold-silver mineralization at the property’s Surebet Zone covering an area of 1.6 sq. km.

Highlights include hole GD-2280, which cut 23.17 grams gold per tonne and 6.32 grams silver over 5 metres from 360 metres, including 115 grams gold and 28.5 grams silver over 1 metre. Hole GD-2270 intersected 12.93 grams gold

and 69 grams silver over 6 metres, including 37.03 grams gold and 195.37 grams silver over 2 metres.

The program was designed to follow up on the previous year’s drilling campaign, which yielded results that demonstrated significant mineralization in all 24 holes that were drilled over a 1-km strike and a down-dip extent of 1.1 km.

Assay results from 66 drill holes to date confirm a 97% hit rate and strong gold mineralization on the Surebet Zone, which remains open.

The latest results have enabled Goliath to more than double its land package from 238.6 sq. km to 527.5 sq. km.

Goliath announced in December that it had raised $1.3 million in aggregate proceeds. Crescat Capital, a global macro asset management firm, accounted for more than 3.7 million of the 4.8 million common share purchase warrants exercised at a price of 28¢ each. The Denver-based company now owns 17.5% interest in Goliath.

Goliath is also exploring for precious metals at its wholly-owned Lucky Strike property in B.C. and at its Nelligan project in Quebec.

Goliath Resources has a market capitalization of $85.4 million.

n OSISKO METALS

Osisko Metals (TSXV: OM; US-OTC: OMZNF) has been working to develop its Pine Point project located on the south shore of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories.

Recent drill result highlights from the project, reported in November, included 9 metres grading 10.51% zinc and 3.52% lead starting from 108 metres, and 11.5 metres grading 9.37% zinc and 4.99% lead starting from 23.5 metres.

“On a zinc-only basis, Pine Point could potentially become a top global low-cost zinc-lead producer ranking fourth largest in the Americas, producing an exceptionally clean and high-grade zinc concentrate that would be sought after by any number of smelters and traders globally,” commented Jeff Hussey, president and COO, in a release.

Hussey added that the company plans to begin work on a feasibility study in the second half of 2023. It also expects to complete infill drilling this year.

Pine Point, which Osisko acquired in 2018, is projected to

SNAPSHOT from 13

Amarc Resources’ VP Exploration Roy Greig logging core at the JOY copper-gold project. AMARC RESOURCES

Westhaven Gold’s Shovelnose project in B.C. WESTHAVEN GOLD

SNAPSHOT from 14

have a 12-year mine life and produce an annual average of 329 million lb. zinc and 141 million lb. lead.

The company’s other project, Gaspé Copper, in eastern Quebec, is one of the largest copper development assets in Eastern North America, according to the company’s website. Osisko signed a deal with Glencore Canada last year to earn a 100% interest in the past-producing copper mine.

The mine was originally developed and operated by a subsidiary of Noranda Mines, producing 150 million tonnes of ore averaging 0.87% copper between 1955 and 1999.

Osisko Metals has a market capitalization of $39.4 million.

n SNOWLINE GOLD

Yukon-focused explorer Snowline Gold (CSE: SGD; US-OTC: SNWGF) recently intercepted significant gold mineralization at its Rogue project, a 112.3-sq.-km property located in the underexplored Selwyn Basin.

Drill highlights from the Valley Zone include hole V-22-032, which returned 318.8 metres of 1.32 grams gold per tonne starting from 91.6 metres downhole. The intercept included a sub-interval of 1.76 grams gold over 207 metres. Hole V-22-015 returned 442 metres of 0.65 gram gold from 75 metres, including 170 metres grading 1.18 grams gold.

Results from another 5,000 metres of drilling are still pending.

“Valley is unique in that at such an early stage, it ticks many of the boxes required of an economic gold discovery,” commented Snowline CEO and director Scott Berdahl in a news release. “It has scale, it has large zones of consistent mineralization with good gold grades, it has a favourable geometry, and its strongest grades — up to 4.1 g/t Au over 108.0 m — begin at surface.”

Drilling at Rogue has revealed substantial and rare high-grade reduced intrusion-related gold systems, similar to those at Kinross

The company consistently reported strong assay results throughout its 8,000-metre drilling program in 2022, which supported four of its properties: Rogue, Einarson, Ursa, and Cynthia.

Snowline’s projects are all located within the Tintina gold belt, a prolific area that hosts multiple million-ounce gold mines and deposits, including Fort Knox and Newmont’s (TSX: NEM; NYSE: NGT) Coffee deposit.

Snowline continues to advance all seven of its projects with funding raised last summer through a $25.2-million non-brokered private placement.

In October, the company completed the acquisition of 10 gold properties in Yukon from StrikePoint Gold (TSXV: SKP) that it said complemented Snowline’s existing portfolio and exploration

efforts.

Snowline has a treasury of $22.3 million and three diamond drills at work at Valley.

Snowline Gold has a market capitalization of $386.7 million.

n WESTHAVEN GOLD Westhaven Gold (TSXV: WHN) has been advancing its Shovelnose gold-silver project in British Columbia since posting an initial 1-million-ounce open pit gold resource at the site a year ago.

In a Nov. 8 news release, the company announced highlights of recent drilling. Hole SNR22-295 cut 25 metres of 1.95 grams gold and 5.61 grams silver per tonne starting at 218 metres, including a 0.7-metre interval of 10.05 grams gold and 11.6 grams silver. Another hole, NSR22-285, cut 26 metres of 1.22 grams gold and 5.66 grams silver starting from 73 metres, including 4.21 grams gold and 12.77 grams silver over 5.2 metres.

The highest-grade ever intercept at Shovelnose, which was reported last April, returned 23 metres of 37.24 grams gold and 214.7 grams silver.

An initial resource for the project from January 2022 demonstrated 10.5 million indicated tonnes grading 2.32 grams gold and 11.43 grams silver per tonne for 791,000 oz. of gold and 3.8 million oz. of silver. Inferred resources add 9.1 million tonnes grading 0.89 grams gold and 3.47 grams silver for 263,000 oz. of gold and 1 million oz. of silver.

Located 30 km south of Merritt, Shovelnose covers 176.2 sq. km near the southern end of the Spences Bridge Gold Belt. The area hosts

volcanic

The company also completed its inaugural drill program at Skoonka Creek, a 27.8-sq.-km gold property located near the northern end of the SBGB and three hours from Vancouver by car. The campaign comprised 16 holes totalling 3,340

metres. In early January it reported results of 11 holes from fall drilling at Skoonka Creek that extended mineralization by 900 km along strike. Highlights included 48.1 metres of 1.28 grams gold and 1.29 grams silver per tonne starting near surface, with a 1.9-metre sub-interval of 21.15 grams gold and 13.65 grams silver.

Westhaven Gold has a market capitalization of $50.7 million. TNM

Gold’s (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) Fort Knox mine. Initial grab samples at Valley returned grades between 38 and 95 grams gold.

Brixton Metals’ flagship Thorn copper-gold-silver-molybdenum project in northwestern B.C. BRIXTON METALS

Osisko Metals’ Pine Point zinc-lead project in the Northwest Territories. OSISKO METALS

rocks that are highly prospective for epithermal-style gold mineralization and has attracted thousands of prospectors dating back to the 1800s.

Artemis Gold expects major build permits for Blackwater in Q1

BY JACKSON CHEN

Artemis Gold (TSXV: ARTG) expects to finally receive BC Mines Act permits for major construction works at its Blackwater project in central British Columbia during the first quarter of 2023, the miner said on Jan. 3.

The permits were initially expected in fall 2022.

Despite the revised receipt date of the permits, Artemis said in its progress update that the delay is not expected to affect its planned start of major construction activities at Blackwater.

“While we are disappointed that we did not receive the BC Mines Act permits as planned in fall 2022, they are well advanced and are expected to be finalized in the coming weeks,” Steven Dean, chairman and CEO of Artemis, commented.

“The Blackwater construction team has made significant progress in Q4 2022, with Blackwater on-site activities progressing on schedule. The construction camp and process plant area preparation and bulk earthworks are on track

to be completed prior to the start of major works,” Dean added.

Site works currently underway include logging, clearing and grubbing of the plant site area; installation of physical environmental controls; and advancement of the construction camp accommodations. Site levelling, pad preparation and bulk earthworks for the camp were completed as planned in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The company is also advancing required upgrades to the site, which include running buried and surface pipelines from selected water wells, and upgrades to its sewage infrastructure in order to accommodate planned head count capacity at site for major works construction activities.

Located about 446 km northeast of Vancouver, the Blackwater project comprises the construction, operation and closure of an open-pit gold mine and ore processing facilities that will be developed in multiple stages.

Over an estimated 22-year mine life, Blackwater is expected to produce an average of 339,000 oz. of gold per year. TNM

Osisko’s feasibility study for Cariboo disappoints analysts

GOLD

| 3-year

initial phase would be followed by $451M expansion

BY COLIN MCCLELLAND

Osisko Development’s (TSXV: ODV; NYSE: ODV) has delivered a positive feasibility study for its Cariboo gold project in central British Columbia, but the first phase of development makes little economic sense, say analysts.

The feasibility study outlines a two-phase development.

Over both phases at the site in the district of Wells, about 700 km northeast of Vancouver, the underground mine would produce 1.9 million oz. over a 12-year life, according to the study released on Jan. 3.

The project carries an aftertax net present value of $502 million (using a 5% discount rate) and a 21% after-tax internal rate of return.

The study forecasts construction costs for the first phase at $137.3 million. Phase two expansion costs are pegged at $451.1 million, including $36.7 million in contingency costs.

A three-year initial phase would process 1,500 tonnes a day from the Lowhee, Shaft and Mosquito deposits for average annual production of 72,500 ounces. The plant would increase capacity to 4,900 tonnes a day in the fourth year to produce 193,798 oz. per year, the

study shows.

However, total cash costs for the first phase are US$1,149 per oz., according to the study and it uses a base case gold market price of US$1,700 per ounce. That amounts to earnings of US$113.2 million, only about a third of the projected phase two capital cost.

“They’ll need to raise another $300M before the larger, second stage is built,” industry blogger Mark Turner wrote on his IKN site Jan. 3. “There’s no point in getting involved before 2027,” he advised investors.

The project’s all-in sustaining costs are US$1,634 per oz. to produce 205,419 oz. over phase one’s three years after including the $137.3 million capital cost, $134.2 million in sustaining costs and $64.8 million in pre-permit costs, the study shows.

BMO Capital Markets, which doesn’t cover Osisko Development, cut its net asset value for Osisko Gold Royalties (TSX: OR) — a 44% stakeholder in the development company — by almost a half to $88 million from $161 million.

“The changes to our Osisko Gold Royalties estimates include lower grade and a 2024 startup, which is later than our previous startup estimate,” mining analyst Jackie Przybylowski wrote in a note on Jan. 3.

Osisko Gold Royalties’ 5% net

smelter return royalty on the Cariboo project is “juicy,” blogger Turner said.

Cariboo has probable mineral reserves of 16.7 million tonnes grading 3.78 grams gold per tonne for contained metal of 2 million ounces. Grades are higher in phase one production at an average of 4.43 grams gold per tonne than in phase two, when they are projected to decline to 3.72 grams gold, the study shows.

Sean Roosen, chairman and chief executive officer of Osisko Development, said Cariboo will be a large-scale, long-life and profitable gold mine.

“By phasing construction, we have minimized our exposure to development risk at Cariboo, optimized the sequencing of the assets in our portfolio and maximized our ability to scale Cariboo,” Roosen said. “We envision Cariboo as a project that will be a cash flow engine for the company for decades.”

The project covers 1,550 sq. km and includes mineral targets across a roughly 80-km strike.

Shares in Osisko Development rose more than 4% in Toronto during the week before press time to reach $6.48 apiece, within a 52-week range of $4.94 and $15.87, valuing the company at $490 million. TNM

Skeena Resources seals Essay Creek royalty sale to Franco Nevada

FINANCING | $27M in proceeds will fund exploration and development at British Columbia project

BY CECILIA JAMASMIE

In early January, Canadian explorer and developer Skeena Resources (TSX: SKE, NYSE: SKE) closed the sale of a 0.5% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on its Eskay Creek gold-silver project to Franco-Nevada (TSX: FNV; NYSE: FNV) in a deal worth $27 million.

The transaction, first announced in early December, also gives Skeena an additional cash consideration of $1.5 million.

Net proceeds of the sale will be used mainly to fund exploration and development activities at Eskay Creek, which the company acquired from Barrick Gold (TSX: ABX; NYSE: GOLD) in 2020.

The British Columbia-focused company’s feasibility study for Eskay Creek envisions an open pit operation with production of 352,000 oz. of gold equivalent a year.

Average grades are pegged at 4.57 grams gold-equivalent per tonne, while the after-tax net pres-

ent value, at a 5% discount, is estimated at $1.4 billion. The project has an estimated 56% internal rate of return and a 1.4-year payback at $1,550 per oz. gold.

The past-producing Eskay Creek mine was the world’s highest-grade gold operation between 1994 and 2008.

Skeena shares traded at $8.94 apiece at press time, for a market capitalization of $694 million. Its shares have traded in a 52-week window of $5.64 and $17.11. TNM

ing across 3,500 sq. km, the largest landholding in the White Gold region about 350 km northwest of Whitehorse. Power One Capital Markets managing director Pasquale DiCapo holds about 13% while Sprott Asset Management has less than 1%.

The Golden Saddle and Arc deposits together contain 15.4 million indicated tonnes grading 2.26 grams gold per tonne and 8.7 million inferred tonnes grading 1.28 grams gold potentially accessible by open pit, according to a 2020 technical report.

The deposits contain 143,000 indicated tonnes grading 4.53 grams gold and 326,000 inferred tonnes grading 4.33 grams gold that could be amenable to underground mining.

Comstock purchase

The VG deposit, 11 km south of Golden Saddle and Arc and bought from Comstock Metals (TSXV:

CSL; US-OTC: CMMMF) in early 2019, contains a resource of 5.3 million inferred tonnes grading 1.62 grams gold per tonne for 267,600 oz. metal, according to a 2021 technical report by White Gold. The deposit’s mineralization is almost identical in structure and characteristics to Golden Saddle, it said.

Last year’s drilling included holes at Ulli’s Ridge, 1.5 km south of Ryan’s Surprise, where hole WHTULR21D004 intersected 6.94 grams gold per tonne over 19.5 metres. New assays are pending. White Gold also probed the gap area between Ulli’s Ridge and Ryan’s Surprise and prospected on other targets along Ryan’s Trend, including follow-up rotary air blast drilling, the company said.

The Ryan’s Surprise drilling followed up assays between 2018 and 2021 that included 20.64 grams gold per tonne over 6.1 metres in hole WHTRYN18RC0001, 2.1 grams over 31.78 metres in WHTRS19D012, 8.69 grams over 12.3 metres in WHTRS20D018;

and 17.4 grams over 3.47 metres in WHTRS20D013.

The company also has the Betty property 150 km south of Dawson City on the southern part of its land, about 15 km northeast of Western Copper and Gold’s (TSX: WRN; NYSE: WRN) Casino porphyry deposit.

Initial diamond drilling in 2021 on the Betty Ford target on the eastern strike extension of the Coffee Creek fault cut 1.17 grams gold per tonne over 48 metres from 19 metres depth in hole BETFD21D001 while hole BETFD21D003 100 metres east cut 3.46 grams over 50 metres from 33 metres.

More assays are pending from Betty Ford and the Mascot target about 5 km southeast of Betty Ford, after initial diamond drilling last year tested three of Mascot’s mineralized zones, the explorer said.

Shares in White Gold were at 41¢ apiece in Toronto at press time, within a 52-week range of 31¢ and 76¢, valuing the company at $65.8 million. TNM

KLONDIKE from 11

BRITISH COLUMBIA | On-site works unaffected by permit delay, CEO says

The camp at Artemis Gold’s Blackwater project in central British Columbia. ARTEMIS GOLD

MARKET NEWS

TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE / JANUARY 3–6, 2023

Markets got off to a good start in 2023 with the S&P/TSX Composite Index rising 429.59 points or 2.2% to finish the Jan. 2-6 trading week at 19,814.51. The S&P/TSX Global Mining Index gained 7.5 points or 6.9% to 116.36 and the S&P/TSX Global Base Metals Index jumped 11.43 points or 6.3% to 192.08. The S&P/TSX Global Gold Index climbed 24.23 points or 8.7% to 302.02 and the gold spot price closed at US$1,865.70, up US$41.20 per oz. or 2.3%.

Management changes at Star Diamond sent its shares up 60% to 12¢. The company announced on Dec. 28 that starting Jan. 1 Ewan Mason would become interim CEO. Mason has been a director since 2017 and is board chairman. The exploration geologist owns several private companies and previously served as managing director at several mining investment banks in Canada and overseas. Star Diamond’s former president and CEO, Ken MacNeill, retired on Dec. 31. Star Diamond also announced that its chief financial officer Greg Shyluk, has resigned and will step down on Jan. 19. The company also informed shareholders that it is “working to assess Star Diamond’s cost and management” structure. Star Diamond’s flagship asset is its stake in the Fort a la Corne property in central Saskatchewan.

Shares of Skeena Resources jumped 21.2% to $8.74. The company announced Jan. 3 that it had closed its royalty sale with Franco-Nevada on its Eskay Creek gold-silver project in northwest B.C. Skeena granted a 0.5% net smelter return royalty (NSR) on the project to Franco-Nevada in exchange for $27 million in cash and contingent consideration of $1.5 million. Franco-Nevada’s shares gained $3.37 to finish the trading week at $187.94.

Euromax Resources dropped 16.7% or 8¢ on news of its financing plans. On Dec. 28 the company said it will issue 101.3 million units at a price of 4¢ per unit to the Netherlands-based ND Group for proceeds of US$3 million. Euromax’s flagship asset is its Ilovica-Shtuka copper-gold project in southeast-

TSX MOST ACTIVE ISSUES

VOLUME WEEK (OOOs) HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE

Suncor Energy SU 41666 43.16 39.94 42.16 - 0.79

Barrick Gold ABX 22377 25.87 23.07 25.62 + 2.41

Kinross Gold K 17674 6.18 5.48 6.14 + 0.62

Argonaut Gold AR 17292 0.63 0.50 0.56 + 0.04

B2Gold Corp BTO 12514 5.37 4.79 5.25 + 0.44

Lundin Mng LUN 10307 9.18 8.26 9.15 + 0.84

First Quantum FM 9943 30.59 27.34 29.84 + 1.55

Yamana Gold YRI 9332 8.03 7.47 7.93 + 0.41

Denison Mines DML 8763 1.64 1.50 1.63 + 0.08

Nexgen Energy NXE 8643 6.22 5.49 5.93 - 0.06

TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE / JANUARY 3–6, 2023

The S&P/TSX Venture Composite Index gained 11.62 points or 2% over the Jan.2-6, 2023 trading session to end at 581.89.

Electra Battery Materials closed the week as the top value gainer on the Venture Exchange, adding $1.22 to close at $3.47. Electra announced on Jan. 4 that it had amended an option agreement with Kuya Silver Corp. for its Ontario Cobalt camp assets. Under the terms of the agreement, Kuya can acquire 100% in the Silver Kings joint venture properties by paying $1 million in cash or scrip to Electra by the end of January. Electra will retain a 2% net smelter return royalty on commercial production as well as the right of first offer to refine any base metal concentrates from the assets at its refinery, also in Ontario. CEO Trent Mell said that accelerating the terms of the initial agreement with Kuya will allow Electra to focus on advancing its strategy of developing an integrated battery materials complex that combines the production of cobalt, nickel, and manganese sulphates with the recycling of battery black mass.

Fission 3.0 registered the highest volume of trades during the week, seeing 13,789 shares in play. The equity gained 9¢ to close the week at 40¢ per share. The company announced on Jan. 3 that it is mobilizing a

drill team to conduct step-out drilling at its high-grade uranium zone at the Patterson Lake North deposit in Saskatchewan’s western Athabasca Basin. The Fission 3.0 technical team draws from previous experience with resource definition and zone expansion drilling of basement-hosted mineralization at Fission Uranium’s Triple R deposit at Patterson Lake South. The company plans to drill 20 holes to expand on the encouraging drill results from November 2022 that confirmed shallow depth, wide and continuous mineralization in basement rock. One notable drill result from this work included 15 metres grading 6.97% uranium oxide, including a high-grade 5.5-metre interval averaging 18.6% uranium oxide in hole PLN22-035.

TSX-V MOST ACTIVE ISSUES

VOLUME WEEK (OOOs) HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE

Fission 3.0 FUU 13789 0.43 0.30 0.40 + 0.09

Surge Battery NILI 13524 0.46 0.28 0.29 - 0.08

X-Terra Res XTT 8389 0.10 0.06 0.10 + 0.04

Vertical Expl VERT 7268 0.04 0.03 0.04 + 0.01

SOPerior Fert SOP.H 6966 0.08 0.04 0.05 + 0.01

Magna Mining NICU 5522 1.15 0.83 1.15 + 0.26

Voyageur Min VM 3909 0.11 0.09 0.10 + 0.01

G2 Goldfields GTWO 3689 0.74 0.69 0.70 + 0.01

Libero Copper LBC 3607 0.16 0.12 0.13 - 0.03

Tarku Res TKU 3537 0.09 0.05 0.07 unch 0.00

ern Macedonia. Euromax stated that ND Group’s “wealth of experience” across southeastern Europe and the footprint of its investment portfolio in the Republic of North Macedonia “will be a great asset” to its project. If the warrants in each unit are exercised over a two-year period, the company will receive additional proceeds of $10.1 million. Upon closing, ND Group will control about

TSX GREATEST PERCENTAGE CHANGE

VOLUME WEEK (OOOs) HIGH LOW CLOSE CHANGE

Star Diamond DIAM 1447 0.12 0.07 0.12 + 60.0

Starcore Intl SAM 159 0.21 0.15 0.21 + 40.0

Signal Gold SGNL 431 0.43 0.31 0.40 + 25.0

Skeena Res SKE 642 8.78 7.04 8.74 + 21.2

Equinox Gold EQX 5436 5.45 4.35 5.37 + 21.2

McEwen Mng MUX 165 9.93 7.72 9.61 + 20.7

Northcliff Res NCF 20 0.04 0.00 0.03 + 20.0

First Mg Fin FF 2085 0.25 0.20 0.24 + 20.0

Filo Mg Corp FIL 1464 28.11 23.00 27.83 + 19.8

Nighthawk Gold NHK 220 0.43 0.36 0.43 + 19.4

EurOmax Res EOX 276 0.10 0.00 0.08 - 16.7

Goldgroup Mng GGA 7 0.09 0.00 0.09 - 15.0

Sulliden Mng SMC 3300 0.04 0.03 0.03 - 14.3

Nickel Creek NCP 1143 0.07 0.05 0.05 - 9.1

St Augustine SAU 207 0.07 0.00 0.06 - 7.7

Mandalay Res MND 138 3.06 2.77 2.80 - 7.6

Western Potash WRX 55 0.23 0.21 0.21 - 6.7

Pine Cliff En PNE 3763 1.70 1.55 1.61 - 4.7

Talon Metals TLO 2182 0.50 0.45 0.48 - 4.0

Fortuna Silvr FVI 5365 5.38 4.58 4.89 - 3.9

Sigma Lithium registered the trading week’s most significant loss, closing on Jan. 6 $1.97 lower at $36.11. The company’s equity has been on a steady downward trend since mid-December, when it announced it has started commissioning the first module of the production plant — the Greentech plant — at its 100%-owned Grota do Cirilo lithium project in Minas Gerais, Brazil. The Cana-

TSX-V GREATEST PERCENTAGE CHANGE

Bonanza Mining BNZ 22 0.15 0.00 0.15 +150.0

Themac Res MAC 10 0.06 0.00 0.06 +140.0

Stallion Gold STUD 530 0.25 0.00 0.25 +127.3

Glen Eagle Res GER 324 0.02 0.00 0.02 +100.0

Aurania Res ARU 246 0.78 0.39 0.78 +100.0

Bullet Explor AMMO 179 0.03 0.00 0.03 +100.0

Millennium Sil MSC 82 0.01 0.00 0.01 +100.0

Arcus Dev Grp ADG 122 0.02 0.00 0.02 +100.0

King Global KING 224 0.01 0.00 0.01 +100.0

Fosterville FSX 1773 0.53 0.30 0.52 + 76.3

Nevada Expl NGE 118 0.01 0.00 0.01 - 50.0

BC Moly BM.H 52 0.15 0.00 0.10 - 33.3

Aurcana Silver AUN 806 0.02 0.01 0.01 - 33.3

Enerev5 Metals ENEV 370 0.03 0.00 0.02 - 33.3

Blue Moon MOON 105 0.01 0.00 0.01 - 33.3

Kalo Gold KALO 1219 0.15 0.00 0.10 - 25.9

Signature Res SGU 1074 0.06 0.00 0.05 - 25.0

Opawica Expl OPW 371 0.04 0.00 0.03 - 25.0

Silver Spruce SSE 1552 0.02 0.02 0.02 - 25.0

Hanna Capital HCC 53 0.02 0.00 0.02 - 25.0

101.3 million common shares and 101.3 million warrants representing about 22.3% of Euromax’s common shares on a non-diluted basis and 44.5% on a partially diluted basis. ND Group will also have the right to nominate two members to Euromax’s board, one of whom will be appointed president and executive director until it no longer holds more than 10% of the company. TNM

TSX GREATEST VALUE CHANGE

VOLUME WEEK (OOOs CLOSE CHANGE

Newmont Corp NGT 989 70.79 + 6.96

Wheaton Prec WPM 6540 58.20 + 5.30

Nutrien NTR 6500 103.98 + 5.13

Filo Mg Corp FIL 1464 27.83 + 4.59

Agnico Eagle AEM 6687 74.32 + 3.96

Franco-Nevada FNV 1712 187.94 + 3.37

Labrador IOR LIF 2814 36.82 + 3.24

Barrick Gold ABX 22377 25.62 + 2.41

Cameco Corp CCO 6944 32.84 + 2.15

Endeavour Mng EDV 2207 31.09 + 2.11

Suncor Energy SU 41666 42.16 - 0.79

Mandalay Res MND 138 2.80 - 0.23

Fortuna Silvr FVI 5365 4.89 - 0.20

Lithium Amer LAC 3407 25.48 - 0.19

Triple Flag TFPM 253 18.62 - 0.13

Perpetua Res PPTA 44 3.84 - 0.11

Platinum Gp Mt PTM 204 2.28 - 0.09

Pine Cliff En PNE 3763 1.61 - 0.08

PolyMet Mng POM 4 3.54 - 0.08

Nexgen Energy NXE 8643 5.93 - 0.06

dian miner said that the dry module crushing circuit began operating on time and within budget, adding that it expected the entire plant to be up and running by February 2023. Commissioning on the wet module dense media separation circuit is scheduled to start in February and be completed by April, when the company intends to begin commercial production. TNM

VOLUME WEEK (OOOs) CLOSE

Electra Batt ELBM 329 3.47 + 1.22

Nouveau Monde NOU 140 6.33 + 1.17

Los Andes LA 38 14.00 + 0.80

American Lith LI 2627 3.31 + 0.49

Artemis Gold ARTG 374 4.80 + 0.41

Aurania Res ARU 246 0.78 + 0.39

NGEx Minerals NGEX 655 3.41 + 0.33

Cornerstone Ca CGP 68 4.17 + 0.30

Magna Mining NICU 5522 1.15 + 0.26

Prime Mining PRYM 532 2.14 + 0.24

Sigma Lithium SGML 143 36.11 - 1.97

Eloro Res ELO 296 3.44 - 0.45

Comet Inds CMU 0 4.00 - 0.40

Western Alaska WAM 89 2.95 - 0.40

Canada Nickel CNC 2729 1.71 - 0.34

Eskay Mng ESK 495 0.95 - 0.17

Arbor Metals ABR 131 2.58 - 0.12

Colonial Coal CAD 445 1.17 - 0.11

Barksdale Res BRO 281 0.66 - 0.11

Regulus Res REG 292 0.99 - 0.11

U.S.

MARKETS

/ JANUARY 3–6, 2023

U.S. markets rose moderately last week after investors digested mixed news on the work front. Markets initially retreated after employers added 223,000 jobs in December, more than analysts expected, which raised concerns the economy’s strength would prompt the Federal Reserve to extend its program of interest rate hikes to control inflation. However, another report showing wage gains were slowing drove markets higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 483.36 points or 1.5% to 33,630.61 and the S&P 500 gained 58.58 points or 1.4% over the week to 3,895.08.

Nouveau Monde Graphite was the largest gainer, adding nearly 23% to close at $4.68, after the company said on Jan. 2 it was capitalizing accrued interests as part of a US$50-million private placement announced on Nov. 8. The financing by Investissement Québec, Pallinghurst Bond and Mitsui & Co. gives holders of the financing notes 160,976 common shares at a price of US$3.80 each when the notes mature.

Nouveau Monde raised the funds to help develop the second phase of the Matawinie mine project and Bécancour battery materials plant in Quebec after releasing a feasibility study in July. The Matawine mine, about

120 km north of Montreal, is expected to produce 103,328 tonnes of graphite concentrate annually over 25 years, after construction costs of $481 million.

The Bécancour plant, about 150 km northeast of Montreal near the St. Lawrence river, is forecast to produce 42,616 tonnes of anode material, 3,007 tonnes of purified jumbo flake graphite and 18,384 tonnes of byproduct fine flake graphite a year. Construction is expected to take about two and a half years.

Gold mining companies were among the biggest gainers during the week as the price of gold has increased by 3.6% since the Christmas break to close at US$1,865.70 in New York on Jan. 6.

DRDGold and Goldfields rose by more than 15% to US$8.55 and US$11.95, respectively, while Harmony Gold, Kinross Gold and Newmont added 12% to 13% to close at US$3.83, US$4.57 and US$52.69, respectively.

Southern Copper gained 12% with its US$7.01 surge to US$67.40, the second-highest jump by value over the week, as copper

prices increased on the potential of China to boost its economy and demand for the metal used in plumbing, wiring and electric vehicles and batteries. Copper for delivery in March rose 2.3% on Jan. 6 in New York, hitting $3.91 per lb. on the Comex market. The company is one of the world’s largest copper producers.

MartinMarietta*

1503 351.17 + 13.20 Southern Copp* SCCO 7097 67.40 + 7.01 Newmont Corp* NEM 38176 52.69 + 5.49

Nutrien* NTR 10028 77.33 + 4.30

Freeport McMoR* FCX 54410 42.28 + 4.28

Wheaton Prec* WPM 13662 43.30 + 4.22

Franco-Nevada* FNV 3049 139.80 + 3.32

Agnico Eagle* AEM 15050 55.28 + 3.29

Newmont Corp* NEM 38176 53.29 46.65 52.69 + 11.6

Southern Copp* SCCO 7097 68.01 60.20 67.40 + 11.6

Freeport McMoR* FCX 54410 42.60 37.46 42.28 + 11.3

CONSOL Energy* CEIX 4979 65.41 56.05 59.90 - 7.8

Natural Res* NRP 215 54.93 47.05 51.25 - 5.7

CONSOL Energy* CNX 13360 16.92 15.56 16.17 - 4.0

NACCO Ind* NC 210 39.52 35.50 36.85 - 3.0

Fortuna Silvr* FSM 26183 3.95 3.37 3.64 - 2.9

Freeport McMoR* FCX 54410 42.60 37.46 42.28 + 4.28

Hecla Mining* HL 40898 5.97 5.49 5.92 + 0.36

IAMGOLD* IAG 40152 2.82 2.52 2.65 + 0.07 Newmont Corp* NEM 38176 53.29 46.65 52.69 + 5.49 Chevron Corp* CVX 33443 179.95 170.85 176.56 - 2.93

Chevron Corp* CVX 33443 179.95 170.85 176.56 - 1.6

Suncor Energy* SU 21146 31.85 29.57 31.37 - 1.1

Arch Resources* ARCH 1983 144.26 128.03 141.50 - 0.9

Nexgen Energy* NXE 13747 4.56 4.06 4.40 - 0.7

Lithium Amer* LAC 12876 19.44 17.58 18.94 - 0.1

Rio Tinto* RIO 9224 74.07 + 2.87

Mosaic* MOS 24247 46.73 + 2.86

CONSOL Energy* CEIX 4979 59.90 - 5.10

Natural Res* NRP 215 51.25 - 3.08

Chevron Corp* CVX 33443 176.56 - 2.93

Arch Resources* ARCH 1983 141.50 - 1.29

NACCO Ind* NC 210 36.85 - 1.15

CONSOL Energy* CNX 13360 16.17 - 0.67

Suncor Energy* SU 21146 31.37 - 0.36

Fortuna Silvr* FSM 26183 3.64 - 0.11

Nexgen Energy* NXE 13747 4.40 - 0.03

Lithium Amer* LAC 12876 18.94 - 0.01

Metal

METALS, MINING AND MONEY MARKETS

LME WAREHOUSE LEVELS

Aluminum Alloy 1920 (-100)

Aluminum 450,300 (-22,700)

Copper 88,925 (7825)

Lead 25,150 (800)

Nickel 55,476 (1032)

Tin 2,990 (110)

Zinc 32,025 (-4375)

TSX SHORT POSITIONS

Short positions outstanding as of Dec 15, 2022 (with changes from Nov 30, 2022)

Largest short positions

Ivanhoe Mines IVN 24444987 1312261 11/30/2022

Barrick Gold ABX 19246660 15001833 11/30/2022

Kinross Gold K 14396798 -769791 11/30/2022

Lundin Mng LUN 14244430 7277890 11/30/2022

Suncor Energy SU 13025039 350613 11/30/2022

Copper Mtn Mng CMMC 11030106 -3031632 11/30/2022

i-80 Gold IAU 10479365 2787858 11/30/2022

Equinox Gold EQX 10075596 244282 11/30/2022

Denison Mines DML 9699895 570875 11/30/2022

Fortuna Silvr FVI 9152518 -1089079 11/30/2022

New Gold NGD 8485746 -2243462 11/30/2022

Taseko Mines TKO 8315255 -12875 11/30/2022

Nexgen Energy NXE 8237824 -364285 11/30/2022

Wheaton Prec WPM 8189125 1210491 11/30/2022

First Quantum FM 8015803 -1206790 11/30/2022

Largest increase in short position

Barrick Gold ABX 19246660 15001833 11/30/2022

Lundin Mng LUN 14244430 7277890 11/30/2022

i-80 Gold IAU 10479365 2787858 11/30/2022

Fission Uran FCU 6013489 2290057 11/30/2022

Meridian Mg MNO 2085714 2025424 11/30/2022

Largest decrease in short position

Copper Mtn Mng CMMC 11030106 -3031632 11/30/2022

New Gold NGD 8485746 -2243462 11/30/2022

First Quantum FM 8015803 -1206790 11/30/2022

Fortuna Silvr FVI 9152518 -1089079 11/30/2022

Wesdome Gold WDO 1712695 -932361 11/30/2022

Al

PRODUCER AND DEALER PRICES

Coal: Central Appalachia, 12,500 Btu, 1.2 S02-R,W: US$205.55

Coal: Powder River Basin, 8,800 Btu, 0.8 S02-R, W: US$15.55

Cobalt: US$22.37/lb.

Copper: US$3.79/lb.

Copper: CME Group Futures February 2023: US$4.01/lb.; March 2023: US$4.01/lb.

Iridium: NY Dealer Mid-mkt US$4,790/tr oz.

Iron Ore 62% Fe CFR China-S: US$119.80

Lead: US$1.01/lb.

Rhodium: Mid-mkt US$12,390/tr. oz.

Ruthenium: Mid-mkt US$473 per oz.

Silver: Handy & Harman Base: US$23.85 per oz.; Handy & Harman

Fabricated: US$29.82 per oz.

Tin: US$11.45/lb.

Uranium: U3O8, Trading Economics spot price: US$48.90 per lb.

U308

Zinc: US$1.36 per lb.

Prices current Jan. 9, 2023

TSX VENTURE SHORT POSITIONS

Short positions outstanding as of Dec 15, 2022 (with changes from Nov 30, 2022)

Largest short positions

GoviEx Uranium GXU 4273084 -160841 11/30/2022

Blackrock Silv BRC 3471189 1408857 11/30/2022

Fission 3.0 FUU 3410793 1857810 11/30/2022

Brunswick Expl BR W 2241892 1559924 11/30/2022

American Lith LI 1637674 887121 11/30/2022

Outcrop S&G OCG 1359825 485769 11/30/2022

Silver X AGX 1347035 -123402 11/30/2022

Abcourt Mines ABI 1338565 1336162 11/30/2022

Tier One Silv TSLV 1294197 124709 11/30/2022

Baselode Egy FIND 1217003 353306 11/30/2022

Guanajuato Sil GSVR 1213130 649532 11/30/2022

AbraSilver Res ABRA 1179984 -3224239 11/30/2022

Giga Metals GIGA 1160416 16916 11/30/2022

Critical Elem CRE 1105203 235192 11/30/2022

Palladium One PDM 1095524 982744 11/30/2022

Largest increase in short position

Fission 3.0 FUU 3410793 1857810 11/30/2022

Brunswick Expl BR W 2241892 1559924 11/30/2022

Blackrock Silv BRC 3471189 1408857 11/30/2022

Abcourt Mines ABI 1338565 1336162 11/30/2022

Gold Bull Res GBRC 1082676 1061554 11/30/2022

Largest decrease in short position

AbraSilver Res ABRA 1179984 -3224239 11/30/2022

Deep-South Res DSM 519 -1519033 11/30/2022

New Found Gold NFG 661543 -620478 11/30/2022

Rio2 Limited RIO 69000 -578357 11/30/2022

Ximen Mining XIM 57313 -521354 11/30/2022

1956/1990 1956/1990 2054/2090 2103/2140 2113/2165

Aluminum 2341.5/2371 2341.5/2371 2342/2376 2371/2398 2360/2391

Copper 8308/8325 8308/8325 8450/8470 8394/8402 8386/8398

Lead 2278/2236 2278/2236 2302/2266 2313/2269 2333/2280

Nickel 29595/29450 29595/29450 30500/30875 29950/30030 30400/30500

Tin 23900/24050 23900/24050 24850/24650 24700/24700 24750/24800

Zinc 2983/2963 2983/2963 3055/3033 3018/2998 3023/2989

Gold AM - - 1802.65 1805.40 1812.35

Gold PM - - 1803.35 1813.75 -

Silver - - 23.85 - 23.94

Platinum - - 1017 1031 -

Palladium - - 1795 1775 -

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

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

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

Aris Gold Corporation (ARIS.WT.A) - One Warrant to purchase 0.5 of one Common Share of the Issuer at $2.75 until expiry

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

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

Excellon Resources Inc (EXN.WT.A) - One warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $2.80 until expiry

Excellon Resources Inc. (EXN.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the issuer at $1.40 per share until expiry

Excelsior Mining Corp. (MIN.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one Common Share of the Issuer at $1.25 until expiry. Gran Colombia Gold (GCM.WT.B) - 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.

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.

Equinox Gold Corp (EQX.WT) - One warrant

TSX WARRANTS

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

Karora Resources Inc. (KRR.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.50 until expiry.

Liberty Gold Corp. Wt (LGD.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.90 until expiry may 16, 2019

Lithium Americas Corp (LAC.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.90 until expiry

Lydian International Limited (LYD.WT)

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

Nevada Copper Corp. (NCU.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.20 until expiry

Nevada Copper Corp. (NCU.WT.A) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $0.22 until expiry

Nomad Royalty Company Ltd. (NSR.WT)One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $1.71 until expiry.

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

TSX VENTURE WARRANTS

to purchase one common share at $3.00 per share.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Goldstar Minerals Inc. (GDM.RT) - One (1) Right and $0.05 are required to purchase one common share.

Hot Chili Limited (HCH.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $2.50 per share.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Platinum Group Metals Ltd. (PTM.WT.U)One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at US$0.17 until expiry

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

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

Sherritt International Corporation (S.WT)Each whole Warrant entitles the holder to acquire between 1.00 and 1.25 additional common shares (as bulletin 2018-0062 table ) determined based on the Applicable Reference Cobalt Price at an exercise price of $1.95 per Warrant at any time prior to the Expiry Date

Treasury Metals Inc. Wt (TML.WT) - One Warrant to purchase one common share of the Issuer at $1.50 until expiry.

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

$4.25 per share.

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

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

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

Mineworx Technologies Ltd. (MWX.RT)One right to purchase one common share at $0.015 per share.

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

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

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

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

Osisko Development Corp. (ODV.WT) - One warrant to purchase one common share at $10.00 per share.

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

Sandfire Resources America Inc. (SFR.RT) - Forty one (41) Rights exercisable for One (1) Share at $0.15 per Share.

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

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

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

1 (metric) tonne = 1.1023 (short)

0.6214 miles 1 hectare = 2.47 acres