Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine, VRIC Edition • January 2025
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Market Size
367 LISTED MINING COMPANIES
$3.3Bn MARKET CAP OF MINING COMPANIES
Mining companies listed on the CSE
GOLD CORPORATION ASE WESTERN URANIUM & VANADIUM CORP. WUC CERRO DE PASCO RESOURCES INC.
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“We believe that the CSE provides an excellent platform for us to access capital and raise our profile in the investment community.”
Deepak Varshney, CEO Formation Metals (CSE:FOMO)
The Mining Issue
VRIC EDITION | IN THIS ISSUE
Forge
Resources
| 4
A model of balance as production in Colombia is designed to support exploration in the Yukon
Ares
Strategic Mining | 8
Uniquely positioned with the only U.S. mine permitted to produce the critical mineral fluorspar
Forte
Minerals
| 12
Patience pays off with a portfolio of assets in one of the world’s premier mining jurisdictions
PTX
Metals
| 16
A project portfolio encompassing several popular metals allows for multiple paths to value creation
Kuya Silver | 20
The right blend of production and exploration brings a Peruvian mine back to life
Quebec Innovative Materials | 24
Natural hydrogen is gaining traction, and this Canadian company is looking to get a head start
CSE Listed Companies at VRIC 25 | 28
Learn more about and where to find the CSE listed mining and exploration companies exhibiting at this year’s Vancouver Resource Investment Conference
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
James Black
EDITORS
Peter Murray Libby Shabada
ART DIRECTOR
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WRITERS
William Farrington
Oliver Haill
Angela Harmantas
Emily Jarvie
Peter Murray
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TERRITORY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The Canadian Securities Exchange acknowledges that our work takes place on traditional Indigenous territories.
Forge Resources
A model of balance as production in Colombia is designed to support exploration in the Yukon
By Angela Harmantas
For junior mining companies, the path to generating revenue, let alone achieving profitability, is often a long and winding road. But if Forge Resources (CSE:FRG; OTCQB:FRGGF) continues to reach the objectives it has set for its flagship assets, it might just become a member of that exclusive club.
The assets in question include a Yukon gold project named Alotta, located near Western Copper and Gold’s renowned Casino deposit, and the La Estrella coal project in Colombia, a fully permitted asset poised for revenue generation (Forge holds a 40% interest and can acquire up to 60%).
Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine spoke with Forge Chief Executive Officer PJ Murphy and Chief Operating Officer Cole McClay in early December to learn more about the company’s goals and how Forge has positioned itself to build value and minimize dilution at the same time.
It is rare to see a junior resource company on the cusp of funding its own exploration. Can you tell us how this all came together?
Cole McClay (CM): We initially acquired the Alotta project after stepping away from our previous exploration efforts in Mexico. After evaluating
several prospects, Alotta stood out due to its strategic location just 40 kilometres from Western Copper and Gold's Casino deposit, within the same geological setting.
In November 2023, we negotiated an option agreement with Strategic Metals to acquire 60% of the project and commenced our maiden drill program. The property was previously undrilled, and our first hole revealed 211 metres of 0.46 grams per tonne gold near surface, which was very promising. Following that, we drilled two holes in late 2023 and another four between May and July 2024, all of which showed near-surface porphyrystyle mineralization.
While still in the exploratory phase, we're gaining a clearer understanding of the project's structure. Our next phase of drilling is planned for May 2025, once weather conditions in the Yukon are favourable.
As for the La Estrella coal project, it came to us through a colleague in Colombia. The project was already fully licensed, with production and environmental permits in place, which made it an attractive opportunity. We negotiated an option to acquire and have since obtained the surface rights and conducted additional drilling to update the
“ Forge has consistently set clear goals and benchmarks, and we have delivered on what we’ve promised every step of the way. Murphy
43-101 report. Currently, we're conducting underground bulk sampling to further refine our understanding of the resource.
It sounds like you’ve got a busy year ahead in 2025. PJ, could you share the strategic focus for the company over the next three to six months?
PJ Murphy (PJM): Right now, our primary focus is on Colombia. Cole, a few team members and I just returned from overseeing construction of the portal and the start of underground operations at the La Estrella property. It’s an exciting stage for Forge.
To get into production at La Estrella, initially we don’t have to go very deep, only about 50 metres underground to reach our first cross-cut, which allows access to six of the eight large coal seams. We’re moving forward with a bulk sampling program, and we have an offtake partner for that coal.
The bulk sample alone is expected to be revenue-generating, which is a crucial step toward full production. The property is fully permitted for 180,000 tonnes of coal production annually with the potential to scale up to 360,000 tonnes per year. According to a historical SRK Consulting NI 43-101, we are sitting on an estimated 22.5 million tonnes of coal – measured, indicated and inferred – in the ground and a mine life of about 45 years. The project has significant potential.
For now, our focus is on advancing the Colombia asset to a revenue-generating
stage, which would help us to self-finance our exploration work in the Yukon. For a junior mining company, reaching a point of profitability and positive cash flow is rare. It’s even more uncommon to be able to self-fund exploration, but that’s exactly what we’re aiming to do with the Yukon project.
Speaking of the Yukon, we’ve already drilled six holes there and hit mineralization in every one. As Cole mentioned, we’ve identified where the next drill holes should go for the upcoming season. If La Estrella is revenue-generating as anticipated, we’ll be well positioned to fund a more extensive drill program and further define the resource.
We’ve reviewed the initial six drill results and the property’s geological signature. With that information, we can strategically target shallow drill holes to maximize value and further prove the Yukon asset’s potential. Though it might seem unconventional to have both a gold-copper project in the Yukon and a coal project in Colombia, there’s real synergy between the two.
Profitability is a term we don’t often hear in the junior mining space. Could you walk us through Forge’s path to profitability?
PJM: Our immediate focus is on developing the underground infrastructure for a bulk sampling program. Initially, we estimate that we can extract 20,000 tonnes of high-grade
PJ Murphy Chief Executive Officer
Cole McClay Chief Operating Officer
Listing Date
July 18, 2018 Website
coal for sampling and analysis. The key here is that we can also sell the coal we extract for analysis purposes. We already have an offtake partner lined up, ready to take that coal Free on Truck. This bulk sampling program is a significant step toward generating revenue and moving closer to profitability.
There’s talk of the world moving away from coal, but demand, particularly from Asia, India and Europe, tells a different story. Could you explain where the demand is coming from and why Colombia is positioned to help meet it?
CM: The demand for both thermal and metallurgical coal has never been higher, and I think global demand will remain strong for decades.
As long as the world needs concrete and steel, metallurgical coal will be essential. Similarly, thermal coal will continue to be required as long as countries build coal-powered electricity plants. What’s particularly advantageous about this project is that we have access to both high-grade thermal coal and metallurgical coal at depth, positioning us to meet a wide range of global demand.
PJM: Globally, coal demand remains strong, especially in Southeast Asia, where up to 43% of electricity is coal-derived. Despite this, rolling brownouts and blackouts persist due to insufficient power generation, highlighting the ongoing need for coal.
Colombia, with coal as its top resource export, provides a favourable regulatory environment and access to world-class coal miners and engineers. At La Estrella, we’re progressing toward our bulk sampling phase, where we
anticipate extracting coal at a total cost that we expect will help us to maintain favourable margins. We’re noting that metallurgical coal currently commands a strong spot price, and assuming that remains the case, it gives us reason to be optimistic.
Moving to Canada, there seem to be similarities between the Alotta property and the Casino deposit. Can you talk about these and how that might be shaping your next steps?
PJM: The Alotta property shows striking similarities to the Casino deposit, which is incredibly encouraging. We’re just 40 kilometres away and based on what we’ve staked and the geological signature at Alotta, we’re very encouraged. The initial results from our first six drill holes have been very promising and are driving us to move forward with more extensive exploration to truly prove out the asset.
Finally, what makes Forge a unique proposition at this stage?
PJM: When you look at Forge Resources as a small-cap junior mining company, we are on a unique path moving toward potential revenue generation through a bulk sample program, progressing to full production, and potentially self-financing our drilling exploration in the Yukon. This combination is incredibly rare.
Forge has consistently set clear goals and benchmarks, and we have delivered on what we’ve promised every step of the way. This track record not only cements our credibility but also sets us apart in the industry. It’s an exciting journey for both us and our shareholders, and we are committed to continuing to deliver value.
Angela Harmantas is a senior financial journalist with Proactive. She has 10 years’ experience covering the equity markets in North America, with a particular focus on junior resource stocks. Angela has reported from multiple countries, including Canada, the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Ghana and South Africa. Prior to joining Proactive, she worked in investor relations and led the foreign direct investment program in Canada for the Swedish government. Angela currently resides in Toronto.
Ares Strategic Mining
Uniquely positioned with the only U.S. mine permitted to produce the critical mineral fluorspar
By Angela Harmantas
Most people have never heard of a mineral called fluorspar, but they’ve most definitely benefited from it. We all have, in fact, as some of the electronic devices so ubiquitous in our daily lives would not exist in their current forms without it.
Fluorspar is an important commercial source for a chemical element called fluorine, the lightest of the halogens and thus in a league of its own for a variety of industrial applications. Fluorspar is also found in things such as cement and steel, not to mention camera lenses and other optical products. It is classified as a critical mineral in the United States.
James Walker understands that part of his role as Chief Executive Officer of Ares Strategic Mining (CSE:ARS; OTCQX:ARSMF) is to educate the public about the case for fluorspar, especially as Ares is currently the only U.S.-based fluorspar company with a permitted mine.
“It’s no surprise if you haven’t heard of fluorspar – honestly, most people haven’t,” Walker says candidly during a mid-November interview with Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.
The U.S. once had a thriving fluorspar sector, but this was years ago before China grew its presence and flooded the market with cheap product. As a result, the U.S. fluorspar industry has been virtually nonexistent for decades.
That could change if Ares is successful in producing fluorspar from its Lost Sheep Mine in Utah.
The company went on a search some years ago for projects that it could bring into production quickly, required modest capital spending and contained something for which there was clear customer demand. Fluorspar wasn’t on Walker’s radar at first, but one day his team came across artisanal miners in Utah who were digging it out of the ground, bagging it and selling it directly to steel mills. Walker was intrigued, to say the least.
Lost Sheep was a lucky find, according to the CEO. “One of the geologists I was working with at the time had experience with fluorspar, having worked on Europe’s largest fluorspar mine. When he brought it to my attention, my first reaction was the same as most people’s: What’s fluorspar? But from there, everything started to fall into place.”
With a relatively low capital outlay, Ares seized the chance to build a modern, efficient industrial process to produce significant amounts of fluorspar domestically. The team viewed Lost Sheep as an opportunity to revive the U.S. fluorspar industry and claim significant market share. “With this fluorspar project, the material coming out of the ground was already about 50% of the final product, so the processing required was minimal,” Walker explains.
Ares inherited Lost Sheep’s permits with the purchase of the mine. Even more compelling was that the Lost Sheep Mine was part of a much larger fluorspar anomaly, stretching around 16
kilometres along an area in Utah called Spor Mountain. Fluorspar was everywhere, with showings breaking through to the surface and pipes in multiple locations. “It was fascinating,” says Walker.
Lost Sheep had never been professionally developed so Ares started by conducting geophysics, including LiDAR and electromagnetic surveys, to pinpoint where the anomalies were. From there, the Ares team began drilling, collected samples and conducted metallurgical testing.
Ares also engaged international partners to design the infrastructure for processing the fluorspar. With their help, the company designed plant layouts and, thanks to fluorspar’s critical mineral status, secured federal support in the form of a United States Department of Agriculture loan. This enabled Ares to purchase a 50-acre industrial site with existing infrastructure, including buildings that could be used for a processing plant.
A three-storey lumps plant is already on site, and Ares is now working to construct a flotation plant with support from the state of Utah. The facility is designed to produce higher-grade fluorspar for chemical manufacturers and defence contractors. There is critical infrastructure, including a rail spur for efficient transportation of the fluorspar, heavy mining equipment and an advanced ramp system to access the ore bodies.
Geologically, Lost Sheep is a pipe system that consists of non-contiguous pipes clustered together. This structure allows Ares to install a ramp system – a
“
If we have our plant up and running, we’ll be able to serve about two-thirds of the U.S. fluorspar market.
Walker
corkscrew-like framework – that intersects multiple ore bodies. Based on this setup, Ares reports that it should be able to extract around 130,000 tons to 140,000 tons of earth annually, which could translate into around 50,000 tons of final product per year for sale.
“When we first ran our estimates, we based them on a high-grade flotation product priced at about $500 per ton, which would result in roughly US$30 million in annual revenue,” Walker says. “However, given the upward trend in fluorspar prices, those numbers could be higher.”
Another advantage is relatively low operating expenses. Unlike many mining operations, Lost Sheep doesn’t require a large workforce.
Ares has agreements lined up with end users of fluorspar and has been forging partnerships with entities such as the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy, which are actively seeking domestic supply sources.
For example, the U.S. produces around 80 million tons of steel annually, requiring about 20 pounds of fluorspar per ton. And with aluminum production using about 60 pounds of fluorspar per ton, these two industries alone create a significant domestic requirement.
That growing demand isn’t limited to traditional industries like steel and aluminum, however. The rise of lithium-ion batteries is set to become a major driver of fluorspar consumption, reshaping the market's dynamics.
And this brings us to acid-grade fluorspar, or acid spar, which undergoes additional chemical refining to achieve a purity level of 97% calcium fluoride
(CaF2). Currently, there is no operation in the U.S. producing acid spar, marking a substantial opportunity for producers.
“If we have our plant up and running, we’ll be able to serve about two-thirds of the U.S. fluorspar market,” Walker explains. “By producing acid spar, we can cater to a much larger portion of the U.S. fluorspar market and meet the needs of these key industries.”
International demand for fluorspar is increasing too, as China’s fluorspar reserve has suffered due to excessive mining. The Chinese government tightened its control over the material, leading to a decline in fluorspar exports. Official customs data reveals a steady drop in China's fluorspar exports over the years, accompanied by a surge in imports, particularly in 2023. Now that China is facing these challenges, the pressure they once placed on the market is gone. This creates an opportunity for other countries to step in.
These factors mean it is a good time to be transitioning from exploration to production. But shifting from a junior mining company to a manufacturing company brings challenges from both operational and financial standpoints.
Walker is counting on his experience in nuclear engineering and project management to lead the company into its next phase. In the past, the Ares CEO has helped to build large manufacturing facilities such as for reactor cores for submarines – billion-dollar projects that required hundreds of personnel.
“I have had extensive exposure to largescale project management, cost control and the implementation of manufacturing and processing operations, which has been invaluable in how I approach managing new manufacturing operations at Ares, overseeing processing and organizing the team,” Walker says.
Fluorspar demand is expected to grow by 2.76% annually over the next five years, according to Mordor Intelligence. Given this outlook, Walker sees a lot of potential. In five years, the CEO is looking beyond the Utah operation toward untapped potential across the entire continent.
“There used to be a thriving fluorspar industry in the U.S. before it moved overseas, and effectively, we’re working to bring it back.”
James Walker Chief Executive Officer Company
Symbol ARS Listing Date October 22, 2021 Website aresmining.com
Angela Harmantas is a senior financial journalist with Proactive. She has 10 years’ experience covering the equity markets in North America, with a particular focus on junior resource stocks. Angela has reported from multiple countries, including Canada, the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Ghana and South Africa. Prior to joining Proactive, she worked in investor relations and led the foreign direct investment program in Canada for the Swedish government. Angela currently resides in Toronto.
Forte Minerals
Patience pays off with a portfolio of assets in one of the world’s premier mining jurisdictions
By Emily Jarvie
Forte Minerals (CSE:CUAU; OTCQB:FOMNF) is walking an exciting path in copper-gold exploration with a focus on prolific mineralized districts in Peru, a country known for rich deposits that attract exploration and mining companies from around the world.
The company was formed through the spinout of gold and copper-molybdenum assets originally worked on by Globetrotters Resource Group, which put in over a decade of strategic groundwork to piece together a prospective resource pipeline for major and mid-tier producers.
In a recent interview with Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine, Forte Chief Executive Officer Patrick Elliott discussed the company’s strategy, key projects and exploration plans for 2025. How does Forte approach identifying, and then prioritizing, projects for exploration and development?
Our strategy is to develop pipeline projects for major and mid-tier producers. We have about 16 years of generative effort that was the treadmill for building this portfolio through Globetrotters Resource. And interest is building. The majors and mid-tier producers are starving for a pipeline of future development projects. They’re starting to look earlier in exploration.
Our projects were acquired through strategic staking opportunities where we were very patient over the years. They were targeted, they were prioritized and they were well-known.
We often have to wait a full mining cycle to make these acquisitions at low cost or no cost. A big part of our strategy is to pick
up these assets for nothing and create a tremendous amount of value by driving them through surface exploration, geophysics, drill permitting, drilling and, subsequently, resource definition and sale.
What are the highlights of Forte's project portfolio and what makes them stand out?
We picked the top four properties held by Globetrotters Resource and spun them out into Forte. Three-quarters of our projects are drill-permitted with a Declaración de Impacto Ambiental
(DIA) drill permit from Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines.
Of these four, two are high-sulphidation gold projects that were sought after by other mining companies, exploration companies and majors. Our flagship project is the Alto Ruri project. It was discovered in 1997 with an exceptional first drill hole of 131 metres of 2.55 grams per ton of gold from the surface and the top 55 metres ran 5.4 grams per ton. This is unique in that the rest of the deposit hasn’t been properly drill tested. It was a project that got shelved. We staked this in 2013 when a major
“
We love Peru and the potential there. It’s underexplored. It had a late start compared to Chile and some of the other countries in the Americas and you can still find occurrences at surface. It’s a good address to be in. Elliott
company dropped it in competition with another major and just recently were able to secure 100% interest.
Our other two projects are porphyry copper projects. These two projects were 10 to 12 years in the making to take them from staking to advanced drill targets. Porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits in southern Peru are some of the largest on the planet. Cerro Verde, run by Freeport-McMoRan, is the fifth largest copper mine in the world and there are several others along that southern copper belt that have given Peru its notoriety for copper production.
What else makes Peru such an attractive location for Forte's copper and gold exploration projects?
Peru is the number two producer of copper. There are many occurrences of potassic and phyllic alteration that make up these porphyry coppermolybdenum anomalies that are so highly sought after by copper explorers and copper producers.
We’re also seeing major gold companies look for porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum anomalies and deposits for acquisition these days because of their long mine life and positive economics. They have the ability to not only thrive in good metals markets but also survive a downturn. We’re typically talking 40 to 50 years of mine life for these billion-plus ton deposits.
We love Peru and the potential there. It’s underexplored. It had a late start compared to Chile and some of the other countries in the Americas and you can still find occurrences at surface. It’s a good address to be in.
How does your recent acquisition of the Miscanthus project from Sumitomo Metal Mining fit into Forte's long-term strategy for creating value?
We were lucky to have this fall into our project generator portfolio. Sumitomo Metal Mining spent five years advancing Miscanthus by developing drill targets, surface geology mapping, soil sampling, rock sampling, IP geophysics and other work. They developed some tremendous high-sulphidation targets up higher in the system and overprinted two large, coherent
telescope porphyry anomalies. And they had a community agreement in place.
This was the most favourable out of the group of projects Globetrotters Resource acquired from Sumitomo Metal Mining and we subsequently spun it out into Forte. It is highly derisked geologically but also in terms of permitting. It is a fully drill-permitted project which adds a lot of value because this process is fairly comprehensive and lengthy. Historically, it can take two to three years to acquire these DIA drill permits in Peru. So, it was fortunate for us that we were able to acquire this project at a very low cost and it can be drilled in 2025.
What are your exploration plans for 2025?
We look forward to drilling our three permitted projects in the next 12 to 18 months. We’ll start with our gold project Pucarini in March. We look to make a subsurface discovery. We anticipate it going down at least 300 metres, judging by resistivity and chargeability anomalies that complement a 2 kilometre by half-kilometre soil geochemistry gold anomaly on surface.
We are excited to get in there and drill the first four holes to test that system. Then we will move on to one of our porphyry copper projects, either Esperanza or Miscanthus.
With demand for copper and gold increasing, how is Forte preparing to take advantage of these trends?
We recognize that copper is a critical metal of the future. That has been well
Patrick Elliott Chief Executive Officer Company
Forte
Minerals
CSE Symbol
CUAU
Listing Date
January 21, 2022
Website forteminerals.com
forecasted. There haven’t been enough large porphyries found in the last two decades. Looking to future demand, we should benefit from a high price of copper for a long period of time.
Timing is everything. You work for a decade or a decade and a half throughout the entire mining cycle to acquire these high-profile copper and gold projects. We’re at the forefront of what we see as a very long base metal and precious metal cycle driven by copper. We’re well positioned with porphyry copper and high-sulphidation gold assets that we are now moving forward into drilling and resource expansion.
Emily Jarvie began her career as a political journalist in Australia. After she relocated to Canada, she worked as a psychedelics journalist, reporting on business, legal and scientific developments before joining Proactive in 2022. Emily has worked as a reporter in Australia, Europe and Canada.
Emily Jarvie began her career as a political journalist in Australia. After she relocated to Canada, she worked as a psychedelics journalist, reporting on business, legal and scientific developments before joining Proactive in 2022. Emily has worked as a reporter in Australia, Europe and Canada. About the Author
PTX Metals
A project portfolio encompassing several popular metals allows for multiple paths to value creation
By William Farrington
Mining exploration companies are back in favour, and multiple metals are sharing the spotlight this time around, including copper, gold and uranium, with nickel retaining a fanbase as well after enjoying a blockbuster year in 2022.
PTX Metals (CSE:PTX; OTCQB: PANXF) offers its shareholders exposure to all of these metals, plus the ever-popular platinum and palladium, with a portfolio of projects in Eastern Canada, one of the world’s top mining jurisdictions. Ongoing exploration work plus plans to monetize some of its assets through sale or spin-off are helping PTX shares trade at some of their highest daily volumes in years.
PTX’s flagship is W2, a large-scale, near-surface copper-nickel-PGE project located in Northern Ontario’s famed Ring of Fire region. At 22,763 hectares, W2 is a large property where extensive exploration work was
previously carried out by the likes of Inco and Aurora Platinum, data from which is now in PTX’s possession.
PTX has begun its own work on the project as well, announcing completion of the first phase of its initial drill program in June, assays from which include 88.76 metres of 0.47% copper equivalent (CuEq) starting at just 54.24 metres depth.
A National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on W2 dated this past September used a 3D grade shell model based on historic and recent drill results to indicate a near-surface exploration target of between 59 million and 135 million tonnes averaging between 0.78% and 1.03% CuEq, conceptually containing some 610,000 tonnes to 1,052,000 tonnes CuEq (using CuEq grades above 0.7% and 0.5%, respectively).
These are estimated target sizes only, and there is as of yet no assessment regarding rates of mineral
recovery. The point is that the combined exploration work by PTX and previous operators points to the potential for a very meaningful deposit, which PTX is eager to build up over time through exploratory drilling.
“Having the data is a real advantage,” says PTX President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Ferron. “There have been 100 drill holes, which is only 20,000 metres, but it gives us data to look at.”
The model PTX put together includes five zones with a combined strike length of 7 kilometres. Targets are near the surface, defined in this case as fewer than 150 metres, but open at depth.
PTX’s ambition is “to grow the resource and improve its confidence and quality,” according to Ferron. Ultimately, PTX would seek a buyer amongst the large mining companies capable of taking the project into production.
Ferron believes that now is a good time to be a natural resources explorer in Ontario. With geopolitical uncertainty and supply chain disruptions a clear challenge for nations around the world, the Ontario government is pushing to develop domestic resources so that Canada can lessen its reliance on outside sources.
Southern Ontario houses the world-class Sudbury copper and nickel camp, but Ferron points out that “these assets get depleted over time, so they’re looking for new camps to secure the next 50 to 100 years of copper and nickel for Ontario.”
Ferron further explains that there is a real push to build infrastructure in the area, which local First Nations support because the region is fairly remote.
“You don’t necessarily have the power and roads and hospitals like you do at Thunder Bay, Timmins, Sudbury and other mining camps,” Ferron says. “At one point, those cities had no infrastructure at all. It was the mines that made the cities economic and put in the infrastructure. The same thing is happening here.”
PTX has other attractive assets in its portfolio as well, adding uranium and gold to the list of popular metals with the potential to bring value for shareholders.
On the gold front, PTX owns a 75% interest in the South Timmins Gold Joint Venture, with Fancamp Exploration holding the remaining 25%.
Greg Ferron President and Chief Executive Officer Company
PTX Metals
CSE Symbol
PTX
Listing Date
March 20, 2017
Website ptxmetals.com
The project spans 28,542 hectares in the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt, known for its world-class gold deposits, and includes historic mines and new discoveries.
In uranium, PTX has a 50% equity interest in Green Canada, which manages a portfolio of uranium projects in renowned Canadian uranium jurisdictions, including the Athabasca and Thelon Basins.
“I think we can create value for our shareholders by divesting and selling these two non-core assets,” explains Ferron, calling the divestments part of management’s “twopronged” strategy.
“The market prefers you focus on a single asset because that's what they want you to finance and value. So, our current goal is to divest our gold and uranium
“ Our current goal is to divest our gold and uranium portfolio and create a new vehicle that can unlock significant value for PTX shareholders.
Ferron
portfolio and create a new vehicle that can unlock significant value for PTX shareholders. As an example, we could
merge our uranium portfolio with another uranium company, becoming shareholders in that venture.”
PTX is not committing to a time frame for such a transaction, with Ferron insisting it will “fall into place” when the time is right.
In the meantime, PTX is reinforcing both its technical team and balance sheet.
On the personnel side, Dave Bell was recently welcomed as a technical advisor, bringing 25 years of experience in community engagement, government relations and environmental permitting to the company.
Earlier this year, PTX added corporate and legal expert Frederico Marques to its board as an independent director. And in November, Ryan Weston, James Mungall and Wes Roberts joined
the team, bringing several decades of experience in mining exploration and engineering.
PTX completed a four-to-one share consolidation in September of this year, making its corporate structure more attractive to prospective shareholders.
And with funding on the cusp of being put to bed as well, PTX’s mission is clear. “We'll be drilling our W2 project and growing the resource because that's what the market wants to see,” says Ferron.
“The market knows that W2 is a unique asset, so the more work we do to de-risk and create value, that's the big catalyst that can attract institutional and corporate interest. And the other big development will be creating shareholder value through the divestment of non-core assets.”
William Farrington reported for a fintech company with a focus on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology prior to joining Proactive, where he now covers financial markets from a variety of perspectives. He has also covered election results for Sky News and written for a legal publication. William is originally from Queensland, Australia.
Kuya Silver
The right blend of production and exploration brings a Peruvian mine back
to life
By Oliver Haill
W hen the founders of Kuya Silver (CSE:KUYA; OTCQB:KUYAF) first came across the Bethania Mine in the Peruvian Andes, the idle site brought to mind assets that some of the world’s top silver companies had put into production when they were small and growing.
One of those founders, now Kuya President and Chief Executive Officer David Stein, saw the potential right away, drawing on nine years of experience as a Bay Street mining analyst and seven years in private equity.
Knowledge of what investors want to see in a successful company gave Stein the confidence to make the acquisition of Bethania in 2017 and build assets around the flagship project to achieve an attractive corporate profile.
Bethania was on care and maintenance when Stein and Christian Aramayo, Kuya Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, first encountered it. At the time, the mine was owned by a Peruvian family and had just two shareholders.
“What I liked about Bethania was that it really reminded me of the early days of
some of the big silver mining companies, like First Majestic, which started in Mexico with a single mine,” says Stein, who recalls being the first analyst to cover First Majestic in the early 2000s.
“So, I knew what kind of business model and value could be created with a high-grade silver mine like this. And you had all the hallmarks of a great mine, including good grades, which mean your costs are going to be low, and tremendous exploration potential. The previous owners did not do any real exploration – they were just following veins that are very obviously open.”
Stein and Aramayo sensed that modern exploration techniques had a high chance of proving up a significant deposit at the property and that the exploration could take place in tandem with production.
“In my view, the best junior mining companies give the market two things: production growth and resource growth, at the same time ideally,” says Stein. “Those are the companies that will outperform their peers, and I felt like Bethania had the opportunity to do that by starting up
production and then growing it incrementally, with exploration potentially offering huge resource upside.”
A lot of the needed infrastructure was already in place. And Peru, of course, is a country where many of the world’s top mining companies run successful operations.
Following an initial investment and earnin deal as a private company, funded mainly by Stein, Kuya went public and raised enough money to buy all of the shares of Bethania’s Peruvian owners at the end of 2020, giving Kuya 100% ownership.
The company added to its local land position soon after, with the project eventually reaching a total of 4,300 hectares. The mine itself sits on about 15 hectares, says Stein. “It's only a tiny portion of this huge land package that has not been explored by drilling.”
Under Kuya’s control, Bethania has transitioned from sitting dormant to once again being in production, with operations restarted in May of 2024 and the first sale of silver-lead concentrate completed in October.
While Kuya is leveraging a toll milling model to process its ore, it has all the permits it needs to establish its own mill. A
company-owned mill will likely have to wait until 2027, though, as Kuya first intends to build up its production rate and operating cash flow.
As an initial target, Stein and Aramayo aim to increase throughput to 350 tonnes per day.
Stein expects that current all-in sustaining costs will be around US$15 per ounce factoring in the cost for toll milling. This is higher than the sub-$10 estimate in Bethania’s preliminary economic assessment (PEA), but with silver prices north of $30, there’s plenty of headroom.
“When we hit our target run rate, you're looking at 1.5 million ounces of silver production per year and some pretty meaningful cash flow,” says Stein. “It’s looking in the order of almost US$2 million a month at current silver prices.”
Plans call for allocating cash flow from mining sales to growing the deposit via exploration.
In addition to the 4,000-plus hectare site in the Andes, Kuya has also been building a potential district-size asset in Northern Ontario, which it calls the Silver Kings Project.
David Stein President and Chief Executive Officer
Kuya Silver CSE Symbol KUYA
Listing date March 27, 2017
Website kuyasilver.com
“ When we hit our target run rate, you're looking at 1.5 million ounces of silver production per year and some pretty meaningful cash flow. Stein
Here, the company has 13,000 hectares located in one of Ontario’s most prolific silver mining camps, near the historic mining town of Cobalt.
“My experience when I was an analyst was that the market is always looking for growth,” says Stein. “And if you don't have it now, you have to buy it later and usually pay more for it. Silver Kings is an attractive risk-return for us in that sense.”
Exploration remains central to Kuya’s growth story with so little of Bethania explored to date, and Silver Kings being an earlier stage project.
While the market is not attributing significant value to the Ontario asset yet, the team made the acquisition and has consolidated more land because they see high-grade silver potential.
Geologically, Silver Kings is very different from Bethania, right down to the by-products, which in Ontario would include cobalt.
The district has seen little to no silver exploration for over 40 years, but Kuya’s geologists have identified dozens of targets.
And because it is in Canada, Kuya can minimize dilution by taking advantage of flow-through financing to fund exploration.
“I feel like it's always a good idea to line up a company’s next growth opportunity,” says Stein.
“As we grow in Peru with Bethania for the next five years, people will start to wonder what's next, and the nice thing is we already have the next thing potentially with the Ontario project.”
As for growing Bethania, the initial focus is enlarging the resource. There has only ever been drilling to a depth of about
200 metres from surface, and veins are open both at depth and along strike.
Exploration drilling will initially focus on three nearby zones with historical mining activity.
“We feel these have the potential to add significant tonnage in the future,” the CEO says, adding that Kuya could conduct US$20 million to US$30 million in exploration in the district over the next several years “and really show that there's a much bigger project there.”
If current plans come to fruition, there should be enough money in the bank to start exploration in the second quarter of 2025.
“Once we start, the drills will never stop. We'll keep drilling and exploring these various targets for many years to come,” explains Stein.
And building a mill in a few years would lower costs and risk, improve recoveries and allow expansion beyond 350 tonnes per day.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices will also be incorporated in Bethania’s expansion.
As an underground mine, Stein says Bethania’s environmental footprint is relatively small, while the mill has been designed to recycle water and comes with plans to connect to Peru’s hydroelectric grid for clean energy.
On the social side, Kuya maintains strong ties with the local community, providing jobs and sharing economic benefits. “The community has been very supportive,” Stein notes.
With silver prices showing upward momentum, rising from US$23 per ounce at the start of 2024 to around US$30 lately, Kuya could benefit from market dynamics as well as its own actions.
“If silver prices rise to $50 or $60, the upside is enormous,” Stein concludes.
Oliver Haill has been writing about companies and markets since the early 2000s, beginning as a financial journalist at Growth Company Investor and later becoming its section editor and head of research. Before joining Proactive, he worked as a freelance reporter contributing to the Financial Times Group, ITV, Press Association, Reuters and several other high-profile publishers.
About the Author
Image credit: Shutterstock
Quebec Innovative Materials
Natural hydrogen is gaining traction, and this Canadian company is looking to get a head start
By Peter Murray
Electric vehicles have for years now been extremely popular with consumers who want to do their part to reduce CO2 emissions. Every major vehicle manufacturer is in the game to some extent, and companies such as Tesla and Rivian make nothing but vehicles that run on electricity.
But there is also a completely different energy source that can power vehicles in similarly clean fashion. Automotive heavyweights such as Toyota and Honda are pouring money into related research.
Establishing these new drivetrains as mainstream would represent somewhat of a holy grail on the clean technology front, in part because one of the ways to obtain this fuel is to let it flow out of the ground from a renewable source.
That fuel is hydrogen and it has caught the imagination of engineers
across the world because it burns without emitting CO2. This early in the game it is more costly on a per-kilometre basis than gasoline or electricity, but technologies tend to start that way, with costs coming down in line with technological progress and economies of scale.
One might wonder why we do not see a plethora of natural hydrogen exploration companies or producers listed on stock exchanges around the world. One reason might be that the science behind discovering natural hydrogen is still developing, and without an edge in that department, it’s difficult to get far.
Quebec Innovative Materials (CSE:QIMC; OTCQB:QIMCF) ticks the technology box plus others that observers may deem important when assessing a company in the sector.
Quebec Innovative Materials’ flagship property is Ville Marie, located
15 kilometres north of the Québec town bearing the same name and only hours by car from major northeast metropolitan areas.
In a little over five months since exploration began, the company has reported soil showings of hydrogen that indicate a source lies deep beneath the surface. The questions now are how much is there, how pure is it and can it be extracted in economically feasible volumes?
“We started Quebec Innovative Materials six years ago with a vision of clean, natural hydrogen, and that vision was from Professor LaFlèche and the team at INRS,” says Quebec Innovative Materials Chief Executive Officer John Karagiannidis, referring to the Québec government’s Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), and Professor Marc Richer-LaFlèche, Scientific Head of the institution’s Applied Geoscience Laboratory.
“Some years ago, a number of papers came out of Australia regarding natural hydrogen and related exploration techniques. Professor LaFlèche used the models and applied them in Canada, which led us to stake in the Ville Marie and Lac Saint-Jean areas.”
Hydrogen can be obtained both from natural sources and through industrial processes. In industry terminology, "white" or "natural" hydrogen refers to naturally occurring hydrogen, while "grey" and "green" hydrogen denote hydrogen produced through industrial methods.
The potential for a regenerative dynamic to come into play makes the discussion of defining the economics of a natural hydrogen project particularly interesting. Whereas oil and gas deposits take millions of years to form and then ultimately deplete as humans
tap them, natural hydrogen is generated continuously when water reacts with iron minerals deep underground.
“We don’t look at it as a resource,” says Karagiannidis. “We look at it in terms of flow. What is the renewal rate and what is the commercial flow out of the main conduits. You can’t look at it as a static system where you have a resource. You are not looking for a reservoir but rather for a renewal rate and what is the commercial flow.”
Given this explanation, resource investors would be right to think that Ville Marie resembles an oil and gas project as well as a mining project. And this is what led to the involvement of one of Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs in both the oil and gas and mining sectors: Sheldon Inwentash.
“
We are really at the forefront of a nascent natural hydrogen industry.
— Karagiannidis
Currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Toronto-based ThreeD Capital, Inwentash is not only adept at putting companies together but a famed portfolio manager, perhaps best known for his 22-plus years leading Pinetree Capital, which made investments in hundreds of junior mining companies.
In the early years of his career, Inwentash did a lot of work with oil and gas. “I have a background
in the oil and gas industry and especially building companies in the 1980s,” Inwentash explains. “And I was involved in the gas tight shale projects being explored in Québec about 15 years ago and realized how gas-rich the province is.”
It was the work by INRS that piqued Inwentash’s interest as well. “In reading the technical reports INRS had done, it occurred to me that geological hydrogen, which is a new phenomenon, is sort of at the intersection of how oil and gas is discovered, and how mining is affected in that same ecosystem. Because ostensibly the rocks create gases – it’s sort of like a live system. You almost have to have some knowledge of both of those disciplines.”
And as Karagiannidis explains, the capital market capabilities that ThreeD brought to the table were just as valuable. “On the capital markets side, we have Sheldon and Jakson Inwentash and the whole team at ThreeD, our largest shareholders and our initial funders when we launched our hydrogen projects.”
In its formative years, Quebec Innovative Materials worked on
a different set of projects containing silica, and these are still part of the portfolio. “We have press released that we are looking to proceed with bulk samples and we have buyers, so we are at the bulk sampling stage with the silica,” says Karagiannidis.
But hydrogen is the company’s main focus, with preparatory work at Ville Marie leading toward the commencement of hydrogen exploration this past summer, starting with a hydrogen soil-gas sampling program carried out by INRS.
The first two hydrogen anomalies announced were each observed over a length of 500 metres, with concentrations in the first zone ranging from 311 ppm to 388 ppm (parts per million), and 157 ppm to 346 ppm in the second.
Soon after, the company said it had extended a line of significant anomalous natural hydrogen soil gas findings to 9 kilometres. A subsequent announcement revealed that hydrogen soil samples with concentrations exceeding 1,000 ppm had been collected. "We are thrilled to announce this transformative discovery outlining a highly charged 70 square kilometre hydrogen area within our 250 square kilometre Ville Marie property," Karagiannidis stated at the time.
Most recently, Quebec Innovative Materials announced the launch of winter monitoring to measure natural hydrogen gas flow rates in identified hot zones in the project’s St-Bruno-deGuigues region.
John Karagiannidis Chief Executive Officer
Company
Quebec Innovative Materials
CSE Symbol
QIMC
Listing Date
April 22, 2021
Website qimaterials.com
“It is a two-stage approach,” says Karagiannidis. “We are focusing on geophysics from a terrestrial perspective, going from east to west to specifically identify the primary conduits underground. We are also starting our specific hydrogen sampling but this time on the lake itself, so we are going to drill through the ice and put in a proprietary gas-measuring probe to measure at different levels.”
It is painstaking work but moving along smoothly, and all designed to set the team up for a significant drill program come summer. It is also aimed at further establishing Quebec Innovative Materials as a leader in hydrogen exploration. Karagiannidis concludes, “We are really at the forefront of a nascent natural hydrogen industry.”
Peter Murray oversees a national editorial and broadcasting team as President of Proactive Canada. He spent several years managing the English news desk at Nikkei’s head office in Tokyo and has worked with research teams at Asian and European investment banks. Peter is based in Vancouver.
CSE Listed Companies at VRIC 2025
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Learn more about and where to find the CSE listed mining and exploration companies exhibiting at this year’s Vancouver Resource Investment Conference
55 North Mining
CSE:FFF
Listed on April 20, 2021
55 North Mining is a gold exploration and development company advancing its 100% owned high grade Last Hope Gold Project in Manitoba, which hosts a National Instrument 43-101 compliant Indicated Resource of 154,060 tonnes grading 6.75 g/t Au for 33,458 gold ounces and an Inferred Resource of 872,977 tonnes grading 5.91 g/t Au for 165,812 gold ounces.
Emperor Metals is a gold exploration and development company focused on proving and developing the substantial resource potential of the Duquesne West Gold project, located in the prolific Timmins, Kirkland Lake and Rouyn-Noranda districts in Québec.
Golden Cariboo Resources is an exploration stage junior mining company that is engaged in the identification, acquisition and exploration of mineral properties. The company’s primary focus is the exploration and development of its Quesnelle Gold Quartz Mine Property located near Hixon in the Cariboo Mining Division of British Columbia.
Headwater Gold is a technically-driven junior mineral exploration company focused on exploring for high-grade precious metal deposits in the Western U.S. The company is actively exploring one of the most well-endowed and mining-friendly jurisdictions in the world with a goal of making world-class precious metal discoveries.
Inflection Resources is focused on the exploration and discovery of gold and copper deposits in Eastern Australia. The company has a large portfolio of exploration licences and applications in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, totalling in excess of 600,000 hectares.
Prismo Metals is a growth-stage exploration company led by a team of experienced mining professionals with a track record of successful discoveries. The team is focused on creating shareholder value by acquiring, exploring and developing precious and base metal projects in Mexico and the U.S.
Prospect Ridge Resources is a mineral exploration company engaged in the identification, acquisition and exploration of mineral projects in North America. The company plans to continue exploring new high grade mineralized zones while continuing to explore other areas.
Red Canyon Resources is a mineral resource company principally engaged in the acquisition and exploration of mineral resource properties. Its objective is to locate and develop copper and associated precious metals, focusing initially on the exploration and development of its principal project, the Peak Property, located in British Columbia.
Western Uranium & Vanadium engages in exploring, developing, mining and production of uranium and vanadium resource properties in the United States. The company resulted from a transaction between Homeland Uranium Inc. and Pinon Ridge Mining LLC following the acquisition of Pinon Ridge Mining LLC.
Provenance Gold is a precious metals exploration company with a focus on gold and silver resources within North America. The company currently holds interests in the White Rock property situated in Elko County, Nevada; the Silver Bow property situated in Nye County, Nevada and the Eldorado property located in Eastern Oregon.
