Categories
Base Metals Junior Mining Precious Metals Uncategorized

Your Crystal Ball for 2023

No one, has a crystal ball when it comes to the future. But, we wanted to share how you may want to position ourself for the future.

#1 PURCHASE PHYISCAL PRECIOUS METALS

  • Why: As a Savings/Financial Insurance/Protection from Government Stupidity.
  • Where to Buy: Maurice Jackson: https://www.milesfranklin.com/faq-maurice/
  • Frequency: Every 2 Weeks.
  • Percentage of Portfolio: Minimum 10%, but we hold approximately 35% in our portfolio.
Economics in One Lesson, Proven and Probable

GREAT FOUNDATIONAL READINGS:

  • Methodology: Using the Ratio’s.
  • Dow:Gold Ratio is indicating that Gold is on sale relative to the Dow. When the ratio is between 4-5, it is more favorable to be in general equities and real estate. At present the ratio is 1 share of the Dow = 18 oz of Gold.
  • Looking further, Silver and Platinum are on sale relative to Gold.
  • Gold:Silver Ratio At present 1 oz of Gold = 76.5 oz of Silver. When the ratio is between 45-54 trade your Silver in for Gold. Note: Silver Eagles have demanded a significant premium the past 8 months. Which actually reduced the Gold:Silver Ratio inside the 45-54 range.
  • Platinum:Gold Ratio: At present .59 oz of Platinum is = 1 oz of Gold. When the ratio is equal to and or greater than 1, trade your Platinum in for Gold.
  • A great resource on the power of Ratio’s and when to buy and sell is: Bob Moriarty’s: Nobody Knows Anything (Must Read)!
Nobody Knows Anything, Proven and Probable

#2 ROYALTY AND PROJECT GENERATORS

  • Royalty and Project Generators use a unique business model relative to their mining industry peers.
  • Why: They tend to outperform mining exploration companies accretively (Highlighted Below):

ROYALTY COMPANIES: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/sp/how-precious-metals-royalty-and-streaming-companies-create-value

PROJECT GENERATORS: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/project-generators-exploration-risk-lower-cost/

#3 JUNIOR MINING/EXPLORATION COMPANIES

  • These companies are most speculative and offer tremendous upside and conversely a lot of downside. We are biased and are active buyers of our partner/advertisers found (Here). For a deeper dive into the mining/exploration industry: (Must Reads):
  • What Became of the Crow by Bob Moriarty
  • Mineral Exploration and Mining Essentials by Robert Stevens
Mineral Exploration and Mining, Proven and Probable

EXPLORATION COMPANIES: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/mineral-exploration-roadmap/

#4 HOLD YOURSELF ACCOUNTABLE

  • Commit your future to paper. Not having a plan, is a plan. A foolish one, but is a plan. If you don’t have a plan for your savings and investments someone else does. SCHEDULE YOUR PATH.
  • Be willing to study each of the aforementioned. Don’t believe the hype! Don’t get mislead by fancy thumbnails, price predictions, and narratives on manipulation. Is there manipulation? Yes, in every market! Don’t complain about manipulation, learn to leverage manipulation in your favor by realizing you are being offered a discounted price!
  • Be pragmatic, and be patient. Your competition is never patient. They want to price to rise on their schedule, which was yesterday. They will be your best friends, because they have have fast hands and love to sell at the wrong time. If the price goes down, and nothing fundamental has changed with management, the project/s, and or results, there is your buying opportunity!!!
  • Very few investors/speculators are in this space, you don’t have much competition. The best way to beat your competition in this space, is not to follow the herd. Remember, no one get’s it right all the time, you just need to be better than your competition.
Categories
Base Metals Breaking Energy Junior Mining Nevada Copper

Copper Is Heading For New Highs- A Bullish Trend In Nevada Copper (NEVDF)

  • Copper corrected from the May record high and made higher lows
  • Four reasons the copper bull will take the price to new highs
  • Impressive price action in the face of Chinese selling
  • Nevada Copper- Three reasons why NEVDF is could outperform percentage gains in the nonferrous metal
  • Bull markets rarely move in straight lines- The next leg for the copper bull has begun

When Goldman Sachs called copper “the new oil” in April 2021, the price was on its way to a new record high at nearly $4.90 on the nearby COMEX futures contract. The world’s most active and liquid copper market on the London Metals Exchange reached a peak at over $10,700 per ton in May. Copper blew through the 2011 $4.6495 previous all-time peak as a hot knife goes through butter.

Even the most aggressive bull markets rarely move in straight lines. Corrections can be brutal when prices accelerate on the upside, reaching unsustainable short-term peaks.

Copper ran out of upside steam before touching the $4.90 per pound level on futures and $10,750 per ton level on LME forwards. The price fell just below the $4 level in August, three months after reaching the high. Copper was still “the new oil” when the price dropped, and the world’s leading copper consumer was hoping it would continue to fall. China has done everything to push copper’s price lower, but the red metal has exhibited remarkable resilience.

Meanwhile, Nevada Copper Corporation (NEVDF) has been working day and night to ramp up production and transform its balance sheet. The market has rewarded the company as the share price has been steadily increasing since the beginning of October.

Mining companies provide investors with leveraged exposure to a commodity as they tend to outperform the price action on the upside and underperform during corrections. Junior mining companies can magnify the leverage. Copper’s recent explosive move suggests that new highs are on the horizon. NEVDF has the potential to do even better on a percentage basis as the company ramps up its production of the red industrial metal.  

Copper corrected from the May record high and made higher lows Copper futures ran out of steam at just below the $4.90 level, with the LME forwards moving the $10,747.50 per ton level for the first time. The May highs led to a substantial correction that briefly took COMEX futures below $4 per pound in August.

Source: CQG The chart shows the decline from $4.8985 in May to a low of $3.9615 in mid-August, a 19.1% correction. COMEX futures made higher lows of $4.0220, $4.0545, and $4.1140 in late September and early October before blasting off on the upside to over the $4.70 level as of October 15.

Source: Barchart

The chart illustrates the decline from $10,747.50 on May 10 to a low of $ 8,740 per ton on August 19 as copper forwards corrected by 18.7%. Copper then made higher lows at $8,810 on September 21 and $8,876.50 on October 1 before exploding higher to the $10,281 level on October 15.

Four reasons the copper bull will take the price to new highs

The four leading factors supporting a continuation of new and higher highs in the copper market are:

  • Rising inflation– CPI rose by 5.4% in September, once again exceeding expectations. While the Fed will likely begin tapering quantitative easing, tapering is not tightening. Moreover, fiscal stimulus continues as the multi-trillion budget will pump more inflationary stimulus into the economy.
  • Building demand– The infrastructure rebuilding package in the US will increase copper requirements for construction projects to rebuild the crumbling roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, and government buildings over the coming years. Moreover, China’s copper requirements will continue to increase as the world’s most populous country builds infrastructure.
  • Decarbonization– Addressing climate change boosts copper demand. As Goldman Sachs said in April, decarbonization does not occur without copper, making the metal “the new oil.” Copper requirements for EVs, wind turbines, and other clean energy projects is a multi-decade affair for the red metal.
  • Supply shortages– Copper mining companies are scrambling to find new supply sources. Production can’t keep pace with demand- It takes eight to ten years to bring new copper mining projects on stream. BHP, a leading global mining company, is in talks with Ivanhoe Mines for participation in the Western Foreland exploration area in the politically dicey Democratic Republic of the Congo.  

Bull markets tend to experience severe selloffs. China has attempted to cool off the bullish copper and other nonferrous metals markets. The world’s leading copper consumer has the most to lose from runaway prices on the upside.

Impressive price action in the face of Chinese selling

On September 1, China auctioned 150,000 tons of copper, aluminum, and zinc from strategic stockpiles, which was the third auction sale since early July, attempting to temper the market’s bullish price action. The market had expected the sales. Copper rallied to the highest level since early August on September 13, with many other base metals following the red metal higher. The price then retreated, but copper made a higher low on September 21. The Chinese auction to cool off the rally put 80,000 tons of copper, 210,00 tons of aluminum, and 130,000 tons of zinc into the market since early July. Since the day of the first auction, copper, aluminum, and zinc prices all posted gains. Imagine where prices might be if China did not sell from its strategic stocks.

In early October, China auctioned the fourth round of base metals, lifting the total sales to 570,000 metric tons. Copper and all the base metals posted explosive gains after the latest auction. China is selling copper, aluminum, and zinc from its strategic stockpiles. The attempt to stem price appreciation makes the Chinese a buyer of the metals on price weakness to replace its stocks. However, the auctions have not had the desired impact on price. The price action has been more than impressive in the face of the sales.

While BHP looks towards the DRC and other regions for new copper supplies, Nevada Copper is making significant headway on its production project in a highly stable political and economic environment in the United States. Moreover, Nevada is a state that continues to encourage mining activity and is rich in red metal reserves.

Nevada Copper- Three reasons why NEVDF has the potential to outperform percentage gains in the nonferrous metal

Nevada Copper (NEVDF) has made great strides over the past weeks and months. A successful junior mining company is positioned best to profit during a bull market in the commodity it extracts from the earth’s crust. Three factors support the price of NEVDF shares as copper has taken off on the upside again:

Factor one: Turing the corner on operations in Q3- On October 6, NEVDF provided an update on operational performance at the company’s underground mine at its Pumpkin Hollow project, noting:

  • Copper in concentrate produced during September increased by 265% compared to August, driven by higher stope production. Approximately 30,386 tons of ore processing yielded 682 tons of copper concentrate at an average grade of 22%, reflecting 150 tons of copper output.
  • Stoping is the process of extracting the desired ore or mineral from an underground mine, leaving open space called a stope. Stoping at Pumpkin Hollow significantly accelerated since mid-August, with the second and third stope panels fully mined and a fourth stope panel currently being mined. Further stopes are planned for October and November, and the high-grade Sugar Cube zone to be mined during the final months of 2021.
  • NEVDF experienced the highest monthly development footage achieved since April 2021 in September, with a 12% increase over August. Approximately 750 lateral equivalent feet were advanced in September.

Outgoing Interim CEO Mike Brown said, “I am very pleased to see the improved trajectory in our production ramp-up and a recovery in productivities. The increased ore production was a key objective for September, and together with the improving productivities on-site, along with the ongoing management strengthening, provide further confidence in the mine ramp-up.”

Randy Buffington, a veteran mining executive with previous management experience at Barrick, Placer Dome, and Cominco, is taking over as President and CEO at Nevada Copper.

Factor two: On October 12, NEVDF announced it had agreed with its senior project lender and concluded a non-binding term sheet with its largest shareholder to provide additional financing and a significant deferral and extension of its debt facilities. The move offers Nevada Copper greater balance sheet flexibility and support for the ramp-up of its underground mining operations and advancement of its open-pit project and broader property exploration targets. The highlights of the more flexible financing arrangement include:

  • Two-year deferral of first loan repayments scheduled to begin in July 2025.
  • Extension of loan amortization with the final maturity pushed to July 2029.
  • Deferral of the formal long stop date for the project as the completion test was deferred to June 2023.
  • All outstanding shareholder loans were consolidated under an amended existing shareholder credit facility.
  • A two-year extension to maturity data until 2026 with no scheduled payments before final maturity.
  • An increase of $41 million in additional liquidity under the amended credit facility.

Randy Buffington, NEVDF’s new CEO, said, “These combined balance sheet improvements provide significant additional runway for the Company as we move forward to complete the ramp-up of our underground operations. The ongoing support of two of our major stakeholders provides further validation of the significant inherent value of our copper operations in Nevada and allows us to continue to pursue the growth potential embedded within our asset base.”

Factor three: NEVDF’s value proposition is compelling when compared to peers. The chart shows NEVDF’s market cap versus its enterprise value compared to other diversified metals and mining companies with similar market caps:

Source: Seeking Alpha

As the chart highlights, the enterprise value is over 2.2 times the current $173.53 million market cap, leading to plenty of upside room for NEVDF shares. There is plenty of room for growth as the enterprise value will rise with output from the underground and open-pit mining operations over the coming months and years. According to data from Seeking Alpha, at 97 cents per share on October 15, NEVDF had a $173.53 million market cap. The average daily volume in the past 15 trading days from all exchanges stood at just over 2,500,000 shares.

Source: Barchart

The chart shows the rise from 38.78 cents on October 1 to a high of 99.2 cents per share on October 14. NEVDF shares closed not far from the high at 96.56 cents on Friday, October 15.

The trend in copper and NEVDF is bullish, and the trend is always your best friend in markets.

Bull markets rarely move in straight lines- The next leg for the copper bull has begun

Bull markets can be bucking broncos as corrections are often downdrafts in prices. Copper’s decline from nearly $4.90 to below $4 and recovery to over $4.70 on October 15 is a bullish sign for the red metal.

Copper’s strength, along with the other base metals in the face of Chinese stockpiling selling, has been more than impressive and is a testament to the bullish factors that are likely to push the price higher. Goldman Sachs expects LME copper forwards to reach the $15,000 per ton level by 2025, putting COMEX futures over $6.80 per pound. Other analysts see the price rising to as high as $20,000 per ton as decarbonization will keep demand outpacing supplies.

Bull markets often take prices far higher than analysts believe possible before they peak. As the world searches for more copper to meet the rising demand, Nevada Copper’s mines are in the most economically and politically stable region of the world. NEVDF shares may have just begun to rally as the price threatens to move over the $1 per share level.

Categories
Base Metals Blog Energy Junior Mining Top Bar

HOT CHILI | Releases Maiden Cortadera Resource Adds 451Mt grading 0.46%CuEq*


Mineral Resource


Corporate Presentation

 

Hot Chili Drilling

Building a copper super hub in Chile – ASX: HCH

Hot Chili is one of the top ASX listed copper developers with a Leading Global Copper Project with 2.9Mt copper, 2.7Moz gold, 9.9Moz Silver and 64kt molybdenum – Costa Fuego

Hot Chili Limited (ASX.: HCH) ACN 130 955 725
First Floor, 768 Canning Highway, Applecross, Western Australia 6153
PO Box 1725, Applecross, Western Australia 6953
P: +61 8 9315 9009 F: +61 8 9315 5004
www.hotchili.net.au

Categories
Base Metals Energy Exclusive Interviews Junior Mining Precious Metals Top Bar

Find Out Why Rio Tinto just entered into a $45,000,000 Earn-in Agreement with this Explorer

Calibre Mining (TSX: CXB | OTC: CXBMF)


Transcript

In this exclusive interview, Ryan King the VP for Corporate Development and Investor Relations for Calibre Mining shares the value proposition the company presents to the Market. Calibre Mining is a multi-asset gold producer focused on execution and building sustainable value for our shareholders, communities we operate in, and all stakeholders. The company has completed a series of successive accretive transactions for their shareholders which we will address throughout the interview.
First, we will discuss the $45 Million Dollar Earn-In Agreement with Rio Tinto on Calibre’s Borosi Projects which host both gold-silver and copper-gold resources in two areas as well as multiple lesser explored copper-gold skarns, low-sulphidation epithermal gold-silver vein systems and bulk tonnage copper-gold porphyry targets. Second, we will discuss B2Gold And Calibre Mining joininig forces in Nicaragua on the El Limon and La Libertad Gold Mines in addition to completed a CDN$100 Million Equity Financing. Finally, we discuss the expansive, ambitious 40,000 Metre diamond core drilling exploration program that Calibre will be embarking upon on the aforementioned El Limon and La Libertad gold mines. Discover why the value proposition of Calibre Mining is extremely compelling!


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Precious Metals Top Bar

Silver Canadian Maple Leaf Special


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Miles Franklin801 Twelve Oaks Center DriveSuite 834Wayzata, MN 553911-800-822-8080www.milesfranklin.com

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Junior Mining

Ethos Gold Corp. Announces Amended Terms & Increases Size of Flow-Through Financing to Raise $1.5 Million

Ethos Gold

(TSX.V: ECC | OTXQX: ETHOF)

*FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS ONLY*

Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – October 28, 2019) – Ethos Gold Corp. (TSXV:ECC) (“Ethos” or the “Company“) announces that it has revised the terms and size of the non-brokered private placement announced September 20, 2019. Ethos is now proceeding with a flow-through offering to raise gross proceeds of up to $1,512,000 by the issuance of up to 5,600,000 units (each a “FT Unit”) at a price of $0.27 per FT Unit (the “FT Offering”). Each FT Unit will comprise one flow-through common share (a “FT Share”) and one half of one non flow-through common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a “Warrant”). Each Warrant will be exercisable at a price of $0.30 into one common share for a period of two years from the date of issuance. The FT Shares will qualify as “flow-through shares” within the meaning of subsection 66(15) of the Income Tax Act (Canada).

For more details click below. If you are qualified and want to participate please reference Proven & Probable and contact the following:

Sherman Dahl

Tel. 250.558.3340

dahl.sherman@pretiumgroup.ca 

Tom Martin
Corporate Communications
Tel: 1-250-516-2455
Email: tmartin@ethosgold.com


Finance Details


Categories
Base Metals Energy Exclusive Interviews Junior Mining

NEVADA COPPER Company on Target to U.S. Copper Production by Q4 2019

Matt Gili the CEO, President, and Director of Nevada Copper (TSX: NCU | OTC: NEVDF) sits down with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable to discuss the value proposition of Nevada Copper, which is on target for U.S. production in Q4 2019. Mr. Gili, provides updates on the flagship Pumpkin Hollow Project, which hosts both an underground and open-pit deposits. We provide an overview on the supply an demand fundamentals on Copper, where a prudent speculator may position themselves to take advantage of the copper supply deficit.

VIDEO

AUDIO

TRANSCRIPT

Source: Maurice Jackson for Streetwise Reports  (3/18/19)

Maurice JacksonMatt Gili, CEO of Nevada Copper, talks with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable about his company’s progress in beginning copper production by the end of the year.

Pumpkin Hollow

Pumpkin Hollow
Maurice Jackson: Joining us for a conversation is Matt Gili, president, CEO and director of Nevada Copper Corp. (NCU:TSX), which is on target to U.S. copper production by Q4 2019.
Nevada Copper has a number of successes to share with reader. But, before you share the unique value preposition of Nevada Copper, Mr. Gili, for readers who may not be familiar with the supply and demand fundamentals regarding copper, please provide us with a 10,000-foot overview.

Matt Gili: When you look at the copper fundamentals, we see a very steady and predictable increase in demand of copper, modest amount, 1.5% per year. We see the move towards electrification of vehicles consuming more copper. We see other things that are offsetting that, but overall, a steady predictable 1.5% increase in the global demand for copper. Where the story really gets exciting, from the Nevada Copper standpoint, is with regards to the supply for copper. What we’re seeing is a lot of restrictions in future supply. We’re seeing a lot of difficulties on bringing on a future supply and backed up by work done by Wood Mackenzie and others, we’re projecting that by 2025, the world will be in a supply deficit of upwards of 6 million tonnes of copper per year. This just really supports what we’re doing in Nevada Copper in setting up the next copper mine.
Maurice Jackson: Now that we have an overview of the supply and demand fundamentals for copper, Matt, let’s discuss how someone listening may position himself prudently as a beneficiary. For someone new to the story, can you give us a very quick overview of Nevada Copper?

Matt Gili: Certainly. Nevada Copper, who’s Nevada Copper? We have an asset in Nevada called Pumpkin Hollow. This is our chief asset. It consists of two deposits: an underground deposit and an open-pit deposit for copper. We’re currently in the construction phase for the underground project with production from that underground project coming online later this year. I think we’ll talk more about that later. Regarding the open pit, we’re currently in the process of wrapping up the prefeasibility study for the open pit. You’ll see that being published in April of this year. Then, we have a regional land package of well over 15,000 acres that we are looking at really understanding, really unlocking the full value from that land package. That’s really Nevada Copper, building a copper mine coming into production later this year, with a lot of expansion into an open-pit mine, as well as regional exploration.

Maurice Jackson: Let’s provide readers the latest updates on Nevada Copper, as the company has been very proactive on a number of fronts. Please provide us with an update on the construction progress. I would like to begin with the multi-million dollar question, are we on track to enter production in Q4 of this year?
Matt Gili: Yes, Maurice, we are on track to enter production in Q4 of this year. We are very proud of that. The team’s doing a fantastic job. We have construction activities both on surface with Sedgman building the process plants, as well as underground cementation, both sinking shaft and doing lateral development on our main shaft. All that’s coming together very nicely. We are absolutely on track for commissioning of the plant in the fourth quarter of this year.
Maurice Jackson: As Nevada Copper is preparing for production this year, have you increased your staffing to meet the growing demands?
Matt Gili: That’s a really good question and yes, we have. We’ve increased our staffing. It’s an operational readiness question that you’re asking. This is where I want to stress to you and readers that this concept of operational readiness is foremost in our thoughts and how we’re planning for really becoming, not just building a great mine, but operating a great mine. When you look at the staffing, so far, our staffing, by design, is quite modest. We’re looking at a total workforce of Nevada Copper employees of around 30. That is because this is our model, a very lean, efficient operation. We utilize high-quality, expert service providers as necessary, to make sure that we are operating very efficiently.
Maurice Jackson: Is Nevada Copper still actively recruiting and if so, what positions?
Matt Gili: Yes, we are actively recruiting. Most of our positions open are technical and specialist positions, and would be part of the management team. I absolutely encourage anyone interested in what we’re recruiting for to contact the Nevada Copper website. You’ll see the complete listing of opening jobs there, as well as information on how to apply for any of these positions if you’re interested.
Maurice Jackson: Pumpkin Hollow is unique in that you have both an underground and an open-pit mine. Let’s discuss exploration and expansion potential. What initiatives is Nevada Copper taking to optimize the full potential of the Pumpkin Hollow project?

Matt Gili: We are in the process of constructing the underground, which has a large amount of upside potential. We’ll really only explore that upside potential when we’re underground, after we’re in production. We really look forward to updates on that front in 2020, and the reason for that is very simple. It’s just much more efficient to drill out the prospective areas of the underground from the underground; the holes are shorter. It’s just much easier. That’s really where the underground sits right now, in a holding pattern as far as expansion potential. When you look at the open pit, that’s where a lot of great energy is going into expanding the open pit, understanding the open pit better, really getting that ore body knowledge to allow you to build a world-class operation. That is part of the PFS, which is coming out in April of this year.

That PFS will include the drilling campaign that we completed in 2018, the 26 hole drilling campaign. It will include those results in the resource model. That’s going to give you an even better idea of the full potential of the open pit. The real excitement that we have is with regards to the region itself, a large region, relatively unexplored, but with large amounts of historical copper production, as well as great physical outcroppings of copper mineralization. This is really where we’re going to focus our efforts during 2019, to really get a chance, now that we’ve tied up this land package, to understand what we have.
Maurice Jackson: Speaking of the region, there was a regional survey conducted that led you to staking more land. Can you share the results with us?

Matt Gili: We staked a section a land that we refer to as the Teddy Boy Claims. This is about 5,700 acres of land to our northeast. We are very glad to have this in our portfolio. The criteria for that selection was we brought together experts on this region and experts in copper mineralization. They identified that as a really prospective area and where we should be really focused on. We’ve staked that land, secured it for our ability to explore over the next several years.
Maurice Jackson: Does Nevada Copper plan to drill the new area at some point this year?
Matt Gili: We plan on drilling this year. I really haven’t put out the entire drill program for 2019. We’re still pulling that together and analyzing where to best spend the monies we have available for exploration. We would like to drill that this year. Some more prospective holes, really not an in-depth blanket campaign, but probe a few really interesting areas over there and get a better idea for the drill campaign.
Maurice Jackson: It’s one thing to have tonnage and grade, but you must equally have astute business acumen to make the numbers work. Now, Nevada Copper is in discussions regarding an ECA-backed project finance facility to further optimize the balance sheet, as well as lining up a working capital facility and further offtake agreements to improve the economics of Pumpkin Hollow. Please provide us with the details.
Matt Gili: You kind of said it all. I can’t really provide you with any more details, but I can surely stress what you’ve just said, Maurice. We are in discussions with this export, credit agency style backed project financing. This is going to provide us the opportunity to substantially reduce the cost of our debt service, as well as attract strong and robust financial partners for potential future open-pit developments. Something we’re very excited about and it’s part of really creating Nevada Copper as a world-class company.
Maurice Jackson: Let’s get into some numbers. Please share your capital structure.

Matt Gili: The capital structure is well defined. We have $8 million in long-term debt. We have $153 million of cash or cash equivalents. When you look at the financing package specifically for the underground, we’re fully financed, including the working capital facility to take us through operation ramp up. The inputs into that are an equity raise that we did in the middle of last year, as well as a streaming deposit with regards to a stream arrangement on the precious metals strictly from the underground deposit. We also have a $25-million subordinated debt package. Really a standby loan facility that we can use if necessary.
Maurice Jackson: In closing, I have a multilayered question. What is the next unanswered question for Nevada Copper? When can we expect a response? What determines success?
Matt Gili: I would not classify our successful completion of underground construction and bringing them in operation as an unanswered question. That is going to happen, and I’m very proud of the activities that have happened so far. The real unanswered question for the investors out there, is what is the true potential of the open pit? There’s been a lot of great work done, a lot of exploration done, last year. That’s all been incorporated. I’m really going to be excited when the PFS is released and we can share the details of the open pit potential with the public. They are going to be very impressed and they’re going to see the picture. They’re going to see what we see when we get so excited about Nevada Copper.
Maurice Jackson: Speaking of the prefeasibility study, give us a timeline on that, sir.
Matt Gili: We’ll release that in April. I’m being careful. I don’t want to be too specific. It will be in April of this year. Next month.
Maurice Jackson: Mr. Gili, last question. What did I forget to ask?
Matt Gili: Maurice, forget to ask? You’re always very thorough, so I wouldn’t say you forgot to ask anything. What I would say is I want to reiterate something that we at Nevada Copper have been thinking about over the last month. Unfortunately, for the world, the last month has been a month marred with tragedies, with risk and with unexpected events. What we’re really stressing, with Nevada Copper, is the risk management of Nevada Copper. We are an operation that is on private land. We’re not waiting for any permits. We’re not waiting for records of decision. We’re utilizing EPC contractors, who have that fixed price nature, reduced risks. We’re building a dry stack tailing facility. We’ll never have a wet tailing storage facility at Pumpkin Hollow.  We’re doing this all with a proven, experienced team of mine builders and operators. Really wrapping that up, that concept of low risk, risk mitigation. We are going to build and operate the next mine and there’s very little risk to that execution.
Maurice Jackson: Matt, if investors want to get more information about Nevada Copper, please share the website address.
Matt Gili: Absolutely, www.nevadacopper.com. We love to get your input. You’ll see our investor presentationsthere in our latest news. Let us know what you think.
Maurice Jackson: For our audience, we wish to remind you that Nevada Copper trades on the TSX symbol, NCU, and on the OTC symbol NEVDF. For additional inquiries, please contact Richard Matthews at (877) 648-8266 or you may email RMatthews@nevadacopper.com. Nevada Copper is a sponsor and we are proud shareholders for the virtues conveyed in today’s message.
Last but not least, please visit our website, provenandprobable.com, for mining insights and bullion sales. You may reach us at contact@provenandprobable.com.
Matt Gili of Nevada Copper, thank you for joining us today on Proven and Probable.
Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world.
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Base Metals Energy Exclusive Interviews Junior Mining Project Generators

(VIDEO) FISSION 3.0 Prospect Generator in Position for Uranium Turnaround

Ross McElroy the COO and Chief Geologist for Fission 3.0 (TSX.V: FUU | OTCQB: FISOF) sits down with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable to discuss the value proposition of Fission 3.0 and their Property Bank. In this interview Mr. McElroy provides the macro economics for uranium and how one may allocate their uranium holdings in a Uranium Project Generator with a Property Bank with projects located in high-grade uranium districts, with proven management and technical team that has a 20 year history of delivering success to shareholders.

VIDEO

AUDIO

TRANSCRIPT


Original Source: https://www.streetwisereports.com/article/2019/03/16/prospect-generator-in-position-for-uranium-turnaround.html
Maurice Jackson: Joining us for a conversation is Ross McElroy, the COO and chief geologist for Fission 3.0 Corp. (FUU:TSX.V; FISOF:OTC.MKTS): A Uranium Project Generator and Property Bank. Ross McElroy, glad to have you back on the program to share the value proposition of Fission 3.0. Before we begin, Ross, I’d like to begin with some basic fundamentals regarding uranium. For someone new to the uranium sector, what is uranium, and where is it used?
Ross McElroy: Uranium is really all about energy. The way we use uranium is for nuclear fuel. That’s basically the fuel that runs reactors.
Globally nuclear power constitutes between 15% and 20% of the electrical requirements. That’s really where the majority of the uranium is used. There is some uranium that’s used for strategic purposes on a country by country basis, more for the Department of Defense reasons. But really, the vast, vast majority of uranium is used to fuel nuclear reactors.
Maurice Jackson: Provide us with some metrics on how abundant uranium is in the Earth’s crust, and correlate that to the average grade that is found versus the grade that is needed to define an ore deposit in a future mine?
Ross McElroy: Well, uranium is actually one of the most abundant elements in the Earth. It’s kind of ubiquitous. You’ll see it throughout the Earth’s crust; there is trace amounts of uranium present primarily in volcanic and igneous rocks and sedimentary rocks.
On a deposit level, there’s actually a number of uranium deposits around the world, in every continent on the planet and in many countries. On a global basis, the average grade of a uranium deposit worldwide is around 0.1 to 0.15% U308.
Now, if you compare that to say, the deposits in Canada, they’re orders of magnitude higher grade in Canada. We’re talking orders of magnitude that are 10 to 20 times that of the global grade.
Although I’ve given you the average grade, most of those deposits at those lower grades, the average grades are really uneconomic deposits. We need grades that are generally much higher than the 0.1%–0.15% if it’s going to be an economic deposit. And that’s what Canada has. Canada has very high-grade deposits, so the economic metrics are just that much more attractive in Canada.
Maurice Jackson: Now that we’ve identified uranium’s utility, what can you share with us from a supply and demand perspective?

Ross McElroy: Well, it’s fairly simple to understand what the demand for nuclear energy is, in other words, uranium. We can just multiply the number of reactors around the world that are currently operating, and the known fuel consumption rate for a 1000 megawatt reactor is just under 500,000 pounds of uranium a year. If we look at the global reactors, there are around 450 reactors around the world. You can see that the need for uranium on an annual basis is around the realm of almost 200 million pounds of uranium.
Maurice Jackson: How does the nuclear plant in Fukushima, Japan, fit into this narrative?
Ross McElroy: Japan historically, up until the Fukushima event in 2011, was one of the main users on a country basis worldwide. Japan I think consumed almost 20% of the world’s nuclear power, in other words, 20% of the world’s annual production of uranium was used to run the Japanese reactors.
In 2011, of course, we had the magnitude 9 earthquake followed by a tsunami, and that’s what damaged the Fukushima facility. Interestingly enough, even with that magnitude of an earthquake and the soon-to-follow tsunami, the reactor still did not breach. The housing that surrounded the reactor was damaged, and this is where some of the radiation leaks came from, but the reactor itself actually held, and so the damage was actually very, very limited and manageable.
What happened is overnight, Japan shut down all of its nuclear reactors, in other words, all 52 reactors I think they had working at that time, went offline. That caused disruption to the supply/demand situation globally.
What’s happened since then is Japan is slowly coming back on. Japan’s alternatives for power are pretty limited as the country doesn’t have very much of its own resources, if any at all. It imports whatever energy that it needs, be it in natural gas now, in nuclear.
It’s important for Japan to be able to operate these factories that they’re running. I mean, it’s an exporting country around the world, so it does have high energy requirements. It also has the requirements for inexpensive power.
Japan is coming back on to the scene as far as nuclear power. There are eight reactors that are currently back up and operating, and 17 reactors that are in the near-term licensing for approval to get them restarted again.
I think the bottom line is, prior to Fukushima, Japan depended on nuclear energy for at least 25% of its electricity demands. I think by the time 2030 approaches, Japan is supposed to be right back up to those same levels. The country is coming back on, it has always been an important major consumer of nuclear power. I think we’ll see it right back to the equation again in the very near future.
Maurice Jackson: Uranium, next to gold, is known as the other yellow metal, and here’s why. Ross, let’s step back to the bull market in uranium. If one was selective with the uranium holdings, they would’ve had generational changes in their portfolio. What was the spot price during the last bull market?

Ross McElroy: Well, in 2002, uranium was around, I don’t know, about $15 a pound. This is on the spot market. That’s what uranium was trading for.
In 2003–2004, we really saw the lift off of the price of uranium. In fact, it peaked at 2007 to around $140 a pound. It went almost a 10-fold increase in the price of the commodity between 2003 and 2007. The peak at 140 didn’t last particularly long, but it had a slower decline until about 2008—2009, it stabilized, and then it peaked back up again.
Really, it was holding steady. I guess this is the point I would want to make, is that we were starting to see a steady state price of between $50 to $70 a pound, and then the Fukushima event hit that we talked about in 2011, and that really threw the whole pricing structure right out the window. We’ve been working on our recovery ever since.
Maurice Jackson: What is the spot price for uranium today?
Ross McElroy: Currently we’re about $28 a pound for uranium. It has recovered; we’re off the bottoms of $17, $18 a pound just a couple of years ago. Uranium is making its way back.
Maybe the important point here to note is we’re still at prices that the majority of mines around the world are not profitable. Even the lowest cost producers are really not operating in an environment where they can make money with uranium prices what they’re at right now.
What we’ve seen is that the supply is starting to be restricted as the producers are taking a lot of that uranium off market; they’re not supplying it to the utilities at this cheap price, because it’s not a working business model to lose money in the long run on the mining of the commodity.
We are seeing an improvement in the price of uranium, and it’s been about a year and a half in the making. It’s gone up from the $18 that I mentioned to about $28 a pound, but it certainly has a lot more room to move upwards even before we can start to get production back online to meaningful levels.
Maurice Jackson: What is that spot price that companies right now, uranium companies I should say, for them to earn their cost of capital? Is the number around $60 for a spot price of uranium?

Ross McElroy: I believe you are correct. We’re seeing prices that globally, they have to be in the $60 to $70 a pound really to bring on any meaningful production.
One of the clues that I look at when we look at the best uranium mines out there, the lowest cost producers, those would be McArthur River deposit in Canada’s Athabasca Basin in Northern Saskatchewan. That is one of the best uranium mines in the world, certainly the largest highest-grade operating mine. Cameco took that offline because of the prices of uranium where they were at, they weren’t making any money on the mining of this deposit.
There are some indications that Cameco won’t turn that mine back on into being a producer until the price of uranium is somewhat north of $40, maybe $45. Something in that realm.
I don’t have an exact number there, but it does tell you that if you’re going to even bring back the best of those deposits, you really need prices that are something of $40 to $45. As we mentioned earlier, the price for many of the other deposits around the world are probably closer to $60 or $70. You can see, there’s still lots of room for improvement.
Maurice Jackson: The current price of uranium does not support the fundamentals. What correlations do you see today that may exceed the returns from the last bull market?
Ross McElroy: Well, it’s sort of an elastic situation. I think that the longer that we keep depressed prices, yet the demand is still there and growing, reactors are being built, the need to fuel these reactors, that’s not stopping.
In fact, it’s growing. You have the primary suppliers of uranium, i.e., the mines that are not supplying it, the longer that the prices are low, the more rapid that climb will be in the price of uranium when it does correct.
I think there’s a possibility, as I’ve heard some analysts call it, a violent reaction upwards to the price of uranium. I think we’re going to see some substantial price increases within some short vision of time, maybe a year or two or three. Something in that realm that I think will be quite meaningful.
We’ll see what happens, but the longer it stays depressed, the more likely and quicker the rise will be when it does come.
Maurice Jackson: Ross, you’ve provided a compelling case on the fundamentals for uranium. I know readers may be asking, how will all of this demand for uranium be met? Mr. McElroy, please introduce us to Fission 3.0.
Ross McElroy: Fission 3.0 is a uranium explorer. This is a company that we spun out of Fission Uranium Corp. (FCU:TSX; FCUUF:OTCQX; 2FU:FSE), our larger company, back in 2014 when we bought out our partner on the Patterson Lake project, and in so doing with that process from that arrangement, we spun out our non-core assets, the more grassroots exploration projects.
We’ve been able to build up an exploration portfolio, primarily focused in the Athabasca Basin. Remember, the Athabasca Basin is Canada’s only producing uranium field. That’s where the McArthur River deposit is, this is where Fission Uranium has the Triple R deposit. There’s some fantastic deposits out there.
That’s what we’re exploring for in Fission 3.0. We’re looking for the next high-grade uranium deposit in the Athabasca Basin.
Maurice Jackson: You referenced that you’re a project generator. There’s a lot of ambiguity regarding project generators. Please share the virtues and why Fission 3.0 took on the project generator business model?
Ross McElroy: Project generators are really all about sharing the risk. In our case, what we do very well is pick ground. We’ve been able to strategically stake ground in the Athabasca Basin, we’ve made discoveries on two of our properties, the first one in the company called Fission Energy that we made the discovery at our Waterbury Lake property, and later on in Fission Uranium Corp on our PLS property.
That have been situations where we’ve had joint-venture partners sharing the risks, sharing the costs with others. To use the model, what we do is we use our brands and other peoples’ money. That’s really what we’re good at, that’s basically the model that we have.
We have a very highly trained technical team that’s exceptional at picking out high-quality projects. We attract other people who are looking to get into the uranium business, looking to partner up with a team such as ours and join us for the ride to make a discovery.
It’s really all about sharing risk. That’s really what the project generator model does. It’s our land, and we partner with good quality people that can fund a project, and that’s how they earn into it as well.
Maurice Jackson: Do you currently have a joint-venture partner? If yes, who and what are the terms of the relationship?
Ross McElroy: We have had joint-venture partners in the past, and very successful ones. As I mentioned earlier on our Waterbury project, we had a partner with the Korean utility called KEPCO. It earned in by spending a certain amount of money on the property each year over the course of a three-year period.
What we did with that, we were able to make a discovery, using the money in that project, we made a discovery, built up the resource estimate on there, and eventually sold that asset. That was how our shareholders were able to take advantage of our monetizing on the property.
I guess we could say the same at the PLS project, which we now own 100% of it, but that was also a partnership. We shared in the risk early on and in the money early on with our partner. We eventually bought them out in 2014. That was another example of a successful joint venture partnership.
Each one of the deals would be a little bit different from each other. It is a model that we think works very well. I will note that in our property down in Peru as well, we have a partnership that we’re still looking to finalize the deal. This is one where another group has approached us, said it’s interested in the potential of a property down in Peru. It will spend a significant amount of money having us as the operator. Hopefully we’ll make a discovery down in Peru as well.
Maurice Jackson: Well, you’ve just alluded to my next question. Fission 3.0 has 18 projects in its project bank. Now, it is strategically located in premier, high-grade uranium districts in Canada and Peru. Mr. McElroy, introduce us to the Fission 3.0 Project Bank (click here).

Ross McElroy: We have 18 properties in the Athabasca Basin. Our properties, we think that everywhere in the Athabasca Basin has the potential to host high-grade uranium projects.
One of the keys that we seek to identify are deposits that will be shallow. In other words, the closer a deposit is to surface, the easier it is to build a case that this could be a project that could go into production. It’s an easier mine to develop the closer it is to the surface.

Really deep deposits are challenging. They still exist, but they’re challenging. Eventually they cost more money to find and cost more money to get out of the ground. They’re just another level of challenge.
If you look at our 18 properties, they’re all in and around the edge of the Athabasca Basin, where we’ve had a great deal of success finding near-surface mineralization.
Our PLS project that hosts the Triple R deposit in Fission Uranium is a great example of a near-surface deposit. The mineralization starts at 50 meters below the surface, so 150 feet below the present-day surface is where the high-grade mineralization starts. That makes it a potentially open-pit deposit, which is generally low cost and gives you a lot of flexibility.
This is the sort of thing that we’re looking for in Fission 3.0. We’ve got very good properties that are in known mining districts, conversely, we have a good portfolio of ground around the southwest side of the basin where our PLS project in Fission Uranium is hosted, and also NexGen’s Arrow deposit, it’s all in that same area. We have the significant land package that surrounds that area.

We also have a good strategic land package in and around the Key Lake area on the southeast side of the basin. This has been, and still currently is the hot bed of uranium mining in Canada right now. This is the side of the basin where the McArthur River and Cigar Lake deposits are located.

McArthur shut down for economic reasons waiting for higher uranium prices. It was an operating mine up until about a year ago, and Cigar still is in operation. You’ve also got the Key Lake mine.
It’s a strategic area to have a good land package. We think there’s lots of opportunities in and around land in that area to make a new discovery.

And probably third for us is the land package that’s up in the northwest side of the basin, in the old uranium city Beaverlodge district where uranium mining in Saskatchewan first got started back in the 1950s and was the going concern back in the ’50s and the ’60s, I think there were about 52 operating mines up in that area, pretty small scale most of them, but still lots of high-grade uranium. That’s an area where we think that there’s still plenty of exploration potential.
Between all those areas, we’re going to be active and we’re going to be looking for the next high-grade uranium deposit in Saskatchewan.
Maurice Jackson: Speaking of being active, is there active drilling going on right now in these projects?
Ross McElroy: There is active drilling. We did drill in the southwest side of the basin. We were drilling in January on our PLN project. That project is just immediately north of Fission Uranium’s PLS project.
You’re really talking about the same area where the latest discoveries have been found, where you’ve got the Triple R deposit, you’ve got NexGen’s Arrow deposit. These are two of the best new deposits that have been found in the Athabasca Basin in the last 15 years.
We have a package around there called PLN, and we did drill six holes in there earlier this year. It has the potential to host another one of these fantastic deposits, so we are going to continue looking there. We see all the signs present that tell us that this is where we’ll make that discovery.
As we’re speaking right now, we’re drilling over in the Key Lake area that I described earlier. This is over on the southeast side of the basin, about 200 kilometers to the east of the PLS drilling. That is a program where we’ll drill probably eight or nine holes, just south of the Key Lake Mill and the old historical Key Lake deposits. There’s areas of activity there. We’ll continue drilling throughout the rest of 2019 on a number of our projects.
Fission 3.0 is active. We were able to raise some significant money early in the year, in late 2018. We’re going to be active. This is how we’ve been successful in the past, is by being aggressive, looking in places where people probably haven’t looked for a while or never even thought to look, and putting our technical team to work. Yes, you’ll see pretty good news flow out of Fission 3 this year.
Maurice Jackson: Ross, let’s expand the narrative on the project bank portfolio and go south into Peru. What can you share with us there?

Ross McElroy: Peru is a really interesting area. Where our projects are is called the Macusani Plateau, located in southern Peru, near the Bolivian border. The Macusani Plateau has shown at least over 100 million pounds in near-surface uranium deposits.

There’s a company down there that’s quite dominant called Plateau Energy. Plateau has been able to stake a lot and consolidate a land package in the area, and consolidated all these old deposits. It has amassed around 100 million pounds of uranium in these uranium deposits.

However, even more significant, Plateau made a discovery of high-grade lithium in the same area, and in fact, that’s within five kilometers of our southern property boundary on our Macusani plains. Not only do we have the potential now to host near-surface uranium deposits, and we have shown in fact that we do have mineralization on our property for uranium, we’ve mapped it, we’ve drilled, we’ve trenched and found high-grade uranium, but now the potential’s there for hosting high-grade lithium.
This is really a new dimension that we have down in that area, that we wouldn’t have had say, two or three years ago when we were last down drilling. You’ve got uranium, and now we have lithium. It’s a very interesting up-and-coming area as well.
Maurice Jackson: Switching gears, Fission 3.0 has the right projects in the right place at the right time. But that’s only part of the story. Equally important are the people that are responsible for increasing shareholder value. Mr. McElroy, please introduce us to your board of directors.
Ross McElroy: Thank you, and I appreciate that. We do have a very successful team. Our founder of Fission 3.0 is also the same CEO and founder of Fission Uranium, and previously Fission Energy before that, and Strathmore.
Dev Randhawa has been involved in this company right from the get-go in its first iteration back in 1996, and also heading up Fission 3.0. Dev is the longest running CEO in the uranium sector.
Myself, I’ve been involved with Dev 12, 13 years now. We’ve had a great successful relationship. We’re able to raise money, raise attention, put that money to work, make discoveries, and basically build shareholder value right from the bottom up.
This is the group that I think, we’ve been able to deliver in the past, and we’re going to be able to deliver shareholder value as we move forward in this much improving uranium sector.
A lot of the same players that we’ve had all the way along, still keep also in the Fission 3 group.
Maurice Jackson: Who is on your management team?

Ross McElroy: The management team is composed of our CEO Dev Randhawa and chairman. I am the chief operating officer, and also the chief geologist. We have maintained the same structure that we have in Fission Uranium, is the same that we have in Fission 3.0. It’s a fairly lean team. Phil Morehouse is president of Fission 3.0. We kept a pretty lean mean machine in Fission 3.
Don’t forget, we’ve had up until just recently in the last six months, it’s been a very quiet company, there hasn’t been a lot of exploration activities in the uranium sector. I think as we start to ramp up, with our level of activity increasing, we’ll start to draw more and more people into roles and developing roles within the company as we begin to be active, get out and start marketing the story more, get on the ground and back that up with real results, we’re going to continue to build our team.
Maurice Jackson: Before we move on to your impressive technical team, in the natural resource basis, why is it wise to follow proven winners? Ross, you alluded to it earlier, you and CEO Dev Randhawa have a proven pedigree of success. How were shareholders rewarded as far as returns for their loyalty to sticking with your team?
Ross McElroy: Well, if you owned the original company at the beginning, which would’ve been Strathmore Minerals, and you’d held on it to all the way throughout, over the last 20 years since about 1996, 97, you’d probably own about five different companies right now.
What’s happened is we’ve moved on to a new phase, we’ve made discoveries, advanced projects, sold different projects to different groups. What we’ve been able to do is form new companies, split off new companies in what they call a butterfly transaction.
You have shares in the new company, still maintain your shares in the old company, so you would’ve received essentially what would look like dividends in the way of different shares for five different companies since that time. The shareholders that have been loyal and sticking with us would’ve succeeded quite handsomely all the way along.
Maurice Jackson: Your technical team is exceptional. I had an opportunity to meet them in the summer of 2016 at the site visit there. Please, introduce us to them.
Ross McElroy: We’re very, very proud of this group. This has been the team we’ve had, the same core group of people with us since 2010. With that same group, we were able to make our discovery on the Waterbury Lake project, and then followed up in 2012 with the discovery of PLS. It’s the same group that is very core and important to us in Fission 3.0.
I do head up the team and the technical group, so I would be the team leader or chief geologist for the technical team. My right hand guy is Raymond Ashley, he’s the VP of exploration. Ray is an excellent geoscientist who I’ve had the pleasure to work with for over 30 years in this sector, so we’ve been working pretty close together. Definitely a proven mine finder.
We’ve basically held the same group of people together on the project managers, all the structural scientists, geochemists. We’ve kept the same core group together over the last almost 10 years or so.
To me, that’s really the key. You want a team that works together well, good chemistry with each other, the ability and the environment to think outside of the box. Really, the goal for each and every one of us is to responsibly make world-class discoveries. That’s what we’re all about.
We’ve got an excellent team. All the key people are listed on the website. You’ll be able to go there and see the roles of the various groups there in the technical team, but there’s about seven or eight of us that have been able to be what I consider the core team for the last decade or so.
Maurice Jackson: Let’s get into some numbers. Please share your capital structure.

Ross McElroy: In Fission 3.0, we have 142 million shares outstanding. We were able to raise a significant amount. We have just under $7 million in the treasury right now, that’ll allow us to be active over the next two years or so.
Maurice Jackson: What is your burn rate?
Ross McElroy: The burn rate, because it’s exploration, it’s pretty discretionary spending. We have $7 million that we have in the treasury right now, that’ll certainly carry us over the next two to three years of pretty aggressive exploration spending on our key projects. We can dial that kind of number up, and we can dial it back as conditions warrant. That’s the benefit of being in exploration.
The burn rate is actually pretty minimal. In other words, we run a pretty lean shop as far as the number of management and corporate costs. Really, the majority of the costs are exploration spending, which is really entirely discretionary.
Maurice Jackson: How much debt do you have?
Ross McElroy: We have no debt. We’ve not taken on any debt. Basically, the money that we raise have been through equity share offerings. No debt in Fission 3.0.
Maurice Jackson: Who are your major shareholders? What is their level of commitment?
Ross McElroy: When we spun off Fission 3.0 back in December of 2014, it was the same shareholders that were shareholders of Fission Uranium, were the same shareholders in Fission 3.0. We would’ve had a lot of the same loyal, large shareholders, including JP Morgan, even investment from others that we’ve had along the way. It’s been the same loyal group.
We have significant new shareholders now with the financing that we did back in 2018, which was led by the Sprott Global Resources Group out of California. I think we have some new players back to the game, but we have a lot of shareholders that have been with us over the long haul.
These are people that have a good vision of the uranium sector. They know that the good times are around the corner. It’s a point that we believe really strongly, and we think that the sector is improving a great deal.
This is how our loyal shareholders are going to be rewarded, by being a much better market with an aggressive team like Fission 3.0, and the new shareholders will probably be long term loyal shareholders too if we’re successful and able to build value for them as well.
Maurice Jackson: What is the float?
Ross McElroy: Fully diluted, we have 227 million shares. We’ve got shares outstanding, we’ve got options and warrants that we’re a part of financing as well, so 227 million shares out in total. We trade around 240,000 shares a day, I think that’s our average volume.
Maurice Jackson: Multi-layered question. What is the next unanswered question for Fission 3.0? When can we expect a response? What determines success?
Ross McElroy: Well, we are going to be successful through work. We know that a better market should buoy the price up of everybody involved in the nuclear sector. They’re starting to get some life back in the exploration world.
Really, we’ve always built value by our success. We’ve been successful with making discoveries. We now have the money, we have the team, we’re putting them to work. I would look to us as being one of the most dynamic uranium explorers out there. That’s something that I think people can follow, they can see our news release cycle, they’ll see how we’re marketing our story, and just look at the results. I think they’ll speak for themselves.
We’re looking at our projects, we’ll be active throughout the calendar year. I think the news flow will be very strong and steady. People that are interested in following the company will always see that there’s a continuing narrative out there. We want to take advantage of this and improve the uranium market, the fact that we are well financed, and we have the properties that we want to explore. I think there’s a very good opportunity for readers to look at Fission 3.0 as a sector leader in the uranium exploration business.
Maurice Jackson: Mr. McElroy, last question. What did I forget to ask?
Ross McElroy: I think we’ve covered a lot of ground here, and a lot of important ground. One of the takeaways that I want readers to know is we really do believe in the nuclear sector. We think that we have turned the corner and that conditions are improving.
If people are looking to invest in the uranium sector, I think it’s important for them to look at a group that has done it before. Your track record is very indicative of what your future has the potential to look like. I always find myself, when I’m investing, I like to back teams with a proven track record.
We have that in our group. We’ve got an exceptional management team. We’ve done it before. We’ve been able to capitalize on our discoveries by selling assets. We have a unique technical team that has the ability to make discoveries.
So better sector, very good team. Strong management. Those are the ingredients we need to be successful.
Maurice Jackson: Ross, for someone listening that wants to get more information about Fission 3.0, please share the website address.
Ross McElroy: Our website address is www.fission3corp.com.
Maurice Jackson: For direct queries email ir@fission3corp.com, or you may call (778) 484-8030. Fission 3.0 trades on the TSX:V, symbol FUU, and on the OTC, symbol FISOF.
For audience, we’ve been proud shareholders of Fission 3.0 since 2014. Last but not least, please visit our website, provenandprobable.com, for mining insights and bullion sales. You may reach us at contact@provenandprobable.com.
Ross McElroy of Fission 3.0, thank you for joining us today on Proven and Probable.
Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world.
Disclosure: 
1) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Fission 3.0. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. Proven and Probable disclosures are listed below.
2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click herefor important disclosures about sponsor fees.
3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.
4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports’ terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.
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Junior Mining Precious Metals

ROVER METALS | Firm Advancing Gold Exploration in the Northwest Territories

 

Judson Culter the CEO and Director of Rover Metals (TSX.V: ROVR | OTCQB: ROVMF) sits down with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable to discuss the value proposition of the Cabin Lake Property. In this interview Mr. Culter will provide important updates on the Uptown Gold Property, Cabin Lake Project, and Slemon Lake. Rover Metals is a natural resource exploration company specialized in Canadian precious metal resources (specifically gold). In this interview we will discuss the recent accomplishments of Rover Metals. Ranging from IPO and the implementation of a methodical process of building an exploration company that is positioning itself for success from land acquisitions, permit approval, OTC listing, option agreements and completed the first phase of the 2018 exploration program.

VIDEO

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TRANSCRIPT

Original Source: https://www.streetwisereports.com/article/2019/03/10/firm-advancing-gold-exploration-in-the-northwest-territories.html

Firm Advancing Gold Exploration in the Northwest Territories Contributed Opinion

Source: Maurice Jackson for Streetwise Reports  (3/10/19)

Maurice Jackson

Judson Culter, CEO of Rover Metals, speaks with Maurice Jackson of Proven and Probable about historical exploration on his company’s properties, as well as current exploration plans.

Gold exploration
Maurice Jackson: Welcome to Proven and Probable. I’m your host, Maurice Jackson, and joining us for our conversation is Judson Culter, the CEO and director of Rover Metals Corp. (ROVR:TSX.V; ROVMF:OTCQB). Mr. Culter, welcome to the show.
Judson Culter: Thanks for having me, Maurice.
Maurice Jackson: Glad to have you back on the program. We last spoke in January of 2018, and since then Rover Metals has completed its IPO and implemented a methodical process of building an exploration company that is positioning itself for success from land acquisitions, permit approval, OTC listing, option agreements and completed the first phase of the 2018 exploration program. But before we begin, Mr. Culter, for first time listeners, who is Rover Metals?
Judson Culter: Rover Metals, we are a precious metal exploration company, specifically gold is our focus currently. We’re co-listed in the United States OTCQB: ROVMF, as well as Canada on the TSX.V ROVR. Our project portfolio is concentrated in and around Yellowknife’s Northwest Territories, one of the most mining friendly jurisdictions in Canada and for North America for that matter. I say that just because that’s where our (Canada’s) diamond mines are. That’s historically where several of our gold mines have been. It’s really the primary employer in the Northwest Territories. Outside of government, mining is it.
Maurice Jackson: Why has Rover Metals received so much interest here of lately?
Judson Culter: I think that’s a two pronged answer. First is just credibility. Going back to 2017 on call with you, Maurice, if one listens to that interview, we talked about how we were going to go public, and how we were going to drill our resources, and how we were going to look to add new resources in the similar area code of Yellowknife.
We’ve successfully accomplished all those tasks. I believe we have strong foundational base in our existing shareholders. We’ve got a lot of credibility with them. We get a lot of word of mouth. I think that goes a long way in a market that can be a little bit over saturated in the junior mining space with which projects or which management teams do you back. I think really that we’ve gotten recognition for that now, which is really helping to drive our current success.

The second prong answer speaks to the projects themselves. Rover has the Cabin Lake Project, which is really what the market is asking for, and that’s why we bought it. When we receive the results from our drilling, we believe we will a high-grade gold historical resource that will contain super high grades that the market wants to see as confirmation that this really could be the next gold mine in the Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.

Not to mention this project itself has all the merits a speculator wants. We have solid infrastructure, the Blue Fish Hydro Dam, roads, all the accessibility and proven area of past producers. The market is beginning to recognize the credibility of the management team and the assets. Also, the awareness that we are near drilling in the not-too-distant future has investors’ attention as well.
Maurice Jackson: Justin, what is the driving thesis for Rover Metals in regards to the Kevin Lake gold project?
Judson Culter: The driving thesis has not changed. It’s the same thesis as in the late 1980s. There’s a project called the Lupin Gold Mine that produced from 1983 to 2003 in the north, which is an iron formation, super high-grade gold. The thought at the time was to go and find another one, and that’s what they thought they had here. This is when Cominco and Freeport McMoRan and then Aber Resources, that’s what they thought they had here. They drove 7,500 meters of at or near-surface iron hosted high-grade gold. The only reason they stopped is because somebody found kimberlites a few years after, and the diamond boom in the Territories began.
This project just kind of sat on the back burner as a result of that. Aber Resources, the owner of the time, of course, went on to find the kimberlites. That’s some historical context on this project and why it’s just now coming back to life.
Maurice Jackson: Talk to us about the business acumen here. When and how was Rover Metals able to acquire the Cabin Lake gold project in such a highly contested and sought out district?
Judson Culter: It wasn’t easy; when we looked at the business case, we figured that with a little bit of just rolling up our sleeves, and getting up there, and meeting the right stakeholders, and just recognizing that this is an area that needs new mines and new projects.
I didn’t think it would be like other areas in British Columbia, for example where BC, trying to get First Nation endorsement can be very difficult. There’s so many competing industries that people can really make a way of life in a jurisdiction like British Columbia, whereas knowing a little bit about the Northwest Territories, mining is a big deal up there. People want to see projects succeed.
When we went into the Cabin Lake project, we knew we had to get a couple of things there to get permits. We knew we had to get our neighbors, Tlicho First Nations, on board. We also did our homework and knew that the Tlicho First Nations had previously worked with Fortune Minerals, as well as Nighthawk Gold. When we got to it, there was a framework in place. There was a government that had been formed.
The Tlicho government and the land use formal plan to work within, for application permits, and applications. So, once we got to it, it ended up only being four months to get it permitted. I think it seemed to keep getting easier for us, and it ended up being a decision that looks like it was the right one to make.
Maurice Jackson: Regarding mineral rights in your project portfolio, are there any reversionary interests?
Judson Culter: There’s a 1.5% NSR that we’ve got viable down to a half percentage point for CA$250,000 per quarter percentage.
Maurice Jackson: And does Rover Metals own the mineral rights outright 100%?
Judson Culter: That’s correct. Yes, not just at Cabin Lake, but at the Cabin Lake group of projects. The claims themselves are 10 kilometers apart; so there’s three of them. For the entire group of projects, yes, we have 100% mineral right interest.
Maurice Jackson: Let’s fast forward to 2018 and discuss your exploration program. What were the results from that program and how has that improved the confidence in the gold project?
Judson Culter: It helped us to better track the iron information. So what we did was we spent the six months from March, when we acquired the project, into October, really to digitize all the historical records. At the time in the 1980s, that was meticulously kept, and it was handwritten. We digitize seven banker boxes of data, as well as three map boxes. Then, we put that in a GPS, and tag the colors and everything else.
Then what we wanted to do to follow on with that data was to run a current, modern-day geophysical program. There were a lot of options to us to do it, but in a really economical manner, but also to do it in a very detailed type formation using a drone. Because the mineralization occurs at or near surface, as well as the iron information itself being at or near surface, it really showed up well on the magnetic survey that we flew over the property. So by interlaying the drill results, as well as the mag survey, our geologist was able to get a better interpretation of the iron formation throughout the project. Really, that really set the stage for where we are going to put the drill when we get to drilling this year in 2019.
Beyond just the iron information, what we also realized about the project is the outcropping on either side is quartz. Historically, the quartz had never been tested for mineralization. So we also did a geochemistry program in October. What that showed us is that the PPM and PPB reading of gold from the quartz outcrop area suggest that it’s also very likely to be a host for gold on this project. It’s never been tested historically. That’s the excitement of 2018 and what’s led into the 2019 drill program, which was always trying to be between March and the end of April. We’re still trying to hold on to that deadline.
We’ve got the collars is ready to go. Right now, we believe what we need to do to start drilling is conduct a small financing that we’ll probably release in the coming week or two here.
Maurice Jackson: So to review the value proposition we had before. This is potentially an open-pitable, early-stage brownfield exploration gold project with historical high-grade resource next to a new cobalt-gold mine, is that correct?
Judson Culter: Yes, and that’s one thing I didn’t touch on is the actual historical resource itself. That’s 85,000 ounces unconfirmed in terms of what our current standards allow us to document as a historical resource. What we’re allowed to document in press releases and everything else is 50,000 ounces of roughly 10 to 12 grams gold per ton. The rest of that 35,000 ounces was never signed off by a Qualified Person, but it is in the NORMIN database in the Northwest Territories. It’s in the areas of the Andrew zone, which we’ve documented. Rover will do the work we need to do under 43-101 standards to take that other 35,000 ounces and get it compliant.
From our side internally, we see it as an 85,000 ounce of resource of 12 grams per ton gold on average. When we talk about it publicly, we have to say, 50,000 from a historical resource perspective, but you’re absolutely right that we’re 20 kilometers away from what’s looking to be Canada’s first cobalt mine. The reason I say that is this project’s been 20 years in the making; it’s at the feasibility stage. I believe they’re really just looking to raise the capital to get to work. It’s an open-pitable cobalt mine. The good news is it’s actually a cobalt gold bismuth. So there is a gold processor that’s going to be built 20 kilometers from us. What better news can you possibly have when you’re developing an at-surface resource?
Maurice Jackson: The location in of itself makes the opportunity quite interesting, but to have open pit to me is icing on the cake. Is the goal to sell the project or develop into a commercial scale mine?
Judson Culter: Definitely the goal is to sell it within the next three years, and so I want to put $10 million in the ground, and let’s get this wrapped up and sold. End of story.
Maurice Jackson: What can you share with us regarding the infrastructure?
Judson Culter: So what you see in Yellowknife right now is what’s going to be coming in the pipeline in the next two to three years in the Pine Point Zinc mine is going back into production and that’s Osisko. Part of that is twining the costs in Taltson Hydro Dam and bringing that into Yellowknife itself, as well as Hay River. There’s going to be federal funding allocated, as well as territorial, to do an environmental study that should be announced through fairly short order this year.
After there is a federally funded environmental study to evaluate the twinning of the Taltson Hydro Dam, a successful outcome will lead into a hydro power upgrade to Yellowknife. When Yellowknife is upgraded, that will free up excess hydro power at the Snare and Strutt Lake hydro dams, located approximately 5km away from Camp Lake, one of our claims that’s part of the Cabin Lake group. That power becomes excess power. All of a sudden that frees up for the future the viability of really selling the project because now you’ve got excess power sitting right there, five kilometers away. How good is that?
Maurice Jackson: Switching gears. Rover Metals’ board of directors and advisors consists of the following people:

Maurice Jackson: Bios for the management time are below:

Maurice Jackson: Let’s discuss some numbers. Please share your capital structure.
Judson Culter: We’ve got 47 million shares out today. That’s our issued and outstanding common shares. There are warrants out there. We have 10 million warrants at $0.20 cents, and 10 million warrants at $0.25 cents.
Maurice Jackson: How much cash and cash equivalents do you have?
Judson Culter: Treasury is sitting today around CA$450,000. Then, there’s been some prepayments for upcoming work commitments regarding our exploration plans for this year, as well as I mentioned, we’re doing a lot of our growth in terms of our marketing and our shareholder base in the United States. I think our prepaid balance, if you were to look at that today, should be around CA$200,000, just in terms of for events, as well as I mentioned, exploration planning. If you add that back to our cash position, we’re around CA$650,000 in current assets.
Maurice Jackson: What is your burn rate?
Judson Culter: Our burn rate’s about CA$30,000 a month, and that just includes all in. We purposely don’t carry an office in this market. We’re a bootstrap company. We have home offices, and then we’re on the road a lot. We’ve got an exploration office that is free from our exploration partner, Aurora Geosciences. That’s really where a lot of the hard work gets done. Then, there’s just no corporate office. I don’t feel the need for that, so that helps.
Maurice Jackson: How much debt do you have?
Judson Culter: We have some trade payables of, I think it’s roughly CA$40,000 that we’re going to settle in shares. Outside of that, we’ve got CA$25,000 in payables on top of that, that we’re going to pay in cash. That’s just some exploration legacy from last year.
Maurice Jackson: Who is financing the project, and what is their level of commitment?
Judson Culter: Just sophisticated mining investors. It’s been high net worth, accredited investors to this point. That will continue until we become a $10 million market cap company plus, because we’re just still not able to access institutional funds, and that’s fine. If Rover does everything that we hope to accomplish in the next drilling phase, which we hope is in the next 60 to 90 day window here, we should be a $10 million market cap plus company; and well on our way to institutional money.
Maurice Jackson: Who are the major shareholders?
Judson Culter: I’m a major shareholder. I’ve been seeding Rover not just with time, but my own money; since really inception in 2014. Tookie Angus, who is an advisor, is currently our third largest shareholder. Then, it really starts to break down to smaller tranches, but there is a notable name on the list: Ashwath Mehra, the chairman of GT Gold; he’s a relatively large shareholder.
Management, including Ron Woo. Ron’s also seeded this company. I think Ron’s probably fourth largest shareholder. Keith Minty’s a large shareholder; 38% of our outstanding shares are owned by insiders, management, board. That’s a good thing because that means our shares are tied up for three years.
Maurice Jackson: Judson, based on the data available, what type of value proposition do we have in comparing?
Judson Culter: Well, the market price, let’s just say, I think it should be $8.5 million, just on what we set out today. That’s my personal opinion. I think later value that, that’s just the reality of reserve stocks in North America. We’re going to do what we need to do to take that historical resource and bring it up to current standards, as well as to just extend where they stopped drilling, and just show them this really is a multimillion ounce potential asset.
I think we can get there with the drill program that we’re planning. We’re planning roughly a thousand meter program. I think the value proposition is we’re in a $3.5 million market cap today. I think we’re going to take it to $10 to 15 million in the next six months. Hold me to that.
Maurice Jackson: I certainly will, sir. Multi-layered question here: what is the next unanswered question for Rover Metals? When can we expect the response? How much will the response cost? What determines success?
Judson Culter: That’s going to be our Q1 or Q2 exploration drill campaign. I was going to caveat that, that is subject to the future success of our financing effort (click here), which we hope to announce in roughly two weeks’ time.
That will lead into confirmation of the historical high-grade gold results, such as the open-pit economics, expand upon the known mineralization in the iron formation, as well as to prove up a larger area play and this is more Q2/Q3 work, for the Slemon Lake, and Camp Lake claims, which are located 10 kilometers northwest from Cabin Lake, and we’ll fly that with an aerial B10 survey. What that will show is that the drilling we’ve done at Cabin Lake in the iron formation really just, those other two claims, or districts, an extension of the same geology, which everything that we’ve read historically shows us it is.
Maurice Jackson: Mr. Culter, please share the contact details for Rover Metals.

Judson Culter: Please visit our website www.RoverMetals.com. On there, you’ll find our social media links, which are LinkedInTwitter, our Facebook page and CEO.ca.
Our social media channels really have daily content. We’re press releasing every couple of weeks, but a lot of our investors like really the daily updates on what’s going on in the Northwest Territory. That’s the best place to stay tuned.
You can also submit to our mailing list. We typically will do an email update every two weeks as well. If you go to the bottom of the homepage on the website, and just submit your email, that subscribes you to our email mailing list.
Maurice Jackson: And last but not least, please visit our website, provenandprobable.com, for mining insights and bullion sales. You may reach us at contact@provenandprobable.com.
Judson Culter of Rover Metals, thank you for joining us today on Proven and Probable.
Maurice Jackson is the founder of Proven and Probable, a site that aims to enrich its subscribers through education in precious metals and junior mining companies that will enrich the world.

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Disclosure: 
1) Maurice Jackson: I, or members of my immediate household or family, own shares of the following companies mentioned in this article: Rover Metals. I personally am, or members of my immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. My company has a financial relationship with the following companies mentioned in this article: None. Proven and Probable disclosures are listed below.
2) The following companies mentioned in this article are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click herefor important disclosures about sponsor fees.
3) Statements and opinions expressed are the opinions of the author and not of Streetwise Reports or its officers. The author is wholly responsible for the validity of the statements. The author was not paid by Streetwise Reports for this article. Streetwise Reports was not paid by the author to publish or syndicate this article. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports requires contributing authors to disclose any shareholdings in, or economic relationships with, companies that they write about. Streetwise Reports relies upon the authors to accurately provide this information and Streetwise Reports has no means of verifying its accuracy.
4) This article does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports’ terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports.
5) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the interview or the decision to write an article until three business days after the publication of the interview or article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases.
Proven and Probable LLC receives financial compensation from its sponsors. The compensation is used is to fund both sponsor-specific activities and general report activities, website, and general and administrative costs. Sponsor-specific activities may include aggregating content and publishing that content on the Proven and Probable website, creating and maintaining company landing pages, interviewing key management, posting a banner/billboard, and/or issuing press releases. The fees also cover the costs for Proven and Probable to publish sector-specific information on our site, and also to create content by interviewing experts in the sector. Monthly sponsorship fees range from $1,000 to $4,000 per month. Proven and Probable LLC does accept stock for payment of sponsorship fees. Sponsor pages may be considered advertising for the purposes of 18 U.S.C. 1734.
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Blog

ROVER METALS Announces Private Placement Financing

VANCOUVER , March 4, 2019 /CNW/ – Rover Metals Corp. (ROVR.V) (ROVMF(“Rover Metals” or the “Company“) is pleased to announce its intention to complete a non-brokered private placement of units (the “Units“) at a purchase price of $0.08 per Unit, for aggregate gross proceeds of up to CAD$1,250,000 (the “Offering“). Each Unit shall consist of one common share in the capital of the Company (a “Common Share“) and one Common Share purchase warrant (a “Warrant“).  Each Warrant shall entitle the holder to acquire an additional Common Share at a price of $0.15 per share for a period of 24 months following the date of issuance.

Rover Metals anticipates using 80% of the proceeds of the Offering to finance exploration activities at the Cabin Lake Gold Project and remaining use of proceeds for general and administrative expenses.

The Company may pay finder’s fees in accordance with the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange in connection with the Offering.

Rover Metals anticipates relying, in part, on the exemption from the prospectus requirements provided in BC Instrument 45-534 – Exemption From Prospectus Requirement For Certain Trades to Existing Security Holders (the “Existing Shareholder Exemption“).  The Company may also rely on other available prospectus exemptions.

Rover Metals has set March 1, 2019 as the record date for determining shareholders entitled to participate in the Offering in reliance on the Existing Shareholder Exemption. If the Offering is over-subscribed, Units will be allotted on a first come first served basis. Qualifying investors who wish to participate in the Offering should contact the Company using the contact information set forth below. It is anticipated that the Offering will close in one or more tranches commencing on or about March 15, 2019 .

All securities issued under the Offering will be subject to a hold period of four months and a day from the distribution date, in accordance with applicable securities laws.  Completion of the Offering is subject to the receipt of all applicable approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

About Rover Metals
Rover Metals is a natural resource exploration company specialized in gold that is currently focused on the Northwest Territories of Canada , one of the most mining friendly jurisdictions in North America . The Cabin Lake Group of High Grade Gold Projects are located within 20km of Fortune Minerals’ (FT.TO) planned NICO Project gold processor.

You can follow Rover Metals on its social media channels Twitter: https://twitter.com/rovermetals, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rover-metals/, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoverMetals/, and CEO.ca: https://ceo.ca/rovr for daily company updates and industry news.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF ROVER METALS
“Judson Culter”
Chief Executive Officer and Director

Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This news release contains statements that constitute “forward-looking statements.” Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause Rover’s actual results, performance or achievements, or developments in the industry to differ materially from the anticipated results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “intends,” “estimates,” “projects,” “potential” and similar expressions, or that events or conditions “will,” “would,” “may,” “could” or “should” occur.  Forward-looking statements in this document include statements regarding Rover’s expectations regarding the issuance of Units and receipt of regulatory approval therefor and the use of proceeds from the Offering. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Any factor could cause actual results to differ materially from Rover’s expectations. Rover undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management’s beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change.

THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE COMPANY AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE.  WHILE THE COMPANY MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE LAWS.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE

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Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Project Generators

Strathmore Hits Mineralization with Stacked Roll Fronts at Beaver Rim

Kelowna, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – December 3, 2024) – Strathmore Plus Uranium Corporation (TSXV: SUU) (OTCQB: SUUFF) (FSE: TO3) (“Strathmore” or “the Company“) is pleased to announce that the Company drilled two newly identified uranium roll fronts on the Beaver Rim project. Four drill holes were completed, including the discovery of the two mineralized zones on the South Sage claim group. The intercepts included 7.5 feet grading 0.042% eU3O8 from 1,119-1,126.5 feet (hole BR-03-24) and 4.5 feet grading 0.024% eU3O8 from 1,090-1,094.5 feet (hole BR-01-24).

The Beaver Rim areas drilled lie 1 to 3 miles south of Cameco’s fully permitted in-situ recovery Gas Hills project. The goals of the drilling program were to determine the validity of our geologic model for Beaver Rim and that it’s a legitimate uranium exploration target. This included:

  • Finding out if the arkosic-rich sediments beneath Beaver Rim correlate to the uranium bearing sediments to the north in the adjacent Gas Hills mining district?
  • Did these sediments act as the geologic passageway for uranium transport from the south through the project area towards Gas Hills?
  • Are these sediments suitable for uranium deposition and was there any uranium mineralization discovered in the Beaver Rim sediments?

With completion of the initial phase of drilling, Strathmore believes we have answered “Yes” to each of the questions regarding the geologic model, by having encountered uranium mineralization on the Beaver Rim project. The targeted host sandstone, the Puddle Springs Arkose member of the Eocene Wind River Formation was tested with the drilling. Results of the drilling show that the Puddle Springs is a very clean quartzite and feldspar-rich coarse sandstone and lesser mudstones. The member varied in thickness from 130-170 feet. Mineralization above grade cutoff (0.015% eU3O8) was encountered in two holes (BR-01-24, BR-03-24) in two separate sandstone intervals. A third hole, BR-02-24, showed above background gamma levels in three distinct sand intervals with notable alteration of the granitic sandstones in all holes drilled.

Based on these results, Strathmore believes the Beaver Rim area is a viable uranium exploration target. The Company plans to continue exploration of the project in 2025, including on the Diamond claim group to the west where previous drilling by Strathmore Minerals in 2012 encountered stacked roll front mineralization.

Hole IDLatitudeLongitudeCollar (Ft)From (Ft)To (Ft)Thickness
(Ft)
Grade %
BR-01-2442.72470-107.512307,1181,090.01,094.54.50.028
BR-02-2442.72918-107.514547,178Below cutoff
BR-03-2442.72495-107.512837,1261,119.01,126.57.50.042
1,137.01,139.52.50.028
BR-04-2442.76613-107.500537,403Below cutoff

Note: The tabled geophysical results are based on equivalent uranium (eU3O8) of the gamma-ray probes calibrated at the Department of Energy’s Test Facility in Casper, Wyoming. A series E Century Geophysical logging tool with gamma-ray, spontaneous potential, resistivity, and drift detectors was utilized in the logging. The reader is cautioned that the reported uranium grades may not reflect actual uranium concentrations due to the potential for disequilibrium between uranium and its gamma emitting daughter products. Further analysis on radiometric equilibrium will be conducted by Strathmore in the future.

Beaver Rim Technical Report
The Company has refiled to Sedar a technical report for the Beaver Rim project titled Technical Report on the Gas Hills-Beaver Rim Uranium Exploration Project, Fremont and Natrona Counties, Wyoming, USA. The report was authored by Mark B. Mathisen, C.P.G., of SLR International Corporation, and dated May 31, 2022. The report was required for Company regulatory purposes and inadvertently misfiled at the time in 2022. The report is available at www.sedarplus.ca. An updated report is planned upon completion of the autumn exploration program at the Beaver Rim project.

About the Beaver Rim Project
The Gas Hills uranium district is the largest uranium district in the State of Wyoming; with more than 100 million pounds of uranium being mined between 1954 to1988 when production ceased due to declining prices. Historical and recent reports suggest 50 to100 million pounds of uranium may exist in the Gas Hills district. The Beaver Rim project consists of 265 wholly owned mining claims totaling 5,475 acres. The project area was previously explored by American Nuclear in the 1970s, Cameco between1990 to early 2000’s, and most recently by Strathmore Minerals in 2012, where uranium mineralization was encountered at depths of 700-1,000 feet, contained in stacked, Wyoming-type roll front deposits within arkosic-rich sandstones of the Eocene-age Wind River Formation.

The Beaver Rim project lies immediately south and adjacent to Cameco’s fully permitted Gas Hills in-situ recovery project. Cameco reported for their Gas Hills project indicated and inferred mineral resources of 13.3 million and 6 million pounds of uranium, at 0.14% and 0.08% eU3O8 respectively (reported Dec. 31, 2023). Additional, historically defined resources controlled by Cameco are noted to trend from their Property south beneath the Beaver Rim claims including the West Diamond, East Diamond, North Sage, and South Sage properties. Strathmore is reviewing the greater Beaver Rim area and past exploration as part of its intent to acquire additional properties with the potential to contain uranium mineralization.

About Strathmore Plus Uranium Corp.
Strathmore has three permitted uranium projects in Wyoming: Agate, Beaver Rim, and Night Owl. The Agate and Beaver Rim properties contain uranium mineralization in typical Wyoming-type roll front deposits based on historical and recent drilling data. The Night Owl property is a former producing surface mine that was in production in the early 1960s.

Cautionary Statement: “Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as the term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.”

Certain information contained in this press release constitutes “forward-looking information,” within the meaning of Canadian legislation. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will be taken”, “occur”, “be achieved” or “has the potential to”. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release may include statements regarding the future operating or financial performance of Strathmore Plus Uranium Corp. which involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may not prove to be accurate. Actual results and outcomes may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in these forward-looking statements. Such statements are qualified in their entirety by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations. Among those factors which could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: market conditions and other risk factors listed from time to time in our reports filed with Canadian securities regulators on SEDAR at www.sedarplus.ca. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made as of the date of this press release and Strathmore Plus Uranium Corp. disclaim any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation.

Qualified Person
The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed on behalf of the company by Terrence Osier, P.Geo., Vice President, Exploration of Strathmore Plus Uranium Corp., a Qualified Person.

Strathmore Plus Uranium Corp.
Contact Information:
Investor Relations
Telephone: 1 888 882 8177
Email: info@strathmoreplus.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
“Dev Randhawa”
Dev Randhawa, CEO

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/232148

Categories
Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Project Generators

F3 Hits 4.5m of 50.1% U3O8 Within 30.9% Over 7.5m at JR

Kelowna, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – December 3, 2024) – F3 Uranium Corp. (TSV: FUU) (OTCQB: FUUFF) (“F3” or “the Company“) is pleased to announce rush assay results for drillhole PLN24-176 (see NR September 10, 2024) of the ongoing 2024 drill program on the PLN Property which returned 7.5m of 30.9% U3O8, including an ultra-high grade core with 4.5m of 50.1% U3O8.

Sam Hartmann, Vice President Exploration, commented:

“PLN24-176 represents the best hole drilled to date at the JR Zone in terms of grade thickness, including a true width assay interval of 4.5m of 50.1U3O8, starting at a shallow vertical depth of only 190m below surface. This drillhole was collared approximately 14m up-dip of PLN24-137 which returned 15.0m of 3.2% U3O8, including a high grade 2.5m interval averaging 18.6% U3O8 (See NR July 30, 2024). These results from PLN24-176 emphasize the need for tightly spaced drilling in these high grade basement hosted structurally controlled uranium deposits, which can often result in opening up additional targeting areas for high grade mineralization; in this case in the up-dip direction.”

JR Zone Assay Highlight:

PLN24-176 (line 035S):

  • 7.5m @ 30.9% U3O8 (196.0m to 203.5), including:
  • 5.5m @ 42.2% U3O8 (197.0m to 202.5m), further including:
  • 4.5m @ 50.1% U3O8 (197.5m to 202.0m)

Table 1. Drill Hole Summary and Uranium Assay Results

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https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8110/232279_screenshot%202024-12-02%20215213_550.jpg

Assay composite parameters:
1. Minimum Thickness of 0.5 m
2. Assay Grade Cut-Off: 0.05% U3O8 (weight %)
3. Maximum Internal Dilution: 2.0 m

Composited weight % U3O8 mineralized intervals are summarized in Table 1. Samples from the drill core are split in half sections on site. Where possible, samples are standardized at 0.5m down-hole intervals. One-half of the split sample is sent to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories (an SCC ISO/IEC 17025: 2005 Accredited Facility) in Saskatoon, SK while the other half remains on site for reference. Analysis includes a 63 element suite including boron by ICP-OES, uranium by ICP-MS and gold analysis by ICP-OES and/or AAS.

The Company considers uranium mineralization with assay results of greater than 1.0 weight % U3O8 as “high grade” and results greater than 20.0 weight % U3O8 as “ultra-high grade”.

All depth measurements reported are down-hole and true thickness are yet to be determined.

Map 1. JR Zone Drill Holes with Uranium Results

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:
https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8110/232279_f54b946e7442a80a_003full.jpg

About Patterson Lake North:

The Company’s 4,078-hectare 100% owned Patterson Lake North property (PLN) is located just within the south-western edge of the Athabasca Basin in proximity to Fission Uranium’s Triple R and NexGen Energy’s Arrow high-grade world class uranium deposits which is poised to become the next major area of development for new uranium operations in northern Saskatchewan. PLN is accessed by Provincial Highway 955, which transects the property, and the new JR Zone uranium discovery is located 23km northwest of Fission Uranium’s Triple R deposit.

Qualified Person:

The technical information in this news release has been prepare in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and approved on behalf of the company by Raymond Ashley, P.Geo., President & COO of F3 Uranium Corp, a Qualified Person. Mr. Ashley has verified the data disclosed.

About F3 Uranium Corp:

F3 Uranium is a uranium exploration company advancing its newly discovered high-grade JR Zone and exploring for additional mineralized zones on its 100%-owned Patterson Lake North (PLN) Project in the southwest Athabasca Basin. PLN is accessed by Provincial Highway 955, which transects the property, and the new JR Zone discovery is located ~25km northwest of Fission Uranium’s Triple R and NexGen Energy’s Arrow high-grade uranium deposits. This area is poised to become the next major area of development for new uranium operations in northern Saskatchewan. The PLN project is comprised of the PLN, Minto and Broach properties.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations or beliefs of future performance, including statements regarding the suitability of the Properties for mining exploration, future payments, issuance of shares and work commitment funds, entry into of a definitive option agreement respecting the Properties, are “forward-looking statements.” These forward-looking statements reflect the expectations or beliefs of the management of the Company based on information currently available to it. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including those detailed from time to time in filings made by the Company with securities regulatory authorities, which may cause actual outcomes to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements and information contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

The TSX Venture Exchange and the Canadian Securities Exchange have not reviewed, approved or disapproved the contents of this press release, and do not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

F3 Uranium Corp.
750-1620 Dickson Avenue
Kelowna, BC V1Y9Y2

Contact Information
Investor Relations
Telephone: 778 484 8030
Email: ir@f3uranium.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD
“Dev Randhawa”
Dev Randhawa, CEO

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/232279

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Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Oil & Gas Precious Metals

The “Price Stability” Myth Undermines Our Economy and Well-Being

12/02/2024•Mises WireFrank Shostak

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For most commentators, a “stable price level” is the key for economic stability. For instance, let us say that there is a relative increase in consumer demand for potatoes versus tomatoes. This relative increase is depicted, all things being equal, by the relative increase in the price of potatoes. To be successful, businesses must pay attention to consumer demand. Failing to do so is likely to lead to losses. Hence, by paying attention to relative changes in prices, producers are likely to increase the production of potatoes versus tomatoes.

According to many economists, if the “price level” is not “stable,” then the visibility of the relative price changes becomes blurred and, consequently, businesses cannot ascertain the relative changes in the demand for goods and services and make correct production decisions. This leads to a misallocation of resources and to the weakening of economic fundamentals. Thinking this way, unstable changes in the price level obscure a business person’s ability to ascertain changes in the relative prices of goods and services. Thus, businesses find it difficult to recognize a change in relative prices when the price level is unstable.

Given such presuppositions, it is not surprising that the mandate of the central bank is to pursue policies that will allegedly bring “price stability” (i.e., a stable price level). By means of various quantitative methods, the Fed’s economists have established that policymakers should aim at keeping the yearly growth rate of prices of goods and services at two percent. Any significant deviation from this figure supposedly constitutes deviation from stable growth.

The Assumption of Money Neutrality & “Price Stability”

At the root of price stabilization policies is a view that money is neutral, that is, changes in the money supply only have an effect on the price level while having no effect on the relative prices. For instance, if one apple exchanges for two potatoes then the price of an apple is two potatoes or the price of one potato is half an apple. Now, if one apple exchanges for one dollar, then the price of a potato is $0.50. Note that the introduction of money does not alter the fact that the relative price of potatoes versus apples is 2:1 (two-to-one). Thus, a seller of an apple will get one dollar for it, which, in turn, will enable him to purchase two potatoes.

Let us assume that the stock of money has doubled and, as a result, the purchasing power of money has halved, or the price level has doubled. This means that now one apple can be exchanged for two dollars while one potato for one dollar. Despite the doubling in prices, a seller of an apple with the obtained two dollars can still purchase two potatoes. Assuming money neutrality, an increase in the quantity of money leads to a proportionate increase in prices. Conversely, a fall in the quantity of money results in a proportionate decline in the prices. Why is this way of thinking problematic?

Money is Not Neutral

When new money is injected, there are always first recipients of the newly-injected money who benefit from this injection. The first recipients, with more money at their disposal, can now acquire a greater amount of goods while the prices of these goods are still unchanged. As money starts to move through the economy, the prices of goods begin to rise, unevenly and disproportionately. Consequently, late receivers of the inflated money realize costs from the monetary injections and may even find that most prices have risen so much that they can now afford fewer goods.

Artificial increases in money supply generate a redistribution of wealth from later recipients, or non-recipients of money, to the earlier recipients. Obviously, this shift in wealth alters individuals’ demands for goods and services and, in turn, further alters the relative prices of goods and services. Inflationary increases in money supply set in motion new dynamics that give rise to changes in demands for goods and services and to changes in their relative prices. Hence, increases in money supply cannot be neutral.

Again, a change in relative demands here is on account of wealth diversion from the latest recipients of money to the earlier recipients. This change in relative demands cannot be sustained without ongoing increases in the money supply. Once the growth rate of the money supply slows down or ceases altogether, various activities that emerged on the back of this inflationary increase in the money supply come under pressure. It follows, then, that an artificial increase in the money supply gives rise to changes in relative prices, which sets in motion an unsustainable structure of production.

Hence, the Fed’s monetary policy—which aims at stabilizing the price level—necessarily involves growth in the money supply. Since inflationary changes in the money supply are not neutral, this means that the central bank policy amounts to tampering with relative prices, which leads to the disruption of the efficient allocation of resources.

While increases in money supply are likely to be revealed in general price increases, this is not always the case. Prices are determined by real and monetary factors. Consequently, it can occur if the real factors are pulling things in an opposite direction to monetary factors. In such a case, a visible change in prices may not take place. While money growth is buoyant, prices might display moderate increases. If we were to pay attention to changes in the price level and disregard increases in the money supply, we would reach misleading conclusions regarding the state of the economy. On this, Rothbard wrote,

The fact that general prices were more or less stable during the 1920s told most economists that there was no inflationary threat, and therefore the events of the great depression caught them completely unaware.

There is No “Price Level”

The whole idea of the general purchasing power of money and, therefore, the “price level” cannot even be established conceptually. When one dollar is exchanged for the one loaf of bread, we can say that the purchasing power of the one dollar is the one loaf of bread. If one dollar is exchanged for two tomatoes, then this also means that the purchasing power of the one dollar is two tomatoes. Such information regarding the specific purchasing power of money at that moment in time does not, however, allow the establishment of the general, total purchasing power of money. It is not possible to ascertain the total purchasing power of money because we cannot meaningfully add up two tomatoes to the one loaf of bread. We can only establish the purchasing power of money with respect to a particular good in a transaction at a given point in time and at a given place. According to Rothbard,

Since the general exchange-value, or PPM (purchasing power of money), of money cannot be quantitatively defined and isolated in any historical situation, and its changes cannot be defined or measured, it is obvious that it cannot be kept stable. If we do not know what something is, we cannot very well act to keep it constant.

Conclusion

For most commentators, the key to healthy economic fundamentals is “price stability.” A “stable price level,” it is held, leads to the efficient use of the economy’s scarce resources and hence results in better economic fundamentals. It is not surprising that the mandate of the Federal Reserve is to pursue policies that will supposedly generate price stability. Through monetary policies (inflation) that aim at stabilizing the price level, the Fed actually undermines economic fundamentals. An ever-growing interference of the central bank with the working of markets moves the US economy towards the growth path of persistent economic impoverishment and drastically lower living standards.

On the contrary, what is required is not a policy of dubious “price stability,” but rather allowing free price fluctuations and maintaining sound money. Only in an environment free of central bank tampering can free and voluntary fluctuations in relative prices can take place. This, in turn, permits businesses to abide by consumer instructions.

Source: https://mises.org/mises-wire/price-stability-myth-undermines-our-economy-and-well-being

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Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Oil & Gas Precious Metals

An Austrian Perspective on Tariffs

11/30/2024•Mises WireAllen Gindler

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Tariffs have been a key instrument in government trade policies for centuries. For instance, one of the wealthiest ancient countries, Khazaria (7th-10th centuries CE), did not tax its citizens directly but instead imposed tariffs on all passing caravans due to its strategic location along major trade routes. In the United States, before introducing the federal income tax (1913), the government generated revenue primarily through tariffs. The role of tariffs is widely debated today, especially during election periods.

What Are Tariffs?

A tariff is, in essence, a tax imposed by a government on goods and services imported from other countries. The main purpose of tariffs is to make imported goods more expensive, thereby protecting domestic industries from foreign competition, to raise government revenue, and/or to influence trade policies. Tariffs can be broken down into two main types:

Specific tariffs: a fixed fee imposed per unit of imported goods (e.g., $100 per ton of imported steel)

Ad valorem tariffs: a percentage of the value of the imported goods (e.g., 10 percent on imported electronics).

Historically, tariffs were one of the primary sources of revenue for governments. Today, although their revenue-generating role has diminished, they are still used to protect domestic industries, control trade balances, and as leverage in international negotiations.

How Tariffs Work

When a company imports goods subject to tariffs, it must pay the tariff at the border, typically to customs authorities, before the goods are cleared. This means companies often pay the tariff upfront before selling the goods in the domestic market. When a tariff is imposed, it raises the cost of imported goods at the point of entry, which has several effects on the economy:

Raising Prices for Consumers

The most direct effect of tariffs is that they often make imported goods more expensive. Importers—facing higher costs because of tariffs—typically attempt to pass these costs on to consumers in the form of higher prices. For instance, if a 10 percent tariff is placed on imported cars, the price of those cars may rise by a similar amount. However, this increase is not always guaranteed, as market dynamics often prevent the transfer of the additional costs to consumers.

Protecting Domestic Producers

By making foreign goods and factors more expensive, tariffs create a protective barrier for domestic industries. Domestic producers can try to increase their prices, as the cost of imported alternatives rises. For instance, if tariffs are imposed on imported steel, domestic steel manufacturers benefit because the higher price of imported steel makes their products more attractive, even if they are more expensive than they would be in a fully open market.

Retaliatory Tariffs and Trade Wars

Tariffs can also spark retaliatory measures from trading partners, leading to trade wars. When one country imposes tariffs, affected nations may respond by placing tariffs on goods exported by the initial country, which escalates the situation. Trade wars can disrupt international supply chains, raise costs for businesses and consumers, and reduce economic growth.

Market Dynamics and Tariffs: Passing on Costs

Often, however, the costs of tariffs cannot be truly passed on to consumers. The extent to which the burden of tariffs is transferred depends on market dynamics, such as competition and consumer demand. In highly-competitive industries, companies may absorb the costs of tariffs to maintain their market share, sacrificing profit margins rather than risking losing customers to competitors. This pushes up production costs, hampers market dynamics, and may even push firms out of business.

The Austrian Approach to Tariffs and Comparative Advantage

The Austrian School of economics advocates for minimal government intervention in markets, promotes free trade, and supports individual liberty. Austrian economists view tariffs as detrimental to the natural efficiency of the market, because they distort price signals and lead to the misallocation of resources. Murray Rothbard explained that “Tariffs injure the consumer with the ‘protected’ area, who are prevented from purchasing from more efficient competitors at a lower price.”

The Austrian critique of tariffs is heavily rooted in the concept of comparative advantage, which argues that countries should specialize in producing goods where they are relatively more efficient. Even if a country is more efficient at producing all goods than another country, both can still benefit from trade if each specializes in goods for which it has a comparative advantage. This principle—originally developed by David Ricardo—emphasizes that trade allows for a more efficient allocation of global resources, lowering production costs and increasing prosperity for all participants.

In the context of comparative advantage, consider two countries—Country A and Country B—both of which produce electronics and textiles. Suppose Country A requires 8 hours to produce 1 unit of electronics and 4 hours for 1 unit of textiles. Country B, however, requires 10 hours to produce 1 unit of electronics and 8 hours for 1 unit of textiles.

Even though Country A is more efficient in producing both electronics and textiles, the principle of comparative advantage suggests that each country should specialize based on where they have a relative advantage. For Country A, the opportunity cost of producing 1 unit of electronics is 2 units of textiles (8/4). For Country B, the opportunity cost of producing 1 unit of electronics is 1.25 units of textiles (10/8). Thus, even though Country A is absolutely better at producing both goods, it is relatively better at producing textiles, while Country B is relatively better at producing electronics. If both countries specialize accordingly—Country A in textiles and Country B in electronics—and then trade, they can both enjoy more of each good than if they tried to produce both themselves.

However, if Country A imposes a 20 percent tariff on imported electronics from Country B, the cost of those imported electronics increases, making them less competitive in Country A’s market. This could cause Country A to shift resources inefficiently back into electronics production, even though it is less cost-effective than focusing on textiles. This illustrates how tariffs can disrupt the natural efficiency of trade and specialization, leading to suboptimal outcomes for both countries.

In general, from an Austrian perspective, tariffs distort price signals, which are essential for the efficient allocation of resources in a market economy. Prices in a free market reflect the underlying scarcity of goods, consumer preferences, and production costs. Tariffs, by artificially inflating the price of imported goods, disrupt these signals and lead consumers and producers to make inefficient choices.

Imposing tariffs for the sake of addressing a trade imbalance will not resolve the underlying cause, which is typically a loss of competitiveness in the entire industry or in specific goods. Tariffs make these industries even less competitive than they were before tariff imposition. Moreover, creating a “protective area” will force other companies to flock into protected industries, essentially depriving established firms of their initial monopolist benefits while leaving the overall misallocation of production and harm to consumers intact. Rothbard explained, “In the long run, therefore, a tariff per se does not establish a lasting benefit even for the immediate beneficiaries.”

Austrian Approach and National Security Concerns

While Austrian economists emphasize the efficiency of free markets and the advantages of comparative advantage, the case for free trade becomes more nuanced when national security concerns arise. Unfortunately, when national security is supposedly at stake, economic priorities often yield to political and strategic imperatives. Throughout history, political instability and conflicts have led governments to emphasize self-sufficiency over market efficiency, particularly in industries claimed to be vital to defense. During such times, the state uses “national defense” as a pretext for profound and widespread interference in the economy.

With modern states, war spending is determined by central planning and is not determined by consumer demand or guided by private markets. Thus, any approach to “national defense” will inevitably diverge from the Austrian preference for minimal intervention. However, it is hard to imagine that war preparation would go unnoticed, and if a nation depends completely on a particular resource from an unfriendly country, the market price of that product would skyrocket. This, in turn, would signal entrepreneurs to either stockpile large quantities of the resource at current prices, seek alternative suppliers that were previously ignored because of prohibitive costs, or seize the opportunity to revive domestic production.

The reliance on administrative measures often stems from a belief that market forces cannot respond quickly or effectively to crises, leading to policies that distort incentives and stifle innovation. By undermining price signals, governments often create monopolies or grant undue privileges to certain industries, consolidating power in ways that harm overall economic efficiency. This skepticism of market mechanisms reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of their adaptability and the profound role they play in dynamically coordinating resources, even under the pressures of wartime.

Source: https://mises.org/mises-wire/austrian-perspective-tariffs

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Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Metallic Group Metallic Minerals Precious Metals

Metallic Minerals Announces Warrant Extension

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / November 28, 2024 / Metallic Minerals Corp. (TSXV:MMG)(OTCQB:MMNGF) (“Metallic Minerals” or the “Company”) announces that the Company has applied for TSX Venture Exchange approval to extend the expiry date on certain share purchase warrants (the “Warrants”).

Per the application, 4,800,000 Warrants that were originally issued as part of a private placement transaction on June 8, 2022 (see June 9, 2022 news release) exercisable at $0.50 per warrant and expiring December 8, 2024 will now be extended to an expiry date of June 8, 2025.

In addition, the Company proposes to extend the expiry date for 735,500 warrants issued pursuant to a private placement transaction on June 30, 2022 (see June 17, 2022 news release) exercisable at $0.50 per warrant and expiring on December 30, 2024 will now be extended to June 30, 2025.

All other terms and conditions of the Warrants remain unchanged.

About Metallic Minerals
Metallic Minerals Corp. is a resource-stage mineral exploration company, focused on copper, silver, gold, and platinum group elements in top North American jurisdictions. Our objective is to create shareholder value through a systematic, entrepreneurial approach to making exploration discoveries, growing resources, and advancing projects toward development.

At the Company’s La Plata project in southwestern Colorado, the expanded NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate highlights a significant porphyry copper-silver resource containing 1.2 Blbs copper and 17.6 Moz of silver1, with numerous additional targets showing potential for a district-scale porphyry system. The Company announced a 9.5% strategic investment focused on La Plata by Newmont Corporation in May 2023 with two subsequent top up investments in 2024. The U.S. Geological Survey has identified the La Plata mining district as a critical minerals resource area under the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative program and has completed significant geologic and geophysical studies to enhance understanding of the critical mineral potential in the district. The La Plata project is located between the communities of Mancos and Durango, Colorado, north of Highway 160.

In Canada’s Yukon Territory, Metallic Minerals has the second-largest land position in the historic high-grade Keno Hill silver district, directly adjacent to Hecla’s operations, with more than 300 Moz of high-grade silver in past production and current M&I resources. The inaugural Resource Estimate at the Company’s Keno Silver project added 18.2 Moz silver equivalent2 to the Company’s total resources in 2024. Hecla is the largest primary silver producer in the USA and soon to be Canada’s largest with full production at its Keno Hill operations in 2024.

The Company is also one of the largest holders of alluvial gold claims in the Yukon and is building a production royalty business by partnering with experienced mining operators.

Metallic Minerals is led by a team with a track record of discovery and exploration success on several major precious and base metal deposits in North America, as well as having large-scale development, permitting and project financing expertise. The Metallic Minerals team is committed to responsible and sustainable resource development and has worked closely with Canadian First Nation groups, US Tribal/Native Corporations, and local communities to support successful project development.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Website: www.mmgsilver.com, Phone: 604-629-7800
Email: cackerman@mmgsilver.com, Toll Free: 1-888-570-4420

Footnotes

1.) As documented by www.juniormininghub.com; 2.) see news release dated July 23, 2023; 3.) see news release dated February 26, 2024

Forward-Looking Statements
This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed “forward-looking statements”. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts including, without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization, historic production, estimation of mineral resources, the realization of mineral resource estimates, interpretation of prior exploration and potential exploration results, the timing and success of exploration activities generally, the timing and results of future resource estimates, permitting time lines, metal prices and currency exchange rates, availability of capital, government regulation of exploration operations, environmental risks, reclamation, title, statements about expected results of operations, royalties, cash flows, financial position and future dividends as well as financial position, prospects, and future plans and objectives of the Company are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. Although Metallic Minerals believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include failure to obtain necessary approvals, unsuccessful exploration results, unsuccessful operations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, risks associated with regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment breakdowns, uninsured risks, delays in receiving government approvals, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. Readers are cautioned that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral exploration, development of mines and mining operations is an inherently risky business. Accordingly, the actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on Metallic Minerals and the risks and challenges of their businesses, investors should review their annual filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Metallic Minerals Corp.

Categories
Energy Junior Mining Lion One Metals Precious Metals

Lion One Releases Financial Results for Quarter Ended September 30, Announces USD $4 Million Tranche 3 Draw down on Nebari Financing Facility

North Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – December 2, 2024) – Lion One Metals Limited (TSXV: LIO) (OTCQX: LOMLF) (ASX: LLO) (“Lion One” or the “Company”) is pleased to release the Company’s financial results for Q1 FY 2025, and announces that the Company has entered into an agreement to amend certain terms and draw down a further USD $4,000,000 (“Tranche 3”) of its Senior Secured Financing Facility (the “Financing Facility”) provided by Nebari.

Financial Highlights Q1-FY25

During the three-month period ended September 30, 2024, the Company achieved the following:

  • Mine operating income of CAD$1,529,978
  • Record revenue of CAD$10,468,452
  • 3,129 ounces (oz) of gold sold, and 1,093 oz of silver sold
  • Average realized gold selling price of CAD$3,332 per oz
  • Cost of sales per gold oz of CAD$2,843 (net of silver revenue)

Mine Operations Highlights Q1-FY25

During the three-month period ended September 30, 2024, the Company achieved the following mining physicals:

  • Total 54,829 tonnes mined
  • 21,852 tonnes of waste mined
  • 32,977 tonnes of mineralized material mined at average grade of approximately 4.83 Au g/t
  • Total capital development of 283 meters
  • Total operating development of 666 meters
  • Decline advancement of 163 meters and vertical development of 155 meters

Mine production during the quarter was impacted by mine equipment availability in July and August as two underground loaders and a single boom jumbo were out of service for repairs. A new underground loader arrived on site in September resulting in improved equipment availability. Despite the mine equipment utilization issues, the mine was still able to deliver 32,977 tonnes of mineralized materials at 4.83 g/t Au, including 28,922 tonnes of mineralized materials at 5.16 Au g/t and 4,055 tonnes of lower grade mineralized materials at 2.46 Au g/t. The Company will stockpile the lower grade materials (mineralized materials below 3 Au g/t) with the intention of feeding the lower grade mineralized materials once the mill expansion has been completed and excess milling capacity is available.

In the near term, the Company will continue to add mining equipment to improve equipment availability and invest in critical mine infrastructure projects such as the raise bore and mine ventilation project which started in October 2024 and scheduled for completion in January 2025.

Pilot Plant Operations Highlights Q1-FY25

During the three-month period ended September 30, 2024, the Company achieved the following mill physicals:

  • 31,391 tonnes of mineralized material processed at an average head grade of 4.6 Au g/t
  • Record 3,639 oz of gold recovered
  • 2,889 oz gold doré poured
  • 3,129 oz gold refined and sold
  • Overall 78.2% recovery achieved for the quarter
  • Record 81.3% recovery achieved in September
  • 81 days of mill operations in the quarter
  • 11 days of mill downtime, including 9 days for scheduled mill maintenance
  • Approximately 1,889 oz of mineralized material (primarily gold) was retained within the mill circuit as in process store of metal as of September 30, 2024, with an additional 112 oz of gold doré stored in inventory.

Mill production during the quarter was impacted by a scheduled nine-day mill maintenance shutdown in July 2024, which was conducted to maintain and upgrade the Tuvatu processing plant facilities. These upgrades will have a significant impact on processing efficiency and cost savings moving forward. Major upgrades completed during the shutdown include re-lining the primary ball mill with rubber liners, replacing the bowl/mantle for the cone crusher, replacing the #1 conveyor belt, replacing the grinding and gravity circuit piping with flexible slurry hoses, and installing new detox feed pumps and feed splitter box for the detox circuit. Despite the down time from July, the Company nevertheless achieved a record quarterly gold production of 3,639 oz recovered for the three-month period ending September 30, 2024. This marks three consecutive quarters of record production during the pilot plant phase of operations at Tuvatu.

The Company advises that it has not based its current mine development plan on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability, and as a result there may be an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level either of the recovery of minerals or of the cost of such recovery, including increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit.

Drilling Highlights Q1-FY25

Lion One has a total of five drills currently operating at Tuvatu. Three drills are located underground and are engaged in grade control and infill drilling, while two drills are located on surface, engaged in near mine exploration, extension, and infill drilling.

During the three-month period ended September 30, 2024, the Company completed 9,809.9 meters of diamond drilling in 65 completed holes, with a further 5 drill holes still in progress.

September 2024 Quarter Exploration Summary
ActivityNumber
# of drill holes completed65
# of drill holes in progress at end of Quarter5
# of meters drilled9,809.9
# of drill core samples submitted for analysis13,984
# of channels excavated and sampled164
# of samples from channel sampling1,701
# of surface rock chip samples collected96
# of samples analyzed in Lion One Laboratory20,748

On October 1, 2024, the Company reported significant new high-grade gold results from near-mine exploration and infill drilling at the West Zone target, located 300 m to the west of to the Tuvatu Gold Mine in Fiji.

Highlights of West Zone exploration and infill drilling:

  • 105.20 g/t Au over 2.1 m (including 248.35 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TUDDH-636, from 67.8 m depth)
  • 70.07 g/t Au over 2.1 m (including 73.43 g/t Au over 1.2 m) (TUDDH-647, from 144.5 m depth)
  • 102.38 g/t Au over 1.2 m (TUDDH-645, from 97.7 m depth)
  • 19.82 g/t Au over 5.1 m (including 68.88 g/t Au over 0.9 m) (TUDDH-636, from 34.5 m depth)
  • 146.61 g/t Au over 0.6 m (including 289.85 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TUDDH-645, from 164.3 m depth)
  • 24.16 g/t Au over 3.3 m (including 96.78 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TUDDH-652, from 173.5 m depth)
  • 49.72 g/t Au over 0.8 m (including 78.61 g/t Au over 0.4 m) (TUDDH-755, from 52.94 m depth)
  • 42.44 g/t Au over 1.8 m (including 61.66 g/t Au over 0.6 m) (TUDDH-636, from 60.6 m depth)
  • 7.68 g/t Au over 4.2 m (including 28.63 g/t Au over 0.3 m) (TUDDH-645, from 142.4 m depth)
  • 14.86 g/t Au over 2.0 m (TUDDH-636, from 228.8 m depth)

*All drill intersects are downhole lengths, 3.0 g/t cutoff.

Subsequent to the quarter end, on November 12, 2024, the Company reported that development of a new near-surface roscoelite-bearing high-grade gold zone had commenced at Tuvatu. Roscoelite is a rare green to black vanadium bearing mica mineral, the presence of which is a defining characteristic of alkaline gold systems such as Tuvatu. It is directly associated with higher-grade gold occurrences and as such it is an important indicator mineral in these systems.

An initial bulk sample of the near-surface roscoelite zone at Tuvatu returned 11.6 g/t gold from 861 tonnes of mineralized materials mined at full mining widths. The Company is enhancing its mine plan with this gold-rich roscoelite material, which is already being processed through the pilot plant.

Roscoelite veining is directly related to high-grade gold mineralization at the nearby Vatukoula gold mine in Fiji where over 7 million ounces of gold have been produced over the last 95 years. Roscoelite is also observed in association with gold mineralization at the Porgera gold mine in PNG, which has been a top ten ranked gold mine globally and which has produced over 25 million ounces of gold. Vatukoula and Porgera are both alkaline gold systems similar to Tuvatu. At Porgera, the most economically significant veins are the Stage II quartz-roscoelite-pyrite veins with native gold, found in the Roamane fault zone. Similar Stage II quartz-roscoelite-pyrite veins are also observed in the new near-surface roscoelite zone at Tuvatu.

Nebari Tranche 3 Draw Down

In addition to releasing the quarterly financial results, the Company also announces that it has entered into an agreement to amend certain terms and drawn down a further USD $4,000,000 (“Tranche 3“) of its Senior Secured Financing Facility (the “Financing Facility“) provided by Nebari Gold Fund 1, LP, Nebari Natural Resources Credit Fund I, LP, and Nebari Natural Resources Credit Fund II, LP (collectively, “Nebari“), previously announced on January 13, 2023 and January 2, 2024. Including the gross up for the original issue discount, Tranche 3 represents a further US$4,347,826 of principal under the Financing Facility. Proceeds from the Financing Facility have to date facilitated construction and commissioning of the Company’s 100% owned Tuvatu Gold Mine in Fiji, and Tranche 3 will facilitate investments as part of a Mine Enhancement Plan to stabilise and increase current production and prepare the mine to support future expansion of the process plant.

The Company has now fully drawn down the Financing Facility. In addition to amending the terms of the Financing Facility to facilitate drawing down Tranche 3, the Company amended certain reporting covenants.

Interest on the first USD $23 million drawn in Tranche 1 of the Facility remains at 8% (plus three-month SOFR), and amortization is on the Maturity Date 42 months from the original closing date, and no closing fees were payable. The USD $8 million drawn under Tranche 2 was subject to an 8% original issue discount and interest remains at 10% plus SOFR, with progressive amortization over 42 months from the Tranche 2 funding date, and closing fees equal to 2% of the amount funded. The USD $4 million drawn under Tranche 3 is subject to an 8% original issue discount and interest is 10% plus SOFR, with progressive amortization over 6 months from 30 June 2025, with closing fees equal to 2% of the amounts funded.

In connection with the drawdown of Tranche 3, the Company has agreed to issue Nebari an aggregate of 4,142,759 common shares in the capital of the Company as a loan bonus in accordance with the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Company has also agreed to amend the exercise price of the 15,333,087 share purchase warrants issued to Nebari as part of the Financing Facility to an exercise price of $0.38 per warrant. All other terms of the warrants remain the same, including the acceleration provision that requires Nebari to exercise the warrants that can be triggered upon the volume weighted average price of the Company’s common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange being in excess of 200% of the exercise price of the warrants on each of 20 consecutive trading days. The issuance of the share loan bonus and amendment of share purchase warrants is subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Competent Persons Statement
The information in this report that relates to mineral exploration at the Tuvatu Gold Project is based on information compiled by the Lion One team and reviewed by Melvyn Levrel, who is the company’s Senior Geologist. Mr Levrel is a Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists and has sufficient experience that is relevant to the style of mineralisation and type of deposit under consideration, and to the activity being undertaken, to qualify as a Competent Person as defined in the 2012 edition of the ‘Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves’ (JORC code). Mr Levrel consents to the inclusion in this report of the matters based on the information in the form and context in which it appears.

Mr. Patrick Hickey, P. Eng., MBA, who is an officer of the Company, is a Qualified Person under the meaning of Canadian National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for the development and engineering content of this report.

Lion One Laboratories / QAQC
Lion One adheres to rigorous QAQC procedures above and beyond basic regulatory guidelines in conducting its drilling, sampling, testing, and analyses. The Company operates its own geochemical assay laboratory and its own fleet of diamond drill rigs using PQ, HQ and NQ sized drill rods.

Diamond drill core samples are logged and split by Lion One personnel on site and delivered to the Lion One Laboratory for preparation and analysis. All samples are pulverized at the Lion One lab to 85% passing through 75 microns and gold analysis is carried out using fire assay with an AA finish. Samples that return grades greater than 10.00 g/t Au are re-analyzed by gravimetric method, which is considered more accurate for very high-grade samples.

Duplicates of 5% of samples with grades above 0.5 g/t Au are delivered to ALS Global Laboratories in Australia for check assay determinations using the same methods (Au-AA26 and Au-GRA22 where applicable). ALS also analyses 33 pathfinder elements by HF-HNO3-HClO4 acid digestion, HCl leach and ICP-AES (method ME-ICP61). The Lion One lab can test a range of up to 71 elements through Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES), but currently focuses on a suite of 23 important pathfinder elements with an aqua regia digest and ICP-OES finish.

About Lion One Metals Limited
Lion One Metals is an emerging Canadian gold producer headquartered in North Vancouver BC, with new operations established in late 2023 at its 100% owned Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project in Fiji. The Tuvatu project comprises the high-grade Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Deposit, the Underground Gold Mine, the Pilot Plant, and the Assay Lab. The Company also has an extensive exploration license covering the entire Navilawa Caldera, which is host to multiple mineralized zones and highly prospective exploration targets.

On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Walter Berukoff, Chairman & CEO

Contact Information
Email: info@liononemetals.com
Phone: 1-855-805-1250 (toll free North America)
Website: www.liononemetals.com

Neither the TSX-V nor its Regulation Service Provider accepts responsibility or the adequacy or accuracy of this release

This press release may contain statements that may be deemed to be “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “proposed”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. This forward-looking information reflects Lion One Metals Limited’s current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Lion One Metals Limited and on assumptions Lion One Metals Limited believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to, the actual results of exploration projects being equivalent to or better than estimated results in technical reports, assessment reports, and other geological reports or prior exploration results. Forward-Looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of Lion One Metals Limited or its subsidiaries to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the stage development of Lion One Metals Limited, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of current research and development or operational activities; competition; uncertainty as to patent applications and intellectual property rights; product liability and lack of insurance; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting mining, timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; not realizing on the potential benefits of technology; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labor or loss of key individuals. Although Lion One Metals Limited has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Lion One Metals Limited does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/232125

Categories
Base Metals Breaking Energy Junior Mining Precious Metals

Polish central bank becomes biggest buyer of gold

The president of the National Bank of Poland, Adam Glapinski, recently revealed that the central bank would continue to buy gold, and is aiming for the precious metal to make up 20% of the bank’s reserves.

The National Bank of Poland (NBP), also known as the Narodowy Bank Polski, became the joint biggest gold buyer amongst central banks in the second quarter of 2024, tying with India, according to the World Gold Council. This was after the NBP bought approximately 19 tonnes of the precious metal. 

The president of the National Bank of Poland, Adam Glapinski, also said earlier this year that the central bank was planning to ensure that gold made up 20% of its reserves. At present, gold accounts for about 14.7% of the NBP’s reserves. 

Grzegorv Dróżdż, market analyst at Conotoxia, said: “At the end of the second quarter of this year, Poland’s gold reserves rose to 377.4 tonnes, and the pace of purchases of the bullion, held mainly at the Bank of England, since April this year has surpassed even the world’s largest economies.”

During the second quarter of the year, the price of gold also crossed the record level of $2,500 (€2,249.26) per ounce

This has led to more speculation about whether gold may be a good investment right now and why central banks have been scrambling to shore up reserves of the precious metal lately. 

Related

Why are central banks buying up more gold bullion?

One of the main reasons that central banks are stocking up more on gold recently is to be able to sufficiently diversify their reserves to protect against macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical shocks. 

This is because, in terms of economic and geopolitical volatility, when currency and other asset prices may fluctuate, gold is seen as a safe haven asset and an inflation hedge. 

As such, gold’s relatively stable performance during times of crisis, as well as its inflation hedge qualities are driving factors behind central banks picking the metal. It is also an effective way to diversify central bank portfolios and is considered to be highly liquid, with no default risk. 

It is also less affected by policy risk and can be used as a valuable collateral and policy tool. In some cases, gold can also help countries facing international sanctions, such as Russia, to avoid them. This in turn, incentivises these countries to buy more gold and use it to help maintain their liquidity, in case other means of finance are blocked off or difficult to access. 

On the other hand, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) considerably slowed its gold-buying trend in the second quarter of the year. 

In Poland, gold demand has surged following the COVID-19 pandemic and because of the Russia-Ukraine war. Several investors also fear that the Russian invasion in Ukraine may spill over to Poland and want to prepare themselves in case of such a scenario by investing more in gold. 

In other parts of the world, stubbornly high inflation has also driven people more towards gold, with other geopolitical shocks such as the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars exacerbating this trend. 

has also revealed that it is investing in foreign equities and corporate bonds with the help of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as another way to diversify its reserves. What factors impact the gold market?There are several factors impacting the gold market, namely, US dollar movements, real and expected inflation rates and gold jewellery demand, amongst others. Central bank purchases of gold can also have a significant impact on the metal’s prices. Although to a lesser extent, gold mining production can also have an impact on prices. Gold prices can spike if gold mining companies’ have to spend more on production costs, such as digging deeper mines, or face other issues such as labour strikes, environmental protests and weather phenomena, to name a few. At present, most of the world’s gold mining output comes from China, Australia, Russia, Canada and the United States.

Dróżdż also said: “The gold market, like many others, is driven by two forces: demand and supply. In the past few quarters, an increase in demand has been particularly evident.

“Moreover, the continued weakening of the dollar may indicate that gold could outperform other key assets in the near term. Conotoxia’s baseline scenario assumes that gold price momentum could slow down by the end of the year, with a possible correction, but is likely to remain above the $2,500 per ounce level.”

source: https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/08/23/polish-central-bank-becomes-largest-buyer-of-gold-in-second-quarter

Categories
Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Precious Metals Project Generators

Trump Demands ‘Commitment’ From BRICS Nations on Using Dollar

(Bloomberg) — US President-elect Donald Trump warned the so-called BRICS nations that he would require commitments that they would not move to create a new currency as an alternative to using the US dollar and repeated threats to levy a 100% tariff.

Most Read from Bloomberg

“The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump said in a post to his Truth Social network on Saturday.

“We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty U.S. Dollar or, they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful U.S. Economy,” he added.

Trump on his campaign trail pledged that he would make it costly for countries to move away from the US dollar. And he’s threatened to use tariffs to ensure they complied. Saturday’s threat took on new relevance as the president-elect prepares to retake power in January.

Trump and his economic advisers have been discussing ways to punish allies and adversaries alike who seek to engage in bilateral trade in currencies other than the dollar. Those measures include considering options such as export controls, currency manipulation charges and levies on trade, according to people familiar with the matter.

Trump has long stressed that he wants the US dollar to remain the world’s reserve currency, saying in a March interview with CNBC that he “would not allow countries to go off the dollar” because it would be “a hit to our country.”

The BRICS nations — as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa are collectively known — discussed the issue of de-dollarization at a summit in 2023. Backlash against the dollar’s dominance gained traction in 2022 when the US led efforts to impose economic sanctions on Russia.

Economic advisers to Trump and his campaign have spoken in particular about targeting the BRICS effort.

Earlier: Trump Aides Discuss Penalties for Nations That De-Dollarize

“There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America,” Trump said Saturday.

The president-elect has already rattled world markets ahead of his second term with threats to levy an additional 10% tariffs on goods from China and 25% tariffs on all products from Mexico and Canada if those countries do not do more to stem the flow of illegal drugs and undocumented migrants across US borders.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Trump on Friday to discuss trade and border issues in a bid to tamp down tensions between the two allied nations after the tariff threat.

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-demands-commitment-brics-nations-182124427.html

Categories
Base Metals Energy Exclusive Interviews Junior Mining Precious Metals Project Generators

RIVERSIDE RESOURCES Spins Out Gold Explorer Blue Jay Resources

In this video, Dr. John Mark Staude and Georgie Mark discuss exciting developments from Riverside Resources, including the upcoming spin-out of Blue Jay Resources, a company focused on gold exploration in Ontario’s Beardmore-Geraldton gold belt. Dr. Staude highlights the strategic decision to diversify Riverside’s portfolio beyond Mexico, with Ontario offering a prime location for gold discovery. Georgie Mark, the newly appointed CEO of Blue Jay Resources, shares his vision for the company’s growth, including exploring high-grade gold deposits that have been overlooked for over 70 years. They also discuss Riverside’s strong capital structure and the opportunity for shareholders to benefit from both Riverside and Blue Jay’s future success. Find out why Rick Rule is a shareholder in Riverside Resources.

For investor questions please call or email:

Website: https://www.rivres.com/ TSX.V: RRI | OTC: RVSDF Communications Team 778-327-6671
Email info@rivres.com

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