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

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

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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

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rover-metals-corp-announces-non-brokered-private-placement-of-up-to-cad1-250-000–300805708.html

Categories
Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Precious Metals Project Generators Uncategorized

Riverside Resources Executes Option Agreement for the Revel Carbonatite Rare Earth Element Project, British Columbia

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Aug. 24, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Riverside Resources Inc. (“Riverside” or the “Company“) (TSX-V: RRI) (OTCQB: RVSDF) (FSE: 5YY0), is pleased to announce that it has entered into an option agreement (the “Option Agreement“) with 1575540 B.C. Ltd., a private British Columbia company (the “Optionee“), pursuant to which the Optionee may acquire a 100% interest in Riverside’s Revel carbonatite rare earth element (REE) project located approximately 20 kilometres from the community of Seymour Arm, north of Revelstoke, in southeastern British Columbia (the “Revel Project” or the “Project“) with Riverside retaining a 3% NSR if the option is completed and if not the project returns 100% to Riverside.

“Securing this option agreement for Revel is an excellent step forward for Riverside’s REE portfolio and we can immediately move forward with a high resolution geophysical survey of the project with partner funding to refine and expand the targets,” said John-Mark Staude, President and CEO of Riverside Resources. “The agreement brings dedicated funding to advance the 12-kilometre-long Revel carbonatite REE system while allowing our team to remain involved in the program and building value across our broader portfolio of British Columbia and Mexico projects. By retaining a 3% NSR, Riverside preserves meaningful long-term exposure to the discovery and development potential of the Revel Project.”

Terms of the Option Agreement

Under the terms of the Option Agreement, the Optionee may acquire a 100% interest in the Revel Project by making aggregate cash payments to Riverside totalling $450,000 and incurring aggregate exploration expenditures on the Project totalling up to $2,200,000 in each case in accordance with the milestone schedule set out below and over a 5-year option period commencing on February 18, 2026 as the effective date of the Option Agreement.

Milestone Cash Payments and Exploration Expenditures

MilestoneCash Payments to RiversideExploration Spend Required
Signing Option Agreement$40,000(1)N/A
On or before the 1st Anniversary of the Effective Date$60,000$150,000(1)
On or before the 2nd Anniversary of the Effective Date$50,000$350,000
On or before the 3rd Anniversary of the Effective Date$50,000$500,000
On or before the 4th Anniversary of the Effective Date$100,000$1,200,000 or
$1,000,000(2)
On or before the 5th Anniversary of the Effective Date$150,000N/A
Total$450,000Up to $2,200,000
  1. Paid $40,000 Signing Option and has Firm Commitment of $150,000 minimum exploration spending in 1st year.
  2. An additional $1,200,000 of Exploration Expenditures (for an aggregate of $2,200,000 in Exploration Expenditures) on or before the 4th anniversary of this Agreement in the event the price of Au is greater than $6,000 per ounce on January 1, 2029 OR an additional $1,000,000 (for an aggregate of $2,000,000 in Exploration Expenditures) in the event the price of Au is less than $6,000 per ounce on January 1, 2029.

Upon exercise of the option and acquisition of a 100% interest in the Revel Project, the Optionee will grant to Riverside a 3% net smelter returns royalty on all commercial production from the Project on the terms set out in the NSR Royalty Agreement entered into concurrently with the Option Agreement (the “Royalty Agreement“). The Royalty Agreement provides the Optionee with two buy-down rights: (i) a first right to purchase 0.5% of the NSR for US$1,000,000 at any time prior to January 1, 2033, reducing the royalty to 2.5%; and (ii) a second right, exercisable only if the first buy-down has been exercised, to purchase an additional 1.0% of the NSR for US$2,000,000 at any time prior to January 1, 2035, reducing the royalty to 1.5%.  

Riverside’s exploration team will continue to provide technical input and oversight on the Revel Project during the option period, with the Optionee funding programs designed to advance the Project toward drill testing of the carbonatite-style rare earth system.

About the Revel Project

The Revel Project is located approximately 20 kilometres from the community of Seymour Arm and north of Revelstoke, British Columbia, within a highly prospective carbonatite belt. The Project covers part of the Mount Grace Carbonatite, which is known to host rare earth element mineralization, and Riverside has outlined a 12-kilometre-long carbonatite-style rare earth system at Revel that remains undrilled.

The Revel claims are located on the northeast margin of the Frenchman Cap Gneiss Dome, comprising part of the Shuswap Metamorphic Terrain. The core gneisses are overlain by allochthonous cover rocks that host both extrusive and intrusive carbonatites and form part of the Monashee cover sequence. Recent exploration at Revel has included detailed mapping, spectral and geochemical sampling, and ground geophysics designed to vector toward higher-grade REE zones in advance of drill testing.

The next work will likely be airborne geophysics and field exploration work during the summer of 2026 with funding partner providing the capital for these efforts. Additional information on the Revel Project is available on Riverside’s website at www.rivres.com.

Qualified Person & QA/QC:

The scientific and technical data contained in this news release pertaining to the Project was reviewed and approved by Freeman Smith, P.Geo, a non-independent qualified person to Riverside Resources Inc., who is responsible for ensuring that the information provided in this news release is accurate and who acts as a “qualified person” under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

About Riverside Resources Inc.:

Riverside is a well-funded exploration company driven by value generation and discovery. The Company has a strong balance sheet, no debt and tight share structure with a strong portfolio of gold-silver, copper, and REE assets and royalties in North America. Further information about Riverside is available on the Company’s website at www.rivres.com.

ON BEHALF OF RIVERSIDE RESOURCES INC.

“John-Mark Staude”

Dr. John-Mark Staude, President & CEO

For additional information contact:
John-Mark Staude
President, CEO
Riverside Resources Inc.
info@rivres.com
Phone: (778) 327-6671
Fax: (778) 327-6675
Web: www.rivres.com
Eric Negraeff
Investor Relations
Riverside Resources Inc.
Phone: (778) 327-6671
TF: (877) RIV-RES1
Web: www.rivres.com

Certain statements in this press release may be considered forward-looking information. These statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology (e.g., “expect”,” estimates”, “intends”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “plans”). Such information involves known and unknown risks — including the availability of funds, the results of financing and exploration activities, the interpretation of exploration results and other geological data, or unanticipated costs and expenses and other risks identified by Riverside in its public securities filings that may cause actual events to differ materially from current expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release.

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.

Categories
Base Metals Breaking Junior Mining Precious Metals Project Generators

AIAI Holdings Commences Discussions with Messier 42 LLC Regarding Acquisition Opportunities

Company Update

DALLAS, TX / ACCESS Newswire / August 24, 2026 / AIAI Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:AIAI) (“Ai2” or the “Company”), an AI-enabled diversified holding company utilizing Transformational AI (TAI) to enhance portfolio performance, announced today that, following discussions with its board, the Company is commencing discussions with Messier 42 LLC, a company controlled by our founder and controlling stockholder, John P. Rochon, to begin the process of acquiring a number of M42’s existing and targeted businesses across multiple sectors to help execute the Company’s vision, including international and domestic defense, intelligence, healthcare, gaming and rare earth minerals. The Company anticipates that, if completed, these significant transactions will be structured to be minimally dilutive to the current Ai² stockholders.

The acquisitions remain subject to due diligence and will require the approval of the board of AIAI. Additionally, because these will be related-party transactions, the Company will retain an investment banker to provide a fairness opinion and structuring advice.

About AIAI Holdings Corporation
AIAI Holdings Corporation (Ai2) (NASDAQ:AIAI) is an AI-enabled diversified holding company that acquires and grows companies across multiple industries. We expect to drive revenue and earnings growth throughout our portfolio by applying exclusively licensed Transformational AI to enhance operational efficiency and financial performance.

Ai2 is building a next-generation model for technology-enabled business operations, which is expected to create sustainable value for shareholders through the strategic integration of artificial intelligence across diverse industries.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” or “forward-looking information” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs, and current expectations of the Company with respect to future business activities and plans of the Company. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements regarding our expectations, intentions, beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions. Forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “would,” “could,” “should”, “estimate,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” “estimate”, or “continue,” or similar expressions, including the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology.

Forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current expectations regarding its strategy, plans, intentions, performance, or future occurrences or results, the information on which such expectations were based may change. These forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are outside of the Company’s control, that could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to materially differ from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to our lack of operating history, our ability to attract new investments, our failure to manage growth effectively, our acquisition activities may pose risks that could harm our business, and our licensed AI may not perform up to the expected standards, as well as general business and economic conditions, competitive pressures, regulatory changes, technological developments, and other factors identified in the Company’s most recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Registration Statement on Form S-1, which are available for review at www.sec.gov

Furthermore, the Company operates in a competitive environment where new and unanticipated risks may arise. Accordingly, investors should not place any reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we disclaim any intention to, and, except as may be required by law, undertake no obligation to, update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that subsequently occur or of which the Company hereafter become aware. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

Investor Relations
Matthew Selinger, Senior Partner
Integrous Communications
Email: mselinger@integcom.us
Phone: 415-572-8152

Visit and follow AIAI Holdings Corporation online:

Website: www.aiaiholdings.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aiaiholdings/
X/Twitter: https://x.com/aiaiholdings
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_aisquared/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aiaiholdings

SOURCE: AIAI Holdings

Categories
Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Precious Metals Project Generators

Ur-Energy Announces First Shipment of Uranium from Shirley Basin Mine, Wyoming

CASPER, WY / ACCESS Newswire / August 20, 2026 / Ur-Energy Inc. (NYSE American:URG)(TSX:URE) (“Ur-Energy” or the “Company“), America’s largest and fastest-growing domestic ISR uranium producer, is pleased to announce that on August 19, 2026, it made the first shipment of uranium from its Shirley Basin mine to its Lost Creek processing plant in Wyoming.

Matt Gili, President & CEO of Ur-Energy, stated, “This first shipment is not only the start of full operations at Shirley Basin, it also marks Ur-Energy’s transition to a multi-asset, domestic U.S. uranium producer. It is important to note that Shirley Basin moved from construction decision to production in just two and a half years. This is a clear demonstration of our team’s ability to progress through permitting, construction, and startup in a highly effective manner. Crucially, this milestone also validates our capital-efficient, hub-and-spoke development model and further strengthens Ur-Energy’s position as a leading U.S. uranium producer.”

With licensed wellfield and toll processing capacity of up to 2.0 million pounds of U3O8 equivalent, Ur-Energy’s Shirley Basin mine is the Company’s second uranium in-situ recovery (“ISR”) operation in Wyoming. As previously announced, initial mining operations commenced at the mine in April 2026. Final authorization to advance to full operations was received from the State of Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality in late June 2026.

Shirley Basin is being run as a satellite mine of the Company’s Lost Creek hub operation. Lost Creek, which is home to the largest operating ISR mine in the U.S., has a proven and tested facility that has processed and shipped more than 3.5 million pounds of U3O8 to the conversion facility for delivery to the Company’s customers. This hub-and-spoke model is the basis of Ur-Energy’s growth platform in Wyoming. It avoids duplicative infrastructure, improves capital efficiency, and can be scaled at an accelerated pace.

Now that shipments from Shirley Basin to Lost Creek have commenced, the Company will execute on its strategy for ramp-up to full commercial levels, while continuing to advance its other organic growth opportunities in the district.

About Ur-Energy

Ur-Energy is the largest and fastest-growing ISR uranium mining company in the United States. It owns and operates the Lost Creek ISR uranium facility in south-central Wyoming, which has produced more than 3.5 million pounds of U₃O₈ since operations began, and the Shirley Basin ISR operation in central Wyoming, where uranium recovery commenced in April 2026. Lost Creek and Shirley Basin have combined annual licensed production and toll-processing capacity of 4.2 million pounds of U₃O₈. The Company is also engaged in exploration and development activities at a selection of projects in the Great Divide Basin uranium district. Ur-Energy’s common shares trade on the NYSE American under the symbol “URG” and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “URE.” The Company’s corporate headquarters is in Casper, Wyoming, and its registered office is in Ottawa, Ontario.

Contact Ur-Energy Investor Relations at:
Richard Matthews
Phone: +1 (604) 355-7179
Email: info@ur-energy.com

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information

This release may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable securities laws regarding events or conditions that may occur in the future (e.g., our ability and the expected or planned timing at Shirley Basin to ramp up and increase production or to reach full commercial levels of production; our ability in the future to execute on our construction, development, and operating plans; and our ability in the future to comply with regulatory requirements and receive regulatory approvals). Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by use of forward-looking terminology such as “plans,” “expects,” “does not expect,” “is expected,” “is likely,” “estimates,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “does not anticipate,” “believes,” or variations of the foregoing, or statements that certain actions, events or results “may,” “could,” “might” or “will” “be taken,” “occur,” “be achieved” or “have the potential to.” All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are considered to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, capital and other costs varying significantly from estimates; failure to establish estimated resources and reserves; the grade and recovery of ore that is mined varying from estimates; production rates, methods, and amounts varying from estimates; delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental, or other project approvals; inflation; changes in exchange rates; fluctuations in commodity prices; delays in development; changes in governmental polices or market conditions; and other factors described in the public filings of the Company that are available at www.sec.gov and www.sedarplus.ca. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are based on the beliefs, expectations, and opinions of management as of the date hereof, and Ur-Energy disclaims any intent or obligation to update them or revise them to reflect any change in circumstances or changes in management’s beliefs, expectations, or opinions that occur in the future, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE: Ur-Energy Inc.

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

Categories
Base Metals Breaking Energy Junior Mining Oil & Gas

First Breach Begins Trading on NASDAQ Under Ticker Symbol “FBDT”

Expanding American Defense Manufacturing Through Vertically Integrated Ammunition Production, Strategic Partnerships and Next Generation Drone Technologies

HAGERSTOWN, MD / ACCESS Newswire / August 20, 2026 / First Breach Inc. (“First Breach” or the “Company”), an American-made defense technologies company focused on vertically integrated ammunition production and next-generation unmanned aerial systems, today announced that its common stock has commenced trading on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker symbol “FBDT.”

The Nasdaq listing marks an important milestone in the Company’s evolution as it continues executing its strategy of expanding domestic ammunition manufacturing capacity to meet growing domestic and international demand across the defense, homeland security, law enforcement, and commercial markets. Operating from its manufacturing campus in Hagerstown, Maryland, First Breach has built a vertically integrated production platform capable of manufacturing critical ammunition components, finished ammunition, and advanced drone technologies within the United States.

“Beginning trading on Nasdaq represents a defining milestone in First Breach’s history,” said Jeffrey Low, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of First Breach. “This listing reflects years of investment in building an American manufacturing platform designed to support critical defense and security markets. As demand continues to grow for domestically manufactured ammunition components, finished ammunition, and advanced unmanned systems, we believe First Breach is well positioned to capitalize on these long-term industry trends.”

“Our strategy extends well beyond becoming a publicly traded company. We are focused on expanding production capacity, executing on strategic partnerships, advancing our next generation drone technologies, and continuing to build one of the few vertically integrated American defense manufacturing platforms capable of supporting customers from component manufacturing through finished products. We believe these initiatives position First Breach to deliver sustainable long-term growth while creating lasting value for our shareholders.”

The Company is continuing to expand production capabilities through additional manufacturing lines and equipment designed to robotically increase throughput while maintaining rigorous quality standards. First Breach also continues to strengthen strategic industry relationships, including its partnership with Hellbender, Inc., which management believes will further enhance the Company’s ability to address evolving customer requirements for both drones and robotic manufacturing, and support future growth opportunities.

Growing geopolitical uncertainty, increased defense modernization initiatives, and renewed emphasis on strengthening domestic manufacturing and supply chain resilience continue to support favorable long-term market fundamentals for the Company’s products and technologies. First Breach believes its integrated manufacturing model, engineering expertise, and commitment to American production uniquely position the Company to participate in these expanding market opportunities.

About First Breach

First Breach Inc. is an ISO 9001:2015 certified, American-made defense technologies company of match-grade ammunition components, finished ammunition, and next-generation unmanned aerial systems for commercial, law enforcement, and military markets. The Company manufactures its products in-house at its Hagerstown, Maryland facility, where it produces brass cups, casings, projectiles, lead cores, lead wire, and completed ammunition with rigorous quality control standards. First Breach is also advancing its drone strategy through the development of U.S.-made unmanned systems, leveraging advanced engineering, robotics, ISR and sensor technologies, and precision manufacturing capabilities to address evolving defense, homeland security, law enforcement, and commercial requirements across domestic and international markets.

For more information, please visit: www.firstbreach.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts and include statements regarding the Company’s expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, strategies, future events, future performance, business prospects, growth initiatives, acquisitions, market opportunities, capital resources, operational objectives, and other statements that are predictive in nature. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” and similar expressions, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words.

Forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations, assumptions, and beliefs regarding future developments and their potential effect on the Company. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that may cause actual results, performance, or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, changes in economic, business, market, competitive, regulatory, technological, legal, and geopolitical conditions; the Company’s ability to execute its business strategy; the successful integration of acquisitions and strategic transactions; access to capital and financing; customer demand; industry developments; and other risks and uncertainties described from time to time in the Company’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available for review at www.sec.gov.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date they are made. Except as required by applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update, revise, or publicly disclose any revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances, or changes in expectations occurring after the date of this press release.

Investor Relations

Frank Pogubila
Partner
Integrous Communications
Phone: 951.946.5288
Email: fpogubila@integcom.us
Website: www.firstbreach.com

For additional company updates, follow First Breach on LinkedInX, and Facebook.

SOURCE: First Breach

Categories
Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Precious Metals Project Generators

U.S. debt tops $40 trillion. How soaring federal debt affects you personally.

Hal Bundrick, CFP®

Hal Bundrick, CFP® · Senior Writer

Wed, August 19, 2026 at 5:17 PM EDT 5 min read

The U.S. government’s debt has surpassed $40 trillion, according to the latest data from the Treasury. It’s a staggering, hard-to-process number, totaling over $359,000 in federal debt for every American taxpayer. 

Bank of America’s chief equity strategist, Michael Hartnett, projects the number will swell to $50 trillion in less than three years. 

“The problem with $40 trillion is not the number,” Stephen Innes, financial markets analyst and former investment bank trader, wrote in an analysis. “Markets have been watching the US debt clock spin higher for years and, for most of that time, the response has been little more than a shrug. Washington spends, Treasury issues, investors absorb it, and the machine keeps moving.” 

https://templates.cds.yahoo.com/remote/widget?campaignId=4ec2331a-fbb0-4230-81e2-d38f75a95135&lineItemId=ce414519-8d59-4ddc-ac0d-9ea9bc39b50f&contentId=75eaf232-0b32-4db4-b227-29851ee8aaef&providerId=yahoo_personal_finance_397&commerceSiteId=us-finance&site=finance&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffinance.yahoo.com%2Fpersonal-finance%2Finvesting%2Farticle%2Fus-debt-tops-40-trillion-how-soaring-federal-debt-affects-you-personally-155000383.html&measurementId=G-YD9K1W9DLN&spaceId=1183300002

The largest federal budget items are Medicare/Medicaid combined (nearly $2 trillion), Social Security (over $1.6 trillion), national defense ($946 billion) — and interest on the debt (over $1 trillion).

Innes believes interest costs will soon begin “eating the budget alive,” with the steep trajectory of the government debt making the interest expense “one of Washington’s largest single outlays.”

What does that mean for the stock and bond markets — and the cost of living? 

Read more: Best high-yield savings account rates

For fiscal year 2026, the federal government is projected to collect $5.6 trillion in revenue while spending about $7.4 trillion. That results in a deficit of roughly $1.9 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 

“In other words, the government is spending roughly $1.33 for every $1 collected,” Colin Slabach, clinical assistant professor at New York University’s School of Professional Studies, told Yahoo Finance in an email. 

“The good news is that there is still plenty of demand for US government debt,” he added. “The problem is that if that changes in the future — and nations like Japan need to sell our debt to stabilize their own currency — it could lead to an overabundance of supply.”

That’s when the Treasury would have to pay increasingly higher interest rates to attract investments in the U.S. government, Slabach said.

Read more: What soaring Treasury yields mean for your finances

As swelling government debt pushes bond yields higher, borrowing costs for consumers also rise. 

“As the federal government runs a deficit, it must borrow the difference by issuing Treasury securities. Increased supply of U.S. Treasuries pushes yields higher to attract investors. Those yields then serve as a benchmark for interest rates across the economy,” the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a nonpartisan economic think tank, wrote in an economic outlook. 

As rising rates filter through the economy, the cost of living squeezes household budgets even tighter. 

“Rising borrowing costs mean larger payments on mortgages, car loans, student loans, business loans, and credit card debt,” the report noted. 

However, it’s not only about a higher monthly housing payment, Ethan White, co-founder of White Sands Tax Services in Long Beach, Calif., told Yahoo Finance.

When borrowing costs remain high, the “freedom to buy, move, downsize, or respond to a new job or caregiving need” is reduced. 

“The debt becomes tangible not when Washington crosses another trillion-dollar milestone, but when an otherwise reasonable life decision no longer fits within the family budget,” White said.

In June, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) came to a startling conclusion: At $31.3 trillion, the U.S. debt was roughly equal in size to the country’s economy. Within weeks, the debt quickly surpassed the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. 

“When the federal government spends more than it collects in revenue, it borrows money to make up that deficit,” the GAO report said, adding that while the federal debt would often spike during an economic setback, over the past two decades, the deficit had grown even as the economy thrived. 

One result: Businesses face higher borrowing costs. With less capital for operational costs, wages suffer, “leading to slower wage growth,” the GAO reported.

“If nothing is done to reduce deficits each year, we project that debt will grow about twice as fast as the economy over the next 10 years. In 30 years, that debt will likely be 2.5 times the size of the economy,” the GAO said. “What that means for you, and future generations, is that today’s deficits — if not addressed — could have lasting financial consequences. The federal government’s debt could ultimately lower the standard of living for all Americans.”

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A growing deficit could bring another headache to taxpayers: “It could mean higher taxes with no additional services because the taxes will pay the interest on the debt,” Slabach said. 

And investors are likely to see continued volatility in the markets. 

“Higher rates can weigh on stocks because it makes borrowing more expensive for companies,” Robert Brokamp, CFP, a financial advisor with The Motley Fool, told Yahoo Finance. “When rates rise, the prices of current bonds drop since they are now less attractive than new bonds offering higher yields. Because rates have risen in 2026, the overall bond market has dropped approximately 2.5% so far this year. It’s not a devastating loss, but also not what many investors expect from ‘safe’ bonds.”

Brokamp recommends keeping any money you may need in the next three to five years in higher-yielding cash, money market fundsCDs, or short-term bonds, which are less sensitive to interest-rate moves.

Borrowers should watch debt levels as well. 

“If rates remain elevated, carrying $25,000 on a variable-rate credit card or financing a car every few years becomes much more consequential,” Zachary Sahar, CPA, managing director at Capital Tax in Walnut Creek, Calif., said in an email. “I’d focus less on predicting Washington and more on reducing expensive variable-rate debt, maintaining liquidity, and avoiding new fixed expenses that only work if rates or economic conditions improve.” 

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/personal-finance/investing/article/us-debt-tops-40-trillion-how-soaring-federal-debt-affects-you-personally-155000383.html

Categories
Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Precious Metals Project Generators Uncategorized

Copper at Record Highs: Structural Demand Meets Constrained Supply

Key Takeaways

  • Copper Is Reaching Record Highs for New Reasons: Despite mixed economic data, copper is benefiting from growing demand tied to energy security, AI, defense and electrical infrastructure.
  • Mine Supply Remains Constrained: Weak Chilean production, delayed mine recoveries and long development timelines continue to limit supply growth.
  • Concentrate Scarcity Is Shifting the Economics: Record-low treatment charges and spot-indexed contracts signal intensifying competition for concentrate and growing miner leverage.
  • Tariff Uncertainty Is Fragmenting Supply: Potential U.S. tariffs have drawn significant refined copper into the U.S., tightening availability elsewhere. 
  • Power May Be AI’s Next Bottleneck: AI investment is expanding from chips to power generation, transmission and grid infrastructure, adding another copper-intensive source of demand.
  • Copper Miners Are Responding: After lagging in July, miners rallied sharply in early August as record copper prices and strong margins highlighted their operating leverage.

Performance as of July 31, 2026

 Metric1 MO*3 MO*YTD*1 YR3 YR5 YR
Copper Spot Price13.65%7.16%11.10%44.72%16.28%7.36%
Copper Mining Equities (Nasdaq Sprott Copper Miners Index TR)20.22%3.61%11.45%83.94%23.55%16.03%
Copper Junior Mining Equities (Nasdaq Sprott Junior Copper Miners Index TR)3-1.08%-3.96%0.94%76.35%34.71%17.14%
Broad Commodities (BCOM Index)47.21%-6.02%20.39%30.51%7.14%6.52%
U.S. Equities (S&P 500 TR Index)5-0.06%4.19%10.14%19.56%19.31%12.85%

Performance for periods of less than one year is not annualized.
Source: Bloomberg as of 7/31/2026. You cannot invest directly in an index. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Performance Overview: Copper Reaches Another Record High

Copper prices continued to advance in July, extending a rally that has increasingly diverged from the traditional industrial cycle. Copper ended the month at $13,836 per metric ton, gaining 3.65% in July and 11.10% year-to-date. The rally continued into August, with copper reaching a new all-time high of $14,334 per metric ton on August 10. A weaker U.S. dollar and persistent concerns over global mine supply helped support copper’s move. The U.S. copper premium also climbed back above 3%, reflecting continued positioning ahead of a potential tariff on refined copper imports.

Copper miners initially lagged the metal, gaining just 0.22% in July, before responding more strongly in August. As of August 10, copper miners had gained 12.96% month-to-date, while junior copper miners had risen 15.06%. The acceleration suggests that investors may be looking beyond near-term copper price volatility and focusing more closely on the earnings leverage available to producers if prices remain near historically elevated levels.

Copper is breaking away from the traditional industrial cycle.

Copper’s strength is particularly notable against an uneven economic backdrop. Chinese demand indicators remain mixed, elevated prices have pressured some fabricators and broader industrial activity has not provided an obvious cyclical catalyst. Yet copper continues to be one of the better-performing commodities. We believe this resilience reflects a structural shift in copper’s demand profile, with consumption increasingly driven not only by construction, manufacturing and consumer activity, but also by electricity networks, AI data centers, defense systems and energy infrastructure. These sources of demand are supported by government policy, national security priorities and long-term infrastructure investment, making them generally less sensitive to short-term economic conditions.

At the same time, supply constraints are emerging across multiple stages of the copper value chain. Mine production continues to underperform expectations, exceptionally low treatment charges (TCs; the fees mining companies pay smelters to process copper concentrate into refined metal) point to an acute shortage of concentrate, and tariff uncertainty has redirected refined copper toward the U.S. No single factor fully explains copper’s move to record highs. Collectively, however, they underscore the limited flexibility within the global copper supply system as structural demand growth, constrained supply and policy disruptions increasingly converge.

Looking at longer-term performance, copper miners have outpaced broader equities over the past five years (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Physical Copper and Copper Stocks Have Outperformed Other Asset Classes Over the Past Five Years (7/31/2021-7/31/2026)
Figure 1. Physical Copper and Copper Stocks Have Outperformed Other Asset Classes Over the Past Five Years (07/31/2021-07/31/2026)

Source: Bloomberg and Sprott Asset Management. Data as of 7/31/2026. Copper Miners are measured by the Nasdaq Sprott Copper Miners™ Index (NSCOPPT index); Junior Copper Miners are measured by the Nasdaq Sprott Junior Copper Miners™ Index (NSCOPJT index); U.S. Equities are measured by the S&P 500 TR Index; the Copper Spot Price is measured by LMCADY Comdty; and Commodities are measured by the Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM). Definitions of the indices are provided in the footnotes. You cannot invest directly in an index. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Market Drivers

Concentrate Scarcity Is Rewriting the Copper Market

Demand for copper concentrate continued to intensify in July as mine supply became increasingly difficult to secure. Spot treatment charges fell to another all-time low, while Chilean copper miner Antofagasta plc shifted its mid-year copper sales from fixed terms, which had long served as an industry benchmark, to prices linked to the copper spot market.6 Antofagasta’s contracting decisions matter because its terms have traditionally influenced pricing across much of the copper industry. Together, these developments suggest that concentrate is becoming increasingly scarce, bargaining power is shifting toward miners and long-standing industry practices are beginning to adjust to a tighter market.

Concentrate scarcity is shifting the balance of power decisively toward copper miners.

For much of the copper industry’s history, large miners and smelters negotiated annual or mid-year benchmark treatment and refining charges (TC/RCs). Once a leading producer and smelter reached an agreement, other market participants frequently adopted similar terms, providing greater pricing certainty across the industry.

Antofagasta has become the de facto leader on the mining side of these negotiations in recent years. Its move toward spot-index-linked pricing is therefore more significant than an isolated contract between a miner and a smelter. If similar arrangements become more common, they could weaken the traditional benchmark system and expose a larger share of the industry directly to prevailing concentrate scarcity. BHP, the world’s largest copper producer in 2025, has already priced substantial volumes of concentrate against spot indexes.

TC/RCs provide an important measure of the balance between concentrate supply and smelting capacity. When concentrate is abundant, smelters can charge miners more to process it. When concentrate becomes scarce, smelters must offer miners increasingly favorable terms to secure enough material to keep their facilities operating. Negative TC/RCs therefore indicate that the value of concentrate has risen significantly relative to refined copper.

The move from above $90 per metric ton in late 2023 to below -$150 today represents a reversal of more than $240 per metric ton. This extraordinary shift illustrates how decisively bargaining power has moved toward miners and provides a clearer indication of upstream scarcity than record-high refined copper prices alone.

Why Smelters Keep Competing for Scarce Concentrate

Given deeply negative treatment charges, an important question is why smelters have not responded by reducing production. Treatment charges have historically been an important source of smelter revenue, but they are only one component of a more complex earnings model. Smelters can also generate revenue from sulphuric acid produced during processing, payable and recoverable by-products such as gold and silver, copper recovered above contracted payable levels, cathode premiums and downstream products such as wire rod and tubing.

Sulphuric acid has been particularly important in sustaining smelter demand for concentrate. The Iran war disrupted trade from the Middle East, a region responsible for nearly half of global sulphur trade, while China’s suspension of sulphuric acid exports further tightened availability outside the country. Higher acid prices have had opposing effects across the copper supply chain: increasing costs and supply risks for acid-dependent solvent extraction and electrowinning mines while improving the economics of smelters that produce sulphuric acid as a valuable by-product.

Combined with elevated gold and silver prices, these revenues have allowed many smelters to remain profitable and continue competing aggressively for scarce concentrate despite deeply negative TC/RCs. This has delayed the production cuts that might otherwise have reduced competition for concentrate and allowed treatment charges to recover.

Copper miners are benefiting from scarcity on both sides of the market.

For copper miners, the result is particularly favorable. Smelters are offering increasingly attractive terms to secure scarce concentrate at the same time that refined copper prices are near record highs. Together, these conditions have pushed copper miners’ all-in sustaining cost margins to levels not seen in decades.

The resulting margin expansion highlights the operating leverage available to copper miners. Once a mine’s operating costs are covered, higher copper prices can flow disproportionately into earnings and cash flow. This leverage has historically allowed copper miners to outperform the metal during sustained bull markets, particularly when higher prices coincide with favorable concentrate terms and strong by-product revenues, as they do today.

We believe pure-play copper miners provide more direct exposure to copper’s constrained supply response and the resulting margin expansion, positioning them to benefit disproportionately if these conditions persist.

Figure 2. Record-Low Treatment Charges
Figure 2. Record-Low Treatment Charges

Source: Bloomberg. China Treatment Charge measured by ZACNTC26 Index. Past performance is not indicative of future results. 

U.S. Tariff Uncertainty Is Reshaping the Global Copper Market

The possibility of U.S. tariffs on refined copper has redirected significant volumes of metal into the country, creating a historically large domestic stockpile. In 2025, the U.S. Commerce Department recommended a universal tariff of 15% beginning January 1, 2027, rising to 30% on January 1, 2028. Although the Trump administration separately imposed a 50% tariff on semi-finished copper products, it did not immediately adopt the recommendation for refined copper, leaving the market uncertain about whether—and at what rate—imports might eventually be taxed.

Tariff uncertainty is pulling copper into the U.S. and reshaping global trade flows.

That uncertainty created a powerful incentive to move copper into the U.S. before any tariff took effect. Copper already inside the country could become considerably more valuable if future imports were taxed, supporting a premium for U.S. copper over metal traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME). When that premium was sufficient to cover freight, financing and storage costs, traders could profitably purchase copper abroad and deliver it to U.S. ports and warehouses.

The resulting inventory shift has been extraordinary. More than 200,000 metric tons of refined copper arrived at U.S. ports in July, the largest monthly inflow in data extending back to 2014.

The U.S. Commerce Department was expected to complete its Section 232 review by June 30, 2026, but no public decision followed. The market must therefore continue to weigh several potential outcomes, including the original phased tariff, a lower rate with exemptions or another delay. Each carries different implications for the value of copper already accumulated in the U.S.

Under normal conditions, COMEX copper trades at only a modest premium to LME copper. That changed dramatically in July 2025, when President Trump’s comments regarding a 50% copper tariff led traders to believe the levy could include refined copper, pushing the COMEX premium above 28%. The premium collapsed after refined copper was excluded but has recently begun to rebuild, rising above 3% as the market again prices in the possibility of future tariffs.

Copper already held inside the U.S. therefore retains valuable optionality. If a tariff is ultimately imposed, those inventories could become more valuable relative to copper outside the country. As long as policy remains unresolved, that possibility reduces the incentive to return metal to international markets.

U.S. Stockpiling Is Tightening Copper Markets Elsewhere

The U.S. stockpile has been built at the expense of availability elsewhere. Copper shipped to the U.S. has been diverted from other consuming regions, contributing to a sharp decline in available LME inventories. Nearby LME contracts have moved further into backwardation, indicating that copper available for immediate delivery is commanding a premium over future supply. Chinese buyers are also competing more aggressively for metal while domestic exchange inventories remain low.

Some copper may eventually return to international markets as trade flows normalize. But policy clarity cannot increase mine production, reverse declining ore grades or accelerate projects that can take more than a decade to develop. U.S. tariff uncertainty has amplified and regionalized copper’s tightness, but it has not created the underlying scarcity of mined copper.

Figure 3. U.S. Copper Shipments Surge as Tariff Decision Looms
Figure 3. U.S. Copper Shipments Surge as Tariff Decision Looms

Source: Bloomberg and HIS Markit. Copper Tariff Delay Raises Repricing Risk: Macro View.

Chile’s Production Downgrade Reinforces the Mine-Supply Challenge

Chile lowered its copper production forecasts after first-half output fell to its lowest level since 2018.7 The world’s largest copper-producing country now expects output to decline in 2026 before recovering next year, with both forecasts reduced meaningfully from prior estimates. At a time when smelters are already struggling to secure concentrate, the loss of expected supply from Chile further tightens the upstream market.

The weakness reflects more than temporary maintenance or operational disruptions. Much of Chile’s major copper capacity was developed decades ago, and key operations are contending with declining ore grades, aging infrastructure, water constraints and increasingly complex investment requirements. National production remains below its 2018 peak and would still fall short of that level even if the revised recovery forecast is achieved.

Copper needs new supply, but new mines remain years away.

These challenges extend well beyond Chile. Mine disruptions exceeded their long-term average in both 2024 and 2025, while recoveries at major operations, including Grasberg and Kamoa-Kakula, have taken longer than expected. The market needs Chilean production to recover, disrupted mines to return and operating performance elsewhere to normalize simply to deliver the supply already embedded in forecasts.

Higher copper prices should encourage investment, but major mines can take 15 to 20 years to develop and require substantial capital. Much of the visible project pipeline is also needed simply to replace declining production at existing operations before it can generate meaningful net supply growth. Record copper prices are sending the necessary investment signal, but the supply response remains years away.

Figure 4. Chile’s 2025 Output Near a 25-Year Low 
Figure 4. Chile’s 2025 Output Near a 25-Year Low

Source: Mining.com, Codelco faces questions over 20,000-tonne output gap, 5/13/2026.

Looking Ahead: Copper’s Structural Drivers Strengthen

Copper enters the remainder of 2026 near record highs, but the market has yet to deliver the supply response those prices are intended to encourage. The most important near-term test will be whether production begins to recover. The market is relying on improved output from Chile and the gradual restoration of major operations, including Grasberg and Kamoa-Kakula. These recoveries, though reduced from original expectations, are already embedded in supply forecasts, leaving limited room for further disappointment at a time when record-low treatment charges indicate that smelters are already struggling to secure enough concentrate.

Meanwhile, strategic demand continues to build. AI was not the principal driver of copper’s recent rally, but its rapid expansion is exposing the limitations of global power systems. Data centers can be built faster than the generation, substations and transmission systems needed to supply them, shifting the potential bottleneck from computing hardware toward electricity infrastructure. Copper demand extends well beyond the metal contained within data centers to the much larger power systems required to operate them.

The copper market is tightening before power-related demand reaches full scale.

China is already investing at scale. As an energy-dependent nation, China’s expansion of domestic generation and transmission is fundamentally an energy-security strategy, reducing exposure to imported fuels while supporting industrial and technological growth. The U.S. faces similar pressure to expand its power system as AI, advanced manufacturing and defense requirements collide with aging grids and limited connection capacity.

AI does not need to become copper’s largest end market to have a meaningful effect. Even incremental demand can materially tighten a market in which existing mine supply is already falling short and new production remains slow to deliver.

Copper’s record price should therefore be viewed as a signal that significant investment is still required. The market is already competing intensely for limited concentrate before the next phase of power-related demand has fully arrived. With strategic uses expanding faster than mine supply can keep pace, the copper market appears to be moving deeper into a multi-year period of structural tightness.

Short-term volatility is likely, but the longer-term balance is becoming increasingly supportive. Copper miners offer leverage to that imbalance because higher realized prices can flow disproportionately into margins and cash flow. As supply remains inelastic and strategic demand accelerates, copper and copper miners remain well positioned to benefit through the remainder of 2026 and beyond.

Figure 5. Copper Reaches New All-Time Highs (2000-2026)
Figure 5. Copper Reaches New All-Time Highs (2000-2026)

Source: Bloomberg as of 8/10/2026. Copper is measured by LMCADY Comdty. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Footnotes

1The copper spot price is measured by the LME Copper Cash ($), Bloomberg ticker LMCADY.
2The Nasdaq Sprott Copper Miners™ Index (NSCOPP™) is designed to track the performance of a selection of global securities in the copper industry; the Index was co-developed by Nasdaq® and Sprott Asset Management LP.
3Nasdaq Sprott Junior Copper Miners™ Index (NSCOPJ™) is designed to track the performance of mid-, small- and micro-cap companies in copper-mining related businesses; the Index was co-developed by Nasdaq® and Sprott Asset Management LP.
4The Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCOM) is a broadly diversified commodity price index that tracks prices of futures contracts on physical commodities and is designed to minimize concentration in any one commodity or sector. It currently has 23 commodity futures in six sectors.
5The S&P 500 or Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is a market-capitalization-weighted index of the 500 largest U.S. publicly traded companies.
6Source: Mining.com, Antofagasta agrees spot-indexed copper ore sales with some Chinese smelters, 7/1/2026.
7Source: Mining Journal, Chile has lowest half-year copper output since 2018, 8/6/2026.

Source: https://sprott.com/insights/copper-at-record-highs-structural-demand-meets-constrained-supply/?_cldee=Ezz8K6rwBHKOzfPTLPTyzr95CLE6JJNyFPAaO1ylpCV_AXnhoAKhGw4VDguP-WWZKnO1eOLKVDq_7rBtOZmvHA&recipientid=lead-f313641e2bf9ea11a815000d3a0c86a9-092476eeb8c44a889b547fdaeb6b23ef&esid=ff315a79-3a97-f111-b8db-3833c5f991f2

Categories
Base Metals Breaking Energy Precious Metals Project Generators Uncategorized

Thirty for Thirty Patents

I. THE NUMBER

Here is a number that doesn’t happen. Thirty patent applications filed. Thirty patents issued. Zero denied.

Patent examiners are paid to push back. For a claim to survive, it must cover patentable subject matter, be new, non-obvious, technically enabled, and practically useful — not one bar, five. Mica has cleared all five, thirty times — spanning Credential-less Payments, Credential-less Enrollment, N-Character PIN, Coupons and Rewards as Currency, Multi-Tender Payments, and many others.

Alston & Bird, one of the most respected intellectual property practices in the country, became Mica’s legal partner — building the patent portfolio jurisdiction by jurisdiction, claim by claim, across ten markets.

“Behind every issued patent is a challenge overcome and an innovative idea brought to life. Mica’s expanding patent portfolio reflects a relentless drive to innovate, reinforcing its position as a market leader and advancing transformative solutions that are shaping the future of the industry.”

— Dane Baltich, Partner, Alston & Bird

II. TRUE INNOVATION DOESN’T LAYER. IT REBUILDS.

There is a pattern to technological shifts that actually redefine industries. When an old foundation is structurally flawed, you don’t build a better layer on top of it. You pull it out by the roots.

Steve Jobs didn’t build a better Nokia. He looked at the phone — keyboard, carrier relationships, software, the whole thing — and decided the right answer was to throw it all out and rebuild from scratch. Every smartphone manufacturer in the world had been layering features onto existing form factors. Jobs built a new foundation, and the old one became irrelevant.

For decades, fintech has followed a predictable playbook: build a shinier interface or a faster tokenization layer over legacy transaction rails. But every one of those layers inherits the exact same original sin — the persistent credential. Whether it’s a credit card number, a bank routing code, or a proxy token sitting in a vault, it remains an attack surface waiting to be exploited.

Mica co-founders Christopher Petersen and Tim Kuchlein understood this. Having previously designed the core digital wallet architecture that became Google Wallet, they knew exactly where the old rails hit the wall. They didn’t set out to build onto an existing network. They built a new network.

III. TRANSACTION INFRASTRUCTURE, REBUILT

Mica is a ground-up transformation of transaction infrastructure that redefines authorization.

  • Zero Credentials, Eliminated Credential Risk: Instead of shielding or masking card numbers, Mica eliminates them entirely from the authorization flow using Universally Unique Ephemeral Keys (UUEKs). Identity is addressed, never stored, removing credential-based fraud exposure at the architectural layer.
  • Universal Authorization: Where existing networks are siloed by use case — credit cards, ACH or rewards — Mica treats all values natively. Bank accounts, loyalty and coupons can seamlessly orchestrate into a single transaction authorization in under 900 milliseconds.
  • Intelligence at the Core: Legacy infrastructure moves money and stops, leaving data resolution to third-party software. Mica introduces SKU-level transaction transparency and automated adjudication directly into the network layer.

IV. THIRTY FOR THIRTY

The patents are the proof of work. Thirty times, Christopher, Tim and Alston & Bird put a piece of that infrastructure in front of the patent system — and thirty times, the answer came back the same.

Yes. This is new. This is yours.

With 60+ additional applications pending across ten jurisdictions, the portfolio is still growing.

Building new transaction infrastructure is one of the hardest things a company can attempt. You are asking every participant in an existing ecosystem to change. The people who came in early didn’t just believe in Mica. They’ve staked their reputations on it.

FT Partners, one of fintech’s most respected strategic investment banks.

“When we began working with Mica, it was immediately clear this wasn’t an incremental improvement to existing payment infrastructure — it was a ground-up redesign of how authorization works. The removal of reusable credentials from the transaction flow addresses the structural root cause of problems the industry has spent decades managing around. Reaching 30 issued patents is a meaningful milestone, but what it reflects is more significant: a defensible, novel architecture that incumbents cannot simply replicate. That combination of structural differentiation and a deepening intellectual property portfolio is exactly what we look for when we partner with a category-defining company.”

— Steve McLaughlin, Founder / CEO / Managing Partner, FT Partners

Editor’s note: By the time this article was finished, Mica received five more patents. The total is now 35. There are 60 pending. We’ve stopped being surprised.

Tokenization Was Supposed to Stop Fraud. It Didn’t. Here’s Why. ›

Source: https://mica.io/bigideas/posts/thirty-for-thirty-patents

Categories
Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Project Generators

Copper squeeze builds with spreads surging and price near record

Copper rose toward a record on the London Metal Exchange, with soaring price spreads highlighting an increasingly acute squeeze in near-term supply.

The metal’s spot price traded as much as $545 a metric ton above the three-month futures contract, the widest backwardation since a historic squeeze in 2021 prompted the adoption of emergency measures to contain a runaway rally. Other spreads have also surged, and futures are closing in on a $14,500-plus peak reached during a spike in January. 

The current supply crunch is being fueled by a surge in shipments to the US in anticipation of a potential decision on import tariffs, while recent tightness in China has also drawn cargoes there. That has led stockpiles across the LME’s global warehousing network to shrink by almost half since mid-May.

Investors were already warming to the metal, whose biggest application is in electrical wiring. They cite longer-term themes of robust demand powered by the energy transition toward electrification, the need to build data centers and infrastructure for artificial intelligence, as well as the mounting industry challenge of finding and funding new mining pits.

The elevated premium for the near-term delivery of copper “points to continued scarcity of available metal,” said Ewa Manthey, a commodities strategist at ING Groep NV. “We expect these supply constraints to keep the market well supported in the near term, particularly if demand remains resilient.”

The fireworks on Monday came at a key moment in the LME’s calendar, just ahead of the third Wednesday of the month, which is the main focus of liquidity in the exchange’s contracts. 

Traders and brokers with short positions on that date were trying to cover their positions by buying cash contracts and selling later-dated ones, driving spreads higher, according to market participants. On the other side, owners of metal have been reluctant to relinquish it given the lucrative arbitrage opportunities presented by a surge in US prices on speculation of tariffs. 

LME warehouses are a crucial last-resort source of supply to the physical copper industry, and metal in its depots can also be used to close out expiring futures contracts. 

Global benchmark three-month futures advanced as much as 1.7% to $14,396 a ton on the LME before paring gains to trade at $14,179 as of 4:09 p.m. in London. The gains build on a seven-week winning streak.

Stockpiles tracked by the LME are currently just above 200,000 tons, the lowest volume since February. On Monday, they rose slightly after a 42-day run of declines, the longest since 2014. 

Unbalanced inventories  

A quirk of the current situation is that total global inventories are not particularly low, but are concentrated in the US as traders bet on President Donald Trump slapping tariffs on the refined metal. In addition, demand in China is not seen as particularly strong, but smelters there have struggled with feedstock supplies, increasing the need for imports.

The White House has kept the market guessing on plans for levies on refined copper, with no announcement emerging about seven weeks after a deadline for the Commerce Department to make a recommendation. Meanwhile, flows to the US have continued as markets price in a potential tariff.

With the cash-to-three month spread spiking, attention is turning to whether more copper might emerge from China, which often happens during periods of short-term supply pinches.

Among other LME metals, aluminum rose 0.6%, while zinc was up 0.3%, with advances also driven by a weaker US dollar, which aids commodities priced in the currency.

Source: https://www.mining.com/web/copper-squeeze-builds-with-spreads-surging-and-price-near-record/

Categories
Base Metals Junior Mining Precious Metals

AIAI Holdings’ CEO Todd Furniss Issues Shareholder Letter

DALLAS, TX / ACCESS Newswire / August 18, 2026 / AIAI Holdings Corporation (NASDAQ:AIAI) (“Ai2” or the “Company”), an AI-enabled diversified holding company utilizing Transformational AI (TAI) to enhance portfolio performance, today issues a shareholder letter from CEO Todd Furniss which can be read below.

Fellow Shareholders,

This is our first shareholder letter, and I am excited to share our vision and the foundation we are building for AIAI Holdings.

In just a few months as a public company, we have assembled a terrific Board, an experienced leadership team, established a diversified portfolio of operating businesses, and begun executing the strategy that is driving AIAI Holdings’ momentum with our technology in our operating companies.

Our Nasdaq listing and initial acquisitions were important milestones, but more importantly, they marked the beginning of executing our long-term vision. Our objective is straightforward: acquire businesses with durable fundamentals and create additional value through the integration of Transformational AI (TAI). We believe artificial intelligence creates its greatest impact not as a standalone product, but as a capability embedded within businesses to improve operations, enhance decision-making, and create lasting competitive advantages. We are not a company with a different kind of business model. We are a different kind of company.

Similarly, we are a different kind of a technology company. Specifically, we do not license technology to companies we do not own and we do not provide TAI implementation services to companies we do not own.

One principle defines how we operate: a bias toward action. We move quickly, learn continuously, and refine through execution. Speed is not a slogan for us; it is a competitive advantage.

Foundation Now in Place

On May 14, 2026, AIAI Holdings achieved a significant milestone when our Class A common stock began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market under the ticker symbol “AIAI.” Becoming a public company expands our access to capital, increases our visibility within the investment community, and strengthens our ability to pursue strategic acquisitions aligned with our long-term objectives.

We also assembled a distinguished Board of Directors and together our nine directors bring more than 130 years of combined experience spanning private equity, healthcare, artificial intelligence, data science, regenerative medicine, digital infrastructure, national security, finance, and global diplomacy. Their experience provides valuable oversight as we continue executing a disciplined acquisition strategy while integrating AI starting with our holding company and extending throughout our portfolio.

Executing Our AI Strategy

What differentiates AIAI Holdings is that we do not simply acquire companies, we transform them.

Earlier this quarter, we rolled out our proprietary AI Integration Playbook, a structured framework for identifying, prioritizing, and implementing AI-enabled operational improvements across our portfolio. The process begins with understanding each company’s operations, workflows, and data environment before deploying practical AI solutions designed to achieve the goals of improved efficiency, accelerated growth, and expanded EBITDA.

As I have often said:

“Transformational AI is intelligence grounded in a business’s actual operations, acting as a core driver of value rather than an add-on. At AIAI, we don’t sell this technology, we buy companies and bake it into their DNA, converting complex services into durable cash flows.”

The first implementation of our Playbook is already underway at C.C. Carlton Industries (CCCI), where we introduced Bid Accelerator, a proprietary TAI solution designed to improve estimating speed, consistency, and decision-making. Built using more than 1,500 historical bids representing over $7 billion in aggregate value, the platform identifies patterns that help estimators make better-informed bidding decisions, including what to bid on, what not to bid on and the confidence we have in performing the work on time and on budget. We believe this will enable us to put out more bids each year and win more of the bids we put out which will lead to more revenue and better margins.

Today, CCCI has the highest value of contracted awards in the first six months of a calendar year in its more than thirty-year history. While many factors contribute to operational success, this deployment demonstrates how thoughtfully applied AI can generate measurable business value.

Growing the Portfolio

Alongside our AI initiatives, we continued strengthening the capabilities of our operating companies.

Constellation Network expanded our presence in enterprise blockchain infrastructure and AI security through the launch of Gate AI, an enterprise security and audit gateway designed to help organizations deploy AI with greater transparency and governance. Gate AI also has the benefit of substantially reducing token costs, effectively lowering the cost of AI across every agent and application. The company also introduced Arca Wallet, extending its capabilities into secure consumer digital asset management, privacy and digital evidence. And most recently Constellation commercially launched Dôr Retail Intelligence, a platform for retail commerce that leverages our intelligence technology to help businesses better understand customer demand, improve operational performance and guide smarter decisions.

Within healthcare, MediGuide completed a significant modernization of its technology infrastructure, creating a scalable global healthcare services delivery platform for future AI innovation, redefining personalized healthcare by introducing precision healthcare and longevity solutions that combine advanced medical intelligence, world class physician expertise with AI-enabled clinical decision support. These investments position the business for continued growth while improving its ability to deliver personalized, data-driven care.

Our healthcare platform was further strengthened through Vanguard HCS, expanding our presence in primary care and clinical practice management and creating additional opportunities for organic growth, strategic partnerships, and future acquisitions.

Although these businesses operate in different industries, they all support the same objective: building a portfolio of companies that become more valuable through disciplined operations and the practical application of Transformational AI.

Positioned Now for Stronger Performance

We recently filed our second-quarter results, reporting over $120 million in pro-forma revenue for the first six months of the year from primarily pre-acquisition business within our portfolio.

As we enter the second half of the year, we are increasingly focused on the contributions from the initiatives and TAI implementations already underway, as well as the new product offerings from portfolio companies that I highlighted above.

Additionally, the second half of the year provides a stronger operating backdrop, with the temporary disruptions that impacted the first half largely behind us, positioning the Company for improved performance and momentum.

Based on our current visibility, we believe the second half of the year will operationally outperform the first, positioning us for a growth trajectory as we enter 2027 and beyond.

Looking Ahead

The question I am asked most often is what excites me most about the future. My answer is always the same: our acquisition pipeline and how our technology will redefine those companies we acquire.

Our investment criteria are intentionally disciplined. We seek businesses with positive EBITDA, scalable operations, experienced management teams, and opportunities where Transformational AI can create measurable operational improvements. We are not interested in acquiring companies in the hope that AI may eventually add value. We seek businesses where TAI can be embedded quickly to improve efficiency, strengthen decision-making, and accelerate growth.

The breadth of our Board’s relationships across private equity, technology, healthcare, government, and international markets provides access to opportunities that we believe are both differentiated and difficult to replicate.

We believe that many of the initiatives launched this year will begin contributing to operating and financial performance as they mature in the future, while successful execution remains our highest priority.

We are still at the beginning of our journey, but the foundation is in place. We have a clear strategy, an exceptional team, a growing portfolio of businesses, and a disciplined approach to creating value through Transformational AI.

On behalf of our Board of Directors and the entire AIAI Holdings team, thank you for your confidence, trust, and support. We look forward to updating you as we continue building AIAI Holdings into the leading AI-enabled acquisition platform.

Sincerely,
Todd A. Furniss
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
AIAI Holdings Corporation

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements

This shareholder letter contains “forward-looking statements” or “forward-looking information” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs, and current expectations of the Company with respect to future business activities and plans of the Company. All statements contained in this press release that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation statements regarding our expectations, intentions, beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions. Forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “believe,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “would,” “could,” “should”, “estimate,” “plan,” “predict,” “project,” or “continue,” or similar expressions, including the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology.

Forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s current expectations regarding its strategy, plans, intentions, performance, or future occurrences or results, the information on which such expectations were based may change. These forward-looking statements rely on a number of assumptions concerning future events and are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are outside of the Company’s control, that could cause actual results, performance, or achievements to materially differ from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to our lack of operating history, our ability to attract new investments, our failure to manage growth effectively, our acquisition activities may pose risks that could harm our business, and our licensed AI may not perform up to the expected standards, as well as general business and economic conditions, competitive pressures, regulatory changes, technological developments, and other factors identified in the Company’s most recent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Registration Statement on Form S-1, which are available for review at www.sec.gov. Furthermore, the Company operates in a competitive environment where new and unanticipated risks may arise. Accordingly, investors should not place any reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to us as of the date hereof, and we disclaim any intention to, and, except as may be required by law, undertake no obligation to, update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that subsequently occur or of which the Company hereafter become aware. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

SOURCE: AIAI Holdings

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

Categories
Base Metals Energy Junior Mining Precious Metals

West Point Gold Buys Back 2% Royalty, Secures 100% Ownership of Black Dyke and Bull 8 Discoveries

Vancouver, British Columbia–(Newsfile Corp. – August 17, 2026) – West Point Gold Corp. (TSXV: WPG) (OTCQX: WPGCF) (FSE: LRA0) (“West Point Gold” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Purchase and Sale Agreement and a Royalty Termination and Release Agreement (the “Agreements”) which accelerate the remaining payments, eliminate a future bonus payment, and eliminate the royalty related to 107 Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) lode mining claims forming part of the Company’s Gold Chain Project located in Mohave County, Arizona. These claims include the Black Dyke target where the Company has had recent exploration success (press releases from March 17, 2026 and August 11, 2026), the Bull 8 target (June 4, 2026 press release) and the Gold Chain Hill target.

“The completion of these Agreements starts the process of simplifying the ownership structure of our landholdings at Gold Chain and eliminates future potential royalty and bonus payments related to these 107 claims. With the recent exploration success that we have had at Black Dyke and at Bull 8, the elimination of these future payments is expected to add long-term value,” stated Derek Macpherson, President and CEO.

These Agreements resulted in the acceleration of existing cash payments under the Option Agreement; the extinguishment of the 2% net smelter return royalty (“NSR”) on gold and silver production; and the removal of any bonus cash payment that may have become payable related to the determination of resources in any future Preliminary Economic Assessment compliant with National Instrument 43-101. Total consideration payable under the Agreements comprised a cash payment of US$960,000.

The 107 BLM claims relating to the Agreements comprise the western portion of the Gold Chain Project which hosts the Black Dyke, Bull 8, and Gold Chain Hill prospects. In total, the Gold Chain Project consists of 614 BLM claims covering approximately 4,539 hectares and 15 patented claims covering approximately 114 hectares, including the Tyro, Banner and Sheep Trail claim groups.

Black Dyke Target

Black Dyke has evolved from a historical prospect into a credible second potential resource-development area at Gold Chain, separate from Tyro. Its shallow, oxidized geometry could make it particularly attractive for potential open-pit development if additional drilling establishes sufficient scale and continuity. The zone is located approximately 4km west of the Tyro Main Zone along the Roadside Mine fault, which borders the southwest flank of the Katherine Horst. Geologically, Black Dyke contains a shallow, southwest-dipping vein-breccia system with fragments of chalcedony-rich hydrothermal breccia in a late-stage calcite matrix; the vein is hosted by Precambrian granite and spatially associated with rhyolitic intrusive/volcanic rocks. Alteration and vein textures observed in the shallow drilling suggest additional potential exists at depth, which remains largely untested. Initial RC drilling has defined a shallow-dipping zone of quartz veinlets and breccia approximately 7.6 to 36.6 m thick, extending for at least 200m along strike and approximately 250m down-dip. Importantly, mineralization begins at or near surface, is largely oxidized, and remains open to the west and down-dip to the southwest. Initial drilling returned encouraging, relatively consistent widths and grades, highlighted by 36.6 m at 1.04 g/t Au (GC26-095) from surface, 21.3 m at 0.92 g/t Au (GC26-098), 7.6 m at 1.56 g/t Au (GC26-099), and 12.2 m at 1.09 g/t Au (GC26-101).

Bull 8 Target

Bull 8 is an early-stage gold discovery located approximately 6 km northwest of the Tyro Zone. The prospect occurs along the northwest-trending Union Pass Fault Corridor characterized by strongly sheared, brecciated and altered Precambrian granite cut by fault-bounded dikes. Historical pits, adits and trenches occur throughout the prospect, with surface samples returning up to 2.09 g/t Au. Widespread quartz veining, hydrothermal alteration and anomalous gold occur along the broader Union Pass Fault Corridor, which extends for roughly 12 km across the property and is interpreted as a major structural control on the broader Gold Chain mineralizing system. The 2026 drilling consisted of six RC holes totalling 856 m, with gold mineralization intersected in every hole. The standout result was GC26-136: 21.4 m at 1.01 g/t Au, including an estimated 18 m true width, beginning at 71.6 m depth. A second hole, GC26-130, returned 12.2 m at 0.41 g/t Au from only 6.1 m depth, demonstrating that mineralization also occurs close to surface.

Gold Chain Hill Target

Gold Chain Hill is a historical gold prospect within the broader Roadside Mine structural corridor and represents another potential near-surface bulk-tonnage target outside of the Tyro Main Zone. Historical drilling returned a notable intercept of approximately 52.0 m grading 0.53 g/t Au (Fischer Watt, 1986), demonstrating broad gold mineralization at potentially economic grades. The target is characterized by quartz-chalcedony stockwork and breccia hosted within strongly silicified rhyolite and surrounding Precambrian granite. Mapping has identified a close relationship between gold mineralization and rhyolite dikes, a feature also observed throughout the Gold Chain project area. Gold occurs in surface exposures while historical drilling indicates that the mineralized system continues at depth.

Qualified Person

Robert Johansing, M.Sc. Econ. Geol., P. Geo., the Company’s Vice President, Exploration, is a qualified person (“QP”) as defined by NI 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the technical content of this press release. Mr. Johansing has also been responsible for overseeing all phases of the drilling program, including logging, labelling, bagging and transport from the project to American Assay Laboratories of Sparks, Nevada. Drillholes have a diameter of about 10cm, and samples have an approximate weight of 5 to 10kg. Samples were then dried, crushed and split, and pulp samples were prepared for analysis. Gold was determined by fire assay with an ICP finish, and over-limit samples were determined by fire assay and gravimetric finish. Silver plus 15 other elements were determined by Aqua Regia ICP-AES (IM-2A16), and over-limit samples were determined by fire assay and gravimetric finish. Both certified standards and blanks were inserted on site along with duplicates, standards and blanks inserted by American Assay. The results summarized above have been carefully reviewed with reference to the QA/QC results. Standard sample chain of custody procedures were employed during drilling and sampling campaigns until delivery to the analytical facility.

The QP has not completed sufficient work to verify the historical information received on the Black Dyke, Bull 8 and Gold Chain Hill targets, particularly with regard to historical drill results. However, the QP believes that prior drilling and analytical results were completed to industry standard practices at the time they were drilled.

About West Point Gold Corp.

West Point Gold is an exploration and development company focused on unlocking value across four strategically located projects along the prolific Walker Lane Trend in Nevada and Arizona, USA, providing shareholders with exposure to multiple discovery opportunities across one of North America’s most productive gold regions. The Company’s near-term priority is advancing its flagship Gold Chain Project in Arizona.

For further information regarding this press release, please contact:

Aaron Paterson, Corporate Communications Manager
Phone: +1 (778) 358-6173
Email: info@westpointgold.com

Stay Connected with Us:
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Website: westpointgold.com/

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Company’s future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. The use of any of the words “could”, “intend”, “expect”, “believe”, “will”, “projected”, “estimated” and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on the Company’s current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events including, among others, assumptions about future prices of gold, silver, and other metal prices, currency exchange rates and interest rates, timing of the Company’s maiden resource estimate, favourable operating conditions, political stability, obtaining government approvals and financing on time, obtaining renewals for existing licenses and permits and obtaining required licenses and permits, labour stability, stability in market conditions, availability of equipment, availability of drill rigs, and anticipated costs and expenditures. The Company cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain, and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company’s control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to West Point Gold’s ability to complete any payments or expenditures required under the Company’s various option agreements for its projects; and other risks and uncertainties relating to the actual results of current exploration activities, the uncertainties related to resources estimates; the uncertainty of estimates and projections in relation to production, costs and expenses; risks relating to grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the uncertainties involved in interpreting drill results and other exploration data; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities; uncertainty related to the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results may vary from those expected; statements about expected results of operations, royalties, cash flows, financial position may not be consistent with the Company’s expectations due to accidents, equipment breakdowns, title and permitting matters, labour disputes or other unanticipated difficulties with or interruptions in operations, fluctuating metal prices, unanticipated costs and expenses, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future and regulatory restrictions, including environmental regulatory restrictions. The possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with adjacent properties and the Company’s expectations; operational risks and hazards inherent with the business of mining (including environmental accidents and hazards, industrial accidents, equipment breakdown, unusual or unexpected geological or structural formations, cave-ins, flooding and severe weather); metal price fluctuations; environmental and regulatory requirements; availability of permits, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves; the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision; the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results; fluctuating gold prices; possibility of equipment breakdowns and delays, exploration cost overruns, availability of capital and financing, general economic, political risks, market or business conditions, regulatory changes, timeliness of government or regulatory approvals and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in the filings on SEDAR made by the Company with securities regulators. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this corporate press release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities legislation.

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.

To view the source version of this press release on Newsfile, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/309845