Company Interviews

Interview with Rob Edwards, Executive Chairman of Bluejay Mining PLC

Recording date: 28th September 2023

With multiple projects in Greenland and Finland, Bluejay Mining (LSE:JAY) offers both portfolio and commodity diversification focused on base and precious metals in Tier 1 jurisdictions.

Bluejay, through its wholly owned subsidiary Disko Exploration Ltd., has signed a definitive Joint Venture Agreement with KoBold Metals to guide exploration for new deposits rich in the critical materials required for the green energy transition and electric vehicles (the Disko-Nuussuaq nickel-copper-cobalt-PGE Project).

Disko Exploration Ltd holds two additional projects in Greenland - the 692 sq km Kangerluarsuk zinc-lead- silver project, where historical work has recovered grades of up to 45.4% zinc, 9.3% lead and 596 g/t silver; and the 920 sq km Thunderstone project which has the potential to host large-scale base metal and gold deposits. Bluejay also owns 100% of the fully permitted Dundas Ilmenite Project under its subsidiary Dundas Titanium A/S in northwest Greenland for which it will seek strategic alternatives. 

In Finland, Bluejay currently holds three large scale multi-metal projects through its wholly owned subsidiary FinnAust Mining Finland Oy. The Company has identified multiple drill ready targets at the Enonkoski nickel-copper-cobalt project in East Finland. Bluejay's Hammaslahti copper-zinc-gold-silver project hosts high-grade VMS mineralisation and extensions of historical ore lodes have been proven. The drill ready Outokumpu copper-nickel-cobalt-zinc-gold-silver project is located in a prolific geological belt that hosts several high-grade former mines. In August 2023, Bluejay successfully divested its Black Schist Projects in Finland to Metals One plc in a transaction worth £4.125 million (Bluejay currently owns c. 29% of the issued ordinary share capital of AIM listed Metals One plc).

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Interview with Siobhan Lancaster, CEO/MD of 92 Energy Ltd.

Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/92-energy-92e-uranium-explorer-onto-something-big-2966

Recording date: 29th September 2023

92 Energy Ltd (ASX: 92E) is an Australian uranium exploration company targeting high-grade unconformity-associated uranium deposits in the Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan, Canada. The company currently holds 100% interest in seven uranium projects across 58 mineral claims in this prolific uranium district.

92 Energy's flagship project is the Gemini Uranium Discovery, where the company made a near-surface, basement-hosted uranium discovery starting at just 60m vertically below surface and extending down to 270m. High-grade intersections from Gemini include 43m at 0.62% U3O8 and 5m at 1.47% U3O8, including 0.5m at 9.66% U3O8. Mineralization at Gemini remains open in all directions with significant expansion potential along the 2.8km mineralized trend.

An upcoming 4,000m drill program at Gemini aims to expand the known high-grade zones and test newly identified mineralization 285m north of the discovery area. Other prospective projects for 92 Energy include Tower, located just 10km from the world-class Cigar Lake uranium mine, and Wares, which has historical drill results of 0.18% U3O8 over 0.1m and is considered an analog to the high-grade Roughrider and Hurricane discoveries.

The company offers investors exposure to high-grade uranium discoveries in a premier jurisdiction at an early stage. With a market capitalization of $32 million, upcoming drilling at Gemini and a portfolio of prospective projects, 92 Energy is well-positioned to create significant value for shareholders through new uranium discoveries in the Athabasca Basin.

View 92 Energy's Company Profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/92-energy

Interview with David Cataford, CEO of Champion Iron Ltd

Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/champion-iron-cia-premium-iron-ore-with-spare-logistics-capacity-2965

Recording date: 27th September 2023

Here is a draft company introduction for Champion Iron using the attached files:

Champion Iron Limited (TSX: CIA) is an iron ore production and exploration company focused on the mining and development of high-grade iron ore projects in the Labrador Trough region of eastern Canada. The company's main asset is the Bloom Lake iron ore mine located near Fermont, Quebec. Bloom Lake is a long-life asset with approximately 20 years of mine life remaining and estimated reserves of 807 million tonnes grading 29.0% iron.  

In the fiscal year 2923, Champion Iron produced 11.2 million tonnes of iron ore concentrate from Bloom Lake with an average grade of 66.2% iron. The company has a nameplate capacity of 15 million tonnes per year across two production lines, and is targeting an expansion to 20 million tonnes per year in the coming years.

Champion Iron is focused on producing a very high-purity iron ore concentrate to supply the electric arc furnace steelmaking market. This type of iron ore attracts premium pricing given its low impurities which aid cleaner steel production. The company also owns the Fire Lake North iron ore project located adjacent to Bloom Lake which has potential to add an additional 7-10 million tonnes per year of production.

With its high-grade iron ore assets located in a stable mining jurisdiction, Champion Iron is positioned to benefit from rising demand for high-purity iron ore to enable low-emission steel manufacturing. The company offers investors exposure to the steel value chain and decarbonization thematic as the world transitions to greener steel production methods.

View Champion Iron's Company Profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/champion-iron-limited

Interview with John Jentz, Director of Consolidated Uranium (TSX-V: CUR)

Recording date: 27th September 2023

IsoEnergy and Consolidated Uranium have entered into a definitive agreement to merge in an all-share transaction. 

Under the terms of the deal, Consolidated Uranium shareholders will receive 0.50 shares of IsoEnergy for each Consolidated Uranium share they own. This values Consolidated Uranium at approximately $903.5 million on a fully diluted in-the-money basis.

The combined company will have a portfolio of uranium projects in Canada, the United States, Australia and Argentina. Key assets include IsoEnergy's high-grade Hurricane project in Canada's Athabasca Basin and Consolidated Uranium's past-producing mines in Utah that are permitted and ready for restart.

The merger is expected to provide greater scale, asset diversification, enhanced capital markets presence, and exposure to near, medium and longer term uranium production potential.

The deal has the unanimous support of both companies' boards of directors. Consolidated Uranium shareholders will vote on the merger at a special meeting expected in November 2023. The companies are targeting completion of the merger in Q4 2023.

Concurrently, IsoEnergy is undertaking a $21 million private placement of subscription receipts, which will convert to IsoEnergy shares when the merger closes. The placement is backed by cornerstone investors including NexGen Energy and Mega Uranium.

The merger will create a new leading uranium company with a diverse portfolio of high-quality uranium assets, providing leverage to expected growth in the uranium market. The combined company will be better positioned to advance development projects towards production.

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Learn more: https://cruxinvestor.com/companies/consolidated-uranium
https://cruxinvestor.com/companies/iso-energy

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Interview with Stephen Swatton, CEO of CopperCorp Resources Inc.

Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/coppercorp-resources-cper-high-grade-copper-rare-earths-in-tasmania-3225

Recording date: 27th September 2023

CopperCorp Resources Inc. (TSXV: CPER, OTCQB: CPCPF) is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on discovering large copper-gold deposits in western Tasmania, Australia. The company has a strategic land package covering over 1,500 km2 along trend from the world-class Mount Lyell copper-gold mine.

CopperCorp's flagship project is the Skyline Project, comprising three exploration licenses covering 504 km2. The project includes the advanced high-grade Darwin Cu-Au-REE prospect, part of the recently granted Razorback license. Historical drilling at Darwin intercepted 30m at 2.1% TREO and 13m at 1.2% copper and 0.45 g/t gold. The Skyline Project is considered prospective for IOCG and porphyry-related copper-gold mineralization.

The company's AMC Project, located 10km north of Skyline, contains the advanced Alpine copper prospect with an indicated mineral resource of 4.4Mt at 0.41% copper. The project also hosts the Jasper Hills prospect, where high-grade rock samples returned up to 16.5% copper and 10.1 g/t gold. Over 20 regional IOCG targets have been identified within the AMC Project's 1,066 km2 land package.

With a strong technical team and over $5M in working capital, CopperCorp is fully funded to continue aggressive exploration across its strategic Tasmanian land holdings. Upcoming work includes further drilling at Alpine and maiden drilling at the Razorback REE-copper targets. The company offers leverage to new copper-gold discoveries in an established mining jurisdiction with renewable hydro-power.

View Copper Corp's Company Profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/coppercorp-inc

Interview with Johan Odendaal, Non-independent Non-executive Director & MD of Southern Palladium Ltd.

Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/southern-palladium-spd-17m-for-2023-drill-programme-for-upgraded-resource-2822

Recording date: 27th September 2023

Southern Palladium Limited (Southern Palladium) is a mineral exploration company dual-listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX code: SPD) and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE code: SDL). The company's primary asset is its 70% interest in the Bengwenyama Platinum Group Metal (PGM) project located on the Eastern Limb of the Bushveld Complex in South Africa's Limpopo Province.

The Bengwenyama project contains resources of 25.12 million ounces of platinum group metals (PGMs) plus gold, comprising platinum, palladium, rhodium, gold, iridium, osmium and ruthenium. The project includes the UG2 and Merensky reefs with the majority of resources located in the UG2 reef. The project has a total resource of 149.3 million tonnes at a grade of 4.48g/t 4E PGM+gold.

Southern Palladium commenced drilling at Bengwenyama in August 2022 after raising A$19 million in its June 2022 initial public offering (IPO). Drilling results to date have led to a 34% increase in resources to 25.12 million ounces. The company is targeting completion of a pre-feasibility study in 2023 to support a mining right application and initial production by 2025.

With its large, shallow PGM resource situated between tier 1 PGM mines, Southern Palladium offers exposure to PGMs critical for emissions control and the green economy. The company aims to rapidly advance the pre-development Bengwenyama project towards production to capitalize on strong PGM market fundamentals.

View Southern Palladium's Company Profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/southern-palladium

Interview with John Jentz, CEO of Latitude Uranium

Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/latitude-uranium-cselur-why-the-future-looks-bright-for-uranium-in-nunavut-3448

Recording date:26th September 2023

Latitude Uranium Inc. (CSE:LUR | OTCQB:LURAF | FRA:EI1) is a Canadian uranium exploration company with a focus on district scale projects in Canada. The company has two main assets:

The flagship Angilak Project located in Nunavut, which hosts a historical inferred resource of 43.3 million pounds U3O8 at an average grade of 0.69% U3O8. Recent drill results from the 2023 exploration program have intersected high-grade uranium mineralization including up to 21,000 counts per second on the Lac 50 Trend. Hole 18 discovered two new wide intercepts of 41 metres and 21 metres below historical drilling, opening up resource expansion potential.

The Central Mineral Belt (CMB) Project in Labrador with historical resources at the Moran Lake and Anna Lake deposits. The large 152,865 hectare land package covers a significant portion of the prospective belt, which also hosts the Michelin uranium deposit. Airborne surveys were completed in 2022 to identify and prioritize targets.

Latitude Uranium is focused on expanding the known high-grade mineralization at Angilak in the near-term, while also evaluating the district-scale potential. At the CMB project, compilation of the extensive historical data using modern techniques is underway to delineate drill targets.

The company is well funded with approximately $3 million in cash. With uranium demand growth forecasted as part of the global energy transition and looming supply shortages, Latitude Uranium offers leverage to the upside in the uranium market through expanding and discovering district-scale projects in top ranked mining jurisdictions.

View Latitude Uranium's Company Profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/latitude-uranium

Interview with Darrin Campbell, President & CEO of Namibia Critical Metals (TSX-V: NMI)

Recording date: 26th September 2023

Darrin Campbell, CEO of Namibia Critical Metals, discussed the company's heavy rare earth Lofdal project in Namibia. Lofdal's key rare earths are dysprosium and terbium, which are critical for permanent magnets used in EVs and wind turbines.

Namibia is a very mining-friendly jurisdiction where the company has worked for a decade and built strong government relationships. However, Namibia did recently ban unprocessed critical mineral exports, which won't impact Lofdal since they don't plan to export unprocessed rare earths.

Lofdal was previously too small when first drilled in 2012 at just a 6 million tonne resource. But in 2020, a drill program expanded the resource dramatically to 53 million tonnes after securing a partnership with Japanese agency Jogmec. Jogmec is spending $20 million to earn a 50% project interest.

This has allowed a revised PEA to show robust economics on the project with a $400 million NPV and 28% IRR. The vision is for Jogmec to bring in an industrial partner to further accelerate development. Campbell believes the project scale is sufficient for Jogmec given its heavy rare earth focus.

The next steps are completing a PFS by 2023 Q3, advancing pilot-scale metallurgy testwork, and assessing the feasibility of a rare earth separation plant in Namibia. The company is also seeking additional Japanese industrial partners and hopes to announce progress on that in the coming months.

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Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/namibia-critical-metals-inc

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Interview with Gregory Hall, CEO of Alligator Energy (ASX:AGE)

Our previous interview: https://youtu.be/-GnOaDUZ7ZM

Recording date: 26th September 2023

Gregory Hall, CEO of Australian uranium development company Alligator Energy, announced a new capital raising of $25.5 million AUD. The funds will support increased expenditures as Alligator ramps up activities at its Samphire Uranium Project. Samphire is at the mid-development stage and targeting production in 2027 to meet rising uranium demand.

Alligator is fabricating a pilot plant and will conduct field recovery trials in early 2024, which are key to derisking the project. Hall believes this funding puts Alligator in position by early 2025 to have successful trials, a feasibility study, initial off-take agreements, and permits submitted. It allows them to also grow Samphire's resource faster than otherwise possible.

The raise attracted institutional investors, mainly from Australia and Asia. Hall doesn't plan a share consolidation now despite some U.S. interest, as liquidity is important for institutions to enter and exit.

Hall discussed uranium market dynamics, with producers noting they need long-term, well-priced contracts to increase supply and utilities realizing they need to contract now that legacy enrichment supply is declining. This is driving higher prices.

At Samphire, the next big risk reduction milestone is the field recovery trials. Alligator has assembled an experienced ISR team to deliver its development plans. The company will look to expand Samphire's resource but doesn't need a massive resource to initially start small production and scale up like past ISR projects. An exploration target will demonstrate growth potential to support financing.

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Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/alligator-energy

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Alex Holmes, COO of Nano One Materials, a Canadian company developing cathode technology for lithium-ion batteries, announced a new collaboration and investment from Sumitomo Metal Mining. Sumitomo is investing nearly $17 million CAD for a 5% stake in Nano One. The companies have been collaborating over the past 9 months, with Sumitomo testing and validating Nano One's materials. Sumitomo sees potential in Nano One's differentiated process for producing cathode materials with a lower environmental footprint and competitive costs.

The collaboration will focus on tailoring materials to Sumitomo's customer specifications, especially in the Japanese auto ecosystem. The end goal is licensing agreements and joint ventures for both LFP and nickel-rich NMC cathode materials. Holmes explained Nano One's hybrid business model - large auto plants would likely license the technology to avoid capex, while smaller plants like for grid storage may do JVs where Nano One provides technology and Sumitomo provides capital.

Nano One recently acquired the only LFP cathode plant in North America and has retooled it for their process. They are now producing large samples to send to customers. Validation takes time, going through iterative samples from small to large scale. Holmes believes they are well positioned in North America where production is currently zero but will scale up significantly. Their team provides operating expertise that new entrants lack. The new funding will help complete plant conversions and trials to get large samples to customers.