Company Interviews

Interview with Dustin Perry, CEO of Kingfisher Metals (TSX-V: KFR)

Kingfisher Metals Corp. is a Canadian exploration company focused on underexplored district-scale projects in British Columbia's Golden Triangle region. The company has 100% ownership of three district-scale projects and an option to earn 100% of a fourth project. Kingfisher's properties offer potential exposure to gold, copper, silver and zinc mineralization. The company is leveraging its technical expertise to unlock value from these under-explored regions through systematic exploration.

Panel with John Cash, Chairman, President & CEO of Ur-Energy (TSX:URG) & David Cates, President & CEO of Denison Mines (TSX:DML)

Ur-Energy is operating its Lost Creek in-situ recovery uranium facility in Wyoming. The company has produced approximately 2.7 million pounds of U3O8 since the commencement of operations. Ur-Energy now has all permits and authorisations to begin construction on its second in-situ uranium recovery operation, Shirley Basin, also in Wyoming.

Denison Mines is a uranium exploration and development company with projects in the Athabasca Basin region. The company’s flagship Wheeler River project is the largest undeveloped uranium project in the region and is host to the high-grade Phoenix and Gryphon deposits. Denison is looking to make a construction decision on Phoenix in 2025.

Both discuss how geopolitical risks and project development challenges could constrain global uranium supply. This underscores the need for their new mines to fill looming shortfalls.

What’s been happening:

Niger – awaiting the next catalyst?

On 26 July news broke of a coup in Niger - borders were closed and a nationwide curfew was declared, and all institutions of the republic were suspended.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66320895

In the days following we saw statements from Global Atomic and GoviEx that employees were safe and it was business as usual.

 https://globalatomiccorp.com/investors/news/news-details/2023/Global-Atomic-Updates-the-Situation-in-The-Republic-of-Niger-July31/default.aspx

https://goviex.com/site/assets/files/4676/2l_nigerupdate_310723_final.pdf

With 25% of the EU’s uranium coming from Niger the coup raised a series of concerns for their clean energy sector. Orano the major operator in the region said ‘operations continue as normal’.

https://greeninvesting.co/2023/07/niger-coup-threatens-frances-uranium-supply-nuclear-energy-industry/

We discuss how this key development might affect the uranium market.

Winner of the week:

It’s a tie between Vogtle & China.

Georgia Power declared that Plant Vogtle Unit 3 has entered commercial operation. They are the tied winner because the US administration saw the bigger picture and persisted, and can now look forward.

https://www.georgiapower.com/company/news-center/2023-articles/vogtle-unit-3-goes-into-operation.html

China approved 6 new nuclear reactors commencements at $17B investment. Even though these are the first approvals for 2023, they are in addition to 10 in 2022. China accounts for 23 of 55 nukes under construction globally.

https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Six-reactors-approved-for-construction-in-China
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-01/china-approves-six-nuclear-reactors-at-17-billion-investment?utm_source=website&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=twitter#xj4y7vzkg

Bungle of the week:

Collectively award it to all of those that proclaimed that renewable pricing can only get cheaper.

These last 2 weeks Vattenfall and Ørsted abandoned offshore wind projects in the US & UK due to soaring costs of up to 40%.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-07-22/biggest-offshore-wind-power-plans-in-crisis-iberdrola-orsted-vattenfall-hit

https://www.rechargenews.com/wind/too-expensive-us-state-refuses-lone-offshore-wind-bid-by-orsted-jv-on-cost-concerns/2-1-1488381

Siemens Gamesa board has initiated an "extended technical review" that will incur "significantly higher costs" than previously assumed, estimated to be in excess of 1 billion euros ($1.09 billion).

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2023/06/23/siemens-energy-scraps-profit-outlook-as-wind-turbine-troubles-deepen.html

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-29/wind-turbines-that-shake-and-break-cost-their-maker-billions#xj4y7vzkg

Question of the week:
KAP’s sales have gone up 13% because of (FLEX) in their contracts. What does that mean?

Kazatomprom 2Q23 Operations and Trading Update - https://www.kazatomprom.kz/en/media/view/kazatomprom_2Q23_operations_and_trading_update

Moonshots & Fizzers:

The potential moonshot is the physical uranium funds… or will they fizzle out?

For 11 days before the coup in Niger SPUT had been trading at an average discount of 11.00%, since the coup it has substantially reduced, sitting at an average discount of -7.82%.

https://twitter.com/skysurfer75/status/1686513074394578944/photo/1
https://twitter.com/janwolansky/status/1686470708984008704/photo/1
https://twitter.com/quakes99/status/1686517113756975104?s=20

Yellowcake is up nearly 6% in London

https://www.holdcomarkets.com/post/the-month-in-u-inventory-yellowcake-p-nav-discount-too-narrow-in-relation-to-sput
https://twitter.com/moniology/status/1686030693975912448/photo/1
https://twitter.com/HoldcoMarkets/status/1686505128793141248/photo/1

Tweet of the week:

https://twitter.com/sollidnuclear/status/1683467634216509443?s=20What’s been happening

“Strategic patience” is required by all… an exciting September coming up.

Nickel briefly popped through $22,000 (10/lb) and remains in the upper end of $20,000-$22,000 where it has been sitting for the last 6 weeks. LME inventories remain low at 37-38,000 tonnes. Sulphate prices are flat and sitting at a similar discount as last week. In contrast, ore prices and NPI prices ticked higher in China – haven’t seen a rebound in stainless prices yet.  May be driven by rumours that China SRB is stockpiling some nickel.

The big news of the week:

Saudi Arabia is investing $US3.4 billion for a 10% stake in Brazil’s Vale base metals business – good to see the Middle East $$ in the sector.

Australia going to include nickel in the critical minerals list.

Potential for Russian nickel to be subject to sanctions in UK/Europe in the upcoming year – think a lot of people choosing not to use it, but if implemented, a little more challenging given that nearly ½ of Russian nickel used to end up in Europe.

Magna Metals PEA on Crean Hill/Denison project picked up earlier in the year from Sibanye – unfortunately share price was off by about 15% (but had popped up 10% in the week before). 
Metrics on IRR and NPV are both good at $C200 million and 22% IRR with a 15-year mine life mining 1.5-2 Mtpa of ore for a few years with an open pit and then 1.25 Mtpa underground operation with roughly 10ktpa of nickel production.  However, the market reacted negatively for a couple of reasons with capital cost being the primary one:

- Total of CAD$129 million including $48 million of “advanced exploration” costs, $24 million in open pit costs, and $57 million in underground capital. Think the market was expecting was going to be open pit restart and then underground so was a little surprised at the total amount.
- They had some pretty splashy high-grade intervals but the life of mine grades are 0.6% nickel, 0.6% copper and over 1g/t PGMs so some investors were probably expecting some more grades to pop out.
- The third reason was valuation – at $0.75/share has a market cap of $120 million versus the value for the project at $C200 million (and they also have Shakespeare) – which is a pretty healthy P/NAV in the industry sector that is struggling.

A good example of challenges with high grade – can be narrower, less continuous = more drilling capital, particularly if has to be done underground.

Widgie Nickel had nice step-out results and infill drilling
100-metre step out Eastern Limb MEDD069 29.0m @ 1.66% Ni from 79m Incl. 5.0m @ 3.23% Ni from 88m.  Widgie Townsite MEDD061 30.85m @ 1.59% Ni from 435m Incl. 13.43m @ 2.74% Ni from 449.7m And 3.36m @ 3.27% Ni from 471.3m.

Our Timmins neighbour had updated resources from their W4 higher grade deposit:

Measured + Indicated Resources of 31.3M pounds at 0.98% Ni (2.1x the 2010 historical estimate) and Inferred Resources of 12.1M pounds at 0.98% Ni (3.6x the 2010 historical estimate) – about 40% of that in open pit and balance underground resource.

Interview with Chris Reed, Managing Director & CEO of Neometals Ltd. (ASX: NMT)

Neometals is a sustainable battery materials company that has developed proprietary technologies to recover and recycle valuable materials from end-of-life lithium-ion batteries and industrial by-products.

The company has three core business units focused on battery material recycling and resource recovery:

Lithium-ion battery (LIB) recycling through a joint venture called Primobius. This operates a commercial recycling facility in Germany and has partnered with Mercedes Benz. A larger facility in Canada with Stelco is planned for 2023.

Vanadium recovery from steelmaking slag through a joint venture in Finland. This aims to produce high-purity vanadium pentoxide from slag supplied by Scandinavian steelmaker SSAB. Production is expected to start in 2023.

Lithium chemicals production from brines and hard rock using Neometals' ELi electrolysis process. A pilot plant with Portuguese company Bondalti is under development targeting 25,000 tonnes per annum of lithium hydroxide.

Neometals also owns the Barrambie titanium-vanadium project in Australia. This is one of the world's highest-grade deposits and a take-or-pay offtake deal is being finalised to support the export of titanium concentrate to China.

In summary, Neometals is leveraging proprietary technologies to sustainably produce battery materials by recycling end-of-life products and recovering co-products from industrial processes. Its commercial facilities are expected to come online in 2023.

Interview with  Raymond Jannas, CEO & Director of ATEX Resources Inc. (TSX-V: ATX)

ATEX’s flagship property is the Valeriano copper-gold project located 125km east of Vallenar city, within the Link Belt, in north-central Chile. The Company is focused on delineating and growing the copper-gold porphyry resource underlying a surface oxide gold deposit. Drill results to date confirm the presence of a major copper-gold porphyry system that is open in all directions. Valeriano is adjacent to the El Encierro deposit, a joint venture between Antofagasta (51%) and Barrick Gold (49%). The project is within a 120-km long zone – internally referred as the Link Belt – connecting the Maricunga gold porphyry belt to the El Indio high-sulphidation gold-epithermal belt that hosts significant copper-gold deposits. Other companies active in this area include Filo Mining, Teck Resources, Newmont Mining as well as Lundin Mining.

ATEX is supported by shareholders with a long-standing track record of successful resource investment. Pierre Lassonde, co-founder of Franco-Nevada is the company’s single largest shareholder, followed by a resource-focused mutual fund. Elsewhere in northern Chile, ATEX has initiated a low cost generative exploration program exploring for high sulphidation precious metals deposits and has staked a number of properties for review.

Recording date: 24th July 2023

Nickel continues rangebound in $20,500-$21,500 range with LME inventories remaining low at 37-38,000 tonnes

After nickel price move off the $20,000 range about 10 days ago, sulphate prices actually softened a little as the big surge in June ores for NMC cathodes in China hasn’t continued through yet for July /August  - so sulphate discounts retraced some of the narrowing we’ve seen in last few weeks. On NPI front, NPI prices surprisingly actually ticked up about 2%.  Thought we would see sulphate discounts narrow pretty fully before NPI started moving higher but good to see  

Not lots of news, but couple of key pieces of news

Nickel refining capacity - The London Metal Exchange has approved nickel produced by China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co. for delivery under its new fast track registration system for its new refinery in China.  Huayou, GEM, CNGR all building refineries in Indo/China and will follow down a similar path.

This is key piece in “great convergence” which will allow market clearing mechanism to move from NPI/matte discounts back to LME price.   Should see ~200ktpa of capacity come online by end 2024 and nearly 100ktpa of LME deliverable nickel produced in 2023.

This scale of numbers given that given current annualized surplus is estimated by INSG in 100-200kt range which in  May fell by 1/4 to 144kt annualized form ~200ktpa annualized.  I still believe that these figures are overstated as don’t see large inventories in market and wouldn’t see discounts reducing if these inventories available to market.

Poseidon Nickel – comment from subscriber online that wanted thoughts on this announcement.  Last week mentioned their exploration at success at other past producing mine – Emily Ann/Maggie Hays

Poseidon was restarting Black Swan/Silver Swan operations – one of few nickel mills in Western Australia and mine operated for short period of time in 2008-2009 – now announced last week deferring restart until 2024 for following reasons: 

Western Power has advised grid power will be available from late 2024 · Additional metallurgical testwork will be conducted to confirm recovery assumptions for the disseminated serpentinite ore · Decision made to defer the restart of Black Swan due to project related factors and external market conditions

From release quote: “These project related factors together with the continuing tightness in the WA labour market, the lack of the availability of Kalgoorlie FIFO accommodation ….”

Highlights 4 key issues:

Availability of infrastructure– no grid power until end 2024, (could use generators, but much more expensive

Availability of people and ability to support them – talks about fly in fly out – most of Western Australia with a few exceptions is massive fly in, fly out operation.  Is expensive, and highly competitive 

Importance of nickel concentrate grades - Release talks about certain ore feed producing only 5-6% nickel concentrate with high mgO content – big plus of deposits like Crawford is ability to produce much higher grade nickel concentrate.  Most nickel concentrates are only 10-15% nickel 

Parallel project design – need to integrate resource/mine design/mineralogy/metallurgical testing so always understand how feed will perform. Is good they found out now rather than in operation, but would have been better if found before putting FS out last year.

Interview with Mark Brennan, Executive Chairman of Ascendant Resources (TSX: ASND)

Ascendant Resources Inc. (TSX: ASND) is a Toronto-based mining company focused on exploring and developing the Lagoa Salgada VMS project in Portugal. This project is located on the Iberian Pyrite Belt and contains significant resources of zinc, copper, lead, tin, silver and gold. The North Zone has over 10 million tonnes of measured and indicated resources with high zinc content. The South Zone has over 15 million tonnes of indicated and inferred resources with high copper content. The deposit shows typical characteristics of VMS deposits in the region and has substantial upside exploration potential across the large 7,209ha concession area. The project also demonstrates positive economics in preliminary assessments, with scalability for future resource growth.

Located just 80km from Lisbon, Lagoa Salgada has exceptional infrastructure access. Ascendant currently holds a 50% interest in the project through its stake in Redcorp, with the opportunity to earn-in up to 80% ownership. The Lagoa Salgada opportunity offers Ascendant a low-cost entry point to a sizable exploration and development project with demonstrated mineable scale. Beyond this flagship project, Ascendant continues to evaluate producing and developing mining assets to add to its portfolio.

Interview with Francis Macdonald, CEO of Li-FT Power (CSE: LIFT)

Li-FT Power is focused on exploring and developing hard rock lithium deposits in Canada. The company's flagship project is the Yellowknife lithium project in the Northwest Territories, which hosts 13 significant spodumene pegmatites exposed at surface. Historic sampling indicates the pegmatites have high lithium grades of 1-2% Li2O.

Drilling commenced at Yellowknife in June 2022 and initial holes have intersected wide intervals of spodumene mineralization. Li-FT plans an aggressive 45,000 meter drill program through November to delineate an initial mineral resource. The project benefits from excellent infrastructure with road access and proximity to rail.

Li-FT is also advancing an early stage exploration portfolio in Quebec's James Bay region, where the company is using systematic till sampling to pinpoint buried lithium pegmatites. Drilling has commenced at the Rupert project and will be expanded to other targets. Additional field work is planned at the Cali project in the Northwest Territories.

With a tight share structure and over $35 million in cash, Li-FT is well funded to advance its projects. The company aims to fast track Yellowknife to a preliminary economic assessment within 18 months. Li-FT's portfolio provides exposure to multiple lithium projects in mining friendly Canadian jurisdictions.

Interview with Scott Macmillan, MD of Invictus Energy (ASX: IVZ)

Invictus Energy, an independent Australian oil and gas company, is unlocking the potential of Zimbabwe's Cabora Bassa Basin. This largely unexplored interior rift basin is one of Africa's most promising hydrocarbon regions.

With the successful maiden Mukuyu-1/ST1 well, Invictus has validated a working petroleum system. The well encountered 13 potential pay zones, setting the stage for further appraisal.

Mukuyu-2, slated to spud in Q3 2023, will target gas-condensate and light oil in the Upper Angwa and Pebbly Arkose. Additional prospects in the deeper Angwa and untested Post Dande are set to provide further upside.

Supported by these high-impact wells, Invictus is strategically positioned to open up an exciting new energy province. The company offers investors a compelling opportunity to participate in frontier African exploration.