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.

Interview with Frederick Bell, Executive Director & CEO of Elemental Altus Royalties (TSX-V: ELE)

Elemental Altus Royalties Corp. (TSX-V: ELE) is an income-generating precious metals royalty company with 10 producing royalties and a portfolio of pre-production and exploration stage assets across 14 jurisdictions. 

The company recently announced the completion of Lundin Mining Corporation’s acquisition of a 51% stake in the Caserones copper-molybdenum mine in Chile. Elemental Altus holds an effective 0.473% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on Caserones, covering a 170 square kilometre area which includes all current reserves and resources and many regional targets. 

Elemental Altus has also executed an agreement to sell its Diba Gold Project in western Mali to Allied Gold Corporation. The sale provides near-term cash flow and royalties on future production from Diba, adding to Elemental Altus' portfolio of producing royalty assets.

What’s been happening?

It has certainly been a busy week for the nuclear sector!  There has been a host of positive news on the SMR front, the usual barrage of good policy news that we are growing accustomed to - and even some intrigue amongst uranium juniors.

Brandon’s stand-out SMR news (amongst a very full competitive field) was the Joint Development agreement between US utility Energy Northwest and X-Energy for up to 12 Xe-100 SMRs. This is an upgrade from the April 2021 announcement of 4 Xe-100 modules at Energy Northwest’s Columbia NPP site. The first SMR is expected online by 2030. 

The IEA released its 2023 Electricity Market Report

We have talked many times about the impact of power volatility on consumers. Now the IEA is bragging about it!   

Uranium Energy Corp (UEC) announced it has completed the steps required in their plan for a resumption of operations, enabling a faster restart at the Christensen Ranch in-situ recovery (ISR) Project in Wyoming.

Unfortunately for Peninsula Energy, UEC’s Christensen Ranch project need to free up that faster production from UEC’s Irigaray processing plant, which had been a vital part of Peninsula’s stage 1 restart of its Lance project.  

Peninsula announced a day later that it has delayed production at their Lance Projects in Wyoming because UEC has terminated their Resin processing agreement. Peninsula described the news as “disappointing” but is highlighting the silver lining – ie accelerating plans for in-house resin processing by going directly to stage 2 of the Lance restart.

Winner of the week 

Poland, for getting on with the job of developing nuclear power to replace its coal fired power base. Poland & South Korea sign 6 MoUs related to nuclear power generation, including 2 MoUs signed between Doosan Enerbility and Polish companies on the construction of new nuclear power plants in Poland.

Ministry of Climate and Environment has approved Polish copper and silver producer, KGHM Polska Miedź SA's plan to construct a power plant based on NuScale Power's small modular reactor (SMR).

Polish state-owned development bank, BGK, announced it will lend €500 million to help finance the building of small nuclear reactors.

Bungle of the week

New York State’s independent grid operator, ‘New York ISO’ has officially identified a shortfall of electric generating capacity for New York City in 2025 of 446MW – more if the city has another heatwave.  What a shame they turned off 2GW of emissions free nuclear power from the Indian Point nuclear power plant.  Even the three new gas fired power plants built to generate 1.8GW to replace Indian Point won’t be enough

Question of the week

What's the significance of the Paladin Energy announcement to retain 75% interest in Michelin JV in Labrador?

Tweet of the week

https://twitter.com/JohnLeePettim13/status/1681312834091896832?s=20

Moonshots & Fizzers

This week ‘Great British Nuclear’ (GBN) was launched, a new organisation backed by the UK government, to boost UK energy security, reduce dependence on volatile fossil fuel imports and deliver government priority to grow the economy. GBN kickstarted with a competition for game-changing small modular reactor (SMR) technology, which could result in billions of pounds of public and private sector investment in SMR projects. The aim is to have the first SMR up and running by 2030. By 2050 GBN wants to see nuclear providing a quarter of the UK’s electricity. 

Interview with Alex Underwood, Managing Director of Empire Energy (ASX: EEG)

Empire Energy, an ASX listed company, is an active developer in the Betaloo Basin, Australia's Northern Territory, with a growing resource and advancing pilot study. The company has drilled significant horizontal wells over the past year and observed encouraging flow rates from these wells. They also reported a substantial resource upgrade, now holding 1.7 trillion cubic feet of independently assessed discovered resource.

The company's focus is shifting towards pilot production, including all the groundwork needed to arrive at a final investment decision for the project. They aim to start construction in the coming year and move into production shortly after. The end goal is to make the company attractive to the market and potential acquirers.

Empire Energy has a prospective resource of over 40 trillion cubic feet of gas, which could provide significant LNG exports. They are aiming to de-risk this vast resource and see a potential for substantial value creation, similar to the experiences of other unconventional oil and gas companies in Australia and the US.

The company plans to bring large international oil and gas companies into the project as joint venture partners. However, these potential partners need to see that the gas can be commercially extracted before making significant investments. The pilot project, therefore, aims to provide longer-term flow data and repeatability of results to convince potential future partners.

The market opportunity for Empire Energy's gas is strong, with Australia facing significant shortages on its East Coast. The company is receiving strong interest for gas from the pilot project and views this as a significant driver of near-term value.

Interview with Keith Bowes, MD of Lotus Resources (ASX: LOT) 

Our previous interview: https://youtu.be/RwUKk4Hj-KQ

Recording date: 25th July 2023

Lotus Resources Limited, a company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX: LOT) and the OTCQB (LTSRF), holds an 85% stake in the Kayelekera Uranium Project located in Malawi, Africa.

Presently, Kayelekera is under care and maintenance. Before its closure due to persistently low uranium prices, it was a highly productive asset, having produced about 11 million pounds of uranium.

In August 2022, Lotus issued a Re-Start Definitive Feasibility (DFS) Study which underscored Kayelekera's status as one of the world's lowest capital cost uranium projects, with costs amounting to US$88m. The study also confirmed that the project has the potential to rapidly resume production – requiring only 15 months for construction and refurbishment – following a final investment decision (FID).

Interview with Alan Carter, President & CEO of Cabral Gold (TSX-V: CBR)

Our previous interview: https://youtu.be/c5MbDpnIZd4

Recording date: 25th July 2023

Cabral Gold, a junior resource enterprise, primarily focuses on identifying, exploring, and developing mineral properties, predominantly gold locations in Brazil. It holds complete ownership of the Cuiú Cuiú gold district in the Tapajós Region, situated in Pará, a northern state of Brazil. The Cuiú Cuiú project has outlined two significant gold deposits to date, with National Instrument 43-101 compliant resources of 21.6 million tonnes at 0.87 g/t gold (604,000 ounces) indicated and 19.8 million tonnes at 0.84 g/t gold (534,500 ounces) inferred.

The Tapajós Gold Province, the largest gold rush site in Brazil's history, yielded an estimated 30 to 50 million ounces of placer gold from 1978 to 1995. Historically, Cuiú Cuiú, the area with the most extensive placer workings in the Tapajós, has been credited with an estimated production of 2 million ounces of placer gold.