J2. Fossil Fuel Industry

Canada’s Lundin Gold (TSX: LUG) said drilling near its Fruta del Norte mine in Ecuador showed a large intrusive complex hosting several shallow copper-gold porphyry systems within a short distance of each other. The stock jumped.

Hole SND-2025-383 in the Sandia zone cut 603 metres grading 0.68% copper, 0.1 gram gold per tonne, 2.85 grams silver and 16.32 parts per million (ppm) molybdenum from 27 metres downhole, Lundin said late Thursday in a statement. In the Castillo zone, hole CAS-2025-376 cut 48 metres of 1% copper, 0.33 gram gold, 3.2 grams silver and 3.81 ppm molybdenum from 258 metres depth.

Lundin is advancing toward a first-half decision on whether to build a mine in Fruta del Norte’s south zone to expand output. Eight of the 16 highest grade and width holes ever drilled on the property have come from that zone in the last two years.

“Near-mine exploration continues to prove up the Fruta del Norte land package as an emerging gold-copper district,” Scotia Capital mining analyst Ovais Habib said Friday in a note.

Lundin shares rose 6.6% to C$108.09 Friday morning in Toronto, boosting the company’s market value to about C$26 billion ($19 billion).

Vancouver-based Lundin is planning to drill 133,000 metres at Fruta del Norte this year – an $85 million outlay that will represent the largest ever exploration program on the property. This includes 100,000 metres of near-mine exploration targeting the porphyry corridor and high-grade epithermal gold deposits.

“With multiple rigs turning, we are advancing what is increasingly looking to be a large porphyry district adjacent to Fruta del Norte,” CEO Jamie Beck said.

Other highlights released Thursday include the discovery of a fifth porphyry system, named Chontas, about 7 km south of the main deposit. This doubles the porphyry corridor to at least 10 km and opens a broader area to explore, Lundin said.

The discovery of the fifth porphyry system “underscores [the] district-scale potential as the largest drill program to date in 2026 is underway,” National Bank Financial mining analyst Don DeMarco said Friday in a note. While it’s still early to quantify the economics, “it continues to build out a potentially sizable organic net asset value opportunity.”

In the Trancaloma zone, hole TRL-2025-340 cut 945 metres grading 0.33% copper, 0.1 gram gold, 1.8 grams silver and 12.58 ppm molybdenum from 152 metres depth. This included 202 metres of 0.52% copper, 0.13 grams gold, 2.31 grams silver and 19.14 ppm molybdenum from 895 metres downhole.

Fruta del Norte is expected to produce between 475,000 and 525,000 oz. annually in 2026, 2027 and 2028. This compares with the company’s 490,000–525,000 oz. output range for 2025. Head grade is estimated to average 8.3 grams gold per tonne, with fluctuations expected during 2026 as different sections of the ore body are mined.

Retail investors are debating your company right now. On X, CEO.CA, YouTube and Reddit, they dissect drill results, speculate on geology, question management motives, and reinterpret your latest press release. Some of the discussion is informed. Much of it is not. Misinformation spreads quickly, sometimes inflating potential, sometimes dismissing it unfairly.

And under current social media guidance, the one voice most capable of correcting the record, the company itself, is effectively sidelined.

That is the irony. The regulatory framework designed to protect investors from misleading disclosure has helped create an environment where online misinformation spreads while issuers remain silent out of legal caution.

Justice Louis Brandeis wrote that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Transparency works. But only if those with knowledge are allowed to speak. Junior mining still operates under communication guidance written when “online forums” meant anonymous message boards. The sector needs NI 43-101. But it also needs modern rules that allow responsible public engagement.

National Instrument 43-101 was introduced in 2001 after Bre-X to impose discipline on mineral disclosure. It worked.

Before NI 43-101, technical disclosure varied widely. Promotional language often blurred into geology. Investors struggled to compare projects on consistent terms. Bre-X exposed the worst-case outcome of that environment.

NI 43-101 imposed structure. Qualified persons. Standardized reporting. Clearer boundaries around what could and could not be said. Investor confidence stabilized because disclosure became more reliable.

But standardization had a side effect.

When technical disclosure becomes uniform, appearance becomes easier to manufacture.

NI 43-101 did not create weak operators. Junior mining has always included promoters, capital recyclers, and projects that never advance. Exploration is inherently risky, and even strong teams can fail honestly.

The issue is pattern.

Some companies raise capital repeatedly without meaningful escalation of exploration activity. General and administrative costs remain high regardless of results. Management compensation stays stable while shareholder value erodes. Projects are rebranded rather than advanced.

These companies are not committing fraud. They are operating within the rules. But they are not structured to discover and build mines. They are structured to sustain themselves.

In a post-NI 43-101 world, standardized technical reports and uniform disclaimers create a surface of legitimacy. To a retail investor, most press releases look the same. Most investor decks follow the same template. Dense reports go unread. Compliance becomes an industry uniform.

Uniforms build trust. They also make differentiation harder.

Experienced investors rely on private networks, long track records, and pattern recognition to separate serious operators from chronic diluters. Retail investors do not have that access. They are left comparing documents that appear structurally identical.

That informational flattening created a vacuum. Social media filled it.

Regulation often fights the last crisis. In the 1990s, the threat was catastrophic fraud. NI 43-101 addressed that threat directly and appropriately.

Today, the dominant risk is different. It is not large-scale fabrication. It is long-term capital erosion through repeated dilution and stalled progress.

NI 43-101 protects investors from false technical claims. It does not protect them from companies that never meaningfully advance their projects. And it does not help investors assess intent.

The market has responded by building its own informal oversight system online. Retail investors crowdsource analysis. They compare drill intervals. They scrutinize financing terms. They debate management credibility in public.

Yet the companies at the center of these debates are advised not to participate.

Canadian guidance on electronic disclosure, National Policy 51-201, was introduced in 2002. It references chat rooms and bulletin boards. It warns against “sporadic” efforts by employees to correct rumors online.

The message is clear. Engagement creates liability.

Twenty-four years later, the digital environment is unrecognizable. Video platforms dominate. Real-time commentary shapes perception. Yet the regulatory posture remains cautious to the point of silence.

The result is a chilling effect. Legal counsel often advises companies to avoid unscripted video, avoid online discussions, and avoid responding directly to misinformation.

But discouraging public engagement does not eliminate communication. It shifts it.

When management refuses to answer questions publicly but invites investors to call privately, the conversation moves into unrecorded phone calls. Those exchanges leave no public record and no shared benefit for the broader shareholder base.

Public platforms, by contrast, create accountability. Statements are timestamped. They can be scrutinized. If a company crosses a line, it happens in view of regulators, investors, and the market.

Silence does not eliminate risk. It removes transparency.

The solution is not weakening NI 43-101. Technical rigor remains essential.

The solution is to supplement it with a clear safe harbor for voluntary process transparency and responsible online engagement.

Regulators and exchanges could explicitly permit:

• Video documentation of exploration activity and operational work
• Discussion of geological reasoning and field decisions, clearly framed as preliminary
• Public correction of misinformation, provided no material non-public information is disclosed
• Prominent disclaimers clarifying that such content does not constitute formal technical disclosure
• Clear identification of the speaker and their relationship to the issuer

At the same time, the boundaries should remain firm. A safe harbor should not allow:

• Disclosure of material results before formal release
• Implied resource estimates or economic claims
• Target grades, ounces, or valuations without proper technical support
• Undisclosed promotional arrangements or paid influencer activity

The distinction is straightforward. Companies can show their work without making forward-looking promises.

A serious explorer should be able to document drill progress, explain why a hole was stepped out, or clarify geological interpretation in plain language without triggering regulatory fear. Those communications would remain subject to existing prohibitions against misleading statements.

This is not deregulation. It is modernization.

NI 43-101 was a necessary response to a crisis. It remains necessary.

But standardized technical disclosure alone cannot address today’s challenges. It cannot help investors distinguish disciplined explorers from companies that simply persist. And it cannot counter the speed at which misinformation now spreads online.

If regulators are concerned about “finfluencers” and inaccurate commentary, the most effective countermeasure is not silence. It is informed participation.

Allow companies to document their process. Allow them to correct the record publicly. Allow transparency in real time, within clear boundaries.

Sunlight still works. But it requires visibility.

NI 43-101 was necessary. It was not sufficient.

* Erik Groves is Corporate Strategy and In-House Counsel at Morgan Companies.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of MINING.COM or The Northern Miner Group.

Canada’s largest gold miner, Agnico Eagle Mines (TSX, NYSE: AEM), reported record 2025 reserves of the precious metal and a 135% surge in annual profit, lifting its dividend as higher gold prices boosted revenue.

Year-end gold mineral reserves rose 2.1% to a record 55.4 million ounces, supported by exploration success and the initial declaration of reserves at the Marban deposit in Malartic following the March 2025 acquisition of O3 Mining. Reserves totalled 1.33 billion tonnes grading 1.30 g/t gold.

Measured and indicated resources increased 9.6% to 47.1 million ounces, or 1.2 billion tonnes at 1.22 g/t, while inferred resources climbed 15.5% to 41.8 million ounces, or 522 million tonnes at 2.49 g/t.

Net income for the year ended December 31, 2025, jumped to $4.46 billion, or $8.89 per share, from $1.9 billion in 2024, as revenue rose 44% to $11.91 billion on stronger gold prices.

The company met its full-year production target, producing 3.45 million ounces of gold in 2025. That compares with 3.4 million ounces in 2024. Fourth-quarter output reached 841,000 ounces, in line with consensus estimates.

Full-year all-in sustaining costs rose 8% to $1,339 per ounce, largely due to higher royalty payments tied to stronger gold prices.

In addition to gold, Agnico produced 2.5 million ounces of silver, 8,446 tonnes of zinc and 5,393 tonnes of copper in 2025.

The company increased its quarterly dividend to 45 cents per share from 40 cents, effective the March quarter of 2026.

“Agnico Eagle has never been better positioned, with the strongest balance sheet in our history,” president and CEO Ammar Al-Joundi said in the statement.

He added that the company’s project pipeline could lift annual gold production by 20% to 30% over the next decade to more than four million ounces by the early 2030s.

BMO analyst Matthew Murphy said projects at Malartic, Detour Lake, Upper Beaver and Hope Bay could add 0.7 million to one million ounces a year over the next decade, pushing output above four million ounces in the early 2030s. He also pointed to progress on a second shaft at Malartic and potential additional production from the Marban satellite pit later in the decade.

Agnico ran an average of 120 diamond drill rigs in 2025 and completed 1.4 million metres of core drilling across its portfolio.

For 2026, the company expects exploration and project spending of $565 million to $635 million, with a midpoint of $600 million. That includes about $384 million for capitalized and expensed exploration and roughly $216 million for advanced exploration projects, studies and other corporate development work.

Key priorities include continued drilling at the Detour Lake underground project, assessing the full potential of the Canadian Malartic property, advancing regional synergies in Abitibi and expanding exploration at Hope Bay.

Shares of Agnico Eagle rose nearly 1.7% in pre-market trading Friday in New York to $205.21. The stock has climbed 104% over the past year, giving the company a market capitalization of about $103 billion.

Market sentiment has reflected the company’s strong performance over the past year. The miner topped MINING.COM’s Global Mining Power Rankings in the large-cap category for a third straight month in January. 

The rankings highlight companies viewed by investors, analysts and industry insiders as delivering operational consistency, financial momentum and strategic progress across market capitalizations.

After rallying through 2025 (not without some deep troughs) and into this year driven by supply disruptions in Indonesia and South America alongside tariff disruptions, copper prices are pulling back again. 

Copper for March delivery fell over 3% in New York to $5.78 a pound or $12,740 a tonne on Thursday and is now trading 12% below highs hit just over two weeks ago. 

Uncertainty on copper markets was heightened after satellite data showed January smelter activity was the lowest on record since tracking began nearly a decade ago.

Earth-i’s latest SAVANT Global Copper Smelting Index shows that 14.3% of global smelting capacity was inactive in January. Activity fell 2.5% from December, a notable drop during what is typically the industry’s most active period. 

It was also the first January in seven years to show a double‑digit inactivity rate and is now 6.8% above the three‑year average. Earth-i’s satellites cover some 95% of global capacity. 

The global headline number masks significant regional divergence. China, home to 45% of smelting capacity tracked by SAVANT, reported an inactive‑capacity reading of just 7.5%. 

Active tonnage ex-China is now 1.2 million tonnes lower than the same period a year ago, highlighting the severity of the slowdown outside China. 

The steepest year‑on‑year drop came from Asia and Oceania, which accounted for more than 850,000 tonnes of the decline, despite a month-on-month increase over December (the only region to do so). 

The region continues to reel from major disruptions, including the closure of the Isabel Leyte (PASAR) smelter in the Philippines and the temporary shutdown of the Gresik and Manyar smelters in Indonesia. Both Indonesian plants were forced offline after the mud‑rush at the Grasberg mine in September, which curtailed upstream and downstream operations. 

South America and Europe each recorded declines in active tonnage of more than 100,000 tonnes. In South America, much of the decline stems from the ongoing outage at Salvador (Potrerillos) in Chile, which has remained offline following a chimney collapse in June 2025. 

Africa, meanwhile, saw the most pronounced deterioration in January. The continent’s inactive‑capacity reading jumped 12.9% to 28.4%, the sharpest relative monthly drop of any region. Yet Africa also delivered one of the month’s few bright spots: the first operating signals from the 500,000 tonne per year Kamoa‑Kakula smelter in the DRC. 

While still in ramp up and not yet included in the Earth-i index, its addition will eventually lift Africa’s active smelting tonnage to around 1.45 million tonnes.

The historic weakening in global smelter activity is intertwined with an unprecedented collapse in treatment and refining charges, or TCRCs, which are the fees miners pay smelters to convert concentrate into refined copper. 

Mine disruptions have tightened concentrate supply forcing smelters, many of which have come online in recent years after aggressive Chinese build out, to compete for feedstock. 

As a result, spot TCRCs have plunged into deeply negative territory, with recent spot market tenders closing near –$45 per tonne and – 4.5¢ per lb. The benchmark annual contract market has followed this collapse. Antofagasta’s 2026 benchmark agreement with a Chinese smelter settled at zero dollars,  the lowest annual TC/RC terms ever recorded.

These levels effectively eliminate smelter processing margins and explain why many facilities outside China are curtailing output. The Chinese industry is less exposed to market forces with many refiners and smelters across the country backed by local governments that can keep operations running even when margins disappear.

Sandvik said on Thursday it is acquiring South Africa’s ThoroughTec Simulation and will integrate it into the parts and services division of the group’s mining business unit.

ThoroughTec develops OEM-agnostic training simulators and offers a training management system, enabling mining customers to strengthen productivity and operator safety, and reduce equipment maintenance costs.

The combination of ThoroughTec’s training simulators and Sandvik’s digital solutions will “enable data-driven, customized operator training programs based on real machine performance insights,” Sandvik said in a statement.

The parties did not disclose the purchase price. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals.

“ThoroughTec is a great addition to Sandvik. Their solutions will strengthen our aftermarket offering and help customers enhance both productivity and safety in their operations through advanced training technologies,” Sandvik CEO Stefan Widing said.

Headquartered in Durban, South Africa, ThoroughTec has more than 200 employees and a broad-based sales and support network. In 2025, it generated revenues of around SEK 170 million, with a strong EBITA margin.

The impact on Sandvik’s EBITA margin will be accretive, the Swedish group said.

Gold again dropped below the $5,000-an-ounce level on Thursday as new US economic data firmed expectations that there won’t be a Federal Reserve rate cut soon.

Spot prices fell as much as 4% to $4,880 per ounce, before recovering some losses. By midday, it traded above $4,900 an ounce for an intraday loss of 3%. Silver, meanwhile, continued its volatile run with a near 10% decline.

Bullion zigzagged throughout the week as investors weighed rising geopolitical risks against the prospect of elevated interest rates, which would reduce the appeal of assets like precious metals.

The move down follows Wednesday’s release of US labour data that came in better than markets expected, reinforcing the view that policymakers may keep rates elevated for longer. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 130,000 jobs in January, following a downwardly revised 48,000 increase in December, while the unemployment rate edged down to 4.3%, new data showed.

Some investors also took profits on gold and silver, which have risen 40% and 160% respectively over the past year, to cover losses in other asset classes.

“It all happened so quickly and feels like a ‘risk-out’ move,” said Nicky Shiels, head of metals strategy at MKS PAMP SA, in a note to Bloomberg. In times of extreme market stress, haven assets like gold will also be sold by investors in dire need of liquidity, she added.

Gold and silver’s ferocious run since 2024 accelerated last month, with momentum-driven buying helping the metals hitting successive highs. That came to an abrupt halt on January 29, with gold plunging the most in over a decade and silver tumbling the most on record.

“Due to previous heightened volatility, a lot of people would have placed their stops either below $5,000 or above the $5,100 level just to preserve their stop positions,” Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index and FOREX.com, told Reuters.

“Because of the downward move, those stops have been triggered below the $5,000 level, and that caused a cascading-like effect, causing prices to slump in a short period of time,” he added.

Investors now await the US inflation data due on Friday for more cues on the Fed’s monetary policy path.

“It looks like the expectation is that headline CPI is going to slow from 2.7% to 2.5%, perhaps as low as 2.4%. That may revive some rate cut bets, and that would probably be favourable for gold,” said Peter Grant, vice president and senior metals strategist at Zaner Metals.

Despite the historic selloff seen in January, gold remains up by 17% on the year. Many banks are projecting prices to reach $6,000 an ounce this year amid strong retail investments on top of continued central bank buying.

(With files from Bloomberg and Reuters)

i-80 Gold (TSX: IAU) (NYSE-A: IAUX) surged to its highest in nearly three years on Thursday after securing a $500 million financing package to fund its mine development plans and erase its debt obligations.

Together with its equity offering in the second quarter of 2025, the Reno, Nevada-based gold developer said it has now raised $800 million to support its objective of achieving mid-tier producer status.

To meet that objective, the company announced in 2024 a three-phased plan that aims to increase its production to 600,000 oz. per year across its three underground mines and one oxide open pit operation, all in Nevada. Currently, it produces around 50,000 oz. a year.

The $500 million package, according to i-80 Gold, will fund the first two phases of that plan, which are expected to bring its annual production up to approximately 300,000–400,000 oz. — for a potential six-to-eight-fold increase.

Phase 1 — which is underway and expected to last until 2029 — focuses on the ramp-up of the Granite Creek mine and development of the Archimedes project. Phase 2, currently slated for 2030-2031, comprises an expansion of the Cove underground mine and the Granite Creek open pit. The third and final phase would be driven by Mineral Point, a large-scale oxide open pit heap leach project.

In a press release Thursday, i-80 Gold CEO Richard Young reiterated that the three-phased plan provides “a clear and achievable path” to positioning the company as a mid-tier gold producer. He added that with the new financing, it now has a “clear financial path to fully fund Phase 1 and Phase 2.”

Shares of i-80 Gold jumped as much as 8% to C$3.04 apiece in Toronto, its highest since June 2023. The company, which spun out of Premier Gold Mines following its acquisition by Equinox Gold (TSX, NYSE-A: EQX) in 2021, has a market capitalization of C$2.4 billion ($1.8 billion).

The $500 million funding package comprises a $250 million royalty sale to Franco-Nevada (TSX, NYSE: FNV). The agreement is for a 1.5% life-of-mine net smelter return royalty covering all mineral properties in the i-80 portfolio, stepping up to 3% on January 1, 2031.

Of the total amount, $225 million is expected to be available at closing in March. The remaining $25 million is expected to be made available later in 2026 to advance the Mineral Point project following its early-stage permitting activities.

The company has also secured commitments for a gold prepay facility with National Bank and Macquarie for an initial advance of $150 million, with a $100 million accordion feature.

i-80 Gold estimates that the total ounces to be delivered for the full $250 million facility would represent approximately 15% of its gold output over the projected period of January 2028 to June 2030. Closing of the facility is anticipated to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2026.

The proceeds, according to the company, would not only help fund all five gold projects through various stages of development, but also extinguish the company’s existing debt obligations of approximately $175 million.

“The commitments from Franco-Nevada, National Bank and Macquarie, following a detailed due diligence process, underscore the quality of our asset base, the depth of our team and the credibility of our execution plan,” i-80 Gold’s CFO Ryan Snow said.

The Nevada miner also noted that it selected the facility with National Bank and Macquarie with a goal of transitioning the gold prepay into a corporate revolver following the completion of Phase 1 to fund the development of Mineral Point, which hosts the company’s largest gold-silver resources at about 4.6 million oz. of gold-equivalent (measured and indicated).

A preliminary economic assessment filed in early 2025 outlined a 17-year mine life with a LOM gold equivalent output of 282,000 ounces annually.

Vizsla Silver (TSX, NYSE: VZLA) said it remains determined to develop the Panuco silver-gold project in Mexico’s strife-torn Sinaloa state after an armed group kidnapped 10 company workers, killing at least five of them.

Five of the kidnapped employees remain unaccounted for, almost three weeks after their abduction, Vancouver-based Vizsla said Thursday in a statement. Authorities in Sinaloa said this week they had found 10 bodies in a clandestine grave, though the Mexican attorney general’s office said it had only identified five of them, local media reported.

“This is an incredibly painful time for the families of our colleagues, for our team and for the community of Concordia,” CEO Michael Konnert said in Thursday’s statement.

“We are taking the steps necessary to navigate this period responsibly,” he added. “We will continue to support the affected families and our team, remain fully engaged with the relevant authorities, and ensure safety continues to guide all decisions. At the same time, we remain committed to safeguarding the long-term value and strength of Vizsla Silver to benefit all stakeholders and the community of Concordia.”

The workers were abducted Jan. 23 by members of a criminal group as they were traveling from the camp where they lived in the city of Concordia to their work at the mine, about 15 km away, Mexican media reported last weekend. The victims included engineers and technical personnel working for Vizsla, El Financiero said.

Vizsla shares fell 0.6% to C$5.21 Thursday morning in Toronto, giving the miner a market value of about $1.75 billion ($1.3 billion). The stock has lost about 44% of its value since Jan. 28, the last trading day before the company disclosed the kidnappings.

Vancouver-based Vizsla said work on Panuco is continuing even as site operations remain suspended. Much of the project’s near-term advancement is engineering-based and can be conducted remotely.

Vizsla “remains committed to responsibly developing the Panuco district over the long term and maintaining its investment in the community of Concordia,” it stressed.

For months now, Sinaloa has been caught up in an armed conflict between rival factions of the namesake drug cartel. This has led to a surge in homicides.

Mexico’s government sent more than 1,000 troops to Sinaloa to try to locate the missing miners, Reuters reported this week. The deployment included elite marines.

“The magnitude and breadth of the government’s response are aimed at protecting lives, as well as upholding the country’s reputation and the viability of the mining industry in Sinaloa, and, in our view, serves as a deterrent to recurrence,” National Bank Financial mining analyst Don DeMarco said in a note Tuesday. He predicted that the heavy military, surveillance and police presence would continue “indefinitely.”

Besides cooperating with Mexican authorities as their investigation and search continues, Vizsla said it’s “thoroughly reviewing” the circumstances surrounding recent tragic events.

Vizsla said it operates in compliance with applicable Mexican and Canadian laws while maintaining a “zero-tolerance approach” toward bribery, corruption, extortion and any form of unlawful or unethical conduct.

Employee and contractor safety and security remain a top priority, Vizsla also said. Since inception, the company says it has made significant investments in security and risk management, with active leadership oversight including regular site visits.

Panuco hosts the world’s largest undeveloped, high‑grade silver resource. It’s the cornerstone of Vizsla’s goal of reaching production of 50 million silver-equivalent oz. by 2035.

The company has been saying it wants production at Panuco to start in the second half of 2027. With permitting and project financing efforts advancing, it’s targeting a construction decision as soon as it has received the required approvals – probably in this year’s second half.

Following the kidnappings, Vizsla will probably “take a step back to assess the security situation, better understand the motives, if possible, and work with the government to implement a security protocol to mitigate risk to all parties involved,” analyst DeMarco wrote.

DeMarco said he expects the mine’s startup to be pushed back until early 2030 “to allow time for a fulsome investigation, implementation of security and monitoring programs, a potentially extended hiring period and to allow volatility in Sinaloa to moderate.”

Panuco holds 12.8 million proven and probable tonnes grading 2.01 grams gold per tonne and 249 grams silver for contained metal of 829,000 oz. gold and 102.7 million oz. silver, according to a 2024 resource.

Vizsla is projecting a mine life of 9.4 years for Panuco. The operation is expected to produce 17.4 million silver-equivalent oz. a year over the life of the project at an all-in sustaining cost of $10.61 per silver-equivalent ounce. This includes more than 20 million silver-equivalent oz. annually during the underground mine’s first five years.

All-in sustaining costs could be as much as $5 per tonne higher because of increased security expenses, labour escalation and inflation, DeMarco said.

Australian iron ore producer Fortescue (ASX: FMG) has commissioned two battery electric locomotives in Western Australia’s Pilbara, marking a key step in its plan to achieve real zero emissions across its iron ore operations by 2030.

The locomotives, delivered by US-based Progress Rail, a subsidiary of Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), are the first of their kind globally and form part of a $6.2 billion push by the Andrew Forrest-chaired company to fully decarbonize its Pilbara operations, which it says are the most comprehensive in the global mining sector.

Speaking in Port Hedland on Thursday, Fortescue Metals and Operations CEO Dino Otranto said rail remains one of the hardest sectors to decarbonize.

“We push 40,000 tonnes up 400 metres, 300 or 400 kilometres away, multiple times a day,” he said. “The forces and energy that’s behind that have been worked on for more than 200 years in the combustion two-stroke engine that has historically powered all of our fleet, but today, this is a turning point.”

Each locomotive houses a 14.5 megawatt-hour battery, the largest fitted to a land-mobile application, and can recover 40% to 60% of energy through regenerative braking. Together, they will eliminate about one million litres of diesel a year and operate on renewable electricity supplied through Fortescue’s Pilbara Energy Connect program.

Fortescue operates a fleet of 70 locomotives and will now test the first two units before transitioning the remainder over the next few years.

The rail rollout sits within a broader electrification push across Fortescue’s 760-kilometre Pilbara network, which links five mines to its port and towage infrastructure in Port Hedland. The company expects to produce 195 million to 205 million tonnes of iron ore in the 12 months to June 30, 2026.

Otranto said 2026 would be a year of delivery for several major renewable energy projects. At North Star Junction, which supplies the Iron Bridge magnetite mine, Fortescue operates a 100 megawatt solar farm supported by a 250 megawatt-hour battery energy storage system capable of delivering up to 50 megawatts for five hours.

Construction of the 190 megawatt Cloudbreak solar farm is about two-thirds complete. The company has secured primary approvals for the proposed 644 megawatt Turner River solar farm, with construction expected to start later this year, and expects a decision on the 440 megawatt Solomon solar project within days.

Fortescue is installing about 3,600 solar panels a day and is deploying automation technology to increase that rate, Otranto said.

The company has begun building its first Pilbara wind project at Nullagine and recently acquired Nabrawind to support future wind developments. Across its operations, Fortescue now runs one electric drill and 12 electric excavators and has started taking deliveries of electric wheel dozers and trucks.

While the shift requires significant capital, Otranto said every investment must meet strict financial hurdles.

“We are not doing this out of charity. We need these machines to be economic. We want them to compete on the open market against the old technology,” he said, adding that the Pilbara’s climate offers strong renewable energy potential.

Beyond decarbonizing its mining operations, Fortescue aims to produce its first green iron by the end of June. The company is building a plant at Christmas Creek and expects first metal this financial year.

“For us, that’s the next chapter of growth in the Pilbara,” Otranto said.

In the cavernous halls of the US State Department last week, something unusual was on display: earnest cooperation rather than the usual diplomatic theatre. The inaugural Critical Minerals Ministerial wasn’t about tariffs, trade tantrums, or chest-thumping press releases. It was, quite simply, a collective admission that the West is behind, China is ahead, and time is not on our side.

For the United States, the stakes are no longer academic. Critical minerals aren’t just inputs for batteries and wind turbines. They are strategic building blocks for modern defence, advanced manufacturing and economic independence. This is not a commodities story anymore. It’s a power story. And Washington gets it.

The Trump administration is backing ambitious measures, including a proposed $12-billion (C$16.3-billion) stockpile of essential raw materials – “Project Vault” – meant to shield US industry from shocks and reduce reliance on Beijing’s dominance. The Americans have discovered, rather late in the game, that you cannot build fighter jets, EVs, or the next industrial economy off of Chinese processing plants.

The shift in tone at the Ministerial, from coercion to collaboration, reflects something deeper than diplomacy. It reflects anxiety. Because for all the tough talk of trade wars, the United States knows that to close the gap between the West and China it will take collaboration on a grand scale coupled with an internal build-up of Ameria’s own intellectual and physical capacity. 

One senior US official captured the moment perfectly: the goal now is to persuade America’s brightest young minds not to join the next Silicon Valley startup, but to enter mining and minerals engineering. It seems mining is back, not as nostalgia, but as necessity.

Of course, the question lingers: after a year of transactional American diplomacy, are allies skeptical? More than likely. But reality has a way of concentrating minds. China’s dominance – roughly 60% of mining and nearly 90% of processing in key sectors – is not something you diversify away from with a well-worded communiqué. Western nations know they cannot afford inaction, even if coordination occasionally requires holding one’s nose.

For Canada, the implications are profound.

Canada is blessed with world-class deposits: gold, lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, copper, rare earths. These raw materials will determine who leads the next industrial era. Geologically, we are sitting at the grown-ups’ table. Strategically, we too often act like we’re still waiting in the lobby.

Because geology is not strategy. Reserves alone do not confer power. Processing and refining do. And that is where Western supply chains, Canada included, still lag badly.

Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy, backed by nearly C$4 billion and coordination across 15 federal departments, aims to build resilient value chains from mine to midstream to manufacturing. Ottawa has also helped unlock 26 investments and partnerships worth billions under the G7’s Critical Minerals Production Alliance. Canada is looking better on paper. The question is whether we can be good in practice. And at speed.

Three initiatives matter most: the Critical Minerals Strategy and infrastructure funds meant to build domestic supply chains rather than exporting raw rock and importing finished product; the G7 Production Alliance investments mobilizing capital into graphite, rare earths and scandium; and emerging national funding mechanisms, including proposals for a Critical Minerals Sovereign Fund to back equity and offtake agreements. 

The policy wheels are turning, but Canada will not get where it needs to go on the back of good intentions and interdepartmental working groups. Too often, political leadership excels at saying the right things and then falls down on execution. Canada’s chronic weakness is not vision. It is velocity.

To Ottawa’s credit, there are now some serious economic minds closer to the centre of power. Tim Hodgson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, brings senior experience from Goldman Sachs and Ontario Teachers’ pension fund. He’s earned strong marks from the resource sector so far.

Michael Sabia is the Clerk of the Privy Council, Canada’s highest-ranking civil servant, who manages the government’s agenda. Sabia is a rare figure whose credibility resonates as strongly in boardrooms as in ministries. He has been shaped by leadership roles at Bell Canada, Hydro-Québec and Quebec’s largest pension, CDPQ.

Both men understand the stakes. But the question remains: Do they have the willingness and the support to accelerate critical mineral development at the pace that this moment requires?

From the sidelines of the Ministerial, the scuttlebutt was that high-ranking US officials are talking about single-month permitting timelines for strategically important projects. Single-month. In Canada, we call that “the early stages of preliminary consultation.” Even if Washington’s timeline is aspirational, next to Canada’s glacial system it should be deeply uncomfortable. Permitting reform is not a bureaucratic detail. It is a strategic imperative.

Canada’s Arctic, long treated as a distant abstraction, is becoming a frontier of real geopolitical value. Like Greenland, its mineral wealth is suddenly coveted. And rightly so.

But sovereignty is not flag-planting. Sovereignty is capacity. To unlock the North, Canada needs infrastructure: ports, rail, grids, logistics, and the ability to assert presence. Canada’s current plans remain incremental where the moment demands boldness. We must ask ourselves: are we building what’s needed for resource security, or watching opportunities pass while others consolidate alliances and claims?

Canada has the geological assets, the intellectual capital, and the partnerships to lead in the era of critical minerals. Our strategies appear sound. Our intentions are sincere. But intention is not a supply chain.

In this competition of geopolitics and economics, hand-wringing will spell victory for our rivals and a dangerous loss for Canada. Canada must streamline permitting drastically, scale industrial infrastructure, and harness the full force of government, capital markets, and industry. The stakes – sovereignty, economic independence, and global influence – are too high to settle for anything less.

History does not reward countries that move slowly while the world scrambles for leverage. And right now, leverage is buried in the ground.

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Anthony Vaccaro is President of the TNM Group, which includes MINING.COM, The Northern Miner and Canadian Mining Journal.

South America is emerging as the most stable and politically viable option for Western countries trying to rebalance critical mineral supply chains away from China, according to new research from Verisk Maplecroft.

The study comes as the United States and its allies intensify efforts to secure supplies of lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel, graphite and rare earth elements, driven by concerns over technology dependence, supply-chain resilience and geopolitics. 

Recent moves include US plans to expand strategic stockpiles and a 55-country push to establish a preferential critical minerals trade bloc.

Verisk Maplecroft assessed 10 emerging markets with major reserves using its Resource Nationalism Index and Political Risk Data, finding that Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru stand out for combining large resource endowments with comparatively moderate levels of state intervention and political risk. Other countries in the analysis included the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Philippines and Tanzania.

Most South American producers do not rank among the world’s highest-risk jurisdictions for resource nationalism. Peru, Chile and Argentina are among the strongest performers globally, while DR Congo, Indonesia and Tanzania sit within the top 20 most exposed countries out of 198 assessed.

“What differentiates South America is not the scale of reserves, but the distribution of risk,” Verisk Maplecroft’s chief analyst Jimena Blanco said. “Producers consistently combine large endowments of tech-critical minerals with comparatively moderate levels of resource nationalism and political risk.”

The firm rates the region’s overall risk-adjusted opportunity as distinctly favourable, although it cautions that exposure to higher-risk jurisdictions will remain unavoidable for certain minerals. 

This is already reflected in recent Western initiatives, such as the EU’s free trade agreement with India, partly tied to rare earth ambitions, and the US Strategic Minerals Cooperation Framework with DRC launched in December 2025.

US Assistant Secretary of State Caleb Orr recently disclosed that the US is actively negotiating with Brazil to develop critical mineral processing capabilities, focusing on heavy rare earths. The announcement follows Serra Verde Group giving the US an option to acquire a stake in the company as part of a financing deal.

When political instability is considered alongside state intervention, many countries with major critical mineral reserves still fall into a medium-risk category, suggesting relatively supportive conditions for long-term investment. However, some producers combine high political volatility with assertive government control, increasing the likelihood of export restrictions, state ownership or domestic value-addition requirements.

India’s rare earth policies, as well as conditions in DR Congo and Indonesia, highlight this dynamic. The findings suggest that while Western governments cannot fully avoid higher-risk suppliers, South America offers a comparatively stable anchor in an otherwise constrained global landscape.

The research also challenges assumptions about geopolitical alignment. Using its Geopolitical Alignment Tool, which tracks factors such as UN voting, trade agreements and security ties, Verisk Maplecroft found that most of the 10 countries analyzed sit on the pro-Western or neutral end of the spectrum.

Argentina and the Philippines rank as close US allies, while Chile, Madagascar and India show strategic alignment. Peru and Indonesia are broadly neutral. Only Brazil, Tanzania and DR Congo tilt further away from Washington, largely due to stronger ties with US rivals.

According to the report, the overlap between sizeable reserves, manageable political risk and favourable geopolitical alignment makes South America central to Western diversification strategies.

“Securing tech-critical minerals is no longer just an economic challenge,” Blanco said. “The race will be won not by eliminating risk, but by managing it better than competitors.”

Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) says it will idle the remaining operating train at its Kemerton lithium hydroxide processing plant in Western Australia and place it into care and maintenance, effective immediately.

The news follows actions in July 2024 to place Train 2 operations into care and maintenance and to cease expansion plans for Trains 3 and 4, part of a broader strategy to reduce costs amid weak lithium prices.

The Kemerton plant processes spodumene from Greenbushes, the world’s biggest hard-rock lithium mine. Albemarle holds ownership interest and half of the offtake rights from Greenbushes through an Australian joint venture.

Kemerton, with its proven technology and commercial scale lithium hydroxide production, was built to enable the development of a Western lithium supply chain, said Albemarle, currently the world’s largest producer of lithium.

“Idling operations at Kemerton was a difficult decision. It follows significant actions we have taken over the past two and a half years to reduce operating costs during an extended period of price volatility in the market,” Albemarle’s CEO Kent Masters said in a news release on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, recent lithium price improvements alone are not enough to offset the challenges facing Western hard-rock lithium conversion operations,” Masters continued. “This decision improves our financial flexibility and preserves optionality.”

The decision is expected to be accretive to adjusted EBITDA beginning in the second quarter of 2026 with no impact to projected 2026 volumes, Albemarle said, adding that it will meet customer demand for lithium hydroxide through other production channels.

Albemarle’s mining interests in Australia, including Greenbushes and Wodgina, are not expected to be impacted by the decision as they remain core components of the company’s strategy, it added.

US battery recycler Aqua Metals (NASDAQ: AQMS) announced Wednesday it has entered into a term sheet to acquire energy storage systems provider Lion Energy LLC.

Aqua Metals said in a press release that it plans to leverage Lion Energy’s brand, intellectual property, capital, technical talent and manufacturing capabilities to transform the company into a domestic player capable of managing the entire battery lifecycle.

Founded in Utah, Lion Energy has built a growing presence in the US energy storage market through the deployment of software-enabled residential and commercial energy systems.

“This transaction is intended to add meaningful revenue to Aqua Metals while expanding our participation in the rapidly growing energy storage market,” CEO Steve Cotton stated in the release.

In late 2025, Aqua Metals signed a letter of intent with Westwin Elements, the only major US nickel refinery, to supply up to 1,000 metric tons of recycled nickel carbonate a year starting in 2027.

“Energy storage is a natural extension of our battery materials strategy, and Lion Energy has built a complementary platform that spans systems, software and customer relationships,” Cotton said.

“Together, we believe this combination would strengthen our path toward a more vertically integrated, US-based battery supply chain, and supports our long-term vision for a robust domestic battery materials industry led by our new combined entity.”

“From the beginning, Lion Energy has focused on building more than batteries,” Tyler Hortin, CEO of Lion Energy, said in a press release. “We have invested heavily in a US-based energy management platform combining software, firmware, hardware and cloud connectivity designed to give customers intelligent control over their energy systems. This transaction could accelerate that vision.”

Under the term sheet, Aqua Metals would acquire Lion Energy through an all-stock transaction that preserves executive and board control of the combined company. At the closing, Lion Energy owners would receive approximately $25.8 million of Aqua Metals shares, and are entitled to receive up to $65 million in additional shares (for a total of $87.8 million) based on the company’s performance over a 12-month period after completing the transaction.

By market close in New York, Aqua Metals was down 6.9%. The company has a $12.8 million market capitalization.

An Indigenous-led partnership seeks to move the Arctic Economic and Security Corridor from a long-running idea into a defined infrastructure project, pitched as both a critical-minerals enabler and a sovereignty play, Northwest Territories Deputy Premier Caroline Wawzonek said.

The corridor is to connect the territory’s all-season road network to an Arctic Ocean port via the Grays Bay Road and Port project in Nunavut, creating a link from global markets to the North. The push is gaining traction as Ottawa seeks to diversify supply chains and improve access to mineral-rich areas that are costly to reach and develop, Wawzonek said.

“In an ideal world, it would be for the federal government to give the signal that this is no longer an if, but a how,” Wawzonek told The Northern Miner’s Western Editor, Henry Lazenby, during a recent industry conference.

For miners, the payoff is year-round access, fewer stand-alone road builds and a better platform for power transmission to cut operating costs across the Slave Geological Province. The shutdown of Rio Tinto’s (ASX, LSE, NYSE: RIO) Diavik diamond mine next month, one of the territory’s three operating diamond mines, sharpens the project’s urgency.

Watch the full interview:

Homeland Uranium (TSXV: HLU; US-OTC: HLUCF) is drilling in northwest Colorado to turn two forgotten uranium-vanadium deposits into a first compliant resource, president and CEO Roger Lemaitre said.

The 10-month-old company is advancing the Coyote Basin and Cross Bones projects in the past-producing Maybell district at the northern end of the Colorado Plateau. The focus is on Coyote Basin, where a 35-hole program budgeted at $4 million is testing about 5,600 metres of drilling aimed at an inferred resource by midyear.

Coyote Basin carries a historical estimate of 8.9 million tons grading 0.2% uranium oxide and 0.1% vanadium oxide for 35.4 million lb. uranium and 17.7 million lb. vanadium, while Cross Bones has a historical estimate of 7.1 million tons at 0.3% for 44.2 million lb. uranium.

“The absolute truth is by 2040 we need to find 11 Cigar Lake mines to meet the demand that’s coming,” Lemaitre told The Northern Miner’s Western Editor, Henry Lazenby, during a recent industry event. “In the world’s history in the last 50 years, we’ve only found six equivalents.”

Cigar Lake – Cameco’s (TSX: CCO; NYSE: CCJ) flagship, high-grade mine in Saskatchewan – runs at about 18 million lb. uranium per year (100% basis), making it a common yardstick for the scale of new supply required. By comparison, Homeland sees the U.S. market running an annual deficit of about 48 million lb. of yellowcake.

Watch the full interview below:

CopperTech Metals has entered a strategic partnership with Axiom Group, VBKOM and Fleet Space Technologies to deploy next-generation geoscience technologies at its Konkola copper mine in Zambia.

CopperTech, a US-domiciled company launched by India’s Vedanta Resources last November, holds a majority stake in the asset through its subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).

Considered one of the highest-grade copper-producing assets in the world, Konkola features ore grades of 2.9% to 3.3% and has combined reserves/resources of roughly 16 million tonnes of copper.

The new company said it intends to further develop this resource by leveraging advanced mining and AI-driven technologies. This collaboration will accelerate subsurface insights, improve decision velocity and strengthen CopperTech’s resource development capabilities, it said in Wednesday’s release.

The partnership brings together Axiom’s geoscience and VBKOM’s mining systems expertise and Fleet Space’s ExoSphere platform, a space-enabled, AI-powered data and analytics system, to enhance how near-mine exploration and resource definition are undertaken.

“CopperTech is deploying innovative technologies at KCM to strengthen our vertically integrated mining operations from exploration to metal production,” CopperTech CEO Deshnee Naidoo said in a news release.

“This strategic partnership with Axiom, VBKOM and Fleet brings together world-class partners to integrate advanced geoscience technology and earth-based applications to enhance exploration accuracy, target definition and resource confidence.”

Through this partnership, Axiom will embed Fleet’s ExoSphere and conduct a high-resolution 3-D seismic survey covering the orebody and proximal areas at KCM, generating high-resolution 3-D OBK (ore body knowledge) models, AI-driven drill targeting insights, and integrated geoscience intelligence that supports data-rich drill campaign design and execution.

This approach enables faster learning cycles, reduces exploration uncertainty and enhances the efficiency of resource delineation in complex geological settings, the Saskatchewan-based company said.

“Our work with CopperTech, VBKOM and Fleet Space represents a new model for how mining companies deploy innovation, not just to accelerate geological understanding and drill confidence, but to build long-term capability and competitiveness,” Axion CEO Doug Engdahl stated.

“By combining our global technical experience and leadership with Fleet’s real-time data systems, we are driving a change in speed, precision and confidence in exploration decision-making.”

Ascot Resources (TSXV: AOT.H) is proposing a rebrand of the troubled company as it looks to a fresh start under a new leadership team, with plans in place for its two projects in British Columbia.

Cambria Gold Mines Inc. — its new name — originates from the “spectacular icefield” located adjacent to the Red Mountain project east of Stewart, BC, Robert McLeod, its new president and CEO, said in a press release on Tuesday.

The new management led by McLeod, a mining executive and geologist from Stewart, views the Red Mountain project as a key part of the company’s new vision to create an integrated mine operation centered around its Premier gold project, which it briefly brought into production in 2024 and is looking to restart again.

Ascot Resources’ shares gained as much as 7.5% on Wednesday, for a market capitalization of C$55.6 million ($41 million). The stock has more than doubled since the start of 2026.

Located 25 km from Stewart, the Premier project is home to a former gold mine that was once the largest in North America. Between 1918 and 1952, the underground mine produced over 2 million oz. gold and 45 million oz. silver.

Ascot has been working to return the historic site to production and successfully poured its first gold in April 2024. However, operations were put on hold after just five months due to insufficient underground development. The company has since faced multiple setbacks in its attempt to restart the operation, eventually placing the mine on care and maintenance in summer 2025 and initiating a strategic review.

Last month, Ascot was also penalized C$142,000 by BC’s environmental regulators for failing to prevent wastes stored at the shuttered gold mine from leaking into a local river, Business in Vancouver reported.

Under the new plan, ore from the Red Mountain project would be blended with high-grade mineralization from the Premier-Northern Lights (PNL) deposit and/or the potentially bulk-mineable mineralization from the Big Missouri deposit, both located at Premier.

According to company estimates, the Red Mountain property hosts measured and indicated resources of 3.19 million tonnes averaging 7.63 grams per tonne gold for 783,000 oz. The deposit is amenable to long-hole stoping, has existing production size underground workings and would provide the majority of mill feed for the Premier mill.

Work to advance permitting of the Red Mountain access road to transport material to Premier was initiated in the fall of 2025, led by the new management team, and included consultation with the Nisga’a Nation. Road construction is expected to begin this spring, upon regulatory approval, the company said.

“Management has been rapidly developing key permitting, geological and engineering elements to develop the Premier and Red Mountain deposits with the goal of a high-grade, hub-and-spoke gold mining operation to feed the recently constructed mill,” McLeod said.

The rebrand follows the company’s recent fundraising for proceeds of C$175 million and completion of debt settlement and restructuring to keep the business running. It also amended its agreement with Sprott to waive deliveries and missed royalty payments in exchange for equity.

A confidential UK government briefing forwarded by former trade envoy Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to Jeffrey Epstein in 2010 highlighted uranium among several “high value” mineral opportunities in Afghanistan’s Helmand province, according to a BBC report.

The document, prepared by UK officials for Andrew during an official visit to Helmand that December, outlined investment prospects tied to “significant high value mineral deposits” and the “potential for low cost extraction,” including uranium, thorium, gold, iridium and marble, as well as possible oil and gas resources.

In an accompanying email, Andrew described the material as a “confidential brief produced by the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Helmand Province,” the BBC reported. The briefing was compiled at a time when Britain was militarily and politically engaged in rebuilding Afghanistan and seeking to encourage commercial development alongside reconstruction efforts.

Afghanistan’s uranium potential has long been noted but remains undeveloped. Much of the country’s geological data derives from Soviet-era surveys conducted in the 1970s and 1980s, which identified uranium occurrences in several provinces, including Helmand. Subsequent assessments by the US Geological Survey have suggested Afghanistan hosts a broad range of strategic minerals, though few deposits have advanced beyond early-stage evaluation.

Globally, uranium production is concentrated in a limited number of jurisdictions. Kazakhstan accounts for the largest share of annual output, followed by Canada and Namibia. The nuclear fuel market is sensitive to geopolitical risk and supply concentration. Any new source of production, particularly in a frontier jurisdiction, would carry strategic implications.

Any future extraction in Afghanistan would face substantial security, infrastructure and regulatory hurdles, in addition to strict international safeguards governing uranium trade. Uranium and thorium are dual-use materials: while uranium underpins civilian nuclear power generation, it is subject to global non-proliferation oversight and export controls.

The Afghan briefing was one of several official trade-related documents Andrew appears to have shared with Epstein during his tenure as the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment from 2001 to 2011, the BBC said.

Emails reviewed by the broadcaster suggest additional reports from official visits to Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam were also sent, along with further compressed files labelled “Overseas bids.”

Sir Vince Cable, who was Business Secretary at the time, described the sharing of the Helmand briefing as “appalling behaviour,” according to the BBC.

Thames Valley Police said it is assessing whether a criminal investigation is warranted. In a statement, the force said it is engaging with specialist Crown Prosecution Service prosecutors and that allegations of misconduct in public office involve “particular complexities.”

Andrew has previously denied wrongdoing in relation to his association with Epstein and has rejected suggestions that he used his role as trade envoy to further personal interests. He has not publicly responded to the BBC’s latest report.

White Gold (TSXV: WGO) will spin off its critical minerals projects located in Canada’s Yukon Territory in a bid to “unlock” the value of its non-gold assets amid a supportive policy environment.

The spin-out will hold six properties that host several large-scale targets prospective for copper, molybdenum, tungsten, antimony, zinc and bismuth, the Yukon-focused explorer said in a statement on Wednesday.

Together, they comprise approximately 15% of White Gold’s claim holdings, estimated at 3,051 km2 covering 21 properties in total.

Some of the key exploration targets – such as the Bridget, Isaac, and Mascot – are situated within the Dawson Range, a prolific mineral belt that hosts several significant copper-gold porphyry deposits in the region, including the Casino deposit, one of the largest undeveloped projects in Canada.

“Spinning these assets into a dedicated vehicle allows them to be advanced more effectively with the technical focus and disciplined exploration strategy they warrant,” White Gold’s VP, exploration Dylan Langille said in a news release.

“Assets such as Bridget, Isaac and Wolf exhibit the size, metal zonation, and geophysical signatures typically associated with large, fertile porphyry systems, yet remain largely untested by drilling,” he added.

Shares of White Gold rose by 4.7% to C$1.57 apiece by midday Wednesday in Toronto, taking its market capitalization to C$311.6 million ($230 million).

In its news release, White Gold highlighted the Bridget target as the most significant to date. It comprises a standout molybdenum-copper porphyry anomaly covering a 3 x 3.5 km area, enriched with tungsten, bismuth and silver.

An initial technical report on this property will be filed in connection with the spin-out, White Gold said.

The other projects offer additional upside potential for antimony and bismuth as secondary metals across orogenic gold, intrusion-related, epithermal and porphyry systems, it added.

The spin-out process is currently underway and would require shareholder as well as regulatory and court approvals.

“The timing of this proposed spin-out aligns exceptionally well with the strong and growing support we are seeing from both the Yukon and federal governments for the responsible development of critical minerals,” CEO David D’Onofrio said.

“Recent initiatives focused on advancing critical mineral exploration, improving infrastructure, streamlining permitting, and strengthening collaboration across Western and Northern Canada reinforce Yukon’s position as a globally desirable jurisdiction for discovery and development.”

The move would also allow the company to focus solely on advancing its flagship gold project, which hosts four near-surface gold deposits that collectively contain an estimated 1.73 million oz. of gold in indicated resources and 1.27 million oz. in inferred resources.

Silver extended its run of elevated volatility on Wednesday amid forecasts of stronger investment buying and weak industrial demand in the year ahead.

Spot prices rose as much as 6.6% to over $86 an ounce, near its highest in a week, before erasing some of the gains. The white-colored metal has now recovered a third of its losses suffered during the historic crash in late January.

Earlier, a report published by the Silver Institute predicts that the market will enter a sixth straight year of deficit, as surging investment in the metal are likely to outweigh a weakening industrial demand.

According to the Institute, demand from sectors led by solar is expected to decline “moderately” in 2026, as manufacturers are now seeking alternatives to silver due to high prices.

Over the past year, silver has rallied to multiple records amid surging safe-haven demand and interest from retail investors. At its peak, the metal’s value increased by nearly four times within a year to over $121 an ounce.

Despite a historic selloff last month, where prices cratered by as much as 36%, silver remains up by more than 160% for the past year.

Given the metal’s volatility, some traders have dubbed the metal “untradeable”– as physical, sellable inventory of the metal is severely limited or unavailable. This is the case in China, where producers and traders are struggling to fill a backlog of orders due to the high speculative demand in recent months, leading to a sharp rise in front-month contract premiums.

“This exceptionally high volatility [in precious metals] is likely to have affected investor confidence,” analysts from Germany’s Commerzbank said recently. However, Aakash Doshi, global head of gold strategy at State Street, reckons that “now the markets have stabilized, you’re seeing dip buying.”

While a wave of investors is expected to lead to a shift in existing silver inventories, it’s wrong to see the market as being in “deficit,” BMO Capital Markets said in a note Wednesday. “A better metric is how the supply of silver compares to the actual consumption of the metal for ornamental or industrial purchases, demand that removes bullion from the market.”

As a result, BMO analysts see silver becoming cheaper relative to gold in the coming years, as physical availability of the metal improves.

Gold, meanwhile, rose by about 1% to above $5,100 an ounce before paring some gains.

(With files from Bloomberg)