Below is a curated summary of the most recent press releases and corporate milestones from every company that has presented at the Roundtable over the past three months. News items are drawn from the period following each company’s Roundtable presentation date.

Noble Plains Uranium Corp.

Ticker: TSXV: NOBL | OTCQB: NBLXF

Sector: Uranium Exploration, Wyoming

Noble Plains Uranium Corp. is a U.S.-focused uranium exploration and development company advancing a high-impact portfolio across Wyoming’s Powder River and Shirley Basins. The company’s flagship Duck Creek Project features a maiden resource of 5.32 million lbs Indicated and 1.04 million lbs Inferred uranium.

July 28, 2026 — Noble Plains Uranium Commences Confirmation Drill Program at Shirley Central Project

Noble Plains announced the mobilization of a drill rig to its Shirley Central Project in Wyoming’s Shirley Basin. This confirmation drill program follows the completion of the historical database digitization and is a key step toward advancing the project toward a resource estimate. The Shirley Basin has a storied history of over 50 million lbs of past uranium production.

🔗 https://nobleplains.com/news-releases/noble-plains-uranium-commences-confirmation-drill-program-at-shirley-central-project

July 16, 2026 — Noble Plains Uranium Launches Geophysics Program Through University of Wyoming

The company initiated a geophysical program at its flagship Duck Creek property, in collaboration with the University of Wyoming, designed to detect both shallow Wasatch Formation and deeper Fort Union Formation uranium mineralization. The program aims to identify new drill targets beyond the already-defined mineralized trend.

🔗 https://nobleplains.com/news-releases/noble-plains-uranium-launches-geophysics-program-through-university-of-wyoming-to-detect-buried-uranium-mineralization

July 9, 2026 — Noble Plains Uranium Completes Shirley Central Historical Drill Database, Unlocking 341 Uranium Intercepts

Noble Plains completed the digitization and geological interpretation of the historical drill database at Shirley Central, unlocking 341 uranium intercepts from legacy drilling. This data, combined with the company’s AI-assisted digitization program, provides a robust foundation for the confirmation drill program now underway.

🔗 https://nobleplains.com/news-releases/noble-plains-uranium-completes-shirley-central-historical-drill-database-unlocking-341-uranium-intercepts

Antimony Resources Corp.

Ticker: CSE: ATMY | OTCQB: ATMYF | FSE: K8J0

Sector: Antimony Exploration, New Brunswick

Antimony Resources Corp. is a Canadian junior exploration company focused on unlocking North American antimony supply at its flagship Bald Hill Antimony Property in New Brunswick. Antimony is a critical mineral increasingly sought by Western governments as a strategic alternative to Chinese-controlled supply chains.

July 30, 2026 — Antimony Resources Reports High-Grade Assays Including 11.41% Antimony Over 1.55 Metres at Bald Hill Main Zone; Central Zone Drilling Identifies Stibnite Mineralization in Six Drill Holes

Antimony Resources reported new assay results from drill hole BH-26-14 in the Main Zone at Bald Hill, with a highlight interval of 11.3m averaging 2.78% Sb and 0.41 g/t Au, including 1.55m at 11.41% Sb. At the newly identified Central Zone, six drill holes intersected breccia with visible stibnite mineralization at depths of approximately 100–150m, with assays pending. The Main Zone mineralization is now outlined over 600m strike and at least 350m depth, remaining open in all directions.

🔗 https://antimonyresources.ca/news/f/atmy-reports-high-grade-assays---up-to-1141%25-sb-over-15m

July 14, 2026 — Antimony Resources Appoints Former U.S. Military Academy Director as Board Advisor

The company appointed Mr. John M. Melkon, a former Director and Assistant Professor at the United States Military Academy at West Point, as an advisor to the Board of Directors. Mr. Melkon’s mandate is to assist in securing antimony supply contracts for the U.S. military and to support the company in obtaining government-backed financing for the Bald Hill project.

🔗 https://antimonyresources.ca/news/f/atmy-appoints-former-usma-director-as-board-advisor

July 6, 2026 — Antimony Resources Reports High-Grade Assays of Up To 33.40% Antimony at Bald Hill Main Zone

Antimony Resources reported assay results from four additional drill holes in the Main Zone at Bald Hill, with standout results including 33.40% Sb over 1.10m within a 5.05m interval grading 16.65% Sb in drill hole BH-26-25, and 13.14% Sb over 2.45m in BH-26-20. The holes targeted the southern portion of the Main Zone to infill data gaps, with all four holes successfully intersecting antimony mineralization at depths of approximately 100–260m.

🔗 https://antimonyresources.ca/news/f/atmy-reports-high-grade-assays-of-up-to-3340%25-sb

June 29, 2026 — Antimony Resources Reports Gold Assays up to 1.88 g/t Over 4.85 Metres at Bald Hill

The company reported significant gold assay results from drill core samples in the Main Zone at Bald Hill, with values reaching 1.88 g/t gold over 4.85 meters. AI-assisted analysis of existing assay data revealed that Bald Hill carries meaningful gold credit alongside its high-grade antimony mineralization.

🔗 https://antimonyresources.ca/news/f/atmy-reports-gold-assays-up-to-188gt-over-485m

Sonoro Gold Corp.

Ticker: TSXV: SGO | OTCQB: SMOFF | FRA: 23SP

Sector: Gold Exploration & Development, Sonora Mexico

Sonoro Gold Corp. is a junior gold exploration and development company in the final permitting stage for its flagship Cerro Caliche gold project in Sonora, Mexico, targeting an initial 12,000 tonnes per day heap leach mining operation.

July 7, 2026 — Sonoro Gold Commences 50,000 Meter Drilling Program

Sonoro Gold announced the commencement of drilling at its flagship Cerro Caliche gold project, launching a two-phased exploration campaign of 50,000 meters of reverse circulation drilling. This program is designed to expand the resource base and support the company’s path to production.

🔗 https://sonorogold.com/news/sonoro-gold-commences-50000-meter-drilling-program

Mackay Gold & Silver

Ticker: TSXV: MACK | OTCQB: MKGSF

Sector: Gold-Silver Exploration, Nevada (Comstock District )

Mackay Gold & Silver is a Nevada-focused gold and silver exploration company that has consolidated a large, contiguous land package in the historic Comstock District — one of the world’s great epithermal systems with over 8.2 million ounces of past gold production and 192 million ounces of silver.

June 29, 2026 — Mackay Gold & Silver Kicks Off Inaugural 20,000-Metre Drill Program at Comstock District

Mackay commenced its initial 20,000-meter drill program at the Comstock District property. Phase 1 focuses on systematic exploration drilling along the Occidental-Brunswick Lode, targeting both near-surface oxide gold-silver mineralization and deeper high-grade deposits. Initial assay results are projected for late summer 2026.

🔗 https://mackaycorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/NR-Drill-Program-Kicks-Off-June-29-2026-FINAL.pdf

June 22, 2026 — Mackay to Acquire Comstock Inc.’s Nevada Mining Assets, Creating the Largest Consolidated Land Package in the District’s History

In a landmark transaction, Mackay announced an agreement to acquire 100% of Comstock Inc.’s Nevada mining assets, expanding its Comstock District land holdings by 70% to 4,343 hectares. The acquisition consolidates the district’s three major vein systems under single ownership and adds two oxide gold-silver deposits with historical resource estimates, along with a permitted processing facility. The deal involves US$20 million in cash and 2,000,000 common shares at closing.

🔗 https://mackaycorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/NR-_2026_Land_Consolidation_-_June_22_2026_Final.pdf

Star Copper Corp.

Ticker: CSE: STCU | FWB: SOP | OTCQX: STCUF

Sector: Copper-Gold Exploration, British Columbia (Golden Triangle )

Star Copper Corp. is a mineral exploration company advancing its flagship Star Project, an Alkalic Copper-Gold Porphyry located within the Golden Triangle and Golden Horseshoe regions of British Columbia. The 6,829-hectare project is 100% owned for the first time in its approximately 70-year history.

July 28, 2026 — Star Copper Announces Completion of $4 Million LIFE Offering

Star Copper completed a non-brokered private placement, raising C$3,999,999 from the sale of 2,666,666 flow-through units. The gross proceeds will be directed entirely toward Canadian exploration expenses on the Star Project, providing additional runway for the ongoing 15,000-meter drill program.

🔗 https://www.juniorminingnetwork.com/junior-miner-news/press-releases/3090-cse/stcu/185836-star-copper-announces-completion-of-4-million-life-offering.html

July 21, 2026 — Star Copper Completes First Four Drill Holes, Advancing District-Scale Discovery Strategy

Star Copper completed the first four drill holes of its 2026 diamond drilling program at the Star Project, intersecting visually significant porphyry-style copper mineralization across three priority targets. While assay results are pending, the visual findings validate the company’s district-scale exploration model.

🔗 https://starcopper.com/star-copper-completes-first-four-drill-holes-advancing-district-scale-discovery-strategy/

July 7, 2026 — Star Copper Begins Step-Out Drilling at Star Main to Test Northeast Extension of Hypogene System

The company mobilized a second drill rig for its 15,000-meter program, focusing on testing a northeastern extension at the Star Main target. The drilling is designed to evaluate the continuation of hypogene mineralization beyond 100 meters to the east of a key historic drill hole.

🔗 https://starcopper.com/star-copper-begins-step-out-drilling-at-star-main-location-to-test-northeast-extension-of-hypogene-system/

June 30, 2026 — Star Copper Signs Agreement to Expand Portfolio with Two Advanced District-Scale Exploration Assets in BC

Star Copper entered into an agreement to acquire a 100% interest in the Zymo Copper-Gold Project and Eastfield’s 95.3% interest in the Indata Copper-Gold-Molybdenum Project, adding over 20,000 meters of historical drilling and multiple drill-ready targets to its portfolio.

🔗 https://starcopper.com/star-copper-signs-agreement-to-expand-copper-gold-portfolio-with-two-advanced-district-scale-exploration-assets-in-british-columbia/

Arizona Eagle Mining Corp.

Ticker: TSX-V: AZEM

Sector: Gold-Copper Exploration, Yavapai County, Arizona

Arizona Eagle Mining Corp. targets copper and gold deposits in mining-friendly Yavapai County, Arizona, focused on the past-producing high-grade gold McCabe Mine and surrounding Eagle Project.

June 21, 2026 — Arizona Eagle Mining Announces Grant of Stock Options, RSUs, and Adoption of Omnibus Equity Incentive Plan

Arizona Eagle Mining announced the grant of incentive stock options and restricted share units to directors, officers, and consultants, alongside the adoption of a new omnibus equity incentive plan designed to align management incentives with long-term shareholder value creation.

🔗 https://www.arizonaeaglemining.com/_resources/news/AZEM%20NR%20260622%20-%20Equity%20Awards.pdf

June 9, 2026 — Arizona Eagle Mining Closes Upsized Non-Brokered Private Placement for C$8.59 Million

The company successfully closed an oversubscribed non-brokered private placement, raising C$8,592,347.50. The funds will be deployed for exploration and drilling at the McCabe Mine, the acquisition of the Eagle Silver Project, and an inaugural drill program on the Silver Projects.

🔗 https://www.arizonaeaglemining.com/_resources/news/AZEM%20NR%20260609%20-%20Press%20Release%20re%20PP%20Closing%20and%20Warrant%20Amendment.pdf

This newsletter is published for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. All information is sourced from publicly available company press releases. Subscribers are encouraged to conduct their own due diligence before making any investment decisions.

© 2026 Experts Roundtable — expertsroundtable.com

“With the tiny market cap that you have,” Doug said, “if you just keep developing it and the future drilling... I can see good reasons why the stock could easily go 10 for one, all things considered. Do you think that’s reasonable?”

That question is the whole essay. Noble Plains is a near-perfect specimen of what Doug has bought his entire career — and the roundtable showed both how his framework works and where it can hurt you.

The Casey checklist, quietly ticked

Doug likes a very particular kind of setup, and he told us which boxes this one checks. “You guys aren’t just a microcap,” he said. “You guys are a nano cap, and I think that’s wonderful.” Then the ground: “your brownfields, which I also like.” Then the sector: “I’m a huge fan of uranium.” Then the price: nine cents a share, an eight-million-dollar company. “To me, this is a pretty ideal speculation.”

That’s the four legs of a Casey bet. A nano-cap, so small a little good news moves it several-fold. Brownfield ground, drilled and in places mined decades ago, so you’re not gambling on whether the uranium exists — only on converting what’s known into a formal resource. A sector he thinks is early in a bull market. And a price low enough that being wrong costs a rounding error.

He isn’t looking for a company that will definitely work. He wants one where, if it works, the payoff is ten-to-one, and being wrong costs little enough that he can afford to be wrong most of the time. Ed Bugos said it from the other side: “It’s an eight-million-dollar company and I don’t know if there’s any downside to it.”

Everyone agreed on the price

Here’s what stood out. Not one panelist questioned the valuation — skeptics included, they all took the price as cheap. Where their reads diverged was on the rock: whether Noble Plains can actually deliver the pounds.

EB Tucker: “Seven million Canadian market cap... that’s where you wanna buy it. You don’t wanna buy it for seventy million, you wanna buy it for seven.” Brent Cook, the hardest technical critic in the room: “The price is right, but I’m gonna watch it.” Even Lobo Tigre, who gave it a thumbs-down for his subscribers, opened with the structure: “This is now a clean start for anybody new to the story.”

When the skeptics in the room converge on “the price is right” and then spend the rest of the hour on the geology, you’re looking at a Casey setup. Valuation isn’t the risk. Delivery is. And that’s the trade Doug wants — valuation risk you can’t drill your way out of, but delivery risk you can.

The gap that makes the math work

The number Doug and Drew kept circling is the value per pound in the ground. Noble Plains has an independently certified resource — the kind an outside engineer signs off on, not a company guess — of 6.36 million pounds at Duck Creek, with more than four-fifths of it in the higher-confidence category. Against a market cap of eight or nine million dollars, that’s a little over a dollar per certified pound.

Earlier this year, Drew pointed out, the two producers next door — UR Energy and UEC — traded between thirty-five and forty dollars per certified pound. So Noble Plains is priced at roughly a thirtieth of what the neighbors fetch, for pounds an engineer has already signed off on.

That spread is the asymmetry — and it doesn’t need Noble Plains to become a producer to close, only for the market to stop pricing it as if the pounds aren’t there. Drew’s own line said it best: “I just hope we don’t get taken out before we get to value more of that path ourselves.” When the CEO’s stated fear is a bigger fish buying him too cheap, too soon, you’re hearing the same math Doug is doing.

What they’ve actually built

The strategy is simple and, so far, repeatable. Buy old ground where a major already proved the uranium is there. Take the decades-old paper drill records nobody digitized, convert them into a modern resource, expand it with a small targeted program. Don’t explore. Don’t gamble on discovery. Piggyback on work Kerr-McGee and others paid for in the 1970s.

They ran that play at Duck Creek and it worked — a 5.4-million-pound target became a certified 6.36 million, beating expectations on grade. Then they staked 140 more claims up the same trend, and now control over five miles of it. Paul Cowley thinks it’s a 12-million-pound animal before you even test the deeper Fort Union below, where Cameco and UEC hold 56 million pounds in the same rock.

Now they’re running the identical play at Shirley Central, next door to UR Energy’s brand-new mine. They bought 1,211 historic drill holes from UR — six million dollars of drilling they’d have had to redo — and UR took a 6 percent stake in the deal and signed a letter of intent to potentially process Noble’s ore through its plant next door. A confirmation drill program is weeks away, and Drew confirmed it’s paid for out of existing cash, which matters when you’re this small.

The bear case, straight

Lobo Tigre made the sharpest cut: what they’ve drilled so far is “too small and too low grade to matter” unless they make a real discovery at depth. The whole thesis quietly leans on the Fort Union — the untested deeper target — becoming something, because the shallow pounds alone don’t make a company. Brent Cook noted they’ve put just three holes into that deep zone and hit unoxidized rock, meaning they haven’t yet found the boundary where uranium concentrates. That’s the ballgame, and it isn’t proven.

Lobo also asked the question every skeptic asks: if this ground were that good, why did the majors let it go? The answer — a private landowner who waited them out, plus Paul’s relationships — is plausible, but it’s a story. And he warned against leaning on the “our neighbor will process for us” pitch, because a well-loved uranium developer got that exact rug pulled by UEC not long ago. Doing the play once at Duck Creek doesn’t prove it again at Shirley — different ground, different data, different people who logged it.

Then there’s the paper. Thirty million warrants — rights to buy stock at ten to fifteen cents — hang over the shares as future selling that has to be absorbed. And the company’s own history is a serial pivot: gold in Burkina Faso, lithium brines in Alberta, now uranium in Wyoming. Dominic Frisby noted it cuts both ways — faddish, chasing whatever’s hot, but also management that kills dead ideas instead of running a lifestyle company. Half the share count belongs to people who bought a different company years ago and may dump it the moment it has a bid.

How to hold a thing like this

None of that disqualifies it. It sizes it.

This is a speculation, not an investment, and the two get held differently. You don’t put core money in a nine-cent nano-cap that needs a deep target to hit. You buy it the way Doug buys it — small, early, while it’s cheap and mostly hated, before the drill results that would re-rate it. EB Tucker put the timing plainly: “For something like this, the time is before they do something. Once this thing is bigger, it starts to have all other kinds of considerations.”

The entry is the edge. At a dollar a pound against neighbors at thirty-five, you’re paid to wait, and the Shirley confirmation program plus the Duck Creek geophysics are near-term catalysts that cost almost nothing. If the Fort Union hits, the ten-to-one Doug asked about is arithmetic, not fantasy. If it doesn’t, you’ve risked lottery-ticket money on a lottery ticket, which is what it is.

One more tell: Drew has real skin in it. He wrote a fifty-thousand-dollar check into all three financings since he arrived, and bought more in the open market above where it trades now. That doesn’t improve the rock. But the man asking you to speculate is doing it alongside you, at a worse price than you can get today.

Doug already bought it. The question he left on the table — is ten-to-one reasonable — isn’t really about Noble Plains. It’s about whether you understand what kind of bet this is. Get that right, and the price takes care of the rest.

Disclaimer: The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

That mine is long closed. The United States hasn’t mined antimony since the early 1990s. And in September 2024, China — which controls over 70% of global supply — cut off exports to the US entirely. Concentrate went from roughly $8,000 a metric ton to a peak near $60,000 in mid-2025, and even after the pullback it trades at multiples of the old baseline. Every bullet, every artillery shell contains antimony — in the front to harden the lead, in the back as the igniter. Add flame retardants, lead-acid batteries, and — as Byron King reminded the room — rocket motors, nuclear reactors, and quantum dots. Washington has responded with hundreds of millions in defense-related investment in the metal.

That’s the backdrop against which Atkinson presented Antimony Resources Corp (CSE: ATMY, OTCQB: ATMYF, FSE: K8J0) to the Roundtable.

The project

Bald Hill sits in southern New Brunswick, in the triangle between Fredericton, Moncton, and Saint John — 75 kilometers from Saint John’s deep-sea port and about 80 kilometers from the US border. The drilling contractor is local, eight of the 24 people on site come from the nearby town of Sussex, and all-in drilling costs run about $200 a meter.

The deposit was discovered in 2005 when a government geologist mapping the area found boulders of stibnite — the mineral that hosts antimony. The New Brunswick government itself drilled about 5,000 meters between 2008 and 2014 and, helpfully, preserved all the core. Antimony Resources has since drilled over 30,000 meters and outlined a Main Zone 700 meters long, traced to 400 meters depth, averaging three to four meters wide.

The grades are the story. A March 2025 technical report estimated exploration potential of 2.7 million tonnes grading between 3% and 4% antimony, open in all directions. Within that, the company keeps hitting bonanza intervals: 14.91% Sb over 3 meters, 9.85% over 4.3 meters, individual massive-stibnite sections running 28%. For comparison, Perpetua’s Stibnite project in Idaho — a US$4 billion company — carries an antimony grade of 0.064%.

Atkinson’s line on grade doubles as his answer to the China risk: “If China suddenly floods the market, we will be the only mine standing because we’re so high grade.”

Beyond the Main Zone, three new zones — Marcus West, Central, and South — have been exposed by trenching, with grab samples from the South Zone averaging 19.5% antimony. Soil sampling has flagged two more anomalies three kilometers further south. And on July 3rd, days after our session, the company reported meaningful gold running alongside the antimony: an average of 1.14 g/t across more than 45 Main Zone holes (https://stockstoday.com/antimony-resources-a-geopolitical-bet-gets-a-geological-boost/).

The numbers

Share price (July 6, 2026) C$0.72 Common shares 107.4 million Fully diluted 157.9 million Market cap ~C$70 million Cash ~C$4 million Management & insiders ~40% Institutional anchors Dynamic Funds, Delbrook Capital (~8% each)

The company is funded for roughly six months at a burn rate of about $700,000 a month, most of it drilling. New York investment banks Dominari Securities and Revere Securities led a $10 million financing in December, and Atkinson was candid that another raise is likely before the maiden resource, expected late this year: “We’re always willing to take money.”

From here: 15,000–18,000 meters of drilling over the next four months, split evenly between infilling the Main Zone and testing the new discoveries; a maiden resource targeted for Q4; a permit application in late 2026 or early 2027 under New Brunswick’s new strategic-metals framework promising 60-day turnarounds. Under Doug’s questioning, Atkinson’s preliminary modeling — built on the Montana School of Mines model — sketched a small underground operation with capital costs of $200–300 million, payback under a year, and roughly $200 million in annual cash flow at current prices.

What the panel liked

EB Tucker zeroed in on timing and backing: “The critical metal movement is happening now. If you’re a critical metal company, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for.” He noted the Dominari connection — the investment bank with well-publicized Trump-family ties — cuts the right way here: “In this case, that’s a good thing.” His verdict on the setup: “Everything’s pretty lined up. This could work.”

Byron King, our resident stibnite enthusiast: “There are not a lot of antimony projects, period, and there are not a lot of good antimony projects, period.” On the perennial China-flooding fear: “They’re husbanding their own stuff because they need it.” His conclusion: “A good antimony project with grade is probably a good idea right about now.”

Lawrence Roulston offered the simplest framing: put ATMY next to Perpetua and Larvotto. “On a project basis they’re comparable enough... and both are much, much higher valuations. There’s a simple way to look at the near-term upside potential.”

Graham Summers was struck by something else — Atkinson’s repeated, unprompted confidence that now is the time to buy, paired with his acknowledgment that conversations with the US, Canadian, and New Brunswick governments are ongoing. “I can’t help wondering if he knows something he’s not allowed to let on.”

Atkinson himself, when John Hunt asked whether investors should buy now or wait for the resource, went as far as a CEO can: “I’m not allowed to advise people to buy, but I would say it’s a pretty good buy right now.”

What gave them pause

This is a Roundtable, not a cheering section, and the concerns were specific.

Mickey Fulp credited “a very strong geological discovery” but flagged that the mineralization is structurally controlled and the company hasn’t taken oriented core — drilling that records how the structures actually sit in the rock — a gap Atkinson acknowledged. He also pressed on metallurgy: the technical report shows 46% antimony recovery, and the stibnite is intimately mixed with arsenopyrite, meaning an arsenic problem in the tailings. “That’s probably solvable, but at a cost.” His verdict: cautious. (Worth noting: the 46% recovery still yields a 65% antimony concentrate — near-pure stibnite, the same quality Lake George once sold at a premium.)

Brent Cook wants to see the data before believing the story: the company’s website lacks proper cross-sections showing vein continuity. “It’s a story until I get to see what’s really happening.” Atkinson says a new site with the updated 3D models is being built now.

Dominic Frisby, who made and lost money on antimony a cycle ago, worries the trade may have already happened — the stock ran from pennies to $1.60 in March and has been in a downtrend since. “When they spike up and then they come back, the downtrends can just go on and on and on.” He’d also like to see it graduate from the CSE to the TSX Venture, a concern EB shared: the current listings make it harder, not easier, for American money to buy a defense-metals story.

Bottom line

A C$70 million company with the highest-grade antimony project in North America, in a top-tier jurisdiction, fully staffed and drilling, with institutional anchors, US investment-bank backing, government ministers visiting site, and a maiden resource months away — set against real questions about structural continuity, arsenic metallurgy, share structure, and a chart full of trapped buyers. The year-end resource estimate settles most of it. As Atkinson put it when told prospective concentrate buyers want to wait for that number: “Well, it’s a hell of a lot cheaper now.”

Company:

https://antimonyresources.ca

Comparables mentioned: Perpetua Resources https://perpetuaresources.com | US Antimony https://usantimony.com | NevGold https://nevgold.com | Larvotto Resources https://larvottoresources.com

Disclaimer: The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

When the blunt question came at a recent Doug Casey Experts Roundtable, it was the one every junior resource investor actually wants answered. Why is the market valuing Sonoro Gold’s gold in the ground at roughly $50 an ounce when comparable developers trade closer to $85? CEO Ken MacLeod didn’t reach for a complicated answer. “The Mexico factor,” he said.

For six years that discount was earned. Under President López Obrador, SEMARNAT — the federal environmental agency — simply stopped approving new open-pit mines. Permits aged out. Files went unanswered. MacLeod was candid that for a long stretch there was no communication at all between his company and the regulator. So capital did what capital does with a closed door: it walked away from anything in Mexico that still needed a yes.

But the regime that built the discount is gone, and the one that replaced it is handing out the yeses. That is the part of the investment case for Sonoro Gold, and the market has not finished repricing it.

What’s actually in the ground

Cerro Caliche sits in Sonora State, three hours south of Tucson and three hours north of Hermosillo, in a mining district that supplies a quarter of the state’s economy. The deposit is oxide gold and silver — the kind you mine in an open pit and process by heap leach, trickling a cyanide solution over crushed ore to dissolve the gold. No deep shafts, no flotation circuit, no refractory metallurgy. Sonoro has drilled to 250 metres and is still in oxide, which means the cheap, simple end of the mining business runs deeper here than most projects ever get to use.

The March 2026 resource estimate puts roughly 644,000 gold-equivalent ounces in the measured and indicated categories with another 97,000 inferred, drawn from 498 holes and more than 55,000 metres of drilling. The accompanying economic study models an initial ten-year mine recovering about 459,000 ounces. The numbers that matter for a builder are modest and believable: $83 million to build it, a 1.6-to-1 strip ratio, and an all-in sustaining cost near $1,900 an ounce.

That cost is the project’s soft spot, and the roundtable’s veterans went straight at it — for an oxide heap leach with that little waste to move, several expected the operating cost lower. MacLeod’s answer was that the next round of drilling is aimed precisely at converting low-grade and waste material inside the pit shells into mineable ore, which pulls the cost down. Whether it does is a question the drill bit will settle, not the press release.

What’s not in question is the leverage. The study uses a conservative $3,500 gold price as its base, and at that level the after-tax net present value is $224 million against an $83 million build — a 50% internal rate of return and a payback under two years. Gold has pulled back from its January record and traded near $4,000 through late June. Run the company’s own sensitivity table up to the $4,200 rung and the after-tax value climbs past $340 million with the rate of return near 68%. The market capitalization, for reference, is about $95 million. The gap between a $95 million quote and a $340 million after-tax NPV is the kind of spread that exists only when a market doesn’t believe the mine will get built.

The reason to believe it gets built

Two reasons, really. The first is the team. Vice Chairman Jorge Diaz is a mining engineer with fifty years building and running mines in Mexico, including work tied to the La Colorada and Mulatos operations — two of the names that anchor Sonora’s modern gold history. VP Exploration Mel Herdrick ran exploration in Mexico for Phelps Dodge and then for Pediment Gold, where the discoveries included that same La Colorada, the mine that turned into Argonaut’s flagship when Argonaut acquired Pediment in 2011. The company’s own tally is five million ounces discovered and twelve gold and copper mines built across the group’s careers. In a sector where most juniors are run by promoters who have never poured a bar, that is not boilerplate.

The second reason is the permitting thaw, and it is no longer a hope. In November 2025, Silver Tiger Metals secured every required SEMARNAT approval to build an open-pit mine at El Tigre in Sonora — the first new open-pit permit granted in Mexico in years. Heliostar has lined up to restart pit mining at La Colorada. The Sheinbaum administration’s own Ministry of Economy says it inherited 176 stalled mining files and has cleared more than a hundred of them, targeting full normalization by mid-2026. Sonora alone is tracking 83 active projects, and Cerro Caliche is named on that list.

The catch — and it is a real one — is that the new Mexico is not the old free-for-all. Sheinbaum has said plainly that no new concessions will be granted and that open-pit mining will be approved case by case, against environmental standards borrowed from Canada and the United States. MacLeod doesn’t fight this; he frames it as the price of admission. “We can, we’re gonna meet those environmental regulations,” he told the panel, and noted that for the first time in years the regulator is actually writing back, asking the questions a self-respecting environmental agency anywhere would ask. A regulator that engages is a regulator moving toward yes. He expects the project’s environmental approval in months, not years.

The land grab nobody priced in

The piece of this story that hasn’t reached the share price is what Sonoro did with its land position over the past year. It started 2025 with the original 1,350-hectare Cerro Caliche concessions. It now controls more than 9,000 hectares of contiguous, mineralized ground — a roughly sevenfold expansion built through a surface-rights deal over the entire 5,007-hectare Cerro Prieto Ranch, the acquisition of the higher-grade Batomote and Diana ground to the north, and a letter of intent over neighbor Emilio Acuña’s concessions to the east, a block the company calls Acuñalandia and believes carries grades above what it already has.

There’s a quieter bit of leverage buried in the ranch deal. The lease covers the neighboring Cerro Prieto mine’s own footprint, and in September 2028 Sonoro becomes the landlord. Any operator inside that ranch will have to secure surface rights from Sonoro to keep mining. That is the sort of structural advantage that doesn’t show up in a resource estimate and doesn’t get talked about until it does.

To test all this new ground, the company has launched a two-phase, 50,000-metre drill program — funded, at roughly $100 a metre all in, out of the CAD $27.5 million raised in the last three months. Drilling at that scale on this much under-explored, mineralized strike is, in the words of one panel veteran, very likely to push the project toward a million ounces. And a million ounces is the threshold where the institutions that don’t yet own this stock start having to look.

What has to go right, and what’s already gone right

A credible bull case names its own risks. This one has three. The warrant overhang is the loudest: roughly 194 million warrants sit against 431 million shares, and until they’re exercised or expire they cap the stock the way an overhang always does — MacLeod admitted that prodding holders to exercise is a daily chore. The Mexico jurisdiction risk is the second, and the permitting thaw, while real, is being delivered by an administration that critics on the panel were quick to label anywhere from socialist to worse. The third is the most honest: the panel did not reach consensus. Its most cautious geologist warned that building a small mine usually means years spent fixing the small mine, and that the exploration upside, for now, is a scatter of narrow veins across a hillside rather than a proven motherlode.

But notice what the skeptics conceded. Even the most reluctant agreed the 50,000-metre program is likely to add ounces, and that at twenty cents the stock is not richly priced for what could come out of it. The disagreement wasn’t whether news is coming — it’s whether you want to own a Mexican developer in a soft market while you wait for it. That is a market-timing question, not a fatal flaw in the asset.

Doug Casey, who has backed Sonoro through at least three of its financings, asked MacLeod the question that cuts through all of it: what keeps you up at night? MacLeod’s answer was that the thing that used to — outlasting an interminable permitting delay, funded by insiders lending the company money with no security just to keep the property payments current — is the thing he no longer worries about. The regulator is talking. The drills are turning. The treasury is funded.

The market is still pricing Cerro Caliche for the Mexico that froze it out. The company is being built for the Mexico that’s letting mines open again. Closing that gap doesn’t require a discovery or a gold-price miracle. It requires a permit the government has already started granting to companies down the road, and a drill program that’s already paid for and already turning. When both land — and they are scheduled to land in the same window — the $50-an-ounce discount has no reason left to exist.

Disclaimer: The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Almost all of it came out in the 1800s. Men sank shafts and chased the veins by candlelight, pulling one of the great fortunes in American history out of the ground with no drilling and none of the tools a modern geologist would call standard.

Then the district went quiet — and stayed that way. Not for lack of promise, in Nevada, the most-drilled gold address on earth. It stayed off-limits to modern explorers for a duller reason: you couldn’t buy it.

The Comstock was staked before the mining laws of 1872, and it splintered into hundreds of tiny claims spread across dozens of owners — estates, feuding heirs, holdouts. You can’t explore a vein system that big one postage-stamp claim at a time, because you never know which way the ore runs.

That’s the puzzle MacKay Gold & Silver (TSXV: MACK, OTCQB: MKGSF) spent roughly a year quietly solving — buying the ground up, deal by deal, mostly while still private. The company doesn’t hold a few good claims in the district; it controls the district. With about US$62 million in the bank and a 20,000-metre program starting in mid-June, MacKay is about to send modern drills into ground the old-timers could only reach by candlelight.

All of which it carried into the latest Doug Casey Experts Roundtable. This is a great story with excellent management, lots of capital, and a mining address investors crave.

Brent Cook has built a career out of finding the fatal flaw in mining stories. So when he opened his questions for MacKay Gold & Silver’s CEO at the latest Doug Casey Experts Roundtable, his admission was telling: “I’d love to pick this apart, but I’m having a hard time. I wish I could pick it apart, but right now I can’t.”

That set the tone for the whole table. Doug Casey called it a “great presentation” and announced he was a buyer — “as I look at the chart as a potential buyer, which I am, it looks like it’s attractively priced.” Ed Bugos ran the company through his five-point screen — capital, people, structure, story, value — and reported that it passed every one. Lawrence Roulston, who tried to assemble this exact ground himself back in the 1980s and couldn’t, praised “the remarkable job you’ve done in putting that much ground together” and added that “people really believe in what you’re doing.” Both Brien Lundin and Dominic Frisby disclosed they were already shareholders.

When a panel this seasoned and this allergic to hype spends an hour mostly nodding, it’s worth understanding why.

A district nobody could buy — until now

MacKay (TSXV: MACK, OTCQB: MKGSF) is named for John Mackay, the dirt-poor Irish immigrant who sold newspapers as a boy, walked over the Sierras into the silver rush, and became one of the richest men in America on the back of the Comstock. The University of Nevada’s Mackay School of Mines carries his name. The company is betting his old ground still has a great deal left to give.

The district was staked before the mining laws of 1872, leaving hundreds of tiny claims scattered across dozens of owners — grandfathers’ estates, feuding cousins, holdouts convinced they owned a piece of the richest square mile on the planet.

MacKay spent roughly a year, mostly while still private, doing the unglamorous work of buying it up — deal by deal, relationship by relationship. CEO Darwin Green’s line is that the company doesn’t merely hold a district-scale position; it controls a district. That distinction is the whole thesis.

Where the first holes go

The near-term focus isn’t even the famous main lode. It’s the parallel Occidental–Brunswick structure running alongside it — same orientation, same length, but sitting higher up in the system. In these epithermal deposits (the kind formed by hot mineral-rich fluids near surface), the rich pay zone tends to sit at a particular depth. The chemistry on the Occidental — more calcite, a lower gold-to-silver ratio — suggests MacKay is looking at the top of the system, with the bonanza zone that defined the Comstock still sitting below, untested.

How untested? No hole on the Occidental’s length has ever gone deeper than about 300 feet. The single deep data point is a drainage tunnel the old-timers drove in the 1870s, which happened to cut the vein some 1,500 feet down and found it more than 100 feet wide and still alive. Green says he almost doesn’t care what grade that interval ran. The point is the structure is robust at depth, and no one has drilled it.

Chen Lin summarized the setup as cleanly as anyone: “They’re fully capitalized, they just need to drill and hit, and especially they’ve already seen the structure in the tunnel, so drilling should be relatively low risk.”

A fully funded 20,000-metre program kicks off in mid-June. The bulk of it is faster, cheaper reverse-circulation drilling on shallow, high-grade oxide gold near surface, where existing holes have already returned widths like 25 metres of about 13.5 grams. A core rig follows in mid-summer to test the deep Occidental near that old tunnel cut. Green’s near-term marker — explicitly not the end game — is the possibility of outlining one to two million ounces over the next year. The end game he’ll actually say out loud is bigger: the kind of multi-million-ounce district a Newmont or an AngloGold writes a large check for.

“A feeding frenzy”

Here’s the part that genuinely surprised the room. MacKay came to market in March looking for thirty to forty million dollars. It got more than a hundred million in interest and settled on a US$60 million raise at C$1.40 — and still cut most participants back by about half.

Brien Lundin, who has watched financings for decades, didn’t hedge: “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that much demand for a new financing or a new company coming online. It was really remarkable.” Later he put it more plainly — “it was really a feeding frenzy.” Ed Bugos echoed it: “That financing is huge. I wonder if I’ve ever seen anything like that coming out of the gate. Investors will look at it as quite an endorsement.”

The result is a balance sheet most explorers can only dream about: roughly US$62 million in the bank, about 85 million shares out, essentially no warrants, and no four-month lock-up wall waiting to dump stock into the market. Green says he doesn’t expect to go back to investors until MacKay is a five-dollar stock. With that treasury, he can drill, see results, drill again, and keep consolidating ground without rattling the cup.

The people spending it have done this before. Green built and sold HighGold Mining and founded Onyx Gold, where a new discovery is taking shape. His first two hires were among the best Nevada explorers going — Jeff Pontius, of Corvus Gold (sold to AngloGold), and Moira Smith, of the Long Canyon discovery (sold to Newmont). As Lundin noted, Green “has told a lot of good stories over the years, and all those stories have been good.” Frisby’s read on him as a communicator: “very articulate, very personable, very charming — and there’s a whole district there, and Nevada’s about as good as it gets.”

The catch worth keeping in mind

This is an exploration bet, and the central question is the one Chen Lin named: is the Occidental a one-to-two gram story, or a four-to-five gram story? Nobody knows until the assays come back. The Occidental, the focus of initial drilling, has no resource on it yet. The historical production and the century-old estimate on the main lode are exactly that — historical, not bankable ounces. Not yet.

What the panel clearly liked was the asymmetry. The downside is well-capitalized and patient; the upside is a genuinely rare thing — a consolidated, proven district in the best jurisdiction in the country, run by people who’ve sold companies before, and drilling in Comstock for the first time with modern tools.

The stock has drifted lower since its launch, into what Cook expects to be a soft summer for the sector. His parting line doubled as the table’s quiet consensus: “It’s a good time to pick some up. It’s a great exploration play.”

First assays are expected around late summer. After that, the drilling does the talking.

Disclaimer: The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

When Doug Casey cuts through a pitch and puts a number on it, people listen. Here’s what he said to Star Copper CEO Darryl Jones near the end of the session:

“So if you just do as well as they did, you should be a 10-for-one shot. Is that what you’re saying?” — Doug Casey

Jones wouldn’t promise replication — no honest CEO would — but he confirmed the path is there to follow.

“They” is Doubleview Gold Corp, Star’s Golden Triangle neighbor. Same prolific mineral district. Same broad package of Triassic island-arc volcanics. Both are porphyry copper-gold systems, though they differ in style — Hat is a classic alkalic Cu-Au porphyry in the vein of Mt Milligan or Galore Creek, while Star trends more intermediate calc-alkaline with closer affinities to Red Chris. Different recipes, same neighborhood. Doubleview now carries a market cap between C$600 and C$700 million on the back of a maiden resource and a recently filed PEA showing an after-tax NPV of up to C$7.27 billion at consensus prices and up to C$14.85 billion at spot.

Star Copper’s market cap today: roughly C$60 million.

That’s the spread. That’s the opportunity.

Why the Panel Got Interested

Star Copper Corp. (CSE: STCU | OTCQX: STCUF | FWB: SOP) is advancing its flagship Star Project — a 6,829-hectare copper-gold porphyry property located approximately 100 km west-southwest of Dease Lake (and about 50 km northwest of Telegraph Creek) in northwestern British Columbia’s Stikine Arch. It sits in the same neighborhood as Red Chris, Galore Creek, Schaft Creek, KSM, and Brucejack — one of the most productive porphyry addresses on the planet.

Here’s what’s working in the company’s favor:

A meaningful head start. Star picked up the project through a chain of transactions beginning in 2022 with roughly 16,000+ meters of historic drilling already in the ground, completed first by Firesteel Resources and later by Prosper Gold Corp. Jeremy Hanson — Star’s senior project geologist — was project manager at Prosper Gold in 2014, so the database and institutional knowledge are intact and continuous. Notably, this is the first time the project has been 100% owned in its roughly 70-year history.

A preserved supergene cap. This is unusual for BC. Most porphyries in the region have had their high-grade oxide zones eroded away. Star’s was capped and preserved by young Level Mountain volcanics, leaving a copper-oxide zone with malachite, azurite, chalcocite, tenorite, and even native copper — roughly 300x300 meters wide, extending 80 to 120 meters deep. Hanson’s back-of-envelope estimate: around 10 million tons at 0.6–0.8% copper sitting right at surface.

A nested porphyry model with five targets. Star Main is the main event, but there are four additional lookalike targets — Star North, Star East, Star West, and Copper Creek — each showing coincident copper-gold soil anomalies and chargeability anomalies. All get tested this season. As Jones put it: “it’s an embarrassment of riches on one project.”

1% copper intercepts — at surface and at depth. The holes already drilled show 1% copper zones both near surface and at roughly 400 meters down. If this year’s drilling connects them into a high-grade core, the grade conversation changes materially.

Fully funded for the biggest work program in the project’s history. The company has roughly C$12 million in the bank, with a fully funded 2026 drill program of up to 15,000 meters planned across Star Main and all four satellite targets, plus a 3D IP survey and deep MT geophysics. Drill costs are favorable — roughly C$600–750/meter thanks to an on-site fixed-wing airstrip, track-mounted drilling, and subdued topography. No helicopter-supported mountaineering here.

Management alignment and a real track record. Roughly 20%+ insider and management ownership. CEO Darryl Jones and Chairman Brad Nichol previously built and exited Alpha Lithium for C$313 million in all-cash consideration to shareholders in December 2023 — so this team has actually walked the path from early-stage exploration to a premium sale.

A copper macro that finally makes sense. With copper prices elevated, supply-side constraints mounting, a global infrastructure buildout, and the electrification theme — this is the environment where smaller, well-positioned explorers get re-rated hard if the drill bit cooperates.

“The real pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for us is being in the right rocks, in the right region, with a deposit model that is absolutely massive.” — Darryl Jones, CEO

The Doubleview Comp

Lawrence Roulston laid it out on the call, and it’s the single most important frame for thinking about Star Copper:

• Doubleview’s Hat measured and indicated resource covers hundreds of millions of tonnes of polymetallic mineralization

• After-tax NPV up to C$7.27 billion at consensus prices, up to C$14.85 billion at spot

• ~C$600–700 million market cap

Roulston’s observation was pointed: Star Copper’s grades are actually more attractive than the average grades Doubleview is reporting at the Hat deposit. Star just needs to build the tonnage story. Jones’s internal target: get to 200+ million tons as a maiden resource — potentially doubling if the satellite targets deliver.

That’s the re-rating path. Hit a credible maiden resource. Let the market do the math.

What to Watch in 2026

The catalysts are stacked and near-term:

• Early-season drilling on the satellite targets — Copper Creek delivered encouraging results in the 2025 program, and Star North, Star East, and Star West are largely untested lookalikes. Success at even one of them validates the nested porphyry model.

• Deep 3D IP and MT geophysics — the first real look below the current drill coverage, which will sharpen targeting on the deeper high-grade zones.

• Definition drilling at Star Main — specifically aimed at connecting the 1% copper zones at surface and at 400m depth.

• Maiden resource — management is pushing for delivery by year-end.

• Drill results flow — assays flowing into early 2027, which is historically where this kind of story gets re-rated.

A Couple of Honest Caveats

No pitch survives the Roundtable untouched, and a few fair points came up worth flagging:

The share structure could be better presented. Dominic Frisby and Jeff Phillips both noted that the warrant breakdown and share structure should be front and center in the corporate deck — not buried. There’s meaningful warrant overhang against roughly 52 million shares. Management acknowledged the feedback on the call and said they’d address it. That matters, because the share structure is actually a strength once you understand it — with ~20%+ insider ownership and a tight base, it’s just not being presented as one.

The bulk tonnage beneath the supergene cap still has to be proven. Brent Cook pushed on this, and fairly so. Current data suggests 0.3–0.4% copper through much of the chargeability envelope, with 1% pockets at depth. This year’s drilling is designed precisely to answer that question — but it is a question that needs answering before the re-rating really gets going.

These aren’t dealbreakers. They’re exactly the kind of things a fully funded 15,000-meter drill program is designed to resolve.

The Bottom Line

Star Copper is a small-cap explorer with the right rocks, the right region, a credible technical team, 16,000+ meters of historic drilling already in hand, a preserved supergene cap, five targets, C$12 million in the bank for the largest work program in the project’s history, management with a real exit on their résumé, and a Golden Triangle neighbor sporting a market cap ten times larger working the same deposit model.

Doug Casey’s 10-for-1 math isn’t a promise. But it is a reasonable framing of what’s on offer at ~C$60 million when the comp is at C$600–700 million.

As Jones put it in his closing:

“The setup is once-in-a-lifetime for the copper stories. And specifically this project is poised to deliver.” — Darryl Jones

Watch the drill results. Watch the 3D IP. Watch the maiden resource timeline. This is the kind of early-stage copper speculation that, if it hits, hits big.

Disclaimer: The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

CEO Kevin Reid — a geoscientist by training who spent 17 years on the mining team at GMP Securities working on deals like the Wheaton River IPO and the original Silver Wheaton — walked the panel through what he believes is the most compelling project he has ever been involved with as a principal. The asset: the past-producing McCabe high-grade gold and silver mine in Yavapai County, Arizona, roughly 1.5 hours north of Phoenix and 30 minutes off Interstate 17, on private ground, in a mining-friendly state.

“This is, for me, the most exciting transaction that we’ve gotten to work on as principals.” — Kevin Reid

By the time the session ended, the consensus was unusually warm.

“I have not seen a rock yet, but from what you’re telling us here, this is a really exciting exploration story with wide open upside. I love how you brought the history in… It’s just one of the best presentations I’ve seen in a hell of a long time.” — Byron King

“I almost never buy stocks unless it’s on a financing, but I’m tempted to buy this in the open market.” — Doug Casey

The Setup: A District Consolidated From Scratch

The McCabe Mine has a long, layered history. Last operated in 1993, it was sunk to the 1,450-foot level by Stan West Mining in the early 1980s when gold ran to $800 — until a one-in-100-year monsoon, a fault collapse, and the mid-1980s mining-equity malaise put the operation into distress. The asset eventually ended up in Magma Copper, then BHP (which featured the project in its 1996 annual report), then sat in private hands for over thirty years.

Reid and his team — including Executive Chair Marc Pais (former CEO of Telegraph Gold and Arizona Metals) and the same group of founders who built Castle Mountain Mining Company Limited (which ultimately became part of Equinox Gold’s portfolio in 2017 and is now a key California growth asset) — spent three years negotiating to consolidate the ground. The result is the largest land package in the project’s 150-year history: roughly 225 acres of patented (private) land plus another 3,350 acres of BLM ground, with 14 historic shafts across the private package alone.

The historic estimate from 1984 (done by Derry, Michener, Booth & Wahl, and reported as historic — not 43-101 compliant) shows roughly 880,000 ounces of gold at 11.7 grams per tonne and approximately 5 million ounces of silver at 69 grams per tonne over about 800 meters of strike. As Reid explained, that 11.7 g/t was the recovered grade — back-calculating mill recoveries puts the head grade closer to 15 grams per tonne.

And here’s the kicker: that resource sits over 800 meters of strike on a system the team has now consolidated to roughly eight kilometers of strike on private ground.

The Monday Announcement: Three Past-Producing Silver Mines

The week before the Roundtable, Arizona Eagle announced the acquisition of 62 acres of patented land hosting three past-producing high-grade silver mines — the Arizona National, the Lookout, and the Silver Belt — sitting on strike with and approximately one kilometer northeast of the McCabe deposit, between McCabe and the historic Iron King Mine (which produced a million ounces of gold and a billion pounds of zinc and was mined to a kilometer in depth).

These silver mines were last worked in the 1930s, mined only to about 150 meters, and have been dormant in private hands for nearly a century. Surface sampling has already returned eye-popping numbers: 861 grams per tonne silver, 500 g/t silver with 3% zinc, and historic mining grades reportedly running 15 to 20 ounces per tonne silver.

Reid’s pitch on the silver acquisition is simple: the old timers stopped where they hit the oxide-sulfide transition because they couldn’t recover sulfides with 1930s technology. Modern processing handles that easily. The opportunity is to drill below the historic workings and along strike — using a hundred years’ worth of high-grade shafts as an exploration blueprint.

Why the Panel Got Excited

Skin in the game. The founders — Reid, his brother, and Marc Pais — have taken zero salaries and personally invested approximately $2 million each into the company. Roughly 25.9 million shares (about 53% of the 49 million outstanding) are held by principals and management under a multi-year escrow. That alignment didn’t go unnoticed.

“He’s set the deal up for himself and why shouldn’t he? He’s given himself some cheap stock, but he hasn’t given himself that much. The management is allied with the shareholders, which is something you don’t often see.” — Dominic Frisby

Tight share structure. Roughly 49 million shares outstanding, only about 30% in the public float, 4.7 million warrants (out of the money at C$1.50 and C$2.55), and approximately 2 million options.

“This is one of the best share structures I’ve seen for a mining company.” — Graham Summers

A real American mining jurisdiction. Two hours north of Phoenix on a paved highway. Power lines and water on site. All current surface disturbance on private ground — meaning a drill permit in 48 hours and no BLM plan-of-operations needed for the foreseeable future.

“Let’s not even forget about — it’s American soil. It used to be you had to be in some far away place. Now this is the time to be doing this.” — EB Tucker

A storyteller at the helm. The panel repeatedly returned to Reid’s command of the narrative — his geological background, his capital markets experience, and his ability to translate one into the other.

“He’s one heck of a salesman, and I like a salesman… The story’s new — when a narrative gets old, it just runs out of energy. This is a new story, so he can get lots of people excited.” — Dominic Frisby

The Exploration Case

Lawrence pressed Reid on mining widths. The historic record from Stan West shows mining widths of four to five feet, with the historic resource calculated at a 6.8 g/t cutoff — meaning anything below that grade simply wasn’t counted.

“At those grades, you can certainly afford a bit of dilution.” — Lawrence

The deepest historic intercept — drilled from the bottom of the Sooner Shaft at 1,450 feet — returned 1.4 meters of 19.4 g/t gold at roughly 480 meters depth. That’s well below the historic resource. The system is open at depth, open along strike, and now extended by the silver acquisition.

The phase-one drill program is fully funded — about 4,500 meters and roughly 12 holes — and Arizona Eagle is roughly 70% through it. Six holes were drilled on the northeastern edge outside the historic resource. The drill is now turning at the Little Kicker target on the southwest end. There’s also a copper anomaly identified by geophysics that returned surface samples up to 28% copper, 29 g/t gold, and 653 g/t silver — interpreted by the team as proximal to a VMS heat source in a district that hosts Iron King, United Verde, and others.

The Honest Caveats

Brian Leni pushed Reid on cost of capital, cash position, and how to prioritize between gold and silver targets going forward. Reid acknowledged the company will have roughly C$1 million left when phase one wraps in June, and will need to raise to fund a meaningful phase two. Asked which targets he’d prioritize with limited capital, Reid gave an unusually candid answer:

“If you’re asking me for my vote — I vote silver. They start shallow, we know they’re high grade, they’re on private ground… a lot of sizzle.” — Kevin Reid

The panel’s main concerns were straightforward: this is an exploration story, the company will need to raise, and results will drive everything. Dominic Frisby flagged the cash position as the one item to watch. EB Tucker’s read was that the slow, deliberate pace of raises is actually a feature, not a bug.

“They’re not going to spend until there’s something to spend on… 60 million Canadian market cap, like 45 million US — that to me seems like pretty low risk for the setup now.” — EB Tucker

The Comparable Math

Reid’s closing line was the one that stuck with the panel:

“If I walked in with a million ounces at 12 grams, 43-101, on a private piece of ground that used to be a mine, off a paved highway with a power line and water — it wouldn’t be 60 million Canadian. It’d be 900 million Canadian.” — Kevin Reid

That’s the bet. The historic estimate isn’t 43-101 compliant — and turning it into one (and growing it) is exactly what the drill bit is for. With eight kilometers of strike consolidated, multiple parallel high-grade structures, a fully-funded phase-one program already 70% complete, and a team of insiders who have written real personal checks, Arizona Eagle Mining (TSXV: AZEM /OTC: CNCOD) is exactly the kind of early-stage drill story that, if it hits, hits big.

“It could become a meme stock.” — Dominic Frisby

“I’m pretty interested. This is the time. The time is now on this thing, I think.” — EB Tucker

Watch the full Experts Roundtable session for the complete Q&A with CEO Kevin Reid.

Disclaimer: Historic resource estimates referenced here are not 43-101 compliant and should not be relied upon. The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Midnight Sun is starting to show one.

That was my main takeaway from this latest Experts Roundtable. Adrian O’Brien wasn’t just talking about a target anymore. He was talking about a discovery. And not some vague, hand-wavy concept either. He laid out a picture of a copper system at Dumbwa that already appears to have real scale, in one of the best copper districts in the world, with the kind of setup that can actually matter if the company keeps delivering.

That’s why the reaction from the panel was so telling.

Doug Casey didn’t mince words. After hearing the presentation, he said:

“It seems to me there’s gonna wind up to be a couple billion tons here and there, and it’ll wind up at a half a percent... I’m looking at $10 a share and I’m speaking as somebody who’s enthusiastic as a shareholder, but, uh, I see this as a 10 bagger from here.”

That’s a big statement. Doug is not saying the stock is merely interesting. He’s saying that, in his view as a shareholder, this thing could be a 10-bagger from here.

Brien Lundin was also very positive, but in a slightly different way. What stood out to me was that he liked the opportunity at the current price. He said:

“I think it’s a great opportunity. I agree with Doug. I think it’s a multi-bagger from here. I don’t know if I’d say 10 bagger, but I wouldn’t be surprised by that either… So yeah, I really like it.”

That matters. It’s one thing to say a company has potential. It’s another to say the market may be giving investors a gift right now.

And Byron King sounded genuinely impressed too. He said:

“Yes. Hey, this was a really strong presentation. I enjoyed it greatly. I love your geology, I love your photographs, the mineralogy that you got there... you guys have made terrific progress and I’m totally impressed and I’m gonna probably buy some shares.”

Again, that’s not polite applause. That’s Byron saying he liked the geology, liked the progress, and came away wanting to own stock.

That kind of reaction doesn’t happen for no reason.

What Midnight Sun seems to have now is a discovery story that’s beginning to feel real. Dumbwa is in Zambia’s domes region, surrounded by major copper deposits and major mining companies. The mineralization appears to be near surface. There’s infrastructure. There are other companies nearby. This is not some remote science project in a terrible jurisdiction where even success can still leave you stranded. If the discovery keeps growing, it’s not hard to imagine why larger players would care.

And that’s really the core of the bull case.

Midnight Sun is not trying to build excitement around some tiny speculative target. The company is talking about a system that could potentially be very large. Adrian made the case that Dumbwa may be the beginning of a serious copper discovery in a district where billion-tonne deposits are not unusual. That gets people’s attention.

It also helps that the company seems to be approaching this in a more disciplined way than a lot of juniors do. Adrian emphasized that they aren’t just poking a few holes around to create headlines. They’re trying to build a data set that can stand up to scrutiny. If this eventually becomes an M&A story, that matters.

Then there’s Kazhiba, which gives the story another angle. Management’s argument is basically that Kazhiba has value, but Dumbwa is the prize. If they can monetize Kazhiba and use that to keep advancing Dumbwa without further dilution, that’s a smart path. It gives shareholders a way to stay exposed to the bigger story without constantly getting watered down.

There were other encouraging signs from the panel too. Lawrence Roulston called it a great presentation and an exciting project. Dominic Frisby said he was impressed with the team and how they came across. Brien made clear he’s bullish on copper more broadly, which obviously helps a story like this. The overall tone at the end of the call was not one of polite interest. It was more like people trying to figure out just how big this could get if the company keeps hitting.

That’s why Midnight Sun stands out.

This is still a junior mining story, so let’s not pretend there’s no risk. There is. They still have to prove size. They still have to keep delivering results. They still have to execute.

But after this Roundtable, it’s easier to see why people are getting interested.

Doug sees a 10-bagger.

Brien sees a multi-bagger and thinks the current price is a great opportunity.

Byron says he’s probably going to buy shares.

That’s not nothing.

Midnight Sun looks like it may be onto something big.

Disclaimer: The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

A big land package. A few nice historical holes. A management team with a slide deck full of potential. And then, nothing.

StrikePoint Gold looks different.

That was the takeaway from our latest Experts Roundtable, where Mike Allen walked our panel through the company’s Hercules gold project in Nevada, its new drill program, and the case for why 2026 could be a genuinely important year for the company.

This is still an early-stage story. It is not a finished mine. It is not a proven economic deposit. But it is exactly the kind of setup that gets interesting in a strong gold market: a small company, a modest valuation, a real catalyst path, and a project in Nevada that appears to be getting derisked in real time.

That combination is what caught people’s attention.

StrikePoint’s Hercules project sits in Nevada’s Walker Lane trend, where activity has picked up and where recent M&A has reminded the market that good Nevada ounces still matter. In the attached company deck, StrikePoint outlines a conceptual exploration target at Hercules of 40.3 million to 65.5 million tonnes grading 0.48 to 0.63 g/t gold, with drilling underway to support a maiden resource estimate expected in Q3 2026. The deck also highlights recent drilling, including 117.35 meters of 0.47 g/t gold at Cliffs and 10.67 meters of 1.17 g/t gold plus 18.13 g/t silver at Hercules, alongside a broader 2026 plan built around drilling, results, and a resource update.

That matters because this is not a blue-sky concept with no path forward. The company has a defined objective for this year: drill, convert the model into something more tangible, and try to force the market to revalue the story.

Mike Allen’s core pitch was simple. StrikePoint believes a new structural interpretation has turned Hercules from a frustrating, inconsistent target into a much more predictable system. In his telling, that change in understanding is what improved the hit rate and what gives management confidence that the company can deliver a maiden resource and, potentially, a meaningful re-rating.

What stood out to me was not just the presentation. It was how the panel reacted after pushing on the weak spots.

And they did push.

Brent Cook and Lobo Tigre asked the hard geology questions. Ed Bugos pressed on whether there’s really enough here to justify the enthusiasm. Mickey Fulp drilled into the financing overhang and the warrant structure. That’s exactly what you want in a session like this. Not cheerleading. Pressure-testing.

Even with that skepticism, several panelists still came away seeing real upside.

Doug Casey put it plainly: “I’m favorably inclined towards the whole story.” He also said the company looked “kind of cheap actually.”

That’s not a trivial comment coming from Doug. He has seen a mountain of junior mining stories over the years, and he knows the difference between a fantasy and a speculation with the right ingredients. His view was that the low market cap, the cash on hand, and the current drill program give StrikePoint a setup that is at least worthy of attention.

Brien Lundin made another important point. He said of Mike Allen: “He’s been a straight shooter with me before and it’s worked out very well.” That kind of endorsement matters. In this business, management credibility is not a side issue. It is the issue. Brien also said that if the next round of drill results comes back well, “this thing will be trading for double pretty quick.”

That captures the real appeal here.

This is not necessarily a story you buy because you are certain what the mine looks like ten years from now. It is a story you watch because the valuation is still small enough that a successful drill campaign and maiden resource could move the stock sharply.

That was also the essence of what several panelists were getting at after the formal presentation ended. The geologists raised legitimate questions about geometry, strip ratio, and whether the deposit ultimately works as an economic mining operation. Those are real issues. They are not trivial. But from a market standpoint, the consensus was more constructive than destructive.

EB Tucker put it in trader’s terms. His view was that the stock has room to move simply because it remains obscure, the market cap is small, and the story has not yet been fully recognized. That’s a different lens than a mining engineer’s, but in junior resource markets it often matters just as much.

And there is another point worth emphasizing.

StrikePoint is not betting everything on one talking point. Hercules is the lead story, yes. But the company also controls additional ground on the southern part of the property, including the Como District, recently acquired from Newmont, plus other targets like Pony Meadows and Sirens. The deck notes historic high-grade surface samples and past-producing areas that give the broader land package more optionality than the market may currently be giving it credit for.

On top of that, the company still has Willoughby in British Columbia, which came up repeatedly during the panel discussion. That is not the focus today, and management is clearly positioning StrikePoint as a Nevada-centered gold story. But the fact that multiple panelists independently brought it up tells you something: there may be more embedded optionality in this company than the headline market cap suggests.

A maiden resource still has to be delivered. The drilling still has to validate the model. The market still has to decide how much it wants to pay for those ounces. And yes, the warrant overhang is real. These are the facts.

But if you want to understand why junior mining remains so compelling in a strong gold tape, StrikePoint is a pretty good example. It is small enough to matter. Active enough to have catalysts. Cheap enough to attract attention. And credible enough that serious people are interested.

That’s why this Roundtable was worth doing.

The company is not being pitched here as a certainty. It is being pitched as something arguably better at this stage: a live speculation with multiple ways to win if management executes.

Doug liked the setup. Brien liked the management. The traders liked the chart. Even the skeptics acknowledged there is enough here to keep watching.

That is usually where the best junior stories begin.

Disclaimer: The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Then Doug says it out loud on the call: he hadn’t even heard of the company before this session.

Many of us wish we had.

Because once you actually look at what they’ve been delivering, West Point Gold needs to be on your radar.

The “okay, pay attention” catalyst: drill results

And yesterday West Point just reported new assays from the NE Tyro high-grade zone at Gold Chain (Arizona), including:

• 21.34m of 13.48 g/t Au from 128.0m to 149.4m (hole GC26-91)

• 32.0m of 4.48 g/t Au from 152.4m to 184.4m (hole GC25-89)

• And they say this extends the high-grade zone to >300m of strike length (westpointgold.com)

Gold Chain continues to stack up great drill results producing the kind of intercepts that make serious people re-rate a project—because it speaks to grade + continuity + expansion.

3 reasons to watch this Roundtable session for yourself

1) It’s not hype — it’s execution

You’ll hear a team that actually sounds like it’s operating: clear plan, clear targets, clear timeline, no hand-waving.

2) You get the real value: experts stress-testing the story

This is what our Roundtable is for. The pitch is the setup; the Q&A is where the opportunity gets sharpened.

3) The upside isn’t just “more holes” — it’s what comes next

They’re drilling aggressively and aiming to put a maiden resource on Tyro later this year (as discussed in the session). After that, the rerating comes from proving more than one meaningful zone on a property with multiple targets.

The tone of the room: strongly positive

Most of the panel came away impressed with the positioning and the progress. The only real caution note was Mickey pointing out the obvious: after a big run, there’s always valuation risk if the market mood shifts. Still, this is the kind of company we all wish we’d bought earlier.

But the dominant takeaway was simple: this looks like a company doing things the right way at the right time.

Disclaimer: The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Each company was then put through a full deep-dive using Doug Casey’s 9P framework, scored across ten dimensions on a scale of 1 to 10, and ranked from best opportunity to worst. The composite score out of 100 reflects everything from management quality and deposit grade to valuation and specific risk factors.

Covered in this Report

This report covers 5 companies: Scottie Resources Corp. (TSXV:SCOT, 78/100), Osisko Development Corp. (TSXV:ODV, 77/100), Formation Metals Inc. (CSE:FOMO, 76/100), ATEX Resources Inc. (TSXV:ATX, 76/100), and Arizona Metals Corp. (TSX:AMC, 75/100).

No. 1 - Scottie Resources Corp.

Ticker: TSXV:SCOT
Screening Price: C$2.2000 | Market Cap: C$166.0M

Drill Result Highlights

30.42 g/t Au over 5.60m

SR25-459: 30.4200 g/t Au over 5.60m - BB Vein - BONANZA

Key Data

Shares Outstanding: 75.6M

Enterprise Value: C$154.0M

Insider Ownership: 24.77%

P/NAV: 0.7700x

Financing: Dec 3, 2025 - Non-brokered PP (charity FT) C$24.2M at C$2.1400/share Press Release

9P Analysis

People (8/10): The management team is led by CEO Bradley Rourke and President Thomas Mumford, who have built the company from a grassroots explorer into a PEA-stage developer. COO Sean Masse adds operational depth. Insider ownership of 24.77% demonstrates strong alignment with shareholders. Ocean Partners, the largest shareholder at 13.51%, is a well-known mining-focused investment firm, and Franklin Resources (7.68%) adds institutional credibility.

Property (9/10): The Scottie Gold Mine is a past-producing, high-grade, vein-hosted gold deposit in the prolific Golden Triangle of British Columbia. The Blueberry Contact Zone continues to deliver bonanza-grade intercepts that expand the known mineralization. The October 2025 PEA outlined a 7-year mine life with a C$215.8M after-tax NPV. The deposit remains open along strike and at depth, suggesting significant resource growth potential.

Politics (9/10): British Columbia is a politically stable, mining-friendly jurisdiction with well-established permitting processes. The company holds an active mine permit, which is a significant de-risking factor. There are no known indigenous or environmental disputes.

Paper (7/10): The share structure is tight at 75.61M shares basic, with high insider ownership of 24.77%. The recent C$24.2M financing at C$2.14 was a flow-through placement, which is tax-advantaged and typically attracts long-term holders.

Phinancing (5/10): The company currently has no formal analyst coverage, which represents both a risk and an opportunity. As the project advances toward a pre-feasibility study, analyst initiation could serve as a significant catalyst.

Promotion (8/10): Scottie Resources Corp. demonstrates a highly effective and professional promotional strategy. The company maintains a comprehensive and up-to-date website with easy access to presentations, news releases, and videos. Management, led by CEO Bradley Rourke, is highly visible, actively participating in investor conferences and effectively communicating the company’s value proposition, which has attracted significant investments from notable figures in the mining sector. The consistent news flow of high-grade drill results and project advancements keeps the market well-informed and engaged.

Push (8/10): The ongoing drill program at the Blueberry Contact Zone continues to deliver exceptional results. Additional assays are pending, and the advancement toward a pre-feasibility study represents a near-term catalyst.

Price (8/10): At a market cap of C$166M versus a PEA NPV of C$215.8M, Scottie trades at approximately 0.77x P/NAV. This represents a meaningful discount to its assessed net asset value.

Pitfalls (8/10): Scottie Resources Corp. appears to have a strong handle on mitigating company-specific risks. The company is proactively addressing potential environmental concerns by conducting multi-year environmental baseline studies and has successfully secured a bulk sample permit, a crucial step in de-risking the project. Operating in the tier-1 mining jurisdiction of British Columbia’s Golden Triangle provides access to established infrastructure and a clear regulatory framework, reducing technical and legal risks. While the inherent risks of mineral exploration remain, the company’s systematic approach to exploration and permitting, coupled with a strong financial position, places it in a favorable position to navigate potential challenges.

P/NAV (8/10): Trading at 0.77x P/NAV for a high-grade gold project with a PEA in a tier-one jurisdiction appears attractive. Peer gold developers in the Golden Triangle typically trade at 0.6x-1.2x NAV.

Composite Score: 78/100

People: 8 | Property: 9 | Politics: 9 | Paper: 7 | Phinancing: 5

Promotion: 8 | Push: 8 | Price: 8 | Pitfalls: 8 | P/NAV: 8

No. 2 - Osisko Development Corp.

Ticker: TSXV:ODV
Screening Price: C$3.7600 | Market Cap: C$1.12B

Drill Result Highlights

596.40 g/t Au over 2.0m

Key Data

Shares Outstanding: 298.5M basic / 298.8M FD

Enterprise Value: C$930.0M

Insider Ownership: 32.56%

P/NAV: 0.4000x

Financing: - Private Placement Press Release - US$143.8M Bought Deal at US$3.54 on Feb 3, 2026 - https://osiskodev.com/news/news-releases/osisko-development-completes-us1438-million-bought-deal-public-offering-of-common-shares-including-full-exercise-of-over-allotment-option

9P Analysis

People (9/10): Osisko Development is led by a world-class team with a proven track record of success. CEO Sean Roosen was the founder of Osisko Mining, which developed the Canadian Malartic mine. The company has very high insider ownership at over 32%, which aligns management with shareholders.

Property (8/10): The Cariboo Gold Project is a large, high-grade, and long-life asset in a tier-one jurisdiction. The recent bonanza-grade drill intercept highlights the project’s potential for further high-grade discoveries. The project is fully permitted and at the feasibility stage, which de-risks the asset significantly.

Politics (8/10): The Cariboo Gold Project is located in British Columbia, Canada, which is a stable and mining-friendly jurisdiction. The project has already received its Environmental Assessment Certificate, which is a major de-risking milestone. The political risk is considered low.

Paper (6/10): The company’s share structure is a point of weakness, with a relatively high number of shares outstanding. This could lead to further dilution for existing shareholders as the company continues to finance its projects. However, the high insider ownership helps to mitigate this risk.

Phinancing (9/10): The company is very well-financed with a cash position of over C$400M. The recent US$143.8M financing ensures the company is fully funded to advance the Cariboo Gold Project towards production. This strong financial position is a key advantage in the current market environment.

Promotion (7/10): Osisko Development has a professional investor relations team and is well-covered by analysts. The company is active in presenting at industry conferences and is well-known in the mining investment community. The recent high-grade drill results are likely to attract further market attention.

Push (8/10): The company has several near-term catalysts, including ongoing exploration drilling at Cariboo, the release of an updated feasibility study, and a construction decision. These catalysts have the potential to create significant value for shareholders in the coming months. The recent high-grade drill results will also provide a significant ‘push’ for the stock.

Price (7/10): Osisko Development is currently trading at a discount to its peers, with a P/NAV ratio of 0.4x. This suggests that the company is undervalued relative to its asset base and growth potential. The recent high-grade drill results could act as a catalyst to close this valuation gap.

Pitfalls (7/10): The main pitfall for Osisko Development is the execution risk associated with building a large-scale gold mine. The company will need to carefully manage costs and timelines to ensure the project is delivered on budget and on schedule. The high number of shares outstanding is also a potential risk.

P/NAV (8/10): The company’s P/NAV ratio of 0.4x is very attractive, especially for a developer with a permitted, high-quality asset in a top jurisdiction. This low valuation provides a significant margin of safety for investors and suggests that there is significant upside potential as the company de-risks its project and moves towards production.

Composite Score: 77/100

People: 9 | Property: 8 | Politics: 8 | Paper: 6 | Phinancing: 9

Promotion: 7 | Push: 8 | Price: 7 | Pitfalls: 7 | P/NAV: 8

No. 3 - Formation Metals Inc.

Ticker: CSE:FOMO
Screening Price: C$0.3500 | Market Cap: C$33.6M

Drill Result Highlights

1.75 g/t Au over 30.4m including 3.51 g/t Au over 10.5m

Key Data

Shares Outstanding: 96.2M basic / 148.9M FD

Enterprise Value: C$21.5M

Insider Ownership: 60.00%

P/NAV: N/A

Financing: - Private Placement Press Release - C$8.46M private placement in October 2025 - https://formationmetalsinc.com/newsletter/formation-metals-closes-second-tranche-of-its-private-placement-for-aggregate-proceeds-of-8-46m-increases-drill-program-to-30000-metres-at-the-advanced-n2-gold-project/

9P Analysis

People (8/10): The management team is led by CEO Deepak Varshney, a geologist with over a decade of experience in mineral exploration and capital markets. The team has a strong track record of raising capital, with over $40 million raised in the last three years. Insider ownership is high at approximately 60%, which aligns management’s interests with shareholders.

Property (7/10): The N2 Gold Project has a historical resource of 877,000 ounces of gold and is located in the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt in Quebec. The recent drill results, including 1.75 g/t Au over 30.4m, are encouraging and demonstrate the potential for resource expansion. The project is located near established million-ounce deposits and has access to excellent infrastructure.

Politics (9/10): The N2 Gold Project is located in Quebec, Canada, which is a top-tier mining jurisdiction with a long history of mining and a clear permitting process. The province is known for its political stability and support for the mining industry. This low political risk is a significant advantage for the company.

Paper (6/10): The company has a relatively tight share structure with 96.18 million shares outstanding. However, the fully diluted share count is significantly higher at 148.95 million, which could lead to future dilution. The recent financing was done at a premium to the market price, which is a positive sign.

Phinancing (8/10): Formation Metals is well-financed with a working capital of approximately C$12.1M and no debt. The company recently closed an C$8.46M financing, which is sufficient to fund its expanded 30,000-meter drill program. This strong financial position provides the company with a runway of over 12 months.

Promotion (7/10): Formation Metals has a professional investor relations program and is covered by several analysts. The company is active in communicating its progress to the market through press releases and presentations. This active promotion helps to maintain market awareness and attract new investors.

Push (8/10): The company has several near-term catalysts, including the ongoing 30,000-meter drill program at the N2 Gold Project. The results of this drill program could significantly expand the resource and de-risk the project. The company is also planning to release a maiden NI 43-101 resource estimate in Q3 2026.

Price (8/10): Formation Metals is trading at a significant discount to its peers, with an EV/oz of approximately C$24.6/oz. This valuation gap could close as the company continues to de-risk the N2 Gold Project and expand the resource. The recent financing at a premium to the market price suggests that investors see significant upside potential.

Pitfalls (7/10): The main risk for Formation Metals is the inherent uncertainty of mineral exploration. While the recent drill results are encouraging, there is no guarantee that the company will be able to define an economic deposit. Other risks include potential for cost overruns and delays in the permitting process.

P/NAV (8/10): As an exploration company, a P/NAV analysis is not directly applicable. However, based on the EV/oz metric, the company is trading at a significant discount to its peers. This suggests that the market is not fully valuing the potential of the N2 Gold Project.

Composite Score: 76/100

People: 8 | Property: 7 | Politics: 9 | Paper: 6 | Phinancing: 8

Promotion: 7 | Push: 8 | Price: 8 | Pitfalls: 7 | P/NAV: 8

No. 4 - ATEX Resources Inc.

Ticker: TSXV:ATX
Screening Price: C$4.1100 | Market Cap: C$1.42B

Drill Result Highlights

56m of 2.36% CuEq including 56m of 2.36% CuEq

Key Data

Shares Outstanding: 345.2M basic / 421.0M FD

Enterprise Value: C$1.40B

Insider Ownership: 21.53%

P/NAV: 0.0300x

Financing: - Private Placement - C$110M Bought Deal Financing in Nov 2025

9P Analysis

People (8/10): ATEX is led by a management team and board with a proven track record of discovery and value creation in the mining industry. Insider ownership is a healthy 21.53%, aligning management with shareholders. The company is backed by prominent investors, including Agnico Eagle and Pierre Lassonde, which provides strong validation of the project and team.

Property (9/10): The Valeriano project is a world-class copper-gold porphyry deposit with a large and growing resource. The recent high-grade drill results from the B2B zone are particularly impressive, demonstrating the potential for a high-grade starter mine. The project is located in a prime mining jurisdiction in Chile, with excellent infrastructure and a supportive government.

Politics (8/10): Chile is a top-tier mining jurisdiction with a long history of supporting the mining industry. The government is pro-mining and is actively looking to increase copper production. The project is located in a region with a skilled workforce and good infrastructure.

Paper (6/10): The company has a relatively high number of shares outstanding at over 346M, and there is a significant warrant overhang from the recent financing. This could lead to future dilution for shareholders. However, the recent warrant acceleration has helped to clean up the share structure.

Phinancing (8/10): ATEX is well-funded with over C$100M in cash following a recent C$110M financing. This provides a strong financial position to aggressively advance the Valeriano project through the next phase of exploration and development. The company has a strong institutional and retail shareholder base.

Promotion (8/10): ATEX has a professional and effective investor relations program, with a strong presence at industry conferences and in the media. The company has excellent analyst coverage, with 8 analysts providing research and price targets. This ensures the story is well-understood by the market.

Push (8/10): The ongoing Phase VI drill program at Valeriano is a major near-term catalyst for the company. Results from this program are expected to continue to expand the high-grade B2B zone and de-risk the project. Further resource updates and a potential PEA are also on the horizon.

Price (7/10): ATEX’s stock has performed very well, but it still appears to be trading at a discount to its peers on a per-pound of copper equivalent basis. This suggests there is still significant upside potential as the company continues to de-risk and advance the Valeriano project. The current valuation does not fully reflect the world-class nature of the deposit.

Pitfalls (7/10): The primary risk for ATEX is the inherent uncertainty of mineral exploration and development. While the project has shown great promise, it is not yet a mine and there are still hurdles to overcome. However, the project benefits from simple metallurgy and a clean concentrate.

P/NAV (7/10): Based on a peer comparison of enterprise value per pound of copper equivalent, ATEX is trading at a significant discount to its peers. This suggests that the market has not yet fully priced in the value of the Valeriano project. As the company continues to de-risk the project and move it towards production, this discount should narrow.

Composite Score: 76/100

People: 8 | Property: 9 | Politics: 8 | Paper: 6 | Phinancing: 8

Promotion: 8 | Push: 8 | Price: 7 | Pitfalls: 7 | P/NAV: 7

No. 5 - Arizona Metals Corp.

Ticker: TSX:AMC
Screening Price: C$0.5800 | Market Cap: C$79.3M

Drill Result Highlights

22.4m of 1.1% CuEq at Kay Deposit

Key Data

Shares Outstanding: 136.7M basic / 141.9M FD

Enterprise Value: C$57.8M

Insider Ownership: 0.66%

P/NAV: 0.0900x

Financing: - Private Placement Press Release - C$25M Bought Deal at C$1.70 on December 2, 2024 - https://www.arizonametalscorp.com/arizona-metals-corp-announces-closing-of-bought-deal-public-offering

9P Analysis

People (8/10): The management team is highly experienced, with a track record of success at major mining companies like Wesdome Gold Mines and St. Andrew Goldfields. The addition of Jacques Perron (ex-Pretium, Centerra, Franco-Nevada) as Chairman significantly strengthens the board. While direct insider ownership is low, the company is backed by reputable institutional investors such as Franklin Resources and Mackenzie Financial.

Property (8/10): The Kay Mine is a high-grade VMS deposit with a substantial indicated resource of 9.28 million tonnes at a strong 3.18% CuEq. The project has significant expansion potential both at depth and along strike, located in a prolific mining district in Arizona. The presence of a second large-scale gold project, Sugarloaf Peak, adds long-term optionality.

Politics (9/10): Arizona is a top-tier, mining-friendly jurisdiction with a long history of resource extraction and a clear regulatory framework. The Kay Mine project is located on private land, which significantly de-risks and simplifies the permitting process by avoiding complex federal environmental reviews. This provides a major advantage for the project’s timeline to production.

Paper (7/10): The share structure is reasonable for an advanced explorer, with 136.7M shares outstanding and no warrant overhang. The fully diluted share count of ~142M is manageable, though further raises for development will lead to more dilution. The tight structure without warrants is a positive for existing shareholders.

Phinancing (7/10): With $21.5M in cash as of September 2025, the company is well-funded for its ongoing exploration programs with an estimated runway of over 12 months based on its historical burn rate. The last financing was a significant C$25M bought deal, demonstrating strong institutional support, although it was completed at a much higher share price.

Promotion (8/10): Arizona Metals has strong market awareness with coverage from five reputable analyst firms, including BMO Capital Markets and Scotiabank. The company maintains a professional and informative website and corporate presentation, and consistently communicates its progress through regular news releases.

Push (7/10): The company has several near-term catalysts, including ongoing results from its Phase 3 drill program at the Kay Mine, which is focused on expanding the current resource. Further exploration work at the Sugarloaf Peak project also provides upside potential. The market will be anticipating a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Kay project in the next 12-18 months.

Price (7/10): The company’s stock has experienced a significant pullback from its 52-week high, offering a more attractive entry point for new investors. The current valuation appears reasonable given the quality and size of the Kay deposit. The market seems to be undervaluing the asset, likely due to the broader market sentiment for junior explorers.

Pitfalls (7/10): As an exploration company, Arizona Metals faces inherent risks related to resource definition and project development. While initial metallurgy at Kay appears positive, more detailed work is required to fully de-risk the project. The resource at the Sugarloaf Peak project is historic and not NI 43-101 compliant, requiring significant work to be verified.

P/NAV (7/10): Using an Enterprise Value to Resource (EV/lb CuEq) metric as a proxy for P/NAV, Arizona Metals is trading at approximately $0.09/lb CuEq. This valuation is competitive and appears to be at a slight discount compared to the peer average for advanced VMS developers in North America, which typically trade in the $0.10-$0.15/lb range. This suggests potential for a re-rating as the company continues to de-risk the Kay project.

Composite Score: 75/100

People: 8 | Property: 8 | Politics: 9 | Paper: 7 | Phinancing: 7

Promotion: 8 | Push: 7 | Price: 7 | Pitfalls: 7 | P/NAV: 7

Screening Methodology

Each press release was evaluated against the following exceptional-grade thresholds:

Gold (bulk tonnage, open pit): >2 g/t over 100m

Gold (underground, high-grade): >5 g/t over 2m

Gold (bonanza): >30 g/t over any width

Silver: >300 g/t AgEq over significant width

Copper (porphyry): >1% CuEq over 100m

Copper (high-grade): >5% CuEq over 2m

Tungsten / Critical Minerals: Evaluated on a case-by-case basis

Companies that did not meet these thresholds were excluded.

Ranking Methodology

Each qualifying company was scored on Doug Casey’s 9P framework plus a P/NAV valuation discount, with each dimension rated on a scale of 1 to 10. The ten scoring dimensions are:

1. People - Management quality, track record, and prominent backers

2. Property - Deposit quality, grade, size, and geological potential

3. Politics - Jurisdiction, permitting, and regulatory environment

4. Paper - Share structure, insider ownership, dilution risk

5. Phinancing - Recent financing terms, treasury adequacy, warrant overhang

6. Promotion - Analyst coverage, IR quality, market awareness

7. Push - Near-term catalysts and news flow

8. Price - Current valuation relative to intrinsic value

9. Pitfalls - Environmental, technical, legal, and competitive risks

10. P/NAV Discount - Valuation discount relative to net asset value and peers

Disclaimer

This report is generated by an automated screening system and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation, or a solicitation to buy or sell any securities. All data is sourced from publicly available press releases, financial databases, and company filings. Investors should conduct their own due diligence and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Mining exploration is inherently risky, and past drill results do not guarantee future performance or economic viability.

Doug Casey put it plainly: the market cap is “six to eight million… just about nothing,” and yet the company is rebuilding around an Oregon copper project with historic drilling that includes what he called “one spectacular drill hole… a hundred feet of 6% copper plus,” with gold and silver credits layered on top.

That mismatch—tiny valuation vs. a real, drilled deposit—is why this Roundtable is worth your time.

And it’s why the second half of the video is the real prize.

Because after CEO David Watkinson walks through the asset, the experts do what they’re supposed to do: they take turns pulling the story in opposite directions—bull case vs. bear case—until the shape of the opportunity becomes obvious.

The “bull” view: a real asset + a big upside angle

Watkinson’s core pitch is that Bornite is not a grassroots lottery ticket. It’s a breccia-pipe system with extensive historic work, and he emphasized the advantage this way: “it’s not like you’re starting from grassroots.”

The historic mine plan focused on a high-grade outer shell, but the potential upside is the interior of the pipe—material that was treated as secondary decades ago but might be economic under today’s metal prices. In his words, if the interior works, “all of a sudden… you might have 40 or 50 million tons” instead of a small, high-grade-only story.

That’s the thesis in one line: the market is pricing the company as if there’s nothing to see here, but the company shows the Bornite project is real and the company thinks it could be big enough to bring into production.

Lawrence Roulston captures the constructive version of that argument: the project “looks very attractive,” he likes the “high grade,” and he likes the concept of “getting into production near term” if the high-grade can be “backed up” by the interior—because that combination could make it a genuinely viable mining operation.

And adds a key point that helps the story: the project has been “frozen in amber for the last like 30 years,” and now it’s thawing in a world that suddenly cares a lot more about domestic copper supply. His comments are supportive, but they’re also a nudge: improve the geological “system” narrative so investors understand why this pipe exists and what it implies for expansion potential.

The “bear” view: Oregon + capex inflation + the size problem

Then does what Mickey does: he brings the cold water, and it’s useful cold water.

He agrees it’s “a really nice deposit” but argues the company has to prove it’s bigger—because in his experience the current scale is “too small to justify the CapEx… building a mill.” He also points out the obvious political headwind: permitting in Oregon can be brutal.

Brent Cook backs him up from a different angle: even if you can get early drilling permitted, this jurisdiction is going to be a longer, harder slog than many alternatives—so you’re trading difficulty for leverage (tiny market cap, lots of torque if the story catches).

Why this still lands as a positive watch

Here’s the important part: this isn’t a story the experts “write off.”

It’s a story they argue about—because the upside is real if a few things go right.

Even in the critique, you can hear the pathway:

• If the interior grades are stronger than expected, the “too small” problem changes fast.

• If they can identify additional pipes, the “mine life / scale” issue changes again.

• If the company executes the early technical steps quickly, the market doesn’t need a mine tomorrow—just credible progress.

That’s why Doug Casey ends up where he does: he’s “very interested in this as a speculation,” he “love[s] the low market cap,” and he calls it “a good story.” He’s not promising a mine. He’s saying the setup has the kind of asymmetric profile speculators look for—especially with a financing structure designed to give early participants leverage.

And that’s also why the post-presentation discussion is “educational and priceless”: you’re watching how experienced pros weigh grade vs. tonnage, capex reality, jurisdiction risk, and capital structure—without killing the story.

If you want the polished pitch, you’ll get it in the presentation.

If you want the real value—how smart people pressure-test a micro-cap mining thesis in real time—stay for the second half.

Disclaimer: The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

But fluorspar?

Well, the DoD knows what it is and just awarded a $169M contract to this little known company to secure this critical mineral.

That’s what makes this Experts Roundtable worth watching.

James Walker (CEO of Ares Strategic Mining) walks us through why fluorspar sits quietly inside a surprising number of “non-negotiable” industries—steel, chemicals, refrigeration, lithium-ion batteries, and even the nuclear fuel chain.

And then comes the thing that changes the whole framing:

Ares has a five-year contract with the U.S. Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) to supply acid-grade fluorspar.

That doesn’t mean it’s risk-free. It does mean this isn’t the usual “someday” junior mining story. It’s a “can they turn this into revenue and scale it?” story—with a real customer, real urgency, and a real timeline.

What James lays out (in plain English)

• Why fluorspar matters now (and why the U.S. wound up dependent on imports)

• Where Ares is in the buildout: mine work + plant installation + commissioning

• What “first revenue” looks like and what has to happen next

• How they think about product mix: metallurgical-grade early, then acid-grade once flotation is running

• Key timing: he targets having the plant turned on by the end of February

Why this isn’t just a pitch

Our panel does what they always do: they pressure-test the story.

You’ll hear the right questions:

• What the economics look like per ton, and how pricing works in the real world

• What the unusual “pipe” geology implies for planning and consistency

• What milestones matter most over the next 6–12 months

• What the ownership and capital structure look like, and what to watch on financing

The part most people miss: stock mechanics

closes with a point that’s easy to overlook but matters a lot: a huge chunk of U.S. investors can’t easily buy this stock today, because it’s listed on the CSE in Canada and OTC in the US. James tells us that is about to change. A NASDAQ listing is in the works.

If Ares executes on the next obvious steps—revenue + a higher-quality listing—the investor base can change, liquidity can change, and the market can re-rate the story fast.

Disclaimer: The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

We recently sat down with Intrepid Metals (TSXV: INTR) for a no-holds-barred Experts Roundtable. With a fresh $3.96M strategic investment from Teck Resources closing in late December, the company claims to be sitting on a “Bisbee Analog”—a geological twin to one of the most prolific copper districts in history.

Is it real, or just another junior mining story?

We brought in the heavy hitters—Doug Casey, , Lawrence Roulston, and others—to grill CEO Mark Morabito and Technical Advisor Dan MacNeil.

They looked for skeletons. They found a “layup.”

Watch the full session below to see why the panel agrees this is an inflection point.

The “Copper Queen” Analog

The geological thesis is bold: Intrepid’s Corral Copper project in Arizona shares the exact geological DNA (same host rocks, same age) as the legendary Copper Queen (53M tons @ 6% Cu) and Lavender Pit (223M tons @ 0.63% Cu) nearby.

Byron King, who visited the Bisbee district as a young geologist in 1978, didn’t mince words about the potential:

“When you say ‘Copper Queen’ in the same breath as what you’re doing, you’re setting a high bar... But you have the same rocks, the same geochemistry... I’m totally intrigued. The downside is minimal and the upside is blue sky.”

The “Porphyry Prize”

While the high-grade Carbonate Replacement Deposits (CRD) are the immediate target, the real prize—the one that attracted Teck—is the massive porphyry system feeding it.

Dan MacNeil, Intrepid’s Technical Advisor, explained what happens when you drill these systems:

“We have evidence of the transition from the CRD to the porphyry... When porphyry fluids hit these reactive host rocks, you tend to get dizzyingly high grades... You think of a number that’s really big, and that’s what it’s going to be. Life changing.”

Why Now? The “Zero to Hero” Window

CEO Mark Morabito was candid about why the stock has been quiet—and why that silence is about to end. With Teck now validating the project and “ring-fencing” the exploration budget, the risk profile has completely shifted.

Mark Morabito:

“It’s the biggest layup you’re gonna come across... We’ve finally got the third-party validation. Nobody believes a 9.9% [stake from Teck] crowds them out... I expect by June, people will look back at this time period as the point where we went from zero to hero.”

The Verdict: “No Skeletons”

After 60 minutes of technical scrutiny on geology, jurisdiction (Cochise County, AZ), and share structure, the panel’s conclusion was unanimous.

Doug Casey:

“I’m pretty happy with the story... It seems to be the ideal small mining company where you can make a lot of money and the risk isn’t all that much... This is a really good shot.”

Lawrence Roulston:

“They have so many targets... It’s hard to imagine that they’re not going to find something meaningful... This looks like a great stock play.”

The Bottom Line: With a major mining partner funding the drill bit, a “moonscape” permitting environment in Arizona, and a valuation that hasn’t yet priced in the Teck deal, Intrepid Metals is poised for a massive 2026.

Don’t miss the details. Watch the replay now.

The presentation deck can be downloaded here:

Intrepid Jan 9 2026

6.67MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Disclaimer: The company has paid a fee for the opportunity to sit in the ‘hot seat’ and present their story to our panel of experts; however, the opinions, analysis, and verdicts expressed by the expert panel are entirely their own, independent, and unfiltered. This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice. Investing in junior mining stocks is speculative and carries a high degree of risk. Please conduct your own due diligence and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.

Despite being underexplored, Reedy Creek has already yielded astonishing historical intercepts: 2 m at 174.4 g/t Au and 11 m at 31.4 g/t Au (Newsfile). Golden Cross is applying the same “Testing the Ladder” structural model that unleashed Southern Cross’ success, targeting stacked steep veins that deliver multiple high‑grade intercepts per hole (Newsfile).

At the Experts Roundtable, CEO Matt Roma and VP Exploration Alan Till laid out a compelling argument—but the real weight came from the panel:

• Brent Cook:

“I actually like this one… the geologic setting's right. Alan seems to have a handle on what he's doing.”

• Lawrence Roulston:

“It’s a great location… a fertile geological setting. They’ve got a few drill holes that show there’s definitely gold... The Verify partnership could really enhance their targeting.”

• Brien Lundin:

“That historic RWD01 hole is really extraordinary… It proves the kind of result that could really move this stock.”

• Jeff Clark (full disclosure, own the stock):

“I do own the stock… it’s early‑stage, it’s a spec—but I think it’s a good spec… by this time next year they might be onto something.”

• Doug Casey:

“It’s not a bad story… compared to the thousand others out there saying ‘me, me, me.’”

Golden Cross is fully funded—with ~$7M cash on hand and no expected financings until mid‑2026. Two drills are turning, leveraging LiDAR‑guided mapping, satellite geochemistry, and AI assistance (via Verify) across a 3 km soil anomaly in a well-established anticline trend (goldencrossresources.com, Newsfile, LinkedIn).

Why this matters:

• Unlocked high‑grade intercepts still have upside under modern drilling.

• Operating adjacent to a billion‑dollar discovery brings geological and market leverage.

• Institutional capital is in place; the story has credibility and traction.