Investment Q&A

SURG: Surge Copper Corp. is a well-funded Canadian mineral exploration and development company focused on advancing its large porphyry copper, molybdenum, gold, and silver deposits mainly in British Columbia. The company owns a large claim package including two major projects: the Berg Project and the Ootsa Property. The Berg Project is a 100% owned large-scale copper-molybdenum deposit with significant NI 43-101 compliant resources and strong development potential, supported by established infrastructure in a safe jurisdiction. A 2023 Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) outlined a long-life project with an NPV8% of C$2.1 billion and a 20% IRR based on long-term commodity prices. It has $8M cash, no revenue, losses and negative cash flow. Production could be in late 2030. 

CTV: CleanTech Vanadium Mining Corp is a Canadian mining and exploration company focused on vanadium resources, primarily through its flagship Gibellini vanadium project located in Nevada, USA. The project encompasses a significant vanadium resource with 127 million pounds of measured and indicated, plus 195 million pounds inferred vanadium pentoxide (V2O5). The Gibellini project is designed as an open-pit, heap-leach operation with a low strip ratio of 0.2 and targets over 60% recovery, aiming to produce 99% pure V2O5.  It has little cash, no revenue, losses and negative cash flow. The company is tiny and we would not expect production for eight years at least. No decision has been made on this.

UCU: Ucore Rare Metals Inc. (TSX.V: UCU, OTCQX: UURAF) is a Canadian critical metals technology company focused on developing scalable rare earth element (REE) refining infrastructure in North America, with a mission to disrupt China’s dominance in the global rare earth supply chain. The company has evolved from a mineral exploration firm into a processing technology innovator, leveraging its proprietary RapidSX™ platform to efficiently separate and refine rare earth oxides. UCU has $12M cash but $16M debt. Also no revenue, losses and negative cash flow. Ucore Rare Metals is targeting to begin production at its Louisiana Strategic Metals Complex (SMC) processing facility in 2026, with an initial capacity aimed at producing 2,000 tonnes per annum of rare earth oxides. UCU is the most interesting and advanced here. As it gets closer to $1B market cap and production investors should re-risk the stock somewhat.