Weekly Metals Mining Rundown for Week Ending 28 Mar 2025 - Gold and Silver Prices Rise Substantially Over Past Week, with Palladium, Platinum, Rhodium, Copper, and Nickel Prices also Rising in Tandem, Leading to PGM Producer Outperformance - Uranium Stocks Continue to Suffer

This past week’s top & bottom metal price and mining company peer group movers include:

This past week’s top 40 performing metals mining stocks (out of Peer Table’s 457) include (share price rounding errors apply, as sourced from Google Finance):

Coverage of metals mining company announcements incorporated into this week’s Peer Table (resource updates, economic studies, changes in attributable project ownership) includes:

• 27 Mar 2025 - PGM and Copper developer Generation Mining (TSX:GENM) announced results for its updated feasibility study for its flagship Marathon Palladium-Copper project in Ontario (38% Cu, 35% Pd, rest Pt, Au, by resource metal value, at our estimated 3-month trailing average). The study incorporated results of optimization work, including an optimized/improved mine plan and reduced capex previously mentioned by the company in a 20 Nov 2024 release, and does appear to demonstrate improved economics compared to the prior 2024 study. According to the NPV sensitivity relationships provided in the study, and at our Reference metal prices of $1,800/oz Pd and $3.5/lb Cu, GENM’s post-tax NPV improved by 25% to US$979 million. And this news of these substantially improved economics had pushed GENM stock up 15% intraday TSX Thursday, which closed the week at a (28 Mar) P/NAV (market cap/NPV) of 0.031x, which is now a 79% discount to our 30-company copper developer peer group median of 0.15x (at our Reference metal pricing) and a 69% discount to our 6-company PGM developer peer group median P/NAV of 0.10x, as shown in Peer Table below.

• 27 Mar 2025 - Gold developer Wallbridge Mining (TSX:WM) announced an updated PEA for its flagship Fenelon project on the Quebec side of the Detour Trend. The study showed relatively low AISC of $1,046/oz, and reduced initial capex by 10% to C$579 million compared to the initial 2023 PEA, with more realistic economics that worsened by much more than 10%. WM closed the week down 14.5% to a P/NAV (market cap/NPV from this study) of 0.17x (at our Reference gold price of US$1,800/oz) - a 33% discount to our 62-company gold developer peer group median of 0.27, as shown in Peer Table below.

• 27 Mar 2025 - Copper developer Hot Chili (ASX:HCH) announced a first ever reserve in a PFS for its flagship Costa Fuega project in Chile, which resulted in slightly worse economics than the prior 2023 PEA (as can be expected as a PEA is preliminary in nature and relies on inferred resources whereas this PFS relies strictly on those measured and indicated resources that are demonstrated to be economically mined). HCH stock closed the week ending 28 March flat +0, with its resulting P/NAV (market cap/NPV) rising slightly (on this news of a lower NPV) to (a higher confidence) 0.166x now (was 0.09x before this announcement), which is now a modest 17% premium to peer group median of 0.15x (as shown in Peer Table above)

• 27 Mar 2025 - Gold (polymetallic) explorer Strickland Metals (ASX:STK) announced a resource expansion for its flagship Rogozna gold-polymetallic project in Serbia, which is made up of three deposits (Shanac, Medenovac, and Copper Canyon, as shown in map below). The company reports that this update increased Shanac’s contained gold-equivalent inferred resources by 15% (the other two deposits remain the same), for total combined Rogozna project (inferred) resources of 7.4 Moz AuEq grading 1.2 g/t AuEq (which is a lower range grade for underground deposits globally, but can be increased using higher cut-off grades as shown in chart below). Total project resoruces have now grown by ~2Moz AuEq since only acquiring the property in July 2024. At our estimated 3-month trailing average metal prices, this increase grew the combined project resources (all 3 deposits combined) by 17% to 6.60 Moz AuEq (60% Au, rest Cu-Zn-Pb-Ag) from 5.66 Moz AuEq. STK stock gained 4% through ASX trading Thursday before gaining another +25% on Friday to finish the week up +11% to to a market cap/oz resource of US$21/oz AuEq - now in-line with our explorer peer group median market cap/oz resource of $21/oz AuEq, as shown in Peer Table below.

• 26 Mar 2025 - Copper explorer Arctic Minerals AB (STO:ARCT) announced a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for its Hennes Bay copper-silver project in Sweden, and has been added as the 36th peer in our Peer Table’s (resource-stage) copper explorer peer group. The MRE was reported by company to be 55.39Mt grading 0.8% Cu and 20.8 g/t Ag for 1.0% Copper Equivalent ("CuEq") resulting in 543,000t CuEq contained metal. At our estimated 3 month trailing average metal prices, this equates to 567,900t CuEq or 1.25 Blbs CuEq or or 174 Moz AgEq 2.0 Moz AuEq with a Cu/Ag metal value split of 79%/21%. ARCT stock shot up 31% on this news intraday Sweden Wednesday, before continuing to rise for much of the week and closing the week up +214% to a market cap/lb resource of US$0.033/lb CuEq ($21/oz AuEq), which is now in between our 36-company copper explorer peer group median market cap/lb of $0.02/lb CuEq ($13/oz AuEq) and mean of $0.034/lb CuEq (21/oz AuEq), but still a 34% discount to our silver explorer peer group median market cap/oz of $0.38/oz AgEq ($34/oz AuEq) - although we exclude ARCT from our silver explorer peer group due to its relatively small 21% silver share of resource metal value. This is a substantially sized initial resource - 1.25 Blbs CuEq (79% from Cu) is quite relatively large for a first pass. And while grade of 1% CuEq may be on the lower grade side of typical underground mine deposits (underground mining was the mining method assumed in the MRE and open pit mining does not appear to be an open based on deposit geometry), this grade increases somewhat at higher cut-off grades, which might be considered by the engineers to bolster economics in the PEA that that company says is commencing now. Moreover, this lower range grade could be offset by sheer scale of this relatively large starter deposit (especially as it grows further), which is typical for this stratiform copper mineral system (SSC) type of deposit that represents the most important source of copper produced in the world after porphyry deposits - accounting for 20-25% of global production and reserves. This starter Hennes Bay deposit only includes the Dingelvik prospect, which remains open in all directions, and excludes several other zones defined by historic drilling that the company says could be added to resources with limited further drilling (including Asslebyn, Henneviken, Baldersnäs, Åsnebo and Härserud Norra, as shown in map below).

  

  Hennes Bay Project - Geological Map showing Dingelvik prospect (included in MRE) and other prospects (Source: Arctic Minerals)

  

  Dingelvik Prospect – Geological Cross Section 1550S (Source: Arctic Minerals)

  

  28 Mar 2025 week ending prices

• 25 Mar 2025 - Former gold (and cobalt) explorer (now gold developer) Latitude 66 (ASX:LAT) announced results of a scoping study for its flagship KSB project in Finland, which should have been much anticipated after the company just acquired this project in a restructuring completed last year with DiscovEx. LAT now appears to have successfully taken its inherited existing high-grade Au-Co resource of 0.65 Moz [email protected]/t and 5,840t [email protected]% to the next step with this study, which yields solid economics including a post-tax NPV8 of US$310M (at $2,500/oz Au) with IRR of 74% and low costs across the board including low capex of $101M and AISC of $996/oz AuEq ($1,038/oz Au). And although this scoping study is preliminary in nature and significant additional engineering (prefeasibility and/or feasibility) and permitting work is required prior to development, we now move LAT to our gold developer peer group from explorer peer group, as this scoping study meets the criteria to do so set out in our Peer Table’s standardized information retrieval process. An notably, the study shows that the planned 0.75mpta plant (associated with initial capex of $101M) could be doubled to 1.5mtpa (for only $140M or 38% more), which is encouraging given the numerous exploration targets surrounding the deposit with potential to grow resources. It’s also good to see that 90% of the mine plan resources in this scoping study already come from indicated resources, which should bode well for upcoming maiden mineral resource in a PFS. LAT stock closed up +9% Tuesday on this news, before closing the week flat +0% at a market cap/oz AuEq of US$6.5/oz AuEq (including LAT’s 17.5% share of resource from Greater Duchess Cu-Au project in Australia accounting for ~22% of of LAT’s attributable resources), which is a ~74% discount to our 64-company gold developer peer group median of $26/oz AuEq as shown in Peer Table below (and a ~69% discount to our 76-company gold explorer median of $20/oz). On price-to-net-asset-value or P/NAV (taken as market cap / NPV from this study), LAT trades even cheaper - at a P/NAV of 0.033x (at our Reference gold price of $1,800/oz, according to the NPV sensitivity analysis included in today’s announced scoping study, and including a small share from its 17.5% of Greater Duchess 2024 scoping study results accounting for ~10% LAT’s of combined NPV). And this P/NAV is an 88% discount to our gold developer group median P/NAV of 0.27x (at same $1,800/oz), as shown in gold developer Peer Table above (scroll up).

  

  Location of the KSB project (Source: Latitude 66)

  

  28 Mar 2025 week ending prices

• 24 Mar 2025 (after-market Monday) - Gold explorer New Found Gold (TSXV:NFG) announced its much anticipated initial mineral resource estimate (MRE) for its flagship Queensway project in Newfoundland, which yielded an impressive first pass of 2.0Moz (indicated+inferred). And so NFG has now been added to our Peer Table’s (resource-stage) gold explorer peer group. This 2Moz certainly ranks on the high side in the global realm of initial resource size. And importantly, 63% of the resource tonnes are already in the indicated category. And even more importantly, these indicated resources include a particularly attractive 1.25 Moz of high-grade core open pit resources grading multi-gram at 2.25 g/t Au, which should lead to top tier initial cash flow and overall economics to be confirmed by the company in an upcoming PEA targeted for release in late Q2/25 (and then in a PFS or FS which the company is already well prepared for with solid indicated share of resources). NFG closed Monday (before the stock traded on this news) at a market cap of US$315M (according Google Finance), or $157/oz resource, ranking NFG around the ~90th percentile valuation of our gold explorer peer group market cap/oz. And although a premium appears somewhat justified for NFG’s large starter resource size, high indicated resource content, and high open pit grades, it would appear based on this valuation (and on the abundance of drill results released since the project’s initial discovery was announced in 2020), that investors might have been expecting a larger initial resource, perhaps by some ~1Moz or 33% (as seemed to be the case when the stock opened and closed down around ~28-30% Tuesday, before closing the week down -31% to a market cap/oz AuEq resource of US$118/oz Au. But those additional ounces investors were looking for appear to be on the not-so-far horizon, given: (a) the recently announced high-grade drill results from beyond this initial MRE footprint that are not yet incorporated to the MRE, (b) the potential for infill drilling (of lower grade zones) within the MRE pit shell, (c ) drilling at depth (most drilling to date has been in upper 200m), and (d) the regional camp potential along remaining portions of the 110km long strike length of two major structures. This announcement also impact’s uranium and gold explorer, Palisades Goldcorp (TSXV:PALI), which owns 21.63% of outstanding NFG shares (according to PALI’s press release on 25 Mar 2025). Including its 21.63% share of these new NFG resources and PALI’s pre-existing 100% share of it’s Eco Ridge uranium project resource (107 Mlbs U3O8) acquired in Radio Fuels deal completed earlier this year, PALI trades cheaper than NFG on market cap/oz AuEq resources, at US$37/oz AuEq (although PALI does not appear to get much value in the market for its uranium, based on its stock also closing the week down -31% same as NFG), resulting in more modest premiums to our gold explorer peer median of $21/oz AuEq and our uranium explorer median of $37/oz AuEq ($0.88/lb U3O8).

  

  MRE Area – AFZ Core, AFZ Peripheral and JBP areas (Source: New Found Gold)

  

  Section A-A’: AFZ Core area east of the Appleton Fault Zone composite long section with proposed pits and resource block model (looking northwest, +/-250m). (Source: New Found Gold)

  

  28 Mar 2025 week ending prices

  

  28 Mar 2025 week ending prices

Disclaimer: Provided for informational and educational purposes, and is not intended as investment advice. For full disclosures, visit www.hostrockcapital.com/disclosures.