In a much-anticipated turn of events, the Canadian government announced on Thursday, March 28th, the extension of the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (METC) through to March 31, 2025. This decision, arriving just in the nick of time, has quelled the rising anxiety within the mining sector regarding the future of flow-through financings.

For weeks leading up to the announcement, speculation and concern have been rampant. A recent story by InvestorNews titled Anxiety Rises on the Future of Flow-Through Financings as METC Deadline Looms, Canadian Government Keeps Quiet highlighted the sector’s unease as the March 31, 2024, deadline approached without a word from the federal government. The METC has long been a cornerstone for supporting flow-through share (FTS) pricing for exploration companies, enabling them to raise funds effectively. The lack of confirmation on its renewal posed a significant threat to the cost of capital for these companies, potentially diluting their growth and exploration activities across Canada.

Peter Clausi, a Director for the Critical Minerals Institute (CMI), the CEO of CBLT Inc. (TSXV: CBLT), and a vocal advocate for the mining community, previously expressed deep concern over the government’s silence. The uncertainty, he noted, made planning and investment challenging for junior mining issuers. “Without the METC’s extension, a great deal of investment would not have been made, to the detriment of everyone in the junior mining company’s food chain. The extension of the METC means that the further incentive to invest in junior mining companies with assets in Canada is still there,” Clausi elaborated following the announcement. “Many thanks to everyone who spoke to the government, and especially to PDAC who has been a historical leader in this area.”

The extension is projected to offer support for mineral exploration investments. While the figure mentioned in the announcement was $65 million, industry experts deem this to be an exceptionally modest number. “The $65 million figure seems low compared to the expectations within the industry,” Clausi commented, providing an opportunity to share the perceived discrepancy between the government’s projections and the industry’s expectations.

Despite the last-minute nature of the renewal and the questions surrounding the amount of support provided, the extension has been met with relief. The decision underscores the government’s recognition of the mining sector’s crucial role in Canada’s economy, especially in the sustainable development of natural resources and the promotion of Indigenous economic participation.

Quotes from senior government officials, including The Honourable Chrystia Freeland and The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, affirm the government’s commitment to supporting the mining sector. Freeland emphasized the importance of mineral exploration in creating future mining jobs, particularly in northern and remote communities, as part of Canada’s transition to a net-zero economy. Wilkinson highlighted mining’s historic significance to Canada and the current focus on supporting the exploration of critical minerals crucial for clean technology.

The METC’s extension arrives as both a significant relief and a call to action for the mining industry. It not only addresses the immediate financial concerns but also signals the government’s ongoing support for mineral exploration. As Canada continues to navigate its economic and environmental goals, the sustained investment in the mining sector through mechanisms like the METC will be pivotal in unlocking the country’s vast mineral wealth, creating jobs, and fostering a sustainable future.

InvestorNews recently did an interview with Jeff Killeen, Director of Policy and Programs at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) who explained how PDAC has played a crucial role in lobbying for the METC’s renewal. Their efforts underscore the collaborative spirit required to ensure the mining sector’s stability and growth. With the extension now in place, the industry can breathe easier, focusing on the exploration and development that are fundamental to Canada’s economic and environmental well-being.

Peter Clausi Analyzes the METC Extension: Understanding Its Impact on Canada’s Mining Industry – Highlights from the Q&A Session:

Q: The Federal Government of Canada announced an extension of the 15% mineral exploration tax credit for investors and flow-through shares until March 31, 2025. What does this mean for the industry?

Peter Clausi: This means that the incentive to invest in junior mining companies with assets in Canada is still there without the mineral exploration tax. But a great deal of investment would not have been made, to the detriment of everyone in the junior mining company’s food chain, including drillers, prospectors, lawyers, accountants, and most importantly, First Nations. With the METC being extended for at least one year, those persons will continue to benefit from continued investments.

Q: Why did the government wait until the last minute to announce the METC extension, and why only for one year?

Peter Clausi: I blame Adam Smith and his invisible hand. I think the liberal government was using the Tax Act as a tool of social policy, which they ever right to…But I think the law of unintended consequences… would have been that those companies would not have seen investment and that’s not healthy for the Canadian mining ecosystem.

Q: How does this extension impact sectors not considered critical minerals?

Peter Clausi: Anything that’s not on the critical minerals list would have been impacted.

Q: The extension is projected to offer $65 million in support for mineral exploration investments. Is this consistent with your understanding of what’s needed?

Peter Clausi: It is. I would expect that $65 million number to be much larger, and that much larger level of support is what’s needed for the non-critical mineral exploration company.

Q: Can you comment on the significance of quotes from Chrystia Freeland and Jonathan Wilkinson in this particular news release?

Peter Clausi: It shows how seriously the Liberal government finally took this issue. And when they realized the unintended consequences of not extending the METC, senior officials in the government took action to extend the METC.

FTS Information sources include:

• The Canadian list of Critical Minerals, click here
• Mining Tax Canada
• How the flow-through share (FTS) program works – Canada.ca
• Canada Revenue Agency – Flow-Through Shares
• PDAC – Access to Capital, Flow-Through Shares
• PDAC Brochure on Flow-Through Shares
• Critical Minerals Institute

In this InvestorIntel interview with host Tracy Weslosky, CBLT Inc.’s (TSXV: CBLT) President, CEO and Director Peter Clausi talks about the recent news that it received the option payment from PowerStone Metals Corp. with respect to CBLT’s 100% owned Chilton Cobalt property.

In the interview, which can also be viewed in full on the InvestorIntel YouTube channel (click here to access InvestorChannel.com), Peter tells Tracy that it shows “you can make as much money with the pen as you can with the drill bit in the mining world,” and deals like this can produce “a great yield for shareholders.” Peter also says in the interview that it is CBLT’s intention, on the successful completion of the terms of the option agreement, which includes the listing of optionee PowerStone Metals Corp. on a recognized Canadian stock exchange, to declare a dividend to its shareholders of 750,000 Powerstone shares on a pro rata basis.

Peter also discusses the other properties in CBLT’s portfolio, including Shatford Lake adjacent to the prolific lithium Tanco Mine, and Big Duck Lake in the Hemlo Gold Camp with numerous gold and base metal showings.

To access the full InvestorIntel interview, click here

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About CBLT Inc.

CBLT Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration company with a proven leadership team, targeting lithium, cobalt and gold in reliable mining jurisdictions. CBLT is well-poised to deliver real value to its shareholders.

To learn more about CBLT Inc., click here

Disclaimer: CBLT Inc. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel Corp.

This interview, which was produced by InvestorIntel Corp., (IIC), does not contain, nor does it purport to contain, a summary of all the material information concerning the “Company” being interviewed. IIC offers no representations or warranties that any of the information contained in this interview is accurate or complete.

This presentation may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and assumptions of the management of the Company as of the date made. They are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and other factors that could cause actual events/results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties, including those that the Company does not know about now or that it currently deems immaterial, may also adversely affect the Company’s business or any investment therein.

Any projections given are principally intended for use as objectives and are not intended, and should not be taken, as assurances that the projected results will be obtained by the Company. The assumptions used may not prove to be accurate and a potential decline in the Company’s financial condition or results of operations may negatively impact the value of its securities. Prospective investors are urged to review the Company’s profile on Sedar.com and to carry out independent investigations in order to determine their interest in investing in the Company.

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Junior mining stocks that are “project generators” can be some pretty interesting companies to dig into. Often they are tough to evaluate because they have options on properties, or other entities have options or working owner interest in the project generator’s prospects. Plus there can also be Net Smelter Royalties (NSR) and exploration spending commitments, etc. It can make for a lot of “what ifs” when trying to assess them. Sometimes that’s where investors can find opportunity. If it’s hard to evaluate, then there could be some hidden value lurking for someone willing to do their homework. Not to say that all companies that are hard to evaluate are hidden gems that we should all invest in, but the more you understand about any of your investments, the easier it is to make buy, sell and hold decisions.

But enough standing on my soap box preaching the virtues of due diligence in investing, let’s dive into the fun stuff and look at a project generator with a whole lot of tentacles to assess. Romios Gold Resources Inc. (TSXV: RG | OTCQB: RMIOF) is a Canadian mineral exploration company engaged in precious- and base-metal exploration, focused primarily on gold, copper and silver. It has a 100% interest in the Lundmark-Akow Lake Au-Cu property and 4 additional claim blocks in northwestern Ontario and extensive claim holdings covering several significant porphyry copper-gold prospects in the “Golden Triangle” of British Columbia. Additional interests include the Kinkaid Nevada claims covering numerous Au-Ag-Cu workings and two former producers: the La Corne molybdenum mine property (Quebec) and a former high-grade gold producer – the Scossa mine property in Nevada.

The Company has a history of staking or acquiring properties in the vicinity of existing mines or major development projects, owned or operated by major mining companies (e.g. Newmont, Teck). These properties are all located within world-class, stable mining districts in Canada and the USA. From there, Romios will either explore the property itself or enhance shareholder value by unlocking potential properties through joint ventures and/or strategic partnerships. Over and above the assets noted above, Romios retains an ongoing interest in several properties including a 20% carried interest in five of Honey Badger Silver’s claim blocks in the Thunder Bay silver district of northwestern Ontario; a 2% NSR on McEwen Mining’s Hislop gold property in Ontario; and a 2% NSR on Enduro Metals Corp. Newmont Lake Au-Cu-Ag property in BC. As well, there are all the shares of various counterparties they have accumulated along the way. At the end of March, 2022 Romios held 8.35 million shares of Enduro Metals Corp. (TSXV: ENDR), 150K shares of McEwen Mining Inc. (TSX: MUX | NYSE: MUX), 1.1 million shares of Honey Badger Silver Inc. (TSXV: TUF) and 165K shares of Sassy Resources Corp. (CSE: SASY).

You can begin to get a feel of how hard it might be to evaluate Romios Gold but I’ll try to sum it all up at the end of the article. In the meantime, the two focus points for current activity revolve around the recently acquired Kinkaid gold-silver-copper prospects in Mineral County, Nevada where the Company just announced assays up to 17.9 g/t Au from previously undocumented prospects on the property. Several poorly documented or unknown mineral showings were discovered by Romios during fieldwork in April, 2022 and sampling has returned encouraging gold results from all of them. Pending copper and silver assays could further increase the potential. Romios plans to undertake a program of detailed geological mapping and sampling across the Kinkaid property throughout the rest of 2022 with emphasis on the numerous mineralized showings. Diamond drilling of several showings is anticipated.

Last week Romios announced it had begun the 2022 exploration field program on 3 of the Company’s projects in the underexplored North Caribou Lake Greenstone Belt (NCLGB) in northwestern Ontario. This belt is home to Newmont’s giant Musselwhite gold mine (> 7 million ounces Au in past production and reserves) but has seen relatively little exploration by other companies since the 1980s. At the North Caribou River claims the 2022 program will complete soil sampling and mapping in an effort to define the best targets for trenching and possibly drill testing. At Markop Lake the upcoming geological mapping and prospecting work will be the first concerted effort to explore this large area adjacent to Newmont’s Musselwhite gold mine. At Arseno Lake a program of basic geological mapping, lithogeochemical sampling and soil sampling is planned to evaluate the potential of this area to determine if ground geophysics and/or drilling are warranted.

Source: Romios Gold Resources June 20, 2022 Press Release

So what is the value proposition for Romios Gold? Good question. The current market value of the various share positions that Romios holds in other companies is roughly C$1.9 million making for total working capital of just under C$3 million. The market cap at yesterday’s close was C$9.5 million implying the market is valuing all the remaining B.C., Ontario, Quebec and Nevada assets not currently under option to anyone at a mere C$6.5 million. The Company has proven to be pretty good deal makers in the past, which poses the question of whether they can option or sell these assets to others at a price accretive to shareholders.

In a recent InvestorIntel interview, Tracy Weslosky spoke with Darren Hazelwood, CEO of Panther Metals PLC (LSE: PALM) about discovering a VMS, Volcanic Massive Sulfide, mineral system at Panther’s Obonga Project in Ontario and about how they are creating shareholder value in base, precious and energy metals through their extensive international network.

In this InvestorIntel interview, which may also be viewed on YouTube (click here to subscribe to the InvestorIntel Channel), Darren Hazelwood provided an update on the listing of Panther Metals’ Australian subsidiary on the ASX to drive forward its gold, nickel, and cobalt projects in Australia. Highlighting the upside potential of a mineral exploration company, Darren explained how Panther Metals is unlocking the potential of its prospects via targeted drilling led by a geological team with a proven track record in making discoveries.

To watch the full interview, click here.

About Panther Metals PLC

The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador offers one of the most extensive mining histories in Canada, with small-scale mining dating back to the 1770’s, which expanded into a major industry by the 1860’s. The province offers world class geology, significant infrastructure and exceptional access to a skilled workforce. Lately, the province has become a hotspot for mineral exploration companies and investors looking for gold exposure. Granted it probably isn’t going to become the kind of gold rush an NFL team will be named after but it has propelled at least one junior start up that IPO’d in August, 2020 from a $25 million market cap to $1.4 billion in a little over a year. That’s the kind of gold rush I can get excited about.

As you would expect when an area play gains traction there are a myriad of companies, big and small, who start appearing on the radar. Today we are going to look at one of the smaller market cap companies but one with a huge land position. Leocor Gold Inc. (CSE: LECR | OTCQB: LECRF) is involved in the acquisition and exploration of precious metal projects, with a current focus in Atlantic Canada. Leocor, through outright ownership and earn-in agreements, currently controls several gold-copper projects in prime exploration ground located within the prolific Baie Verte Mining District. Leocor’s Baie Verte portfolio includes the Dorset, Dorset Extension, Copper Creek and Five Mile Brook projects, creating a contiguous nearly 2,000 hectare exploration corridor. The Company also controls the 6,847 hectare grassroots Startrek project near Gander, as well as three district scale land packages in North Central Newfoundland, known as Robert’s Arm, Hodge’s Hill, and Leamington, (collectively “Western Exploits”) representing over 144,000 hectares (1,440 square kilometers) of prospective exploration.

Source: Leocor Gold Corporate Presentation

I’ve got to admit that between Leocor’s website, corporate presentation and quarterly MD&A there is an awful lot of information about each of the properties so if you really want to do a deep dive into what each of the assets are all about I encourage you to go have a look for yourself. In the meantime, I will try and provide a brief description to whet your appetite.

The Baie Verte property contains multiple gold occurrences and mineralized zones surrounded by active mine operations. The Dorset Project is the Company’s flagship exploration target with abundant historical data and two significantly mineralized quartz veins with extensive surface showings. The Main Zone includes three historic occurrences, with up to 409 g/t gold in grab samples, with channel sampling results of 177 g/t Au over 0.35m, 22 g/t Au over 1.5m, 17.2 g/t Au over 1.5m, and 14.7 g/t Au over 1.5m. Historic drilling includes 9.5 g/t Au over 1.3m. Historic select sampling at the Braz Zone returned values of 314 g/t Au, 40 g/t Au, 31.4 g/t Au, 21.2 g/t Au, 19.2 g/t Au, and 14.8 g/t Au. Historic channel sampling across the vein, returned 9.5 g/t Au over 0.4m; 5.7 g/t Au over 0.5m and 1.2 g/t Au over 0.65m.

The Startrek project is in the Gander district and has nothing to do with Captain Kirk’s recent trip to space. However, it does have the distinction of hosting rocks similar to those underlying New Found Gold Corp.’s Queensway Gold Project located approximately 25 km to the west. The property contains three areas of interest, the Western, Central and Eastern Zones. More than 50 gold occurrences have been discovered on the property through previous trenching and grab samples. The Central Zone has seen trenching by Rubicon Minerals, which focused on gold showings in epithermal veining, and which produced highly anomalous values of gold, arsenic and antimony, and sampling by White Metal which produced grab samples up to 40 g/t Au.

The Western Exploits district is the largest property held by Leocor and was introduced to the company by the prolifically successful prospector Shawn Ryan who now acts as a technical advisor to the Company. The Company plans on investing approximately $2,347,000 on drill target generation between now and the end of 2022. This includes the recently announced phase one exploration at its district scale Hodge’s Hill gold project.

Newfoundland and Labrador has some great geology for lots of different commodities that the world values. If you recall, Robert Friedland’s Diamond Fields was looking for kimberlite and ended up finding a world class nickel-cobalt-copper mine at Voisey’s Bay. That’s why I really like how much property Leocor has staked. You just never know if there is perhaps another valuable asset lurking in the areas you are prospecting. In the meantime, gold is the name of the game and with $10.5 million in cash at the end of July, Leocor is well financed to hunt for the main prize.