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UK Listed Junior Mining Company | Gold & Metal Exploration

Poppins

A lot of our focus recently has been on our portfolio’s potential for metals like lithium, nickel, and gold.
 
It’s not a deliberate thing. It just so happens that our exploration and acquisition activity has recently been centered on these well-known minerals.
 
With this mind, I wanted to look today at another metal we’re searching for…one that often has a tendency to fall off the radar with commodity investors…
 
Molybdenum.
 
Right now, this tough mineral is responsible for one of the hottest commodity markets in the world. And with our North Hemlo and McKellar projects showing encouraging early signs of prospectivity…
 
We could be well positioned to benefit if today’s “perfect storm” of supply and demand factors develops into a long-term structural bull market.

📷Molydenum price chart (Source: Trading Economics)

Supply squeeze 
Before we get into North Hemlo’s molybdenum credentials, let’s take a step back and look at exactly what’s going on here.
 
Molybdenum is a refractory metal–extraordinarily heat resistant and highly conductive. As a result, it has developed into a key alloy for metals such as steel over the years for which no substitutes are available. Specifically, it is used to make these metals stronger while at the same time reducing their weight.
 
Recently, demand for molybdenum has been growing steadily in the face of strong demand from the renewables and military sectors. It was even recent named “an essential green technology metal” by the World Bank.
 
However, according to S&P Global, supply of the metal is currently being disrupted at the same time as growing demand by the following factors:

Idle mines - The major primary molybdenum mines have not been active since around 2015, while no significant secondary production from primary copper mining has come online since early 2016;

Lack of new mines - There are very few molybdenum mines in any advanced state of planning or permitting, let alone under construction;

Disruption at key mines - Civil unrest in Peru has formed some molybdenum mines such as Las Bambas to suspend operations indefinitely; and

Production issues in Europe - Availability has been reduced in Rotterdam, leading traders across Europe to protect the molybdenum they hold.

Long story short, a structural deficit is emerging in the molybdenum market that some expect to last long into the future.
 
Prices have already surged 122% in the past year to a 17-year high on the back of this. And Huatai believe that prices are likely to trend even higher as supply shortages extend into 2023-2025 and beyond.
 
Building up our molybdenum potential 
This is where we stand to benefit.
 
Indeed, with molybdenum demand outstripping supply, it stands to reason that new potential deposits will be in greater demand and attract higher valuations.
 
Especially those based in stable, pro-mining jurisdictions like Ontario. That’s why we see a real opportunity here.
 
First-of-all, our Dead Otter Lake trend at North Hemlo has presented a range of anomalous molybdenum showings over more than 3km. This includes grades of up to 0.59% for the mineral.

📷The Dead Otter Lake trend at North Hemlo

Meanwhile, work over our McKellar project has retrieved samples of up to 6,419ppm molybdenum.
 
Now, we obviously need to do a lot of development on these early signs of prospectivity in both cases.
 
In fact, at North Hemlo, our excitement around the presence of molybdenum is primarily driven by its potential as a “pathfinder” for gold. After all, this is the role it performed so effectively in the identification of Barrick’s enormous Hemlo project just 20km to the south on a similar structural trend.
 
But the reality is, while molybdenum may not have originally been among our primary exploration focuses…
 
The reality is that the trend towards a long-term structural bull market that appears to be emerging could change that.
 
Indeed, it’s looking more and more like the potential for a molybdenum discovery is providing us with yet another opportunity to deliver long-term value from our portfolio.
 
It therefore goes without saying that the mineral will factor majorly into our exploration efforts at both North Hemlo and McKellar from here.
 
We look forward to providing more updates on our progress over the coming weeks and months.

How we could benefit from booming Molybdenum