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Junior Exploration Sector

Juniors due for comeback in next year or two, says Canadian mining legend – by Staff (Mining.com – May 22, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

While younger investors continue to pour money into crypto and tech, junior mining companies—which have quietly driven the discovery of the world’s minerals—are often left behind. The disconnect today between the modern investment thesis and a legacy sector responsible for the foundational pieces of the economy can be seen as both a challenge and an opportunity, according to Canadian mining legend Jacques Bonneau.

The former geologist recently sat down with CrashLabs host Denis Laviolette to explain the important role junior miners play within the commodity space, and why they’ve mostly been left behind by the new generation of investors over the past decade.

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OPINION: Too long has the Toronto Stock Exchange been shrunken and battered. No more – by Bryce C. Tingle (Globe and Mail – May 15, 2025)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Bryce C. Tingle is the N. Murray Edwards Chair in Business Law at the University of Calgary’s faculty of law. His book Hard Lessons in Corporate Governance was shortlisted for the Donner Prize.

Canada has been shaken out of its complacency by the actions of the Trump administration over the past 100 days. As this country considers how it can compete against a suddenly antagonistic southern neighbour, some consideration should be given to the woeful state of our public markets.

The Toronto Stock Exchange, long the crown jewel of Canada’s financial system, has shrunk almost by half in terms of the number of operating companies it supports. Most of the missing companies have gone to the U.S. In the terminology we generally use for businesses, the TSX is being badly outcompeted by the U.S.

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Opinion: Carney must move quickly to attract investment to exploration – by Trish Jacques (Business In Vancouver – May 9, 2025)

https://www.biv.com/

Trish Jacques is board chair of the Association for Mineral Exploration.

Global tensions, trade wars and geopolitics put Canada’s natural resources front and centre in our recent federal election. Last week — and immediately after the election — British Columbia’s mineral exploration and mining sectors gathered in Prince George for the Minerals North conference.

Reaction to the election result, its implications and how we can address systemic issues came up time and time again. For B.C., the numbers speak volumes: A 26-per-cent drop in exploration spending and a 45-per-cent drop in metres drilled in just the past two years and during a commodity boom. Correspondingly, we have not seen a new critical mineral mine open in more than a decade.

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Mining In Canada: Critical Minerals Exploration – Revival of Thompson nickel belt: Drilling into Manitoba’s untapped potential – by Misty Urbatsch (Canadian Mining Journal – May 1, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

Misty Urbatsch is the CEO, president, and director of Core Nickel Corp.

Core Nickel Corp. (CSE: CNCO) is quickly gaining traction as an emerging exploration company targeting high-grade nickel sulfide systems in northern Manitoba. Since listing in late 2023, the company has raised $3.9 million in capital, secured nearly $0.5 million in non-dilutive government funding, launched multiple drill programs, and initiated airborne surveys across key assets — all while firmly establishing itself in the globally significant Thompson Nickel Belt.

The company’s exploration efforts are centered on the Thompson Nickel Belt, the world’s fifth-largest nickel belt and a globally significant source of high-grade nickel sulfide. Though more than five billion lbs. of nickel have been mined from the region, large portions of the belt remain underexplored using modern geological and geophysical techniques.

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Uranium Spotlight: Eight companies on the radar – by Staff (Northern Miner – April 28, 2025)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Rising electricity demand from new AI-driven technologies and government support for nuclear power as a base load energy source are ramping up interest in uranium. After years of underinvestment, exploration and development companies are racing to find new sources of the nuclear fuel, and put them into production. Below is a list of eight interesting uranium plays to watch.

Anfield Energy

Anfield Energy owns the Shootaring Canyon mill in southeastern Utah, one of only three licensed and permitted conventional uranium mills in the United States. The company’s portfolio of uranium and vanadium projects stretches across Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.

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Opinion: B.C.’s critical mineral ambitions require focus and clearer policy – by Trish Jacques (Business In Vancouver – April 11, 2025)

https://www.biv.com/

With uncertainty clouding mineral claim processes, the B.C. government must address key issues to restore investor confidence in the critical minerals sector

British Columbia has introduced a framework for government to consult with First Nations before a mineral claim is issued—the very start of the mineral exploration process. The Mineral Claims Consultation Framework meets a deadline set by the B.C. Supreme Court in Gitxaala vs. British Columbia.

While its development took most of the 18 months set by the court, government eventually put forward a plan to consult First Nations for any impacts claim registration may have on their rights. This was a substantial effort, and the Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) is grateful to government for listening to some of its members’ key concerns.

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Power Metallic CEO sees ‘monster-size’ deposit at Nisk – by Frederic Tomesco (Northern Miner – April 10, 2025)

https://northernminer.com/

Power Metallic Mines’ Nisk polymetallic property is probably at least as large as Anglo American’s 44-million-tonne Sakatti copper-nickel-platinum project in Finland, CEO Terry Lynch said.

Nisk – which is located in Quebec’s James Bay region and includes deposits of copper, nickel, platinum-group metals, silver and gold – could even one day rival Vale’s (NYSE: VALE) Voisey’s Bay mine for size, Lynch said Wednesday. Voisey’s Bay, which has been estimated to contain about 140 million tonnes, is Canada’s biggest nickel mine and one of the world’s largest.

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‘At Sudbury, we are nowhere near having found it all’ – by Stan Sudol (Sudbury Star – March 18, 2025)

https://www.thesudburystar.com/

Magna Mining’s critical mineral transformation in the Sudbury Basin to create new wealth, jobs

From American President Donald Trump’s desire to take over Greenland and perhaps Canada, and his recent confrontation with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as Premier Doug Ford’s determination to get Ring of Fire infrastructure built, the general public is now acutely aware of the strategic and geopolitical importance of critical minerals.

And yet, Canada’s largest critical mineral mining camp – the legendary Sudbury Basin, which has been in operation for slightly over 140 years and controlled by two of the world’s largest miners, Brazilian-based Vale and Swiss-owned Glencore – seems to have been largely ignored by the mainstream media.

Since both Vale and Glencore have historically controlled much of the land package in the region, few juniors have thrived.

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Canada exempts Paladin’s PLS from non-resident ownership policy (Mining Weekly – March 17, 2025)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Uranium miner and developer Paladin Energy has been granted an exemption from Canada’s Non-Resident Ownership Policy (NROP) for its Patterson Lake South (PLS) uranium project in Saskatchewan. The exemption allows Paladin, which is listed on the ASX and TSX, to maintain a 100% controlling interest in PLS as it moves toward commercial production.

The exemption was secured in connection with Paladin’s acquisition of Fission Uranium, which was completed in late December.

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NexGold announces positive feasibility study update for Goliath gold complex – by Staff (Canadian Mining Journal – March 13, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

NexGold Mining announce potential positive outcomes as itworks towards the completion of its feasibility study for its Goliath gold complex located in the Wabigoon Greenstone belt in northwestern Ontario. NexGold Mining is a gold-focused company with assets in Canada and Alaska. The company expects the feasibility study in the second quarter of this year.

The Goliath gold complex project utilized a combination of open-pit and underground mining methods to extract gold ore. The company’s feasibility study is being prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects.

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Canadian miners flocking to the ASX – by Kristie Batten (Mining.com – March 6, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

The Australian Securities Exchange is experiencing an influx of Canadian producers seeking dual listings. There has been a trickle of dual listings on the ASX since 2018,, but the trend has significantly accelerated following Canadian uranium developer NexGen Energy (TSX: NXE), adding an Australian listing in 2021.

Capstone Copper’s (TSX: CS) ASX listing in February 2024, however, seemed to have open the floodgates, with a further four Canadian mining companies initiating the listing process since.

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BC mineral exploration continues to slide – by Shane Lasley (North of 60 Mining News – March 5, 2025)

https://www.miningnewsnorth.com/

Mining is a cornerstone of British Columbia’s economy – employing roughly 40,000 workers, paying C$1.1 billion ($760 million) in taxes, and contributing C$11.2 billion ($7.7 billion) to the province’s gross domestic product (GDP). However, the mineral exploration investments needed to advance the next generation of B.C. mines are on the decline.

Mineral exploration spending fell to $552 million in 2024. According to data collected by Ernst & Young for its annual British Columbia Mineral and Coal Exploration Survey, this marks the second consecutive year of declining mineral exploration.

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World’s biggest miners cut back on exploration investment – by Camilla Hodgson (Financial Times – March 9, 2025)

https://www.ft.com/

Reduction comes despite surge in spending on search for metals crucial to energy transition since 2020

The world’s biggest mining groups have cut back spending on exploration in the past two years as inflation, higher interest rates and lower commodity prices have stalled the market. That has come in spite of a flurry of spending this decade on the search for copper and lithium, metals crucial for the energy transition.

Total exploration spending fell for the second consecutive year in 2024, sliding 6 per cent to $12.5bn, after rising in the years following the pandemic, according to S&P Capital IQ. Yet investment in lithium exploration has risen every year since 2020, and had jumped 360 per cent to $1.1bn in 2024 compared with four years previously.

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Toronto exchange’s mining dominance under threat as explorers exit – by Jacob Lorinc (Bloomberg News – March 03, 2025)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Toronto’s claim as the world’s top mining hub is under threat as exploration companies leave Canada and listings dwindle on the nation’s resource-heavy stock exchange.

Canada’s once-thriving mining industry is facing challenges to its decades-old model, in which explorers and developers woo investors with promises of mining breakthroughs and established producers feed on their success, swallowing them in lucrative takeovers. Industry consolidation has reduced head offices and eliminated listings, companies find it harder to attract investors, and government rules on foreign investment have become more restrictive.

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Despite record-high gold prices, mining exploration in Canada’s North declines – by Caitrin Pilkington (CBC News North – March 03, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

High gold prices aren’t resulting in higher spending, report finds

For years, gold has been the focus of Canadian mining exploration spending: the financing that backs efforts to find, assess, and potentially develop mineral deposits into mines. These efforts have established Canada as a top gold producer worldwide.

And over the course of 2024, the price of gold shot up by 38 per cent, reaching historic heights. But a B.C. report says skyrocketing value didn’t necessarily lead to more investment last year – it found overall exploration spending in the province was down 14 per cent from 2023, and exploration spending targeting gold dropped by 24 per cent.

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