Jamie Levy President and CEO GENERATION MINING
How was 2024 for Generation Mining?
It has been an interesting year here at Generation Mining, and we have been receiving a steady stream of construction permits and approvals for our Marathon project, so that we now have all the federal permits and approvals required to move forward with construction. During the summer of 2024, we conducted some exploration around our existing project and undertook an optimization study for the design and operation. The Marathon project is on the cusp of being the only copper-PGM mine that can commence construction in the next 12 months. This remains a unique asset in Northern Ontario, and throughout 2024, we have continued to see strong support from local Indigenous communities, the Town of Marathon, and other stakeholders who are anxious to see the Marathon Project brought into operation.
What has been your experience with funding in the current economic climate?
The last couple of years have been difficult markets for mine developers, particularly those developing base metals and critical mineral projects. At the end of 2023, we raised C$15 million and have been focused on our exploration program, completing our construction permitting program, and optimizing our project construction and operations plans. The good news is we have made progress on all these fronts, and we still have funds in the bank while we continue to work on advancing project financing from a variety of sources, including commercial lenders, strategic investors, investment funds, and various government programs.
What challenges have you faced through your journey?
Permitting was a challenge, but manageable with time and resources. We have excellent relations with local communities, including Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, but these relationships also take time and resources to nurture and develop, and it takes so long for new mineral projects to be developed that we must constantly ensure we maintain a social license for development. The other challenge which cannot be ignored is sourcing development capital.
Mike Garbutt President and CEO CLEAN AIR METALS
What have been the main recent developments at Clean Air Metals?
The markets have been tough for juniors over the past years, but fortunately, Clean Air Metals has a capable internal team and we have been de-risking our flagship Thunder Bay North (TBN) critical minerals project with the intent to meaningfully advance the project in anticipation of the upcoming market recovery. Our updated mineral resource statement published in June 2023 outlined a 14 million t indicated platinum-palladium-copper-nickel resource with approximately 2.4 million oz of platinum Eq, making TBN one of the rare primary platinum assets outside of South Africa. Clean Air Metals has also done a significant amount of baseline environmental work, completed a pre-feasibility level metallurgical study which outlined fantastic recoveries for all six payable metals, and has completed multiple iterations of the mine plan and financial modeling to find the sweet spot to advance the project.
How is Clean Air Metals managing to own 100% of its TBN property in a difficult financing environment?
The 100% ownership of the TBN project area was accomplished through the 2020 execution of a definitive agreement with Benton Resources for the rights to purchase the TBN property from Panoramic Resources for C$9 million and the purchase of the Escape Lake project from Rio Tinto for C$6 million through staged payments. Final amalgamation occurred in December 2022 with the last staged payment to Panoramic Resources. For a company of our size and being in early-stage development, it would be extremely difficult and highly dilutive to raise money for development, and Clean Air Metals will certainly look at strategic JV partnerships moving forward.
What are the next steps to advance the TBN project?
Our strategy is to advance exploration using our available cash with a goal to execute a bulk sample in 2026, and will hopefully put out a PEA in 2025. We are excited to make meaningful advancements in moving the project ahead and position ourselves to take advantage of improved market conditions for PGEs in the very near future.