CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

Patience Pays off With a Portfolio of Assets in One of the World’s Premier Mining Jurisdictions

Forte Minerals (CSE:CUAU) is walking an exciting path in copper-gold exploration with a focus on prolific mineralized districts in Peru, a country known for rich deposits that attract exploration and mining companies from around the world.

The company was formed through the spinout of gold and copper-molybdenum assets originally worked on by Globetrotters Resource Group, which put in over a decade of strategic groundwork to piece together a prospective resource pipeline for major and mid-tier producers.

In a recent interview with Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine, Forte Chief Executive Officer Patrick Elliott discussed the company’s strategy, key projects and exploration plans for 2025.

How does Forte approach identifying, and then prioritizing, projects for exploration and development?

Our strategy is to develop pipeline projects for major and mid-tier producers. We have about 16 years of generative effort that was the treadmill for building this portfolio through Globetrotters Resource. And interest is building. The majors and mid-tier producers are starving for a pipeline of future development projects. They’re starting to look earlier in exploration.

Our projects were acquired through strategic staking opportunities where we were very patient over the years. They were targeted, they were prioritized and they were well-known.

We often have to wait a full mining cycle to make these acquisitions at low cost or no cost. A big part of our strategy is to pick up these assets for nothing and create a tremendous amount of value by driving them through surface exploration, geophysics, drill permitting, drilling and, subsequently, resource definition and sale.

What are the highlights of Forte’s project portfolio and what makes them stand out?

We picked the top four properties held by Globetrotters Resource and spun them out into Forte. Three-quarters of our projects are drill-permitted with a Declaración de Impacto Ambiental (DIA) drill permit from Peru’s Ministry of Energy and Mines.

Of these four, two are high-sulphidation gold projects that were sought after by other mining companies, exploration companies and majors. Our flagship project is the Alto Ruri project. It was discovered in 1997 with an exceptional first drill hole of 131 metres of 2.55 grams per ton of gold from the surface and the top 55 metres ran 5.4 grams per ton. This is unique in that the rest of the deposit hasn’t been properly drill tested.

It was a project that got shelved. We staked this in 2013 when a major company dropped it in competition with another major and just recently were able to secure 100% interest.

Our other two projects are porphyry copper projects. These two projects were 10 to 12 years in the making to take them from staking to advanced drill targets. Porphyry copper-molybdenum deposits in southern Peru are some of the largest on the planet. Cerro Verde, run by Freeport-McMoRan, is the fifth largest copper mine in the world and there are several others along that southern copper belt that have given Peru its notoriety for copper production.

What else makes Peru such an attractive location for Forte’s copper and gold exploration projects?

Peru is the number two producer of copper. There are many occurrences of potassic and phyllic alteration that make up these porphyry copper-molybdenum anomalies that are so highly sought after by copper explorers and copper producers.

We’re also seeing major gold companies look for porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum anomalies and deposits for acquisition these days because of their long mine life and positive economics. They have the ability to not only thrive in good metals markets but also survive a downturn. We’re typically talking 40 to 50 years of mine life for these billion-plus ton deposits.

We love Peru and the potential there. It’s underexplored. It had a late start compared to Chile and some of the other countries in the Americas and you can still find occurrences at surface. It’s a good address to be in.

How does your recent acquisition of the Miscanthus project from Sumitomo Metal Mining fit into Forte’s long-term strategy for creating value?

We were lucky to have this fall into our project generator portfolio. Sumitomo Metal Mining spent five years advancing Miscanthus by developing drill targets, surface geology mapping, soil sampling, rock sampling, IP geophysics and other work. They developed some tremendous high-sulphidation targets up higher in the system and overprinted two large, coherent telescope porphyry anomalies. And they had a community agreement in place.

This was the most favourable out of the group of projects Globetrotters Resource acquired from Sumitomo Metal Mining and we subsequently spun it out into Forte. It is highly de-risked geologically but also in terms of permitting. It is a fully drill-permitted project which adds a lot of value because this process is fairly comprehensive and lengthy. Historically, it can take two to three years to acquire these DIA drill permits in Peru. So, it was fortunate for us that we were able to acquire this project at a very low cost and it can be drilled in 2025.

What are your exploration plans for 2025?

We look forward to drilling our three permitted projects in the next 12 to 18 months. We’ll start with our gold project Pucarini in March. We look to make a subsurface discovery. We anticipate it going down at least 300 metres, judging by resistivity and chargeability anomalies that complement a 2 kilometre by half-kilometre soil geochemistry gold anomaly on surface.

We are excited to get in there and drill the first four holes to test that system. Then we will move on to one of our porphyry copper projects, either Esperanza or Miscanthus.

With demand for copper and gold increasing, how is Forte preparing to take advantage of these trends?

We recognize that copper is a critical metal of the future. That has been well forecasted. There haven’t been enough large porphyries found in the last two decades. Looking to future demand, we should benefit from a high price of copper for a long period of time.

Timing is everything. You work for a decade or a decade and a half throughout the entire mining cycle to acquire these high-profile copper and gold projects. We’re at the forefront of what we see as a very long base metal and precious metal cycle driven by copper. We’re well positioned with porphyry copper and high-sulphidation gold assets that we are now moving forward into drilling and resource expansion.

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about Forte Minerals at https://www.forteminerals.com/.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

Natural Hydrogen Is Gaining Traction and This Canadian Company Is Looking to Get a Head Start

Electric vehicles have for years now been extremely popular with consumers who want to do their part to reduce CO2 emissions. Every major vehicle manufacturer is in the game to some extent, and companies such as Tesla and Rivian make nothing but vehicles that run on electricity.

But there is also a completely different energy source that can power vehicles in equally clean fashion. Automotive heavyweights such as Toyota and Honda are pouring money into related research.

Establishing these new drivetrains as mainstream would represent somewhat of a holy grail on the clean technology front, in part because one of the ways to obtain this fuel is to let it flow out of the ground from a renewable source.

That fuel is hydrogen and it has caught the imagination of engineers across the world because it burns without emitting CO2. This early in the game it is more costly on a per-kilometre basis than gasoline or electricity, but technologies tend to start that way, with costs coming down in line with technological progress and economies of scale.

One might wonder why we do not see a plethora of natural hydrogen exploration companies or producers listed on stock exchanges around the world. One reason might be that the science behind discovering natural hydrogen is still developing, and without an edge in that department, it’s difficult to get far.

Quebec Innovative Materials (CSE:QIMC) ticks the technology box plus others that observers may deem important when assessing a company in the sector.

The company’s share price is up 380% year to date at the time of writing and had been up by over 1,500% at its high, before profit-taking arrived to begin turning over some of the shareholder base.

Quebec Innovative Materials’ flagship property is Ville Marie, located 15 kilometres north of the Québec town bearing the same name and only hours by car from major northeast metropolitan areas.

In a little over five months since exploration began, the company has reported soil showings of hydrogen that indicate a source lies deep beneath the surface. The questions now are how much is there, how pure is it and can it be extracted in economically feasible volumes?

“We started Quebec Innovative Materials six years ago with a vision of clean, natural hydrogen, and that vision was from Professor LaFlèche and the team at INRS,” says Quebec Innovative Materials Chief Executive Officer John Karagiannidis, referring to the Québec government’s Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), and Professor Marc Richer-LaFlèche, Scientific Head of the institution’s Applied Geoscience Laboratory.

“Some years ago, a number of papers came out of Australia regarding natural hydrogen and related exploration techniques. Professor LaFlèche used the models and applied them in Canada, which led us to stake in the Ville Marie and Lac Saint-Jean areas.”

Hydrogen can be obtained both from natural sources and through industrial processes. In industry terminology, “white” or “natural” hydrogen refers to naturally occurring hydrogen, while “grey” and “green” hydrogen denote hydrogen produced through industrial methods.

The potential for a regenerative dynamic to come into play makes the discussion of defining the economics of a natural hydrogen project particularly interesting. Whereas oil and gas deposits take millions of years to form and then ultimately deplete as humans tap them, natural hydrogen is generated continuously when water reacts with iron minerals deep underground.

“We don’t look at it as a resource,” says Karagiannidis. “We look at it in terms of flow. What is the renewal rate and what is the commercial flow out of the main conduits. You can’t look at it as a static system where you have a resource. You are not looking for a reservoir but rather for a renewal rate and what is the commercial flow.”

Given this explanation, resource investors would be right to think that Ville Marie resembles an oil and gas project as well as a mining project. And this is what led to the involvement of one of Canada’s most successful entrepreneurs in both the oil and gas and mining sectors: Sheldon Inwentash.

Currently Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Toronto-based ThreeD Capital, Inwentash is not only adept at putting companies together but a famed portfolio manager, perhaps best known for his 22-plus years leading Pinetree Capital, which made investments in hundreds of junior mining companies.

In the early years of his career, Inwentash did a lot of work with oil and gas. “I have a background in the oil and gas industry and especially building companies in the 1980s,” Inwentash explains. “And I was involved in the gas tight shale projects being explored in Québec about 15 years ago and realized how gas-rich the province is.”

It was the work by INRS that piqued Inwentash’s interest as well. “In reading the technical reports INRS had done, it occurred to me that geological hydrogen, which is a new phenomenon, is sort of at the intersection of how oil and gas is discovered, and how mining is affected in that same ecosystem. Because ostensibly the rocks create gases – it’s sort of like a live system. You almost have to have some knowledge of both of those disciplines.”

And as Karagiannidis explains, the capital market capabilities that ThreeD brought to the table were just as valuable. “On the capital markets side, we have Sheldon and Jakson Inwentash and the whole team at ThreeD, our largest shareholders and our initial funders when we launched our hydrogen projects.” 

In its formative years, Quebec Innovative Materials worked on a different set of projects containing silica, and these are still part of the portfolio. “We have press released that we are looking to proceed with bulk samples and we have buyers, so we are at the bulk sampling stage with the silica,” says Karagiannidis.

But hydrogen is the company’s main focus, with preparatory work at Ville Marie leading toward the commencement of hydrogen exploration this past summer, starting with a hydrogen soil-gas sampling program carried out by INRS.

The first two hydrogen anomalies announced were each observed over a length of 500 metres, with concentrations in the first zone ranging from 311 ppm to 388 ppm (parts per million), and 157 ppm to 346 ppm in the second.

Soon after, the company said it had extended a line of significant anomalous natural hydrogen soil gas findings to 9 kilometres. A subsequent announcement revealed that hydrogen soil samples with concentrations exceeding 1,000 ppm had been collected. “We are thrilled to announce this transformative discovery outlining a highly charged 70 square kilometre hydrogen area within our 250 square kilometre Ville Marie property,” Karagiannidis stated at the time.

Most recently, Quebec Innovative Materials announced the launch of winter monitoring to measure natural hydrogen gas flow rates in identified hot zones in the project’s St-Bruno-de-Guigues region.

“It is a two-stage approach,” says Karagiannidis. “We are focusing on geophysics from a terrestrial perspective, going from east to west to specifically identify the primary conduits underground. We are also starting our specific hydrogen sampling but this time on the lake itself, so we are going to drill through the ice and put in a proprietary gas-measuring probe to measure at different levels.” 

It is painstaking work but moving along smoothly, and all designed to set the team up for a significant drill program come summer. It is also aimed at further establishing Quebec Innovative Materials as a leader in hydrogen exploration.

“We are the most advanced natural hydrogen pure play in Canada, and I would say top two in North America,” Karagiannidis concludes. “We are really at the forefront of a nascent natural hydrogen industry.”

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about Quebec Innovative Materials at https://www.qimaterials.com/.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

The Right Blend of Production and Exploration Brings a Peruvian Mine Back to Life

When the founders of Kuya Silver (CSE:KUYA) first came across the Bethania Mine in the Peruvian Andes, the idle site brought to mind assets that some of the world’s top silver companies had put into production when they were small and growing.

One of those founders, now Kuya President and Chief Executive Officer David Stein, saw the potential right away, drawing on nine years of experience as a Bay Street mining analyst and seven years in private equity.

Knowledge of what investors want to see in a successful company gave Stein the confidence to make the acquisition of Bethania in 2017 and build assets around the flagship project to achieve an attractive corporate profile.

Bethania was on care and maintenance when Stein and Christian Aramayo, Kuya Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, first encountered it. At the time, the mine was owned by a Peruvian family and had just two shareholders.

“What I liked about Bethania was that it really reminded me of the early days of some of the big silver mining companies, like First Majestic, which started in Mexico with a single mine,” says Stein, who recalls being the first analyst to cover First Majestic in the early 2000s. 

“So, I knew what kind of business model and value could be created with a high-grade silver mine like this. And you had all the hallmarks of a great mine, including good grades, which mean your costs are going to be low, and tremendous exploration potential. The previous owners did not do any real exploration – they were just following veins that are very obviously open.”

Stein and Aramayo sensed that modern exploration techniques had a high chance of proving up a significant deposit at the property and that the exploration could take place in tandem with production. 

“In my view, the best junior mining companies give the market two things: production growth and resource growth, at the same time ideally,” says Stein. “Those are the companies that will outperform their peers, and I felt like Bethania had the opportunity to do that by starting up production and then growing it incrementally, with exploration potentially offering huge resource upside.”

A lot of the needed infrastructure was already in place. And Peru, of course, is a country where many of the world’s top mining companies run successful operations.

Following an initial investment and earn-in deal as a private company, funded mainly by Stein, Kuya went public and raised enough money to buy all of the shares of Bethania’s Peruvian owners at the end of 2020, giving Kuya 100% ownership.

The company added to its local land position soon after, with the project eventually reaching a total of 4,300 hectares. The mine itself sits on about 15 hectares, says Stein. “It’s only a tiny portion of this huge land package that has not been explored by drilling.”

Under Kuya’s control, Bethania has transitioned from sitting dormant to once again being in production, with operations restarted in May of this year and the first sale of silver-lead concentrate completed in October.

While Kuya is leveraging a toll milling model to process its ore, it has all the permits it needs to establish its own mill. A company-owned mill will likely have to wait until 2027, though, as Kuya first intends to build up its production rate and operating cash flow.

As an initial target, Stein and Aramayo aim to increase throughput to 350 tonnes per day.

Stein expects that current all-in sustaining costs will be around US$15 per ounce factoring in the cost for toll milling. This is higher than the sub-$10 estimate in Bethania’s preliminary economic assessment (PEA), but with silver prices north of $30, there’s plenty of headroom.

“When we hit our target run rate, you’re looking at 1.5 million ounces of silver production per year and some pretty meaningful cash flow,” says Stein. “It’s looking in the order of almost US$2 million a month at current silver prices.”

Plans call for allocating cash flow from mining sales to growing the deposit via exploration.

In addition to the 4,000-plus hectare site in the Andes, Kuya has also been building a potential district-size asset in Northern Ontario, which it calls the Silver Kings Project.

Here, the company has 13,000 hectares located in one of Ontario’s most prolific silver mining camps, near the historic mining town of Cobalt.

“My experience when I was an analyst was that the market is always looking for growth,” says Stein. “And if you don’t have it now, you have to buy it later and usually pay more for it. Silver Kings is an attractive risk-return for us in that sense.”

Exploration remains central to Kuya’s growth story with so little of Bethania explored to date, and Silver Kings being an earlier stage project.

While the market is not attributing significant value to the Ontario asset yet, the team made the acquisition and has consolidated more land because they see high-grade silver potential.

Geologically, Silver Kings is very different from Bethania, right down to the by-products, which in Ontario would include cobalt.

The district has seen little to no silver exploration for over 40 years, but Kuya’s geologists have identified dozens of targets.

And because it is in Canada, Kuya can minimize dilution by taking advantage of flow-through financing to fund exploration.

“I feel like it’s always a good idea to line up a company’s next growth opportunity,” says Stein. 

“As we grow in Peru with Bethania for the next five years, people will start to wonder what’s next, and the nice thing is we already have the next thing potentially with the Ontario project.”

As for growing Bethania, the initial focus is enlarging the resource. There has only ever been drilling to a depth of about 200 metres from surface, and veins are open both at depth and along strike.

Exploration drilling will initially focus on three nearby zones with historical mining activity.

“We feel these have the potential to add significant tonnage in the future,” the CEO says, adding that Kuya could conduct US$20 million to US$30 million in exploration in the district over the next several years “and really show that there’s a much bigger project there.” 

If current plans come to fruition, there should be enough money in the bank to start exploration in the second quarter of 2025.

“Once we start, the drills will never stop. We’ll keep drilling and exploring these various targets for many years to come,” explains Stein.

And building a mill in a few years would lower costs and risk, improve recoveries and allow expansion beyond 350 tonnes per day.

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices will also be incorporated in Bethania’s expansion.

As an underground mine, Stein says Bethania’s environmental footprint is relatively small, while the mill has been designed to recycle water and comes with plans to connect to Peru’s hydroelectric grid for clean energy.

On the social side, Kuya maintains strong ties with the local community, providing jobs and sharing economic benefits. “The community has been very supportive,” Stein notes.

With silver prices showing upward momentum, rising from US$23 per ounce at the start of 2024 to around US$30 lately, Kuya could benefit from market dynamics as well as its own actions. 

“If silver prices rise to $50 or $60, the upside is enormous,” Stein concludes.

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about Kuya Silver at https://www.kuyasilver.com/.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

Uniquely Positioned With the Only u.s. Mine Permitted to Produce the Critical Mineral Fluorspar

Most people have never heard of a mineral called fluorspar, but they’ve most definitely benefited from it. We all have, in fact, as some of the electronic devices so ubiquitous in our daily lives would not exist in their current forms without it.

Fluorspar is an important commercial source for a chemical element called fluorine, the lightest of the halogens and thus in a league of its own for a variety of industrial applications. Fluorspar is also found in things such as cement and steel, not to mention camera lenses and other optical products. It is classified as a critical mineral in the United States.

James Walker understands that part of his role as Chief Executive Officer of Ares Strategic Mining (CSE:ARS) is to educate the public about the case for fluorspar, especially as Ares is currently the only U.S.-based fluorspar company with a permitted mine.

“It’s no surprise if you haven’t heard of fluorspar – honestly, most people haven’t,” Walker says candidly during a mid-November interview with Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

The U.S. once had a thriving fluorspar sector, but this was years ago before China grew its presence and flooded the market with cheap product. As a result, the U.S. fluorspar industry has been virtually nonexistent for decades.

That could change if Ares is successful in producing fluorspar from its Lost Sheep Mine in Utah.

The company went on a search some years ago for projects that it could bring into production quickly, required modest capital spending and contained something for which there was clear customer demand. Fluorspar wasn’t on Walker’s radar at first, but one day his team came across artisanal miners in Utah who were digging it out of the ground, bagging it and selling it directly to steel mills. Walker was intrigued, to say the least.

Lost Sheep was a lucky find, according to the CEO. “One of the geologists I was working with at the time had experience with fluorspar, having worked on Europe’s largest fluorspar mine. When he brought it to my attention, my first reaction was the same as most people’s: What’s fluorspar? But from there, everything started to fall into place.”

With a relatively low capital outlay, Ares seized the chance to build a modern, efficient industrial process to produce significant amounts of fluorspar domestically. The team viewed Lost Sheep as an opportunity to revive the U.S. fluorspar industry and claim significant market share. “With this fluorspar project, the material coming out of the ground was already about 50% of the final product, so the processing required was minimal,” Walker explains.

Ares inherited Lost Sheep’s permits with the purchase of the mine. Even more compelling was that the Lost Sheep Mine was part of a much larger fluorspar anomaly, stretching around 16 kilometres along an area in Utah called Spor Mountain. Fluorspar was everywhere, with showings breaking through to the surface and pipes in multiple locations. “It was fascinating,” says Walker.

Lost Sheep had never been professionally developed so Ares started by conducting geophysics, including LiDAR and electromagnetic surveys, to pinpoint where the anomalies were. From there, the Ares team began drilling, collected samples and conducted metallurgical testing.

Ares also engaged international partners to design the infrastructure for processing the fluorspar. With their help, the company designed plant layouts and, thanks to fluorspar’s critical mineral status, secured federal support in the form of a United States Department of Agriculture loan. This enabled Ares to purchase a 50-acre industrial site with existing infrastructure, including buildings that could be used for a processing plant.

A three-storey lumps plant is already on site, and Ares is now working to construct a flotation plant with support from the state of Utah. The facility is designed to produce higher-grade fluorspar for chemical manufacturers and defence contractors. There is critical infrastructure, including a rail spur for efficient transportation of the fluorspar, heavy mining equipment and an advanced ramp system to access the ore bodies.

Geologically, Lost Sheep is a pipe system that consists of non-contiguous pipes clustered together. This structure allows Ares to install a ramp system – a corkscrew-like framework – that intersects multiple ore bodies. Based on this setup, Ares reports that it should be able to extract around 130,000 tons to 140,000 tons of earth annually, which could translate into around 50,000 tons of final product per year for sale.

“When we first ran our estimates, we based them on a high-grade flotation product priced at about $500 per ton, which would result in roughly US$30 million in annual revenue,” Walker says. “However, given the upward trend in fluorspar prices, those numbers could be higher.”

Another advantage is relatively low operating expenses. Unlike many mining operations, Lost Sheep doesn’t require a large workforce.

Ares has agreements lined up with end users of fluorspar and has been forging partnerships with entities such as the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy, which are actively seeking domestic supply sources.

For example, the U.S. produces around 80 million tons of steel annually, requiring about 20 pounds of fluorspar per ton. And with aluminum production using about 60 pounds of fluorspar per ton, these two industries alone create a significant domestic requirement.

That growing demand isn’t limited to traditional industries like steel and aluminum, however. The rise of lithium-ion batteries is set to become a major driver of fluorspar consumption, reshaping the market’s dynamics.

And this brings us to acid-grade fluorspar, or acid spar, which undergoes additional chemical refining to achieve a purity level of 97% calcium fluoride (CaF2). Currently, there is no operation in the U.S. producing acid spar, marking a substantial opportunity for producers.

“If we have our plant up and running, we’ll be able to serve about two-thirds of the U.S. fluorspar market,” Walker explains. “By producing acid spar, we can cater to a much larger portion of the U.S. fluorspar market and meet the needs of these key industries.”

International demand for fluorspar is increasing too, as China’s fluorspar reserve has suffered due to excessive mining. The Chinese government tightened its control over the material, leading to a decline in fluorspar exports. Official customs data reveals a steady drop in China’s fluorspar exports over the years, accompanied by a surge in imports, particularly in 2023. Now that China is facing these challenges, the pressure they once placed on the market is gone. This creates an opportunity for other countries to step in.

These factors mean it is a good time to be transitioning from exploration to production. But shifting from a junior mining company to a manufacturing company brings challenges from both operational and financial standpoints.

Walker is counting on his experience in nuclear engineering and project management to lead the company into its next phase. In the past, the Ares CEO has helped to build large manufacturing facilities such as for reactor cores for submarines – billion-dollar projects that required hundreds of personnel.

“I have had extensive exposure to large-scale project management, cost control and the implementation of manufacturing and processing operations, which has been invaluable in how I approach managing new manufacturing operations at Ares, overseeing processing and organizing the team,” Walker says.

Fluorspar demand is expected to grow by 2.76% annually over the next five years, according to Mordor Intelligence. Given this outlook, Walker sees a lot of potential. In five years, the CEO is looking beyond the Utah operation toward untapped potential across the entire continent.

“There used to be a thriving fluorspar industry in the U.S. before it moved overseas, and effectively, we’re working to bring it back.”

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about Ares Strategic Mining at https://www.aresmining.com/.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

A Model of Balance as Production in Colombia Designed to Support Exploration in the Yukon

For junior mining companies, the path to generating revenue, let alone achieving profitability, is often a long and winding road. But if Forge Resources (CSE:FRG) continues to reach the objectives it has set for its flagship assets, it might just become a member of that exclusive club.

The assets in question include a Yukon gold project named Alotta, located near Western Copper and Gold’s renowned Casino deposit, and the La Estrella coal project in Colombia, a fully permitted asset poised for revenue generation (Forge holds a 40% interest and can acquire up to 60%).

Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine spoke with Forge Chief Executive Officer PJ Murphy and Chief Operating Officer Cole McClay in early December to learn more about the company’s goals and how Forge has positioned itself to build value and minimize dilution at the same time.

It is rare to see a junior resource company on the cusp of funding its own exploration. Can you tell us how this all came together?

Cole McClay (CM): We initially acquired the Alotta project after stepping away from our previous exploration efforts in Mexico. After evaluating several prospects, Alotta stood out due to its strategic location just 40 kilometres from Western Copper and Gold’s Casino deposit, within the same geological setting.

In November 2023, we negotiated an option agreement with Strategic Metals to acquire 60% of the project and commenced our maiden drill program. The property was previously undrilled, and our first hole revealed 211 metres of 0.46 grams per tonne gold near surface, which was very promising. Following that, we drilled two holes in late 2023 and another four between May and July 2024, all of which showed near-surface porphyry-style mineralization.

While still in the exploratory phase, we’re gaining a clearer understanding of the project’s structure. Our next phase of drilling is planned for May 2025, once weather conditions in the Yukon are favourable.

As for the La Estrella coal project, it came to us through a colleague in Colombia. The project was already fully licensed, with production and environmental permits in place, which made it an attractive opportunity. We negotiated an option to acquire and have since obtained the surface rights and conducted additional drilling to update the 43-101 report. Currently, we’re conducting underground bulk sampling to further refine our understanding of the resource.

It sounds like you’ve got a busy year ahead in 2025. PJ, could you share the strategic focus for the company over the next three to six months?

PJ Murphy (PJM): Right now, our primary focus is on Colombia. Cole, a few team members and I just returned from overseeing construction of the portal and the start of underground operations at the La Estrella property. It’s an exciting stage for Forge. 

To get into production at La Estrella, initially we don’t have to go very deep, only about 50 metres underground to reach our first cross-cut, which allows access to six of the eight large coal seams. We’re moving forward with a bulk sampling program, and we have an offtake partner for that coal.

The bulk sample alone is expected to be revenue-generating, which is a crucial step toward full production. The property is fully permitted for 180,000 tonnes of coal production annually with the potential to scale up to 360,000 tonnes per year. According to a historical SRK Consulting NI 43-101, we are sitting on an estimated 22.5 million tonnes of coal – measured, indicated and inferred – in the ground and a mine life of about 45 years. The project has significant potential.

For now, our focus is on advancing the Colombia asset to a revenue-generating stage, which would help us to self-finance our exploration work in the Yukon. For a junior mining company, reaching a point of profitability and positive cash flow is rare. It’s even more uncommon to be able to self-fund exploration, but that’s exactly what we’re aiming to do with the Yukon project.

Speaking of the Yukon, we’ve already drilled six holes there and hit mineralization in every one. As Cole mentioned, we’ve identified where the next drill holes should go for the upcoming season. If La Estrella is revenue-generating as anticipated, we’ll be well positioned to fund a more extensive drill program and further define the resource.

We’ve reviewed the initial six drill results and the property’s geological signature. With that information, we can strategically target shallow drill holes to maximize value and further prove the Yukon asset’s potential. Though it might seem unconventional to have both a gold-copper project in the Yukon and a coal project in Colombia, there’s real synergy between the two.

Profitability is a term we don’t often hear in the junior mining space. Could you walk us through Forge’s path to profitability?

PJM: Our immediate focus is on developing the underground infrastructure for a bulk sampling program. Initially, we estimate that we can extract 20,000 tonnes of high-grade coal for sampling and analysis. The key here is that we can also sell the coal we extract for analysis purposes. We already have an offtake partner lined up, ready to take that coal Free on Truck. This bulk sampling program is a significant step toward generating revenue and moving closer to profitability.

There’s talk of the world moving away from coal, but demand, particularly from Asia, India and Europe, tells a different story. Could you explain where the demand is coming from and why Colombia is positioned to help meet it?

CM: The demand for both thermal and metallurgical coal has never been higher, and I think global demand will remain strong for decades.

As long as the world needs concrete and steel, metallurgical coal will be essential. Similarly, thermal coal will continue to be required as long as countries build coal-powered electricity plants. What’s particularly advantageous about this project is that we have access to both high-grade thermal coal and metallurgical coal at depth, positioning us to meet a wide range of global demand.

PJM: Globally, coal demand remains strong, especially in Southeast Asia, where up to 43% of electricity is coal-derived. Despite this, rolling brownouts and blackouts persist due to insufficient power generation, highlighting the ongoing need for coal.

Colombia, with coal as its top resource export, provides a favourable regulatory environment and access to world-class coal miners and engineers. At La Estrella, we’re progressing toward our bulk sampling phase, where we anticipate extracting coal at a total cost that we expect will help us to maintain favourable margins. We’re noting that metallurgical coal currently commands a strong spot price, and assuming that remains the case, it gives us reason to be optimistic.

Moving to Canada, there seem to be similarities between the Alotta property and the Casino deposit. Can you talk about these and how that might be shaping your next steps?

PJM: The Alotta property shows striking similarities to the Casino deposit, which is incredibly encouraging. We’re just 40 kilometres away and based on what we’ve staked and the geological signature at Alotta, we’re very encouraged. The initial results from our first six drill holes have been very promising and are driving us to move forward with more extensive exploration to truly prove out the asset.

Finally, what makes Forge a unique proposition at this stage?

PJM: When you look at Forge Resources as a small-cap junior mining company, we are on a unique path moving toward potential revenue generation through a bulk sample program, progressing to full production, and potentially self-financing our drilling exploration in the Yukon. This combination is incredibly rare.

Forge has consistently set clear goals and benchmarks, and we have delivered on what we’ve promised every step of the way. This track record not only cements our credibility but also sets us apart in the industry. It’s an exciting journey for both us and our shareholders, and we are committed to continuing to deliver value.

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about Force Resources at https://www.forgeresourcescorp.com/.

Magazine

Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine: The Mining Issue – Now Live!

Welcome to the latest issue of Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine, your source for in-depth stories of entrepreneurs from a wealth of different industries.

While divisive and inflammatory rhetoric might dominate media coverage and skew perceptions of Canada’s stance in the world, the reality is that there is no question among seasoned business leaders worldwide that Canadian mining, exploration, and capital markets expertise is second to none. 

In this issue of Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine, we feature six Canadian companies that are leaning into innovation and expertise to meet global demand for strategic minerals, precious metals, and greater energy supply. Plus, we spotlight exclusive insights from top mining experts and CSE Director of Listings Development Phillip Shum, who shares his journey to the Exchange, views on capital markets, and tips for companies going public.

The companies featured in this issue are: 

Check out the Mining Issue of Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine here:

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

Clean Energy From an Unlikely Source Catches on Across North America

Vancouver is a city known for its beautiful natural surroundings, rich history and a location that today serves as a gateway to the Asia-Pacific region.

Few people would rank wastewater management on a top 10 list of the city’s best features, but it deserves recognition nonetheless, as there is plenty to deal with, and municipal officials view wastewater not only as an item for mass disposal but also as a valuable resource.

In 2023, Vancouver sought to expand a system that, at the time, heated 5 million square feet of properties, including the 1,100-unit Olympic Village mixed-use community.

The goal it had in mind was to increase that square footage to a total of 22 million, in part by capturing heat from sewage wastewater and recycling it back into the system via a process called wastewater energy transfer, or WET for short.

It was the largest WET project in North America at the time, and a local company by the name of SHARC International Systems (CSE:SHRC) played a central role. SHARC secured a deal to supply and commission five of its WET systems to perform sewage screening for the False Creek Neighbourhood Energy Utility, marking its biggest sale to date.

“We’re part of a system in Vancouver that provides heat and hot water to 22 million square feet of property that includes apartment buildings and stretches for about 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) along Second Avenue,” explains SHARC President and Chief Executive Officer Lynn Mueller.

“Most buildings in that area are connected to the False Creek Energy Centre, which is powered by our system. We also have a project that covers 250 acres in Denver, so the scalability is definitely there, and the systems are only getting bigger as demand increases.”

The benefits of WET technology are easy to understand. The world needs more energy than ever, and millions of potential megawatts in the form of heat flow down drains with regularity. After spending huge amounts of money to heat water, letting it flow down the drain and into the ocean or local watersheds when an alternative to recapture it exists is a wasted opportunity, if not irresponsible.

Now, what if we could capture some of that heat and cycle it back into local heating networks? This is the concept that makes SHARC such an intriguing company.

“Many people think we generate electricity, but what we actually do is move thermal energy,” explains Mueller. “Our systems are thermal energy networks, so we measure in megawatts the amount of heating or cooling we can move. For instance, the system in downtown Vancouver is around 10 megawatts. The big advantage is that we’re reusing the same thermal energy day in and day out. You give people hot water, they use it, throw it away, and we recover that heat from the wastewater. It’s a circular economy at its finest.”

Wastewater, such as sewage from residential or commercial properties, is typically around 15 degrees Celsius to 16 degrees Celsius due to daily activities such as showering and doing laundry. SHARC systems tap into this heat source by diverting a portion of the wastewater into a heat exchanger.

Utilizing the WET approach, the SHARC system extracts the thermal energy from the wastewater and transfers it to a building’s heating or cooling loop. The energy can then be used to heat spaces, provide hot water, or even cool buildings by reversing the process.

Once the heat is captured, the wastewater is returned and the system can extract energy from the next batch of wastewater. The opportunity to reduce dependence on natural gas and other carbon-intensive energy sources, thereby lowering both energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions, is obvious. 

By design, SHARC systems are scalable, with solutions available for individual buildings or even entire districts, making them a sustainable solution for urban areas.

The company markets two systems, one named SHARC and the other, PIRANHA.

“They are similar in function but very different in design,” Mueller notes. “The SHARC system is much larger and is meant for institutional-sized applications – think municipal or district-wide systems. The PIRANHA is designed for single-building use, like a residential or commercial property. But the concept behind both is the same.” 

As far back as 2015, SHARC installations were commissioned for use at the Sechelt Water Resource Centre not far from Vancouver.

In 2020, the company put its technology to use for a multi-family residential project spearheaded by Morgan Creek Ventures in Boulder, Colorado.

And today, SHARC technology can be found in residential complexes and campuses across North America.

The company’s revenue for the first half of 2024 reached $1.56 million, nearly matching the total for all of 2023. In the second quarter alone, revenue was $780,000, a 72% increase compared to the same period the previous year.

And as of late August 2024, SHARC’s order backlog stood at $2.7 million.

Clearly, there is demand for the company’s approach to sustainable heating that should only grow as the concept becomes known by more developers and communities. And as it grows, SHARC is virtually guaranteed a large portion of it.

“The market is huge – easily in the billions,” says Mueller. “There are really only two companies in the world that do sewage heat recovery, which would be us and one based in Germany. Every city is starting to look at this technology as a serious alternative to traditional energy sources. When I first got into this, no one had even heard of sewage heat recovery. Now, every major city is exploring it as a way to reduce their carbon footprint.” 

Looking ahead, SHARC is targeting large markets, such as California and New York, that already lean toward clean technology on multiple fronts.

Among the projects for which it has secured orders is one involving four PIRANHA T15 WET systems for a mixed-use development in Berkeley, California. That project, the largest yet for the PIRANHA line, underscores the growing demand for SHARC’s WET solutions in the U.S.

In New York, meanwhile, SHARC will be part of a US$1.2 billion redevelopment project in Brooklyn​.

Hearing all this, one gets the sense that the potential for this technology is as untapped as the renewable resource being released into our sewers.

“We’re seeing a lot of growth, and our sales pipeline is the largest it’s ever been,” says Mueller. “We used to get one strong lead per week, but now we’re getting two or three every day. It’s really exciting to see how far we’ve come and how much potential lies ahead. The opportunities are enormous, and now that people are coming to us, rather than us having to convince them, it’s incredibly rewarding. We have a great team in place, and I’m confident we’ll continue to lead the way in wastewater energy transfer.”

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about SHARC International Systems at https://www.sharcenergy.com/.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

Growing Demand for Natural Fertilizers Sets the Stage for Major Capacity Expansion

Humans could live without cars if they had to, computers too and, yes, even their mobile phones. You could arguably get by without modern forms of shelter as well, but food is non-negotiable – we all have to eat.

Replenish Nutrients (CSE:ERTH) utilizes a natural approach to formulate fertilizers for the farmers who grow our fruits and vegetables. Its products are designed not only to feed the plants in farmers’ fields but to nurture and repair those fields as well. “Treat the soil with respect and it will respect you back” is one way to summarize the company’s way of thinking, and if demand for Replenish products is any indication, it’s working.

Replenish Nutrients Chief Executive Officer Neil Wiens spoke with Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine in early September about business to date, feedback from the farming community and expansion plans designed to take operations to the next level.

The essence of your business is using natural methods over industrial ones to serve a sector we rely on every day: agriculture. Tell us in your own words what Replenish Nutrients does and why you started it.

Replenish is a natural fertilizer company using biochemistry, rather than chemistry, to liberate nutrients from mineral fertilizer sources. We use non-leachable fertilizer products that hang out until biology does what it is supposed to, which is to liberate these elements and make them available to the plant in the right place at the right time.

Let’s use a phosphorous product as an example. We use rock phosphate, just like any phosphate fertilizer company. But instead of putting it through a chemical process, adding sulphuric acid and creating waste, we utilize the full rock phosphate mineral. When we do that, not only phosphate reaches the soil but also calcium, magnesium and iron, so the plant is getting the micronutrients it needs.

Essentially, we are adding micronized sulphur and solubilizing bacteria and fungi that will give the phosphate, calcium and magnesium full availability when the plant needs it the most.

Our products restore soil health while also reducing the sector’s overall carbon emissions by as much as 200,000 CO2 equivalent tonnes annually via a low-emission manufacturing process that produces a low-salt alternative to synthetic fertilizers.

What feedback has the farming community provided along the way that was unexpected or helped you to further refine your products?

I am an animal nutritionist by trade and so I always look at treating the soil as the world’s largest feedlot. You have billions of microbes in the soil, and if you feed it the same as a human – give it a balanced diet – the soil reacts as our bodies would.

I would say the biggest feedback we get from farmers is that they see good things such as ladybugs showing up on their crops and also less fungicide use. These were things I was not anticipating originally; we were just trying to fertilize the plants and get a better nutrient density. But the farmers brought us consistent feedback that they were getting beneficial microbes and beneficial insects that they had not seen on their plants for 10 or 15 years.

What is the economic case for farmers using your products? Do Replenish products offer a greater yield increase per dollar, for instance?

As far as the economics are concerned, we basically say that you are not going to lose yield. You could gain it, but you won’t lose it. So, you are as good as conventional methods.

On the other side, it goes back to my previous answer where farmers are realizing that their crop inputs have decreased. They are not using as many pesticides or fungicides as they typically would, and so that all of a sudden creates a better ROI. And that’s as early as a year or two into the program.

How about product distribution? Farming is a long-established industry. How does a soil replenishment company market its products? What does the sales cycle look like?

We market in two different buckets. Our main bucket has thus far been a blended type of product that we went direct-to-farm with because logistically it was hard to manage. With a blended product, we have all the ingredients to bake a cake, if you will, and we’ve mixed them, but we haven’t put them in the oven.

On the other side of distribution, which we really focus on and believe will eventually show in our results, is that we have spent a lot of dollars and effort on our IP and how we actually bake the cake. We’ve figured that out – we have these ingredients and we know they work together. Now we have to put it in a form that all the farmers are used to using, which is a little granule. It also has to be able to keep microbes alive and play nice with the existing chemical fertilizer because nobody is going to go 100% off of that way of thinking.

So, we utilize that granule and distribute it through our partners who are independent fertilizer dealers such as CropMaxx or AgroPlus.

Our main focus has been Alberta because it is our backyard. But we have moved into Saskatchewan, Manitoba and, most recently, the Fraser Valley in the Pacific Northwest. The Fraser Valley market will probably expand the fastest for us because you have all of these phosphorous regulatory rules in place there, and our product fits what they require. Plus, blueberries and strawberries and vegetables just love our products.

Repeat orders are an important indicator for investors trying to understand the strength of a business like yours. Do customers tend to stay loyal to the brand?

If you look at our financials, we have been pretty consistent around the $15 million per year sales mark for the last few years because we have not expanded our granulation facilities, and those are the same customers every year. So, as repeat business, it has been awesome.  And this is that initial product that I was talking about, the blended product. It is static business and repeat and consistent.

On the granulation side, this is where our growth is coming as we plan to expand to 2,000 tonnes of production per month. This is what the independent dealers are after, and another name I will mention, especially in the Fraser Valley, is TerraLink, who has been using a lot of our granules. Our dealers go through the granules like crazy, and now it’s just a matter of supplying them with what they can sell.

You just mentioned facility expansion. Can you share more detail?

One thing we have done, and unfortunately it’s about a year later than we’d hoped because of technical challenges, is spend the past six to eight months refining the process to the point where we are now in expansion mode at our Beiseker facility, which was our initial commercialization plant. We were at about 2 tonnes per hour capacity potential, and by the end of November or beginning of December, we are looking at expansion to 5 tonnes per hour.

Replenish released quarterly financial statements in late August and revenue was on the soft side. Was that just seasonality that works itself out through the balance of the year?

The main improvement will be that fall is a better time of the year, so Q3 and Q4 are always stronger, and you are going to see those numbers increase.

A lot of farmers had great crops this year, particularly in zones that we have been targeting in the past two years. These farmers have cash flow and liked their product over the past year because it did well for them. So, that will help that end of things.

And really the main thing that is going to guide us into 2025 is going to be that 5-tonne-per-hour capacity, which equates to 2,000 tonnes of granulation per month. That is our main target for our revenue expansion.

Is there anything we have missed?

We’re proud to be a partner of Emissions Reduction Alberta and the Alberta Government. We’ve received a $7 million dollar grant to replicate Beiseker in DeBolt, Alberta. And we have further plans for expansion, too. There are good jobs in rural communities to be had from what we’re up to.  

We also haven’t mentioned that our main product is a zero-waste product, non-chemical and we thrive on small footprints. As a result, the IP we have developed can be replicated anywhere on the globe. So, take that as you will as for what our plan is. But what I will say is that it gives us the optionality to go and do this in Africa, in India or in areas of the Pacific Northwest where being local makes for good logistics. We are potential exporters of made-on-the-Prairies Canadian ingenuity.

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about Replenish Nutrients at https://replenishnutrients.com/.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

Savvy Business Model Leverages North America’s Race to Build Renewable Energy

While Europe gets much of the credit for leading the global push to adopt renewable energy, the United States and Canada are actually among the world’s top power producers from clean sources, thanks in large part to an abundant water supply for hydroelectric stations.

But solar and wind feature more prominently than most people probably realize, particularly on a total output basis in the United States. In both countries, multiple forms of renewable energy play a role in shaping the supply profile for regional power grids.

The stage is thus set for viable new renewable projects to help North America meet its increasing need for electricity, and NU E Power (CSE:NUE) is playing a role with an early focus on solar opportunities in Alberta.

NU E Chief Financial Officer John Newman spoke with Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine in mid-September about Canada’s renewable energy market, the company’s business model and near-term plans for growth.

Let’s begin with a look at why NU E Power was first established.

NU E was founded in 2021 by Devon Sandford, an electrician who specializes in the construction of utility-scale solar facilities and is also an entrepreneur. His vision was to develop a solar-to-hydrogen model, which was the initial business plan of the company. Back when we were looking for the capital to develop these projects, we were introduced to Low Carbon out of the U.K. and were able to strike what I think is a very unique joint venture with them.

Can you tell us how the joint venture with Low Carbon Investment Management works?

NU E is responsible for sourcing and developing solar projects in North America. We source the projects, we move through the regulatory process to get approval, and Low Carbon is responsible for funding all of the construction and development costs.

Once it gets to the investment decision date, we undertake a third-party valuation and the development is sold by the joint venture to a specific special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up for the purpose of constructing and operating the solar farm. 

At the end of the day, NU E ends up with a 25% share of each SPV. So, for us, it’s basically a free carry on 25% interest in the solar farm. It’s a very unique situation and that’s something we want investors to understand – that this is really a very attractive venture for us as a company.

How long does the process take from beginning to end?

It’s a fairly lengthy regulatory process; from start to finish it can be 12 to 18 months. We source access points into the grid, we source available land, and then once we find suitable locations, we commence the regulatory process. We have a couple of developers on staff and Low Carbon pays 100% of their costs, as well as some of the management costs, and they basically pay 50% of our general and administrative expenses, excluding any kind of public costs and things like that.

Tell us about the joint venture’s first project.

Lethbridge One is an 8.75 MWac (MWac denotes nameplate capacity for a solar power facility) project that should go live this month. The cash flow generated from this project will be used to pay down the financing costs, so in terms of cash flow directly to NU E, it is expected to be $10.4 million over the next two years, meaning 2025 and 2026. Essentially, we’re building asset value at this stage.

As we look to the future, we will see cash flow coming from the sale of developments from the joint venture to the specific operating vehicles that are set up to construct and operate solar farms.

What’s coming up after Lethbridge One?

We’ve got four other projects in the development pipeline, around 500  megawatts worth that are in various stages of regulatory approval. That pipeline is probably worth $750 million to $1 billion of investment into Canada before taking into account investment tax credits or other incentives that the government has put in place to encourage renewable energy development.

Lethbridge One is quite small, but it was good for both Low Carbon and NU E to embark on a project like this just to understand the process. I think we’ve got all of that stuff ironed out, and we’re looking to much larger projects.

Can you talk about the energy market in Canada, the appeal for investors and what levels of government support and subsidies there are?

Our primary focus in Canada is Alberta. We have probably the most sunshine per year of anywhere in the country, so it’s an ideal place for solar farm developments. The preference at this stage is to operate in Alberta because it’s a deregulated market too.

Once you go through the approval process you can access the grid. What I think makes the renewable energy space ultimately attractive for investors is that you’ve got a lot of support from the government, both federally and provincially, in the form of investment tax credits on capital expenditures on renewable projects. For example, if we’re spending $1 billion, we could see up to $300 million of investment tax credits, so it’s a significant impact on project economics.

Another incentive is that Canada is no different than other countries in imposing a carbon tax, which is currently around $80 a ton and I think rising to $170 a ton by 2030, so there’s a big incentive for people to utilize renewable energy.

And when it comes to energy pricing, Alberta is a deregulated market and the price does go up and down, so we look to try and put in place power purchase agreements where we can establish an economic price for our power, which helps with financing and all sorts of things surrounding project economics. We’re also looking at the possibility of putting in place battery storage, so you can store energy and then release it into the grid when the prices are right. 

Having gone through the regulatory process once, what’s the expected timeline for the rest of the pipeline?

Alberta went through a bit of a moratorium on approving new power projects that started last year and ended earlier this year. That’s delayed the approval process and seen some new rules around renewable energy put in place. So, it has impacted the timing to some extent, but I believe in the next 12 to 18 months that we will have approval on certainly the next two projects, Lethbridge Two and Lethbridge Three, which is around 150 megawatts of solar. 

Does working with a U.K. renewable energy company set you apart in Canada?

Low Carbon is a significant player in the renewable market in the U.K. and Europe, so it gives us credibility that they’ve chosen to work with us and are prepared to operate the joint venture under the terms we have, which I think are very favourable to us. And I think it’s positive not only that we have a funding partner but also that they’re a well-recognized player in the renewable sector.

Is there opportunity for NU E to expand outside of the Low Carbon deal?

The joint venture is fairly well defined, and if there are projects that we bring to the table that they’re not interested in then we have the ability to pursue those opportunities ourselves.

We do have a couple of opportunities that we’re working on outside of the Low Carbon deal. The original business plan behind NU E was the production of green hydrogen through solar energy and that remains one of our key targets. We’ve actually just acquired 49% of Diloo Energy, a majority Indigenous-owned and -operated green hydrogen developer in Canada. We need to look as well at opportunities that will generate cash flow in the nearer term.

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about NU E Power https://www.nu-ecorp.com/.

CSE Issuer Stories, Magazine

Product Quality and Local Manufacturing Are Just Two of the Key Advantages This Battery Maker Enjoys

Batteries have been around since 1800, when Alessandro Volta employed zinc and silver discs, among other components, to create a device (the voltaic pile) that generated electrical current. Well over two centuries later, Volta’s invention is more important than ever, with battery technology continuing to evolve at a breakneck pace.

Hybrid Power Solutions (CSE:HPSS) is an Ontario-based company with a home-grown take on the power storage industry that is proving to be a good match for today’s competitive landscape.

The company’s focus on batteries that operate to extremely high standards, thanks in no small part to domestic manufacturing with North American components, has won it a list of clients of which any entity would be proud. Colony Hardware, the United States Armed Forces, plus major power utilities and mass transit systems are all part of the customer base. It reflects a commitment to understanding user needs and delivering top-quality products that completely fulfill them.

“When I started Hybrid Power Solutions, the focus was on how to use batteries to transform the way the industrial and commercial sectors operate,” explains Hybrid Chief Executive Officer Francois Byrne. “What I mean by that is better performance, better safety, better ROI and zero compromise to what you are doing.”

A review of product specifications helps to illustrate this concept. Hybrid’s products operate in greater temperature ranges than those of its competitors, most of them from China, which is important given that many of its customers use products outdoors or in environments where operating conditions can reach extremes.

The Hybrid lineup comprises batteries from 3,000 watts up to 150,000 watts, with the ability to go even higher based on client requirements.

“We can power your welder off this battery, your crane off that one and your trailers off these ones,” says Byrne, highlighting a construction site scenario. “We bring the hybrid side as well with solar power generation. Essentially, we are transitioning our customers to a clean future without having to say ‘clean’ or ‘green’ or any of those things. We are selling clean technology based on performance and cost savings, and the side benefit is that we are sustainable and a better option.”

The Hybrid Power Solutions concept traces back to when Byrne was racing hybrid cars as a student while earning a degree in Carleton University’s Sustainable and Renewable Energy Engineering program. It was clear to Byrne that the torque performance characteristics that worked so well for race cars could be applied in commercial settings and meet industrial standards.

“We made a conscious decision early on that we were not going to be a consumer-grade product. Our focus has always been on manufacturing to a professional standard. Essentially, you are making your living using our product, and if it goes down it is dollars lost, not just an inconvenience,” says Byrne.

That commitment to understanding quality from the customer’s perspective is bearing fruit, with multiple users placing repeat orders after having a good experience with their initial deployment of Hybrid batteries.

Byrne tells the story of a California-based utility that contacted Hybrid after seeing a product review on YouTube.

“They bought a unit and six months went by and we hadn’t heard anything. We contacted them to see how things were going, and they said our battery worked phenomenally and was the only one that did exactly what they needed it to do. We received a second order, and then about three months ago they came back with a third order, this time for 105 units.”

Estimates of the size of the battery energy storage market vary, but one guideline, a recent report published by Fortune Business Insights, suggested US$114.05 billion by 2032, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.88%.

With so much at stake, competition is sure to increase. It is going to be the companies that combine effective marketing with modern technology that succeed in the long run, a concept not lost on Byrne.

“Innovative technology is at the forefront of our strategy, but that will only get you so far,” says the CEO. “I’ve seen incredible technology that never gets into a revenue-generating company because the sales process wasn’t there. This is where we differentiate ourselves – our partnerships with large distribution channels and tier-one clients will enable us to scale in a way that other companies cannot.”

And given the geopolitical state of the world, where new global alliances are drawing battle lines that directly threaten the status quo, regional security concerns are playing a role in shaping the future of technology and the opportunities available to the corporate sector.

Byrne says that consumers don’t seem to care that much about where their products are made, whereas attitudes on the commercial side have shifted noticeably over the past few years. Business leaders increasingly feel that the West would be well advised to learn to fend for itself, so local manufacturing is taking on greater importance and becoming more appealing to purchasing managers.

“A lot of our products have parts not only from Canada but from the U.S. as well,” Byrne observes. “And while I’m not saying that it isn’t a challenge, as North America is lagging in certain manufacturing capabilities, we are seeing a transition. It is all leading to a holistic and North American-based manufacturing ecosystem.”

Clearly, Hybrid has established a strong base from which to support management’s longer term plans to aggressively scale the business. The market is there, the technology is there, not to mention accolades from an expanding list of customers.

As with many young companies, now Hybrid mostly needs time to grow to the level of operations it has in mind. And that is one of Byrne’s key messages for the investment community.

“This is a real company with real technology, and our door is open to our investors to come and see what we do,” Byrne says in offering some final thoughts. “How we take a raw cell and build it into something that will power your welder for three shifts straight. That kind of thing is difficult to do, but we’ve done it and we expect this company to grow to new heights. We need investors to believe in what we do in the same way our customers believe and help us scale this to a level where every construction, railway, mine and military site out there is using our product.”

This story was featured in Canadian Securities Exchange Magazine.

Learn more about Hybrid Power Solutions at https://www.investhps.com/.