Explorex’s recent acquisition of the Hautalampi project in Finland has the company very excited
Explorex Resources (CSE: EX) Inc. is a junior mining company focused on the acquisition of projects hosting elements critical to the efficiency of rechargeable batteries. With cobalt as a main focus, the company has prioritized projects in Canadian jurisdictions with historic cobalt production.
Natasha Frakes: Hi, I’m Natasha Frakes and you’re watching Market One Minute. Joining us is Gary Schellenberg, CEO and Director of Explorex. Thank you so much for being here.
Gary Schellenberg: Well thanks for having me.
Natasha Frakes: Can you tell us about the company’s partnership with the second largest producer of Lithium in the world?
Gary Schellenberg: Yes, Ganfeng Lithium is now a $10 billion company, and as you mentioned, second largest lithium producer/manufacturer in the world. They want to become fully integrated in both lithium — back eight years ago when we first met them — so, we were able to amass a portfolio of lithium projects for them and helped them develop them, of which one right now is going through the PEA in Argentina. As of August last year, we met with them and they decided well, it’d be nice to get involved with cobalt as well. We want to be fully integrated in the cobalt sector.
They approached us, having a history with us, and we decided to partner in on Explorex to essentially look worldwide for, not only cobalt but other e-metals, which are very important for the battery industry.
Natasha Frakes: Can you talk about Explorex’s recent acquisition?
Gary Schellenberg: Yeah. The Hautalampi project that we just acquired in Finland is an advanced development stage project. It’s a copper/nickel/cobalt project, which was actually mined back throughout the 1900s and ceased to be in operation in 1989. Since that time, another group had stepped in and actually did a feasibility study on this project in 2009. It was very favourable, but unfortunately, they were unable to put it into production because of the falling nickel prices and cobalt prices.
The development of this project is very advanced. It has all the permits in place for mining, for a rising cobalt market for a junior company like ourselves to step into. We are very excited about it. We have the next 90 days, we’ll be doing our due diligence on the project and finalizing our purchase and sale agreement.
Natasha Frakes: And who are you working with? Can you talk about the team?
Gary Schellenberg: The team, we have a very advanced, very technical team of geologists. We have 25 people within our group that are working, researching and working within, trying to find new cobalt projects and lithium projects around the world. We currently are operating, as I mentioned, for Ganfeng Lithium on two of their major projects in Argentina and in Ireland, and we hope to be doing the same thing now with the Hautalampi deposit in Finland — help develop that to secure a supply of cobalt for Ganfeng.
Natasha Frakes: What are some of your other assets?
Gary Schellenberg: Some of our other assets are primarily in Canada. We have two projects in Ontario, one in New Brunswick. I would say one is a past producer of cobalt and silver in Ontario, very high-grade and it was operated up until the 1940s, which we intend to be drilling that project within the next couple of months.
And the other project, which we’re quite excited about, is in New Brunswick. It’s in the Bathurst area, Bathurst Camp, potential massive sulfides. Much larger target that we’re looking at there, and it has some highest silt results in cobalt. Actually, they run almost ore grade, 0.6% cobalt within these sediment samples that we’re taking. And the anomaly that we have is over two and a half kilometres long, so we’re really excited. There could be something very sizeable there and so can hardly wait to get a hole into it.
Natasha Frakes: You’ve got a lot on the go, so what are some of the next major steps for Explorex?
Gary Schellenberg: Well, we haven’t stopped our acquisition plan. We were going to continue to acquire new assets. We want to secure a steady stream of cobalt and lithium products and other e-metal products for our major shareholders. We’ll be on the acquisition trail. We’ll try to consolidate various mining camps to secure enough resources that we can see and supply them in the battery industry in the future, so there’s lots of news coming. We have lots of drilling and lots of development work in Finland to do, so I think there will be lots of good things in the short term.
Natasha Frakes: It sounds like an exciting time for the company. Thank you so much for being here.
Gary Schellenberg: Well, thanks for having me.
This story was provided by Market One Media Group for commercial purposes.