Company Interviews

Interview with Troy Boisjoli, CEO of ATHA Energy Corp.
Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/atha-energy-tsxvsask-rib-north-breakthrough-confirms-continuity-q4-catalysts-underway-11857
Recording date: 7th October 2026
ATHA Energy Corp. (TSXV:SASK) is a Canadian uranium explorer whose flagship is the 100%-owned Angilak Uranium Project in Nunavut's Angikuni Basin. The company also holds a large exploration portfolio in the Athabasca Basin and Labrador's Central Mineral Belt, along with 10% carried interests in parts of the NexGen Energy and IsoEnergy exploration land.
The 2026 programme at Angilak focused on the Mineralized RIB Corridor (MRC), discovered in 2025. Its goal was to convert a widely spaced discovery into defined continuity. Drilling on 150 to 300 m fences extended continuous mineralisation on the Eastern Limb from 1.45 km to 3.4 km, connecting the RIB North and RIB East discoveries. Twenty-one of 23 holes intersected uranium. The final seven holes, RIBN-DD-017 to RIBN-DD-023, were all mineralised.
Drilling also identified a thicker, higher-grade sub-zone near discovery hole RIBN-DD-001. It measures roughly 300 m along strike and 300 m down-dip, with five holes returning 17.5 m to 37.5 m of total composite mineralisation. RIBN-DD-023 returned 19.5 m over 14 zones, including 2.0 m of high-grade mineralisation. RIBN-DD-019, about 850 m northeast, recorded a peak reading of 78,785 CPS. RIBN-DD-022A, about 1.2 km northeast, intersected 5.5 m at the current limit of drilling.
CEO Troy Boisjoli says the company has moved from assumption to modelling. Mineralisation is controlled by a large graphitic fault zone with stacked veins in the hanging wall and footwall, similar in style to basement-hosted deposits such as Eagle Point and Arrow. He says every conductive target drilled has been mineralised, and that the 3.4 km is limited only by drilling, not geology.
ATHA is developing an orogenic uranium-rich deposit model for Angilak, which it describes as the first of its kind globally. Management says mineralisation extends over about 17 km around the RIB structural trend and anticipates the trend runs along the entire edge of the Angikuni Basin. These are interpretations rather than defined resources. The Lac 50 Deposit Corridor separately carries a conceptual exploration target of 60.8 million to 98.2 million lbs U3O8 at 0.37% to 0.48%, which is not a mineral resource.
All 2026 MRC figures are preliminary probe results. Assays are pending at SRC, and true thickness is not yet determined. ATHA lowered its reporting threshold to 300 CPS after earlier assays showed readings above that level typically exceed 0.01% U3O8. In 2025, probe peaks of about 50,000 CPS at RIB North returned grades of around 8% locally.
ATHA raised $63 million in Q1 2026, which management says funds the company through the 2027 programme. As of October 2026, it had 353.1 million basic shares at C$1.01 and an enterprise value of C$349.5 million. Boisjoli says the company is not entertaining a strategic partner and will advance Angilak itself, combining delineation at RIB with continued discovery work.
View ATHA Energy's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/atha-energy
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Interview with Chris Stevens, CEO of Coda Minerals
Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/coda-minerals-asxcod-fully-funded-pfs-continuous-drilling-set-up-big-2026-8680
Recording date: 6th October 2026
Coda Minerals (ASX:COD) is developing the Elizabeth Creek copper-silver project in South Australia, about seven hours north of Adelaide and 40km west of BHP's Carrapateena mine. The project hosts a JORC resource of 65.5Mt at 1.6% CuEq, containing more than 700,000t of copper and 28 million ounces of silver across the Windabout and MG14 open pits and the Emmie Bluff underground deposit at about 400m depth.
The company is just over halfway through a pre-feasibility study, targeting delivery in Q1 2027 on an 18-month schedule. The March 2026 scoping study update set a base case pre-tax NPV7 of A$2.25 billion and a pre-tax IRR of 56%, with a post-tax NPV7 of A$1.52 billion and IRR of 43%. Those figures assume US$10,500/t copper, US$60/oz silver and A$615 million in capital expenditure over a 15.5-year mine life. At a market capitalisation of about A$51 million, Coda trades at roughly 3% of post-tax NPV.
CEO Chris Stevens says that discount is typical of the study phase. He expects it to narrow as three things arrive: a final flowsheet decision, a complete mine plan across all three deposits, and a defensible PFS valuation.
Metallurgy has made the most progress. The whole-ore chloride leach base case is now returning about 94% to 95% copper and 96% silver recovery, compared with low 80% recoveries via flotation. Around 130 tests have been run since the August 2025 scoping work, using a much wider spread of samples. Difficult Windabout material that floats at mid-70% recovery leached at about 90%. Coda has also recovered about 40% of the cobalt in the leach, a stream excluded from all previous economics.
Next steps are METSIM process modelling, which takes about a month, then locked cycle testing to confirm reagent recycling in an integrated circuit. The final trade-off between leach and flotation follows. Flotation remains a viable alternative.
Mine planning starts with re-optimising the open pits at current prices, as they were last optimised at US$7,800/t copper. Their output will determine the underground mining rate at Emmie Bluff. Almost all of the previous mine plan sat in the Indicated category, supporting a maiden reserve without further drilling. The open pits also cushion the risk of a slow underground ramp-up.
On funding, Stevens maintains a tracker of 143 potential partners. He points to KGL Resources' precious metals stream with Wheaton Precious Metals as a model and believes a 50% silver stream could fund a material part of capex. Approvals are advancing, with South Australia's Scoping Report gazetted and hydrogeological drilling under way.
Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/coda-minerals-ltd
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Interview with Sorin Posescu, President & CEO of Valhalla Metals
Recording date: 6th October 2026
Valhalla Metals Inc. (TSXV:VMXX, OTCQB:VMXXF) is a copper-focused explorer with two polymetallic VMS projects in Alaska's Ambler Mining District. The district hosts Arctic, the Ambler Metals deposit owned 50/50 by Trilogy Metals and South32, which carries probable reserves of 46.7 million tonnes at 3.7% CuEq. Valhalla's chairman, Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse, founded Trilogy. Several team members worked on Arctic before joining Valhalla.
The flagship Sun Project hosts an NI 43-101 resource with an effective date of October 1, 2021. Indicated resources total 1.71 million tonnes at 1.48% copper, 4.32% zinc, 1.11% lead, 60 g/T silver and 0.21 g/T gold. Inferred resources total 9.02 million tonnes at 1.21% copper, 4.18% zinc, 1.46% lead, 81.7 g/T silver and 0.25 g/T gold. Both categories grade 4.2% CuEq at the company's price assumptions. Copper and zinc contribute similar shares of value.
The resource has only been drilled to about 200 metres. Historical helicopter-supported rigs could not go deeper. A 2019 VTEM survey models a possible down-dip extension of more than 900 metres vertical extent. Two further conductors, Targets B and C, remain untested. Valhalla's 2023 programme returned 21.4 metres at 6.84% CuEq in hole Sun23-004, within a broader 52.4 metres at 3.30% CuEq. Management's stated goal is to double the Sun resource.
In June 2026, Valhalla completed the acquisition of the Smucker Project from Teck for 44.8 million shares, or 35% of the company at closing. Teck received an up to 2.0% NSR royalty under certain conditions. It also received a priority purchase right and right of last offer on concentrate from Smucker, Sun and other properties, plus board and top-up rights. Smucker holds a 1981 Anaconda historical estimate of 11.8 million short tons at 6.6% CuEq. This is not current, and the historical core has yet to be located. Valhalla aims to deliver an NI 43-101 resource by the end of 2027.
A concurrent C$15 million equity financing, upsized from a C$5 million target, included C$1.75 million from Teck and C$1.7 million from Marubeni. No warrants were issued. The company has 151.1 million shares outstanding. Management and the board hold about 36%, Teck 31% and Marubeni 13%, leaving a free float of roughly 20%. The market capitalisation was C$106 million at C$0.70 on August 7, 2026.
The 2026 drill programme at Sun has finished, and assays are expected before year end. A driller shortage led Valhalla to buy its rigs and hire crews directly, which management believes will lower costs.
The main external dependency is the Ambler Road. The federal approval was rescinded under the Biden administration and reinstated by the Trump administration in October 2025. AIDEA, the state-owned proponent, is conducting engineering studies, and funding discussions with the federal government are under way. Construction timing is outside Valhalla's control.
View Valhalla Metals' company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/valhalla-metals
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Interview with Marc Blythe, Founder, President & CEO of Au Gold Corp.
Recording date: 6th October 2026
Au Gold Corp (TSXV:AUGC) is a Vancouver-based junior explorer focused on the Havelock Gold-Antimony Project near Maryborough in Victoria, Australia. The company acquired the 11,663-hectare project in early 2026 after Founder and CEO Marc Blythe, a mining engineer and due diligence consultant, identified it while searching digitised historical records for overlooked Victorian prospects.
The investment case is built on geology that has already created significant value elsewhere in the state. Fosterville, Costerfield and Sunday Creek are epizonal gold-antimony systems characterised by very high grades and mineralisation extending more than a kilometre below surface. Havelock's Shaw-McFarlane Trend hosts a line of historic mines worked in the 1880s and 1890s, none of which reached much beyond 150 metres depth. Blythe argues these mines stopped because of pumping limitations and metallurgical problems, not because the veins ended.
Au Gold commissioned a research geologist to reconstruct the mines from public company reports and newspapers of the period. The resulting long sections show where miners recorded the widest veins and the most visible gold. There are no historic assays, so grade is unknown. Blythe estimates that miners of the era needed around half an ounce per ton to make a profit, which suggests that veins they chose to follow were likely high grade.
Four priority targets have emerged: McFarlane's, the original gold-antimony target; Shaw's No. 1; Shaw's Main, the deepest workings on the trend; and Rob Roy, which reported 293 ounces at an average of 52 g/t gold. Grab samples from the Shaw's Main waste dump returned up to 54.20 g/t gold. The planned programme has grown from 2,000 to 5,000 metres of diamond drilling as the target list expanded.
Funding comes from a non-brokered placement announced at $2 million on September 29, 2026. Blythe said demand allowed the company to increase it to $3.5 million, which remains subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval. Drilling is expected to start around the end of October 2026. Day-shift-only operations will slow progress, and first results may arrive early in 2027.
Narrow veins are the central economic question. Blythe expects widths of a metre or less but argues that high grades can carry mining dilution. His hypothetical example of a one-metre, 15 g/t vein diluted to three metres would still grade about 5 g/t, above the 2-3 g/t he cited as typical for Australian underground vein operations.
The risks are considerable. The company has no resource, no modern drill data and relies on century-old visual descriptions. Dump samples are selective. Groundwater, landowner access and commodity price sensitivity could all affect outcomes. Further dilution is likely if drilling succeeds and follow-up is required.
Against that, the company trades at a market capitalisation of around C$14 million, insiders own about 18% of shares, and Blythe himself holds more than 7 million shares. For investors comfortable with early-stage exploration risk, Havelock offers a low-cost, multi-target test of whether Victoria's next epizonal system is hiding beneath its oldest workings.
Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/au-gold-corp
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Interview with Ross McElroy, Director & CEO of F3 Uranium
Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/f3-uranium-tsxvfuu-the-discovery-that-rewrote-uranium-exploration-rules-10839
Recording date: 4th October 2026
F3 Uranium Corp. (TSXV:FUU) has reorganised its leadership around a team that has worked together for two decades. Ross McElroy, a geologist with almost 40 years in uranium and a co-founder of Fission Uranium, is now Chief Executive Officer. Dev Randhawa becomes Executive Chairman and steps back from day-to-day management to focus on networking and promoting the company. Raymond Ashley, F3's original exploration manager and later President, now concentrates almost entirely on technical work following the departure of VP Exploration Sam Hartmann in early September. McElroy describes the change as a reallocation of complementary skills rather than a fix for any specific problem.
The company's asset base sits in the PLN project in the western Athabasca Basin, a land package McElroy puts at about 42,000 hectares. The JR Zone hosts an Indicated resource of 11.8 million lb U3O8 at 4.41%, including a high-grade domain of 10.8 million lb at 12.23%. McElroy is frank that this pod has probably been delineated as far as it will go. On its own, he says, it is a little short of what is needed to justify advanced studies. Athabasca deposits often occur as multiple pods, however, and he would not be surprised to find more along the A1 conductor trend.
The more important development may be happening next door. NexGen Energy's Arrow and Paladin Energy's Triple R are advancing towards production, and McElroy expects at least two mills, new roads and possibly provincial grid power to reach the area. That infrastructure lowers the critical mass a deposit needs to be economic. He sees JR as a potential satellite feed for a producer such as Paladin, or as an attraction for a company looking to consolidate the district.
Exploration focus for the next 12 to 18 months will be the Tetra Zone, discovered in April 2025 about 13 km south of JR. The discovery hole returned 22.5 m at 0.26% U3O8, including 1.0 m at 2.50%, and follow-up hole PLN25-219A returned 3.0 m at 1.19%. McElroy acknowledges that true high-grade uranium has yet to be found. Drilling has shown that Tetra sits where the north-south trend hosting JR meets an east-west trend parallel to the Triple R and Arrow corridor, both of which are known to host high-grade mineralisation.
Drilling continues with a single rig until about the end of November. The fall programme, originally planned at 4,000 to 4,500 m, is now expected to reach 5,000 to 7,000 m. The winter programme will be planned in December and announced that month, with drilling from January or February. F3 reported $21.3 million in cash as at 25 August 2026.
On the corporate side, a planned 10:1 consolidation would reduce roughly 750 million shares to about 75 million. McElroy hopes this will help broaden the institutional shareholder base. He also sees attracting strategic interest as a central part of his role, pointing to the land position, the JR resource and the Tetra discovery. Key risks include Tetra failing to deliver a high-grade core, JR's dependence on third-party infrastructure, potential dilution and weak sentiment towards uranium equities.
View F3 Uranium's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/f3-uranium-corp
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