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The IKN Weekly
Week 863, December 7th 2025
Contents
This Week: In today’s edition, FOMC and a repeat message.
Fundamental Analysis: The long case for Blue Moon Metals (MOON.v).
Stocks to Follow: Overview, Blue Moon Metals (MOON.v), Wesdome Gold (WDO.to), Gold Royalty Corp
(GROY), West Red Lake Gold (WRLG.v), Arizona Metals (AMC.to), Orecap (OCI.v), Minera Alamos (MAI.v).
The Copper Basket: Overview, Copper Giant (CGNT.v), American Eagle (AE.v).
The Producer Basket: Overview, Barrick (B), New Gold (NGD).
The TinyCaps Basket: Overview, Kodiak Copper (KDK.v).
Regional Politics: Chile needs miners, Argentina: The RIGI extension narrative begins, Mexico: Mining
sector concern with the new water law project, Ecuador: The “Tasa Minera” failure.
Market Watching: Rio2 Ltd (RIO.to) buys a copper mine.
I remind subscribers that no part of this newsletter can be copied, reproduced or given to any
third party without the express permission of the author.
This Week
In today’s edition
 Stop the presses, our Top Pick Rio2 Ltd (RIO.to) has dropped a game-changing news release on us
this Monday afternoon. After halting before the news into the close, RIO.to announced it was buying
the Condestable copper mine in Central coastal Peru from the privately owned Peruvian mining
company, Southern Peaks. We give some initial reaction to the deal in Market Watching, below
 As for our main event, that’s a close look at the new position opened last week, Blue Moon Metals
(MOON.v) with an overview of what this young company has put together until now and a few
numbers on what’s set to become its proof of concept project, Nussir in Norway.
 The copper market continued on its uber-bull run last week and while we’re fully on board with the
speculative run, you get another warning about its overbought status in The Copper Basket. Also,
another candidate for Tax Loss Selling shows up in the shape of American Eagle (AE.v).
 In regional politics, Mexico again makes itself unfriendly toward mining and Argentina again does what
it can to attract mining business. My how things have changed in LatAm.
 And the bull run for metals and miners rolls on, with the Santa Rally coming for copper stocks and
juniors, too. We’re set for a great end year and with macro policy still conducive to higher commodities
and metals prices, there’s no reason why the positive vibes should stop at the ned of this month. Be
long this market.
FOMC and a repeat message
This week’s main macro event comes Wednesday and the much-anticipated FOMC announcement. The
Kabuki Theatre fun we’ve had since the last FOMC has seen the idea of a rate cut come, go then come again,
but we’re now at this point according to Goldman Sachs (1)
The FOMC is widely expected to deliver a third consecutive 25bp interest rate cut to 3.5-3.75% at
what will likely be a contentious December meeting next week.
The world has decided that unemployment is more of an issue than inflation, the world has also decided that
the Fed will think the same so despite the anti-Trump rearguard members of the committee, the new players
will get their way and we’re going to get another piece of evidence that POTUS47 is going to “run it hot”, as
1

they tend to say these days. And on that note, we refer you to the intro op-ed of last week because there’s
not much point in repeating the message here; If you haven’t worked out that the current macro backdrop
remains bullish for gold and all its metallic acolytes, there’s little I can do for you.
Pick your own vehicles, but be long mining stocks this market, it’s that simple.
Fundamental Analysis of Mining Stocks
The long case for Blue Moon Metals (MOON.v)
And when I looked to the moon it turned to gold
Blue Moon, Rodgers & Hart, 1934
Last week was the heads-up on this new long position for The IKN Weekly, Blue Moon Metals (MOON.v),
today we lay out the reasoning behind the call and for the TL:DR, here’s the rationale in three simple bullet
points:
 The team: Headed up by CEO Christian Kargl-Simard, the core of MOON.v and its philosophy toward the
mining sector is the same that we saw in Adventus Mining (ex-ADZN.v), the junior your author traded
with reasonable success in early 2024. It took time for me to get comfortable with Mr. Kargl-Simard,
bring as he is a new guy on the mining executives scene, but he earned the trust of those who backed
him and his team and personally, it’s always a positive to be able to back new faces in mining with the
integrity required to lead the next generation of the mining sector.
 The timeline: After waiting a while and observing the company, in much the same way I did before
moving in on ADZN, the gestation period for MOON.v seems to have gone well and we’re now about to
move into a richer news period for the company. This looks like the right window to buy for anyone with
a long-term mindset [spoiler alert: me].
 The assets: MOON,v is advancing on at least three fronts and is set to develop two of the three into
working mines at nearly the same time. Importantly, the company is taking a proven development
strategy we’ve seen over the years in the junior gold mining world and applying it to base metals, it’s
identified a niche in the mining market and the corporate structure and mentality at this bullish moment
for metals is right for share price appreciation. On top of that, We also get a Proof Of Concept project,
Nussir in Norway, which means we’ll have a clear way of tracking we won’t have to wait long for a clear
indication as to whether this trade idea will work.
Put those together and add a plan that targets real wealth generation and a focus on share price appreciation
for a new company that looks set for success in this current bull cycle for metals. That’s the 30,000ft view,
now for the standard intro:
Company and structure
Blue Moon Metals (MOON.v) (BMOOF) is an exploration/development stage junior mining company with
assets in Norway and The USA, Its flagship property is the Nussir copper project in Norway, though its fair to
argue that its Blue Moon+Springer complex in The USA and its Nye Sulitjelma Gruver (NSG) project in
Norway are also valid and interesting, as the company strategy is to develop more than one of these into
operating mines concurrently. We now repeat the topbox as seen last weekend:
Shares out: 80.843m
Options: 0.763m
Warrants: Zero
DSUs/RSUs: 0.287m
Fully diluted: 81.893m
Current share price: C$4.40
Market Cap: C$355.7m
Approx cash per S/O: C$0.30c
All prices are in Canadian Dollars unless stated, forex CAD$1 = USD 0.72
To explain what you get for your C$355.7m (U$257m) market cap, we start with the shareholder breakdown
chart as seen in the latest MOON.v corporate presentation (2), as it does a better job than listing the names:
2

He two main takeaways are that 1) even though there’s only one
10%+ holder, namely Norway’s large fund Monial with 8.292m
shares (10.3% of S/O), MOON enjoys plenty of named support
of the type that holds indefinitely. The second is that with
80.843m shares out, this is a tightly held company in absolute
terms and even if some of those instos regurgitate, it’s difficult
to imagine the practical free float at over 30m shares. In other
circumstances for a junior developer I’d consider this a nice
bonus, but in this case it’s an important advantage and one of
the reasons I’m now a backer of the company. If you take the
time to speak to CEO Christian Kargl-Simard or check out one or
some of the extended interviews he’s done for social media
channels (one in particular reco’d below), you’ll soon hear how
the corporate growth plan has a clear objective of steering clear
of share dilution. For example, in reply to my own query on the subject, he repeated the statement used in
the public sphere that between untapped opportunities for royalties, streams, debt and prepay facilities the
company has “…$200-300M of internal financing capacity available on our assets that has not been tapped”
(quote/unquote). At some point down the line MOON will consider and probably run an equity raise, but they
simply don’t need to and apparently don’t want to sell any more shares at the moment. That’s music to my
ears in the current environment, a start-up that focuses on its share count in this current market and lets
others lend it money while metals move higher (and the implicit price of money goes lower) is using the right
formula for share price appreciation in development phase. CEO Kargl-Simard is obviously keeping his options
open, but at this point he knows he can raise all the capital he needs from willing partners.
After watching his previous gig Adventus for a long time as its share price fell and fell before catching the last
part of its life for a decent little win last year, I strongly suspect he’s learned this angle from previous
experience. Indeed, one of the things that CEO Kargl-Simard says about his new company is that CEO it’s
“Adventus 2.0”. An example is in this recent interview (3) he did with Valpal and if there’s one Q&A to
recommend you on MOON.v in the world of social media, it’s this one. It’s an hour and 44 minutes long, the
presenter fires the questions in a slightly strange style and CEO Kargl-Simard covers them all, the result is a
slightly difficult watch that really gets into the weeds and is worth the time of anyone else interested in the
company. At the end of the show, CEO Kargl-Simard was given the space to wrap up his pitch by the
interviewer and his mini-speech once again showed why this company structure and strategy stands out from
the crowd. They have good assets, they have access to the capital required to develop them, but they also
have a clear objective and focus on what matters to shareholders. Your author’s transcript (from around
1:41:30 of the video):
“What we're attempting to do here is very rare. From a global perspective, you have lots of junior gold miners
that have generally the same story. Gold is high-grade, capital-efficient, people are putting mines into
production all the time. It rarely happens in the base metal space. It's rare because base metal assets are
typically not high-grade, have lots of capital requirements and have a much smaller investment pool to draw
from. We have been able to put together now four assets that are brown-field with most or all the permits and
that are capital efficient. And so it gives us three or four chances to actually become a producing critical metals
or base metals miner. From what I counted, there are five in the world that are my comps. We started the year
with close to eight. Three of them were acquired, so clearly what we're doing is of interest. Most junior
companies have no intention of permitting or constructing or operating their mines. This is what we are good at
and this is where we want to focus. So if we can execute on what we have in front of us, we're a rare breed
and we will be a billion dollar company. If we don't execute, I think the diversity of our portfolio and embedded
value still makes us do quite well. I believe any of the four assets over the next few years could substantiate
our current valuation. So you know, ultimate downside protection. But if we execute the sky's the limit, if we get
all four in production that got exploration going, we're a multi-billion dollar company. If we get that hub and
spoke model going with one or two additional assets, plus tungsten plus Blue Moon, I think that can be a multi-
billion dollar asset.”
All that might come across as so much soft soap from your average junior mining CEO, but I repeat that an
important part of this mix is Christian Kargl-Simard and the people around him. They may have made some
tactical mistakes at Adventus early on, but he was good as his word and earned the trust of backers (e.g.
me). That’s not a small thing in this sector of hypocrites and liars and with the experience garnered, his
objective at MOON.v is clearly to get rich by heading up a success story as it moves through the gears. This
3

is what I want from capitalism; a person who’s looking to make it big and get rich by building real wealth and
benefiting their backers along the way.
The assets
As for what MOON.v brings to the table, there are currently three asset groups and arguably five assets of
worth to consider, here are a few words on each:
 Nussir: MOON may not say this is the flagship asset outright, but there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s the
most important asset on its books. Bought in late 2024 from private hands, Nussir is a previously producing
copper mine in Norway which, when put back into production, is set to be an underground mine prodicing
around 20,000mt of copper equivalent per year.
 REAS: In a deal closed in 1q25, MOON.v paid U$16m in cash and shares for Repparfjord Eiendom AS
(REAS). A key purchase connected to the Nussir mine, the REAS asset package provides Nussir “…with the
majority of the required infrastructure for the project to be built”, as stated in the NR at the time, including
port facilities, key land packages, buildings, processing facilities, access to aggregate and other useful
items. Best considered part of Nussir, MOON.v currently carries its REAS asset as a separate line item.
 NSG: Bought at the same time as Nussir, Nye Sulitjelma Gruver (New Sulitjelma Mine) is also located in
Norway and is a copper/zinc VMS deposit. This is set to be its third operating mine of the current pipeline
and if all goes to plan, would add around 10,000t/annum CuEq to its revenues mix.
 Blue Moon: Its foundation asset, Blue Moon is located in the miner-friendly region of California (before
anyone gets antibodies on seeing that State mentioned in the same breath as a mining project and as a
past producing mine with apparent local support, a clear path to permitting. A polymetallic zinc mine with
copper, gold and silver credits, MOON.v envisages another 20,000t/annum CuEq from this mine.
 Springer: The most recent acquisition, the Springer mine deal is still pending closure but that should
happen very soon and at this stage, we can consider it part of the company bar the signatures. The main
reason to like Springer is its processing facility on site, which MOON expects to become the hub of a future
hub-and-spoke mining strategy. It expects to send ore from Blue Moon to Springer, as well as mineral from
at least one other acquisition it has planned for the future. Springer is also a past producing tungsten mine
and once the hub/spoke plan is running, we may see this mine re-started. Tungsten has been quite the
fashion metal in recent months and while not high on its current priorities, may become a valuable extra.
This visual from the latest corporate presentation is a good overview of how Nussir/REAS, then Blue
Moon/Springer, then NSG fit in the current company plans:
In other words, in the next five years, MOON plans to go from zero to producing 50,000t/annum CuEq from
its three asset groups.
Financials overview
At this point, we bring in some financial tracker charts for MOON.v, as even though this is relatively new
company without many quarters under its belt its financials still have a story or two to tell us about the
company until today. Also in most cases, we add a few ballpark guesses as to how we see the company
developing in the near future though I must stress at this point that these are ballpark guesses and I won’t
4

be particularly worried to get those wrong, they’re more indicators than forecasts. We start with the standard
assets and liabilities charts from the balance sheet, with assets (below left) showing the transformation in
2025 (and this before Springer is incorporated). MOON.v has liquidity on hand, with that part of the
transformation beginning with the $27m placement ran at the start of the year, and has accumulated fixed
assets on its books. The big changes are set to continue into Q4, as MOON.v ran and closed its C$86.5m
bought deal on October 1st. Assuming the Springer deal closes in Q1 we expect it to have most of that cash
in treasury at the end of the quarter but by the same token, it’s obviously accelerating activities at its
development projects and should continue to do so.
MOON.v: Assets 300
250
200
150
100
50
0
Meanwhile liabilities (above right) have started to accumulate. The rise in accounts payable is what you’d
expect from a company beginning to work on its projects on at least three fronts, while the LT debt is most
the bridge loan. I’m going to best guess that stays as per in Q4, but MOON.v may decide to pay it down
using the bought deal cash. Like I say, for the time being I’m estimating a path but give me a couple of
quarters and we’ll be able to predict its financial moves more accurately.
Zeroing in on the fixed asset value as seen above, here’s how it breaks down by asset (below left). Clearly,
Nussir is the most important on its books and even more so when you add in the connected REAS. That
allows us a way forward to gauge MOON.v in the calendar year to come, as Nussir may not be its official
flagship, but as the most costly on its books and the one scheduled to go into production first, it’s clearly
going to be the proof of concept at MOON. We return to this subject below.
To tie off a loose end before moving on, above right is the share count and a best guess of its evolution in
2026. There’s no reason to expect a big change from the 80.8m shares out as seen today, but at some point
in the medium-term future we’re going to get another modest raise. I’m guessing MOON.v leaves 2026 at
90m shares out, but even so that would still be a very tight structure.
Moving to the P+L, this chart (below) shows how MOON has accelerated its activity this year with the big
difference being “general exploration expenses. The company hasn’t hung around on its projects and with
treasury full and a schedule that aims to get its first mine up and running in less than two years, that trend
had better continue.
5
32q4 42q1 42q2 42q3 42q4 52q1 52q2 52q3 tse52q4
C$m C$m MOON.v: Liabilities
35
30
other LT
total fixed 25 LT debt & lease
total current other current 20
a/c payable
15
10
5
0
1q25 2q25 3q25 4q25est
source: company filings source: company filings
C$m MOON.v: Fixed asset value 110 MOON.v: shares out
180 100
160 REAS 90
NSG 80
140 Nussir 70
120 Blue Moon
60
100 50
80 40
60 30
20
40
10
20
0
0
4q24 1q25 2q25 3q25 4q25est
source: company filings
32q4 42q1 42q2 42q3 42q4 52q1 52q2 52q3 tse52q4 tse62q1 tse62q2 tse62q3 tse62q4
source: company filings

C$m MOON.v: Expenses, per qtr
14
other
12 DD&A
10 IR/travel
G&A
8 gen expl exp
6 prof cons fees
share based
4 employee ben.
2
0
-2 1q24 2q24 3q24 4q24 1q25 2q25 3q25
source: company filings
Regarding that, this chart takes the main line item above, “General Exploration Expenses”, breaks it down
into component parts and takes a guess as to what we’ll see when MOON reports its Q4 (which is a few
months into the future). That type of spend fits with
C$m MOON.v: General exploration expenses
my guesses for the balance sheet asset and fixed
20
assets charts above and I’d expect to see columns of
other
the same size in the first couple of quarters of 2026. 15 Prospecting & geology
Engineering studies
MOON’s job is too spend its treasury on the right
Development & site prep
things. What these early financial charts indicate, 10 Camp ops
above all, is a young company getting aggressive on
its fixed assets and with the cash to do so. That’s what 5
I want to see, a junior putting its cash to work and
0
adding value.
3q24 4q24 1q25 2q25 3q25 4q25est
source: company filings
And now for Nussir
We know MOON.v is more than Nussir, but the story to date should have laid out its importance as quasi-
flagship asset, most expensive project and the one that’s going into production first according to the
company’s timeline. All that means we have a proof of concept project to consider in 2026, as while MOON is
bound to generate plenty of newsflow from other subjects (including its plan to list on the Nasdaq early next
year, giving us another reason to like its tight share structure) what we retail grunts care about most is its
share price performance and that’s going to hang on the development success (or failure) of its first
development project. Here’s what we need to know about Nussir at this point:
It’s a stratabound sediment hosted copper deposit, which is a mouthful of geology but for our purposes, this
type of deposit tends towards predictable mineralization in size, scale and grade. The Nussir deposit has been
studied over the years (as well as mined in a previous open pit mining operation. The MOON.v Nussir project
will be an underground mine and according to its January 2025 Technical Report, this is the resource:
First comment here is the tonnage held, which is over 60m metric tonnes if you take into consideration the
inferred mineral. That’s an interesting number compared to the MOON.v declared plans of operating a mine
that produces 20,000 tonnes of copper equivalent per year because if you do the math (and I have), the
MOON plans point us toward an average throughput of 4,000 tonnes per day (tpd). That implies this type of
projected mine life:
 4,000 tonnes x 360 days = 1.44m tonnes per year
 60 / 1.44 = a 41.6 year mine life
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That’s a long life mine an even if you ignore the
inferred resource, its M+I resource would give
Nussir a 20 year mine life at 4,000tpd. This would
imply plenty of growth potential at the mine over
the medium term, probably for another day but
worth keeping in mind that MOON wouldn’t be
constrained from production upside once the mine
was up and running in 2027.
As for the grade, those grade numbers are not eye-
poppingly high, but this is why the stratabound
sediment hosted labels matter. Grade is a factor, but
difficulty of mining underground is equally as important and in the case of Nussir, its predictable
mineralization means these okay-not-great grades should be very profitable. This chart from the same report
gives a visual of its uniform nature, with nearly all the tonnes held below a 0.5% copper cut off and very little
in the way of higher grading material.
It’s still early days on any mine model, but we can at least get an idea of what to expect from Nussir and run
a ballpark economic study what will be the flagship and first mine of the group to move through
development. The idea is to provide a framework and show why I’m interested in MOON.v shares at this
price. We need criteria of course, so here’s a list of items based closely on the company’s own plans and this
year’s technical report:
 Tonnage: An average daily throughput of 4,000 tpd on a 360 day working year.
 Copper: The average M+I grade of 1.02% Cu and a recovery rate of 96%, as per the 43-101 technical
report.
 Gold: The average M+I grade of 0.12 g/t gold and the expected The average M+I grade of 1.02% Cu
and a recovery rate of 93%, as per the 43-101 technical report.
 Silver: The average M+I grade of 12.3 g/t Ag and a recovery rate of 80%, as per the 43-101 technical
report.
For what it’s worth, that offers the type of copper equivalent production expected by MOON in its own plans.
The final total of 22.75kt is slightly above the 20kt from the company, that’s due to the relative out-
performance of gold and silver this year:
MOON.v at Nussir: Copper Equivalent prod calc
Metal Grade recovery tpa (m) prod assumed $ prod CuEq
Copper 1.02% 96% 1.44 14.1kt U$4.50/lb 14.1kt
Gold 0.12 g/t 93% 1.44 5,167 oz U$4,000/oz 4.6kt
Silver 12.3 g/t 80% 1.44 455,614 oz U$40/oz 4.05kt
source: IKN ests and calcs Total: 22.75kt
Those are raw CuEq numbers that don’t take into account the precious metals streams held by we have to
take into account the streams that came as part of the project financing package with main backers
Hartree/Oaktree (4) that give the stream holder 70% of payable gold and 75% of payable silver at 15% of
the market price. While MOON can buy back half those streams after four or five years (and would probably
do so), we need to show good project economics from the early Nussir years so we factor those in fully.
There's also a 0.75% NSR held on the mine by the State, then we also assume a 15% drag for TC/RC (Nussir
is known to provide a clean concentrate, no need to get to heavy on this). With all that done, we can make
some rough annual revenues estimates and as is our normal wont, we offer four representative price decks:
 Stress Test: With Copper at U$3.50/lb, gold at U$3,000/oz and silver at U$30/oz to see if the mine’s
economics can withstand a serious worldwide reversal in commodities prices.
 Baseline: With Copper at U$4.00/lb, gold at U$3,500/oz and silver at U$35/oz, a potential scenario in a
world recession
 Preferred: With Copper at U$4.50/lb, gold at U$4,000/oz and silver at U$40/oz, this is where I’m
pitching my tent today even though there’s obviously a case for using higher prices.
7

 Bull: With Copper at U$5.00/lb, gold at U$5,000/oz and silver at U$50/oz, the only major stretch
between now and those number is the gold price. If you want to base your decisions on these prices I
wouldn’t push back very hard but still prefer to base my own on a more conservatively pitched deck.
Put them all together, this is what you get:
MOON at Nussir: Model year revenues by metal type (U$m)
item stress baseline preferred bull
copper (mt) 14100 14100 14100 14100
Cu Mlbs 31.1 31.1 31.1 31.1
Cu $/lb 3.50 4.00 4.50 5.00
Cu revs 109 124 140 155
gold (oz) 5,167.3 5,167.3 5,167.3 5,167.3
Au U$/oz 3000 3500 4000 5000
stream revs 1.6 1.9 2.2 2.7
non stream revs 4.7 5.4 6.2 7.8
Total Au revs 6.3 7.3 8.4 10.5
silver (oz) 455,614.1 455,614.1 455,614.1 455,614.1
Ag U$/oz 30 35 40 50
stream revs 1.5 1.8 2.1 2.6
non stream revs 3.4 4.0 4.6 5.7
Total Ag revs 5.0 5.8 6.6 8.3
Total gross 120.0 137.4 154.9 174.1
0.75% NSR 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1
TC/RC @15% 18.0 20.6 23.2 26.1
Net sales 101.3 116.0 130.6 146.9
Sources: MOON.v data, IKN calcs and ests
At my preferred price deck, Nussir generates U$130.6m in sales per year. What that means for operating
margins and eventual profitability comes in the next table. Here, the biggest item is COGS and after due
deliberation, I’ve gone for a mine cost number of U$60/tonne (which works out at a copper cash cost of
U$2.80/lb). I’m almost certainly pitching this too high, but that’s okay. We make other reasonable
guesstimates for the input items as seen, as always veering to the conservative side, plug in the Norway
corporate tax rate and then continue with our four price deck assumptions:
MOON.v: Nussir only condensed income statement (U$m)
item stress baseline preferred bull
Sales (U$m) 101.3 116.0 130.6 146.9
Cash COGS 86.4 86.4 86.4 86.4
Depreciation 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0
G&A 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0
fin. Costs 6.5 6.5 6.5 6.5
Op income (2.6) 12.1 26.7 43.0
Exploration 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0
Tax (22%) (1.0) 2.2 5.4 9.0
Net income (3.6) 7.8 19.3 32.0
Shares out (m) 81 81 81 81
EPS -0.04 0.10 0.24 0.40
Sust capex 5 5 5 5
FCF 0.08 0.22 0.36 0.52
Sources: MOON data, IKN estimates
8

We see that Nussir isn’t going to work well if metals prices fall off a cliff (which is probably why it’s been
closed for business until now) and doesn’t pass the stress test, but even our lowball assumptions make it
work and at our preferred deck, an EPS of 24c/year (CAD$0.33) for this type of mine life won’t justify the
current valuation, but will show all the proof of concept you’ll need. However, you’ll also probably see why
I’m not using the highest price deck for my investment decision, as one of the attributes of MOON is the
leverage it provides to the metals mix. The bull case moves EPS to 40c (CAD$0.55) and at those prices, you
wouldn’t even need Blue Moon or NSG.
Conclusion and discussion
Last week’s decision to open on Blue Moon Metals (MOON.v) and buy a first position was precipitated by then
current bullish scenario for mining stocks of all shapes and sizes, it’s also a call that comes as the company
starts its acceleration into development of its mines, principally the Nussir mine most closely considered
today, but be clear that this isn’t planned as a quick flip trade. Instead, in MOON.v I believe I’ve identified on
e of the new crop of juniors that has a real chance of meaningful and sustained growth over an extended
period. In an ideal world, last week’s purchase will be the first of many and as long as MOON.v delivers on its
plans, it’s one I hope will grow in time to a major position in my portfolio. The company has secured its
assets and with the recent bought deal, along with the funding deals struck with major backers,, has the cash
to move forward on its front rank project. This is now the way we can gauge its progress and as 12026 rolls
out, we’ll be on a company that gets a production re-rate and good leverage to strong metals prices that’s
also planning to keep its share count tight and reward
those early to the stock. There’s a long road for Blue
Moon ahead but it’s also the type of junior I prefer to
sponsor, with a smart (indeed innovate) plan, people at
the helm that the retail player can trust and align with
and a ready to roll project pipeline. There’s no formal
price target yet, that can come later but what Blue Moon
offers is the opportunity to be in at the ground floor of a
company that has a real chance of growing and
becoming one of the next generation of established
mining names. I’m along for the ride and happy to put
my money behind mining people who want to do the
right things in the right way.
Stocks to Follow
Considering the precious metals miners were down last week (GDX -2.6%, GDXJ down 2.4%) and even gold
couldn’t hold on to its early week high prices (GLD down 0.4% week-over-week), out Stocks to Follow list did
reasonably well and of the 20 positions now open, twelve were winners (MAI.v, ARG.to, MARI.to, WRLG.v,
MOON.v, AU.v, AMC.to, RPX.v, SRL.v, LMS.v, XXIX.v, OZ.v). Among those were strong moves in Arizona
Metal Corp (AMC.to up 10.7%), Blue Moon Metals (MOON.v up 10.3%), Salazar Resources (SRL.v up 9.4%)
and let’s throw West Red Lake Gold (WRLG.v up 7.8%) into the bigger winner’s enclosure as well. Five stocks
lost ground (RIO.to, GROY, WDO.to, PGDC.v, ELY.v) and three were unchanged (OCI.v, MIRL.cse, MENE.v)
and no real damage done to the downside, with the only double digit percentage loser Electrum (ELY.v down
13.3%) and as that one’s on the Watch List, we prefer it as cheap as possible.
With the additions as noted last week, we’re now at 20 open positions, the self-imposed maximum at any
given time. Sixteen of our featured stocks are in the green, four are in the red and it is nice to see the top
five trades all with triple digit percentage moves compared to our cost average. The ones at the top are the
biggest I personally hold in dollar terms so yes, it’s been a good year.
9

company Ticker this week Avg Price Reco date Current PPS Gain/Loss% Notes
TOP PICKS
Rio2 Ltd. RIO.v STR BUY C$0.80 22-Apr-18 C$2.43 203.8% Re-rated to new $4.13 tgt
RECOMMENDED STOCKS
Minera Alamos MAI.v HOLD C$0.21 13-Oct-19 C$0.43 104.8% $0.70 tgt, selling early 2026
Amerigo Res ARG.to BUY C$1.54 28-Jul-24 C$3.88 151.9% Core copper position
Marimaca Copper MARI.to STR BUY C$3.05 14-Jan-24 C$11.25 268.9% Quality Cu dev, FS due
Gold Royalty Co GROY STR BUY U$1.40 9-Mar-25 U$4.25 203.8% 2nd target U$5 in 2026
West Red Lake WRLG.v STR BUY C$0.88 20-Jul-25 C$0.97 10.2% re-rate trade, $1.44tgt
Wesdome Gold WDO.to BUYING C$22.42 30-Nov-25 C$21.46 -4.3% New trade, buyout tgt
Blue Moon MOON.v BUYING C$4.18 30-Nov-25 C$4.40 5.3% New trade, LT view
Aurion Res AU.v BUY C$1.07 21-Sep-25 C$1.15 7.5% Agnico will buy more Finland
Arizona Metals AMC.to HOLD C0.66 5-Oct-25 C$0.62 -6.1% hold end Xmas may then add
Red Pine Expl RPX.v STR BUY C$0.12 8-Sep-24 C$0.15 20.8% Added more Sep & Oct'25
Salazar Res SRL.v BUY C$0.08 5-Jan-25 C$0.175 118.8% Ecuador buyout trade
Latin Metals LMS.v BUY C$0.19 10-Jun-25 C$0.20 5.3% proj.generator, Organullo spec
XXIX Metal XXIX.v STR BUY C$0.11 27-Aug-25 C$0.13 18.2% v good PEA Oct'25
Orecap Inv OCI.v BUY C$0.06 4-May-24 C$0.095 58.3% top fundy value, illiquid
SPECULATIVE TRADES
Minera IRL MIRL.cse avoid C$0.195 22-Jul-12 C$0.015 -92.3% leaving list soon (good)
A WATCHLIST OF POTENTIAL TRADES. NB: I DO NOT OWN
Patagonia Gold PGDC.v WATCH C$0.02 4-Aug-24 C$0.155 675.0% Rio Negro gold developer
Valkea Res OZ.v WATCH C$0.26 9-Nov-25 C$0.275 5.8% tinycap Finland neighbor play
Electrum Disc ELY.v WATCH C$0.055 9-Nov-25 C$0.065 18.2% dirt cheap Serbia exploreco
LONG-TERM NON-MINING HOLD
Mene Inc. MENE.v adding C$0.45 6-Dec-20 C$0.165 -63.3% LT bet, adding slowly
CLOSED TRADES IN 2025 date closed close price
Arizona Sonoran ASCU.to Jan'25 C$1.39 22-Dec-24 C$1.68 20.9% nice NT trade, took profit
Libero Copper LBC.v Jan'25 C$0.34 20-Oct-24 C$0.245 -30.0% small spec loser
Barrick Gold GOLD Feb'25 U$15.70 22-Dec-24 U$18.26 16.3% taking profit on NT trade
Ero Copper ERO Mar'25 C$19.37 22-Dec-24 C$17.64 -8.9% closed badly timed trade
IMPACT Silver IPT.v Apr'25 C$0.30 14-Apr-24 C$0.195 -35.0% closed small Ag trade fail
Pan Global Res PGZ.v Apr'25 C$0.19 19-Feb-24 C$0.11 -42.1% closed sm Cu on -ve mkt turn
Aftermath Silver AAG.v Jun'25 $0.425 22-Dec-24 C$0.64 50.6% took profits, decent result
Lumina Gold LUM.v Jun'25 C$0.78 23-Feb-25 C$1.25 60.3% successful buyout trade.
Eldorado Gold EGO Aug'25 U$15.93 11-Aug-24 U$21.73 36.4% took profit, underperf'd peers
AbraSilver ABRA.to Aug'25 C$2.73 26-Jan-25 C$5.67 107.7% took profit, good result
Minera Alamos MAI.v Aug'25 C$0.21 13-Oct-19 C$0.345 64.3% lightened overweight position
Surge Copper SURG.v Sep'25 $0.105 22-Dec-24 C$0.215 104.8% took profits, good result
Provenance Gold PAU.cse Oct'25 C$0.15 27-Aug-25 C$0.265 76.7% took profits, good result
2015 to 2024 annual closed positions in appendices below, 2009 to 2014 closed positions in editions IKN553 or earlier
Now for notes on some of the covered stocks:
Blue Moon Metals (MOON.v): POSITION OPENED. As
noted last week, we opened on MOON.v last week and I
bought what I could early Tuesday. That turned out okay, as
the bidders kept bidding for the rest of the week and the
C$4.40 close puts us on the right side of this trade early on.
No worries either way and, as explained in today’s main
fundies section, this is planned to be a long-term holding.
10

Wesdome Gold (WDO.to): POSITION OPENED. Also as
noted in IKN862, we’re now live with a trading position in
Wesdome Gold (WDO.to) (WDOFF) and sure enough, I
managed to pay close to the maximum price on the week
before the Friday drop. To be honest, it felt inevitable to end
in the red this opening week. Unlike MOON.v (above), WDO
is planned as a near-term trade predicated on the stock
getting bought out (or at least trading as if it’s about to be
bought) in the next few months. Also, your author recognizes
his fat fingers on last week’s note and how the final sentence
was chopped at the moment a target price was mentioned,
leaving it rather suspenseful. Honestly you didn’t miss much,
there wasn’t much lost to my bad edit and that sentence finished by throwing out a ballpark-only target of “at
least C$30”.
Gold Royalty Corp (GROY): [Edited Monday]: Since opening on GROY in IKN825 dated March 9th, back
when it was unloved, underperforming and misunderstood, your author has been clear about the main risk
to this trade. This from the conclusion that day:
“Gold Royalty Corp (GROY) is living proof that even the worst management teams can make
a success of the royalty and streamer business model, all they need to do is keep their hands
off the controls, don’t get carried away by the G&A opportunities and allow revenues to catch
up with outlay.”
Up to last week, Garofalo and his assorted clowns had done exactly that and sticking to the plan of “no new
deals, pay down debt” in 2025. Hey, just days ago I even praised the guy for making good use of the
Shareholder Rights mechanism to defend against Tether, then using money raised by warrants exercises to
pay down debt. Right up to today (5) (6) (7):
Gold Royalty to Acquire Producing Pedra Branca Gold and Copper Royalty
Gold Royalty Announces US$70.0 Million Bought Deal Financing
Gold Royalty Announces Upsizing of Previously Announced Bought Deal Financing
To be totally fair, I’m not against the purchase of the royalty in question, as U$70m looks like a fair price for
a combo gold/copper royalty that for “…the 12 months ended June 30, 2025, the Royalty expense recorded
to the prior royalty holder was approximately $7.9 million, equivalent to approximately 2,800 gold equivalent
ounces (“GEOs”)* at an average gold price of
$2,811 per ounce.” I’m fine about paying
U$70m cash for that (let’s assume it’s good for
U$10m/year net at the new copper and gold
price decks, so the asset is going to work nicely
over life of mine) and I do at least understand
why GROY would upsize and raise implied gross
proceeds of U$103.5m in this bought deal (once
the overallotment is taken, which it will be. The
problem is that Garofalo is back touching the
dials when the best thing for this stock is to do
nothing and we have the ten day comparative
chart that proves it. If it were just the bought
deal it would have held the 4-handle but sure
enough, they had to upsize as well.
West Red Lake Gold (WRLG.v): The last two weeks in WRLG have been good ones, with WRLG even
managing to out-perform the GDXJ benchmark (at last) and all that’s a bit of a relief. The first part of Q4 saw
the stock under-perform and even as the team told us that the slowly-but-surely ramp up was on track, so it
was a bit of a head-scratcher.
11

The turn point seems to have been the publication of its 3q25 financials on November 25th, a moment we
documented the weekend before the results in IKN861 and then the weekend after in the IKN862 Market
Watching note last weekend, “West Red Lake Gold (WRLG.v) 3q25 financials”. We were expecting evidence
the ramp-up is going as expected, we got that and aside the identified concern in the stockpile draw down
and my personal calculation mistake around those (non cash) gold notes (see IKN862), it was decent set of
numbers. If our model is correct, WRLG will declare commercial production for January 1st 2026, we need to
watch out for overground inventory (which may knock on into lowered milled tonnage) but as long as those
data come in as per expected for Q4, the re-rate will be well and truly on. Our target price may only be
+50% or so from where we are today, but it should be an easy reach if commercial production is declared
and what’s more, should get there quickly in 2026 if so.
Arizona Metals Corp (AMC.to): The irony of watching
the biggest winner of our list come from the stock with
“HOLD” sat next to its name was not lost on your author.
We’re now entering prime Tax Loss Selling season and
we’ll be there for the next three weeks, which means I’m
not adding until the other side of the window and even
then, it will depend on the price offered. Today’s 62c isn’t
as much of a knock-down bargain as last weekend’s 56c
(duh), but it’s still cheap and with selling pressure
expected, the bargain hunt is very much still on.
Orecap Inv (OCI.v): The liquid-ish assets tracker doing its job and giving the overview of OCI’s carried
stocks:
OCI.v: Marketable Secs, Investments in Assocs, Cash
ticker shares owned(m) PPS valueC$m Cents/share
AE.v 10.72 0.50 5.36 2.2
ARIC.v 7.39 0.57 4.21 1.7
ARIC warrant 4.17 0.37 1.54 0.6
XXIX.v 23.637 0.13 3.07 1.2
AUME.v 42.75 0.07 2.99 1.2
MERG.v 1.025 0.59 0.60 0.2
MERG warrant 0.5125 0.14 0.07 0.0
ZIGY.cse 4.942 0.36 1.78 0.7
subtotal 19.63 7.9
Est.cash 0.03 0.0
Total 19.66 7.9c
At 248.332 S/O
The newsflow this week is mostly Auriginal (AUME.v), the new name and ticker for Kintavar which came into
operation midweek. No big price change for AUME yet, let’s see what the corporate revamp can do for its
market radar.
12

Minera Alamos (MAI.v): To cover mailbag from a handful of fellow MAI longs in one place, it hasn’t
escaped our collective attention that Minera Alamos insiders have been busy awarding themselves incentive
options since the publication of its 3q25 financials last week. to which I reply, “What else did you expect?”.
One of the most obvious traits of “New MAI” is the way they’ve been cutting the pie to suit the incoming
money, to the detriment of those of us who were in the stock before and when shareholders offered approval
of the change and voted up an incentive options program, did you really think they wouldn’t use it?
Be clear that’s not me getting all bitter and twisted, this is mere capitalism and the way the game is played.
It is symptomatic of my stated position for the last couple of months, however, the task here is to pick a spot
in early 2026 when the Pan re-rate has people optimistic about the company’s future, then sell and step
away.
The Copper Basket
After forty-nine weeks of 2025, The Copper Basket shows a gain of xxxx% to level stakes:
Shares out
company ticker price 1/1/25 (m) Market Cap current pps gain/loss%
1 SolGold (GBP) SOLG.l 6.92 3001.11 937.85 31.25 351.6%
2 Trilogy Metals TMQ.to 1.65 164.1 1053.52 6.42 289.1%
3 Atex Resources ATX.v 1.43 302.76 817.45 2.70 88.8%
4 Arizona Sonoran ASCU.to 1.47 174.6 728.08 4.17 183.7%
5 Aldebaran Res. ALDE.v 1.90 169.914 676.26 3.98 109.5%
6 Faraday Copper FDY.to 0.74 250.605 543.81 2.17 193.2%
7 Regulus Resources REG.v 2.05 124.659 436.31 3.50 70.7%
8 Hot Chili HCH.v 0.67 175.07 190.83 1.09 62.7%
9 Hercules Metals BIG.v 0.55 289.289 176.47 0.61 10.9%
10 Element 29 Res ECU.v 0.63 136.924 146.51 1.07 69.8%
11 Andina Copper ANDC.v 0.16 211.085 120.32 0.57 256.3%
12 American Eagle AE.v 0.69 173.377 86.69 0.50 -27.5%
13 Copper Giant CGNT.v 0.315 143.08 52.22 0.365 15.9%
14 XXIX Metal XXIX.v 0.11 304.79 39.62 0.13 81.2%
15 Kobrea Exploration KBX.cse 0.60 35.622 17.10 0.48 -20.0%
NB: All stocks in CAD$ except SolGold in GBP Portfolio avg 94.93%
It was Face-Rip Pert Deux last week, the basket average The Copper Basket 2025, weekly evolution
climbing another 16% and change to make the two 140%
120%
week improvement a wildly impressive 38.58%.
100%
Somehow we managed to have a loser among our 15,
80%
so the walk of shame for Hercules Metals (BIG.v), then
60%
one other was unchanged on the week (KBX.cse). That 40%
leaves 13 winners, with percentage moves that were 20%
headed by Copper Giant (CGNT.v up 19.7%) and 0%
followed by Hot Chili (HCH.v up 14.7%), Element 29 -20%
(ECU.v up 13.8%), Aldebaran (ALDE.v up 13.1%) and
Atex (ATX.v up 13.0%)
The driver of all this is, of course, the price of copper-the-metal. The three-month LME contract closed at
U$11,616/t (U$5.27/lb), with the cash delivery price at U$11,644/t, both record closes and both just inches
from the intraday records set on Friday. The world went bananas for copper last week and so far at least, our
call on copper from IKN862 last week…
 Play the December momentum
 Be wary of copper retracing in January and February 2026
 But stay bullish for the rest of 2026
13
ts1naJ ht5naJ ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2bef ht9 ht61 dr32 dn2raM ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht6rpA ht31 ht02 ht72 ht4yam ht11 ht81 ht52 ts1nuj ht8 ht51 dn22 ht92 ht6luj ht31 ht02 ht72 dr3gua ht01 ht71 ht42 ts13 ht7peS ht41 ts12 ht82 ht5tco ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2von ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht7ced
source: IKN calcs

…is on the money. Now let me be the first to dial back my own ego, note that a week isn’t much of a sample
and we’re still only on line one of that three-bullet reco, but there’s no doubt it fits what we saw all right.
For what it’s worth, every neuron I own connected with the task of math and numbers was screaming
“COPPER IS OVERBOUGHT!!!” in my mind’s ear all week, but the bits of my brain connected with memory
and previous momentum runs in metals came back with “AND IT CAN STAY OVERBOUGHT FOR A WHILE
LONGER”, so without claiming to have the exact timing down, I’m still good with the overall scenario
sketched out in those bullet points, above. It’s not whether copper tops out and reverses, it’s when.
However, we also need to wonder from what price it falls, as the way things are going this run could
challenge the U$6.00/lb line before Christmas comes around and we all forget about markets, sit around
open log fires and do all those traditional things we love to do at yuletide, such as argue with the in-laws and
watch Die Hard. The convergence of factors last week brought the buyers and speculators out. As
documented in previous editions, we have:
 Smelters in China fighting for concentrate and willing to close deal on negative TC/RC
 Supply disruptions from underperforming mines, suspended mines, etc
 Inventory draw downs in LME and now, finally, SHFE
 The build-up of stock in North America
 Weakness in the dollar
 A US monetary policy that's all for opening the spigot wider and providing more liquidity
 Industry rockstars pumping copper like there’s no tomorrow and opening the greed glands (and
wallets) of their audience
 Etc
Regarding that penultimate item, let's add Citigroup to the list of full-ahead copper pumpers documented at
the Shanghai gig the week before last (see IKN862), as Citi now forecasts copper at U$5.90/lb for the second
half of 2026 and a longer-term "perfect storm" upside of U$6.80/lb (U$15,000/t). That puts them in-line with
other houses such as Mercuria and Vampire Squid. You want to hear bullish copper narratives? You got em
and indeed, there aren’t many voices out there going “Yeah…well….hold on, because demand still isn’t great
y’know….and the Chinese New Year slack period is almost upon us…and this is a crowded trade now guys”.
There’s me for sure, but now there’s also the long-standing IKN Weekly mancrush, Andy Home of Reuters,
who on Friday morning published (8) “Will the real Doctor Copper please step forward?” I’ve taken the liberty
of reproducing the entire column in Appendix 1 below and for two reasons:
 It’s widely available on many free websites and you can read it easily enough without hitting any
type of paywall.
 It ties in all the factors this desk has been considering over the last few weeks into one,
beautifully written narrative op-ed. Not for the first time, I was left thinking this is how I’ll write
one day when I grow up.
So I urge you to go read it all in the appendix below, but here’s the top paragraph to whet your appetite:
LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Copper is on a bull surge with the price hitting record highs on both the
London and Shanghai markets this week.
14

Everyone's talking about a copper supply crunch. Physical premiums are soaring. Smelters are being
squeezed by a shortfall of mined concentrate.
Just to cap it all, London Metal Exchange (LME) stocks have just been raided, reducing available
inventory to below 100,000 metric tons for the first time since July.
Yet it's not as if the global manufacturing sector is similarly fired up. September saw activity contract
in China, Japan, Europe and, for the ninth consecutive month, the United States.
Tariff uncertainty hangs heavy on the world's largest manufacturing nations and it is also key to
understanding copper's current euphoria.
Copper's bull run is as much about market fracture as it is about a straightforward supply crunch.
Along with the note comes this chart (right),
showing USA’s copper import partners per
month over the last two and a half years. We
know Chile has always been a stalwart
provider of copper to The USA over the years
and we also know that it accelerated its
shipments as from mid-2025 due to the
Trump Tariff issue and also for lacklustre
demand in Asia (particularly for cathode), but
the most interesting data is the purple
columns I’ve annotated in white. That’s DRC
and as there’s only really one supplier with the
heft to send that amount of copper from DRC
in a sudden shift, it means the Robert Friedland Ivanhoe Mines (IVN.to) is at the centre of the supply glut in
North America. That’s also interesting because Friedland is one of the most vociferous public voice bulls on
copper this year, shouting from social media and appearing at no end of conferences, mainly with a view to
cajoling generalist money into the sector. Long story short, the person with control over many hundreds of
thousands of tonnes of copper and can decide where it goes is the same person squirreling it away in the US
Comex Roach Motel then making a lot of noise about a supply shortfall to Asia. Interesting.
In other words, you now have another reason to beware this monster run in copper. The advice remains the
same as last week, surf’s up so ride it for what it’s worth, but along with an overbought market we now have
growing evidence that it’s being pimped higher from the inside. These are big players doing big money
things, the speculative profits are massive but we’re also considering a metal that’s one of the basic and
necessary ingredients to the china growth story. As we’ve pointed out on no end of occasion, China has a
vested interest in paying as little as possible for its copper and U$5.40/lb not that, not even close. We should
be aware of how an overbought vehicle can stay overbought for longer than expected (JM Keynes’s "Markets
can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent” comes to mind), we should also recognize that
markets will eventually correct to equilibrium. Here’s a very rough and ready observation:
 The world expects the a copper supply deficit of around 300,000 tonnes for 2026
 Comex has warehoused an extra 321,000 metric tonnes of copper in its North America
warehouses in 2025
If you count that stored copper as “demand” you may have a counterargument, but even if it’s removed from
the open market it’s still there and somebody, somewhere can buy it and take it out of deep storage. The
copper market is being moved around by big money at the moment, the speculation is to the bullish side and
the price run has been extremely impressive, but there’s always a deeper pocket out there, always bigger
money that can sniff a market that’s bent out of shape and work out a way of making money from it. So
here’s another prediction; I still think this speculative bubble can expand further and copper prices can go
higher and as it does, we’ll get a steady stream of logical justifications for its higher prices BUT, when it
peaks out and reverses it will be on no news, the type of sharp drop that has the conspiracy theorists coming
out of the woodwork. That will be the moment when the bigger money takes its position against the current
flow of big money pushing copper higher, it’s not going to advertise its arrival and will leave others to search
for reasons. I’d also wager money that when it happens, the shorts will be sourced to China.
Enough SWAG on the next two months in copper prices, let’s move over to the weekly inventory check-up,
with data from Cochilco:
15

 It was a similar week to the week before, with a big up in tonnages at Comex, a small up at the
LME and a modest draw down at SHFE. Once the sums are done, the world’s three official world
copper futures systems last week added 9,616 metric tonnes (mt), also in the same ballpark as
last week. The total comes to 646,834mt, now for details.
 The second drop in copper stored in the Shanghai SHFE warehouses in as many weeks, which is
what it’s supposed to do as the year closes out. The draw down was 9,025mt, the Friday total is
88,905mt, the visual below shows you how that stacks up compared to other years. It’s good to
see copper leaving SHFE stores, but the relatively healthy level (for the time of year) means
we’re unlikely to see supply tightness. Then comes 2026 and we’ll see what we see.
 Another small add to top line LME copper stocks, with an aggregate of 3,125mt added to bring
the total to 162,550mt. However, the market chatter is all about the sudden jump in cancelled
warrants at ME, with this weekend the total cancelled warrants at 63,850mt and the implication
(but not the certainty) that those tonnes are about to leave LME and find its end user customer
or more likely, take a trip over the Atlantic to find a more expensive price in the USA.
 Meanwhile, the word is finally paying the attention to the Comex inventory build that it deserves.
This time around another 15kmt was added and the total comes to 395,379mt.
Our dedicated SHFE chart shows its inventory doing a normal thing for the time of year (at last), drawing
down as end users secure the copper they need for the next manufacturing season.
SHFE copper inventory levels, 2018 to 2025
400000
350000
300000
250000
200000
150000
100000
50000
0
16
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 01 11 21 31 41 51 61 71 81 91 02 12 22 32 42 52 62 72 82 92 03 13 23 33 43 53 63 73 83 93 04 14 24 34 44 54 64 74 84 94 05 15 25
MT Cu 2025
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
source: Cochilco data
Copper Giant (CGNT.v): Just to shows you how stupid I am sometimes, the stock I berated last week at
30c as wildly overbought and said it would “back down soon enough”…added another 20% and was the best
performer in the basket last week. I’m not wrong of course, just early.
(yes, Mark…anything you say, Mark)
American Eagle (AE.v): One of the major disappointments of the year, while watching the presentation
hosted on 6ix (9) “Discussion On Recent Results & Town Hall with Anthony Moreau & Neil Prowse” published
late last week (that got very few viewers), it occurred to this desk that AE.v is now a prime candidate for the
Tax Loss Selling rebound trade. If CEO
Moreau mentioned the company’s strong cash
position and balance sheet once in the first 15
minutes, he mentioned it seven times and
with newsflow on the way from NAK, plus a
geology team that’s going to make a new
effort to show how the project will host a
multi-billion tonne resource, the odds are
stacked in favour of a rebound once the
season is done. The only major negative for
speculation purposes I picked up from the
presentation is the announcement that they’re
not going to give us a 43-101 compliant
resource next year, preferring “not to limit

NAK in the minds of the market. Seems to me they’ve done that already in 2025, one look at the price chart
is enough.
The Producer Basket
After 49 weeks of 2025, the Producer Basket shows a gain of 128.82% to level stakes:
company ticker price 1/1/25 Shares out MktCap(U$Bn) current pps gain/loss%
1 Newmont NEM 37.22 1108 99.45 89.76 141.2%
2 Agnico Eagle AEM 78.21 502.579 84.85 168.83 115.9%
3 Barrick B 15.50 1705.994 70.01 41.04 164.8%
4 Franco-Nevada FNV 117.59 192.119 39.03 203.17 72.8%
5 Eldorado Gold EGO 14.87 201.275 6.26 31.10 109.1%
6 New Gold NGD 2.49 791.7 6.09 7.69 210.1%
7 B2Gold Corp BTG 2.44 1330.134 6.07 4.56 86.9%
8 OceanaGold OGC.to 11.94 231.127 5.83 35.55 197.7%
9 Sandstorm SAND 5.58 296.844 3.60 12.12 117.2%
10 Wesdome Gold WDOFF 8.98 149.891 2.32 15.50 72.6%
All prices and stock quotes in U$, except share price of OGC (in CAD$) Port. avg 128.82%
After the springy start to the week and a gold spot price that traded happily over U$4,200/oz for all but the
last hour of Friday, it may as a surprise to learn that the producer complex ended in the negative, with GDX
down 2.6%, GDXJ down 2.4% and GLD down 0.4% on the week. As a result, the receding tide showed in
most PM producers and all nine of our active stocks were losers on the week. Most of the drops were small,
with the only real outlier being New Gold (NGD down 7.9%) and all other losses between 0.7% and 3.2%.
We gained a couple of points back from the GDX in our annual race, but we’re still 10% behind and it’s surely
too little too late.
The 2025 Producer Basket: Weekly performance and
160% comparative to GDX control
140%
120%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Barrick (B) (ABX.to): The gossip fall-out from the ouster of Mark Bristow continues to run in Barrick, with
biz channels falling over themselves to get “exclusives” and this time, Canada’s Globe and Mail (10) dredged
up the ruling from a court case against Barrick earlier this year that included details of how “…chairman John
Thornton considered carving up the Canadian gold miner into three parts and selling off its African mines in
2018…but instead doubled down on the risky jurisdiction instead.” But for me what’s most interesting, in light
of the bad blood sacking of Bristow, is how a reporter gets directed to the case ruling by “who could possible
know” to a section that casts Thornton in a bad light while underscoring the benefits of what Bristow brought
to the table at the time: It continues:
At the time, Mr. Thornton was executive chair of Barrick and had operational control. With its shares
in the doldrums, he was under a lot of pressure to turn the company around. One way out of the
morass, as he saw it, was to break it up.
The split strategy, which came to light in a recent lawsuit against Barrick and Randgold Resources
Ltd., an African mining company that Barrick acquired in 2019, suddenly holds new weight. Seven
years on, Barrick is being pressed by an activist investor to split itself up, and this week the company
set in motion a process that could see that happen.
17
ts1naJ ht5naJ ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2bef ht9 ht61 dr32 dn2raM ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht6rpA ht31 ht02 ht72 ht4yam ht11 ht81 ht52 ts1nuj ht8 ht51 dn22 ht92 ht6luj ht31 ht02 ht72 dr3gua ht01 ht71 ht42 ts13 ht7peS ht41 ts12 ht82 ht5tco ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2von ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht7ced
The 2025 Producer Basket: Percentage diff. between
12% GDX benchmark & basket (negative= IKN ahead)
10%
ikn 8%
gdx control 6%
4%
2%
0%
source: IKN calcs
-2%
-4%
ts1naJ ht5naJ ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2bef ht9 ht61 dr32 dn2raM ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht6rpA ht31 ht02 ht72 ht4yam ht11 ht81 ht52 ts1nuj ht8 ht51 dn22 ht92 ht6luj ht31 ht02 ht72 dr3gua ht01 ht71 ht42 ts13 ht7peS ht41 ts12 ht82 ht5tco ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2von ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht7ced
source: IKN calcs, NYSE data

The revelation that Mr. Thornton considered breaking Barrick up in 2018 but then bulked up by buying
Randgold’s extensive African operations – a strategy that ultimately failed – sheds light on his
evolving plans for the company. Mr. Thornton, who was recruited by Barrick founder Peter Munk, has
been with the company since 2012.
The information came to light as part of the discovery process in a lawsuit filed against Barrick by one Ian
Hannam, “…a banker who sued the company, alleging he was owed US$18-million in fees for his work on the
Randgold deal, even though he was never formally hired as an adviser.” Eventually Hannam won U$2m plus
costs and left behind gossip that adds a little to the attempt by “some unknown people” to tar Thornton with
the same brush of blame for B’s under-performance over the years. However…
…the price chart tells us that getting rid of Bristow, listening to Paul Singer and now floating the idea of
splitting Barrick into two pieces “safe Barrick” (Americas) and “Risky Barrick “ (Africa and Reko Diq) had been
the right move. And like it or not, Thornton’s position had been downgraded to non-Exec chair in the final
part of Bristow’s tenure but since he’s been back calling the shots (via his mini-Me interim, Mark Hill) the
stock has out-performed all peers. Remember, just over six months ago Franco-Nevada (FNV) got to within
U$1Bn of the Barrick market cap and looked set to replace B as the #3 Pm company. So have a look at that
table above again, the gap is now U$31Bn.
New Gold (NGD) (NGD.to): Meanwhile, nobody
should be concerned about the outsized drop in
NGD as it goes through its merger (well, buyout
really) process with Coeur (CDE), it’s merely a case
of timing as it saw an outsized pop the Friday before
and simply corrected back to the norm last week.
The long-term chart vs GDX shows how NGD has
stayed lockstep with GDX over the last two months,
even through the acquisition announcement with
CDE.
The TinyCaps List
After 49 weeks of 2024, the TinyCaps show a gain of 39.88% to level stakes:
18

company ticker price 1/1/25 Shares out Mkt Cap current pps gain/loss%
Barksdale Res BRO.v 0.17 135.557 10.17 0.075 -55.9%
Condor Res CN.v 0.145 149.913 25.49 0.17 17.2%
Electrum Disc ELY.v 0.13 98.995 6.43 0.065 -50.0%
Endurance Gold EDG.v 0.145 176.296 46.72 0.265 82.8%
Kodiak Copper KDK.v 0.39 95.39 66.7 0.70 79.5%
Latin Metals LMS.v 0.08 121.915 24.38 0.20 150.0%
Mogotes Metals MOG.v 0.13 374.759 112.43 0.30 130.8%
Radius Gold RDU.v 0.085 107.554 16.67 0.155 82.4%
South Star STS.v 0.55 69.2 10.03 0.145 -73.6%
Viva Gold VAU.v 0.14 145.53 27.65 0.19 35.7%
Prices in CAD$, data from TSXV basket avg 39.88%
This section attempts to track the tinycap mining sub-sector of the market, our ten companies chosen under
the following criteria to put together a list representing the state of play in the sub-sector of tinycap
exploration company stocks. At least, that’s the plan.
 Market capitalization of under $25m They have to be tiny. In a couple of cases I’ve stretched the window a little and
allowed sub-U$25m market capper in, but the spirit is unaltered.
 A “non broken” stock price and project story. There are literally hundreds of tinycap juniors of the right size, our task is
to trawl through the TSXV and find companies that are small but with life in them. The vast majority of tinycap stocks are
broken stories, either traded to death on the exchange or with projects that are a bust or with entrenched management more
interested in their monthly paycheck than anything else.
 Likelihood of meaningful newsflow in 2025. This connects to the company’s “unbroken” status, as we
want news and potential catalysts from companies with projects that can work.
 Decent management if possible. When you are down among the little guys it doesn’t pay to be too choosy, but still I
preferred companies that have teams or people with good peer reputations.
A tired and decrepit TinyCaps List is dragging itself toward
60% TinyCaps, 2025 weekly tracker
the end of the year. The average lost 5.67% on the week,
50%
thanks to the headcount of five losers (CN.v, ELY.v, EDG.v,
40%
MOG.v, STS.v) versus just two winners (LMS.v, RDU.v), the
30%
other three of our ten remaining unchanged (BRO.v, KDK.v,
20%
VAU.v). Most of the moves were reasonably small, the
10%
biggest shift being the 13.3% lost by Electrum Discovery
0%
(ELY.v), which in itself was only a penny in real terms.
-10%
Kodiak Copper (KDK.v): Even though it’s up 80% on the
year and the maiden MRE didn’t impress (this desk, at
least), the way in which copper is moving and no end of bargain copper trades have been springing like
rabbits on heat suggests that KDK may be ready for higher prices. Our normal comparative in the copper
space is the main copper producers’ ETF (COPX), but on this one we’ve added the thinner traded Sprott
copper juniors ETF (COPJ) for an idea of how well the average copper exploreco has done in the last month
or so, the breach vs KDK around 33%.
19
ts1naJ ht5naJ ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2bef ht9 ht61 dr32 dn2raM ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht6rpA ht31 ht02 ht72 ht4yam ht11 ht81 ht52 ts1nuj ht8 ht51 dn22 ht92 ht6luj ht31 ht02 ht72 dr3gua ht01 ht71 ht42 ts13 ht7peS ht41 ts12 ht82 ht5tco ht21 ht91 ht62 dn2von ht9 ht61 dr32 ht03 ht7ced
source: IKN calcs, TSX data

MRE has more to come soon, as the current count only covers four of the seven zones at MPD and the
company has promised us the other three zones added by the end of this year. As stands, the project has
2.27Bn lbs Cu under 43-101 compliance (most inferred, as seen here)…
…and if we convert its market cap to USD, that’s around 2c/lb in situ. Not the cheapest out there, but still
very cheap for a project that’s moved along the development track in 2025 and is about to see more tonnes
added. I’m not saying KDK is my favourite way of playing this rampant bull market for the red metal, I am
saying that if utter dogs such as Alta, Copper Fox, Panoro, Oroco etc can rally the way they have recently
then this one can as well, at least it’s under a good management group and has a chance of getting its
permits. The
}
NB: Please be clear that The TinyCaps list is NOT a list of recommended tinycap stocks. It is a list of companies with market caps of
under $25m offering a reasonable representation of the wider tinycaps market. It’s possible in the future I may buy shares in one or
several of these stocks, at the moment both my opinion and wallet are strictly neutral.
Regional politics
Chile needs miners
Last week saw Chile’s major economic think tank, ‘Fundacion Chile’, publish its “Workforce Study of Chilean
Large Scale Mining” report, the tenth edition
of an annual series which this time around
covers the period 2025 to 2034. Get your free
57.7Mb PDF download from the website here
(11) and regale yourself in 148 pages of
professionally presented Spanish business
English.
The reason to mention the study here is the
report’s headline conclusion and the one
picked up by the country’s biz media, that
Chile’s large-scale mining companies will need
to incorporate nearly 37,000 new employees
from now to 2034 in order to cover its
expected growth plans. Here’s how the decent
mining sector media based in Chile (but
covering the South American region, one of
my preferred news sites), reported the story
(12) (translated):
Among its main findings is the notable
sustained workforce growth, which has
practically doubled in the last eight years from 105,000 workers in 2016 to 209,000 workers in 2024.
In addition, the need for almost 37,000 new workers is projected by 2034.
That might sound like a lot but as the big chart (above) from the
report points out, most of those 37k new mining people are needed
to replace old heads as they retire. All the same, the data also
indicates a growth in demand for mining personnel in Chile over the
next ten years, be that for new projects or the ageing of its current
employee roster (small chart right).
20

Argentina: The RIGI extension narrative begins
When Milei won big in the mid-terms, we expected knock-on effects for mining that include a more miner-
friendly Glacier Law and the extension of the “RIGI” Large-Scale Investment Incentive Regime. As noted a
couple of editions ago, the wheel s are already in motion for a law change that would loosen the regulations
around glacier and periglacier zones in the high Andes. Those changes are almost certainly going to go
through the next Congress when it forms in two weeks’ time and will be a subject of hot debate at the start
of 2026. Meanwhile, last week the second shoe dropped (or at least started to) when the country’s vice-
Minister of Mining and Energy dropped a large hint about extending RIGI. Here’s a report (13), here’s a
translation of the bit that matters:
The “RIGI” Large-Scale Investment Incentive Regime (Régimen de Incentivo a las Grandes
Inversiones) has is back in the limelight. The government is considering a deadline extension for RIGI
of one year, a move that only needs a presidential decree and one that could be announced in the
next few
weeks.
The idea comes from the mining sector. Its projects are long-term investment and several companies
will overrun the original deadline of July 2026, prompting them to formally request the extension
required by law.
During the “Gold, Silver, and Copper 2025” event, Vice Minister of Energy and Mining, Daniel
González, acknowledged the idea is under review. “RIGI is a success story, and its impact is already
being seen internationally,” he stated, although he clarified the final decision is with the President.
However, a follow-up question from the floor brought the biggest clue as to what was going to happen,
Señor González saying (14):
“We haven’t begun the conversation yet because (the current rules of ) RIGI are valid until July 8th 2026. I think
that we’re going to have to make a decision on whether to extend or not over the summer months.
And…
“If you asked me, my recommendation would be yes.”
As the aforementioned summer is the Buenos Aires variety, i.e. the vacation period that starts December 26th
and runs to the first week of March (easy life down there), that means we’re going to get news of an
extended RIGI from the President’s desk at the start of next year, take that to the bank.
Mexico: Mining sector concern with the new water law project
Just when you thought we’d get a little sanity in Mexico towards its mining industry, a new threat shows from
the government. To be fair it’s not just mining complaining about the new law National Waters Law project,
now being debated in the lower house of congress, as the agricultural sector is also concerned about the
consequences of some of the articles contained and how they may affect access and/or water rights for
large-scale users. However mining is worried and to do the heavy lifting, BN Americas wrote a note in English
so that I don’t have to translate the same information from national sources (15):
Mexico’s mining chamber (Camimex) warned that the amendment to Article 118 of the National Waters Law, currently under
debate in Congress, would cause “serious impacts” on mining operations and national security by limiting the construction of
essential infrastructure in broad areas of the country.
The chamber pointed out that the wording considered by the Chamber of Deputies would practically prevent the development
of facilities in mountainous regions, where the majority of formal mining operations are located. In a statement, it emphasized
that the industry “does not discharge, nor intends to discharge, toxic waste into channels or basins and their federal zones or
bodies of water under any circumstances.”
Camimex explained that the waste from mineral processing is managed with specialized infrastructure designed in accordance
with national regulations and aligned with strict international standards. It added that the construction of waste deposits and
works for the management of wastewater is essential to operate in a safe and responsible manner, and that their authorization
“does not imply the carrying out of discharges into bodies of water,” but rather compliance with works regulated and supervised
by the authority.
The organization warned that the prohibition set out in Article 118 would directly affect the operational continuity of the sector
and halt the production of essential metals and minerals. In addition, it argued that the measure "lacks foundation" and would
put at risk the economic activity of more than 3 million people who depend directly or indirectly on mining.
The chamber insisted that the legislation must clarify that mining waste is safely confined, take into account the country’s
complex geography—where current bans would be unfeasible—and recognize the need for authorizations and permanent
supervision for infrastructure located in federal areas, which is essential for environmental compliance.
The organization reiterated its willingness to collaborate with the federal government within a regulatory framework that is
“effective, sustainable, and aligned with national objectives.” It recalled that responsible mining provides strategic minerals and
is a pillar for the economy, competitiveness, and national and regional security.
The discussion is progressing as Congress enters the decisive phase to approve the new General Water Law and the reform
of the National Water Law before mid-December, in a context marked by concerns from farmers and well users about new
restrictions and greater state control.
21

The law project duly passed the Chamber of Deputies on Thursday and is now in the hands of the executive
to move into law. In response to criticisms from both the agro and mining world, the government stated it
had adapted some of the clauses in order to make them less onerous for large users, but the changes seem
to be aimed squarely at the agro sector (which briefly threatened a blockade of the country’s capital before
getting enough concessions from the Sheinbaum government) and Article 118 apparently remains as per and
unaltered. That’s a clear concern for the mining industry, as laid out by one Rubén del Pozo, president of the
Mexican Association of Mining, Metallurgical, and Geological Engineers (Asociación de Ingenieros de Minas,
Metalurgistas y Geólogos de México, AIMMGM), who said this at a presser after the law had passed (16)
(translated):
"In particular, Article 118 practically prohibits the construction of mining facilities in a large part of the
national territory, especially in mountainous regions where most operating mines are located,
particularly the new ones situated in highland areas.”
Ecuador: The “Tasa Minera” failure
When Ecuador under President Noboa began its new “Tasa Minera” (“Mining Levy” I suppose, for want of a
better translation), a payment based on concession areas held on a sliding scale of development status, the
government estimated it would bring around U$250m into the national coffers per year once up and running,
as well as U$100m in 2025. Proceeds from the new tax were to be offered to the government mining
oversight agency “ARCOM” Agencia de Regulación y Control Minero) as it was sorely in need of new funding
sources. Therefore, seeing the government budget just U$14.1m to ARCOM in its 2026 budget is a window
on how poorly the tax collection has gone. According to the Ecuador Chamber of Mining (CME) (17), between
companies deferring payments outright refusing to pay and also handing back concession areas in order to
avoid paying the tax, the plan has been a disaster and shows no sign of improving next year. CME President
María Eulalia Silva was quoted as follows (translated) (18):
“With this tax, Ecuadorian mining concessions have becoming the most expensive in the region, it’s
totally out of proportion.”
Ms. Silva also used the word “tax” to describe it, rather than the “tasa” (strict translation “rate” or simply
“payment”) to emphasize the issue. She also went on to say that while the government hasn’t offered hard
numbers, unofficially the CME had heard the Tasa Minera had received U$12m during its first six months of
operations.
Market Watching
Rio2 Ltd (RIO.to) buys a copper mine
Lo much for my idea of writing “deferred” her and getting the edition out at a reasonable time. This Monday
afternoon, our Top Pick Rio2 Ltd (RIO.to) dropped a small bombshell via this news release (19):
VANCOUVER, BC – Rio2 Limited (“Rio2” or the “Company”) (TSX: RIO; OTCQX: RIOFF; BVL: RIO)
today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement (the “Agreement”) with Southern
Peaks Mining L.P. (“Southern Peaks”) to acquire its 99.1% interest in the Condestable mine
(“Condestable Mine” or “Condestable”) located in Peru (the “Transaction”). Southern Peaks is a
private business that is owned by management and funds advised by Global Natural Resource
Investments.
We’ll be able to go into more detail next weekend once we have the supplementary prospectus, technical
report and the transaction deck. All those are scheduled to be filed to SEDAR on Wednesday and that will
give enough time to run the numbers, but we can consider the basic moving parts tonight:
 The deal terms
 The financing package
 An overview of the Condestable mine
We begin with the deal terms and let’s start by quoting from the NR again:
On closing, Southern Peaks will receive total upfront consideration of US$180 million, including
US$80 million in cash, US$65 million in vendor debt financing and approximately US$35 million in
common shares of Rio2 (each a “Rio2 Common Share”). Southern Peaks will also receive total
22

deferred consideration of US$37 million, payable between 2027 and 2030, for total consideration of
US$217 million, implying a Transaction enterprise value of approximately US$241 million, including
the assumption of approximately US$24 million of net debt (as at September 30, 2025).
My first reaction when seeing the ticket price of U$217m was “not expensive”, as Condestable is known to be
a well run and profitable mine that must be benefiting greatly for the copper price run in 2025, The terms of
the deal look buyer-friendly too, here are the bullet point as seen further down the NR:
 US$80 million in cash (the “Cash Consideration”) on closing;
 US$65 million aggregate principal amount of vendor debt financing (“Vendor Debt”);
 approximately 21.9 million Rio2 Common Shares on closing, representing US$35 million;
and
 total deferred consideration of US$37 million (the “Deferred Consideration”), on the following
schedule:
o US$5 million on or before December 31, 2027;
o US$10 million on or before December 31, 2028;
o US$5 million on or before December 31, 2029; and
o US$17 million on or before December 31, 2030.
The main hurdle for RIO.to is getting U$80m in cash together, as it’s notable Southern Peaks is happy to
remain part of the mine’s future via both debt and equity in RIO.to. The deferred consideration portion also
lends itself to easy terms for the buyer and vested interest for the seller.
As for the financing package put together by RIO.to there are three main parts aside the shares going to
Southern Peaks, so in ascending order of importance
 A U$10m private placement, on the same terms as the bought deal (i.e. C$2.20/share) that’s
destined for Peruvian investors and being run by Peruvian brokerage Kallpa.
 The U$65m vendor debt, directly with Southern Peaks. This comes in two tranches, with U$55m
main note bearing interest of around 8% to 9% annual over six years, then a U$10m mezzanine
at a more expensive 13% to 15%. The repayment schedule looks easy enough, but it will be a
significant addition of debt to the balance sheet.
 A bought deal, which was originally slated to raise U$100 via the sale of 63.06m shares (no
warrant) at C$2.22 apiece but was almost immediately in tonight’s second NR from the company
(20)
VANCOUVER, BC – Rio2 Limited (“Rio2” or the “Company”) (TSX: RIO; OTCQX: RIOFF; BVL: RIO) is pleased
to announce that due to strong investor demand, the Company, Raymond James Ltd., (“Raymond James”),
Stifel Nicolaus Canada Inc. (“Stifel”), and BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. (“BMO”), the co-lead underwriters and joint
bookrunners (collectively, the “Underwriters”) have upsized the previously announced “bought deal” financing
from C$140 million to approximately C$166 million, or approximately US$120 million (the “Equity Financing”).
Under the Equity Financing, the Underwriters have agreed to purchase, on a “bought deal” basis, 74,865,000
Subscription Receipts of the Company (“Subscription Receipts”) at a price of $2.22 per Subscription Receipts
(the “Issue Price”) for gross proceeds of C$166,200,300.
Once the deal was announced, my first reaction was to reach out to RIO.to Chair Alex Black and get some
lowdown on the deal. Once the pleasantries and just minutes after the NR dropped, he told me the bought
deal had already fully filled and the book had been “hugely oversubscribed” (direct quote). At that point he
was firm about holding the bought deal to the original size, so seeing the upsize come in a few hours later
must be more about large backers insisting on getting more than a small percentage in their allocation. For
sure the money will be useful, but it’s certainly not needed and the impression is that RIO.to felt obliged to
keep a few deep pockets onside and happy. There’s a 15% overallotment facility along with the upsized deal,
so assuming that fully fills (and at this point it would be a shock if it didn’t), that means another 86,094,750
shares are added to the share count. This upsize number seems to have been carefully chosen, as it comes
out at just under 20% of shares get added to the current count; if they’d gone above 20% the deal would
have required a shareholder vote.
RIO.v: Shares out
Regarding the share count, once we add together the
Southern Peaks shares, the Kallpa private placement and
the assumed fully filled bought deal and overallotment
facility, here right is a visual on how we expect the
company share count to land. At a final total of 544.18m
shares, that’s an add of 26.6% to the share count at end
23
34.181 83.281 71.091 17.091 95.991 78.991 43.452 43.452 96.652 15.752 15.752 65.752 46.752 83.852 57.852 32.952 75.952 6.813 6.813
73.624 95.624 85.724 78.924
81.445
550
500
450
400
350
300
250
200 150
100
50
0
02q1 02q2 02q3 02q4 12q1 12q2 12q3 12q4 22q1 22q2 22q3 22q4 32q1 32q2 32q3 32q4 42q1 42q2 42q3 42q4 52q1 52q2 52q3 52q4
M s/o
source: company filings

3q25 and at the implied deal price of C$2.22, puts the company market cap at C$1.208Bn (Approx U$870m).
As for the mine itself, Condestable has changed hands over the years but for the last 12, has been owned
and operated by Southern Peaks and in that time has complied to the old adage “no news is good news”. A
regular, well run and profitable operation, when Southern Peaks to it over it was a 7,000tpd underground
mine that had already seen nearly 50 years of operations and while it officially has a resource life of around
12 years left, the exploration upside potential is extremely high and it’s most likely to have another 50 years
to run. Southern Peaks upped the through to 8,400tpd in 2022 and it’s run at that rate ever since. That puts
annual annual throughout at a little over 3m tonnes. Copper grade runs around 0.8% and recoveries are in
the high 90s percent, so the basic math checks out. Add in the gold and silver kickers and the reported
25,000 to 27,000 tonnes of copper equivalent production per year is right in the ballpark:
(8,400tpd = 3.06m t/year X 0.8% Cu grade X 95% recoveries = 23,300 tonnes copper)
Regarding the gold and silver by-products there’s an important benefit to mine economics starting next year.
In 2021, Franco-Nevada paid Southern Peaks U$165m for what is basically 100% of annual production (21):
“Franco-Nevada will receive deliveries of 8,760 ounces of gold and 291,000 ounces of silver annually until
December 31, 2025, followed thereafter by variable deliveries based on a percentage of gold and silver in
concentrate. Franco-Nevada will pay 20% of the spot price for gold and silver for each ounce delivered under the
stream agreement.”
As from January 1st 2026, that stream drops to 66% for the next five years, thereafter 37%. Here’s how that
change in stream improves the mine revenue:
Model year 2025: Gold U$4,000/oz Silver U$40/oz, FNV pays 20% of spot for 100% of production:
8,760 oz gold = U$7.01m to Condestable
291,000 oz silver = U$2.33m to Condestable
Total revenues to mine from precious metals: U$9.34m
Model year 2026: Gold U$4,000/oz Silver U$40/oz, FNV pays 20% of spot for 66% of production:
8,760 oz gold = U$16.54m to Condestable
291,000 oz silver = U$5.494m to Condestable
Total revenues to mine from precious metals: U$22.03m
That’s nearly U$13m in extra revenue to add to the 51m lbs of copper it currently produces at an AISC of
around U$2.50/lb, so in ballpark terms with copper flying high, this mine could easily bring RIO.to an EBIT of
over U$100m per year. There’s also the clear potential to expand operations and one of the takeaways of the
conversation with RIO.to chair Black this evening was the company’s interest in applying for a modification to
the Condestable EIA (modifications of EIAs at working mines are not the bureaucratic nightmare that other
EIAs go though in Peru and are often quickly expedited) and raising throughput to 12,000tpd, a move that
would come with obvious scale advantages. That would be a medium-term plan, and something that could
happen in the next two years, by then we’ll have Fenix up and running to supply all the cash flow it would
ever need.
The bottom line: Tomorrow will likely to see a price sag from its new ATH set today, that due to the ticket
price of the bought deal and share portion of price RIO.to is paying Southern Peaks, but I doubt it will sink
too far and once the world sees the benefits of this mine for RIO.to, I think it will come around and agree
with this desk that RIO.to has picked up a real bargain in Condestable. It’s a well-established operation with a
good reputation locally, the RIO.to team has all the expertise it will ever need about operating in Peru, the
cash flow at current metals price is very attractive and the deal terms are not a stretch for our Top Pick. The
big phase shift is a gold miner moving into an operation where 80% of revenues comes from copper, that
may cause some issues with some holder but with Fenix about to become a producer in January and scale up
to 100,000 oz/year by the end of 2026, the imbalance won’t last very long and RIO.to will still be regarded as
a precious metals name.
I’m as keen as the next person to see how the open market digest this turn of events, as the “hugely
oversubscribed” nature of the bought deal may turn into open market appetite for shares that the deep
pocketed players regard as a true bargain at C$2.22. But whatever happens tomorrow, my first impressions
of this deal are very positive, RIO.to has bought a strongly profitable and well run mine in a jurisdiction it
24

knows and likes, the fit is the right size to complement its flagship Fenix and provide meaningful cash flow to
the company. This is a good deal at a good price, as long as the market can get over the fact it’s in copper
rather than gold.
Conclusion
IKN863 is done, we end with bullet points:
 The more I think about American Eagle (AE.v), the more tempted I am to add immediately and make it
my first Tax Loss Selling rebound trade of the season. In fact, I’m kind of sheepish that it didn’t occur to
me before, it feels as though the trade set-up has been hiding in plain sight. It wouldn’t be the first time
I’ve broken my own rule on a temporary basis and held 21 stocks for a while, rather than 20.
 Copper is hot this December and the world continues to talk it up. My concerns are more about what it
does January.
 Blue Moon Metals (MOON.v) is a prime example of the type of junior miner I like to sponsor. A good plan
put together by good people, the potential to grow and from seed to full maturity. The starter position is
in, I’ll be happy to pay up for the next tranche if required.
 Top Pick Rio2 Ltd (RIO.to) pulled one out of Left Field today and getting to write it up on a Monday
evening reminds me that maybe I should indeed change the publishing date once and for all.
I thank you in advance for any feedback. Our Top Pick stock is Rio2 Ltd (RIO.v). Flash updates will be sent if
required by events.
I wish you good trading fortune, ladies and gentlemen. Best wishes, Mark.
Footnotes, appendices, references, disclaimer
(1) https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2025/12/fomc-preview-25bps-rate-cut-expected.html
(2) https://bluemoonmetals.com/investors/corporate-presentation/
(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5rM4tZqQyE
(4) https://bluemoonmetals.com/blue-moon-metals-secures-up-to-us140-million-project-finance-package-from-hartree-oaktree-to-
advance-flagship-nussir-project-in-norway/
(5) https://www.goldroyalty.com/news/news-releases/gold-royalty-to-acquire-producing-pedra-branca-gold-and-copper-royalty
(6) https://www.goldroyalty.com/news/news-releases/gold-royalty-announces-us700-million-bought-deal-financing
(7) https://www.goldroyalty.com/news/news-releases/gold-royalty-announces-upsizing-of-previously-announced-bought-deal-financing
(8) https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/will-real-doctor-copper-please-step-forward-2025-12-05/
(9) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmUtx_NYInw
(10) https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-barrick-mining-split-2018-john-thornton-randgold-resources/
(11) https://fch.cl/publicacion/estudio-de-fuerza-laboral-de-la-gran-mineria-chilena-2025-2034/
(12) https://energiminas.com/2025/12/04/chile-necesitara-37000-nuevos-trabajadores-en-mineria-al-2034/
(13) https://lu17.com/contenido/109112/el-gobierno-evalua-extender-el-rigi-y-reabre-el-debate-minero-en-pleno-verano-po
(14) https://mase.lmneuquen.com/politica/daniel-gonzalez-aborda-el-futuro-del-rigi-una-prorroga-mas-alla-2026-n1220036
(15) https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/camimex-warns-of-operational-risks-due-to-reform-to-the-water-law
(16) https://periodicocorreo.com.mx/vida-publica/2025/dec/05/nueva-ley-de-aguas-restringe-mineria-y-amenaza-autosuficiencia-en-
minerales-advierte-especialista-145183.html
(17) https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/economia/mineria-control-arcom-ingresos-casi-sin-cambios-para-2026-pese-tasa-minera-
ecuador-nota/
25

(18) https://www.primicias.ec/economia/ecuador-tasa-minera-devolucion-concesiones-empresas-gobierno-recaudacion-noboa-110854/
(19) https://www.rio2.com/post/rio2-expands-in-latin-america-with-the-acquisition-of-the-producing-condestable-mine
(20) https://www.rio2.com/post/rio2-announces-upsize-of-previously-announced-bought-deal-financing-to-c-166-million
(21) https://www.torys.com/en/work/2021/03/3f614640-fd3c-423d-821b-91949eb27c52
Appendix 1: Andy Home column dated December 5th
LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Copper is on a bull surge with the price hitting record highs on both the London and
Shanghai markets this week.
Everyone's talking about a copper supply crunch. Physical premiums are soaring. Smelters are being squeezed by
a shortfall of mined concentrate.
Just to cap it all, London Metal Exchange (LME) stocks have just been raided, reducing available inventory to
below 100,000 metric tons for the first time since July.
Yet it's not as if the global manufacturing sector is similarly fired up. September saw activity contract in China,
Japan, Europe and, for the ninth consecutive month, the United States. Tariff uncertainty hangs heavy on the
world's largest manufacturing nations and it is also key to understanding copper's current euphoria.
Copper's bull run is as much about market fracture as it is about a straightforward supply crunch.
FEAST...
This week's raid on LME copper stocks saw 54,350 tons, around a third of registered inventory, cancelled in
preparation for physical load-out.
It's highly likely this metal is destined either for the United States or to fill a supply-chain gap caused by other units
heading that way.
The United States is now the market of first resort for copper thanks to the lingering threat of import tariffs.
A decision on whether to extend tariffs on copper products to refined metal has been deferred until the middle of
next year.
But the CME U.S. copper contract is still commanding a hefty premium over the international price traded on the
LME, keeping the physical arbitrage window wide open.
U.S. imports of refined copper more than doubled year-on-year to 1.19 million tons in January-August and more
will arrive as long as the CME premium covers the shipping costs. Which at around $500 per ton on a three-month
forward basis it more than comfortably does.
CME stocks, all customs-cleared, have mushroomed from 85,000 tons at the start of the year to 394,000 tons and
now account for 55% of global exchange inventory.
There is no copper supply crunch in the United States and there's not going to be one any time soon.
...AND FAMINE
But there is growing tightness everywhere else in the world as metal continues to gravitate towards the United
States.
That's why producers have been able to demand record premiums for deliveries next year.
Chilean producer Codelco has hiked its European premium by 39% to $345 per ton over the LME price and is
pushing for $350 per ton for Chinese buyers, who find themselves in the unfamiliar position of being second in line
in the copper delivery queue.
Indeed, China itself has been caught up in the physical copper scramble.
The mass relocation of copper inventory to the United States has extended to China's bonded warehouse zones
with 128,000 tons re-exported to the United States since February, according to Chinese customs.
Chinese producers have also been lifting deliveries to LME warehouses as a tightening London market opens up
an export arbitrage window.
Chinese-brand copper accounted for 82% of LME registered stocks at the end of October, up from 51% at the
start of January.
Yet even as global inventory is reshuffled, total exchange stocks are rising, closing November above the 700,000-
ton mark for the first time since early 2020.
There is no global shortage of copper but there is a widening split between the U.S. market and the rest of the
world. It's captured by the CME and LME forward curves - in comfortable contango and widening backwardation
respectively.
'MALIGNANT COMPETITION'
The splintering of the copper market is not just geographical but also internal.
China has brought too much smelting capacity online in too short a time for the world's mines to supply, a
mismatch compounded by this year's litany of disruption at some of the world's largest mines such as Grasberg in
Indonesia.
The result is a crisis of smelter profitability. Spot processing fees have been trading at negative levels for months,
meaning smelters are giving away for free what should be a core revenue stream.
Several Western smelters have closed and the Chinese smelter sector is now confronted with the hangover from
its previous exuberance in the form of potentially negative fees for next year's annual contracts.
The China Smelters Purchase Team, comprising the country's top-ten producers, has pledged to reduce
production by 10% to help stabilise the raw materials market.
26

It will also monitor members' spot market activity to prevent what it called "malignant competition" between
smelters for concentrate.
Collective cutback announcements are standard operating procedure for China's metal smelters whenever the
going gets tough but the impact has as often as not been less than promised.
The announcement, though, is evidence of a dysfunctional raw materials market. The current annual benchmark
pricing model is at risk of splintering into multiple short-term and binary deals under the pressure.
This injects another level of uncertainty into an already complex copper pricing picture.
So is the world facing an imminent copper supply crunch?
Well, it depends very much on which Doctor Copper you ask. But none of them is saying much about the state of
global manufacturing right now.
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2024
CLOSED TRADES IN 2024 date closed close price
Amerigo Res ARG.to Jan'24 C$1.36 12-Dec-21 C$1.34 -1.5% reduced Cu exposure
Fortuna Silver FSM Jan'24 U$2.92 13-Aug-23 U$3.09 3.4% Time ran out on NT trade
Argonaut Gold AR.to Jan'24 C$0.42 17-Dec-23 C$0.395 -6.0% NT specflip closed on poor Q4
Equinox Gold EQX May'24 U$4.42 30-May-23 U$5.57 26.0% Took sm.profit, disappointing
Adventus Mining ADZN.v May'24 C$0.305 7-Jan-24 C$0.445 45.9% bot out, nice win
SolGold SOLG.to May'24 C$0.22 19-Feb-23 C$0.165 -25.0% ran out of patience
Western Copper WRN.to July'24 C$1.57 26-Feb-24 C$1.53 -2.5% Sold on regional risk
Contango Ore CTGO Sep'24 U$18.70 30-Jul-23 U$20.23 8.2% Port rebalance sale
Florida Can. Gold FCGV.v Oct'24 C$0.63 21-Jul-24 C$0.71 12.7% failed trade with a lucky win
Bear Creek Min BCM.v Oct'24 C$0.35 10-Jun-24 C$0.67 91.4% took profits on spec trade
American Eagle AE.v Oct'24 C$0.43 25-Aug-24 C$0.69 69.8% taking profit on NT flip
SilverCrest Met SILV Nov'24 U$6.90 31-Mar-24 U$9.76 41.4% sold on CDE buyout
Newcore Gold NCAU.v Nov'24 C$0.205 23-Oct-22 C$0.32 56.1% sold on advisor appt
Aldebaran Res. ALDE.v Dec'24 C$0.72 16-May-21 C$2.11 193.1% closed trade, took profits
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2023
CLOSED TRADES IN 2023 date closed close price
Altiplano Metals APN.v jan'23 C$0.31 17-Set-21 C$0.17 -45.2% delayed and will dilute soon
Western Copper WRN.to mar'23 C$2.02 13-Nov-22 C$2.32 14.9% sold on reduced M&A prob.
Chesapeake Gold CKG.v may'23 C$3.07 20-Feb-22 C$1.75 -43.0% Closing on legal action news
Amerigo Res ARG.to may'23 C$1.36 12-Dic-21 C$1.48 8.8% sold 20% to raise cash
Amerigo Res ARG.to oct'23 C$1.36 12-Dic-21 C$1.21 -11.0% sold 10% raise to cash
QC Copper&Gold QCCU.v oct'23 C$0.265 25-Abr-21 C$0.12 -54.7% sold raise to cash
Faraday Copper FDY.to oct'23 C$0.79 26-Mar-23 C$0.68 -11.4% sold raise to cash
AbraSilver Res. ABRA.v oct'23 C$0.36 4-Dic-22 C$0.28 -22.2% sold raise to cash
Orecap inv OCI.v oct'23 C$0.04 20-Nov-22 C$0.03 -25.0% sold raise to cash
Western Explor. WEX.v nov'23 C$1.87 9-Abr-23 C$0.60 -67.9% poor trade, cutting loss
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2022
Closed in 2022 date closed close price
Great Bear Res GBR.v Jan'22 C$15.83 26-Aug-20 C$28.58 80.5% Bought out by Kinross, print
Copper Mountain CMMC.to Jan'22 C$3.40 18-Jun-21 C$3.78 15.9% Sold 1/2 position in rebalance
Copper Mountain CMMC.to Feb'22 C$3.40 18-Jun-21 C$3.70 8.8% Sold rest on FY22 guidance
Trilogy Metals TMQ Mar'22 U$1.84 15-Sep-19 U$1.04 -41.3% killed by US permit reversal
McEwen Mining MUX Apr'22 U$0.89 2-Jan-22 U$0.82 -7.9% No 2022 turnaround, cut loss
Abrasilver Res. ABRA.v May'22 C$0.42 24-Apr-22 C$0.33 -21.4% sold to reduce Ag exposure
Strategic Metals SMD.v May'22 C$0.42 31-Jan-21 C$0.30 -28.6% trade flatlined 1.5 years
Discovery Silver DSV.v Jun'22 C$1.77 24-Oct-21 C$1.39 -21.5% Cutting Ag exp.& raising cash
Element 29 ECU.v Jul'22 C$0.58 6-Mar-22 C$0.30 -48.3% sold to cut Cu exposure
Superior Gold SGI.v Oct'22 C$0.95 3-Apr-22 C$0.24 -74.7% Q3 prod fail was last straw
Goldshore Res GSHR.v Nov'22 C$0.18 23-Oct-22 C$0.34 88.9% Quick profit taken
27

Palamina Corp PA.v Dec'22 C$0.295 21-Nov-21 C$0.08 -72.9% Clear-out of underperformer
Pure Gold PGM.h Dec'22 C$0.14 26-Sep-22 C$0.015 -89.3% tiny trade on vh risk, went Ch11
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2021
Closed in 2021 closed close price
Fiore Gold F.v jan'21 C$0.98 21-May-20 C$1.17 19.4% closed as part of rebalance
Norsemont Min NOM.cse feb'21 C$1.55 6-Sep-20 C$0.70 -54.8% Cut loser to reduce Au exp.
Element 29 Res ECU.v feb'21 C$0.49 7-Feb-21 C$0.54 10.2% Cut Peru exposure
Kuya Silver KUYA.cse feb'21 C$1.66 8-Nov-20 C$2.51 51.2% Cut Peru exposure
Pucara Gold TORO.v apr'21 C$0.65 4-Oct-20 C$0.26 -60.0% Cut loser, Peru risk call
Copper Mountain CMMC.to apr'21 C$1.40 22-Nov-20 C$4.18 198.6% tgt hit, profit taken
New Gold NGD may'21 U$0.76 9-Feb-20 U$2.14 181.6% Sold to buy AGC, nice win
Orezone Gold ORE.v jun'21 C$0.79 21-Jun-20 C$1.61 103.8% sold on pop, leaky boat
Wolfden Res. WLF.v sep'21 C$0.30 11-Apr-21 C$0.19 -36.7% Failed spec trade, cut loss
Cartier Res ECR.v sep'21 C$0.32 21-Mar-21 C$0.235 -26.6% Failed spec trade, cut loss
Amarillo Gold AGC.v sep'21 C$0.31 30-May-21 C$0.30 -3.2% Capex story changed: Out
Excelsior Mining MIN.to oct'21 C$0.93 10-Mar-19 C$0.53 -43.0% May return in 2022
Royal Road Min. RYR.v nov'21 C$0.155 17-Mar-19 C$0.275 77.4% Closed on Nica pol risk
Aurelius Min. AUL.v dec'21 C$0.75 28-Jun-20 0.24 -68.0% cut end 2021, failed trade
Argonaut Gold AR.to dec'21 C$2.95 25-Jun-21 C$2.15 -27.1% cut on capex blowout
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2020
Closed in 2020 closed close price
TMAC Resources TMR.to Jan'20 C$3.41 20-Dec-19 C$3.61 5.9% TLS flip play, sold new year
Regulus Res REG.v Jan'20 C$1.10 20-Dec-19 C$1.30 18.2% TLS flip play, profit taken
Bonterra Res BTR.v Jan'20 C$1.90 9-Dec-19 C$1.66 -12.6% TLS flip play, loss taken
McEwen Mining MUX Jan'20 U$1.12 2-Dec-19 U$1.18 5.4% TLS flip play, profit taken
Core Gold CGLD.v Jan'20 C$0.255 7-Apr-19 C$0.305 19.6% arb trade, profit taken
HudBay Min HBM Jan'20 U$3.56 9-Dec-19 U$3.36 -5.6% TLS flip play, loss taken
Midas Gold MAX.to Feb'20 C$0.71 5-Jan-20 C$0.57 -19.7% sm & silly trade
Warrior Gold WAR.v Feb'20 C$0.08 3-Aug-18 C$0.05 -31.3% clean out non-perf sm stocks
Contact Gold C.v Feb'20 C$0.40 19-Aug-18 C$0.18 -55.0% clean out non-perf sm stocks
Sandstorm Gold SAND Feb'20 U$3.73 17-Apr-16 U$7.21 93.3% Sold during port rebalance
NexGen Energy NXE Feb'20 U$1.20 2-Dec-19 U$1.06 -11.7% TLS flip play, loss taken
MAG Silver MAG Apr'20 U$8.95 1-Mar-20 U$10.07 12.5% Sold to cut silver exposure
Alexco Res AXU Apr'20 U$1.69 7-Sep-17 U$1.69 0.0% sold to close Ag exp. in FY20
Bonterra Res BTR.v Jun'20 C$1.62 2-Feb-20 C$1.10 -32.1% under-performer cash moved
Regulus Res REG.v Jun'20 C$0.64 6-Apr-15 C$0.79 23.4% moved $ TMQ/MIN & Au stocks
Great Panther GPR.to Aug'20 C$0.60 21-Jun-20 C$1.10 83.3% Profit taken, good trade
Jaguar Mining JAG.v Aug'20 C$0.42 21-Jun-20 C$0.65 54.8% Profit taken, good trade
Sandstorm Gold SAND Aug'20 U$7.76 10-May-20 U$9.37 20.7% Profit taken, good trade
Integra Resources ITR.v Aug'20 C$2.23 13-Aug-18 C$5.40 142.2% Profit taken, good trade
Wesdome Gold WDO.to Aug'20 C$2.37 14-Oct-17 C$14.82 525.3% last 1/2 of big win closed
INV Metals INV.to Sep'20 C$0.40 17-May-20 C$0.45 12.5% Cut all Ecuador exposure
Cartier Resources ECR.v Nov'20 C$0.155 3-Aug-18 C$0.25 67.7% Exact close price TBA
Tinka Res TK.v Dec'20 C$0.195 19-Apr-16 C$0.195 0.0% Closed on a round trip fail
2015 to 2019 annual closed positions in appendices below, 2009 to 2014 closed positions in editions IKN553 or earlier
28

Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2019
Closed in 2019 closed close price
Atico Mining ATY.v jan'19 C$0.55 24-Jul-16 C$0.32 41.8% patience ran out, made room
Candente Copper DNT.to jan'19 C$0.075 3-Aug-18 C$0.05 -33.3% tiny trade, made room for new
B2Gold BTO.to feb'19 C$2.11 12-Sep-14 C$4.05 91.9% Took 1/2 profits, reduce size
Western Copper WRN.to mar'19 C$0.80 20-Jan-19 C$0.81 1.3% Spec trade that didn't work
B2Gold BTO.to mar'19 C$2.11 12-Sep-14 C$4.15 96.7% Took rest of profit.
GT Gold GTT.v mar'19 C$1.17 10-Oct-18 C$0.90 -23.1% Took loss. Story changed
NovaGold NG apr'19 U$3.84 13-Jan-19 U$4.15 -8.1% Short that didn't work, sm loss
Zinc One Z.v jun'19 C$0.47 14-Sep-17 C$0.025 -94.7% clearing out dead trade
Amarillo Gold AGC.v jun'19 C$0.24 22-Aug-18 C$0.20 -16.7% clearing out dead trade
New Gold NGD aug'19 U$1.44 31-Jul-19 U$1.23 14.6% ST short win thru Q2 earnings
IMPACT Silver IPT.v aug'19 C$0.39 21-Jul-19 C$0.46 18.0% took a quick profit
Fiore Gold F.v aug'19 C$0.34 26-May-19 C$0.56 64.7% Took profit, 2q19 avg
Chakana Copper PERU.v oct'19 C$0.84 22-Mar-18 C$0.16 -81.0% Exploreco trade fail. Want space
Wesdome Gold WDO.to oct'19 C$2.37 14-Oct-17 C$7.57 219.4% Sold half, profit taking
Superior Gold SGI.v oct'19 C$1.46 8-Apr-18 C$0.47 -67.8% Failed sm spec on Au. Moved on
Amerigo Res ARG.to nov'19 C$0.91 23-Sep-18 C$0.50 -45.1% worst trade of year, hefty loss
Guyana Goldfields GUY.to dec'19 C$0.94 14-Apr-19 C$0.56 -40.4% taking the loss, financials weak
Tethyan Res TETH.v dec'19 C$0.30 8-Sep-19 C$0.16 -46.7% tiny trade, word of probs in co
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2018
Closed in 2018 closed close price
Amarillo Gold AGC.v jan'18 C$0.38 24-Mar-17 C$0.31 -18.4% Cut away losing trade
Riverside Res RRI.v jan'18 C$0.39 27-Jun-16 C$0.31 -20.5% Cut away losing trade
Eros Res ERC.v jan'18 C$0.175 1-Mar-17 C$0.16 -8.6% CEO sudden exit, not good
Excellon Res EXN.to jan'18 C$1.54 9-Oct-16 C$1.66 7.8% 4q17 poor, one too many bad qtrs
Wesdome Gold WDO.to jan'18 C$1.68 15-Dec-17 C$2.06 22.6% Near-term trade block, took profit
Sabina G&S SBB.to apr'18 C$2.06 17-Dec-17 C$1.77 -14.1% Near-term trade, bad timing, small
B2Gold BTO.to May'18 C$2.11 12-Sep-14 C$3.67 73.9% sold 25% to reduce exposure
Lara Expl. LRA.v May'18 C$0.65 11-Feb-18 C$0.58 -13.8% Spec on Brazil didn't work
Solitario XPL June'18 U$0.72 19-Mar-17 U$0.41 -43.1% Failed trade, may return in 4q18
SolGold plc SOLG.to July'18 C$0.475 19-Nov-17 C$0.415 -12.6% cut, trade didn't perform
Pan American PAAS July'18 U$17.90 1-Jun-18 U$16.30 8.9% modest win on short position
NGEx Res NGQ.to Sep'18 C$1.01 22-Oct-17 C$1.00 -1.0% Closed to reduce Argentina exp
Sandstorm Gold SAND Oct'18 U$3.73 17-Apr-16 U$4.13 10.7% partial sale to raise cash for GTT
Aldebaran Res ALDE.v Nov'18 n/a n/a n/a n/a liquidate spin out of REG
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2017
Closed in 2017 closed close price
Continental Gold CNL.to Jan'17 C$2.68 22-May-16 C$4.17 55.6% trade closed, profit taken
Focus Ventures FCV.v Jan'17 C$0.23 1-Jul-12 C$0.05 -78.3% Give up, a disaster trade
Wesdome Gold WDO.to Feb'17 C$1.72 28-Aug-16 C$3.00 74.4% Target hit, sold, good trade
Belo Sun BSX.to Mar'17 C$0.90 30-Jan-17 C$0.90 0.0% failed near-term flip trade
Lara Expl. LRA.v Mar'17 C$1.15 8-Apr-12 C$1.05 -8.7% cut to make room for new trade
Rye Patch Gold RPM.v Apr'17 C$0.31 2-Sep-16 C$0.32 3.2% cut for doubts & new stock
Cordoba Min. CDB.v Jun'17 C$0.75 15-Sep-16 C$0.63 -16.0% closed
Constantine Metal CEM.v Aug'17 C$0.135 9-Apr-17 C$0.28 107.4% spec trade closed, good win
Red Eagle Min. R.to Sep'17 C$0.67 13-Dec-16 C$0.27 -59.7% IKN's biggest failure in years
Starcore Intl SAM.to Sep'17 C$0.61 10-Jan-15 C$0.31 -49.2% Patience ran out
B2Gold BTO.to Dec'17 C$2.11 12-Sep-14 C$3.39 60.7% sold small portion for liquidity
29

Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2016
Closed in 2016 closed close price
Phoscan Chem FOS.to jan16 C$0.28 29-mar-15 C$0.265 -5.4% Buyout trade, bot but poor deal
True Gold TGM.v jan16 C$0.18 23-aug-15 C$0.25 38.9% okay trade, sold on pol risk
McEwen Mining MUX jan16 U$1.09 25-jan-15 U$1.20 10.1% sold due to lack of value
Lake Shore Gold LSG.to feb-16 C$1.10 07-apr-15 C$1.69 53.6% bot out, sold early in process
Atacama Pacific ATM.v feb-16 C$0.19 26-apr-15 C$0.40 110.5% sold for a double on big pop
New Gold NGD feb-16 U$2.06 24-jan-16 U$2.96 43.7% closed good near-term trade
Sandspring Res SSP.v mar-16 C$0.195 18-oct-15 C$0.32 64.1% Hit tgt, took profit
Teranga Gold TGZ.to mar-16 C$0.54 15-feb-15 C$0.60 11.1% disappointing trade
B2Gold BTG mar-16 U$0.85 13-jan-16 U$1.30 52.9% Separate trade on B2, hit tgt
Dalradian Res DNA.to mar-16 C$0.67 27-oct-13 C$1.00 49.3% Hit target, sold, good win
HudBay Min. HBM may-16 U$4.10 03-apr-16 U$4.36 -6.3% Short trade, poor timing
Nevada Sunrise NEV.v may-16 C$0.185 28-feb-16 C$0.23 24.3% V. small, no big deal either way
Richmont RIC jun-16 U$7.60 01-may-16 U$9.30 22.4% near-term trade, profit taken
INV Metals INV.to jul-16 C$0.25 03-apr-16 C$0.95 280.0% Trade closed on time
HudBay Min. HBM aug16 U$4.98 09-jun-16 U$4.80 3.6% short trade covered, no big deal
Miranda Gold MAD.v oct-16 C$0.125 03-jul-16 C$0.10 -20.0% tiny spec trade, didn't work
Avino G & S ASM nov-16 U$2.00 21-oct-16 U$1.40 -30.0% Abandon trade on bad bot deal
Stocks To Follow Closed Positions 2015
Closed in 2015 closed close price
Argonaut Gold AR.to jan'15 C$1.47 14-dec-14 C$2.53 72.1% Big gain small time, profit taken
Amerigo Res ARG.to jan'15 C$0.405 20-jul-14 C$0.285 -29.6% Given up on weak Cu prices
Reservoir Min. RMC.v jan'15 C$6.05 18-jun-14 C$4.12 -31.9% sold on Cu downturn
Coro Mining COP.to jan'15 C$0.075 26-jan-14 C$0.035 -53.3% sm, sold on Cu downturn
Fortuna Silver FSM mar'15 U$4.12 10-nov-14 U$3.75 9.0% Short used as hedge
GoldQuest Min. GQC.v mar'15 C$0.26 27-oct-13 C$0.085 -67.3% given up ghost
Rio Alto Mining RIO.to apr'15 C$2.30 07-apr-11 C$3.57 55.2% Top pick, bot out, big win
Timmins Gold TGD jun'15 U$0.60 19-apr-15 U$0.62 3.3% near-term trade, out of time
First Majestic AG jul'15 U$10.51 10-aug-14 U$4.55 56.7% horrible failed trade
NovaCopper NCQ.to jul'15 C$1.05 09-apr-14 C$0.50 -52.4% no more Cu exposure, sm sell
McEwen Mining MUX aug'15 U$0.695 21-jul-15 U$0.92 32.4% Closed nearterm flip for win
Midas Gold MAX.to sep'15 C$0.39 21-sep-15 C$0.35 -10.3% Sm. trade idea that didn't work
New Gold NGD oct'15 U$2.18 23-aug-15 U$3.05 39.9% trade closed, profit taken
Legend Gold LGN.v nov'15 C$0.085 01-mar-15 C$0.035 -58.8% tiny "land grab" idea, failed
Timmins Gold TGD nov'15 U$0.245 20-sep-15 U$0.15 -38.8% small near-term loser
Please note that due to space considerations closed positions 2009 to 2014 are now available on
request, or were published in any edition to IKN553 (end 2019).
Important Disclosure
The information and opinions contained within this report reflect the personal views of the author and therefore all material within should
not be construed as accurate or reliable or be utilized as advice for investment or business purposes. Independent due diligence and
discussions with ones own investment and business advisor is strongly recommended. Accordingly, nothing in this report should be
construed as offering a guarantee of the accuracy or completeness of the information contained herein, as an offer or solicitation with
respect to the purchase or sale of any security or as an endorsement of any product or service. All opinions and estimates included in
this report are subject to change without notice. It is prohibited to copy or redistribute this report to any type of third party without the
express permission of the author.
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