ValOre Metals (TSXV:VO) - Brazilian PGE Developer Targets Q4 2026 PEA

Nick Smart (0:00)

Hi, Nick Smart, CEO of ValOre Metals. We are a Brazil-focused precious metals developer working on a project called Pedra Branca in the state of Sierra in Brazil. It is a 2.2 million ounce platinum, palladium, and gold development property, near surface deposit, one of the few that sits outside of Southern Africa.

And we are busy completing a PEA at the moment, and we are looking to publish that for the end of the year.

SPEAKER_2 (0:31)

Good to see you here. We caught up here, was it last year? Was Gemma around as well?

Nick Smart (0:35)

No, I believe I joined just after It was for Gemma, that's right.

SPEAKER_2 (0:39)

I was just computing a year with that one. You are well under that desk now. You are now running this and in charge of it. The thing that we spoke about last time we spoke was I think it was three things.

Talking about doing some drilling, looking at some network testing that was going on, and obviously as you mentioned, ultimately putting out this PEA and the timing around that. So before we do that, we are here at this conference, you are bouncing around, lots of meetings that I heard from you before we started. What's the purpose of you being here? What do you want out of it?

Nick Smart (1:10)

Yeah, I mean this is a great locus to meet up with interested investors and people who are following the story. Precious Metals is the focus. And yeah, I think increasingly we are finding a good level of interest in Latin America. Brazil is topical.

And yeah, we're having some great conversations around Platinum, Brown Palladium and about future prospects as well. You know, people interested in the future and on what is coming out of Brazil.

SPEAKER_2 (1:45)

Okay. And so let's maybe do the set for people who perhaps either need to hear your story or maybe need to PGM as an investment concept. I know you've done this once or twice with us, but give us a run through the geopolitical scene of how that has evolved in the context of Russia, Ukraine and what's obviously going on down in South Africa.

Nick Smart (2:08)

Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. I think just to contextualize, Platinum, Palladium, the PGEs are one of the most geographically concentrated critical metals as far as supply goes. These are across Platinum, Palladium and the other PGE group elements. You're talking about 90 percent of the world's supply coming from just three jurisdictions. That is, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Russia. All three of those jurisdictions have their own challenges.

Russia obviously a very difficult place to be operating and doing business. South Africa faces challenges in terms of electricity supply.

Increasingly we're seeing concern around the price of diesel and availability of diesel. When you're operating major mining operations like Platinum Mines are, either deep level underground mines or large scale open pits, you're reliant on supply of diesel, you're reliant on supply of electricity. So we see significant headwinds in terms of supply, constraints around supply, and we're starting to see that play through in terms of that balance. So ongoing demand constraints apply and that is creating pressure on prices.

SPEAKER_2 (3:35)

Right. So supply is very, very concentrators. That is unusual, shall we say. The demand though, is that growing?

Nick Smart (3:46)

Yeah. So I mean, the principal demand driver for the PGEs is still catalytic converters. So the catalytic converter you have in the exhaust system of your vehicle, internal combustion engine vehicles, importantly, hybrid vehicles also have a significant PGE use in the catalytic converter.

And we're seeing a steady and ongoing demand for those type of vehicles relative to battery electric vehicles, which obviously don't use platinum and palladium. So as we see continued new vehicles hitting the road that are still either hybrids or internal combustion engine vehicles, that gives up a pipeline of future demand for the PGE use. And that's been steady.

SPEAKER_2 (4:31)

There's a nice pocket view. We'll put a link to a video we did earlier this year, which kind of expands upon as you get a better sense of what's going on out there. More importantly, what the opportunity status is. Right, so let's get on to you and what you've been up to. So first things first, drilling. That's always the thing people like to get some data from. So how much drilling has happened? What have you learned?

Nick Smart (4:52)

Yeah, so in our property at Pedra Branca, it's a large property. We're working on effectively a mineralized trend and looking to add to the size of the resource. We know that there's a lot out there.