
Eric Sprott's Silver Stocks, a Lithium Co's DLE Bet, and an Insider's Secrets
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❗ IMPORTANT WARNING: EMP METALS HAS PAID FOR THEIR INTERVIEW. THIS VIDEO SHOULD BE TREATED AS AN ADVERTISEMENT FOR EMP METALS.
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Jamie Keech, Luc ten Have and EMP Metals joined me for this video.
Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:43 - Weekly Junior Mining Stocks Performance 40:16 - Jamie Keech (Resource Insider) 01:31:10 Very important warning 01:33:39 - EMP Metals (CSE: EMPS) CEO Interview
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Direct lithium extraction in Saskatchewan represents a compelling near-term production opportunity combining advantageous jurisdiction, clean brine chemistry, and staged development economics that could deliver significant shareholder returns if current flow testing validates technical assumptions.
- Saskatchewan offers superior jurisdiction, infrastructure, and regulatory support compared to global alternatives, with cooperative landowners and minimal permitting friction
- EMP's viewfield project shows highest-grade lithium brine in Canada (259 mg/L) with exceptional brine purity that dramatically reduces DLE operating costs to ~$3,300/ton
- Staged development approach (starting with 3,000 tpy stage one for ~$160M) mitigates risk and capital intensity compared to traditional hard rock mining
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People consistently make larger investments in private placements at market peaks (when sentiment is most bullish) and smaller investments at market troughs (when sentiment is most bearish), which is the opposite of optimal contrarian positioning and explains why average returns suffer from retail timing
“when when I tell people I'm investing in these things and how much I'm investing in them and why I'm doing it we almost always see people come invest small amounts of money in the deals that do the best in the long run and invest large amounts of money or larger amounts of money in the deals that do the first in the long run and it's it's because people are always kind of jumping on the trend right when gold is approaching $3,000 everyone wants to do a gold deal when gold is $1,200 no one wants to do it”
Investors should be aware that company marketing communications (press releases, presentations, social media) should be treated as promotional materials with embedded conflicts of interest, and it's safer to approach all company-specific content with skepticism and due diligence rather than trusting speakers' or interviewers' neutrality.
“most company Communications online so they'll be at this interview or their presentation their Twitter account or whoever else out there is talking about it albe it disclosed or undisclosed it is marketing and although I don't make buy or sell recommendations so there's going to be no buy or sell recommendations in this video because there's a clear conflict of interest in my opinion many out there will and you should be aware of that inent bias that bias won't always be clearly disclosed with everyone out there so it is safer for you anytime you're consuming any type of company specific content to approach it with a dose of skepticism and treat it as marketing”
Investment decisions should distinguish between three independent factors: the asset quality (geological or business fundamentals), the management team's execution capability, and the current market/commodity cycle timing, with many investors conflating these and making poor bets by focusing on only one dimension
“I think of there's Market there's um assets and then there's business right and so thinking about this in mining right you you look at the asset right the assets the asset but the same asset you know like it has to have the fundamentals... then there's the the business and the business and the asset are not always the same thing because the business is really the ability of management to execute on it”
Retail investors in junior mining typically have little interest in early-stage resource companies until commodities spike (when valuations are at cyclical peaks), leading to poor risk-adjusted returns despite access to information available to professional investors
“so I don't know if I answered your question Luke but I I I I do think you need to be considering all those things yeah you did and I think this is a topic that we could talk about much longer but uh Antonio has a bit of a deadline”
Companies that announce financings typically only see stock price increases in bull markets; current observation that financing-backed stocks are rallying (OutCrop, VOR, etc.) may indicate emerging bull market conditions despite current headwinds
“stocks don't typically go up on financings when they do go up on financings it's some kind of a strategic buyer big name or someone else... and the other Trend I see is indeed that companies that do financings actually trade up which is often you know that only happens in Bull markets really so I am slowly I'm hopeful that this is the start of a new bull market”
Asimut Exploration discovered 3% nickel over 8 meters and 1% nickel over 9 meters via channel sampling in James Bay, which if confirmed by drilling at depth could represent a genuine high-grade nickel discovery comparable to historical discoveries like Chalice (Carnot) or Talon Metals, with potential for 10-20x stock appreciation from current $40M valuation
“Asim just sampled Channel sampled 3% nickel over eight meters with two grams of PGE and then 9 meters of 1% nickel with one gram of PGE about 60 meters away if you can drill those numbers... really green fields new discovery in James Bay”
Macro/commodity cycle factors have had larger impact on Resource Insider's returns than individual company stock picking ability, with uranium being a macro call that delivered one of their best return profiles despite moderate company selection work
“where we've got it really right and where we've got it really wrong the macro has played an enormous impact in that and I see that from our history of this I mean we started a small little uranium investment Fund in 2018 uh our our our stock picking there was you know we did our due diligence we we partnered with good people we found good companies but like it was a macro play and it it delivered one of our best return profiles of anything we've ever done”
EMP's land package consists of approximately 200,000 acres (81,000 hectares) across three non-contiguous projects (Viewfield, Mansor, Tyan) in southeast Saskatchewan, with ownership split between Crown-purchased land and Freehold land negotiated with individual companies and landowners.
“EMP that full picture is fully focused on saskatch one where we find a company's three projects they're named tyan mansor and viewfield together covering about 200,000 Acres or 81,000 hectares of land”
Mining is often described as 'Dungeons and Dragons for middle-aged adults'—a hobby element where investors build portfolios of junior mining companies, maintain relationships with CEOs, conduct site visits, and participate in speculative discovery plays while accepting significant downside risk for potential outsized returns
“I think of mining has like I always think of it it's like Dungeons and Dragons for middle-aged adults that it's like there's a h there's a hobby element to it too you know they're like oh I got my little Universe of companies that I follow and I'm in touch with the CEOs and maybe I go on site visits and it's like it is exciting right”
For a development-stage junior mining company to be successful long-term, it is essential that the chosen jurisdiction supports and wants the project to succeed, with government support, favorable infrastructure, and local cooperation being more important than specific asset metrics.
“if you do not have a a jurisdiction that wants you to succeed move on on it's not going to work and it's just going to get more expensive it's going to take everything way longer”
Investors typically begin their path into junior mining via a crisis of confidence in government/currency, leading them to buy physical gold, then progress to gold stocks, majors, mid-tiers, then junior mining, and finally private placements—with the journey driven by pursuit of leverage rather than initial interest in mining.
“it mostly starts one way which is they for whatever reason rightly or wrong have some sort of crisis of faith in government and currency and then they find gold or silver and or silver and they you know buy a bunch of gold bars or gold coins or what have you and then they store them under their bed and that seems kind of cool and then they find gold mining companies or gold ETFs or some sort of other version of that and then they depending on how hardcore they are they kind of work their way down the ladder to okay there's you know we're going to invest in the major minors and then we're going to oh there's these mid- tier ones and you can get lever return then they find out about Junior Mining and then they're like oh wow you can make a hundred times your money if one of these things hit and then they get into that and then if they're really die hard then they get to someone like me which is like focused on a lot of private companies and private placements”
EMP Metals plans modular development with stage one producing 3,000 tons per year at estimated $160 million capex, allowing demonstration of commercial DLE technology before full-scale development while mitigating execution and market risk
“stage one is not something you'd want to ignore here in that overview because it already suggests that EMP wants to take a modular approach to building this plant with the first stage estimated to cost them about 160 million Us doll which will put them at 3,000 tons per year of battery great lithium refining capacity”
EMP's only 14% of its property has been drilled to resources included in the PEA, meaning 86% of the company's 200,000-acre land package remains relatively underexplored and represents substantial exploration upside.
“we have a really big land mass and we've exper so so far only 14% of our property has been is a cruise to our paa so we've got a tremendous ability to expand it”
Jamie Keyes positioned heavily into gold deals starting in summer 2020 at prices 50% below market value with warrant packages, but those positions collapsed 50%+ within 6 months when gold rally ended, demonstrating the danger of chasing trending themes rather than investing contrarian
“we invested at like a significant discount to what they were trading out of the market we had like warrants I think on all of them uh they were all over subscribed people were piling into them um and you know with a caveat we're POS I'm positioning very small amounts in all these things because there's very high-risk Investments I think all of those deals were underwater massively within six months”
Major oil and gas companies are showing significant interest in southeast Saskatchewan lithium DLE as a serious supplier opportunity, which validates the regional lithium potential and provides potential partnership and acquisition options for EMP.
“I should say one thing that's important is we have seen a tremendous amount of interest from the the major oil companies they're in the area a number of different ones so there's there's some there's some bets being made by the big guys on one Southeast gadin as a as a serious player for lithium um production”
VA Carbon (Jamie's private company) invests in carbon credit generation and sales, positioning investors for exposure to forced decarbonization trends while providing hedge against inflation from climate regulation, regardless of one's ideological stance on climate policy
“if you truly believe that decarbonization is a hoax and an agenda that is being forced by you know whomever name your shadowy group the world economic Forum or whomever and they're forcing everyone to do this if you believe that's happening then you want to protect yourself from that and owning exposure to carbon credits is a hedge against that because if that's going to happen they're going to go up in value”
Director of BEDF went short his own company (holding negative 33,300 shares per insider filings), which is highly unusual and suggests either significant loss of confidence or market manipulation mechanics at play
“the Aman also doesn't mention um doesn't mention the price at which he's doing this but is he like is he like actively loaning shares and and and shorting his own company like that's that's not that's not really happening right well that's what the see that fing say right now”
Jim Puplava (Valor Metals CEO) sold $2 million of stock in the open market to buy back $1.9 million in private placement at higher price per unit, which is an unusual move suggesting either confidence in upcoming catalysts or potential pressure to ensure minimum subscription levels in financing
“he actually sold stock at an average I think of six cents and is buying them back for 7 and a. half cents per unit in the finance to make sure his company is um is cashed up uh or his private placement is um is subscribed”
Local Saskatchewan landowners and the agricultural community are receptive to DLE development because the footprint is minimal (pumping and re-injecting brine), there are no tailings ponds or comparable visible mining impacts, the process is similar to oil and gas operations they're familiar with, and land owners receive lease payments, making social license straightforward.
“you're literally talking pumping a water brine out of the ground processing it and you know something in the in excessive 90% of it being returned back into into the units it came from so there's it's it's a very lwi impact way of um of extracting Metals so there's no heiling pawns there's no there's very little limited uh byproducts at all”
EMP has also engaged with Salt Works (Vancouver-based downstream provider) and their founder Ben Sparrow, who have been phenomenally responsive and supportive in developing lithium recovery and polishing processes for EMP's DLE operation, with the partnership having saved the company significant money.
“more as important or more important has been our our Downstream provider a company called salt works out of uh here in in Vancouver um their their boss Ben Sparrow has been phenomenal he's a huge help for what we're doing tremendously responsive so we've we've developed a a group of people around this company that are sort of thirdparty providers but they're super engaged in what we're doing and they've been as I say tremendously supportive so we really appreciate that uh that help and they've made our lives a lot easier and saved us a bunch of money”
Eric Sprott has deployed significant capital into silver junior mining companies in 2024 (OutCrop Silver, Aftermath Silver, Black Rock Silver, Golden Spike, etc.), suggesting a macro shift in his investment thesis from equities to silver commodities and indicating potential early signs of a new junior mining bull market
“I see a trend that Eric sprot is buying again and um I mean after his big years 2020 and 2021 um it was unsure I mean last year he didn't didn't do too much I think and right now he's loading up on Silver uh companies”
Saskatchewan offers year-round drilling capability with main operational challenge being spring 'breakup' when frost melts and fields become temporarily impassable, but drilling costs are very low (approximately $100 per meter) compared to remote areas requiring helicopters ($1,000/meter)
“you can work you can work re year round if you want to do a big Exposition program you can you can drill whatever does it change your cost the costs though like what what are you paying per meter drilled meter drilled depends if you want to say through the completion or not but meter drill that 1800 meters I've no one's ever asked me that question before you're probably about a $100 a meter”
As of April 30, 2024 (EMP's most recent fiscal year-end), the company had $7.7 million in cash and cash equivalents out of $8.4 million in total current assets, with minimal liabilities of approximately $29,000, indicating a very clean balance sheet.
“it has 8.4 million in current assets most of which $7.7 million to be specific was cash and cash equivalent at the time would of course some prepaid expenses some receivables and some marketable Securities in the form of some grounded lithium corpse shares”
BEDF Metals stock went from $0.04 to $2.30, a 57-fold increase, over a couple of months in 2023, with director selling into the spike and subsequent chart formation suggesting possible pump-and-dump mechanics similar to prior penny stock runs
“the stock had a a very nice run that took it from 4 cents to over $230 so from 0.04 to 2.3 right so this is a 57 fold increase it went up 57 times in in a matter of a couple of um months essentially”
The Viewfield project is estimated to require $571 million USD in capital expenditure for the full development as outlined in the PEA, with an after-tax NPV at 8% discount rate of approximately $1 billion USD and $860 million at a 10% discount rate.
“for view feel that cost was estimated to $571 million us the after tax npv to capex ratio here shows just under two which means that the after tax npv 8 on the project is about a billion dollars and that's again at an 8% discount or $860 million after tax and at a 10% discount”
EMP Metals uses DLE provider partners like ESM (California) and Koch (Kansas) plus downstream provider Salt Works (Vancouver) for technology deployment, suggesting a vendor/partner model rather than building proprietary DLE systems in-house
“we have worked we've both run pilot tests with esm out of California and and Koch out of Kansas Koke industry is OB obious is a massive company and they are uh fairly fairly strong in the space as is esm we have yet to make a decision on which which company we're going to go with to be our D dle provider”
VOR Inc conducted a very large financing in 2024, raising approximately $22 million by issuing shares that increased outstanding share count from ~100 million to ~230 million (a 130% dilution), which is a bold but risky move that could either validate management confidence in the Bel project or result in poor returns if drilling fails to hit extensions
“they make a very this year they made a very bold move by making a by doing a very big financing um the share shares out went from 90 million is 100 million to uh 230 million or something and uh so they raised 22 million which could be a very smart move and could be a very stupid move”
EMP Metals' Viewfield project completed preliminary assessment in early 2024 showing direct lithium extraction economics at $20,000/ton lithium carbonate equivalent, which is double current market prices, raising questions about whether full economic studies make sense before lithium prices recover
“this project already has a paa on it dating back to earlier this year so it is very recent and that PA was done at $20,000 per LC ton though so notably that's about twice the price of lce today so do be mindful of that”
EMP has not indicated plans to work on First Nations lands as the company's three projects do not appear to intersect any First Nations territory, though a recent investment initiative with a local group was just kicked off.
“we've had no we I don't believe we actually impact or intersect any first nation's property um and we we have one initiative with a with a local group that was sort of in kicked off very very very recently um so we'll have to see how that develops but that was more on the investment side”
EMP's target timeline for commercial production at Viewfield is end of Q1 2027, which is approximately two years away from the interview date (late September/early October 2024).
“you are still targeting commercial production by what I say the end of q1 of 20127 which is a little more than two years away from now”
EMP Metals' Viewfield project achieved highest-grade lithium brine discovered in Canada at 259 mg/L lithium concentration, providing significant cost advantage for direct lithium extraction due to reduced pre-treatment requirements compared to more dilute brines
“you have very clean brine so you it's very amendable to a d process so being able to flow that horizontal is going to be very important... we it's it's it's a very lwi impact way of um of extracting Metals”
Tight share structures in small mining companies combined with thinly-held ownership can create artificial volume and price appreciation divorced from fundamental value, enabling insiders to sell large positions into retail demand
“they really know to attract you know volume dollars into the stock um so I don't really have a conclusion unfortunately what really is happening here but it's very funny one of the directors even went short this week”
Jamie Keyes operates Resource Insider as a subscriber-funded private placement newsletter with no company sponsorship or promotional revenue, investing 6-18 months ahead of public market listings in early-stage private companies before they go public
“with respect to the newsletter um it is 100% uh subscriber funded so we've not taken money from companies we don't we don't get sponsored we don't get paid for posts or letters or anything like that we sell a subscription newsletter”
Resource Insider shifted strategy substantially in 2021-2024 away from pure junior mining towards private cash-flowing businesses (like the Frac terminal partnership in North Dakota) and energy infrastructure to reduce volatility and provide diversification outside the stock market
“at the beginning we were all Junior mining all the time and you know I had a huge huge huge percentage of my net worth which I don't recommend to anyone tied up in junior mining companies and for the most part that did really well but I started to sort of see a lot of the risk in that and I started thinking very heavily about like okay where do I actually really want to put my money in Commodities that are not just gold drill plays”
Jamie Keyes came from pure technical mining engineering background (VMS exploration, mine design, engineering contractor roles) with no stock market involvement, entering mining investment through business/finance education gained at Equinox Gold, not through investment interest
“I had the complete opposite route so I I was interested in the sort of the technical aspects of mining but two things kept happening one I kept getting laid off every time there was a shitty Market um and two I um I realized I didn't really have any control over anything”
Saskatchewan provides superior jurisdiction for lithium development compared to global alternatives due to supportive government, abundant infrastructure from oil/gas legacy, highly trained workforce, and alignment with North American supply security priorities
“Saskatchewan is fantastic not only is it flat and you can see everything it's easy to get around the infrastructure is tremendous the people are fantastic it is without question the best jurisdiction I have ever worked in in over 20 years in this business”
Carl Cott has approximately 20+ years of experience in mining finance, M&A, and development, having worked for major mining financiers, managed exploration/development companies (including Rocket Capital, a uranium explorer in Mali that raised ~$100M and was acquired by Denarius Metals), and worked on mergers/acquisitions/financings at multiple scales.
“I was a uh member of a small brok private brokerage firm Finance team in the first 10 years of my career so learned the in De the mining deal doing side of business in that position uh subsequent of that I went to work for a a mining uh financier...he was absolutely correct and he has gone on to be tremendously successful um and I learned a great deal from him...I have had uh one major company called Rocket Capital which was a uranium Explorer in Mali and West Africa raised about $100 million for that project that project subsequently was purchased by Dennis and mines and um so yeah I've been uh in the resource Finance business for directly for since probably 202 2006 so almost 20 years”
Tempo Capital is a sophisticated London-based fund that conducted 6-8 months of due diligence on EMP Metals' projects before committing to 19.9% position with anti-dilution rights, signaling third-party validation of project quality
“Tempo is as I mentioned earlier an extremely sophisticated fund out of London um very very smart people working at that fund and when we were first introduced to them we began a due diligence process um ultimately ending up in a an investment decision by Tempo um to go to a 19.9% shareholder share position and they also have an anti-dilution right”
Rock Resources (oil and gas company) owns ~17% of EMP Metals following a deal between the two companies, providing subsurface expertise and Saskatchewan-based technical work through management contract with equity compensation incentivizing alignment over cash fees
“we had a a management contract with them to provide subsurface uh and Saskatchewan based technical uh work for us in our negotiations and my my negotiations with with them it was felt that they wanted to be as exposed to the equity as possible so rather than take a monthly fee they equitized their piece”
EMP Metals employs Paul Shackett (former Mosaic COO) and Darcy Walker as field project manager, adding substantial operational expertise beyond earlier technical team for executing commercial development plans
“we've added two key people um obviously P Paul shac joined his chief operating officer from Mosaic he's unbelievably capable intelligent guy he's done a tremendous job for us and then we also uh took on a um a field a field project manager Darcy Walker who's also just an expert in what he does and gets everything you know he's he's the guy that makes things work in the field”
Insider buying by VOR CEO Mark over several months, accumulating over 10 million shares personally from a 235 million share base, signals management confidence in the company and the project, particularly in contrast to the suspicious selling patterns seen in companies like BEDF.
“as opposed to the previous one that we just discussed this one has seen Insider buying uh Mark has been in the market for the last couple of months not not huge amounts when he buys each time but over time I mean stacked up to he owns over 10 million shares now 235 million shares outstanding”
EMP's brokers own approximately 17% of the company stock (shown as separate from insiders/founders and institutional shareholders), which appears low and may explain the relatively low trading volume (~35,000 shares/day) for a $57M market cap company.
“another 17% of the company that is owned by Brokers and that leaves us with just about uh an 8% retail ownership which might also explain the relatively low volume that I just show you about which is something I hope there is a solution to and something I'll be asking about in the latter part of my conversation with Carl here”
EMP Metals' founders and insiders own ~38% of the company, Tempo Capital owns ~19.9% with anti-dilution rights, Rock Resources owns ~17%, and retail investors own only ~8%, indicating heavily concentrated institutional ownership with limited retail participation
“their involvement in EMP share registry will make more sense in a second but it's essentially due to a deal that two companies recently closed there's another 17% of the company that is owned by Brokers and that leaves us with just about uh an 8% retail ownership which might also explain the relatively low volume”
EMP Metals completed flow testing of two wells at Viewfield in August-September, including a horizontal well (claimed to be the first lithium horizontal well drilled in Canada), with results expected within 1-2 weeks and full flow test data to follow approximately one month later, with wells completed at or under budget.
“we've drilled two Wells this sum over the course of August September um we have completed them they are being put on Flow right now we don't have any results from that yet...the wells were at at or under budget...the second well we drilled was a horizontal well so that's really important...I believe it's the first horizontal uh lithium well ever drill”
Giant Mining Corp experienced volatility from $1.80 (briefly) to $0.20 and back to $0.35+, despite releasing assay results showing 66 meters of 1.35% copper, 73.4 g/t silver plus other metals, raising questions about whether the trading patterns are driven by company fundamentals or promotional/structural factors.
“they had another news release as well that that was kind of nor here nor there so what what are you making of this what do you what are you have on here yeah I will not talk too much about giant mining but I want to keep following up I don't want to just say bad things well critical things about them”
EMP Metals' general and administrative expenses averaged $170,000 per month in fiscal year 2024 (ending April 30), or approximately $2 million annualized after excluding stock-based compensation, with 48% going to consulting/professional fees and about 40% to investor relations
“when I substract the $844,000 worth of share based compensation for that period the total administrative expenses uh sat sat at about $2 million for the year that ended in April of this year and that is about a 15% increase relative to the previous fiscal year at $2 million for the full year that means the average monthly expense uh was about $170,000 Canadian dollars”
EMP Metals' Mansor project contains 400,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent in inferred category at 143.5 mg/L average concentration, representing second major resource area with drilling expansion potential particularly to the south
“close to 400,000 tons of lce in the inferred category of the ni 4311 with a weighted average lithium concentration of 143.5 MGR per liter”
Carl Cott holds approximately 6% of EMP Metals, having been a founder and board member since company inception, with average cost basis around 20-25 cents per share
“I've been involved since creation of this public company um I actually put took it public took it public and it was restructured once and and then we we were presented with this opportunity... my shareholdings right now personally are around six”
Founders converted previous royalty structure on EMP projects to long-dated warrants exercisable at $1.25 per share (expiring 2026-2027) to remove potential investor friction from royalty arrangements
“there was a royalty which we converted to a long warrant so the warrants that are exercisable at a125 are held by the foundational group um we just felt that the the royalty structure we had it on at the time was was not was not really all that smart it wasn't a functional thing it didn't make any sense and it had the potential to really turn off investors”
Professionals in the mining sector (geologists, engineers, financiers) often develop strong long-term attachments to the industry despite periods of poor returns and market cycles, because the work is intellectually complex, involves global travel, and appeals to people with certain personality types (outdoor-oriented, risk-tolerant, problem-solving-focused).
“I think when people really enter this space they never go you know they they never leave again even though it's so miserable sometimes or a lot of times what do you think really attracts people to stay here”
DLE as a lithium extraction technology has pros and cons that require deeper technical discussion to understand properly, and the choice of DLE partner (Esorb vs. Koch) involves different trade-offs that will impact project economics and operations.
“dle is definitely part of it and it's something it's an interesting part of it and I would actually like to dedicate a full podcast episode on it because there's there's pros and cons to it and you know as it is with everything in life so it requires a longer conversation”
EMP's holding costs for maintaining the Tyan project are not onerous, allowing the company to hold the property as a longer-term optionality without significant cash drain.
“but you still want to keep it I assume I mean it's um You probably have work commitments which I don't assume are too high so it doesn't cost you too much to hold it in the books I guess yeah the holding costs are not not too honorous”
EMP Metals is exploring the use of flow-through financings and Saskatchewan 'super flow-through' tax structures to attract Canadian investors with tax benefits for exploration drilling, providing additional capital-raising flexibility beyond standard private placements.
“when we did we we ran through a a flowr provider company out of Toronto when Tempo came in we we ran a portion of tempo's money through a flow through a flowr structure um and we're just finishing up that expenditure right now so that's gone well there is some benefit to Saskatchewan shareholders for uh what we call more of a super flow through type so we're looking at that as well so we've got a number of avenues um on a sort of more tax advantage for Canadian and specifically saskatchwan investors”
EMP plans to participate in Saskatchewan Crown land auctions in November 2024, using blind-sealed bid process requiring technical analysis to price properties correctly while maintaining confidentiality of bid strategy
“there's another uh Crown auction at the end of November that we expect to be participating in as well and that's a blind sealed bid process so you really don't know who you're bidding against and you really don't know what the prices are being paid so it's a it's a question of a lot of technical analysis needs to be brought to bear in order to price these things correctly”
EMP Metals' third project, Tyan, has not yet been developed or drilled and remains lower priority than Viewfield and Mansor, with the company's current focus and management attention directed entirely to the two flagship properties.
“right now we haven't done any work at Tian it's something we've discussed um but again we've got we've got so much stuff to do between maner and viewfield that we uh you know we're we're spoiled for choice and unfortunately Tan's Tan's third on the on the list”