Fulcrum Metals (AIM:FMET), the AIM-listed company developing cyanide-free technology to recover precious and critical metals from Canadian mine tailings, used its annual general meeting to detail a year of what chairman Mitchell Smith called significant progress.
The company secured full ownership of the Teck-Hughes gold tailings project and signed an exclusive licence agreement with Extrakt Process Solutions, giving it access to its differentiated processing technology.
A pilot plant agreement with TDI Solutions marks the shift from laboratory validation to pilot-scale demonstration, generating data intended to support engineering studies, permitting and commercial development. A 159-hole auger programme at Teck-Hughes confirmed gold and silver throughout the tailings, alongside concentrations of tellurium and gallium and previously untested elements including rubidium, strontium and zirconium.
Those results feed into a maiden NI 43-101 mineral resource estimate now in preparation, the industry-standard framework for reporting mineral resources.
Fulcrum secured a £6 million funding package with Yorkville Advisors during the period, and more recently announced a non-binding royalty term sheet with Chancery Royalty. It is a programme that could deliver up to $20 million in non-dilutive project financing.
"Interest from a specialist royalty provider represents an important third-party validation of both the project and its commercial potential," Smith said.
Exploration at the Big Bear project has also identified a gold target with drill permits already in place, providing what the company describes as additional optionality.
Priorities for the coming year include completing the Teck-Hughes pilot programme, delivering the maiden resource estimate, and converting the royalty term sheet into a definitive agreement.
