Clean Air Metals has the products for a greener future

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From: Jason Smith

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The move away from hydrocarbons in the quest for clean energy puts pressure on the minerals that will be used in the transition.

As a key component of catalytic converters that reduce emissions from internal combustion engine vehicles, palladium plays an important role in this transition. The same goes for platinum (for its use in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles), copper (for its use in wind turbines and electric vehicle motors) and nickel (for its use in electric vehicle batteries ).

Canada is committed to a clean energy future, as a signatory to the Paris climate accord to cut emissions 30% below 2005 levels by 2030. one hundred by 2030.

In this environment, where the global cleantech market is expected to reach $2.5 trillion this year, products that support renewable energy generation are in high demand.

After issuing a PEA with a very favorable economy, most favorable rating, lowest capital intensity, proximity to infrastructure, this is a story that needs to be told for 2022.

Abraham Drost, CEO, Clean Air Metals Inc.

The Metals Driving the Clean Air Revolution

Clean Air Metals Inc. (TSXV: AIR) is poised to help meet that demand, with minerals that are at the heart of the clean air revolution and key elements of its Thunder Bay North (“TBN “). Located approximately 50 kilometers northeast of the Ontario city of Thunder Bay, TBN is located in the highly prospective mining division of Thunder Bay.

TBN is a platinum, palladium, copper and nickel project, with a significant high-grade resource contained in two magmatic conduit bodies hosting the Current and Escape deposits. The assets were sold to a shell company which became Clean Air Metals by reverse takeover. The Company acquired the two deposits for a total of C$15 million.

Together, the Escape and Current deposit hosted by TBN was the subject of past exploration worth nearly $100 million by former owners Rio Tinto and Panoramic Minerals. Drost notes, “It was (former North American Palladium CEO) Jim Gallagher and I who were recruited to manage the deal and bring it back to commerce as Clean Air Metals on the back of this remarkable set of ‘assets.”

Charting a clear path for growth

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These assets have risen in value since Clean Air Metals took over them in 2020. The latest round of infill drill assay results on Escape and Current speaks to the high-grade nature of the deposits. Hole 83A intersected an impressive 46.0 meters of 3.03 grams per tonne platinum, 3.94 grams per tonne palladium, 1.33% copper and 0.51% nickel.

These platinum, palladium and copper grades are stellar and speak to a set of deposits that show impressive metal totals. The Escape deposit, which has undergone significant additional drilling in 2021, is expected to see its indicated resources (849,481 ounces of 6.16 grams per tonne of platinum equivalent) increase significantly at the next estimate. And that will go hand in hand with the reported 2.23 million ounces of platinum equivalent (at 5.79 grams per ton of platinum equivalent) that Clean Air Metals already has at the current deposit.

Drost comments, “The objective of drilling is to bring the inferred resource to indicated and the indicated to measured. But are we going to add materials? Absolutely. We could add up to two years to the mine plan.

This growth will come on the back of a recently released Preliminary Economic Assessment for TBN which gives the project a pre-tax NPV, discounted at 5%, of $425 million, an IRR at 31% and an after-tax NPV, discounted at five. percent, $293 million.

The estimate calls for a total mill feedstock of 12 million tonnes at 7.3 grams per tonne of platinum equivalent, at a cash cost of $86.61/tonne over a 10-year life . TBN’s grades offer an outstanding 59% margin in the first five years of production, delivering a rapid payback of 2.6 years after tax on initial capital costs of $367 million.

The plan is coming to fruition as Clean Air Metals plans to develop what were two separate deposits (Escape and Current) into a single project. Previous work on Current had already shown it to be a viable project, but “the real breakthrough that Clean Air Metals brought to the table was the additional 50,000 to 60,000 meters of drilling at Escape to demonstrate that it could also add economically to the mine plan,” says Drost.

Thanks to this work, Clean Air Metals enters 2022 with a relatively low-risk, low-capital-intensive and fast-to-produce project with strong financial metrics.

Investors in a company can feel good

In pursuit of the metals that are integral to the clean air revolution, Clean Air Metals is a story of exploration and development that investors can feel good about. Not only does it plan to produce metals critical to reducing global air pollution and fighting climate change, the company has adopted leading industry standards for health, safety and the environment.

The company is putting its money where it is in this regard, having recently published an ESG report for TBN. Drost states in the report that “In the EU and increasingly in North America, investors are driven by ESG. In the EU, it is well known that a company must present an ESG report before investors consider the technical merits of its project. »

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Clean Air Metals sees the ESG report, which is a rarity for an exploration-stage company, as a way to differentiate the company from its peers. He may also have played a role in the recent $12.5 million private placement that Clean Air Metals was able to raise for the project. This investment included a strategic investment of $1.65 million from renowned investor Michael Gentile.

Hold the key to a greener future

Funds raised will help Clean Air Metals advance its project toward pre-feasibility as it markets its mineral endowment to the general investing public.

TBN’s rich copper and nickel mineral resources join its platinum and palladium mineral resources as key raw materials that will be increasingly in demand as the world transitions to clean energy. Drost notes, “After issuing a PEA with a very favorable economy, most favorable rating, lowest capital intensity, proximity to infrastructure, this is a story that needs to be told for 2022.”

As Tesla recently struck a deal with Talon Metals for their nickel supply in neighboring Minnesota, TBN’s location close to the auto company’s infrastructure could attract interest from automakers looking to bolster their supply. strategy in metals. TBN could also send ore to neighboring mines in search of raw materials for their factories. The opportunities for synergies seem compelling.

Clean Air Metals provides exposure to metals that will facilitate the transition from internal combustion engine vehicles and provide the products the world will use to create an emissions-free future. As such, it seems particularly well positioned to grow in the current environment.

For more information on Clean Air Metals, visit their website here.

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This story was provided by Market One Media Group for commercial purposes.