Interview with Nick Smart, CEO, ValOre Metals Corp.
Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/valore-metals-tsxvvo-undervalued-investment-series-with-nick-smart-9774
Recording date: 22nd September 2026
ValOre Metals Corp. (TSXV: VO, OTCQB: KVLQF, FSE: KEQ0) is a Brazil-focused precious metals developer advancing the Pedra Branca project, a 100%-owned, near-surface platinum-palladium-gold deposit in Ceará State. The project's appeal begins with jurisdiction: roughly 90% of global PGE supply is concentrated in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Russia, each facing distinct operational or geopolitical constraints, while Pedra Branca sits outside that concentration entirely, benefiting from a four-hour paved highway link to Fortaleza's international port and airport.
The current resource base - a 2022 NI 43-101 inferred estimate of 2,198 koz 2PGE+Au across seven near-surface zones - has already doubled since ValOre acquired the project at roughly 1.1 Moz, following an additional US$10 million and 23,534 metres of company-funded drilling layered onto a legacy dataset from prior owners Anglo American and Anglo Platinum. A further 5,000-6,000 metres drilled since the 2022 estimate, including five new exploration zones, has not yet been incorporated into a public resource figure, leaving a visible near-term catalyst in an updated estimate.
Metallurgical testwork is the other major workstream ahead of the PEA. The company is scaling up leach testing from shake-flask to column and stirred-tank vessel trials to assess heap-leach amenability on weathered, oxidised material (roughly 40% of tonnage), while advancing conventional flotation on the fresh material that contributes the bulk of contained ounces. Recovery testwork is currently tracking in the high 70% range, with management indicating room for improvement as the flowsheet is optimised - a genuine trade-off exists between lower-capex heap leaching and higher-recovery vessel processing that the PEA will need to resolve.
Management has signalled a preference for staged development over a single maximum-scale build: securing licensing for an initial phase, proving the process, and adding capacity in subsequent phases as cash flow supports it, rather than raising capital repeatedly to reach full scale before any production decision. That approach, combined with Brazil's expanding domestic PGE processing capacity - illustrated by neighbouring Bravo Mining's proposed smelter complex at the port of Barcarena, which ValOre has flagged as a potential logistically attractive buyer for future concentrate - points toward a capital-efficient path to first production rather than a single binary de-risking event.
On valuation, ValOre's roughly $20M market capitalisation compares to a peer set - Bravo Mining, Platinum Group Metals, Generation Mining and Stillwater Critical Minerals - carrying market caps from ~$126M to ~$440M at broadly comparable or more advanced project stages. Insider and close-associate ownership stands at 30% combined, with resource and mining funds holding a further 25%. Cash on hand was under $0.8M as of September 1, 2026, against 255M shares outstanding (304.2M fully diluted), underscoring that near-term financing will likely be required to fund the PEA and subsequent development studies. The company's key near-term catalysts are the updated resource estimate, the Q4 2026 PEA, and subsequent licensing steps into Q1 2027.
Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/valore-metals
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