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FPX Receives Large Investments from Major Industry Players · Financial Survival Network

• 0:00
  Yeah, So we've got about thirty two million dollars in the trugury now subsequent
• 0:03
  to the out of company investment and the top up that was done by the
• 0:07
  confidential corporate investor. So we're well funded now out for the next two years
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  or so, well out at to twenty twenty five. So sitting in a
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  really good position from a trugury standpoint. Never had more cash to the bank
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  and been in a better position to aggressively advance, you know, the company
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  on multiple fronts simultaneously. The Financial Survival Network now more than ever, the
• 0:35
  Financial Survival Network. Welcome, this is Financial Survival Network. I'm your host,
• 0:42
  Carrie Luttz. We are getting a sponsor client update from FPX Nicols CEO,
• 0:49
  Martin Turen and Martin, I saw you in New York at the at
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  the mining conference. The news was just coming in so fast. I barely
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  a chance to talk with you. But hey, we had autocompus sixteen million
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  dollar private placement global stainless producer, and then your anonymous strategic investor ponied up
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  another two million to protect their nine point nine percent position. I mean,
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  the news just keeps coming. Here, mort Yeah, it's been it's been
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  a great year so far, just year to date. I mean you think
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  back to the last six months, you know, a late fourth quarter of
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  last year, we announced the initial investment from Corporate Strategic Investor. As you
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  mentioned there. We haven't identified their identity, but they are a large corporate
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  group. We got, you know, funding from the Canadian government under the
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  critical Mineral strategy. We sent a joint venture agreement with jog Mech, the
• 1:49
  Japanese state agency for nickel expiration, and more recently this investment from Autocompu.
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  Just for your listeners background, auto Compu is the large just European stainless steel
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  producer, one of the largest stainless steel producing companies in the world. They
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  are very focused on producing the pliant quality, high ESG low carbon products for
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  their customers. They have had some reliance in the past on nickel being sourced
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  from Russia. They're now having to look forward and think about where their nickel
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  units are going to be coming from and with a real focus on getting it
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  from friendly countries like Canada and from low carbet sources. And so they sought
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  us out late last year. We commenced a period of discussions. They spent
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  a lot of time and energy on due diligence, and that ended up in
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  them making a very significant investment where they owned nine point nine percent of us,
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  and they bought those shares in a private price placement at a forty percent
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  for zero percent premium to our share price. So really great outcome for us.
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  Excellent new shareholder to have on the register, and a group that really
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  provides huge technical validation and endorsement of our project. And finally, the market
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  is taking notice of FPX once again and the share prices has appreciated substantially.
• 3:15
  Yeah, I mean i'd say we're really not really satisfied with that at all.
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  I mean, yes, we are up about twenty to twenty five percent
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  on a year to date basis. Most of our peer nickel companies have have
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  struggled this year. They're typically down twenty to thirty percent across the board,
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  So I guess our relative performance has been pretty good. But we still view
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  ourselves as absurdly valued at these levels and still see significant opportunity. And I
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  think a great benchmark for people to look at for how to judge that value
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  is going to be the preliminary feasibility study that we're working on. You know,
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  the PEA or preliminary economic assessment we did in twenty twenty placed in US
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  at value around one point seven billion US on our project on an aftertax basis
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  using an eight percent discount rate, and we feel very oftdent that the next
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  stage of study will continue to show a very very robust economic profile for our
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  product Baptiste, and still show that our current market capitalization just over one hundred
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  million US is extremely low versus our inherent project value. Yeah, and that's
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  without any consideration of the Van project as well. That's right. So Baptiste
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  is already one of the largest undeveloped nickel deposits in the world. It will
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  underpin an operation that will you know that this forecast to be one of the
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  ten largest nickel mines in the world in terms of annual production of nickel.
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  We've made a new discovery in recent years at the Van target, which is
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  located about four miles away from Baptiste, and Van is showing the science of
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  being sort of Baptiste a scale. So we're really in the process here of
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  unlocking the potential for a district, multigenerational nickell operation here. And we still
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  think that's not at all well reflected in our share price or valuation. And
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  along those lines, just appointed a new VP of Exploration, Keith Patterson.
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  Extensive exploration experience El Dorado, impeccable credentials that kind of plays into what you're
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  saying there. Yeah, So Keith is joining us, as you say,
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  from El Dorado, where he was, you know, running their project generation
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  for quite a long time, extensive experience working in a variety of jurisdictions around
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  the world looking for gold. So we're very lucky to be able to bring
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  him over to HALPX. His primary responsibility will be to be running the joint
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  venture that we have with jog MEC. Jog MEC is the Japanese state agency
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  for mineral expiration globally. They have they will be fully funding a two year
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  program of exploration that will be managed and run by Keith and Buyer Management Care
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  and the objective of that expiration program will be to find other Awara white nickel
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  deposits that nickel deposits in that particular mineral form in which we're specialized. So
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  again it's a great endorsement and validation of the technical and economic viability of a
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  Wara White deposits and specifically jog Mechs interests here is to find more nickel that
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  is suitable for the EV battery supply chain to serve the Japanese automotive industry,
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  which is obviously a main component of the Japanese economy, and Keith is really
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  the ideal person to run that for us. We're very lucky to have him
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  on board now. Right. So the nature of jog MAC as I understand,
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  the Japanese government has set aside a billion dollars to invest in critical metals
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  projects, so this is right up their alley basically. Yeah, it's really
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  interesting. You know, our joint venture with Jogmec was announced around sort of
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  April first, or kicked off around April first, so about three months ago
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  now thereafter or the Japanese government made some announcements regarding some funding up to a
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  billion dollars US. As you mentioned that they've set aside as a bit of
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  a pool or a bit of a fund that's going to allow Japanese industry to
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  make investments to gain ownership interests in critical minerals projects globally, and the gatekeeper
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  for those funds or the manager of those funds is indeed jog Mech, so
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  jog Mech will act as the manager of those funds. Those funds are going
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  to be available to Japanese private companies and trading houses groups like Mitsubishi, Simatomo,
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  Mitsui, etc. To dip into to then turn around and make those
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  investments. So the fact that we've already got this relationship with jog Mech,
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  that they've already kind of done extensive due diligence on daptise and on this style
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  of nickel mineralization that we're specialized in, and the fact that they're playing this
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  gatekeeper role really puts FPX in a good position. And we've already seen a
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  significant increased interest Japanese counterparties in our project since that announcement was made. Regarding
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  those those funds that have been set aside for this purpose. Pretty much,
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  you've got amazing strong interest from a variety of parties around the globe and they're
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  all kind of throwing money at you. What are your priorities here in picking
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  and choosing the right partner. It's a good question. Yeah, I mean,
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  really, I haven't put the sort of outside of sort of the government
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  support that we're getting seen from Japan and also some of the Canadian government funding
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  that we're we've seen as well as US government funding opportunities that we're pursuing.
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  But if you look at just industry, you know there are three broad categories
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  of groups that have shown interest in US and continue to show quite a bit
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  of interest. One or the large mining companies who are looking at the potential
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  to expand their pipeline of nickel objects that could could serve you know, their
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  their own project pipeline in the years to come and really represent the next generation
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  of a major nickel project development. And we know that most of the large
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  mining companies out there, particularly in the versified at Base Metal's realm, are
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  very public in their ambitions to grow their nickel business. So we continue to
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  see a lot of interest from those groups as number one. Number two are
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  stainless steel companies. Again, stainless still represents about sixty five percent of total
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  nickel demand is for stainless, and those companies are apping to scramble for where
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  their nickel units are coming from. And thirdly are the groups that are involved
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  in the ev the electric vehicle battery supply chain, So those are the chemical
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  companies, the battery companies, and the automotive companies themselves, the car companies,
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  all of whom have an existential need to secure nickel and other raw materials
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  to make sure that they can can continue to crank out those products, and
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  ultimately, you know, those products being the evs that are going to be
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  more and more on our road here throughout the world. So you don't always
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  make the analogy to anytime you might have sold a house. You want as
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  many people coming through the open house as possible. You want as many people
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  kind of bidding on the house to be able to put yourself in the best
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  position to maximize value on your initial investment. Same as true for us.
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  There's a lot of people coming through the open house for FPX right now.
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  That's a good thing for our shareholders, a lot of potential bidders for sure.
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  As far as financial position of the company, what's in the what's sitting
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  in the treasury right now? Yeah, so we've got about thirty two million
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  dollars in the treasury now subsequent to the out of company investment and the top
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  up that was done by the confidential carpet investor. So we're well funded now.
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  Out from the next two years or so well out into twenty twenty five.
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  So sitting in a really good position from a chargery standpoint, never had
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  more cash to the bank and been in a better position to aggressively advance,
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  you know, the company on multiple fronts simultaneously, right, So we're going
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  to see more drilling, I assume, more exploration of the van target.
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  What else, what other uses of that capital do you foresee? You know,
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  the key focus for us is really moving Baptiste forward as quickly as possible,
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  first to a preliminary feasibility study or PFS, which will be done in
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  September. That's a major body of engineering that we're well down the path on
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  now and feeling very good about where that body work sits and the quality of
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  the product from an engineering standpoint, and the sort of the quality of the
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  economics that are shaping up there. So I'm very looking much, very much
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  forward to putting that into the public domain. Beyond that, it'll be getting
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  to the early stages of the feasibility study as well as continuing the environmental cultural
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  baseline studies that will position us to be to be in a position to potentially
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  enter the environmental impact Assessment process at some point in twenty twenty four, So
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  that would be a key sort of regulatory milestone for us to formally enter that
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  EA process is a significant sort of body work in and of itself, as
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  well as again continuing to advance into a feasibility study. So you know,
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  when we talk to counterparties, particularly those in the downstream of the battery supply
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  chain, they are thirsty for nickel, They're thirsty for it to come online
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  as quickly as possible. And we're certainly, you know, advancing Baptiste according
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  to that kind of need that we see out there, while at the same
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  time obviously kind of respecting and collaborating with our indigenous partners who are so critical
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  to the success of the project. Yeah, well, you definitely have a
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  full plate ahead for sure. Now let's just go back to what you were
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  mentioning with the bringing on Keith Patterson Exploration finding, are right nickel deposits.
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  I assume you're going to be aggressively pursuing that adventure as well. Absolutely.
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  Yeah. I mean, you know, like I said, the Japanese government,
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  via job Meck, is thirsty for more future nickel operations than that really
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  starts with expiration. We have a demonstrated capability of being able to find these
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  a Wawhite Nickel deposits. We did a significant amount of work on a global
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  search for this style of mineralization about ten years ago now, and so we
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  have a good sort of database and we have a bit of a rolling start
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  into reinitiating that work really to be led by Keith and leveraging that previous experience,
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  and we're really excited about the idea that we could be making new significant
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  discoveries of large Wareawhite deposits to the benefit of FPX shareholders, but without FPX
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  having to bear any of the costs of that expiration for at least the next
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  two years. So it's really free upside for FPX shareholders. So, you
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  know, investors who are really looking at you know, and motivated by expiration
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  success can have that inherent in their ownership of FPX shares. But where we're
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  actually bearing no cost and no risk in those in those efforts. So it's
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  a pretty unique set of circumstances. A lot of companies, I'm sure envying
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  fpx's position there, because to have the upside without the downside is rather unique.
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  In today's investment landscape. So as far as geographical location of these deposits,
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  are they in the North America? Without tipping your hat, are is
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  this a global search you're engaging in? Yeah, I mean, you know,
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  at a high level you can do a search on opiolites and on spent
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  nights pretatites throughout the world using basic like publicly unveil available geological information pulled us
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  by national geological surveys. At the light, we see prospectivity for this type
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  of deposit in multiple countries around the world. In the past, we had
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  visited something like a dozen countries, and I think there are some of those
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  countries we can go back to that would be you know, include places in
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  North America, places in Europe and elsewhere, as well as new countries we've
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  never set foot in that could well be on order. But we do feel
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  as if we have an important first mover advantage in this. Frankly, we're
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  surprised to see that there aren't more companies that have, you know, that
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  are targeting in style and mineralization, so that that first mover advantage is important
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  for us to continue to preserve it and move quickly on. All right,
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  Well, that's a good, quite a transition from just a few years ago
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  to now. And in addition, the price of nickel has been cooperating.
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  We're back over ten dollars a pound in spite of copper showing a little weakness.
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  Can we infer or learn something from that relationship right now, Martin,
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  Yeah, I mean they've been moving, you know, typically in tandem and
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  price to copper price and nickel over the last several years. That that's an
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  historical kind of fairly stable relationship. That ratio, as we've talked about in
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  the past, of nickel price to copper price usually in the range of two
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  to three x. You know, if people think about a copper price going
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  forward, you see the copper price being you know, some people saying they
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  see five or six dollars copper in the years to come. You know,
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  that would imply if that ratio continues to hold a nickel price the reach of
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  sort of ten to eighteen dollars a pound, that's a that's a very interesting
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  price for a project like ours, where you know, we expect the operating
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  costs in the upcoming study to be in that in that three dollar or so
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  range, maybe a little bit higher, so a very high marching project throughout
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  the cycle, particularly in your world where we're seeing elevated nickel prices going forward.
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  So you know, the men and long term thesis on copper and nickel
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  continues to be, you know, to me, just incredibly robust, and
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  it's something that investors are still not fully attuned, fully and properly attuned to
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  the opportunity. He's represented by FPX and frankly other companies that have strong copper
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  and nickel projects set that they're moving forward. We really see this so much
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  in the resource sector now, where the major players in the sector are in
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  a desperate, almost panic search for resources, and the individual investor is kind
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  of sitting on the sidelines, not knowing what to make of it, and
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  not participating in what has become a global scramble for resources, especially battery metals.
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  So I find FPX Nickels position here really interesting because investors are starting to
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  pay attention, albeit minor interest perhaps right now, but it could indeed be
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  an indicator of future investor interest, not only an FBX, but in the
• 18:17
  sector as well. Yeah, I agree. I mean, listen that most
• 18:21
  of the last ten years has been a very painful one if you've been along
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  the junior mining sector right, so we need to continue to see you robust
• 18:32
  commodity prices. You need to continue to see strong performance quarter recorder, significant
• 18:37
  free cash flow generation by the large diversified companies who can demonstrate that quarter recorder
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  for four or six eight quarters. Once those conditions are in place, then
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  you'll start to see a trickle down of interest to mid tiers into the smaller
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  companies. That's how it's been in previous cycles, and that's how I expected
• 18:56
  to go in the cycle as well. We totally agree with you. Hey,
• 19:00
  you want to go over to FPX Nickel dot com sign up for notifications.
• 19:04
  You will be getting a lot of them in the upcoming weeks and months
• 19:08
  ahead. The ticker symbols US fp O CF and in Canada of course fp
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  X Martin. We will touch base with you shortly hopefully and get an update
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  from you as to all the latest developments. Thanks lot, Harry, appreciate
• 19:27
  it. The Financial Survival Network