President and CEO of NGEx Minerals.
Well, thanks, Lawson. Thanks for that kind introduction. I am just going to do a very quick five-minute presentation here just to introduce NGEx to people that might not be familiar with it, and then we will sit down for a Q&A session. Just really quickly, just to make sure everybody knows what we are talking about, NGEx is a Lundin Group exploration company. We own two valuable assets, both in the Vicuña District. NGEx is the company that made the Vicuña District discoveries, part of which are now in the Vicuña Project being developed by Lundin Mining and BHP. We currently hold Lunahuasi, which is the high-grade new discovery that Lawson mentioned. It is on the Argentina side of the Vicuña District, and we own a second asset, which was discovered in 2009, just across the border in Chile called Los Helados.
Los Helados is one of the largest undeveloped copper gold projects in Chile. It has been a little bit under the radar as the market's attention has been focused on Lunahuasi, but I think it is an asset that is about to show its value, and there has been some recent developments in the district that I think are going to help us crystallize the value we have always seen at Los Helados. Really, that is all driven and part of the value proposition for NGEx is that the Vicuña District is now rapidly advancing. Five years ago, this was junior companies out in the middle of nowhere in the Andes. The discoveries were great, but the path to development was not that clear.
With BHP and Lundin Mining moving the Vicuña project towards FID, I think in the next couple of months, based on what they have been saying, that is starting to make this concept of the Vicuña District real. On the Chile side of the border, Lundin Mining recently increased their interest in the operating Caserones mine, and as part of that transaction, acquired JX Nippon's 31% interest in the Los Helados project. Now we have got an alignment of interests in these two projects, which NGEx has felt for a long time have synergies and belong together. In fact, Lundin Mining in a lot of their recent disclosure has been talking about that and the potential to maybe bring those two assets together in some sort of a joint development.
We think these recent changes in the district are really creating a lot of opportunities for NGEx to realize some of the value that we've been talking about for a number of years. We've been busy over the last 12 months, and I thought it was just good to quickly run through our achievements since I was last here. In October of 2025, we closed the CAD 175 million private placement. We've still got about CAD 200 million in the bank because we had money in the bank when we did that placement. We closed the very successful spin-out of a royalty company that was based on royalties on Lunahuasi and Los Helados that formed a new Lundin Group royalty company named LunR Royalties, run by Adam Lundin. That's been a real success. I always like to remind people that NGEx retained 10% of that company.
As they benefit, NGEx also benefits. This gives us an asset that could potentially be monetized at some point in the future, perhaps to develop a project like Lunahuasi as it advances. We also received the environmental impact approval for the development of an exploration adit at Lunahuasi. We're still waiting for a few outstanding sectoral permits, but we're anticipating underground development of that exploration adit, hopefully during the Southern Hemisphere summer. I mentioned earlier we welcomed Lundin Mining in as our new partner at Los Helados, and hopefully that's a catalyst for moving that project ahead. Most recently, we announced plans for another spin-out. For those of you that know the company, this is where we generated an enormous amount of value for our shareholders.
We announced the plan to create a new exploration vehicle called Valiente Resources that'll be based around our Valle Ancho Project, which is a large land package that we have in Catamarca Province. It's been in the back of our portfolio, but we think it'll form the basis of a brand-new exploration vehicle. Much as we did with LunR, this is not just about spinning out and surfacing value for an NGEx asset, it's about building a brand-new exploration vehicle. NGEx used to be that vehicle for the Lundin Group. As we've gotten into more advanced projects, we can't and haven't been able to really look at new things as we focus on Lunahuasi. This gives us an opportunity to pursue some of the opportunities that we're seeing.
Last but not least, really the big achievement over the last 12 months was a very successful 25,000 m drill program that added a lot to Lunahuasi. What's coming next and what hopefully the Q&A will focus on is how are we going to add value from here on out. Really our focus this next year, as it always is to focus on the business side of exploration and figure out how we're going to maximize the value of these unique assets that we have. Number one, we're going to continue to grow Lunahuasi. The system is still wide open. We need to make sure that that system is fully defined. The only way to do that is to continue drilling it. We want to find ways to shorten the timelines to production. We're in an evolving environment.
We're surrounded by what's going to be the largest copper construction project in the world once the Vicuña JV makes their decision for FID. We want to maintain our options in that environment, including the option to develop Lunahuasi as a standalone project. Now that we have Lundin Mining Corporation as a partner, and they've been quite open about wanting to find ways to move Los Helados forward, we want to work with them and see if we can reach an agreement that unlocks the value of that very significant asset. Then as we're doing with the Valiente Resources spin-out, we want to make sure that we continue to think creatively, think about the business side of what we do, and keep creating value for our shareholders. We've been very, very good at this.
From the original NGEx Minerals CAD 40 million market cap, little exploration company, we've generated over CAD 13 billion of shareholder value, and we hope that Valiente Resources will just be the next chapter in an ongoing story. With that, I'm happy to sit down and take some questions from Lawson.
That's a great photo. I don't know. I've had the fortune of being close to where that sign sits. It's a pretty exciting place to be.
It is.
I wanted to circle back on Valiente, the explorer spin out. I think you've made a case for the strategic rationale for why you've done it, but maybe you could walk us through the value unlock. What are the catalysts we're watching for over the coming years in order to actually generate that value?
Yeah. Well, the foundation of that company is going to be the Valle Ancho project that we have. This is something that we acquired a little bit under the radar, in 2019. We did a target development program and then some first-round drilling on that in 2022, and then six months later we discovered Lunahuasi. So a good project basically went on the shelf, and there are some results that in any other company, I think, would've been headline results. There are two targets. One hole into a copper gold target hit somewhere around 500 m of 0.5% copper equivalent, just in a scout drill hole. 10 or 15 km away, we drilled an oxide gold target that hit 150 m of a gram from the surface. So good numbers.
I guess the first world problem that we had is that we hit Lunahuasi shortly after that, and kind of never thought about Valle Ancho again. But it's a good asset, and we think it's a really good opportunity to create a new exploration company. There's a lot of opportunities that we see out there, and much as we did with LunR was never about just surfacing some value for NGEx Royalties. It was about building a Lundin Group royalty company, and I think we have an opportunity to create an NGEx 2.0 with Valiente. The next steps are, in the coming weeks, we should be in a position to define the key dates.
The next step after that will be a shareholder vote to approve the formal spin-out transaction, and then shortly after that, our plan would be, assuming approvals and all of that, our plan would be to have the company listed ideally before the end of the year. This is a well-worn path for us. All of the spin-outs that we've done, and I think this is the fourth one, have followed similar timelines where September, October, we have the shareholder vote, and then the company is listed before the end of the year. So with a bit of luck, we'll follow that same path for Valiente.
On the TSX?
It will be TSXV initially...
Yep.
-and then we will see how it goes. Yeah.
Okay, great.
Sorry, that is a spin-out to NGEx shareholders. For every five shares of NGEx you hold, you will get one share of Valiente, and right now the way to get exposure to that, to get seed shares in that asset, is to buy NGEx.
Yeah. It is nice to be playing with house money.
Yep.
Another similar transaction or value-creating transaction potentially would be the acquisition of JX's share in Los Helados by Lundin Mining. Does that meaningfully change the path forward for Los Helados as a result of that? What opportunities do you think now emerge, having a single partner to deal with in the district? What milestones, again, and catalysts should be watching for over the coming months?
Yeah. I think that Lundin Mining acquisition of the interest in Los Helados, well, getting involved in Caserones in the first place and then ultimately acquiring the minority interest in Los Helados was a game changer for that project. We have been talking about, and those of you that have met with me one on one or heard me speak before, we have been talking for a long time about the value of combining the large scale, higher grade resource at Los Helados with the operating infrastructure that is at Caserones. Now I think we really see a path forward, and Lundin Mining, I think, has bought into the vision that we have laid out. In their public presentations, their public disclosure, they have been talking about the value of bringing Los Helados and Caserones together.
Now what's in front of us really is to talk to them and come up with an arrangement that will allow us to move those projects forward. But I think that's got the potential to be great for NGEx. Now these are obviously forward-looking. We haven't done a deal yet, but I think what I can talk about is what would be great for NGEx. Obviously, there are two parties to these deals, and what we wish we could get is not necessarily what we're going to get. But in the current environment with how we feel about Los Helados and the potential that project has, I think an ideal outcome for us would be some sort of a deal where we retain a significant interest in it. But ideally, we'd like to get carried to production.
If we were able to pull together a deal like that, I think we take an asset that has been heavily discounted in the NGEx portfolio because there wasn't a clear path to production, and I think we could turn it into something that could be really valuable for us. So we've got to get there and reach an agreement with our partner, but I think the economic logic for doing so is strong and stay tuned. Hopefully we can put together something that works for both parties.
That's exciting. I have several more questions for you, but I just wanted to note to the audience that if anybody does have a question, just put up your hand and we'll make sure that you get a chance to ask that question. But what I wanted to circle back on was Lunahuasi. You discussed it in your opening remarks, but you're about to drill an adit and develop access underground. What is it that you're hoping to learn about this system from underground that you just couldn't figure out from surface?
Yeah. Well, I guess the picture's gone but the photos that I showed kind of give you a sense for the topography at Lunahuasi. So what the underground development is going to do is give us access for much more efficient resource definition drilling. So we're going to drive right into that slope, that mountain that you saw in the photographs, and it will basically cut the distance that we have to drill for resource definition drilling by between one half and one third for each hole. So for the same number of meters, you basically get to test two or three times as much area. So it's going to just make the drilling a lot more efficient.
That's great.
Sorry, I guess one other thing is the adit is going to cut across several of the known mineralized zones, so it will give us a look at those underground. It will give us exposure for taking a larger bulk sample for metallurgical test work. It will give us a much better handle on what kind of mining conditions somewhere down the road would be. It kind of ticks a lot of boxes for us.
Right. So resource definition, mining conditions. What about scope? Is it possible that some of the activity you will do drilling underground could change the scope of the project and possibly change the way that it ultimately gets developed?
Yeah, 100%. There's nothing like getting underground to really be able to see and map the geology. It just gives you another dimension. That said, we're going to be using full-sized mining equipment to develop the adit. So you've kind of got a tunnel into the deposit that hopefully serves us in the future. It kind of takes you at least partway down a permitting pathway. You're permitting at least a part of what a future operation would look like.
Maybe taking a step back and just thinking about everything that's going on in the portfolio that we've discussed here, Lunahuasi, the spin out, the partnership with Lundin's. What does it mean for NGEx as a company? It sounds like it's very transformational, but how would you describe that potential transformation over the coming years?
Well, I think that's a good way of putting it. I think we're facing a transformational year where I think we're busily demonstrating that we continue to think entrepreneurially about how to maximize. You only get assets like this once, and you owe those assets, I guess, you owe it to them to really think carefully about how you maximize the value from them. I think part of what we're doing is we're simplifying but also trying to maximize the value of the three different pieces, and they are kind of unique pieces. I think Valle Ancho and Valiente is something that sat kind of passive in our portfolio. It was literally in the back of the presentation. We'd hardly ever get there.
We're, I think, surfacing the value for that and on top of everything else, creating a new vehicle for our investors to benefit from. I think at Los Helados, assuming we can get a deal done, we're taking an asset that has been, I think, heavily discounted in our portfolio and potentially turning it into something that would have a clear sight line to potential production. Because I think Lundin Mining has been very open about the need to kind of move quickly on something like Los Helados, the clock is ticking at Caserones as it does at every other mine. I think that would be transformational if we can turn Los Helados from something that's heavily discounted into something that more reflects its full value. I think that'd be great for us.
Then I think what I want to say about Lunahuasi is that I think one thing that people maybe don't fully understand about it is that it really is still an exploration project with a lot of upside. We are still trying to fully define the limits of that system. It's gotten a high profile very quickly, for good reason. The results from it have been outstanding. But I think that sometimes makes people think it's further along than it is. I think there's still a lot more to come and a lot of growth to come at that Lunahuasi asset. Then hopefully with some of the other initiatives, including the development of the exploration adit, we're shortening some of those typical timelines to production.
If there's one final word you'd like to leave with investors about the NGEx story, what would it be?
Well, I guess I would just say everything that we've done to date, I think was kind of a prequel for the main event, which was finally getting all of these assets further down the pathway to production. I think the game changer for us has been the entry of the big mining companies into the district. Obviously, the development of the Vicuña district, which is going to be the largest copper development project in the world when it's in full stream. That's got to help us. We have this little piece that's almost completely surrounded by the Vicuña project, so that's going to help. I think I just want people to think about Lunahuasi as a growth asset, something that is going to get bigger and better with every program that we do on it.
Then I think we have a real opportunity to create more value by putting a deal together that allows the Los Helados project to move forward into production. How cool would that be for NGEx to have a significant stake in a large long life asset where somebody else is hopefully putting up the money and managing the project? Then finally, if you want a little bit of a lottery ticket, buy NGEx, get those Valiente shares and hold on to them as we try to build a brand new company similar to what we did with LunR last year.
When's the date on the spin expected?
There will be a news release coming out once we have got the key dates defined. But the typical steps are we will send out an information circular that kind of spells everything out. 30 days after that, there is a shareholder vote to approve or not approve the transaction. And then about two weeks after that, you kind of get formal court approval. And then we will have been setting things up for an eventual listing on the TSXV kind of shadowing that process. And then once we have the approvals, the idea would be to have the company listed definitely before the end of the year, barring any unforeseen delays in approvals.
Time is ticking.
Time is ticking. Yeah.
Thanks very much for being here .
Thanks, Lawson. Great to see you. Thank you