First Tellurium Corp. (FTEL:CSE; FSTTF:OTCQB) announced it is staking additional ground at its Klondike tellurium project in Colorado. The company has engaged Burgex Mining Consultants of Sandy, Utah, to stake the claims, which have been filed with the Bureau of Land Management.
"We've had our eye on additional ground at Klondike for some time," said First Tellurium President and Chief Executive Officer Tyrone Docherty. "The new claims were selected for both their mineral potential and strategic expansion as we develop the property."
First Tellurium said it would announce the number and extent of the new claims once it receives confirmation from Burgex and the BLM.
FTEL's Deer Horn project in British Columbia is its flagship, but Docherty said Klondike is considered America's top tellurium (Te) exploration project and was previously owned by First Solar Inc. (FSLR:NYSE) as a potential source of raw Te for its solar panels.
First Solar stopped its raw materials exploration program in 2012 and sold the property to Colorado Klondike LLC, which optioned Klondike to First Tellurium. Colorado Klondike, led by First Solar's former exploration manager in North America, is managing the exploration program at the project.
"Surface sampling by First Solar Inc. in 2006 found very high tellurium grades of up to 3.3% (33,000 ppm), along with locally high gold grades," the Colorado Geological Survey and the Colorado School of Mines reported on First Solar's Klondike exploration. "Tellurium grades at Klondike were the highest encountered in the company's nationwide exploration program."
The Catalyst: 'Only Pure Play' for Critical Metal
Tellurium is one of the least common elements on the planet, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Most rocks contain an average of about three parts per billion, making it eight times less abundant than gold.
Its use as a semiconductor in solar photovoltaic (solar PV) panels has increased. It's also used in thermoelectric applications, lithium batteries, vulcanizing rubber, tinting glass, and manufacturing rewritable CDs and DVDs.
FTEL has been a quarterly pick of asset manager Chen Lin, author of the What's Chen Buying? What's Chen Selling? newsletter, several times in the past year.
Both the U.S. and Canada are trying to reduce dependence on China for such critical metals. U.S. President Joe Biden has banned solar panels coming from a Chinese company that uses forced labor.
The U.S. military is providing US$250 million for critical metals projects, including tellurium, and Canada's federal 2023 budget earmarked CA$1.5 billion for a critical minerals infrastructure fund.
FTEL has been a quarterly pick of asset manager Chen Lin, author of the What's Chen Buying? What's Chen Selling? newsletter, several times in the past year.
The company could "have a huge 2023" if the United States supported tellurium mining this year, Chen wrote.
"We will hit the jackpot as FTEL is the only pure play in tellurium," he wrote.
Technical analyst Clive Maund rated First Tellurium as an immediate Buy in March.
First Tellurium has registered as a federal lobbyist to make sure they don't lose out on any government funding opportunities.
Work Underway at Deer Horn
At the Deer Horn project, which is in British Columbia, FTEL is conducting geophysics work this summer to help develop targets for a drilling campaign.
"There's a very decent chance tellurium will breakout this year because First Solar is using 60% to 70% of worldwide production to make a solar panel," Chen wrote. "Their production has grown rapidly."
The project is known to have the only positive preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for a tellurium (Te) project in North America. Deer Horn was also named by First Solar as a world-class Te project.
"There's a very decent chance tellurium will breakout this year because First Solar is using 60% to 70% of worldwide production to make a solar panel," Chen wrote. "Their production has grown rapidly."
First Solar plans to double its solar panel manufacturing capacity and spend US$1.36 billion to lessen China's dominance of the market, according to S&P Global.
Streetwise Ownership Overview*Targets from the Deer Horn geophysics survey will augment additional drill targets identified in the PEA as "infill and tightly spaced step-out diamond drilling focused both on upgrading and expanding the existing resource," First Tellurium said.
Deer Horn's PEA was calculated on 450 meters of the original 2.4-kilometer gold-silver-tellurium vein system.
"Our Deer Horn project also contains significant showings of silver and copper, both essential green metals, along with the critical metals bismuth and tungsten," Docherty said.
Ownership and Share Structure
According to the company, 11% of First Tellurium is owned by management and insiders.
Docherty owns 10.6% or 7.7 million shares, Director Josef Anthony Steve Fogarassy has 1.38% or 1 million shares, and Director Lyle Allen Schwabe has 0.73% or 0.53 million shares. There are no institutional investors, and the rest is retail.
The company has a market cap of CA$9.05 million, with about 73 million shares outstanding and 63.4 million free-floating. It trades in a 52-week range of CA$0.25 and CA$0.085.
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Important Disclosures:
- First Tellurium Corp. has a consulting relationship with Streetwise Reports and has paid a consulting fee between US$8,000 and US$20,000.
- As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of First Tellurium Corp.
- Steve Sobek wrote this article for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee.
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