Spotlight: Four companies advancing projects in BC, Prairies & the Far North 

Exploration in Canada’s Prairie provinces, British Columbia and the Far North is heating up with summer drill programs, especially for coveted critical minerals. Here’s a look at four companies with interesting projects to watch.

Amarc Resources

Amarc Resources (TSXV: AHR; US-OTC: AXREF) is advancing the Joy, Duke and Ike copper-gold projects in northern, central and southern British Columbia, respectively.

A preliminary budget of $15 million (US$10.7 million) has been earmarked for exploration this year and will focus on the Joy project in the province’s Toodogone region. The program is to be fully funded by strategic partner Freeport-McMoran (NYSE: FCX).  

The Joy district assets are held by AuRORA Minerals, a private joint-venture corporation in which Freeport currently holds a 60% interest, which it earned by spending $35 million.

In September, the Arizona-based miner announced it will earn another 10% stake by investing an additional $75 million at a minimum spend of $10 million per year over five years.

The main target at Joy is the high-grade, near-surface AuRORA copper-gold deposit, which Amarc discovered in 2024. Amarc says AuRORA represents a new porphyry system.

Discovery hole JP24057 returned 82 metres grading 1.24 grams gold and 0.38% copper from 18 metres, and a separate interval of 69.7 metres grading 2.56 grams gold and 0.42% copper from 120.3 metres. Drillhole JP24060 cut 130 metres grading 2.4 grams gold and 0.61% copper from 74 metres.

Highlights from last year’s 35-hole program included a 266-metre interval grading 1.24 grams gold and 0.31% copper from 34 metres depth.

The 630-sq.-km project, about 1,100 km north of Vancouver, also hosts the Twins and Canyon porphyry copper-gold systems and the historic Pine and Brenda deposits.  

Drilling last year at Twins intersected porphyry copper-gold systems below an 8.5-sq.-km lithocap and the same at Canyon beneath a 5-sq.-km lithocap.

Amarc also has a joint venture with Boliden at its Duke project. The Swedish miner has invested US$30 million ($41.8 million) to earn a 60% stake. In April, Amarc announced that Boliden will not exercise its option to increase its interest from 60% to 70% for a further US$60 million.  

The copper-molybdenum-gold-silver deposit sits about 6 km southeast of American Eagle Gold’s (TSXV: AE; US-OTC: AMEGF) NAK copper-gold deposit and about 80 km northeast of the town of Smithers.

Drilling at the 732-sq.-km property has identified a porphyry system extending to over 650 metres north-south by 800 metres east-west and to a depth of over 600 metres.  

Amarc Resources has a market cap of $228 million.

Blue Star Gold  

Blue Star Gold (TSXV: BAU; US-OTC: BAUFF) is advancing the Ulu, Roma and Auma gold projects in the Kitikmeot region of western Nunavut, about 210 km southeast of the hamlet of Kugluktuk and 525 km northeast of Yellowknife, N.W.T.  

The land position spans 423 sq. km of the underexplored High Lake Greenstone Belt and is situated near the Ottawa-backed Grays Bay and Port (GBPP) project, a $1 billion nation-building infrastructure initiative.

Ulu sits just 1,500 metres and Roma 2 km from the GBPP’s proposed 230-km all-weather road that would connect the Arctic Coast to the Nunavut-N.W.T. border. The deep-water port would be located at Grays Bay in the Coronation Gulf. In March, Prime Minister Mark Carney referred the GBPP to the federal Major Projects Office, which was created to fast-track infrastructure projects.  

Blue Star released a resource update for Ulu in May outlining 2.2 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 7.87 grams gold for 558,000 contained ounces. Inferred resources stand at 3.2 million tonnes at 4.54 grams gold for 476,000 ounces.  

The update puts Ulu in the top ranks of junior gold explorers by contained ounces and grade in Nunavut.

Blue Star envisions Ulu as an open-pit and underground project, where mineralization from three zones (Flood, NTK and NFN) could be co-processed. The company estimates gold recoveries higher than 90%.

Roma sits in the northern portion of Blue Star’s land package and hosts gold showings as well as copper and zinc targets. The Roma Main showing is a 0.3- to 3-metre-wide quartz vein exposed intermittently in outcrop and boulders over a strike length of about 2 kilometres. Visible gold was noted in three historical narrow diameter drillholes.

The Auma project remains under-explored, and the company says it will be an area for future exploration.

Blue Star Gold has a market cap of about $35.2 million.

Defense Metals

Defense Metals (TSXV: DEFN; US-OTC: DFMTF) is advancing its Wicheeda rare earths project in British Columbia, 80 km northeast of Prince George and 500 km east of Prince Rupert, the closest major North American port to Asia.  

Wicheeda is one of the more advanced rare earths projects in B.C. Last year, a prefeasibility study gave the open-pit project an after-tax net present value (NPV) of US$992 million and an after-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 19%, based on a discount rate of 8%. Initial capital costs of US$1.4 billion could be repaid in 3.7 years. Reserves support a 15-year mine life with an average annual output of 31,900 tonnes of total rare earth oxides (TREO) in concentrate.  

In May, the company entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s Hanwha to explore opportunities for collaboration and potential offtake agreements.

The 118-sq.-km property located on the traditional territory of the McLeod Lake Indian Band, has also been picked for B.C.’s Critical Minerals Office (CMO) initiative. It is in a select group and the only rare earth project to benefit from key services from the CMO to help accelerate promising projects.

In March, Wicheeda received conditional approval for up to $1.9 million in the second call for proposals under the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund. The funding would enable the company to develop a new 60-km transmission line designed to deliver up to 35 megawatts of electricity from the BC Hydro grid directly to the project.  

The company kicked off its spring drill program in May with plans to drill 6,865 metres. It is also pushing ahead with a pilot flotation plant test program.

Wicheeda is among few rare earth deposits in North America with current reserves other than MP Materials’ (NYSE: MP) Mountain Pass mine in California. Proven and probable reserves measure 25.5 million tonnes grading 2.4% TREO for 619,000 tonnes TREO, 2,661 parts per million (ppm) neodymium oxide and 961 ppm praseodymium oxide.  

The site, which is accessible by a paved highway and all-weather gravel roads, sits close to infrastructure such as hydro power transmission lines and gas pipelines, as well as the nearby Canadian National Railway.

Defense Metals has a market cap of about $79 million.

F3 Uranium

F3 Uranium (TSXV: FUU; US-OTC: FUUFF) is focused on Tetra, its newest discovery on the Broach property, which is part of the company’s Patterson Lake North project in Saskatchewan.  

That project’s 430-sq.-km land package includes two other properties – Patterson Lake North and Minto – all within the southwestern edge of the Athabasca basin, one of the world’s highest-grade uranium districts.

Located roughly 12 km south of the JR zone, and discovered in 2025, Tetra sits near major uranium projects such as NexGen Energy’s (TSX, NYSE: NXE; ASX: NXG) Arrow deposit and Paladin Energy’s (ASX, TSX: PDN) Triple R, underscoring the district’s development potential.

Results from the fall drill program at Tetra released in March include drillhole PLN25-219A, which returned 13 metres at 0.28% U₃O₈ from 399.5 metres depth. Hole PLN25-211 cut 4.5 metres grading 0.1% U₃O₈.  

In June, F3 started an induced polarity (IP) and resistivity geophysical survey at the Tetra zone to generate new targets. Drilling will focus on extending mineralization along strike and testing the system at depth as crews work to define the scale of the discovery.

At F3’s JR zone – adjacent to Broach and about 23 km northwest of Paladin’s Triple R deposit – assays released in December 2024 featured 7.5 metres at 30.9% U308, including an ultra-high-grade core with 4.5 metres of 50.1% U308.

Since 2010, the F3 team members have helped discover four major uranium discoveries in the Athabasca basin: The J Zone at Waterbury Lake; Triple R at Patterson Lake South (PLS); the JR Zone at Patterson Lake North, and more recently, Tetra.

The PLS and Waterbury deposits were later acquired by Paladin and Denison Mines (TSX: DML; NYSE: DNN).

F3 Uranium has a market cap of about $101 million.