Transcription
Hello everybody, and welcome into Commodity Culture, where our goal is to make you a better investor in the commodity sector. My name is Jesse Day. Today is June 24th, 2026, and before we dive in, standard disclaimer: nothing here is investment advice. Do your own due diligence. My guest today is the CEO of American Critical Minerals, a company focused on domestically sourced critical minerals, whose Green River Potash and Lithium project is one of the most promising agricultural mining projects in the United States. Is Dean Pekeski. Great to have you on the show.
>> Thank you, Jesse. It's great to be here.
>> I want to start things off with discussing the potash market because this is a critical commodity for food security and one that isn't discussed enough. Could you first walk us through the main uses for potash and why it's so vital to our modern world?
>> Yeah, for sure. I can certainly do that. Um, you know, potash is, is one of those commodities that people, I think, are generally familiar with, but in detail have, have little knowledge about. Um, potash is, is a fertilizer. Um, it's, it's actually mined in, in locations. It's actually mined in the United States, Canada, Russia, Belarus. Um, it's a, it's an important fertilizer component for, for, uh, agricultural, uh, purposes, deployed on mainly row crops: corn, soybeans, wheat.
Um, it's quite a large global market; about 75 to 80 million tons per year of potash is conslu- consumed annually. Um, it's, it's probably the more abundant form of potash. There's actually two types: potassium chloride, which is what American Critical Minerals is intending to, to explore for and, and ultimately produce, and potassium sulfate or SOP, which is a much smaller market, um, deployed on, on more specialty crops. Um, uh, MOP, or, or potassium chloride, um, is, is, is, you know, a component of several fertilizer types. We can produce soluble grade. We can produce granular grade. We can produce standard grade. It's typically the cheaper form of potash. Pricing right now in American markets is anywhere from $450 to $500 a ton. Globally, it's consumed in, in major regions like China, India, Brazil. And, you know, supply is, as I mentioned, really, really restricted to just a few different countries. The US in particular has a, has a demand for potash of about 7 million tons per year, but currently only produces about 5% of that for domestic consumption. So, there is a net deficit in terms of supply in the United States, and American Critical is really intending to, to help alleviate that, that, that reliance on foreign imports by, by bringing our project forward through exploration and ultimately, hopefully, into, into production.
>> Why should investors be paying attention to potash? What are the main catalysts you see that could result in a higher price for potash up ahead?
>> Well, I think, I think potash is, is ultimately strategic, right? It's, it's certainly been recognized by many governments globally as a critical mineral, including the United States. Without potash, you know, farmers aren't able to grow crops. People aren't able to eat. So, it has a direct linkage to, to food security. So, it's, it's, it's very important, as are the other components of your, your NPK fertilizers: nitrogen and, and phosphate. Really, the, the catalyst for, for pricing going forward, you know, we've, we've witnessed price escalation in, in potash commodity space associated with, with geopolitical conflict, most notably the, the Russia-Belarus Russian conflict with Ukraine. We've seen, you know, other drivers driving price increase, you know, demand is increasing, we believe. We see that as, as affordability improves for some, for some growing regions. If you look at what India and China signed with, with various suppliers earlier this year, it, it really represents and, and resets the, the floor pricing for the commodity space. So, you know, I think we've, we've seen an increase in potash pricing over the last 12 to 18 months. That's, that's probably going to remain intact and be real.
We're also not seeing a lot of new supply coming on. Although, you know, Jansen, BHP's Jansen project in Saskatchewan has been, been, you know, in, into production and, and expanding. They're, they're witnessing tremendous capital cost increases and delays. That, that contributes to, to increase in pricing. And then you've got impacts of just global freight and logistics disruptions, most recently with the conflict in the Middle East. That's had a cascading effect on shipping. And so, all these things contribute to higher pricing. Potash amongst the three big fertilizers has not seen as, as large an increase in price over the, the last six or seven months, but it certainly has appreciated. And of course, you know, probably to a lesser extent, if we see impacts of tariffs being deployed, you're, you're going to, you know, farmers are going to be paying more, certainly more in the United States for, for potash than they would be before tariffs were implemented. So, it really just makes sense from, from our perspective, to have a domestic source of, of potash, another domestic source of potash available for American farmers such that they might be more insulated from some of these supply and pricing disruptions.
>> You mentioned the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Now, peace talks seem to be ongoing. There's a lot of back and forth. It's on again, it's off again. We're not really sure how this whole thing's going to shake out. But for the moment, you know, Hormuz has exposed fragility in global supply chains. How is the supply chain for potash currently set up, and how can a strong domestic source of potash production strengthen that supply chain?
>> Right. So, yeah, good question. I think, you know, the, the conflict that we see in the Middle East right now, um, has had an impact on, on potash pricing and supply chains, but not to the same extent that urea and phosphate have, have, have had, had issues. Um, we've seen, you know, significant price increases in those commodities, um, over the last 6 months or so. Uh, potash has been less, less sensitive to, to that conflict, mainly because, um, you know, while some potash is produced in the Middle East, most notably in Israel, um, some other countries, it's not a significant global supply factor. Most of the world's supply is coming out of, like I said, Saskatchewan and Canada, uh, Russia, and Belarus. So, you know, from a, from a more recent standpoint of, of supply chain impacts associated with conflict in the Middle East, not, not it, not as significant as perhaps impacts during COVID, um, impacts during, uh, well, as a result of the, the Ukraine conflict. Those have, have, uh, you know, impacted, um, logistics and supply chains in a more significant way.
Um, if you think about, you know, having a, having a potash mine, um, in Utah, um, in the US market, um, that is under supplied, you know, our project is well positioned. We're, we're very close to a, an existing rail line. We're being close to other infrastructure. We can deliver product into key markets like California, like, like the corn belt. And as such, we're, you know, we're well positioned to be insulated from those supply chain disruptions that you, that you mentioned. So, I think we're, we're in a good place.
>> Well, before we dive deeper into American Critical Minerals, I want to get your thoughts on the lithium market, cuz it seems like it started to wake up. It's up around 170% year-over-year. What do you see as the main catalyst driving the lithium market, and do you think we're in for higher prices up ahead?
>> Yeah, I think, I think, well, number one, to answer your question simply, yes, I do think we're into a new cycle. And yes, I do believe that lithium pricing is going to be increasing as we, as we move forward here. Really, the catalysts that have driven this change or this, this increase in prices is really around, you know, tightening of supply. Australian mine curtailments have impacted supply. Chinese production and shutdowns have impacted supply. There's been delays with some of the South American brine projects that have caused instability in terms of supply chains. And, and of course, financing for some new projects has been, been somewhat delayed. All of this is really just been contributing to, you know, less, less, less product on the market and, you know, contributing to, to higher prices.
I think additionally, we've seen demand re-accelerated, right? EV sales, electric vehicles, you know, that's, that's, that's all growing from probably 15 to 20% per year. Energy storage is quite topical in today's market and is, is emerging as a, a new demand pillar, I believe. You know, China's inventory cycle has been turning. They've, they've been destocking over the last 12 months. And, and, you know, early signs of restocking that we've seen in China are contributing to, you know, well, to the perception that the price has bottomed out. And then rising cost curves for, for various producers are really just creating a, a new price floor, I believe. So, all this is kind of, you know, merging together at, at a convenient time for American Critical Minerals as we embark on, on, you know, exploring for some, some of the lithium brines which we believe are in, in our properties area. Having, having the price appreciating is certainly a, a benefit to us. And, you know, additionally, we've seen some policy tailwinds coming out of the federal administration in the US that are really supportive of projects like ours from a critical minerals perspective, from a food security perspective, and from a emerging energy, alternative energy perspective. So, we're, we're kind of ticking all the boxes there, I believe. But, in particular, lithium, I believe we've seen the bottom. And we're much closer, you know, we're, we're, we're, we're on the rise now, so to speak. And, and, you know, good, good days are ahead.
>> Let's talk about American Critical Minerals and how the company fits into the picture. Can you give us an overview of the company to start with and your overall strategy when it comes to domestic critical minerals production in the US?
>> Yeah, for sure. So, American Critical Minerals is a publicly traded company. We trade on the CSE and the OTC. We, you know, formed several years ago, in fact, and, and have had this project since around 2012 in Utah. Initially focused on the potash opportunity, but subsequently recognition that there, there could be lithium and bromine rich brines on the property. So, the company was kind of resurrected three or four years ago. Certainly, you know, with the, the recognition of these, these commodities being critical, it's provided some, some tailwinds for us.
Um, and so the company did complete a financing last year which capitalized the company in a significant way and has positioned us to start our exploration program which we expect to conduct, uh, imminently. Um, exploring for potash, lithium, and bromine in the Paradox Basin in Utah, which is one of the, the few basins in America that contains potash. Uh, we're, we're fortunate enough to have lithium brines below the potash horizons. We, we on a 100% basis, we control about 32,000 acres of, of mineral claims, leases, and, and permits, um, which constitute our land package. Um, we're embark, about to embark on a drill program that we want to start, uh, you know, imminently later in, in July or early August. And, you know, we're, we're exploring, um, opportunities with, with the, the help of the US government agencies, various agencies right now to, to a better understand, um, you know, what, what funding options might be available to the company, uh, through federal support. So, um, yeah, really, really early stages for American Critical, but we, you know, we are excited about that and we know just from some of the historic work on the property that, uh, that, you know, we, we, we have a good, good reasons to be optimistic. Um, and, and really that's, it's the historic work on the property that has allowed us to, to project targets and, and, and we're going to pursue those targets here imminently.
>> Maybe you could talk a bit more about that historic data and dive a bit deeper into the Green River project. And also the Paradox Basin, what makes the basin unique as a source of potash and lithium? And what are the important details on the Green River project that investors should be paying attention to? And then how are you using that historic data?
>> Sure. No, good question. Um, yeah, the Paradox Basin straddles sort of the, the eastern portion of, of Utah. The western portion of Colorado stretches down into Arizona, New Mexico. It has, it has pedigree as, as I would say, from a perspective of both potash and lithium. America's only, really only potash producer of potassium chloride or MOP is Intrepid Potash. They have a solution mine located at Moab, Utah, which is about 20 miles away from our property. It's been producing since the, the 1960s, initially as a, as a conventional mine, so they had shafts and, and we're mining underground with, with people working at the mining face. That, that unfortunately flooded many years ago, and so they were forced to convert to a solution mine, and they've been solution mining really since, since the, the 90s at, at Moab. So, from a, from a proximity perspective, from a pedigree perspective, you know, the Paradox Basin is, is well known to be what we call a super Basin. It, it contains significant quantities of potash, and, and, you know, the fact that we're, you know, 20 miles from, from their location, really in the shadow of their head frame, you know, really gives us confidence that, that we're going to, we're going to encounter the same geology that they're mining in our area. In fact, we know that to be the case.
There's, there's several historic oil and gas wells that were drilled on the property or around the property within various potash cycles of the Paradox Formation. We, we know from those downhole electrical logs that we do have significant intersections of, of potassium chloride up to 6 m at, at, you know, almost 29% potassium chloride, which is, which is mine grade, similar to what, um, Intrepid is mining at their operation. So, that, that really helps de-risk the, the initial well that we want to drill because we know we're going to intersect, um, intersect this, this mineralization, um, subject to, you know, there not being any sort of dissolution or, or any other sort of anomaly at depth. So, on the potash side, we've got strong confidence that we're in the right area code, so to speak.
On the lithium side, you know, the paradox has been known for lithium for years, um, but that was mainly from just brines associated with these oil and gas wells, um, but no one really, you know, did anything with that, that data for, for decades. Um, Anson Resources, which is immediately to the north and south of our project site, they're an ASX-listed company, and they've completed, you know, multiple feasibility studies, pilot test work. Um, they're extracting brine and producing, uh, lithium, um, through their, their operation. Successful pilots have been completed. They've got binding off-take with, with, with various groups. So, you know, from again, from a proximity perspective, we know that the formations that Anson Resources are, are mining, um, or, or intending to mine, we know those that geology extends onto our property because we're so close to them. We've got seismic data that shows those beds exist at depth, and so it, it, it's really up to us to, you know, with this first well that we're going to drill, um, you know, attempt to recover similar both, uh, brine grade for lithium and bromine and flows from those formations. And if we were to do that, you know, we'd be presenting to the market a pretty significant opportunity, in my opinion, because we'd be, you know, really, really providing three commodity type, um, uh, resource development pathways from each well that we drill. And, and that, I believe, makes us fairly unique in, in mining space, in fact, because we could have, you know, up to three different types of, of resource, uh, um, uh, you know, in the future which, which could really, you know, improve value and, and deliver value to shareholders. So, I, you know, I think we're, we're in the right spot. We're at the right time with respect to the commodity pricing, and now we're, we're embarking on our, our drilling program here imminently.
>> Yeah, I want to talk about that drill program, cuz at the end of May, you announced you had received your potash prospecting permits for a 2026 drill program at the Green River project. When can we expect the drills to start turning, and what are you hoping to uncover with this program?
>> Yes, so, you know, the, the, the program has been, actually, we've been in the planning stages for quite some time now. Um, we've, we've got permits in hand for up to seven wells to be drilled, but our intention at the moment is to really just start with one well. Um, that's been located and it's immediately adjacent to one of these historic oil and gas wells that returned the, the, the, the grade, um, and thickness of potash that I mentioned earlier. So, we've got, you know, that, that site's permitted. Um, we, we've engaged a company called RESPEC, which is a, uh, specialist, uh, um, consulting group with strong experience in potash and lithium and, and drilling of these, these types of, of geologic formations. Um, they've been on board now for some time and have been assisting us with planning. All going well and subject to, uh, rig availability, um, we'd like to, to get the rig on the drill rig on probably the end of July, early August.
Um, we have announced just last week that, uh, that we are, um, uh, starting site preparation work. So, we're going to be preparing the, the drill pad, the access road, uh, doing everything we can to, to get ready to drill. Um, and, you know, we'll, we'll start this as soon as we can, um, subject to the rig becoming available to us. We think that's going to be by the end of the month of July. But in, in the meantime, you know, we are looking to, to raise a little bit more money to top up our, our till, so to speak, prior to drilling such that we've got contingency for, you know, these rigs are quite big. They're, they're, you know, single Derrick rigs, oil type rigs. So, you know, the capacity for any sort of, you know, any sort of surprise whilst you're drilling, you do need to have contingency in place to, to deal with that. And, and so, we are going to do a top up here sometime in July. And we will be, we'll announce that as soon as that's, that's ready to go.
>> That leads to the next question, which is cash on the balance sheet. You're doing a raise soon. So, how much cash do you have on the balance sheet right now? How much are you hoping to raise, and, and how much runway do you think that will give you moving forward?
>> Yeah, so we, right now, we've got about $5.4 million Canadian in, in, in within the company. The, the cost of this drilling program is going to be, you know, $6 million Canadian. We have announced a, a warrant program whereby we've been trying to encourage warrant holders, holders of warrants that are looking at expiry date sort of next week, to, to exercise those warrants in exchange for another warrant that would be exercisable for the next, I think it's next four or five years. But we're looking at that as a means to, to bring in some dollars into the company. And we, we're hopeful that that's, that's going to happen. Once we get through that warrant exercise phase, which will expire the 28th or, sorry, the 29th of June of this month, then we'll look to, to complete a, another capital raise, private placement of some sort, sometime in July and, and announce that accordingly.
Um, ideally, we'd be raising another three to five million dollars Canadian into the company. Um, if more was available at the right price, we'd probably take that, um, because it, it behooves us, you know, once we've got the rig on site, um, it kind of behooves us to, to drill more than just the, the single well. So, more dollars in the company means we can get more drilling done, um, which means we're closer to hopefully resource definition in terms of timing and schedule. These drill holes typically take about, you know, 30 to 45 days to complete, so they're, they're, they're, they're not your typical, um, mineral type drilling rigs. They're, they're much larger. Um, we'll be, we'll be running in, um, significant lengths of intermediate casing. We'll be coring potash horizons and some of the, the brine aquifer horizons for lithium, and then we'll be pump testing those lithium, uh, brine aquifers as well. So, it's, it's a quite involved program. Um, and, you know, subject to us getting started in say the beginning of August, we'd have, you know, results from the program, um, in hand probably October, uh, timeline. So, um, that, that's kind of the next, see, several months that we're, we're looking at, um, in terms of our, our plan and, and how we want to take things forward.
>> So, the next upcoming catalyst and news flow coming out of the company that shareholders can look forward to is that basically the drill program seems to be front and center at this point. Is there anything else on the agenda or anything else that they could potentially be a catalyst for the share price up ahead?
>> Yeah, I think, I think the big one will be, and then, you know, uh, securing of the drill rig, which would be by contract. Uh, commencement of drilling would be, would be another catalyst. And then, you know, as we drill through the, the various, um, uh, potash lithium, uh, horizons, you know, we'll, we'll be announcing, you know, um, completion of that. Um, and then certainly the, the, the, the geochemical results would be available, um, come October. So, yeah, I see a series of news, news flow events coming out over the next several months once we get, once we get drilling, and we'll communicate that to the market as quickly as we can and are able to.
>> Great. Well, I'm going to put a link in the description below to the American Critical Minerals website as well as social media so people can follow along with the company and the drill program. Dean, fantastic conversation. Really appreciate having you on the show.
>> Jesse, thank, thank you for inviting me here. I really enjoyed this, and hopefully we can speak again in the future.
Commodity Culture is a series on commodities and natural resources. If you would like to see more, be sure to subscribe and hit the bell notification so you're always up to date with the latest episodes.