Transcription
Hello everybody and welcome into Commodity Culture where our goal is to make you a better investor in the commodities sector. Today is June 4th, 2026 and before we dive in, standard disclaimer. Nothing here is investment advice. Do your own due diligence. My guest is the CEO of Fox Tungsten with one of North America's most promising high-grade tungsten projects strategically positioned in British Columbia. It's Steven Gray. Great to have you on the show.
>> Hi Jesse. Thanks so much for having me today. It's a pleasure to be here.
>> I want to start by discussing the tungsten market because it's a commodity that is very important but doesn't get much airtime. So, first of all, why don't we start with the main uses of tungsten and why it's a commodity that is in demand.
>> Tungsten is a niche commodity, but it's a critical commodity. Uh, tungsten is uniquely hard and uniquely dense. For that reason, it makes an excellent drill bit. Say it's used in a lot of industrial uh tool and die manufacturing. U but it's also for the same reason tungsten makes excellent tank armor or jet turbine blades. Uh so it's a critical industrial input, but it's also a critical national security and military supply chain.
>> Could you expand a little bit more on the investment thesis for tungsten in terms of why investors should be interested in this metal? Maybe some supply demand fundamentals and dynamics that you think people should be paying attention to.
>> So tungsten like a lot of critical minerals is controlled by China. Uh, approximately 80% of world tungsten production comes out of China and there are zero producing tungsten mines in North America. Uh so given, you know, the recent geopolitical trade tensions, uh China has imposed export restrictions on tungsten which has caused the tungsten price to to shoot up by almost an order of magnitude over the past year. Um, combined with that, there's also just a fundamental supply demand problem. There's just not enough tungsten to go around. Um, so geopolitical things aside, right, even if there was some kind of peace treaty between China and the US, this is a market that is in deficit and will continue to be in deficit for a number of years. Um, it's not like there's some secret big pile of tungsten in China waiting to be released. U, so I expect tungsten prices to remain high um, as demand continues to grow and supply continues to lag.
Well, I want to discuss the tungsten price because while everyone is paying attention to gold, silver, and copper, it's quietly been going parabolic, up almost 10x since the start of 2025. Two questions here. What has caused this massive rise in the price in your view? Is this related to these supply shortages and China's dominance? And does this mean investors getting in now are late to the party or do you think there's more room to run?
>> So, it's a combination of those two things I mentioned. One, the the Chinese trade tensions, but also just the fundamental deficit in the market. Uh, you know, we've seen Chinese domestic tungsten prices have gone up quite a bit too. So it's not just the geopolitics. Um, I do think tungsten has more room to go. Um, again, this is a market that will remain in deficit for a number of years just because there isn't a big pipeline of tungsten projects. Um, and it will take a while for the market to catch up. Uh, also, you know, we've seen the price, the stock prices of companies like ours has lagged the tungsten price by quite a bit. Um, that's kind of a classic junior mining thing to say, but I think it's particularly true in the case of tungsten. Uh, because it is such a niche commodity that maybe doesn't get as much attention as as gold or or copper. Um, and so we have seen this disconnect come between the the valuation of the tungsten metal and the valuation of of tungsten companies. And so I think there's a there's a catch-up trade there.
>> Let's circle back to China for a moment because as you explained and as you also outlined in your company presentation, China's producing 80% of global tungsten. This reminds me of the current situation with rare earths as well where they control much of the mining and processing. How vital is it in light of this to bring a domestic source of tungsten online in Canada, especially in our current geopolitical environment?
>> It's absolutely critical. I mean, China has demonstrated both a willingness and an ability to weaponize their control of critical minerals, including tungsten. The only way to to defeat that is to build domestic production. Like I said, there are zero producing tungsten mines in North America anywhere. And Fox Tungsten, I think, is uniquely placed to supply that demand.
>> I want to talk about tungsten being a critical mineral. It's officially declared one in Canada due to its strategic importance and the government has added it to the critical mineral exploration tax credit program. How much do you expect government support to play a role in Canadian tungsten production and with companies such as Fox Tungsten?
>> Government support is is always helpful. Um, we raised money recently under the tax credit that you mentioned. Um, so again, the the financial support from government is helpful and and we're optimistic that we'll receive uh funding from either the Canadian or US governments as the project advances. Uh, I think more importantly than the financial support has just been the change in tone um from both the federal and the provincial BC government. Um, there's been an increased recognition on the importance of critical minerals specifically in mining generally. Um, I think good projects like ours will always find funding. Uh, the important thing is having that clarity and having that speed in in the permitting process and we've had some encouraging signs there. So, I look forward to working with the government there to try and advance this project as soon as possible.
>> Well, that's a great uh segue into discussing how Fox Tungsten fits into the whole picture here. Why don't you give us an overview of the company and your game plan when it comes to the tungsten market?
So we have in Fox the highest grade tungsten resource in the world. Uh, our resource is about 1% tungsten. To put that into context of what that means at spot prices, that's the equivalent of about 20 grams per ton gold or 25% copper. So this is an incredibly high-grade asset and it's a high-grade asset in a great location in southern British Columbia. Uh, we have road access right into the camp. There's a power line crossing the property. Um, and our deposit is outcropping at surface. So we have high-grade deposit close to infrastructure, easy to access. So that uniquely positions us to to try and bring this into production as as quickly as possible and supply that domestic market, provide that security of supply.
>> Well, let's dive deeper into your projects. You've got the Fun Fox Tungsten project in British Columbia and you've also got the Silver Boss project which is a copper, molybdenum, gold, and silver project. Can you provide some highlights in terms of milestones achieved so far, plans for the future and strategy for both projects?
>> So, Fox is our main project. It's our cornerstone asset. Um, we have an existing resource there. Uh, so there's about 20,000 meters of drilling have been done on this project historically to to build that resource. Um, this summer we'll be continuing to explore. So, we just did a raise. Um, we'll be doing a 20,000 meter drill program at Fox this summer. Uh, the primary goal of that will be maximizing the size of the resource and then we'll be doing a PA on the back of that. Uh, so that in a nutshell is is our plan for the next year. It's, you know, drill program over the summer, uh, followed by a resource update and a preliminary economic assessment in early '27. Silver Boss is an earlier stage property. Um, it's a, it's a molly and copper property. We own all the land there around Glen Coror's old Boss Mountain Molly mine. Um, so it's, it's very prospective for base metals. Um, but again, earlier stage, it's a pre-resource greenfield property. Um, we did some some geophysics and some prospecting last summer. We've identified a number of great copper and molly targets and we'll be following those up with the drill bit this summer. Uh, but like I said, that's that's an earlier stage project. Our focus will be on advancing our Fox TSON project.
>> How much cash is on the balance sheet? How much runway does that give you? And how do you plan to raise more capital as needed moving forward? You mentioned you recently raised some capital under the critical mineral exploration tax credit in Canada, which is great. Um, but how much runway does this all give you, and what are the plans for for raising more cash?
>> So, we have about 15 million of working capital on the balance sheet right now. That's 13 million of cash and another 2 million of shares of Metal Energy. Um, that's something that we we acquired as part of a transaction. We sold them a copper project in BC a few years ago. Um, so we have 2 million of their shares on our balance sheet and they owe us another 6 million over the next four years. Um, so that's an important backstop for the company. Uh, because those are all those are all hard dollars. Uh, and so that's our G&A paid for effectively forever. Um, so when we go and raise money, we're raising flow through. Um, and investors know that that money is is going into the ground. It's not going to my salary and conferences and stuff. Um, so with the funding that we have, um, we have enough money to do our our 20,000 meter drill program like I mentioned this summer and that will also take us through the the resource and and the study phase. Um, so we're funded for the next year to to the next major milestone, which will be the PDA. Um, and then we will need to to raise more money after that. Um, I'm optimistic that a portion of that can come through um government grants from either the the Canadian or the US governments. Uh, but we are fully funded to the next major milestone, which will be the PDA. Um, and that will be important because that will transition us from being an exploration story to a development story and really start to put our our project into context for investors.
>> And is the end goal here to go into production yourselves eventually or is it to be acquired by a larger company?
>> Yeah, we'll see. I mean, this is going to be a a relatively small high-grade low capex project. Uh, you know, we're envisioning something in the realm of a thousand tons a day primarily underground operation. Uh, so this is the size of project that that a junior could build. Um, this won't require, you know, a BHP to come in and spend billions of dollars. Um, this will be a manageable achievable project. Um, whether that's Fox Tungsten building it or not, I think remains to be seen, but we're certainly in a place now where there's, you know, a clear pathway ahead and and we have a great team in place to progress the project.
>> What would you say are the main upcoming catalysts? You spoke about the drill programs. Is that where investors focus should be in terms of upcoming news flow? Is there anything else in terms of catalyst for the company that that you're seeing ahead here in 2026?
>> So, that's the main one. Drilling will start in about two weeks. Uh, we actually just started construction on a new camp this week. So that's ongoing as we speak. Uh, the drills will spool up in late June, early July. We'll have two drills on site for the summer. U, so investors can look forward to to results coming out. Um, that will be followed by, like I said, a resource and a PA in early '27.
>> Great. And you mentioned that you have a team to to get these projects advanced. Maybe you could shed some light on the team behind Fox Tungsten. Perhaps starting with yourself and your own background in the industry.
>> Sure. I'm recently uh or I'm new in the role. I I joined Fox Tungsten in November of last year. Um, I'm a mining engineer. I come from an M&A background. U, so I spent many years working at Kinross on the on the corporate development team. Um, but we also have uh a very strong geology site team uh running the drill program. Um, so it's a company called Coast Mountain. Um, they're a very experienced geology contractor. Uh, and they actually ran or continue to run uh Fireweed's drill program, which is a competitor of ours up in the Yukon, uh with a very similar style deposit. Um, so we have a team in place that are experienced operators and know Tungsten well.
>> That's great. Well, let's close things out by opening the floor to you. Is there anything we haven't covered? Anything you think it's important to emphasize that potential shareholders of Fox Tungsten should be focused on?
>> I think it's just important to reemphasize that Fox is the highest grade tungsten deposit in the world. And it's the highest grade tungsten deposit in a location that is close to infrastructure, close to power lines. Um, you can drive from our camp to the grocery store in 45 minutes. Uh, so that so that's a winning combination, right? We have tungsten, which is a critical mineral that everybody wants with high grades and a great location. Uh, the obvious kind of missing piece here is scale, but that's fine because we can solve for scale and we're going to solve for scale with the drill bit. Uh, so this is going to be a very exciting summer for the company. Um, we're going to roughly double the amount of drilling that has ever been done on the property in one drill season. Um, and really looking to rapidly transform from an explorer to a developer. So like I said, this is going to be a transformational year and I'm really excited to see uh what the future holds for us.
>> Great. Well, I'm going to put links in the description below to the Fox Tungsten website as well as social media for people who want to follow along with the company. Stephen, thank you so much for coming on the show.
>> It was my pleasure, Jesse. Thanks for having me.
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