ValOre's Biggest Discovery May Be the District Itself

• ValOre Metals Corp. holds an estimated 2.2 million ounces of platinum, palladium, and gold at Pedra Branca, grading 1.08 grams per tonne (g/t) across 7 zones, per the independent NI 43-101 technical report (effective date: March 08, 2022); the company's CAD$26 million market value (as of May 2026) compares to similar-stage platinum group metals (PGM) peers valued between CAD$126 million and CAD$440 million, per ValOre's May 2026 corporate presentation.
• The ore sits close to the surface and can be mined from an open pit, a much cheaper method than the deep underground mines that dominate platinum production in South Africa, with paved highway access to a deep-water port approximately 4 hours away and power lines already running nearby.
• Laboratory tests at the University of Cape Town (UCT) are returning platinum recoveries of 74% and palladium recoveries of 73% from early-stage samples; these results are preliminary and must be confirmed at larger scale before feeding into the project's first economic study, the preliminary economic assessment (PEA).
• High-grade rock boulders sitting at the surface, grading 6.5 to 8.5 g/t, are being evaluated as potential early feed for the processing plant; processing higher-grade material first improves a project's net present value (NPV), the measure of what future cash flows are worth in today's money.
• A PEA targeting delivery in the fourth quarter of 2026 will be the first document to publish project-level NPV, estimated build cost (capital expenditure, or CAPEX), and the all-in cost of producing an ounce of metal (all-in sustaining cost, or AISC), the figures institutional investors need before they can formally value the project.

ValOre Metals Corp. (TSX-V: VO, OTCQB: KVLQF, FSE: KEQ0) is sitting at a CAD$26 million market value while comparable platinum group metals (PGM) development peers are valued at CAD$100 million to CAD$200 million or more.

Nick Smart, the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) does not think that gap reflects the quality of the asset

: "If you look at our peer group; these are companies that are all $100, $200 million dollar market cap companies. ValOre today is sitting around $26 million. So the real question then is why."

Smart spent 21 years at Anglo American, one of the world's largest platinum producers, before joining ValOre in October 2024. His answer to that question comes down to 2 things. ValOre previously held uranium assets, leaving investors unsure what kind of company it was; the sale of those properties to Future Fuels settled that, leaving ValOre 100% focused on precious metals. The second issue is structural: without a published economic study (the PEA), and larger investors have no formal numbers to work from. The PEA is targeting delivery in the fourth quarter of 2026.

ValOre holds an estimated 2.2 million ounces of 2 Platinum Group Elements and Gold (2PGE+Au), meaning platinum, palladium, and gold combined, at Pedra Branca in Ceará State, Brazil, grading 1.08 g/t across 7 zones, as reported in the independent NI 43-101 technical report with an effective date of March 08, 2022. That market value compares to listed PGM development peers ranging from CAD$126 million to CAD$440 million, according to ValOre's May 2026 corporate presentation.

A Supply Squeeze With No Easy Fix

The platinum market has a supply problem that is not going away quickly. Primary platinum mine production peaked at just over 6 million ounces in 2021 and is forecast at approximately 5.5 million ounces in 2026, according to Smart in the Crux Investor interview. Over the same period, the platinum price approximately doubled, a combination that signals supply, not demand, is the binding constraint on this market.

The concentration of that supply in a single region is where the investment thesis sharpens. Approximately 80% of the world's PGM supply comes from South Africa and Zimbabwe combined, according to Smart. Those mines are old and deep underground, getting more expensive to run every year: electricity costs for South African miners rose approximately 60% between 2021 and 2026, and roughly 60% of the country's diesel arrives through the Strait of Hormuz, an increasingly costly and uncertain route. Smart argued that the full weight of those constraints has not yet been priced into the market.

That supply constraint leaves very few development-stage PGM companies worldwide with projects at a comparable scale to Pedra Branca. Among the named peers in ValOre's May 2026 corporate presentation, Stillwater Critical Minerals at CAD$126 million and Generation Mining at CAD$236 million both carry market values well above ValOre's current level, at grades below Pedra Branca's 1.08 g/t 2PGE+Au.

Why a Shallower Mine Costs Far Less to Build

Most South African PGM mines operate hundreds of metres underground, requiring years of tunnelling and enormous upfront spending before a single ounce is produced. Pedra Branca's ore reaches the surface across all 7 resource zones, meaning it can be mined from an open pit, cheaper, faster, and without the pre-production underground development cost that defines most PGM projects. Smart pointed to both the mining method and the existing site infrastructure as reasons the project avoids the capital buildout that burdens most PGM developments.

The site sits approximately 4 hours by paved highway from a deep-water port, with power lines already running close by, reducing the construction needed before operations can begin.

ValOre has operated in Ceará State since 2019, completing more than 23,000 metres of drilling and building relationships with Brazil's environmental and mining regulators, SEMACE (Ceará State Environmental Agency) and the National Mining Agency (ANM), per the company's June 03, 2025 news release. That track record is a meaningful mitigant against permitting risk; Brazil is an established mining jurisdiction, and ValOre has been engaging both agencies proactively ahead of the formal licensing process.

The Processing Challenge & the Scale-Up Risk That Remains

The surface ore at Pedra Branca has oxidized over time, and that is a real processing complication, not just a technical footnote. The standard first step in processing platinum ore, flotation, relies on sulfide minerals that oxidation destroys. Solving this requires a different approach entirely. ValOre's team, working with UCT's Department of Chemical Engineering, has developed a water-based chemical process that extracts the metals directly from the rock without relying on sulfides.

Early laboratory results are returning platinum recoveries of 74% and palladium recoveries of 73%. These are shake-flask tests, the earliest and smallest stage of metallurgical testing, and the results still need to be confirmed at stirred-tank reactor and column scale before they can be used in a PEA. Smart described those numbers as a proof of concept rather than a final figure, adding that the team is targeting further improvement as the tests scale up.

A second line of work at UCT targets dense, high-grade boulders at the surface grading between 6.5 and 8.5 g/t. Because they are so rich in metal, processing them early in the mine's life could meaningfully improve the project's NPV; the higher the grade going through the plant in the opening years, the faster the project pays back its build cost. Smart confirmed this sequencing is already being factored into the early mine plan.

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