A six-year lease on a Mississauga industrial unit pushes Fulcrum's cyanide-free mine-waste technology from the lab bench towards a working pilot plant.
Fulcrum Metals plc (AIM: FMET) has taken a six-year lease on a 12,526-square-foot industrial facility in Mississauga, Ontario, giving the mine-waste reprocessing group a physical base from which to run its first pilot programme at the Teck-Hughes project.
The facility, which can be extended for a further six years, is designed to process up to 2.4 tonnes of material a day in roughly 600-kilogram batches, with fit-out and commissioning targeted for the end of Q4 2026. Alongside the lease, Fulcrum has signed a Pilot Scale Demonstration Agreement with Extrakt Process Solutions and Test Design Implement Solutions, under which TDI will install and run Extrakt's cyanide-free processing technology at the site.
The pilot plant is intended to be reusable across multiple sites rather than built afresh for each one, which matters given Fulcrum holds exclusive Extrakt deployment rights across more than 70 documented legacy mine-waste sites in the Kirkland Lake and Timmins districts of Ontario. Teck-Hughes will be tested first, with the Sylvanite project to follow using the same facility.
The commercial prize sitting behind the pilot work is a previously announced US$20 million royalty financing proposal from Chancery Royalty, under which Chancery would take a 5% net smelter return royalty over future gold production in exchange for the funding. Fulcrum would retain an option to buy back 2% of that royalty for US$10 million within two years of commercial production starting.
Crucially, the Chancery financing is not yet committed and remains subject to due diligence, definitive documentation and other customary conditions, meaning the US$20 million cannot be treated as secured capital. Chief executive Ryan Mee said the site and Demonstration Agreement move the funded pilot programme into physical delivery, with successful Teck-Hughes testing now the key gating milestone before any funding can be finalised alongside the Q4 2026 commissioning target.
This report is based on Fulcrum Metals plc’s announcement and coverage by Share Talk. Company announcements can be tracked via London Stock Exchange RNS and Investegate, and the full results calendar is worth watching for the next update.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Photo: Dominik Vanyi on Unsplash.
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