ValOre’s Chairman and CEO on Pedra Branca, Metallurgy and the Road to a PEA
Jim Paterson and Nick Smart sat down with CEO.CA to talk about how Discovery Group builds companies, why a 2.2-million-ounce platinum and palladium resource in Brazil is a rare thing to own, and what stands between ValOre and a Preliminary Economic Assessment targeted for late 2026.
Two people built this conversation from opposite ends of the same problem. Jim Paterson has spent a career assembling teams around assets and watching majors buy the result. Nick Smart has spent his taking projects from concept into production for Anglo American and De Beers. CEO.CA asked each of them to explain what the other brings, and the answers arrive at the same place.
Interview produced by CEO.CA. Join the discussion at ceo.ca/vo.
The short version
- Discovery Group’s model starts with people, and with matching the right team to the specific project and region rather than stretching into unfamiliar ground.
- Pedra Branca hosts a 2022 NI 43-101 Inferred Mineral Resource of 2,198,000 oz 2PGE+Au across seven near-surface deposit areas, on 51,096 hectares in Ceará State.*
- ValOre has doubled the resource since acquiring the project in 2019, building on roughly 30,000 metres of historical drilling by Anglo American and earlier operators.
- A 2026 sampling campaign is feeding metallurgical testwork at the University of Cape Town, one of the core inputs to the PEA.
- The PEA is targeted for late 2026 and will fold mine planning, engineering, infrastructure and updated economic assumptions into a single economic picture.
- Platinum and palladium supply is concentrated in a handful of jurisdictions, which is central to how the board frames ValOre’s position.
*The 2022 Technical Report is entitled “Independent Technical Report –Mineral Resource Update on the Pedra Branca PGE Project, Ceará State, Brazil” was prepared as a National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on behalf of ValOre Metals Corp. with an effective date of March 08, 2022. The 2022 Technical Report by Independent qualified persons, Fábio Valério (P.Geo.) and Porfirio Cabaleiro (P.Eng.), of GE21, commissioned to complete the mineral resource estimate while Chris Kaye of Mine and Quarry Engineering Services Inc. (MQes), was commissioned to review the metallurgical information. The Mineral Resource estimates were prepared in accordance with the CIM Standards, and the CIM Guidelines, using geostatistical, plus economic and mining parameters appropriate to the deposit. Mineral Resources, which are not mineral reserves, do not have demonstrated economic viability, and may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, marketing, and other relevant issues. Mineral Resources are based upon a cut-off grade of 0.4 g/t PGE+Au, correlated to Pd_eq grade of 0.35 g/t, and were limited by an economic pit built in Geovia Whittle 4.3 software and following the geometric and economic parameters as disclosed in the 2022 NI 43-101 Technical Report.
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