Voyageur Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (TSX-V: VM) announced the submission of a Multi-Year Area-Based Notice of Work application to the British Columbia Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals for its Frances Creek barite project. The application seeks a five-year advanced exploration program on a 76.8-hectare area, including trenching, access trails, a processing area, and a mine rock storage facility. The proposed activities are primarily on previously disturbed forestry land and are supported by technical studies on terrain stability, acid rock drainage, archaeology, and management plans.
The Year 1 program includes extraction of 2,000 tonnes of high-grade barite ore (specific gravity 4.5) from the A and B zones, within the annual limit of 1,000 tonnes per cell under the Mineral Tenure Act. The barite will be processed on site using dry densimetric technology to produce an initial concentrate, which will be shipped to the Company’s future facility for USP barium upgrading. This material will support the design and validation of Voyageur’s proprietary concentration and acid leach process to meet pharmaceutical specifications.
The application also includes a geotechnical drilling program to provide rock mechanics and slope stability data for quarry pit wall designs and waste rock storage configurations. This data is the primary remaining requirement to complete a NI 43-101 Final Feasibility Study, building on the 2022 Preliminary Economic Assessment and the Pre-Feasibility Study currently in progress.
Brent Willis, CEO of Voyageur, stated that the Notice of Work submission is a significant de-risking milestone. The test extraction will advance process development, while the geotechnical program will enable progression to a Final Feasibility Study. The Frances Creek project’s grade and purity position Voyageur as a potential future secure North American supplier of pharmaceutical barium contrast products.
The PEA dated February 22, 2022 outlined a low-cost open-pit development scenario focused on pharmaceutical applications. Recent market observations indicate that costs for imported pharmaceutical-grade barite have increased significantly compared to PEA assumptions, which may positively influence updated project economics. The project hosts an indicated and inferred mineral resource of 132,000 tonnes of pharmaceutical-grade barium sulfate, with recent testing confirming an average grade of 98.8% BaSO4, exceeding the pharmaceutical grade threshold of 97.5%.
The PEA base case assumes an initial 10-year project horizon with total capital of $36 million over three years, equipment delivery and installation over 24 months, a payback period of 11 months after start of production, and average operating gross margins of approximately 75%. The PEA is preliminary and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative to have economic considerations applied to them; there is no certainty that the PEA results will be realized.
Voyageur Pharmaceuticals is developing barium and iodine Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and aims to vertically integrate the barium and iodine contrast markets. The Company owns a 100% interest in the Frances Creek barite project and has developed five barium contrast products with Health Canada licenses. More information is available at https://voyageurpharmaceuticals.ca.
