Guest post:
TNR Gold: Building the Green Energy Metals Royalty Story in Argentina - the New Powerhouse of rEVolution
TNR Gold is moving quickly on its path to transitioning from a project-generating junior mining company into a cash-flow-generating royalty company. We believe that the recent market prices of our shares do not properly reflect the underlying value of the shares and that this transformation will bring the necessary catalyst to crystallise the potential valuation of our assets for investors in the marketplace. Let's explore our company's rising value proposition.
Chart by Nicholas Winton
We repaid our investment loan in full in 2023, and our Company has no debt. TNR Gold bought back more than 6 million shares under the normal course issuer bid in 2024.
We have celebrated major developments with all our royalty projects this year. After meeting with the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, Ganfeng officially inaugurated Mariana Lithium's start of production in Guemes, Salta, on February 12, 2025, and this project will become the first cash-flow-generating royalty for TNR Gold!
In a major vote of confidence, Rio Tinto, the world's second-largest metals and mining company, invested an additional $35M in McEwen Copper, bringing the total investment to $100M. In December 2024, McEwen Copper secured a key environmental permit for the construction and operation of the giant Los Azules Copper project in Argentina!
Reuters reported that McEwen Mining expects to complete a feasibility study for its Los Azules copper mine in Argentina in two months.
Mining Potential in Argentina 2024
All three of TNR Gold's royalty projects are featured in the Argentina Secretariat of Mining investment feature. Our Company holds 1.5% NSR royalty (of which 0.15% is held on behalf of a shareholder) on Mariana Lithium with Ganfeng, 0.4% NSR royalty (of which 0.04% is held on behalf of a shareholder) on Los Azules Copper with McEwen Mining and 7% net profits royalty on Batidero I and II properties of Josemaria with Lundin Mining.
Mining Potential in Argentina 2024
Argentina’s ability to continue attracting investment is thanks to substantial resource endowments, over 20 bilateral treaties to safeguard against double taxation and incentivise foreign investments, as well as its provincial jurisdictional structure covered previously. The welcoming attitude of provincial officials and the pro-investment environment make a virtuous cycle for any company.
Large Investment Incentive Regime ("RIGI"), approved by the Congress, bold pro-business reforms of the new president, Javier Milei, opened doors for international investors to help the proud people of Argentina build it into the new Powerhouse of Tesla Energy rEVolution.
Javier Milei is making a sweeping reform package for tax, currency, and customs benefits for investors. Argentina is rapidly distancing itself from the jurisdictional risks typically associated with South American mining projects. JPMorgan expects Argentina to overtake Chile in exports by 2027.
Kirill has spent many hours writing about how "Argentina has everything to become the Power House of the Tesla Energy rEVolution." And we have seen that money, sense and Mandarin are flooding into Argentina as step after step it positions itself on the politically strategic tightrope to supply the copper and lithium commodity deficit devoured by green electric transportation.
As I wrote before, if TNR Gold can do one thing well, it's to identify underappreciated assets and squat on them until pop hype and fanfare wake up the hatchling within. But there’s a certain poetry to this business model; TNR must be warmed in turn by those looking for underappreciated assets, so participating in this type of venture requires a certain kind of paternal patience, no matter the blizzard coming.
Angela Harmantas from Proactive wrote about the new report on TNR Gold from Fundamental Research Corp:
"TNR Gold’s portfolio spans various mining assets, with a key focus on its Shotgun gold project in Alaska and royalties in two advanced-stage projects in Argentina: the Mariana lithium project, owned by Ganfeng Lithium, and the Los Azules copper-gold project, held by McEwen Copper.""TNR Gold is about to make a strategic shift in its business model and position itself as a revenue-generating royalty firm, according to analysts at Fundamental Research Corp.Production began earlier this year at the Mariana lithium project, owned by China’s Ganfeng Lithium, with TNR set to begin receiving royalty payments as early as the fourth quarter of 2025.
Based on current spot lithium prices, Fundamental Research estimates annual royalty revenue from Mariana could reach C$1 million." (Angela Harmantas)"The company's other flagship royalty asset is on the Los Azules copper-gold project in Argentina, controlled by privately held McEwen Copper Inc, a division of McEwen Mining Inc (TSX:MUX, NYSE:MUX). The large-scale, open-pittable deposit holds an estimated 38 billion pounds of copper, 4.7 million ounces of gold, and 159 million ounces of silver. McEwen plans to complete a resource update and feasibility study this quarter, with construction targeted for 2026 and production slated to start by 2029.FRC projects that TNR’s royalty from Los Azules could generate annual revenues of up to C$10 million at current copper prices.The firm reiterated its Buy rating and increased a fair value estimate from C$0.28 to C$0.30 per share, compared with a current trading price of C$0.09." (Angela Harmantas)Disclaimer: Please be aware that any opinions, estimates or forecasts regarding the performance of TNR Gold Corp. in any research reports do not represent the opinions, estimates or forecasts of TNR Gold Corp. or of its management.
Core management at TNR Gold has displayed an unassailable tact in its decision-making; from closing a deal just before a lithium price crash to choosing the projects in the correct nation and with the correct partners amidst a torrent of noise present in the lithium market.
"Marketing Success and Industry Recognition
- Recent increased M&A interest from numerous parties suggests that TNR’s management (“Management”) has succeeded with its marketing activity by presenting the Company’s GEM Royalty Story to the mining and investment industries.
- In February 2023, Lithium Royalty Corp. valued only a portion of the Company at US$9 million, based on its purchase of the 0.5% NSR royalty involving the Mariana Lithium project for US $9 million.
- Our team has successfully repaid TNR Gold’s investment loan in full, returning our shareholders all our assets free from encumbrance. The value generated from delivering that strategic transaction has justified Management’s stance on rejecting other opportunistic low-ball offers."
Stability has always been a mantra for our Company - Solid Values in Uncertain Times. Be it fluctuating or stabilised lithium prices, these are royalty projects for keypoint critical metals under industry majors with no input needed; a simple fundamental win maker for shareholders: 1.5% NSR royalty (of which 0.15% is held on behalf of a shareholder) on a major Mariana Lithium project that’s currently being developed by Chinese champion Ganfeng, 0.4% NSR royalty (of which 0.04% is held on behalf of a shareholder) on the giant Los Azules copper project being worked up by McEwen Mining and 7% net profits royalty on Batidero I and II Properties of Josemaria copper project in Argentina under Lundin Mining.
There is the Danger of Death Grips on Dead Horse Deposits among junior mining companies. Where a majority of value stems from a single prospect, there always exists a risk of ‘We Have to Make It Work’ that sees cash flow money bleed out. If management deigns to stay past the Pump and Dump phase.
TNR Gold's hands-off cash-generating royalties, in multiples and with industry majors, provide both incentive to stay at the helm and the cash to reasonably evaluate options regarding cash-flow intensive prospects in gold, lithium and copper.
The gap between Science and ‘fast’ Wall Street money is how investor money evaporates in mining, particularly in lithium. Only a few companies in the world are able to *rear* lithium operations into producing projects, less so reaching forecasted capacity.
Investors must remember that a lot of 'Lithium companies' have only the word lithium in their name but lack the capacity, know-how or legislative backing to produce lithium even in 10 years. The whole industry produced 1.3M T LCE in 2024, now we have to increase this production by 2.5X and jump to over 3.3M T LCE by 2030.
Sometimes the lithium market is as fun as watching salt dry. Now, after the confirmation of the continued exponential growth of EV sales in China, "the Lithium Universe shows signs of life again".
Beware of the Thousand and One lithium mining dreams. Stick with industry majors like Ganfeng Lithium, which knows how to get strategic resourcing done!
Ganfeng's Mariana Lithium project is distinguished by the decision to preserve the salt flat as a complex environmental system. Consequently, the operations and facilities were planned from a robust and studied environmental basis.
"Lithium Universe shows signs of life, and Ganfeng Lithium is accelerating the progress of the production capacity ramp-up of the Mariana Lithium project.
"Mariana is a lithium-potassium salt lake located in Salta Province, Argentina. According to a technical report issued by Golder Associates Consulting Ltd., the total lithium resources at the Mariana lithium salt lake project amounted to approximately 8,120,000 tons of LCE. The construction of the project has been completed. In February 2025, the production line for phase I of the Mariana lithium salt-lake project with a planned annual production capacity of 20,000 tons of lithium chloride was officially put into operation. The Company will accelerate the progress of the production capacity ramp-up of the project, and it is expected that the Mariana project will gradually supply lithium chloride products in a stable manner from the second half of 2025 onwards." (Ganfeng Lithium, 2024 Annual Report, April 30, 2025)"
With recent events, it's easy to choose when comparing Argentina to neighbouring Chile, where our sector’s worst nighttime bogeyman of resource nationalisation is heralded by a far-left socialist & communist coalition prevailing in political elections.
"But is the Mariana royalty even the best asset inside TNR?"
"Arguably not, since the Los Azules royalty, according to some calculations, may be worth as much as US$30mln. Rob McEwen himself holds a 1.25% NSR royalty over Los Azules, and he’s been putting some pretty punchy numbers around his own interest in his recent video presentations. (Alatair Ford)
"The company's other flagship royalty asset is on the Los Azules copper-gold project in Argentina, controlled by privately held McEwen Copper Inc, a division of McEwen Mining Inc (TSX:MUX, NYSE:MUX). The large-scale, open-pittable deposit holds an estimated 38 billion pounds of copper, 4.7 million ounces of gold, and 159 million ounces of silver. McEwen plans to complete a resource update and feasibility study this quarter, with construction targeted for 2026 and production slated to start by 2029.FRC projects that TNR’s royalty from Los Azules could generate annual revenues of up to C$10 million at current copper prices." (Angela Harmantas)
Energy transition to renewables has High Materials Intensity, of which copper (at 5x more intensity) is a major constituent and a common denominator across *all* technologies. Bet on precedent; global copper production has only managed to double every 25 years…
TNR Gold’s vision is aligned with mining industry leaders such as Rob McEwen, whose vision is ‘to build a copper mine for the future, based on regenerative principles that can achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2038’. This will be achieved by implementing new technologies with Nuton, the technological venture of Rio Tinto.
Nuton is working on innovative technology to be implemented at Los Azules Copper. You can clearly see the benefits of a major industry partner for McEwen Mining. Los Azules is ranked top 10 largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world by Mining Intelligence (2022). PEA provided an updated independent mineral resource estimate that has increased significantly.
TNR Gold's business model provides an exceptionally valued entry point into the creation of a critical material supply chain like copper and lithium energy metals, which are powering the EV revolution and the gold and silver industry, which is providing the ultimate hedge during this part of the economic cycle.
I believe that TNR Gold is close to enjoying a pincer move after many years of planning. The company picks up not one but two potentially cashflow-generating royalties in the future on the essential critical metals electrifying the gears of change within the electric and renewable global market. TNR’s 7% NPR holding on the Batidero I and II properties of the Josemaria Project held by the JV between Lundin Mining and BHP represents future growth potential for the royalty portfolio.
TNR Gold’s purpose is quite simple in intent; a solid value launchpad of green royalties for the gold in the USA rocketship in fueling.
After Ganfeng officially inaugurated Mariana Lithium's start of production in February, 2025 is set to be a very interesting year for TNR Gold, one that is due to go by in pop celebration, national flag-waving fanfare and certain marching bands.
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