ValOre Metals Aims to Capitalize on Booming PGM Demand with Brazil Project

VANCOUVER, BC – December 30, 2025 – As 2025 closes, ValOre Metals Corp. is signaling a major strategic shift, aiming to transition from a pure explorer to a precious metals producer. In a year-end message, new CEO Nick Smart outlined an ambitious path forward for the company’s flagship Pedra Branca Platinum Group Element (PGE) project in Brazil, a move timed to capitalize on a dramatic surge in platinum and palladium prices driven by a perfect storm of automotive trends, investment demand, and a deepening global supply deficit.

ValOre, currently valued at a fraction of its peers, is betting that its unique project advantages and a clear development strategy for 2026 can close that gap and unlock significant shareholder value. The company's vision, laid out by Smart who took the helm in October 2025, is to leverage a market full of "possibility for disciplined companies with high-quality assets."

A Perfect Storm for Platinum

The latter half of 2025 has been transformative for the PGE market. After years of languishing near or below $1,000 per ounce, both platinum and palladium staged a stunning breakout, with prices nearly doubling. This rally is not based on speculation alone but is underpinned by powerful supply and demand fundamentals.

On the demand side, a key driver has been an unexpected shift in the automotive industry. While the long-term future may be electric, the present is proving more complex. Major automakers, including Ford, Honda, and Volkswagen, have publicly announced plans to scale back ambitious battery-electric vehicle (BEV) programs to focus on more immediately profitable internal combustion engine (ICE) and hybrid models. This pivot is critical for PGEs, as hybrid vehicles require 10-20% more platinum and palladium in their catalytic converters than traditional ICE vehicles to manage emissions from cooler-running engines. With hybrids accounting for 20% of global new vehicle sales in 2025, this trend points to sustained, robust demand for the foreseeable future.

Beyond the automotive sector, record-high gold prices have inadvertently boosted platinum’s appeal. In the jewelry market, which consumes up to 60 metric tonnes of platinum annually, the metal is seen as an increasingly attractive and affordable alternative to white gold. According to market analysis, switching just 1% of the massive gold jewelry market to platinum could be enough to double the metal's annual supply deficit. Investment demand has also soared, fueled by inflationary pressures, expected interest rate cuts, and new physically-settled platinum futures on the Guangzhou Futures Exchange, which has significantly boosted investor confidence in China.

This surging demand is colliding with a severely constrained supply. The market has now recorded three consecutive annual deficits, with the 2025 shortfall estimated at 692,000 ounces. This has slashed above-ground inventories by 42%, leaving less than five months of coverage. Bringing new supply online is notoriously difficult. Over 90% of the world's platinum reserves are concentrated in South Africa, where deposits are often buried deep underground, requiring billions in capital and decades of development. Projects like Ivanhoe's Platreef mine, one of the only major new mines to enter production recently, highlight the immense financial and logistical hurdles.

ValOre's Brazilian Advantage

It is within this tight market that ValOre Metals aims to carve out its niche with the Pedra Branca project in Brazil. The project presents a compelling alternative to the challenges plaguing traditional PGE jurisdictions. As CEO Nick Smart noted, the project benefits from a number of significant advantages, starting with its location.

Located in Brazil's Ceará State, an established mining region, the project has excellent access to transportation and electrical infrastructure. Furthermore, Brazil has made a concerted effort to streamline its mining permitting and licensing processes, creating a more favorable environment for development compared to the operational and political uncertainties facing miners in other parts of the world.

The project's most significant distinction, however, lies in its geology. Unlike the deep, costly underground mines typical of South Africa, the mineral resource at Pedra Branca is near-surface. The project's 2022 NI 43-101 technical report outlined an inferred resource of 2.2 million ounces of 2PGE+Gold, all of which is considered potentially accessible via low-cost open-pit mining methods. This fundamentally changes the economic equation, minimizing the upfront capital and development time required to reach production.

"Our final advantage lies in our capable and committed team, with a depth of experience covering exploration and discovery, financing and corporate development, community engagement, permitting and major capital project delivery – all 100% focused on delivering this world-class project," Smart stated in his address.

A Clear Path to Development

Since taking the leadership role, Smart has moved quickly to sharpen the company's strategy. "My priority since joining ValOre has been clear: sharpen our strategic direction, put us on a clear and sustainable path to development for the Pedra Branca PGE project, and position the company to unlock the full potential of our portfolio," he explained.

To that end, ValOre has laid out a concrete execution plan for 2026. A key step was the recent appointment of the well-regarded engineering firm Lycopodium as the lead process engineering consultant. Lycopodium will support the development of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for Pedra Branca, slated for publication later in 2026. This study will provide the first comprehensive economic evaluation of the project, a major catalyst for the company.

This engineering work will build on a metallurgical testwork program already underway with the University of Cape Town, which is designed to optimize the process for extracting the precious metals from the ore. The company is also advancing its licensing applications, building on the 2025 approval of Final Exploration Reports for key mineral claims by Brazil's national mining agency—a major regulatory hurdle that has now been cleared.

An Unrecognized Value Proposition?

Despite holding a multi-million-ounce resource in a booming commodity market, ValOre Metals currently trades at a market capitalization of approximately $29 million CAD. This valuation stands in stark contrast to its development-stage peers. For instance, Bravo Mining Corp., with its Luanga Project also in Brazil, holds a resource of 10.4 Moz PdEq and commands a market cap of $550 million. Platinum Group Metals Ltd.'s Waterberg Project in South Africa has a reserve of 23.4 Moz and a valuation of $454 million. While these projects are at more advanced stages, the vast discrepancy highlights a potential valuation gap for ValOre.

With a resource of 2.2 million ounces, ValOre's market capitalization implies a valuation of just over $13 CAD per ounce in the ground, a figure significantly lower than industry averages for development-stage assets. The company's leadership appears keenly aware of this discrepancy, framing its 2026 strategy around execution and value creation.

As ValOre pushes toward its PEA, the market will be watching to see if the company can successfully de-risk the Pedra Branca project and prove its economic viability. If it succeeds, the lean explorer and developer could quickly rerate to better reflect the intrinsic value of its unique asset in a market hungry for new, accessible sources of platinum group metals.