CHF WEEKLY ROUND-UP: June 9-13, 2025

World shares were trading mixed on Thursday after Wall Street’s rally stalled when a Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane operated by Air India that was bound for London crashed shortly after taking off from the Ahmedabad airport in western India. Then Israel said it had launched a series of strikes against Iran that included dozens of military targets, including the country's nuclear program, described the strikes as "pre-emptive" and declared a state of emergency. Tehran has vowed vengeance, stating that its response will be beyond anything that Israel and its ally, the United States, could ever imagine. This has triggered a flight to safe-haven assets. Oil prices surged following the attack, while gold prices also moved higher as investors sought refuge from equity market volatility. Global markets are broadly off to start today, with defence stocks up and Bitcoin down. Look for buying opportunities.

Investors appeared not prepared to react much to the results of the latest round of China-U.S. trade talks as President Trump has announced yet another trade deal with China “subject to final approval with President Xi and me” that will allow Chinese students to continue attending American colleges, and have China continue to provide rare earth minerals to American manufacturers. Tariffs imposed on each country by the other one would remain the same. With only three weeks remaining on the ninety-day tariff pause clock and no other deals, the President needs to find a way to save face and declare victory. There will likely be a flurry of framework agreements with details to be worked out later. President Trump also said he intended to send letters to trading partners in the next one to two weeks setting unilateral tariff rates, ahead of the July 9 deadline to reimpose higher duties on dozens of economies. Rumours suggest that a Canada-U.S. deal is near, but nothing has been made public, despite Prime Minister Carney and President Trump holding direct talks in recent weeks.

Despite a lot of anti-Canadian investment advice related to the expected economic impacts of Trump’s tariffs, the TSX continued an upward trend and set another all-time high this week. The TSXV experienced some struggles this week but remains near its highest level in more than three years.

The U.S. dollar (USD) fell to its lowest level in 2.5 years, and yet stock or bond investors didn’t react. Even with May's lower-than-expected CPI, the federal deficit data, also released this week, reminded investors that fiscal policy remains on an unsustainable course. The Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate decision next Wednesday, June 18, 2025, and it's almost certain to keep rates unchanged. Rate cuts are ultimately expected in 2025, with markets pricing in at least a half percentage point reduction by the end of the year as inflation may already be in the Fed’s target range of 2%.

Spot Gold prices, at USD$3,435.69/oz, are solidly up at a six-week high in early trading this morning, on strong safe-haven demand following the overnight Israeli attacks on Iran. Silver prices, at USD$36.14/oz this morning, are holding above the USD$36/oz mark breached a week ago. Spot Platinum peaked at USD $1,290.00/oz on Thursday, its highest since January 2021, but is at USD$1,244/oz this morning, supported by a combination of tight supply expectations, improving industrial sentiment, constrained output, and technical follow-through from the broader precious metals rally. The World Platinum Investment Council projects a supply deficit of nearly one-million ounces this year. A larger rotation into the precious metal shares may be about to start, be invested here.

Base and industrial metals have continued to trade in narrow ranges since the tariff announcement, now they are being pushed lower by mid-east tensions and the possibility of economic contraction related to war. Copper sits at USD$4.71/lb. and Nickel at USD$6.75/lb. today.

Critical, battery, and electric materials did not experience any significant price gains this week, as oversupply and China's dominance have held this sector down, despite stable demand. China has announced that it will continue to strengthen the examination and approval process for rare earths export applications, promoting the facilitation of compliant trade. The Uranium price slipped to USD$70.00/lb. this week despite no improvement in the supply gap.

Today, we would like to introduce CHF’s latest client, Transpacific Resources Inc., a Canadian-based mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and exploration of critical mineral and precious metal properties in Northern Ontario and Quebec, Canada. Their flagship properties include the “Midlothian South and Ferris Lake” Properties Southwest of Matachewan, Ontario and their “Field of Dreams” Property that straddles the Ontario-Quebec border, about 40 km north of Larder Lake, Ontario.

The Midlothian South and Ferris Lake properties are targeting fault splays and associated intrusive units off the western extension of the Cadillac-Larder Lake Fault Zone that extends from Val D’Or, through Kirkland Lake and Matachewan, and is known to host prolific quantities of critical minerals and precious metals.  The Field of Dreams Property lies along splay structures branching off the Destor-Porcupine Fault, another crust-mantle scale feature associated with numerous base and precious metal discoveries from Timmins, Ontario, into Quebec.

The Company is moving towards re-listing on a Canadian exchange with CEO Jim Renaud and CFO Erik H. Martin.

We are pleased to present our round-up of client news released between June 9 and 13, 2025.

Mining

On June 10, 2025, Sokoman Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SIC) (OTCQB: SICNF) announced that the Company has filed documents with the TSX Venture Exchange seeking final approval for its non-brokered flow-through private-placement financing.

On April 30, 2025, the Company closed the first tranche of the FT Financing, issuing 6,000,000 flow-through common shares. On receipt of Exchange approval, the Company will issue a further 2,000,000 flow-through common shares, for a total of 8,000,000 flow-through common shares issued for aggregate gross proceeds of CAD$400,000. All securities issued pursuant to the FT Financing are subject to a four-month and one-day hold period. The Company intends to spend the flow-through proceeds on the Company's exploration projects.

The Company will use the gross proceeds received by the Company from the sale of the flow-through shares to incur eligible Canadian exploration expenses that qualify as flow-through mining expenditures as both terms are defined in the Income Tax Act (Canada) on or before December 31, 2026, and to renounce all of the qualifying expenditures in favour of the subscribers of the FT Shares.

Technology

On June 12, 2025, Visionstate Corp. (TSXV: VIS) announced the rollout of its WandaLITE solution in the first deployment outside the province of Ontario. A regional airport has adopted WandaLITE to strengthen its commitment to cleanliness and improve passenger experience—marking the beginning of broader national adoption.

“Airports are high-traffic environments where public perception of cleanliness is crucial,” said Shannon Moore, President of Visionstate IoT Inc. “WandaLITE not only offers an easy-to-implement solution but also provides clear, auditable proof of cleaning activity. This demonstrates a facility’s ongoing commitment to health and hygiene, which is more important than ever in public spaces.”

WandaLITE was originally developed in response to Ontario’s Bill 190, which mandates visible cleaning logs in public washrooms. Designed as a simplified version of Visionstate’s flagship WandaNEXT solution, WandaLITE is easy to deploy, simple to use, and provides facilities with critical data on cleaning history and compliance. Since its release earlier this year, WandaLITE has seen strong uptake, with a growing pipeline of installations across Ontario. The product’s intuitive design and powerful data-tracking capabilities have generated demand beyond the scope of the legislation.

“The adoption of WandaLITE beyond Ontario signals a broader shift in how organizations are thinking about cleanliness and public health,” added Moore. “It’s not just about meeting legislative requirements—it's about building public confidence and operational efficiency.”