Stillwater Critical Minerals Lays Out Its Biggest Resource Yet, With a PEA as the Next Hurdle

The video's centerpiece is a sit-down between host John Fenwick, goldstockdata.com's Don Duret, and Mike Rowley, CEO of Stillwater Critical Minerals. The conversation pivots almost immediately to the company's third mineral resource estimate (MRE), released August 27, which Rowley describes as "substantially bigger" than the prior two updates.

## What's in the new resource

Rowley walks through the base-case headline number: 4.82 billion pounds of nickel, copper, and cobalt, plus 7.43 million ounces of palladium, platinum, rhodium, and gold. He separately flags 6.6 billion pounds of chromium — in what he calls "still America's biggest and best district for chromium" — that is not folded into the nickel-equivalent figure.

For the first time, Stillwater has published an indicated category alongside the inferred: 29 million tonnes at 0.38% nickel equivalent, against an inferred 805 million tonnes at 0.34% nickel equivalent. Rowley points to a higher-grade 0.5% nickel-equivalent cut-off within the data as "really high grade," and to a separate 0.35% NiEq scenario that Glencore appears to favor — 2.36 billion pounds of base metals, 3.47 million ounces of PGMs and gold, and 12 million tonnes of indicated tonnage.

## Commodity mix and US supply context

Rowley breaks out the nickel-equivalent pie: 40–50% nickel depending on the price deck, 1.5 billion pounds of copper "half a kilometre from a producing US mine," 283 million pounds of cobalt, and what he calls "the biggest rhodium deposit in North America, full stop." On rhodium specifically, Rowley notes his team uses US$6,500/oz in the study, against a spot price he pegs closer to US$8,500/oz.

The US supply argument runs throughout. Rowley points out the country has just one nickel mine (Eagle in Michigan, now owned by Talon) and "no nickel processing," and that current Western producers cannot survive at roughly US$7.60/lb nickel given Indonesian production and Chinese state-backed financing. "You need to be polymetallic like this," he argues.

Fenwick adds that US government engagement has been ongoing since at least 2023, including a Department of Defense meeting in Bozeman. Rowley describes meetings with both Montana senators, the governor, and Congressman Troy Downing, who now sits on the House Natural Resources Committee. Asked directly about federal grant money, Rowley is characteristically measured: "It takes time," likening the dialogue to courting a strategic major.

## The Platreef thesis and Ivanhoe expertise

A large slice of the conversation is geological. Stillwater sits in the Stillwater Igneous Complex in southern Montana, immediately adjacent to Sibanye-Stillwater's producing palladium-platinum mines. Rowley describes Stillwater Critical Minerals as "the Platreef to their reef" — referencing South Africa's Bushveld Complex, where bulk-tonnage, polymetallic mining has run for more than three decades.

He highlights the Ivanhoe Mines Platreef operation, citing an AISC (All-In Sustaining Cost — what it really costs to produce an ounce) of US$599/oz 4E and a 35-year mine life as the cost benchmark he wants to bring to Montana, contrasting it with Sibanye's current costs, which he says are "more than double that."

Applying that mine model is, in Rowley's telling, what changed this resource. Two former Ivanhoe geologists — Danny Grobler and Albie Britz — joined in 2022, and the August 27 update is the first resource built on their geology model, supported by Mine Technical Services led by Tim Cool. Three drill rigs are currently turning: two on Iron Mountain, one on Chrome Mountain.

## Share structure, analyst coverage, and the PEA plan

Rowley walks through the register: Glencore holds 13% after participating in three prior financings but skipping the most recent round, which cost them a board seat. Management and insiders hold about 16%. US Global Investors (Frank Holmes) and Sprott Asset Management are named holders.

Red Cloud Securities has just initiated coverage with a C$250 price target. Market cap at the time of recording sits around C$143 million / US$100 million-plus on 310 million shares, with the stock at C$0.46 / US$0.37 after basing near US$0.16–0.17 earlier in the year.

Going forward, Rowley describes a pivot from resource growth to upgrading inferred to indicated, with a PEA targeted "in the next year or so." He explicitly rules out a pre-feasibility study as unnecessary: "We probably do not need to go to PFS. We certainly need to go to PEA just to lock down the idea of having the frame."

Duret frames the entire setup as a classic resource-stage optionality play, arguing that holding out for a PEA before entertaining acquirers is the difference between a low-premium deal and a "tenfold" outcome, citing resource valuations that "lift" from roughly US$20/oz gold-equivalent in inferred ground to US$200/oz once de-risked. Fenwick disagrees on timing, suggesting a 2028 sale is plausible if a PEA lands next September; Duret pegs the more likely window at 2029–2030. Both agree the project is unlikely to clear a major's desk for less than US$2 billion.

The investors in the room note the project could keep growing — Duret points at 800 million tons as a future mark — but as Rowley emphasizes, the near-term job is converting what is already in the ground into indicated ounces and an economic study that a major can underwrite.