Transition Metals (TSXV:XTM) is a Canada-based, multi-commodity exploration company laser-focused on discovering the next generation of critical and precious metals in the country’s most prospective and mining-friendly jurisdictions.

With a diversified portfolio spanning platinum group metals, nickel, copper, gold, silver, and uranium, the company offers broad exposure to the metals powering electrification, decarbonization, and long-term resource security.

Operating under a disciplined project generator model, Transition advances early-stage assets through rigorous, geoscience-driven exploration before strategically bringing in partners to help fund drilling and development. This approach preserves capital, limits shareholder dilution, and retains meaningful upside through royalties, milestone payments, and equity interests — while maintaining operatorship and technical control during critical exploration stages.

Company Highlights

• Multi-commodity exploration company with a portfolio of projects and royalties, covering gold, nickel, copper, platinum group metals (PGM), cobalt, tungsten and more located in mining-friendly jurisdictions across Canada
• Flagship PGM exposure at the Saturday Night/Sunday Lake projects in the Thunder Bay region
• Discovery-focused project generator model designed to minimize shareholder dilution while maximizing exploration leverage
• Strong treasury position complemented by marketable securities, milestone payments and royalty interests
• Proven management team with multiple industry discovery awards and a long track record of value creation
• Exposure to critical metals themes supported by government funding, flow-through incentives and secure jurisdictions

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1. Talon Metals (TSX:TLO)

Yearly gain: 629.41 percent
Market cap: C$725.17 million
Share price: C$0.62

Talon Metals is a base metals company advancing the Tamarack nickel-copper-cobalt project in Central Minnesota, US, through a joint venture with Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO,NYSE:RIO,LSE:RIO). Talon currently holds a 51 percent stake in the project and can earn up to 60 percent. The company also owns the Boulderdash nickel-copper discovery in Michigan, US.

In late March, Talon Metals announced a massive sulfide discovery at its Tamarack project, with an intercept measuring 8.25 meters containing 95 percent sulfide content located deeper than the current Tamarack resource.

In May, a further massive sulfide discovery in the same zone, the thickest discovery yet at the site, drove the company’s share price up significantly, and another in early August did the same.

In the August announcement, Talon shared that it named the discovery zone the Vault zone. At the start of Q4, Talon announced an expanded winter drilling and exploration program at Vault. Shares of Talon rallied to C$0.54 on October 14 following the winter drill news and alongside rising cobalt prices.

On October 20, Talon received a 12 month extension from Rio Tinto subsidiary Kennecott Exploration to submit a feasibility study and a US$10 million payment required to increase its ownership stake in the Tamarack project to 60 percent.

To start 2026, Talon Metals completed its previously announced deal with Lundin Mining (TSX:LUN,OTCPL:LUNMF), acquiring Lundin’s producing Eagle nickel-copper mine and Humboldt mill in Michigan.

The deal combines the assets with Talon’s nearby Boulderdash discovery, allowing the company to process ore from Boulderdash at the Humboldt mill. Additionally, Eagle will provide cash flow to help Talon advance Tamarack.

Under the transaction, Lundin Mining received 275.2 million Talon shares and a royalty of US$1 per metric ton of non-Eagle ore processed at the Humboldt Mill, capped at US$20 million. Lundin now holds a 19.99 percent interest in Talon and it will be able to elect two members to the board.

Between the announcement and closing of the deal, shares of Talon rallied to a one year high of C$0.69 on January 6, 2025.

2. Leading Edge Materials (TSXV:LEM)

Yearly gain: 183.33 percent
Market cap: C$63.74 million
Share price: C$0.25

Leading Edge Materials is developing critical materials projects in Europe. The company’s projects include its wholly owned Woxna graphite mine and Norra Kärr heavy rare earths project, both in Sweden, as well as its 51 percent owned Bihor Sud nickel-cobalt exploration alliance in Romania.

According to its June 2025 presentation, exploration work planned for 2025 at Bihor Sud’s G2 gallery includes mapping and sampling of cobalt-nickel and zinc-lead-silver mineralized zones detected visually and by hand-held XRF. Drilling targeting polymetallic mineralization at the gallery is underway.

On the financial side, Leading Edge announced a C$400,000 non-brokered private placement in June.

According to a June 22 activities update, Leading Edge’s Romanian subsidiary was granted ownership and operational permits for the Avram Iancu mine at Bihor Sud, and the team had begun preliminary investigations of the site.

In its quarterly report released September 19, Leading Edge Materials said it is reassessing its prospects after being granted those permits. The Avram Iancu site has extensive historic underground workings and data indicating copper-rich massive sulfide zones, the statement notes.

A competent person report is in progress to consolidate past exploration and outline next steps, while the company evaluates financing options to advance development.

Shares of Leading Edge registered a one year high of C$0.44 on October 14.

In December, Leading Edge Materials cleared a regulatory milestone at its Norra Kärr rare earths project in Sweden, securing county-level endorsements that advance its 25 year mining lease application to a final decision by the Mining Inspectorate.

The company closed the year by joining EIT Raw Materials as a project partner, strengthening its access to Europe’s leading critical minerals innovation network and potential funding channels.

3. FPX Nickel (TSXV:FPX)

Yearly gain: 161.7 percent
Market cap: C$193.52 million
Share price: C$0.62

FPX Nickel is currently advancing its Decar nickel district in British Columbia, Canada.

The property comprises four key targets, with the Baptiste deposit being the primary focus, alongside the Van target. The company also has three other nickel projects in BC and one in the Yukon, Canada.

In February, FPX released a scoping study for the development of a refinery that would refine awaruite concentrate from Baptiste into battery-grade nickel sulfate and by-products of cobalt carbonate, copper and ammonium sulfate. Annual output is anticipated at 32,000 metric tons of contained nickel and 570 metric tons of contained cobalt.

The results show that the process would result in operating and all-in production costs near the bottom of nickel sulfate cost curve, in part due to by-product credits. Additionally, the carbon intensity of the awaruite refinery would be significantly lower than that of currently used production methods.

On September 4, FPX completed a large-scale mineral processing pilot campaign for its Baptiste nickel project, following three prior successful campaigns. The production run generated bulk samples of awaruite concentrate, which will be provided to prospective partners, including pre-cursor cathode active materials, battery producers and automakers, to assess its suitability as feedstock.

Later in the month, FPX secured an option to earn up to 100 percent of the Advocate nickel property in Newfoundland, which was also named the first designated asset under its generative alliance with the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security, supporting a planned exploration program.

At the start of Q4, FPX Nickel signed an exploration agreement with the Takla Nation covering its Klow property in Central British Columbia, establishing a collaborative framework for early-stage work and protocols for environmental protection, employment and more.

Later in the quarter, the company received UL Solutions’ ECOLOGO certification, which verifies sustainable practices in the mineral exploration sector. FPX is the first company in Canada operating outside Québec to do so, according to the release.

FPX opened 2026 by qualifying for an upgrade to the OTCQX Best Market, with its shares now trading under the ticker FPOCF.

Two days later, FPX shares reached a one year high of C$0.69 on January 7, 2026.

4. Battery Mineral Resources (TSXV:BMR)

Yearly gain: 125 percent
Market cap: C$22.15 million
Share price: C$0.18

Battery Mineral Resources is focused on developing into a mid-tier copper producer, and recently restarted mine and mill operations at the Punitaqui Mining Complex in Chile.

In Canada, the company holds the largest land position in Ontario’s historic Cobalt district, where it is exploring high-grade primary cobalt deposits at McAra, Gowganda and Elk Lake. Its portfolio also includes energy services and mineral exploration assets in North America, along with graphite projects in South Korea.

In late October, Battery Mineral Resources said it was evaluating strategic options for its Gowganda silver tailings project, located northeast of Sudbury, Ontario. The project lies in one of the country’s most productive past silver-cobalt districts, and the Gowganda mining camp produced 60 million ounces of silver and 1.3 million pounds of cobalt between 1910 and 1969. Gowganda hosts four former mines and associated tailings historically estimated to contain 2.96 million ounces of silver.

On October 16, Battery Mineral Resources reported strong operational performance at its Punitaqui copper project in Chile, driven by improved underground production and plant optimization. Battery Mineral Resources is also advancing development of additional underground operations at Cinabrio Norte and Dalmacia to support further growth from Punitaqui.

At the start of 2026, Battery Mineral Resources unveiled the decision to sell 100 percent of its interest in the Gowganda silver-cobalt tailings project mining leases to Nord Precious Metals (TSXV:NTH,OTCQB:CCWOF).

“We are pleased to enter into this transaction for our shareholders, providing approximately $6.0 million of value along with a 3.0 percent NSR Royalty,” said Laz Nikeas, CEO of Battery Mineral Resources.

Days later, on January 7 the company launched a non-brokered private placement to raise C$34.89 million. The news items helped push shares of Battery Mineral Resources to a one year high of C$0.20 on January 12.

5. Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX:WPM)

Yearly gain: 122.77 percent
Market cap: C$82.43 billion
Share price: C$181.56

Wheaton Precious Metals is one of the largest gold and silver royalty and streaming companies.

It has investments in 18 operating mines and 28 development projects across four continents, including a cobalt streaming agreement for Vale’s (NYSE:VALE) Voisey’s Bay nickel mine in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

Voisey’s Bay is currently in a transitional phase, shifting from the depleted Ovoid open pit to full underground production.

According to Wheaton’s Q3 release, Voisey’s Bay produced 604,000 pounds of attributable cobalt, a year-over-year increase of 52 percent. This came as the underground mine at Voisey’s Bay continued to ramp up, with full production expected in 2026’s second half.

In November, Wheaton closed its gold stream deal with Carcetti, now Hemlo Mining (TSXV:HMMC), providing US$300 million in upfront funding tied to the Hemlo mine transaction. The deal delivers immediate production and cash flow to Wheaton while anchoring a broader recapitalization that supports the asset’s transition under new ownership.

Wheaton shares hit a one year high of C$182.07 on January 13, 2026, as silver and gold continued to hold at historically high price levels.

Graphite prices under pressure

Speaking at the Benchmark Week conference in November 2025, Adam Webb, head of energy raw materials at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, explained why flake graphite prices — as well as the majority of the battery metals suite — saw weak prices through early 2025, despite a promising demand outlook.

“Essentially, what’s happened here is demand has grown very strongly, but supply growth has actually outpaced demand growth,” Webb said. “Therefore you’ve got the markets in a surplus, and that weighs on prices.”

As graphite prices sank in 2024, a ripple effect impacted supply, hitting the production side hard.

“With flake graphite, you’ll notice it’s actually supply has increased less than demand, and that is because prices were so low that in 2024 you had significant Chinese capacity come offline,’ Webb commented.

‘Also in flake graphite you have competition with synthetic graphite.”

Graphite anodes remain the dominant choice for lithium-ion batteries, but price divergence has sharpened competition between natural and synthetic materials.

Synthetic graphite is expected to retain the largest market share in the near term, thanks to its superior fast-charging performance, durability and electrolyte compatibility. However, natural graphite is gaining attention for its lower cost, higher capacity and lower energy intensity. This competition has divided the market as prices for flake graphite remain low, further pressured by weak demand in the industrial segment.

“Flake pricing on the other hand continues to feel the impact of lower steel demand in 2025 amid declines in Asian and European production in the first seven months of the year,” a September Fastmarkets report notes.

“Expectations among market participants are that production in China will continue to decline through the end of the year and continue to weigh on overall global production.”

Energy storage surge to underpin long-term graphite demand

Despite the market challenges noted by Benchmark’s Webb, the metals consultancy and price reporting agency forecasts 9 percent growth in graphite demand between 2025 and 2035.

This uptick will be strongly supported by a rise in the EV and battery energy storage system (BESS) segments.

“Flake graphite, you’ll see that that price is going up despite the oversupplied market, and that is because to meet that rising demand, there needs to be more supply coming online, and a lot of that supply coming online is high cost. So that’s going to push up the price support, basically, gradually through time,” Webb said.

The BESS market emerged as a major growth driver in 2025, reinforcing long-term demand for battery raw materials, including graphite. As Benchmark outlines, the market for BESS is expected to register roughly 44 percent growth for 2025, almost double the rate of overall lithium-ion battery demand.

As a result, energy storage is set to account for a quarter of total battery demand in 2025.

In North America, momentum has been uneven.

While interest in large-scale storage remains strong, BESS integrators faced mounting pressure in 2025 due to limited domestic battery cell supply, project delays and shrinking margins.

Several leading system providers reported weaker financial results, highlighting the risks of heavy reliance on imported cells and fragmented supply chains.

In Europe, deployed energy storage capacity surpassed 100 gigawatts by November, with batteries accounting for the vast majority of new installations. China, by contrast, saw a renewed surge in energy storage battery shipments. Policy reforms introduced under “Document No. 136” shifted renewable power toward market-based pricing and removed mandatory storage requirements, allowing battery projects to compete on commercial returns.

Together, these regional dynamics underline the growing importance of stationary storage in the global battery market. As BESS capacity expands alongside EVs, demand for graphite anodes is expected to remain structurally strong, even as supply chains and pricing face continued adjustment.

Establishing an ex-China anode supply chain

At Benchmark Week, industry insiders agreed graphite demand will continue to rise through the decade, but the anode supply chain remains constrained by China’s dominance and the high cost of building alternatives elsewhere.

Today, more than 90 percent of battery-grade anode material is sourced from China, a concentration that has become increasingly untenable for western automakers and cell manufacturers.

“Customers are actively looking for diversification,” said Michael O’Kronley, CEO of Novonix (ASX:NVX,OTCPL:NVNXF), noting that supply security has shifted from a long-term aspiration to an immediate priority.

Yet replacing Chinese supply is proving far from straightforward.

A panel featuring graphite executives highlighted that anode qualification can take years, requiring extensive testing to ensure materials perform consistently over a battery’s full lifespan.

“Battery materials aren’t qualified overnight,” O’Kronley said. “It takes years of co-development and patient capital.”

Cost remains the central obstacle. Building an anode plant in North America can cost three to 10 times more than in China, while customers remain reluctant to pay a premium. “A new supply chain has to be paid for somewhere,” O’Kronley warned, arguing that government support is essential if diversification is to scale.

Natural graphite producers face similar pressures.

Financing has become more difficult amid weak prices, even as long-term demand expectations remain strong.

“We expect demand growth closer to 2030,” said Patrice Boulanger, vice president of sales, marketing and business at Québec-focused Nouveau Monde Graphite (NYSE:NMG), adding that government offtake agreements are increasingly critical to unlocking private financing.

Despite growing interest in silicon, lithium metal and other next-generation anodes, the panelists were unanimous that graphite will remain dominant.

“Graphite is clearly here to stay,” said Viren Hira of Syrah Resources (ASX:SYR,OTCPL:SYAAF), with both natural and synthetic materials expected to underpin battery growth through at least the next decade.

Adding context during his own presentation at Benchmark Week, Webb outlined how cost dynamics are reshaping the anode market, particularly the balance between synthetic and natural graphite.

“On the anode side, we’ve seen a move towards synthetic graphite,” he said, noting that the shift has been driven less by performance and more by economics. Producers, he explained, have increasingly turned to lower-quality, lower-cost feedstocks, enabling them to reduce production costs.

As a result, prices for synthetic anode material have fallen, making it more competitive and supporting its growing share of battery anode demand.

Cobalt chokepoints: DRC dominance, China and the Lobito Corridor

With the concentration of cobalt output stemming from two nations, supply chain security has come into focus. An issue Roman Aubry, nickel and cobalt analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence expects to last through 2026.

“2025 has demonstrated the risks associated with having a single country being

He added: “Looking ahead to 2026 it’s clear that the market has to anticipate continued uncertainty from the DRC. While they’ve announced a detailed quota system for the next two years, the DRC reserves the right to adjust it as it sees fit. Given the current ex-DRC cobalt stocks, Benchmark expects there to be significant risk of demand destruction as we approach the end of the year, therefore it is likely the DRC will need to adjust the export quota.”

Concern over China’s control of battery and critical metal supply chains is also likely to carry over through the year, as tensions between Washington and Beijing oscillate and the US looks to fortify its access to the metals.

Aubry pointed to the Lobito Corridor as a key factor in the US securing ex-China supply.

The major rail and port project linking the mineral-rich Copperbelt of the DRC and Zambia to Angola’s Atlantic coast, could reshape the global cobalt supply chain by lowering export costs, speeding transit times and diversifying routes away from China‑dominated infrastructure.

The US International Development Finance Corporation has committed hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to modernize the corridor’s rail and port facilities, potentially boosting annual transport capacity by an order of magnitude and cutting costs by as much as 30 percent compared with existing routes.

“In regards to Western-China relations, we’ve seen the US become increasingly conscious of its reliance on China refining for critical minerals, taking steps to improve ties with the DRC,” said Aubry. “This has mainly come in the form of a strategic agreement to develop the Lobito rail corridor, which would allow the DRC to export cobalt directly to the Atlantic, as well as the establishment of a coordinated Strategic Minerals Reserve within the DRC.”

Is cobalt substitution in the cards?

Before the DRC levied export controls over cobalt exports human rights and child labour concerns around artisinal cobalt extraction plagued the sector.

Paired with the supply chain challenges, battery manufacturers began shifting chemistry away from cobalt-rich formulas, like nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) and lithium-iron-phiosphate (LFP) began growing in market share.

In 2025, demand for nickel-cobalt-manganese (NCM) battery cells remained strong in markets focused on longer driving range and performance, particularly in North America and Europe, but lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells continued their rapid ascent, driven by cost advantages and growing adoption in China and entry-level electric vehicles (EVs).

Industry forecasts project LFP’s share of global battery cell capacity to exceed 60 percent in 2025, reflecting broader shifts toward lower-cost chemistry amid affordability pressures, while NCM and lithium nickel cobalt aluminum oxide (NCA) cells continue to dominate premium segments where energy density remains critical.

Amid a shrinking EV market share, Aubry pointed to overall growth in the EV segment, as well as cobalt’s other end uses as factors likely to support demand.

“While battery chemistries are expected to shift towards lower-cobalt or cobalt- free chemistries, the volume of EV batteries is expected to more than offset this,” he explained.

“From all applications, cobalt demand is expected to grow almost 80 percent in the next decade,

He added: “Outside of the EV space, portables are an area of significant growth, particularly batteries for newer technologies like drones. Industrial applications also present a stable source of growth.”

Market volatility drives need for raw materials hedging

During a presentation at Benchmark Week 2025, Casper Rawles, COO at Benchmark Intelligence, highlighted the growing value of hedging for companies operating in the battery raw materials space.

According to Benchmark data, raw materials could account for 20 percent to 40 percent of battery costs by 2030, exceeding 50 percent for some chemistries.

For EV manufacturers such as BYD (OTCPL:BYDDF), annual spending on critical battery materials could exceed US$2 billion, leaving margins highly exposed to price swings.

Against that backdrop, Rawles underscored the need for more sophisticated hedging strategies, noting that shifts in sentiment, supply, demand and geopolitics can reprice these markets with little warning.

Hedging allows companies to manage commodity price volatility by offsetting exposure in the physical market with positions in the futures market.

Producers and consumers typically hedge either to lock in prices that protect margins or to secure fixed pricing tied to external contracts, buying or selling futures to counterbalance their underlying risk. In practice, firms can tailor these strategies to reduce price exposure partially or eliminate it altogether, depending on their risk tolerance.

As Rawles explained, cobalt’s 2025 price rebound emphasizes how exposed the market is to geopolitics, with the DRC’s export controls triggering a rapid reversal from oversupply to scarcity.

“Ultimately we saw an export quota being put in place. Now that quota is pretty limited,’ said Rawles.

‘When we think about the type of volumes we’re expecting to be needed by the market it’s really not going to be sufficient to fulfill market demand. That really shows how quickly the fortunes of these minerals can change,” he added, noting that the DRC’s dominance gives it outsized influence over global pricing.

Rawles stressed that cobalt volatility is no longer driven by supply and demand alone, but by sentiment and geopolitics, with major implications for battery makers and automakers, where raw materials account for a large share of costs.

“Even if you think you know the outlook at the start of the year, that can change in a heartbeat,” he said.