Fulcrum Metals plc (AIM: FMET; OTCQB: FULMF) has secured £1 million in financing from new and existing investors and its institutional lender to support the development and commissioning of a pilot facility in Ontario, Canada, using cyanide-free technology to recover precious and critical metals from historic mine waste.
The financing comprises £488,699 in new cash subscriptions and £511,301 through the conversion of existing debt obligations into equity, with both transactions priced at 6.5 pence per share.
The funding will support the completion of Fulcrum’s standalone pilot facility in Mississauga, Ontario, ahead of its first planned processing programme using material from the Teck-Hughes gold mine waste project.
The facility will evaluate technology developed by Extrakt Process Solutions, which aims to recover valuable metals from legacy mining waste without using cyanide.
Fulcrum intends to establish a repeatable processing model that can be applied across multiple projects, potentially creating commercial opportunities from historic mining deposits that have previously been considered uneconomic or difficult to process.
The initial pilot programme will focus on Teck-Hughes, generating technical and operational data to assess metal recovery performance, processing efficiency and the requirements for potential commercial-scale operations.
The company plans to use the resulting knowledge to support further work at its Sylvanite project, alongside other potential recovery opportunities.
By developing a reusable pilot facility, Fulcrum expects to reduce the duplication of equipment, technical work and development expenditure across successive projects.
The operation also supports the company’s exclusive rights to deploy Extrakt’s technology at legacy gold mine waste sites across the Kirkland Lake and Timmins mining districts in Ontario.
Chief Executive Ryan Mee welcomed the financing, highlighting the support of both shareholders and the company’s institutional debt provider.
He said the immediate priority was to complete and commission the Mississauga facility before beginning the Teck-Hughes pilot programme.
Mee explained that the facility was being developed as a reusable platform, allowing operational experience and technical findings from individual projects to inform future engineering and commercial development decisions.
The £488,699 cash subscription will involve the issue of 7,518,445 new ordinary shares at 6.5 pence each, with binding subscription agreements already signed.
Of that amount, £288,699 is payable by 5 November 2026, with the remaining £200,000 due by 25 December 2026.
The net cash proceeds will be directed towards delivery, installation and commissioning of the pilot facility, as well as general working capital.
Separately, institutional investor YA II PN Ltd has agreed to convert £511,301 of scheduled debt repayments into shares, comprising £500,000 of principal and £11,301 in accrued interest.
The conversion will result in the issue of 7,866,175 new ordinary shares, also priced at 6.5 pence.
The arrangement reduces scheduled cash repayment obligations and provides additional financial flexibility as Fulcrum advances its development programme.
A total of 15,384,620 new shares will be issued through the financing, comprising both cash subscriptions and the debt conversion.
The transaction will take place in two stages, with 12,307,697 shares expected to begin trading on AIM on 5 November 2026.
Following the first admission, Fulcrum’s issued share capital is expected to increase to 171,856,759 ordinary shares.
The remaining 3,076,923 subscription shares are expected to be admitted in December following receipt of the final £200,000 subscription payment.
For investors, the financing provides fresh working capital while converting more than £500,000 of scheduled debt repayments into equity, helping Fulcrum prioritise the commissioning of its Canadian pilot facility.
However, the new share issuance will dilute existing shareholders, while the £1 million headline financing includes debt conversion rather than representing entirely new cash available to the business.
The successful commissioning of the facility and results from the initial Teck-Hughes programme will be important in determining the technical and commercial potential of Fulcrum’s mine waste recovery strategy.
Attention will now turn to the installation and commissioning of the Mississauga facility, commencement of the Teck-Hughes pilot programme and subsequent testing at Sylvanite, as Fulcrum works towards establishing a scalable platform for recovering precious and critical metals from historic mine waste.
