Episode Details

Interview with Jonathan Egilo, CEO, Axo Metals

Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/axo-metals-tsxvaxo-brownfield-gold-restart-in-mexico-gains-momentum-ahead-of-september-pea-10759

Recording date: 28th July 2026

Axo Metals Corp. (TSXV:AXO) has removed the largest single risk on its San Antonio gold project's development timeline. On 27 July, Mexico's SEMARNAT approved the project's Environmental Impact Statement (MIA) - the primary permit required to build and operate the mine - roughly six months after Axo filed the application in January. That is well inside the one-year timeline management had originally guided investors to expect, and covers all of San Antonio's deposits (Sapuchi, Golfo de Oro and California) and existing infrastructure in a single approval.

One administrative step remains: the Change of Use of Soils (CUS), a tree-clearing authorisation submitted earlier this year and expected to clear by year-end. It only affects mining at the three pits themselves - the project's existing carbon-in-column plant, crusher, stockpiles and camp are already fully permitted, meaning Axo can move toward stockpile reprocessing without waiting on it.

With the MIA in hand, management has reallocated its drilling programme. Two of Axo's three active rigs - running a combined 3,000 metres a month - are now testing ground roughly 500 metres outside the current resource boundary, up from a programme previously weighted toward infill. That infill work is itself producing encouraging results: several holes have converted material previously modelled as waste into ore-grade intercepts, including 27.9 metres at 0.43 g/t gold roughly 100 metres from the nearest modelled ore domain.

The company is also pushing back its Preliminary Economic Assessment by roughly two months from its original September target. Rather than publish a study anchored to San Antonio's pre-acquisition 2021 resource, management wants to fold in an updated estimate built on a full year of new drilling - meaning the PEA that eventually lands should reflect a materially different resource than the one the company inherited. A dedicated step-out and expansion drilling update is planned for September, separate from ongoing Sapuchi infill news flow, and will include first results from the high-grade El Tigre target, where channel sampling has already returned intercepts including 68.6 metres at 1.11 g/t gold.

On capital allocation, Axo's $40 million February financing was earmarked specifically for San Antonio, and management has confirmed it is deliberately deprioritising near-term spending at La Huerta, its copper discovery in Jalisco, in favour of pushing San Antonio toward a construction decision. The company is also beginning to add Mexican open-pit, heap-leach construction personnel ahead of an expected full build phase at Sapuchi next year - a staffing transition modelled on sister company Silver Tiger's own shift from exploration to construction.

As of the company's most recent investor materials (June 2026, pre-dating the permit approval), Axo carried roughly C$36.6 million in cash against a C$183.8 million market capitalisation and C$147.5 million enterprise value. For investors, the two nearest-term catalysts are the September drilling update and the revised PEA - both of which should offer the clearest test yet of whether San Antonio's resource is as substantially larger than its current 1.1 million ounces as management believes.

Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/axo-metals-corp

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