We discuss Gold, Antimony, and the U.S.-Focused Critical Minerals Strategy.
KRAIT Critical Minerals Corp. (CSE: KRIT) entered the public markets with a flagship gold project in one of Ontario’s most established mining regions. Its Goldbar Spider Lake Project, located in the Hemlo–Schreiber Greenstone Belt, covers 3,636 hectares and includes seven priority conductive zones identified through a 2026 VTEM Plus airborne survey. The Company’s strategy focuses on combining historical exploration data with modern geophysics, geological mapping, and systematic target evaluation as it advances the property toward future drill targeting.
But KRAIT’s story is quickly expanding beyond gold.
With its recently announced agreement to acquire Nevada Hills Antimony, KRAIT is gaining exposure to antimony in the United States at a time when securing domestic supplies of critical minerals has become increasingly important. The acquisition includes contractual rights relating to the historically producing Bales Antimony Project and Antimony Bell Project, giving KRAIT a foothold in a U.S. antimony district while the Company works to independently verify the historical information associated with the properties.
Behind that strategy is a capital structure CEO Oscar Mendoza says was intentionally built differently from the traditional junior mining model. Drawing on his background in international capital markets, investment banking, and precious and critical metals, Mendoza assembled a shareholder base that includes strategic and institutional investors, with early backing from investors in Asia. That structure has become an important part of how management approaches acquisitions, financing, and its larger goal of expanding KRAIT’s portfolio without diluting existing shareholders.
To better understand KRAIT’s journey, we sat down with CEO Oscar Mendoza to discuss the Nevada Hills acquisition, why antimony has become strategically important, the work required to validate the historical opportunity, and how management intends to build KRAIT into a broader critical minerals company while continuing to advance its gold portfolio.
Let’s dive in…
Oscar Mendoza, CEO of KRAIT Critical Minerals
Oscar Mendoza has experience in international capital markets, project development, and mineral exploration strategy, with a focus on precious and critical metals. He holds an MBA in International Management from the International University of Japan and a BA from the University of North Texas, emphasizing economic development and international finance.
FULL INTERVIEW:
For investors new to KRAIT, can you walk us through the Company’s origins and the strategy behind how you’ve built the business?
The opportunity for the gold asset was presented to me, and I thought it made a lot of sense to make that move. I’ve covered metals and mining as an investment banking analyst; I’ve also handled large investment funds, hedge funds, and private equity funds during my time in Mongolia, which is a very important mining jurisdiction. We incorporated the company in January 2025 and then worked around the main asset.
I purposefully created this team with good, qualified people. I wanted to structure KRAIT in a very unique way. The focus was on how to structure the capitalization and obtain investment capital from both strategic investors and institutional investors at the pre-IPO stage, which was unheard of. I have several contacts in Asia who have known me from previous dealings, my background, and my expertise.
A lot of my preliminary roadshows were about education. I’d explain how the capital markets work, how to take a company public, raise capital to develop an asset, and how the multiples are in place for returns on investments if you proceed with a strategic plan.
If you look at our capitalization table today, we have a publicly listed mining operations company with a market cap of more than US$700 million as one of our core shareholders. We have knowledgeable people in the space who took significant equity stakes and are very familiar with investing in these types of juniors. We also have two institutional investors.
This cap table and structure allow us to diligently acquire assets because the shares are our capital and our currency, and we’re able to structure these deals without diluting shareholders. The structure is something that we’re proud of at KRAIT, and that’s what has enabled us to proceed with the recent acquisition.
KRAIT recently announced the acquisition of Nevada Hills Antimony. What attracted you to the opportunity, and how does it fit into the Company’s broader strategy?
We entered into the definitive agreement to acquire Nevada Hills Antimony, which gives KRAIT exposure to a portfolio of antimony opportunities in the United States. It includes contractual rights relating to the Bales Antimony Project, which consists of seventeen contiguous claims, and four claims comprising the Antimony Bell Project; both historically producing mines.
What initially attracted us to Bales was the combination of location, historical work, and reported high-grade antimony. The records reported a discovery post-sample grading of 10.9% antimony, and they produced around 37 or 38 tons of historically sorted material that averaged 14.4% antimony.[1] We’re aware that these results are historical and have not yet been independently verified. We’re not treating them as a current mineral resource or evidence of economic viability. It’s more an acquisition of a historical occurrence, and it creates a broader antimony portfolio in a past-producing district in Washington State, in very close geographic proximity to the only operating antimony smelter in the U.S., in Montana.
The transaction also shows that we have a very disciplined approach to capital allocation. We will issue 2.5 million shares and pay US$100,000 for the acquisition. Together with this acquisition, we announced a financing of up to C$1.5 million at C$0.75 per share, for two million shares with no warrants. The financing is intended to support exploration at Gold Bar, Spider Lake, and, subject to closing and satisfactory review, the initial work at Bales and Antimony Bell.
[1] Krait Critical Minerals Corp., “Krait Critical Minerals Enters Definitive Agreement to Acquire Portfolio of U.S. Antimony Projects and Announces Concurrent Financing,” September 8, 2026, https://kraitminerals.com/news/krait-us-antimony-projects-acquisition/
Why has antimony become such an important part of KRAIT’s strategy?
It became important within the last year or two when China decided to ban exports of several critical minerals, including antimony. The West realized that access to this critical mineral has to be sourced from friendly jurisdictions; however, in the case of the U.S., from an internal source (if possible).
We’re seeing it across the spectrum in other countries and governments. For example, the UK government recently provided £71 million in financing to a mining company to restart a tungsten mine that operated during World War II. This gives us a clear indication that critical minerals are the focus of sovereign nations. They’re being supported through policy and the regulatory environment, but also with capital from governments themselves.
Antimony is a critical mineral that the United States has identified as important to source domestically so that the country is not dependent on other nations for production. If we look at the largest antimony producers, six of the top seven are in jurisdictions that are either non-friendly or hostile to the U.S. These include China, Myanmar, Russia, Iran, and Tajikistan. Australia is the only one in the top seven, but its total national production of antimony is about 12% of what the U.S. is estimated to require in the coming years.
Antimony is an important mineral for defense and energy storage, including solar panels and batteries, as well as EVs and fire retardants. It also has military applications, including tracer rounds and aircraft. That’s where we are. It’s a geopolitical play; it’s U.S.-centric, the story is U.S.-centric, and the demand is U.S.-centric. We’d rather make sure that we have an asset that is inside the U.S.
What work needs to be completed at Bales and Antimony Bell before you can determine how to advance the projects?
Our next step would be to confirm title and claim status, digitize the historical information, assess access and permitting, conduct modern mapping in the region, and conduct independent sampling to confirm the laboratory results found.
Historical information includes three independent laboratory results on grade, chemical composition, and the characteristics of the material. Indications are there was historically direct-ship quality mineralized material, which under the right conditions could mean no need for beneficiation, washing, or other downstream processing that requires years of permitting and environmental regulations.
I’ve already been talking to a possible off-taker and have confirmation on the parameters they’re looking for. The historical results show very low arsenic, at 0.2%, which is very important for potentially being able to sell directly. The one thing that hasn’t been tested is mercury because the previous tests didn’t cover that. That’s part of the due diligence we’re going to be doing. It’s about validating the quality of mineralized material and its capabilities, and that will guide our direction with antimony.
If those results are successfully validated, what could the path toward commercialization look like?
If everything goes as well as we anticipate, I don’t think we would stop spending on the project. In fact, there could be more focus on it. We don’t know how much antimony is in that overall district, and our exploration could indicate that it’s sufficiently large enough to justify interest from a mid-major or from a partner that is or would potentially buy mineralized material from us.
The smelter is owned by U.S. Antimony Corporation, and they have the infrastructure and are in need of material. There is the possibility of them looking at our asset as something that could be attractive for their portfolio. However, it leads to the possibility that we could potentially allocate even more capital.
While much of KRAIT’s recent attention has shifted toward antimony, Goldbar Spider Lake remains the flagship gold project. What are your priorities for advancing Goldbar Spider Lake, and what milestones should investors be watching for over the next 12 months?
The Goldbar Spider Lake project is in a Tier 1 jurisdiction and gives Krait excellent exposure to the gold sector. We intend to systematically explore this project and develop drill targets over the next 12 months.
What does the historical significance of KRAIT’s antimony properties tell you about the opportunity today?
We acquired two historically producing mines. The historical records indicate that the two were among the top five that contributed to about 7% of U.S. antimony consumption during one year of World War I.
The Antimony Bell mine was also classified as one of five critical mineral deposits for the U.S. to focus on when a report was done during the Cold War. In the end, the U.S. decided to source from Brazil and Mexico rather than produce internally. Brazil and Mexico later had to shut down because they couldn’t compete economically with the low-cost production coming from China.
For us, the important part is that we’re starting with a historically producing property where there has already been work done. Historical information includes three independent laboratory results covering grade, chemical composition, and characteristics of the material. But we still have to validate that information. We’re not treating the historical results as a current mineral resource or as evidence of economic viability. That’s why the independent sampling and verification work we’re planning is so important.
For our investors reading, what do you believe differentiates KRAIT from other junior exploration companies?
The larger story is that KRAIT is evolving from a single-project gold explorer into a diversified gold and critical minerals company, and we’re not stopping there. We’re actively looking for key assets in Tier 1 jurisdictions, either Canada or the United States, that will increase shareholder returns.
I’m feeling optimistic about the company, the structure, and the direction we are going. We have several things planned in the next month or two, and we’ve been working very hard since the beginning of the year. We have a strong shareholder base and a lot of support behind us. We’re actively working to create value without diluting shareholders or messing up our shareholder structure.
This acquisition is an important milestone, but we will remain disciplined. We’re not presenting historical grades as a modern resource, and we’re not promising a mine. We’re going through the right steps, and that’s how we intend to continue moving KRAIT forward.
Thank you for your time.
Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information
This article contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as: "believes", "will", "expects", "anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "plans", "may", "should", "potential", "scheduled", or variations of such words and phrases and similar expressions, which, by their nature, refer to future events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved.
In making the forward-looking statements contained in this article, the Company has applied several material assumptions, including without limitation, that there will be investor interest in future financings, market fundamentals will result in sustained precious metals and critical minerals demand and prices, the receipt of any necessary permits, licenses and regulatory approvals in connection with the future exploration and development of any current or future projects in a timely manner, the availability of financing on suitable terms for exploration and development of current or future projects and the Company's ability to comply with environmental, health and safety laws.
The Company cautions investors that any forward-looking statements by the Company are not guarantees of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including, operating and technical difficulties in connection with mineral exploration and development activities, actual results of exploration activities, the estimation or realization of mineral reserves and mineral resources, the inability of the Company to obtain the necessary financing required to conduct its business and affairs, as currently contemplated, the timing and amount of estimated future production, the costs of production, capital expenditures, the costs and timing of the development of new deposits, requirements for additional capital, future prices of precious metals, changes in general economic conditions, changes in the financial markets and in the demand and market price for commodities, lack of investor interest in future financings, accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry, delays in obtaining governmental approvals, permits or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities, changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting mining operations, title disputes, the inability of the Company to obtain any necessary permits, consents, approvals or authorizations, the timing and possible outcome of any pending litigation, environmental issues and liabilities, and risks related to joint venture operations, and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in the Company's latest interim Management's Discussion and Analysis and filed with certain securities commissions in Canada. All of the Company's Canadian public disclosure filings may be accessed via SEDAR+ and readers are urged to review these materials.
Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any of the forward-looking statements contained in this article, except as otherwise required by law.
[1] Krait Critical Minerals Corp., “Krait Critical Minerals Enters Definitive Agreement to Acquire Portfolio of U.S. Antimony Projects and Announces Concurrent Financing,” September 8, 2026, https://kraitminerals.com/news/krait-us-antimony-projects-acquisition/