Categories: Mining Stocks
Topics: Uranium Stocks

North Shore Uranium (TSX-V: NSU) CEO Brooke Clements on Advancing the Rio Puerco Uranium Project in New Mexico’s Emerging ISR District

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president & CEO of one of my favorite uranium plays, North Shore Uranium (TSX-V: NSU) — Mr. Brooke Clements.

Brooke, you’re new to our audience but not new to me. It’s great to have you on. How are you today?

Brooke Clements: I’m great, Gerardo. Thanks for the time.

Gerardo Del Real: A pleasure to have you on. Let’s get right into it. I can’t think of a better time in history to be an American-based uranium exploration company. The supply-demand fundamentals are the best I’ve ever seen.

You’re here in the US, you’re a newer company, and I’ll note I’m a biased shareholder having already participated in one of the financings. I want to get to that. But before we do, can you give listeners who may not know you a bit of background on where you’ve been? You’ve been doing this a long time and successfully.

Brooke Clements: Sure, Gerardo, I’ll call your attention briefly to our team. I’m a geologist originally from the United States and have a master’s degree in economic geology from the University of Arizona. I moved to Canada in 1999 where I’ve held several executive positions focused on diamonds in northern Canada, copper in Argentina, and now uranium.

During the diamond boom, I was fortunate to be involved with some significant discoveries — one in Quebec and one in Nunavut.

Another key person on our team is Blake Steele. He’s an advisor to the company and a founding investor. He was the CEO of Azarga Resources, which advanced the Dewey Burdock in-situ recovery project in South Dakota through the uranium bear market. During that time, he focused on resource definition and permitting, which wasn’t easy. The uranium market came alive in 2021, and Azarga was sold to Encore Energy for C$200 million in 2022.

And finally, one of our directors, Jimmy Thom, has deep uranium technical and development expertise. He was the exploration manager for Paladin Energy until 2021 and has experience evaluating projects like our Rio Puerco project in New Mexico.

Gerardo Del Real: I did very, very well with Blake multiple times. I’ve made money with him in the past and know him well. I couldn’t be more excited to be a North Shore Uranium shareholder.

I love catching stories early. You’ve got a tiny market cap of about C$18 million. It’s 2025, and the supply-demand fundamentals in uranium were already compelling. And I think the unexpected demand from data centers and the AI boom could make this a uranium bull market for the record books. Your timing couldn’t be better.

Can we talk about North Shore specifically and the asset you just vended into? You’re still under the radar, your timing is perfect, and I’d love to hear how you plan to unlock value there.

Brooke Clements: Yes, as you mentioned, the long-term fundamentals for uranium are great. There’s a gap between production and demand that’s expected to widen, especially with AI driving power needs.

Recently, more than 30 countries, including the US and Canada, committed to tripling nuclear power by 2050. US utilities consume close to 50 million pounds of uranium annually, yet the US produces less than one million pounds itself. So the US government, on a bipartisan basis, is working hard to stimulate nuclear power, uranium mining, and enrichment.

Just a few examples: last week, the US government designated uranium as a critical mineral. On October 28, Cameco, Westinghouse, and Brookfield Management struck a strategic partnership with the US government to devote $80 billion to building nuclear reactors in the United States. That’s a lot of uranium.

And in May, Trump signed an executive order aimed at stimulating the sector, specifically exploration projects like ours, to boost US production and reduce permitting red tape.

Gerardo Del Real: It’s one of the few things politicians in America on both sides of the aisle actually agree on, right? There’s strong bipartisan support to establish a domestic North American uranium reserve.

Your market cap is tiny — around C$18 million — yet you have a historical resource estimate of 6Mt grading 0.09% U₃O₈ for 11.4 million pounds. That’s on your Rio Puerco Uranium Project in northwestern New Mexico.

Can you talk about the project and how you were able to put it together? It’s great that it’s in America and has bipartisan support. And the potential for it to become ISR-amenable — the lowest-cost production method — really excites me as a shareholder. If you can unlock that, I think the re-rate could be substantial.

Brooke Clements: You’re right. The resource is based on work done by Kerr-McGee in the 1970s. They drilled over a thousand holes and even began developing an underground mine before uranium prices crashed in the late ’70s.

We have a wealth of high-quality historical data from that work, plus detailed technical reports completed by an Australian company in 2009 and 2011. The average depth of the resource is relatively shallow — around 180 to 200 meters. 

The uranium sits in flat sandstone lenses below the water table with shale layers above and below, which makes it a good candidate for ISR mining, which, as you noted, is the lowest-cost extraction method. And if you’ve been following the sector in the western US, there’s a lot of ISR activity ramping up right now.

Gerardo Del Real: I couldn’t agree more. So let me ask the million-dollar question: how do you unlock that value and advance the asset? I know you’re planning a drill program. How are things progressing?

Brooke Clements: They’re coming along really well. We have three main goals at Rio Puerco. First, to validate that 11.4 million pound historical resource and bring it up to NI 43-101 standards.

Second, the historical resource only covers one section of land. Our claim block spans parts of three other sections where uranium mineralization has already been identified. So we see good potential to expand it.

And third, after our initial drilling, we’ll test to confirm whether the deposit is indeed amenable to ISR mining. 

We’re preparing for a drill program in the first half of 2026. Using the historical data, we’ve built a 3D model and plan to drill a few fence lines across areas of continuous mineralization to validate the 1970s data. We’ll also test a few holes outside the resource boundary to expand it. We’ve begun the permitting process with the BLM and the State of New Mexico.

At our current valuation, we see strong upside. At US$80 per pound uranium, that 11.4Mlb resource would be worth about US$900 million. Our valuation today is roughly C$19.5 million — that’s about C$1.70 per pound, or US$1.20 per pound — so there’s room to grow.

Gerardo Del Real: A lot of runway there. It’s also worth noting that you have an option to earn up to 87.5% of the Rio Puerco Project, and insiders and founding investors collectively hold just under 29% of the issued shares.

Brooke Clements: That’s right.

Gerardo Del Real: I love seeing that kind of insider ownership and alignment. Obviously, you’re set to close out the year strong, and I really can’t wait for 2026.

I encourage everyone to visit NorthShoreUranium.com. You’ve got the team, the structure, and the asset. You’re in the US with bipartisan support to move forward efficiently. I think it’s going to be a fun 2026. Anything to add, Brooke?

Brooke Clements: Just that the value we’ve discussed is only for the New Mexico resource. We also have two prospective properties in Saskatchewan and a great team — both of which add value to North Shore Uranium.

Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. Again, I’m biased. I’m a happy shareholder and plan to be for some time. I think the next several months and years are going to be both fun and profitable. Brooke, thank you so much for your time. I look forward to having you back on.

Brooke Clements: Thank you, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: Alright, cheers. Chat soon.