Execution Beats Explanation at CEM’s Whistler Capital Event

It didn't snow much in Whistler last weekend.

But it was raining deals inside a conference room at the ski resort, where 60 companies and scores of investors had gathered for the 16th Annual CEM Whistler Capital Event.

“Against a backdrop of recent market volatility driven by tightening liquidity, geopolitical risk, structural shifts in commodity trading, and the appointment of a new Federal Reserve chair, investors arrived on Friday carrying a lot of uncertainty into the start of 2026,” said Ryan Iverson, portfolio manager at CEM Partners Fund.

“By the time the Super Bowl kicked off on Sunday, after a day of one-on-one meetings, nerves had given way to execution and capital was backing delivery over promises,” he said.

The Investor Breakout Exchange, the core feature of every CEM Event, distilled that shift into five standout selections. Drawn from a broader group with a combined market value of roughly $12 billion, the Top Five companies earned attention for execution, traction, and credibility.

Top Picks

Here is your early and exclusive look at the Top Five Picks from the 16th Annual CEM Whistler Capital Event and why they cut through the noise in a market where performance matters more than the pitch.

TSXV: SCOT

Scottie Resources Corp.

Scottie Resources controls a 100% interest in a district-scale portfolio of high-grade gold assets in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle, one of the world’s most prolific mineral districts. The company’s flagship asset is the past-producing Scottie Gold Mine, together with the adjacent Blueberry Contact Zone, both of which benefit from historic production, modern exploration, and access to existing infrastructure. Scottie also owns 100% of the Georgia Project, host to the former Georgia River Mine, as well as the Cambria, Sulu, and Tide North properties, providing multiple avenues for exploration and resource growth. Collectively, these assets cover approximately 58,500 hectares within the Stewart Mining Camp. The current resource estimate for the Scottie Gold Mine Project totals 703,000 ounces of gold in the inferred category, grading an average of 6.1 g/t across 3.6 million tonnes. This high-grade profile supports the potential for a near-surface development scenario with strong leverage to gold prices.

Why It Was Picked:

• Scottie arrived in Whistler with a completed Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) demonstrating strong project economics, modest upfront capital, and rapid payback. The PEA contemplates an initial capital cost of $128.6 million and average annual production of approximately 65,400 ounces of gold over a seven-year mine life.
• The company’s Direct Shipping Ore (DSO) approach reduces execution risk by removing the need to build an on-site mill, lowering upfront capital and accelerating the path to cash flow. Higher-grade material is sorted and shipped for third-party processing, preserving strong exposure to gold prices. The PEA confirms this structure with a compelling after-tax payback period of 1.7 years for the standalone DSO case, and just 0.9 years under a toll-milling opportunity at a gold price of US$2,600/oz.
• A steady news flow this year highlights repeated high-grade gold intercepts from both the Scottie Gold Mine and the Blueberry Contact Zone, with several results reporting multi-gram grades over meaningful widths. Together, these results point to ongoing resource growth and continuity as development work advances.

TSXV: BLU

BluEnergies Ltd.

BluEnergies controls a high-impact, deep-water oil and gas exploration position offshore Liberia, focused on the Harper Basin along the West African Transform Margin. This geological belt of offshore basins is considered prospective for large deep-water oil and gas accumulations. The company holds a participating interest in three contiguous offshore blocks covering approximately 8,924 square kilometres, representing roughly 40% of the Harper Basin. BluEnergies’ acreage targets Cretaceous-aged basin floor fan plays, one of the most sought-after offshore exploration concepts globally. These same geological plays have already produced multi-billion-barrel discoveries along the West African and South American coasts, including ExxonMobil’s finds in Guyana and TotalEnergies’ Venus discovery offshore Namibia. Extensive 3D seismic coverage across the BluEnergies license area has identified seven large-scale deep-water fan systems, providing multiple stacked targets that could be tested with a single well.

Why It Was Picked:

• BluEnergies entered Whistler having secured a strategic partnership with TotalEnergies, one of the world’s largest energy companies, under a joint study and application agreement covering the Harper Basin. The partnership validates the geological model, materially de-risks the exploration thesis, and aligns BluEnergies with a major capable of funding and executing deep-water development.
• The company has already completed and over-delivered on an initial reconnaissance work program and is now advancing a second phase that includes 6,167 km² of 3D seismic reprocessing and seabed data acquisition. This work is specifically designed to define prime drilling targets and support applications for Production Sharing Contracts, shifting the project from concept toward drill-ready status.
• BluEnergies offers investors exposure to a rare combination of first-mover advantage and scale in an opening offshore basin. With Africa expected to dominate global high-impact drilling in 2026 and basin floor fan plays showing technical success rates exceeding 50%, the Harper Basin represents a high-impact opportunity positioned at an early but increasingly de-risked stage.

TSXV: SALT

Atlas Salt Inc.

Atlas Salt is advancing the 100%-owned Great Atlantic Salt Project near St. George’s, Newfoundland, positioning it as one of the most advanced undeveloped salt projects in North America. The project is designed to produce 4.0 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa) of high-purity road salt over a 24-year mine life, supplying Eastern Canada and the U.S. Northeast, two regions that remain heavily reliant on imported salt. The project’s Updated Feasibility Study confirms strong long-term economics. At a discount rate of 8% (NPV8), a standard metric used by lenders and infrastructure investors to reflect project risk and time value of money, Great Atlantic delivers a post-tax Net Present Value of $920 million and a post-tax Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 21.3%, with capital payback in just over four years. Average annual post-tax-free cash flow during operations is projected at approximately $188 million, underscoring the project’s scale and durability.

Why It Was Picked:

• Atlas’ fully updated feasibility study materially improved on its 2023 version. Production was scaled up to 4.0 Mtpa, operating costs were reduced, and cash flow was pulled forward. The result was a 66% increase in post-tax NPV8 and a stronger capital efficiency profile. Importantly, the study was prepared at a Class 3 level, incorporating vendor quotes, detailed engineering, and regulatory conditions, positioning the project to support real financing discussions rather than conceptual valuation.
• Atlas has moved beyond standalone development by appointing Hatch as Lead Engineering and Integrated Project Delivery partner. Hatch brings decades of global experience in underground soft-rock mining, including salt operations, and a local Newfoundland presence. The Integrated Project Delivery framework aligns engineering, procurement, construction, and risk management under a single coordinated structure, reducing execution risk and cost overruns. This is a material differentiator at a time when large-scale projects are often undone by fragmented delivery models.
• North America consumes more than 25 million tonnes of road salt annually, with Eastern Canada and the U.S. Northeast representing the highest concentration of demand. A meaningful portion of that supply is imported, leaving the region exposed to logistics disruptions, weather volatility, and aging domestic operations. Great Atlantic is designed to deliver long-life, high-purity supply directly into this import-dependent corridor via a dedicated deep-water port. The project’s location, scale, and cost profile position it as a rare new source of domestic supply in a market that values reliability over cyclic pricing.

TSXV: ONYX

Onyx Gold Corp.

Onyx Gold Corp. is a discovery-focused Canadian gold explorer with 100% ownership of large, highly prospective land packages in two of the country’s most established gold jurisdictions: the Timmins Gold Camp in Ontario and the Eastern Tombstone Gold Belt in Yukon. In Timmins, the company controls a dominant district-scale position at the Munro-Croesus Project, where systematic drilling has delivered a series of new gold discoveries anchored by the Argus North Zone. In Yukon, Onyx holds a commanding land position near Snowline Gold’s Valley discovery, with multiple intrusion-related gold targets at the King Tut Property. Over the past year, Onyx has shifted decisively from early-stage exploration into accelerated discovery mode. With a strong balance sheet, multiple drill rigs turning, and consistent results showing wide, continuous gold mineralization, the company is focused on rapidly defining scale while building toward a potential first mineral resource.

Why It Was Picked:

• Onyx has one of the strongest balance sheets among junior explorers, having raised significant capital at premium prices through multiple financings. With roughly $30 million in cash and no debt, the company is fully funded into 2026. That financial strength has enabled an aggressive 50,000-metre Phase 3 drill program at Munro-Croesus, including multiple rigs operating simultaneously. In a market where many explorers are forced to slow down, Onyx is doing the opposite.
• Recent drill results at Argus North and nearby zones repeatedly show long intercepts of gold mineralization, often starting near surface and extending over hundreds of metres. Intersections measured in the tens to hundreds of metres at multi-gram grades are exactly the type of results that point to a large, continuous gold system rather than isolated veins. Step-outs, new zones such as Argus West and the C Zone, and expanding strike length reinforce the view that the discovery footprint is still growing.
• The steady flow of drill results over the last six months reflects a deliberate push toward defining enough scale and confidence to support a first mineral resource estimate. While that outcome is not guaranteed, the combination of funding, drilling intensity, and geological consistency puts Onyx on a trajectory that investors recognize as the transition point from pure exploration risk to potential resource definition with dual-district leverage at a pivotal stage in its growth curve.

TSXV: RZL

RZOLV Technologies Inc.

RZOLV Technologies is a clean-tech company commercializing a non-cyanide gold recovery solution aimed at one of the mining industry’s most entrenched and increasingly constrained processes. Cyanide remains the dominant reagent in gold extraction, used in more than 80% of global gold production, yet it is difficult to permit, restricted or banned in several jurisdictions and ineffective on a growing share of modern ore types. RZOLV’s technology is designed to integrate into existing gold processing circuits while expanding the range of ores that can be processed economically and responsibly. After more than three years of development, third-party validation, and pilot-scale testing, the company has advanced its solution from the lab into bulk-scale field operations.

Why It Was Picked:

• RZOLV has a clear solution to a growing industry bottleneck. As environmental regulation tightens and ore complexity increases, cyanide is becoming harder to permit and less effective in many applications. RZOLV targets these “failure windows” with a non-toxic alternative that has demonstrated comparable recoveries and leach kinetics under specific conditions, positioning the company where demand is driven by necessity rather than preference.
• The technology has been validated beyond bench-scale testing. Independent testing by SGS and other third-party laboratories, followed by a 100-tonne bulk-scale program, demonstrated full-cycle recovery using conventional activated carbon and resulted in the production of a physical doré gold bar. This milestone confirms compatibility with existing processing infrastructure, a critical hurdle for adoption in the mining industry.
• RZOLV is transitioning from validation to early commercial deployment. The company has entered into an operating agreement in Arizona to process material at an initial rate of approximately 50 tonnes per day under a profit-sharing structure. This marks an important shift from technology development toward recurring revenue potential tied to reagent supply, licensing, and technical support, rather than single-project exposure.

Outstanding Performers

Alongside the Top Picks, these companies rounded out the ten names that stood out at the Investor Breakout Exchange in Whistler last weekend:

1. Scottie Resources
2. BluEnergies
3. Atlas Salt
4. Onyx Gold
5. RZOLV Technologies
6. Skeena Gold + Silver
7. K2 Gold
8. Roxmore Resources
9. Rackla Metals
10. Visionary Metals

Honourable Mentions

While these companies did not make the final Top 10 list, they stood out for the quality of their execution and the momentum they carried into investor discussions.

Upcoming Event

Scottsdale Capital Event

April 10–12, 2026

Set in the Arizona desert, the 13th Annual Scottsdale Capital Event brings CEM’s relationship-driven format back this spring, pairing high-quality growth companies with capital that is actively looking for opportunity. In this setting, growth-stage companies across resources, technology, biotech, and special situations engage capital directly through a full day of scheduled one-on-one meetings and focused networking.

Warm Regards and Happy Investing,
Fabian Dawson

Weekly Insight

Each week, CEM Partner and Portfolio Manager Ryan Iverson spotlights the ideas and companies sparking investor interest from emerging growth stories to the Top Picks featured across CEM’s Capital Events. This series brings real insights from the innovators shaping tomorrow’s markets and reveals where investors are finding the next breakout opportunities.

Stay informed. Stay ahead. Stay with the Investor Breakout Exchange:
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