Visual explainers & videos

2 to 6 million tonnes grading 3% to 8% antimony.

That’s the new exploration target for Howells Lake.

For more than 40 years, the project was known by one number. A 1980 historical estimate from the original drilling.

Micon International, the independent firm behind our NI 43-101 technical report, has now used this year’s drilling, plus the historical results, to put a modern range on Howells Lake.

Even the low end of that range is nearly three times the old figure.

Now the drill tests it.
→ Three new holes extend the East Zone 100 metres northwest
→ 16 more holes are at the lab
→ 8 more holes planned before the end of November

Every result builds toward Howells Lake’s initial mineral resource estimate.

From mine to processing, Critical One now has a role at each step.

→ The future mine: Howells Lake

→ The processing: a funded stake in a planned Ontario facility

→ The buyer: exclusive offtake for up to 150 million lb of future antimony

→ The capital: C$15M in equity, plus a construction financing plan of up to C$400M

Critical One Energy (CSE: CRTL) is advancing high-grade antimony at Howells Lake in northern Ontario. Follow the discovery and the partnership building its path to market.

Antimony is used in defence, energy storage and advanced technologies. Critical One’s goal is to help build a Canadian supply chain serving North American demand.

Under a signed binding memorandum of understanding, Solar International Core Canada (SICC) is the principal capital and offtake partner. Northlink Development Group is developing and managing the planned Ontario antimony processing facility. Critical One participates as a future feedstock supplier and carried equity partner.

The agreement sets out:

• C$15 million in equity investment from SICC into Critical One.
• A C$10 million commitment funded by SICC for Critical One’s carried equity interest in the planned processing facility.
• Up to C$400 million in conditional mine construction financing for Howells Lake.
• Exclusive offtake rights to purchase up to 150 million pounds of future antimony production at international benchmark prices.

How big is the East Zone so far? Big enough to measure in football fields.

That is the drilled antimony footprint at Howells Lake's East Zone, as reviewed in the Micon NI 43-101 report. One zone.

Inside it:

→ Holes 6 and 7: peaks of 70.2% and 70.3% Sb

→ Hole 16: 31.5 m at 4.9% Sb, extending the system ~70 m northeast

→ Open to the northeast and at depth

The ongoing 20,000 m program is filling in the rest of this footprint and pushing its edges out.

91% import reliant.

That is how much of the antimony the U.S. consumed in 2025 came from imports. Two years earlier it was 81%.

→ China supplied 55% of U.S. antimony imports, then banned exports to the U.S. in December 2024
→ Prices more than doubled in a year, to ~$25 per pound
→ U.S. mine production only restarted in late 2025. Canada has none.

About 40% of U.S. antimony goes into ammunition and antimonial lead. Defense demand does not wait for supply chains to catch up.

That is where Howells Lake fits.

Holes 6, 7 and 16 have now traced continuous near-surface stibnite at direct-ship grades in northwestern Ontario, and the zone remains open. With 10,000 m of drilling scheduled for 2026, an initial resource estimate is targeted for Q1 2027.

North America needs an antimony source at home. Critical One is drilling to prove how much Howells Lake can supply.

Most investors understand gold grades. Here’s how antimony translates.

1% Sb compares to roughly 4.18 g/t gold on an illustrative price-ratio basis.

That helps put Critical One’s recent near-surface, near-pure antimony discovery into something more familiar:

→ 8.0 m at 42.2% Sb compares to 176 g/t gold
→ including 4.0 m at 70.2% Sb compares to 294 g/t gold

Now the work expands from one major grade result to testing the broader antimony-gold system with 300M+ lb scale potential.

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What does a near-surface discovery of near-pure antimony actually mean?

Here’s one way to think about the latest Howells Lake result.

One cubic metre of stibnite-rich material at 70.2% Sb contains roughly 3.25 tonnes of antimony.

At an antimony price of US$35,000 per tonne, that equals about US$114,000 of gross contained antimony value.

This theoretical illustration shows why grade matters.

Now the focus turns to the next holes: proving size, continuity, recoverability, and the path to market.