The rather ordinary statement, that every object is composed of its constituent elements, when run through an investing mindset, quickly leads us to the question about which of these elements are most in demand, granting them the highest potential to generate shareholder value.
This article is disseminated in partnership with Tactical Resources Corp. and Honey Badger Silver Inc. It is intended to inform investors and should not be taken as a recommendation or financial advice.
A quick look around your home reveals a few clues, including:
- Your smartphone charging in the corner, whose screen is able to glow in colour thanks to rare earth elements, such as yttrium and terbium.
- The solar panels on your roof, which rely on silver to capture the electric current present in sunlight.
- The pipes transporting water to and away from your sink, which are made of copper thanks to the metal’s resistance to bacteria and rust.
- Your electric vehicle parked in the garage, whose batteries wouldn’t be able to efficiently transfer energy to and fro without about 50 kilograms of graphite, each.
What these examples have in common is a reliance on critical minerals, a subset of commodities at the leading edge of technology, defense and environmental sustainability, whose outsized influence on society’s long-term flourishing has governments around the world losing sleep over securing adequate supplies.
With a global market expected to skyrocket from US$328 billion in 2024 to US$586 billion by 2032, as the world rapidly shifts towards renewable energy and AI-enabled efficiency, how can investors tapped into critical minerals’ irreplaceable nature participate in their proliferation?
One well-trodden avenue is to cast your due diligence into the world of explorers, developers and producers, keeping your eyes open for companies advancing differentiated assets, anchored by accomplished leadership teams, whose milestones towards meeting critical minerals demand are squarely aligned with long-term shareholder value.
Tactical Resources
A junior miner walking this path is Tactical Resources, market cap US$96.64 million, whose early-stage efforts to secure the US rare earth elements (REE) supply chain are nothing to scoff at.
Given REE’s diversified use cases, including semiconductors, electric vehicles and defense technologies, and China’s control of nearly two-thirds of global REE production (see slide 7 of the Q3 2026 investor deck), the US is at a clear disadvantage, as far as global superpowers go, considering its comparatively minimal mining and virtually non-existent processing capabilities.
This is where Tactical’s Peak project in Texas, just 68 miles southeast of El Paso, takes a step forward as one of the country’s few domestically scalable REE assets, whose amenability to direct leach extraction radically simplifies processing compared to conventional and costly roasting or cracking.
Tactical pairs the 268-acre project, whose initial REE extraction levels ranged from 88-93 per cent, with control of an operational quarry where 1.5 million tons of tailings are ready and waiting at surface to usher the company into revenue generation.
The company’s processing pathway, designed to unfold exclusively on US soil, will include exploration work to substantiate a maiden resource estimate and a potential advanced processing facility, all of it steered by a leadership team that has built, operated and scaled mining and processing assets across the world.
Ranjeet Sundher, Chief Executive Officer of Tactical Resources, sat down with Stockhouse’s Ricki Lee to shed light on the company’s value proposition. Watch the interview here.
Tactical Resources stock (NASDAQ:TREO) last traded at US$7.10, giving back 14.97 per cent since listing on August 20th.
Honey Badger Silver
Honey Badger Silver, market cap C$112.37 million, is another critical minerals miner making its presence felt in the ex-China market through the development of its flagship, fully-permitted PC mine in the Northwest Territories, whose district scale positions the company as a key lever supporting Canada’s long-term industrial future.
PC’s high-grade resource stands at 240 million ounces silver equivalent measured and indicated, plus 167 million ounces inferred, putting it in the running as one of the world’s largest undeveloped silver resources, even though the current estimate represents only 2.3 km of a main 16 km mineralized quartz vein and doesn’t count the land package’s burgeoning germanium (Ge) and tungsten potential, with early-stage germanium assays returning up to 316 parts per million.
This mine’s considerable collection of commodities, including numerous high-grade intercepts such as 2.1 metres at 192 g/t silver, 21 per cent zinc and 9 per cent lead, will be extracted over an estimated more than 20-year mine life, supported by about 80,000 metres of drilling, ready access to roads and electrical power, 5 km of historical underground development, as well as a 1,000 tons-per-day (tpd) mill permitted for up to 2,400 tpd.
Honey Badger complements its flagship asset with seven high-grade, past-producing and resource-rich silver projects in Canada with the potential to multiply its district-scale mineralized footprint many times over, extending it into additional critical minerals including indium, copper, bismuth and antimony.
The company goes one step further than the average miner when it comes to conveying its value proposition to the market, having accumulated more than 10,000 ounces of silver on its balance sheet, yielding about 12 per cent annually, to steady its valuation amid ongoing exploration and development work, including an updated preliminary economic assessment at the PC mine on track to hit the wire in Q3 2026.
In the driver’s seat, vying to bring this growth about, is a leadership team that knows its way around capital markets and the intricacies of building mines, whose conviction in the company is backed by a hefty 17 per cent insider ownership, more than 15 per cent of which is held by CEO, Chad Williams, the founder of Red Cloud Mining Capital and current member on the board of Stockhouse favourite New Found Gold.
Honey Badger’s combination of high-quality assets, diversified critical minerals exposure and seasoned executives significantly de-risks the company’s view that it is deeply undervalued, as detailed on slide 3 of the latest investor deck, which lays out the potential for a 10x re-rating.
Honey Badger Silver stock (TSXV:TUF) last traded at C$0.70 and has added 288.89 per cent year-over-year.
Williams joined Ricki Lee to contextualize the PC mine and discuss the company’s upcoming appearance at the inaugural Canada Investment Summit in Toronto from September 14-15, 2026. Watch the interview here.
Join the discussion: Find out what investors are saying about these critical minerals mining stocks on the Tactical Resources Corp. and Honey Badger Silver Inc. Bullboards and make sure to explore the rest of Stockhouse’s stock forums and message boards.