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by Will Purcell

The critical and specialty minerals stocks box score for Thursday was a weak 66-92-152 as the TSX Venture Exchange fell two points to 994. Mark Tory's Defense Metals Corp. (DEFN), down one-half cent to 20.5 cents on 581,000 shares, has mobilized its field crew to the Wicheeda rare earth project, near Prince George in central British Columbia, and drilling is now under way.

"This drill campaign, with a particular focus on infill drilling, is strategically designed to both enhance and expand our current mineral resource and reserve estimates," enthuses Mr. Tory, Defense Metals' president and chief executive officer, adding that expanded estimates could potentially result in the extension of the Wicheeda project's mine life.

Wicheeda received a prefeasibility study in early 2025, based on a reserve of 25.46 million tonnes grading 2.43 per cent total rare earth oxides, rock that included noteworthy amounts of praseodymium oxide, neodymium oxide, terbium oxide and dysprosium oxide. The plan called for a 5,000-tonne-per-day flotation concentrator that would take 15 years to shake the desired oxides free of their host rock.

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