Selkirk Copper Mines Inc.
Selkirk Copper Mines (renamed from Venerable Ventures Ltd. in November 2025) is redeveloping the past-producing Minto copper-gold-silver mine in Yukon's Minto-Carmacks belt toward a restart decision. The company completed a 52,288m Phase 1 drill program plus a Phase 2 program and released a July 2026 updated resource estimate showing a 182%/184% increase in Measured & Indicated copper/gold. The site retains fully built infrastructure (a 4,100 tpd mill, camp, open pit and underground workings), supporting a lower-capex restart thesis.
Lifecycle Milestones
Jurisdiction (40%)8/10
Yukon: Fraser PPI 2025 is 62.19 of 100 (rank 47 of 68), which maps to 8 on this site's scale. The Minto mine is in Yukon; the prior operator's 2023 bankruptcy was a company-specific issue, not a jurisdictional one. Yukon has Canadian rule of law, but mining executives rate its policy climate below Canada's leading provinces.
Infrastructure (40%)10/10
A confirmed mill, confirmed road access, confirmed grid power, and a confirmed tailings facility at Minto Mine, Yukon.
Nearby producing mine (20%)Not yet researched
No producing mine within 50 km in our reference list (nearest listed: Keno Hill (Hecla Mining Company), 170 km). That list doesn't cover every mining district yet, so a longer distance isn't scored as remote.
Acquisition Susceptibility
A relative ranking of how closely this company matches the profile of juniors that have actually been acquired — not a probability, and not a reason to buy. Acquisitions are rare: only a few dozen significant deals happen a year across a universe of thousands of juniors, so even a high score here describes a long shot. The strongest signal in the research, a producer that already owns part of the company, is scored from its disclosed strategic shareholders. A producer that is a joint-venture or earn-in partner on the project, rather than a shareholder, isn't captured yet.
How this score is built
- Disclosed pending dealSub-score: Not scored
No pending acquisition or merger disclosed (checked)
Not scored: having no deal in flight isn't held against a company.
Weight 26.25% - Producer's strategic stakeSub-score: Not scored
No producer holds a disclosed stake on file (holder register researched) See holders
Not scored: most juniors that do get bought had no prior toehold, so a missing stake says little either way.
Weight 25% - Distance to a producing mineSub-score:1/10
Nearest producing mine: Keno Hill (Hecla Mining Company), 170 km
10 next to a producing mine, 8 at 20 km, 5 at 50 km, 0 beyond 200 km.
Weight 22.5% · 46% here - Lifecycle stageSub-score:6/10
Stage: Preliminary Economic Assessment
Feasibility and permitting score 10, where deals cluster, and production 5.5; earlier stages score less, down to 1 at grassroots.
Weight 15% · 31% here - JurisdictionSub-score:8/10
Canada: jurisdiction score 8/10
Our jurisdiction score, used as is: higher means lower political and permitting risk.
Weight 6.75% · 14% here - CommoditySub-score:8/10
Primary commodity: Copper
Gold 10, copper 8, silver 5, nickel and uranium 4, others 2: most majors' deals are for gold.
Weight 4.5% · 9% here
Weight is each input's share of the full score. “Here” is its share of this company's score: inputs that aren't scored are left out and the rest re-weighted, never counted as zero.
Your Rankings
Management Team
President and Chief Executive Officer, and a Director, of Selkirk Copper Mines Inc. Accomplished business leader with over 30 years of diverse mineral resources industry experience and a track record of unlocking investment opportunities globally. Most recently Vice President Business Development with Teck Resources Limited from 2011 through 2024, responsible for advancing several advanced base and precious metal development projects in the Americas.
Chief Financial Officer of Selkirk Copper Mines Inc. (CFA) Chartered Professional Accountant with eight years of experience in accounting and investment banking focused on metals and mining, having been involved in financings raising over $400 million for mining companies. Previously worked at Stifel Nicolaus Canada and PI Financial Corp.
Senior Vice President, Permitting & Regulatory Affairs of Selkirk Copper Mines Inc.; has also served as Vice President, People & Sustainability at Sabina Gold & Silver Corp., acquired by B2Gold Corp. in 2023. (P.Geo.) Environmental and permitting professional with over 20 years of experience in Canadian resource development, particularly Canada's North. Previously served as VP Sustainability at B2Gold Nunavut and was inducted into the Nunavut Mining Hall of Fame in 2023.
Vice President, Lands and Environment of Selkirk Copper Mines Inc. A Selkirk First Nation citizen who served as Chief from 2011 to 2017 and previously held roles including Mineral Resource Director and Mining Manager for the First Nation's Land and Resources Department.
Vice President, Exploration & Geoscience of Selkirk Copper Mines Inc. (P.Geo.) Professional Geologist with over 10 years of experience leading exploration programs across Canadian mineral districts; was instrumental in expanding the 5+ million-ounce gold resource at the Back River Project.
Vice President, Projects & Engineering of Selkirk Copper Mines Inc. (P.Eng.) Professional Engineer with over 30 years of post-graduate experience across industrial sectors globally, including significant EPCM/EPC involvement with multiple major mining projects.
Vice President, Corporate Development of Selkirk Copper Mines Inc. (CFA) Capital markets professional with 10 years of experience in equity research covering the mining sector and 7 years in site-based engineering consulting.
Insiders, Investors & Smart Money
Notable shareholders and insiders whose involvement is worth knowing about, plus what we're seeing from institutional/large-investor activity.
The Selkirk First Nation -- through a wholly owned holding company -- is Selkirk Copper's largest shareholder at roughly 22%, and topped up its stake with a further cash purchase in May 2026. It is a genuine, real-money strategic backer and reportedly the first Indigenous government to hold controlling ownership of a Canadian mine, but as a community/government entity rather than an operating mining company it caps out below the producer-backed scoring bands. No specialist fund or insider buying was found.
No notable insiders tracked for this miner yet.
Reports, Presentations & Documents
Selkirk Copper Mines, renamed from Venerable Ventures in November 2025, is working toward restarting the past-producing Minto copper-gold-silver mine in Yukon's Minto-Carmacks belt, where a 4,100 tpd mill, camp, open pit and underground workings are already built. Its updated resource, effective 10 June 2026 and published in July 2026, has measured and indicated resources of 940,000,000 lb of copper (7,000,000 lb measured and 933,000,000 lb indicated) in 47.8 Mt at 0.89% copper, 0.34 g/t gold and 3.2 g/t silver, plus 281,000,000 lb inferred, with 530,000 oz of gold and 4.97 Moz of silver in the measured and indicated category. Phase 2 drilling was 90% complete at 45,299 m across 187 holes by 18 August 2026, with results including 13.12% CuEq over 1.93 m at Minto North, and a preliminary economic assessment was targeted for the third quarter of 2026.