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Élise Galarneau

Small-Cap and Ventures Correspondent · 12 years covering Canadian monetary policy

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Élise writes about the Bank of Canada, inflation and the Canadian dollar. She previously worked as a fixed-income analyst in Montréal.

Beats: Economy, Rates, Currencies

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Published work

OpinionMining and Resources

Aya Gold and Silver Has Drilled 3,501 g/t Silver at Zgounder and Sold Nothing From It Yet

Aya Gold & Silver Inc. (TSX: AYA) reported high-grade silver intercepts near the Zgounder pit and at depth on September 16, 2026, eight days after doubling the paper value of its Boumadine project and fifteen days after agreeing to buy a copper-silver land package. The shares closed at C$40.24 on 17 September. The company holds US$182.8 million of cash, and about 80 per cent of the metal in the Boumadine study is in the most speculative resource category there is.

By Élise Galarneau7 min readAYA.TO

OpinionMining and Resources

Pacific Imperial Mines Rose Two Thirds to Two and a Half Cents, Three Times Its Own Financing Price

Pacific Imperial Mines Inc. (TSXV: PPM) closed at C$0.025 on 16 September 2026, up 66.7 per cent on about five times average volume, with no announcement that day. The company had disclosed a ten-for-one consolidation and a placement of up to C$4 million at C$0.075 a unit on 9 September, and settled C$149,306.59 of debt with two directors on 11 September. The published financing price is a third of where the shares traded.

By Élise Galarneau7 min readPPM.V

OpinionMining and Resources

Banyan Gold Joins the GDXJ With 8.6 Million Ounces and No Economic Study of Them

Banyan Gold Corp. (TSXV: BYN) said on 14 September 2026 that it joins the index behind the VanEck Junior Gold Miners ETF on 21 September. Its AurMac project in the Yukon holds 3.639 million indicated ounces and 4.985 million inferred ounces of gold. There is no preliminary economic assessment yet. At Tuesday's close the market valued the company at about C$98 for every ounce in the ground, or C$233 for each indicated ounce.

By Élise Galarneau6 min readBYN.V

OpinionMining and Resources

A US$5.22 Million Cost Share for Bitterroot's Michigan Nickel Project, and an Unnamed Matching Half

Bitterroot Resources Ltd. (TSXV: BTT) said on 15 September 2026 that the U.S. Department of War will invest up to US$5,223,431 in its Michigan nickel-copper project on a 50/50 cost share basis. A cost share has two sides. The release sets out the government's side in detail and says nothing about who funds the matching half, which on the same arithmetic runs to roughly C$7.3 million against a company worth C$17.1 million at Tuesday's close.

By Élise Galarneau8 min readBTT.V

OpinionMining and Resources

No Assays and 20.5 Million Cancelled Options: What Hercules Metals Reported Before Tuesday's Open

Hercules Metals Corp., listed on the TSX Venture Exchange as BIG, reported on September 14, 2026 that its first reconnaissance hole at the Hook target in Idaho hit strong alteration and pyrite. Assays are pending, and the company said they should be more useful for pointing at the system than for returning copper. The same release cancelled 20.5 million stock options granted six weeks earlier, without giving a reason.

By Élise Galarneau8 min readBIG.V

OpinionMining and Resources

A Seville Court Restarts Emerita Resources' Aznalcóllar Case After a Quarter That Used C$6.4 Million of Cash

Emerita Resources said on September 11, 2026 that the High Court of Justice of Andalusia had lifted the suspension of the administrative case over the Aznalcóllar tender, frozen since November 2018. That restarts the case; it does not decide it, and Emerita does not own Aznalcóllar. What it owns is an 18.96 million tonne indicated resource in Huelva, a June 30 cash balance of C$9.1 million after a quarter that used C$6.4 million, warrants struck at C$1.30 against a C$0.33 share price on delayed market data, and an unresolved proceeding before Ontario's Capital Markets Tribunal.

By Élise Galarneau11 min readEMO.V

OpinionMining and Resources

Aya Gold and Silver Built the Mill It Promised, and That Is Why Its Second Project Gets a Hearing

Aya Gold and Silver's mill at Zgounder ran at 3,889 tonnes a day in the second quarter of 2026, against 1,236 tonnes a day in the quarter it declared commercial production. The gap between those two numbers is a case study in how a junior producer earns credibility, and in what that credibility does and does not cover.

By Élise Galarneau8 min readAYA.TO

OpinionEconomy

Why a Canadian Explorer Can Sell New Shares Above Its Own Market Price, and Who Pays for That

Junior exploration was the busiest corner of the Canadian market this week, and almost none of it is paid for out of revenue. It is paid for by placements, and those placements are priced two different ways at once: flow-through shares above the market, ordinary units below it. The difference is a tax deduction the Canada Revenue Agency lets an exploration company hand to the buyer. Here is what that deduction is worth in dollars, why the calendar pushes the cheques into the autumn, and what each kind of financing does to the share count.

By Élise Galarneau8 min read

OpinionMining and Resources

A Return of Capital, Not a Result: Lightning Resource (TSXV: LTNG) Fell 18.9 Per Cent on 11 September

Lightning Resource closed at C$0.385 on 11 September 2026, down 18.9 per cent on roughly fifty times its recent average volume. No Lightning release was issued that day. What landed the day before was a return of capital from Prospector Metals that distributed 29,400,000 Lightning shares, and the arithmetic of that distribution explains the tape better than anything in the company's own disclosure.

By Élise Galarneau9 min readLTNG.V

OpinionMining and Resources

Aya Gold and Silver's Updated Boumadine Study Doubles Its Value to US$3.5 Billion Before Reserves

Aya Gold & Silver Inc. (TSX: AYA) released an updated preliminary economic assessment for Boumadine in Morocco on September 9, 2026, lifting the after-tax NPV at a 5 per cent discount rate to US$3.5 billion from US$1,475 million, with a 93 per cent IRR, a 0.7-year payback and initial capital of US$463 million. Mine life goes to 14 years from 11. The study also raises the metal price deck to US$3,500 per ounce gold from US$2,800, holds no mineral reserves, and draws 79 per cent of its ounces from the inferred category.

By Élise Galarneau9 min readAYA.TO

OpinionMining and Resources

Four Holes, Three Intrusions and No Assays: What Perseverance Metals' 93.8 Per Cent Day Rests On

Perseverance Metals reported on September 9, 2026 that three of four diamond drill holes into the blind Osprey target at its Voyageur project in Michigan had intersected a mafic-ultramafic intrusion up to 50 metres thick carrying 3 to 8 per cent magmatic sulphides, with portable XRF confirming nickel and copper. Assays are pending. The shares closed at C$0.93, up 93.8 per cent, adding roughly C$17.4 million of market value on a release that contains no grade.

By Élise Galarneau8 min readPMI.V

OpinionEconomyExplainer

The Case Against Chasing Dividend Yield in Canada

A simple high-yield screen on the TSX tends to surface companies the market already doubts, not hidden value. This piece explains why yield alone is a poor screen, which metrics — payout ratio against free cash flow, dividend growth history, debt profile — actually matter, and where high yields are structurally legitimate.

By Élise Galarneau3 min read

EconomyTrade

Canada's Trade Balance and the Concentration Problem

Canada's exports remain unusually concentrated in a single destination market, a structural feature that two decades of diversification efforts have barely moved. This piece explains why that concentration is a direct earnings risk for TSX-listed exporters, not just a macro footnote.

By Élise Galarneau3 min read

Real EstateHouseholds

What Rising Mortgage Renewals Mean for Canadian Consumer Spending

Canada's short mortgage terms mean rate increases hit household budgets in staggered waves rather than all at once, with the largest renewal wave still ahead. The piece explains why Canada differs from the US, how the drag shows up in consumer spending, and what could offset it.

By Élise Galarneau3 min read

Canadian MarketsCurrencies

The Loonie, the Differential and Why CAD/USD Stopped Tracking Oil

The long-assumed link between crude prices and the Canadian dollar has weakened as energy's share of the economy has shrunk and interest-rate differentials have taken over as the dominant driver. This piece explains the rate-differential mechanism now doing most of the work and what that means for how Canadian investors should think about currency exposure.

By Élise Galarneau3 min read

EconomyMonetary policy

Bank of Canada Holds at 2.75% and Signals a Longer Pause

The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.75 per cent for a third straight meeting and dropped language markets had read as an easing bias, a more hawkish signal than the unchanged rate suggests. Bond yields, the loonie and rate-sensitive equity sectors all moved on the guidance shift rather than the rate itself.

By Élise Galarneau4 min read

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