Key Highlights

  • The Ashram project in Québec has a June 2026 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) outlining a 30-year mine life with annual output of about 17,466 tonnes of rare earth oxide.
  • Post-tax NPV is C$2.03 billion at an 8% real discount rate, with an IRR of 22.0% and a payback of 3.9 years from production.
  • Natural Resources Canada has conditionally approved up to C$2.61 million for a road access study linking Ashram to Schefferville.
  • Cash fell to A$4.39 million at 30 June 2026, with exploration Assets carried at A$57.0 million and accounts prepared on a Going Concern basis.

Mont Royal Resources (ASX:MRZ) is in focus because its Ashram rare earths and fluorspar project in Québec now has a June 2026 preliminary economic assessment (PEA) putting numbers on a 30-year mine, even though the company remains an explorer with no resource yet converted to reserves. The study carries a stated accuracy of plus or minus 50 per cent.

What the company owns

Mont Royal is a mineral exploration company that re-listed on the ASX on 5 November 2025 after completing a Merger with Commerce Resources Corp. on 22 October 2025. Its Annual Report also lists a TSX Venture code, MRZL.

The flagship is the 100 per cent-owned Ashram project in Nunavik, northern Québec, which hosts rare earth elements and fluorspar. The company also holds the adjoining Eldor niobium project and a 75 per cent interest in the Northern Lights lithium assets in the James Bay region.

The June 2026 study

The 9 June 2026 PEA assumed a 30-year mine life, mill throughput of about 1.8 million tonnes of ore a year and annual saleable output of about 17,466 tonnes of rare earth oxide, including roughly 4,035 tonnes of neodymium and praseodymium. Those two elements are used in permanent magnets.

Initial Capital was put at about C$1.23 billion, including a 30 per cent contingency. The post-tax net present value at an 8 per cent real discount rate was C$2.03 billion, with a real internal rate of return of 22.0 per cent and a payback of 3.9 years from production.

The study puts C1 cash costs at about C$17.99 per kilogram and a low waste-to-ore strip ratio of 0.4 to one. Roughly 7 per cent of the mill feed comes from inferred resources, the least certain category. The study also counts about C$342 million of Canadian Clean Technology Manufacturing investment tax credits in its cash flows.

Finances

The latest annual report covers an eight-month period to 30 June 2026, because the company moved its year end. Cash fell from A$10.17 million at 31 October 2025 to A$4.39 million at 30 June 2026, and Working Capital was about A$6.2 million.

The loss for the period was A$2.77 million, compared with A$6.56 million for the 12 months to 31 October 2025. Net cash used in Operating Activities was A$4.63 million. Exploration and evaluation assets were carried at A$57.0 million.

The directors prepared the accounts on a going concern basis. A reader should still note that a PEA-stage company without Revenue depends on raising new capital, and the directors themselves list dilution or scaled-back exploration as a risk.

What happens next

The management discussion and analysis outlines a follow-up drill programme at the Flux fluorite zone, where historical intercepts include 32.4 metres at 26.1 per cent calcium fluoride. It also plans further flotation test work to assess a commercial fluorspar concentrate.

Natural Resources Canada has extended a conditional approval of up to C$2.61 million from its Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund for a road access study linking Ashram to Schefferville, about 300 kilometres south. That funding still requires Due Diligence and a formal agreement.

A Québec tax credit of about C$2.2 million was received on 17 August 2026. On 9 October 2026 the company announced that 1,135,123 shares would leave Escrow on 21 October 2026.

Risks to weigh

Ashram's Economics depend on rare earth prices, which the company does not control, and on securing financing for a project of this size in a remote region with limited road access. Regulatory, environmental and Québec tax and Royalty changes are further variables.

The 2024 resource is not a reserve, so engineering and permitting steps remain ahead. Further capital raisings would most likely dilute existing holders.