When I first intended to write this blog, it was meant to be focused on a private company that is planning to be listed in Canada that I believe is going to be at the centre of the tokenization trend as an infrastructure play. Bocana Resources Corp. (BOCA.V) was meant to be the lead in to set the tone, with its recent JV announcement with Arizore Ltd. showing the demand for these types of transactions on the market. However, with recent developments from Arizore, it's becoming clear that Bocana deserves its own story told with a tie in to potentially occur at a future date. Therefore, the "Part One" in the title of this blog. Should Bocana turn into a success as I hope that it will, it will be a nice set up for the private company once it does go public.
Prior to the JV announcement, BOCA was a $0.03 stock with a $3 million market cap. Somehow the management team was able to swing a deal with Arizore where the two companies will form a joint venture, with each partner owning a 50% stake. BOCA will be the main operator of the mining side while Arizore will fund the project with up to $60 million USD and lead the tokenization platform. The market saw the clear potential of this deal as BOCA rocketed up to $0.10 from $0.03 immediately following the news. However, it has flat-lined since, well below the implied value of BOCA's 50% stake in the JV of $30 million USD.
Assuming the closure of all related LOIs, the joint venture will contain two major gold projects plus a precious metals tokenization platform. The valuation attached to this deal relative to BOCA's market cap is in the "too good to be true" category, so perhaps the market is waiting for more definitive terms on all of these items before rewarding the stock with a more justified valuation. Based on the moves I have seen recently, I don't think that will be too much longer. The last time I have seen such a clear misalignment between value in a deal and stock price was with Valeura Energy Inc. (VLE.TO) which I wrote about on Streetwise back in late 2022. That deal had a "too good to be true" feel about it too, and it took a while for the market to adjust to the reality of the situation. But once it did, VLE took off and never looked back.
BOCA is currently doing the due diligence required on the prospective gold property acquisitions to fulfill its part of the JV agreement as operator. While some people are excited about this part of the business, I am not focused on it. I'm sure that the gold properties will add substantial value to the JV and BOCA, but the thing that makes me excited to own some of these shares is the tokenization platform. This feels like a new trend about to take the TSXV by storm, and Arizore/BOCA are ahead of the curve. It reminds me of the digital asset treasuries that we saw pop up about a year ago, trying to tap into Michael Saylor's MSTR business model. It started with Sol Strategies Inc. (HODL.CN) taking off last year, and peaked with companies like SharpLink Gaming, Inc. (SBET) and Bitmine Immersion Technologies, Inc. (BMNR) skyrocketing more than 10x in a matter of days. Since then, the market has gotten saturated with DAT bandwagon jumpers and many of these companies now sit well off their highs. If asset tokenization becomes the next great bandwagon for struggling companies to try to jump on, Bocana and Arizore will be driving it.
While the DAT strategy may have turned into a bit of an oversaturated fad, I see a long lasting business model with the asset tokenization strategy. The TSX Venture, and junior mining stocks in particular, have done well as a whole in 2025. Mainly driven by rising prices of gold and silver. But historically speaking, the Venture has been a place where capital has gone to die. That's been that way for several reasons. Greedy and incompetent management teams financing at low prices to ensure their paychecks keep coming on the backs of shareholders being one. The fact that most startups simply fail being another. But a common complaint (sometimes excuse) is the idea that large market players such as banks are either complicit or actively engaged in shorting techniques to profit by destroying companies with legitimate potential but currently need to rely on the capital markets to finance their activities. Quantum BioPharma Ltd. (QNTM) was subject of recent coverage from W5 around the idea of spoofing and has a $700 million lawsuit outstanding. Organizations like Save Canadian Mining have been pointing out this issue for years.
The platform that is being proposed by Arizore looks like it will enable prospective mining and exploration companies to give a big middle finger to the algos, shorts and paper flippers of Bay Street. Arizore recently created a website arizore.io that outlines the tokenization platform both from the mining operator's and financier's perspective. That's why I was in a rush to release this because I don't think it'll be too long before this catches on fire:
The brilliance of it is in its simplicity. Anybody can go on that website and understand what the business model is all about and how Arizore plans to meet the financing needs of its junior mining clients. It's essentially project financing or an offtake agreement, facilitated within Web3 infrastructure where everything is secure and the resources are vetted.
The main issue will of course be execution. For anyone familiar with my work, you know this isn't the first time I've gotten excited about a "finance matching" platform, with Cubeler being a great idea that so far has been executed horribly by Tenet Fintech (PKK.CN). That being said, Arizore looks like it has the backing of some serious people with deep pockets. We can think of the initial $60 million USD fronted as part of the bank to fund the initiative, while Bocana acts as the gatekeeper to analyze each company so that only worthy projects are taken while the lesser projects can go back to cup-in-hand on Bay Street. Venture Gold and the Arizona Project are the first "clients" on the platform, with these clients being internal so that Arizore can go to the market with this solution with real world examples.
Once you understand this, the deal between Arizore and Bocana starts to make sense. Somewhere along the way, Arizore might have said to Bocana something along the lines of: "We will fund this initiative without any capital expectations from you, but we rely on your expertise in analyzing early stage mining and exploration plays to weed out the bad ones and keep only the best for our finance partners". Bocana management has a very important function within this infrastructure. The company will use its operating expertise to find projects worthy of the joint venture. The BOCA public listing can be used as a way to market the platform, as many of the potential clients will be peers of Bocana that trade on the TSXV. The best marketing tool Arizore has for this platform is a successful stock price and proof of non-dilutive sources of funding for BOCA.
Disclosure: I have purchased BOCA shares on the open market.
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