STOCK OPTIONS

3 Months Ended

Mar. 31, 2025

Share-Based Payment Arrangement [Abstract]

STOCK OPTIONS

9. STOCK OPTIONS

The Company has a stock option plan (“Plan”). The purpose of this Plan is to provide additional incentives to key employees, officers, directors and consultants of the Company and its subsidiaries in order to help attract and retain the best available personnel for positions of responsibility and otherwise promote the success of the Company’s business. It is intended that options issued under this Plan constitute non-qualified stock options. The general terms of awards under the option plan are that 100% of the options granted will vest the year following the grant unless a executive employee is granted a multi-year stock option grant where an equal amount vests over the next 5 years. The maximum term of options granted is 5 years and the exercise price for all options are issued for not less than fair market value at the date of the grant.

The following table summarizes the Company’s stock option activities for the three months ended March 31, 2025 and the full year ended December 31, 2024:

	Number of shares			Exercise price per share		Weighted average  exercise price
Balance, December 31, 2023		1,114,000		$	1.75 – 3.61	$	3.13
Granted		1,081,000		$	2.00 – 4.05	$	2.12
Cancelled or expired		(275,000	)	$	1.75 – 3.61	$	2.54
Exercised		(80,000	)	$	1.75 – 2.44	$	2.31
Balance, December 31, 2024		1,840,000		$	2.00 – 4.05	$	2.68
Exercised		(132,000	)	$	2.00 – 3.61	$	2.89
Balance, March 31, 2025		1,708,000		$	2.00 – 4.05	$	2.66
Exercisable, March 31, 2025		807,000		$	2.00 – 3.61	$	2.68

During the three months ended March 31, 2025 and 2024, the Company recognized stock based compensation associated with stock options as follows:

	March 31, 2025		March 31, 2024
Line item on the statement of operations and comprehensive income (loss):
Wages and administrative salaries	$	79,740	$	243,417
Consulting		18,180		9,940
	$	97,920	$	253,357

During the three months ended March 31, 2025, the Company granted nil (2024 – 56,000) stock options to consultants and nil (2024 – 894,000) stock options to employees. The fair value of options granted during 2024 was calculated using the following range of assumptions:

	2024
Expected life – years		3.0
Interest rate		1.76 – 4.11	%
Volatility		66.01 – 71.59	%
Fair value of options granted		$1.46 – 2.02

As of March 31, 2025, the weighted-average remaining contractual life of outstanding and exercisable options is 3.3 years and 3.0 years, respectively. As of March 31, 2025, there was approximately $505,931 of compensation expense related to non-vested awards that is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 1.6 years.

The aggregate intrinsic value of options outstanding and exercisable at March 31, 2025 is $4,074,540 (2024 - $nil) and $1,911,040 (2024 - $nil), respectively. During the three months ended March 31, 2025, the intrinsic value of stock options exercised was $419,350 (2024 - $720).