Copper has had a pretty wild ride, so far, in 2021. Starting the year at just over US$3.50/lb, it quickly gained momentum with optimism over the “opening up” of trade based on the perception (at the time) that perhaps we had nipped Covid in the bud, and that the global economy would soon get back to some semblance of normal. This rallied the price of copper up to a high of US$4.37/lb in late February before the price consolidated in the US$4.00-US$4.20/lb range. The next rally was driven by the excitement around the green revolution or the electrification of everything. Every pundit and talking head on the business channels was talking about the growth rate of EVs, renewable energy, battery storage, etc., all of which would soon require a lot more copper than is being produced today. This charge upwards drove copper up to an intraday high of US$4.89/lb in early May, or roughly a 40% gain in just over 4 months. However, as the saying goes, often the cure for high prices is high prices, and that seems to have been the case for copper as the commodity appears to be in a bit of a downtrend at present.

The positive is that there appears to be solid support at roughly the US$4.00/lb threshold, and there hasn’t been a decisive break below the 200 day moving average. I also believe the long term case for copper is compelling. Whatever path we ultimately take to reduce our carbon footprint over the next years and decades is going to require a lot of copper. Will there be up and downs in the interim? For sure. The fallout from the Evergrande, property speculation, debacle in China could put a crimp in their economy, particularly in the building sector, but I don’t feel there will be a global contagion arising from that. In the long run there is a global political will to create a cleaner, greener future for the world, and that is going to make copper a “go to” commodity for a long time.

That’s my long-winded way of saying we should look at a copper stock today. Having grown up in the interior of B.C., one junior explorer I’ve been keeping an eye on is Kodiak Copper Corp. (TSXV: KDK | OTCQB: KDKCF). The Company’s most advanced asset is the MPD copper-gold porphyry project in the prolific Quesnel Trough in southern British Columbia, where in 2020 the Company made a high-grade discovery at the Gate Zone. Plans for 2021 include a fully funded 30,000 metre drill program including several target areas, as well as further geophysical and geochemical surveying, prospecting, and geotechnical studies. By early July, Kodiak had completed over 15 drill holes with results suggesting that the 1.2 kilometre long copper-in soil target in this area is underlain by a significant copper-gold-silver porphyry system. Highlights from the first 6 holes included an increase in the strike length of the Gate Zone from 125 metres to 800 metres, and a 242 metre intersect of 0.52% CuEq.

Unfortunately, the Company had to pause their drilling efforts in August due to wildfire risks, but ramped up activity at the end of August with two drill rigs. As of September 1^st, 25 holes totaling 13,600 metres have been completed and the Gate Zone had been expanded further to 950 metres in length, 350 metres in width (east-west) and to a depth of 800 metres, being open in all directions. This is all pretty exciting, but the best part is that there’s lots more to come. Including drilling the high priority Dillard target which exhibits similar copper-in-soil anomalies, geophysical responses, and has shown encouraging historic drilling like the Gate Zone. Dillard will be drill-tested in Q4 as part of the 2021 program. And let’s not forget we’ve only seen results from the first 6 drill holes, leaving at least 19 still to come, the results from which should be available any day now.

It appears there should be fairly steady news flow out of Kodiak Copper for the rest of 2021. With 48.7 million shares outstanding the Company has a market cap of roughly $61 million based on yesterday’s close of $1.26. They have a fairly tight share structure so any positive news could give this stock a pretty good shot in the arm. Hopefully, exciting news is on its way.

There is absolutely no doubt that as the world moves towards achieving a lower carbon footprint the metals that go into creating the building blocks for EVs, battery storage, and other infrastructure will continue to see growing demand. It can also be said that the pandemic has shone a giant spotlight on the security of supply for just about everything. Compounding this, global positioning amongst the most powerful nations has further emphasized the importance of supply chains and domestic capabilities.

Well, Canada is here to help, both ourselves and our many allies. We are blessed with an abundance of natural resources of every shape and color, including pretty much everything critical to the green revolution (plus a lot of the resources that have already gotten us to this place in time). One Canadian company is developing numerous projects that provide exposure to globally important minerals including Cobalt, Copper, Nickel, Zinc and Silver in two of the best mining jurisdictions in Canada and arguably the world. Murchison Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: MUR) is an exploration company focused on the exploration and development of the 100% owned Brabant Lake zinc‐copper‐silver project in north‐central Saskatchewan. The Company also owns 100% of the HPM nickel‐copper‐cobalt project in Quebec and holds an option to earn 100% interest in the Barraute VMS exploration project also located in Quebec, north of Val d’Or.

Although the Company has been active at its HPM project, including news last week about the identification of significant sulphide mineralization on surface at the PYC showing over a strike length in excess of 1.7 km. Today we’ll focus on Brabant Lake because that’s where I believe the most material news is likely to come from in the next several weeks. Close to infrastructure, the Brabant Lake project is located 175 kilometres northeast of La Ronge, Saskatchewan, accessed year-round via highway #102 with direct access to the power grid. The Brabant-McKenzie VMS deposit contains indicated and inferred resources of almost 10 million tonnes and is open to expansion. The surrounding 626.9 km² land package is highly prospective for additional VMS deposits, which tend to occur in clusters. This is a solid starting point on the road to completing a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA). But what has me most interested in the near term is the prospective new play approximately 1 km to the northeast and along trend of the existing Brabant-McKenzie deposit called the Betty Zone.

Murchison drilled two holes into the Betty Zone showing in the winter of 2021 and intersected VMS- style massive-sulphide mineralization in both holes. The best assay was in hole BZ21-002, which intersected 4.40% zinc, 1.33% copper, 12.95 g/t silver from 280.73 to 281.65 metres (0.92 m), including 0.42 m at 3.76% zinc, 2.40% copper, 21.70 g/t silver and 0.12 g/t gold. The observed mineralization and corresponding metamorphosed VMS-type alteration in these 2021 winter drill holes appear similar to what is observed at the Brabant-McKenzie Deposit. But critically, a borehole electromagnetic survey was conducted in these two holes at the conclusion of the 2021 winter drill program. The resulting data indicates that the holes narrowly missed a large conductive body located immediately down dip of the observed mineralization and is approximately 100 to 300 metres below surface. Initial modeling suggests the anomaly has a 700-metre strike length. This anomaly is considered highly prospective, and drilling has just commenced on two new holes into the heart of this anomaly.

With roughly 109 million shares outstanding, Murchison has a market cap of approximately $8.2 million based on yesterday’s closing price of $0.075. With an already high-grade VMS deposit hosting a NI43-101 compliant resource of 2.1 Mt @ 10% ZnEq (Indicated) and 7.6 Mt @ 6.3% ZnEq (Inferred) and an active drilling program this could be an inexpensive option for exposure to materials essential for the build out of the green energy revolution. Murchison has assembled an impressive set of prospect rich assets. Now they have to prove up an economic resource that they can share (for profit of course) with the world.