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Chris Buncic on the “shocking” Chrysalis Copper timeline for production

In an engaging interview at PDAC 2024, Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) Director Peter Clausi sat down with Chris Buncic, Director of Chrysalis Copper Corporation, to discuss the company’s ambitious plans in Chile. Buncic, bringing a wealth of experience from his tenure at Ascendant Resources and Alto Verde Copper / Interra Copper, shared insights into Chrysalis Copper’s strategy to revitalize two historical copper mines, leveraging their significant untapped resources for rapid production startup and growth. The company’s approach is to initiate production under small miners permits, a strategy that promises to expedite the timeline to production to less than 12 months for both the Linderos and Santa Monica projects.

Chrysalis Copper’s Linderos project, with a 15,000+ hectare land package, showcases a past-producing Tambor Mine with a fast track to re-initiation of production under a small miners permit, targeting an initial output of 250 tonnes per day (tpd). This project holds over 146 million pounds of copper in historical resources, setting the stage for a quick transition to NI 43-101 compliance and further exploration upside. Buncic highlighted, “It’s shocking that we’re going to be in production within 12 months. We have a great price for these operations and significant exploration upside on four drill-ready properties.”

The Santa Monica project echoes this rapid development approach, aiming for near-term production with substantial exploration potential indicated by historical resources and the proximity to other major mines. Both projects are poised for an accelerated path to production, minimal upfront investment, and significant ROI potential, underscoring Chrysalis Copper’s strategy to become a mid-sized copper producer in Chile with a steady-state annualized production target of 57 million pounds of Copper Equivalent (CuEq) across both projects.

Buncic’s previous success in turning around operations and driving them to profitability was a focal point, and the broad technical and management experience of the Company’s team in Chile will lead Chrysalis Copper towards a promising future. With plans to bring resources into compliance and explore the significant upside potential, there will be no shortage of catalysts to be watching for as these mines get closer to production. “The resources we’ve seen are great; they just don’t have core. So, we’ll go back, twin those, and within the next 12 to 18 months, we’ll have 43-101 compliant resources on each of these mines,” Buncic stated, emphasizing the company’s commitment to validating and expanding its resource base.

Chrysalis Copper Corporation, is set to rapidly advance its copper projects from near-term production to significant exploration and expansion, leveraging historical resources, strategic permitting, and an experienced team in Chile. This strategy not only underscores the company’s potential for growth but also highlights its contribution to the copper sector’s development in Chile, one of the world’s premier copper-producing countries.

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Disclaimer: Chrysalis Copper Corporation is an advertorial member of InvestorNews Inc.

This interview, which was produced by InvestorNews Inc. (“InvestorNews”), does not contain, nor does it purport to contain, a summary of all material information concerning the Company, including important disclosure and risk factors associated with the Company, its business and an investment in its securities. InvestorNews offers no representations or warranties that any of the information contained in this interview is accurate or complete.

This interview and any transcriptions or reproductions thereof (collectively, this “presentation”) does not constitute, or form part of, any offer or invitation to sell or issue, or any solicitation of any offer to subscribe for or purchase any securities in the Company. The information in this presentation is provided for informational purposes only and may be subject to updating, completion or revision, and except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any information herein. This presentation may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and assumptions of the management of the Company as of the date made. They are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and other factors that could cause actual events/results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties, including those that the Company does not know about now or that it currently deems immaterial, may also adversely affect the Company’s business or any investment therein.

Any projections given are principally intended for use as objectives and are not intended, and should not be taken, as assurances that the projected results will be obtained by the Company. The assumptions used may not prove to be accurate and a potential decline in the Company’s financial condition or results of operations may negatively impact the value of its securities. This presentation should not be considered as the giving of investment advice by the Company or any of its directors, officers, agents, employees or advisors. Each person to whom this presentation is made available must make its own independent assessment of the Company after making such investigations and taking such advice as may be deemed necessary. Prospective investors are urged to review the Company’s profile on SedarPlus.ca and to carry out independent investigations in order to determine their interest in investing in the Company.




Critical Metals Molulu Project to Prioritize Higher-Grade Copper Sulphide Ore

Copper prices have been surprisingly resilient in 2023 despite a China slowdown. This is partly because global copper grades are declining putting downward pressure on supply. It is also because there is a new demand from electric vehicles, charging infrastructure and renewable energy (solar and wind). In mining they say grade is “king” and it is very true. High-grade mines tend to have lower costs and hence greater margins making them priced possessions. Today’s company is shifting strategy to focus on high-grade copper sulphide mining with the potential to “increase profitability by orders of magnitude.”

One year Copper price chart showing copper prices remain resilient (higher than where they were a year ago despite a China slowdown)

Source: Trading Economics

Critical Metals PLC update

Critical Metals PLC (LSE: CRTM) owns 100% of Madini Occidental Limited, which holds an indirect 70% interest in the Molulu copper-cobalt Project in the Democratic Republic of Congo (“DRC”). The Project was previously mined by artisanal miners from 4 pits. The Project was forecast to produce an initial 120,000 tonnes pa of copper oxide ore after re-commencing production in January 2023. As of May 2023, Critical Metals has mined over 6,500 tonnes of oxide ore at an average grade of 3%; however the Company is now switching focus to much higher grade sulphide ore at their Molulu Project.

Sulphide ore in this region (Katanga DRC) is known to have some of the highest grades of copper and cobalt globally as seen with renowned Glencore PLC (LSE: GLEN | OTC: GLCNF) and CMOC Group Limited’s (HKSE: 3993 | SHE: 603993 | OTC: CMCLF) DRC Mines in the Katanga region.

The Molulu Project (Critical Metals owns an indirect 70% interest)

Source: Critical Metals company presentation

Critical Metals Molulu Project will continue mining copper oxide ore but will shift focus to finding higher grade copper sulphide ore

In May 2023 Critical Metals announced to the market their plan to focus on the ‘higher grade sulphide zones‘ at the Molulu Project. This is because these zones have grades as high as 8.36% copper. Most global copper miners are operating with grades below 1% copper. Critical Metals commented on the change of strategy stating:

After surveying the Molulu copper grades and market, the technical team have decided to focus mining on the high-grade sulphide copper ore……Mining focus accelerating to the high-grade sulphide zones – high grade ore samples above 8.3% copper……..Due to the much higher-grade sulphide copper ore, mining the sulphide zones has the potential to increase profitability by orders of magnitude above the oxide only mining.

Critical Metals will continue mining the oxide ore, but will drill the sulphide areas to create a JORC report (resource).

Mapping and geophysics programmes at Molulu has reconfirmed large copper and cobalt potential.

In the most recent May 2023 Company update, Critical Metals confirmed that they had identified two new anomalies by the geophysics analysis on the Molulu Project. Furthermore, road rehabilitation is complete, bridge building has begun, high-grade sulphide open pits are beginning to drain, and drilling was set to begin in mid-June. The Company also mentioned that first Molulu oxide ore sales are expected late June.

Fast forward to now (late August) and we should expect some drill results to be released soon. Hopefully with some very high grades.

In other news, Critical Metals successfully raised £600,000 at a small premium. The proceeds of which will be used for geological due diligence on potential acquisition opportunities, one of which has been identified outside of the DRC. Consulting geologists have already visited this potential opportunity and feedback is expected shortly.

Closing remarks

Critical Metals is making all the right moves in 2023 and a resilient copper price is also helping. First oxide ore sales and revenue from Molulu are encouraging as is the potential exploration upside as they drill for copper sulphide ore at Molulu. The prospect of a new acquisition outside of the DRC is also exciting. There are numerous catalysts in the year ahead with the potential to shift the stock price higher, especially given the current market cap is only GBP £14 million.

Stay tuned.




Copper, Lithium, and a Presidential Election in Chile, why does it matter?

Now that COP26 has concluded perhaps some other items will begin to show up in the news cycle. However, unless you dig deep you may not be aware that on November 21st Chileans go to the polls to elect a new president. You may be wondering why I picked an election in Chile as something to pay attention to given all the things going on in the world today. I have to admit that I’m a little concerned about the build-up of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border in response to complaints of increasing NATO activity in the region. And you just never know what’s going to happen when the Chinese and U.S. get together to discuss economic and military tensions. Yet despite all that I think the Chilean election could have greater global ramifications depending on the outcome…or it could be a non-event.

The reason for having a look under the hood at Chile’s election is two-fold. One is that the leading candidates in the polls are currently from the far left and the far right, neither are from Chile’s mainstream political parties. The second is Chile’s contribution to two very top-of-mind commodities at present: copper and lithium. Has this information started to pique your curiosity? If it hasn’t then it should and here’s why.

In today’s economic reality, as we move towards a cleaner, greener world with less carbon emissions, we are going to need a lot of copper to build out all the electrical infrastructure and of course lithium has been termed as the gasoline of the future. We’ve covered the macro necessity of both these commodities enough at InvestorIntel, so I won’t get into the weeds on everything regarding copper and lithium. However, I will say that Chile is the world’s largest miner of copper by a long shot. Mine production in Chile is approximately 28% of all copper mined in the world and the country  is estimated to contain 23% of global copper reserves. Those are the kind of numbers copper investors need to pay attention to.

As for lithium, it’s almost as impressive with Chile being part of the renowned Lithium Triangle. The Lithium Triangle is a lithium-rich region in the Andean southwest corner of South America, spanning the borders of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. Roughly 58% of the world’s lithium resources are found in these three countries, according to the 2021 USGS Mineral Commodity Summary. Although Chile only accounts for an estimated 11% of global lithium resources, they are currently the world’s second-largest producer with approximately 22% of the world’s lithium production. Again, this is enough material so that any sort of disruption to order or rule of law could have serious ramifications that ripple around the world.

As much as I like to brag about Canada being rich in commodities, Chile is knocking it out of the park when it comes to copper and lithium. Hence the reason I’m paying attention to this election given the importance to a nation’s commerce of an orderly transfer of power.

Now let’s take a closer look at the background heading into this election. This is the first election since widespread protests over inequality rocked Chile in 2019. Some of those protests turned violent, with riots, arson attacks, looting and violent clashes with police, all sparked after the government increased public transportation fares. Things were bubbling below the surface for a while and this was the ignition point. Needless to say Covid impacts to the economy and its people further exacerbated these issues. This led to Chileans voting in a referendum in October, 2020 to rewrite Chile’s constitution which appeared to be the writing on the wall for the center-right coalition government that is currently in power. Then in May of this year, Chileans voted again in an election for delegates who would rewrite the constitution. The ruling coalition failed to pick up the one-third of seats necessary to block radical changes to the constitution. Meanwhile, the center-left, which has dominated politics since the end of Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 military dictatorship, garnered less support than leftists who have been pushing for wholesale change to the ‘Chilean model’ that has been credited with fomenting growth, but also with deep inequality.

That’s the macro reasoning but layered on top of that are a couple of micro issues that investors should also be aware of. The country is debating a controversial mining royalty bill which could sharply hike tariffs on the sector. The royalty bill, under discussion in Congress, could shut down the country’s private miners by slapping a 3% royalty on sales of copper with a sharp escalator as copper prices rise. As well, there is a new glacier protection law, which could impact some key mines.

The people of Chile want change and it looks like they will get it with the polls being led by far left hopeful Gabriel Boric and ultra conservative front-runner, Jose Antonio Kast. Thus far both candidates have kept their powder dry on mining during the campaign. Left-wing candidate Boric has discussed royalties while Kast has proposed vague changes to mining property law to rev up the sector, including opening up state miner Codelco to more private investment. At this point, it’s difficult to understand what either candidate could mean to Chile’s future as a mining powerhouse. Nevertheless, investors should be putting this election on their radar as there is potential for a lot more downside than upside, in my opinion. With that said, my hope is that this election is a non-event and results in an orderly transfer of power from one democratically elected party to another.

It should be noted that if no candidate gets a simple majority this coming Sunday, the top two will compete in a head-to-head ballot on Dec. 19. The polls suggest this is likely the next date you’ll have to mark in your calendar if you feel, as I do, that  it could be important to know who is the next President of Chile.




Peters on how gold plus copper with a drilling advantage equals a Pacific Empire

Recently during PDAC 2019, Brad Peters, President, CEO and Director of Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. (TSXV: PEMC | OTCQB: PEMSF) shared Pacific Empire’s competitive advantage with InvestorIntel’s Tracy Weslosky.

Brad said: “Most importantly our competitive advantage is that we can drill. We drill early, we drill often, and we do it for roughly $25-35 a meter. It took us a few months to get into that range but now that we are there, we are comfortable with that and we base our 2019 exploration season around the achievements we made in terms of productivity and efficiency in 2018. What we will be doing in 2019 is focusing on our Babine Copper-Gold Porphyry District projects which are four projects in Bulkley region. Totaling just over 17,000 hectors and in that area, we have a 100 day drill program initially planned for 2019.”

Pacific Empire Minerals Corp. is an exploration company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, that employs a “hybrid prospect generator” business model and trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol PEMC and on the OTCQB Markets under the symbol PEMSF.

By integrating the project generator business model with low-cost reverse circulation drilling, the company intends to leverage its portfolio by identifying, and focusing on, the highest quality projects for partnerships and advancement.

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