Copper is the ultimate green energy metal as it is used in just about everything you can think of related to solar, wind, EVs, EV charging, and ultimately electricity transmission. Copper really is essential to our modern living. Perhaps that is why Goldman Sachs (“GS”) calls copper ‘the new oil‘.

GS state: “Without serious advancements in carbon capture and storage technology in the coming years, the entire path to net zero emissions will have to come from abatement – electrification and renewable energy. As the most cost-effective conductive material, copper sits at the heart of capturing, storing and transporting these new sources of energy.”

Wood Mackenzie forecast a growing copper deficit from 2025 to 2030

Now that we have established the key importance and huge demand wave ahead for copper the next thing to consider is what copper company to buy. Clearly, its copper project should be in a safe country and have the potential to grow the resource and grow production. Ideally, the Company would have more than one promising copper project and a low market cap to maximize upside if the company succeeds in its growth plans.

Today’s company has all of the above. Not one, but two, promising copper projects in North America.

Kodiak Copper Corp. (TSXV: KDK | OTCQB: KDKCF) (“Kodiak”) 100% owns the Man, Prime, Dillard (“MPD”) copper-gold porphyry project in British Columbia, Canada and the Mohave Copper-Molybdenum-Silver Porphyry Project in Arizona USA.

Kodiak’s projects are still in the exploration stage with drilling ongoing.

Man, Prime, Dillard (“MPD”) copper-gold porphyry Project

At the MPD Project, Kodiak plans to drill up to 25,000 metres in 2022 as well as complete 3D IP surveying and soil geochemical sampling. Kodiak is fully funded for the company’s 2022 exploration program.

In some very exciting news announced on September 29, 2022, the Company reported: “Kodiak drills 1.03% CuEq over 117 m, within 0.34% CuEq over 735.4 m at Gate Zone, and discovers new trend at Prime Zone.” The grades may just be average but the drill lengths are ‘exceptional’ and typical of huge copper porphyry discoveries. Kodiak President and CEO, Claudia Tornquist, stated: “The Gate Zone has delivered further impressive drill intercepts as we continue to increase the size of mineralized envelope which now extends to a kilometer in north-south direction and a depth of 900 metres…….This new mineralized trend crystalizes further size potential and validates our model of a large multi-centric porphyry system at MPD.”

The size of the MPD porphyry looks to be very large, obviously with further drilling required to gain further confirmation. For now, we know that the high-grade Gate Zone discovery at MPD shows significant size potential with mineralization over 1 km strike x 350m width x 900m depth. Added to this are the emerging Man and Dillard Zones, as well as the potential for more discoveries elsewhere on the 147 km2 property.

Next steps in 2022 at the MPD Project will include further drilling to test high priority targets in the Dillard area and the exploration program to continue evaluating additional copper-gold drill targets across the MPD property.

Grade shell image of the MPD Project showing mineralized zones and priority targets for further drilling

Kodiak Copper trades on a market cap of only C$55 million. The Board and management are top tier with a track record of success, especially Chairman Christopher Taylor with his success at Great Bear Resources Ltd. Kodiak Copper is well worth a look for those with some patience and seeking a high risk/high reward copper junior miner.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a close look at the copper chart and, in my opinion, it doesn’t look too bad right now. Like almost everything, we’ve seen a significant price decline since April of this year, and despite a brief rally in late May, the commodity has since been taken to the woodshed and didn’t stop hemorrhaging until mid-July. Since then, it looks like copper may have put in a bottom at roughly US$3.20/lb and held that level again in late September. It is currently attempting to climb back above the 50 day moving average which would be a positive signal, but before I get too excited about copper I’d like to see it punch back above US$3.70/lb. From there it looks like it has limited overhead resistance until the US$4.10/lb threshold after which it could go for a run back to the US$4.70/lb range. But cresting US$4.10/lb probably needs a lot of positive economic news over the next few months. Regardless, it looks like we’ve got a decent support level at US$3.20/lb suggesting there could be more upside than downside from current levels.

Source: StockCharts.com

This begs the question of where to look if you want exposure to copper. The company with the most recent exciting news is probably Kodiak Copper Corp. (TSXV: KDK | OTCQB: KDKCF). The latest news regarding the Company’s most advanced asset, the 100% owned MPD copper-gold porphyry project in the prolific Quesnel Trough in south-central British Columbia, Canada, appears to be very encouraging. The 147 square kilometer MPD project has all the hallmarks of a large, multi-centered porphyry system. Kodiak has made the Gate Zone discovery of high-grade mineralization within a wide mineralized envelope, and MPD hosts several other targets with similar discovery potential.

Last week Kodiak announced the latest results for five drill holes from their fully funded 25,000 meter 2022 drill program, and there were some pretty interesting numbers.

Highlights include:

• MPD-22-006 intersected 117 meters of 0.69% Cu, 0.46 g/t Au, and 2.22 g/t Ag (1.03% CuEq) within 735.4 meters of 0.24% Cu, 0.14 g/t Au and 0.71 g/t Ag (0.34% CuEq).
• MPD-22-008 intersected 59.9 meters of 0.33% Cu, 0.25 g/t Au, and 1.77 g/t Ag (0.52% CuEq) within 585 meters of 0.18% Cu, 0.09 g/t Au and 0.71 g/t Ag (0.25% CuEq).
• MPD-22-005 extended the Gate Zone mineralization to depth and intersected 190.2 meters of 0.19% Cu, 0.12 g/t Au, and 1.07 g/t Ag (0.29% CuEq) within 715.2 meters of 0.13% Cu, 0.07 g/t Au and 0.65 g/t Ag (0.19% CuEq).

All of this relates to the Gate Zone. Porphyry mineralization at Gate has been traced down to 900 m depth, across a width of 350 m (east-west) and over 1 km in length (north-south). In addition, the Company reported holes MPD-22-013 and MPD-22-017 which intersected a new mineralized trend northeast of, and adjacent to Gate called the Prime Zone. The new Prime Zone trend has been drilled down to 550 m depth, across 200 m width (east-west) and over 400 m length (north-south).

Source: Kodiak Copper Sept 29, 2022 Press Release

With over 700 m of mineralization, can you say bulk tonnage? Plus, I was looking at this and thinking to myself that I’ve seen some junior gold explorers with numbers that aren’t as good as just the gold components in these drill results. But perhaps that’s not what a company called Kodiak Copper wants me to fixate on. Instead, we’ll look at what catalysts lie ahead for the company over the next weeks and months.

Drilling for 2022 is on schedule and Kodiak has completed 33 holes totaling 21,300 meters as of September 26. Drilling has transitioned to testing high priority targets in the Dillard area and the program will continue evaluating additional copper-gold drill targets across the MPD property throughout the fall. A new 3D Induced Polarization (3D IP) geophysical survey is currently underway which will be completed this month, covering nine square kilometers and extending southward from the Gate Zone to the Man and Dillard target areas. The latter is important because the extension of the Gate Zone and delineation of the new Prime Zone confirm that recent 3D IP surveys are an effective tool for targeting host geology and discovering prospective porphyritic mineralization on the MPD Project.

Anyone who has read my articles in the past knows I’m always on the lookout for drill results. A previous corporate update stated that Kodiak had completed 29 holes totaling 19,150 meters as of September 9. This indicates that there are plenty of drill results still to come. Additionally, at the end of June Kodiak still had almost C$14 million in cash to continue unlocking the secrets of the MPD Property. With a market cap of C$30.5 million it would seem there is plenty of leverage to copper prices at Kodiak.

Copper is considered by most analysts as the most essential and critical metal for the green revolution. This is because copper is required to conduct electricity in everything from electric vehicles (EVs), charging stations, solar panels, wind turbines, and so on. This means any companies that can develop a significant copper resource, especially in a safe country, stand to do very well.

Today’s company is steadily growing their copper-gold porphyry discovery in Canada and set to soon start its maiden drilling program at a second copper-gold porphyry project, this time in the USA.

Kodiak Copper Corp. (TSXV: KDK | OTCQB: KDKCF) (Kodiak) had an outstanding 2021 as they did plenty of the groundwork to grow a copper and gold resource, with a focus on a large drilling campaign at their Gate Zone discovery at the company’s MPD Project in British Columbia (BC), Canada. To date the best drill intercept has been 535m of 0.49% copper and 0.29 g/t gold (0.76% CuEq), showing the significant potential for a large copper-gold porphyry discovery. Another more recent result shows the potential to expand the mineralization strike length with 126m of 0.87% CuEq within 537m of the Gate Zone.

Kodiak has three projects:

• The Man, Prime, Dillard (MPD) copper-gold porphyry project – 100% owned, 147km² land package (includes the 2021 acquired Axe property) in a proven, mineral producing belt, in BC, Canada. The MPD Property has road access and is close to nearby power, towns, and other mines.
• The Mohave Copper-Molybdenum-Silver Porphyry Project in Arizona, USA.
• The Kahuna Diamond Project in Canada.

President & CEO, Claudia Tornquist, gives a great summary of Kodiak in 2021 stating in the Annual Investor Letter:

“The 2021 drill program was primarily focused on extending the Gate Zone discovery by systematically evaluating the associated copper-in-soil anomaly of approximately one kilometer in length. Drilling consistently delivered substantial high-grade intercepts within wide envelopes of lower grade mineralization, and over the year we increased the strike length of the Gate Zone by almost eight times. Mineralization has been intersected to date over 950 meters in length, down to a depth of 850 meters and across a width of 350 meters, dimensions typical of other large, multi-center copper porphyry deposits in British Columbia. The Gate Zone remains open in multiple directions, and we are excited to drill it further in 2022.”

Note: Emphasis by the author.

Potential to expand the Gate Zone, and a similar nearby potential mineralized zone

The Gate Zone is open at depth and to the sides. Recent conductive 3D IP anomalies traced to depth highlight potential extensions of Gate Zone mineralization along strike and down plunge to the south and southeast. A new one kilometre long parallel “look-alike” 3D IP response similar to the response of copper-gold mineralization drilled at Gate has been identified 600 meters to the southeast of the Gate Zone.

Conductivity drape from 3D IP survey at 300 m below surface at Gate Zone shows potential to expand the Gate Zone and find a second zone

Source

2022 plans for Kodiak

The 2022 drill program will be approximately 25,000 meters at multiple targets. These targets will include further drilling at the Gate Zone, new drilling at the Dillard area (2 kms from the Gate Zone), drilling along the 3km regional magnetic anomaly between the Gate and Man Zones, drill testing analogous targets elsewhere across the MPD Property, and drilling the newly acquired Axe claims which are contiguous and south of the MPD project area with further discovery potential.

The 3D model below incorporates a combination of historic drilling and Kodiak’s recent drilling results as of end 2021. It will be very exciting to see a similar model by end 2022 and 2023, and just how big the resource can potentially grow.

3D model of copper in historic drilling at Dillard & Man, and historic plus Kodiak drilling at Gate (the new neighboring Axe property is not yet included in the model)

Source

Also in 2022, Kodiak plans to commence a maiden drilling program at their Mohave copper porphyry project in Arizona, USA.

Closing remarks

Kodiak is already moving very fast at their MPD Project in BC, Canada. Drill results continue to be very positive, and a significant potential resource is growing with very real potential to expand the Gate zone and other targets (Man, Dillard, Axe) in 2022. Then there is the Mohave Project maiden drilling program in 2022.

Kodiak Copper trades on a market cap of only C$65 million and has enormous potential. Judging upon their 2021 exploration success at MPD, 2022 looks like being another great year. Stay tuned.

There are some occasions where digging deep into regulatory filings and doing your due diligence on a company can be downright entertaining. Not to take any significance away from ringing the bell to open the TSX yesterday, but Silver Bullet Mines Corp. (TSXV: SBMI) actually has a traceable history to the Lone Ranger and his calling card, the silver bullet. For those not familiar with the legend of the Lone Ranger, he was a fictional masked former Texas Ranger who fought outlaws in the American Old West with his Native American friend, Tonto. The character has been called an enduring icon of American culture, portrayed on radio, television, books and film. So before we take a look at the investment thesis for Silver Bullet Mines I’m going to take you on a trip through history with respect to their flagship asset, the Black Diamond Project in Arizona.

It all begins in Texas in 1868 with the Chilson family starting West to settle in California with cattle to exchange for land. By the time they reached Arizona, they were barely alive with all their cattle, provisions, and horses stolen by the Comanche Indians. They were grateful to be alive and were given refuge by Colonel King Wolsey on his ranch next to the Gila River Southwest of current-day Phoenix. Wolsey told the family a story of his scouting party that had a skirmish with a group of Apaches and discovered they were being fired upon with hammered silver bullets. The site was said to be about 12 miles (19.3 km) north of present-day Globe, Arizona near Apache Peaks. Six years later, one of the Chilson sons recalled the tale and sought to find the source of the Apaches’ silver bullets. He headed the 12 miles north to Apache Peaks where he found native and horn silver nuggets in a basin near the peak. He also spotted Apache Indians later that day and returned quickly to Globe after staking the initial claim.

Members of the current Silver Bullet team acquired the subsequent mine and surrounding mining claims from a Globe, Arizona resident in 1984. The paperwork for the property is said to have included a letter from Francis Striker, the original writer of the Lone Ranger radio series, and addressed to the former owners of the mining claims requesting permission to incorporate the high-grade silver mine and the silver bullet story into the Lone Ranger Series. Mr. Striker actually visited the mine when it was still in operation and was astounded by the native silver he observed being mined there. I think this is all pretty fascinating and one of the benefits of doing a little extra homework when reviewing a company. But an entertaining story doesn’t make an investor money unless Silver Bullet has some legacy rights to the Lone Ranger copyright, which they don’t, so we’ll move on.

Silver Bullet Mines Corp. has only been trading publicly since December 6, 2021 and upon listing released an operational update. With respect to the Black Diamond Project, covering 4,900 acres and hosting five former producing silver mines, the Company announced plans to put the Buckeye Silver Mine in pilot production in Q1/22, followed by full-scale production; finalize plans to have the McMorris Silver Mine back in production within 24 months; and carry out exploration programs elsewhere on Black Diamond to enable a decision on the order in which the remaining former producers will be put back in production. Then last week the Company announced they had begun extracting mineralized material from its Buckeye Silver Mine with the intention to produce an initial total of 10,000 tonnes of mineralized material at a rate of 125 tonnes per day. All of this will occur at Silver Bullet’s wholly-owned, state-of-the-art, modular pilot plant. The plant is designed to maximize the recovery of both gold and silver, although its modular nature means it can be adjusted to recover other metals. This is important as the Company also plans to investigate Black Diamond’s potential to host a copper porphyry.

The commissioning of the pilot plant will put Silver Bullet in the enviable position of being a junior mining company with the ability to actually generate free cash flow, thus reducing the number of potential financings required while continuing to build a resource. And where this gets exciting is that there is another 100% owned property that has had some truly spectacular results already. The Washington Mine on patented lands in the prolific placer gold district in Idaho (I’m not sure what the story behind this confusing naming is but I bet it’s not as interesting as the Lone Ranger story), has recently reported an average of 55.5 oz/ton silver (1,902 g/t) from an 80-kilogram bulk sample. On December 15, 2021 the Company announced 6,174 g/t silver and 18 g/t gold at its Washington Mine from sampling on the property.

As a potential investor, you have a lot of moving parts to keep an eye on, but that’s a good thing in this situation. The Company has a current market cap of C$23 million. If Silver Bullet can start generating free cash flow and self-finance future resource expansion, the current shares outstanding of 55.4 million won’t grow by very much. And to quote the Lone Ranger Creed, Silver Creek Mines “should make the most of what equipment they have”.

The copper sector is widely regarded as being one of the possible future winners from the green energy and electric vehicle (EV) revolution this decade. Just recently Goldman Sachs “proclaimed the dawn of a new commodity supercycle“, with copper as their number one commodity pick. A supercycle is not just a short upswing it is a decade or more long upswing caused usually by a significant demand surge. In the case of copper, the demand surge will come from solar energy, wind energy, and EVs.

For example, BHP says that one wind turbine uses 4 tonnes of copper (video link), which certainly is a lot of copper especially given copper currently trades at US$7,396/tonne.

Copper is essential for the green energy revolution, used in solar, wind, and EVs

Source: Kodiak Copper investor presentation

Kodiak Copper Corp. (TSXV: KDK) 100% own the very large (9,733-hectare land package) MPD copper-gold porphyry property in a proven, mineral producing belt, in British Columbia (BC), Canada. For those that are new to Kodiak Copper, the Company amalgamated 3 projects into one – Man, Prime, Dillard – hence the name MPD. Management is top tier with a great track record of success. What’s most exciting is their safe location and potential for a large scale copper-gold project, just as we enter the decade of renewables (solar, wind) and EVs taking massive market share.

The MPD Property has road access and is close to nearby power, towns, and other mines

Source: Kodiak Copper investor presentation

The MPD Property has numerous showings of copper and gold confirmed across a large, 10km2 area. Drill results point toward the potential for a large copper-gold porphyry system. There is mineralization from at or near surface to as deep as ~800 meters with huge potential exploration upside across the property.

Last September 3rd, 2020 Kodiak Copper announced drill/assay results which were ‘spectacular’ in my opinion. The results included a massive 282 m of 0.70% copper and 0.49 g/t gold (1.16% CuEq). Due to this, the stock raced up from C$0.50 on August 24th to C$2.80 as of September 28th for a 460% increase. The good news for new investors is the hype in the stock price has since settled down, with the price now back at C$1.64 and trading on a market cap of just C$66 million, despite plenty of further good news since then.

Kodiak Copper has continued to produce very strong drill results such as:

• MPD-20-004: 535.1 m of 0.49% Copper and 0.29 g/t Gold (0.76% CuEq*) between 201.9 and 737.0 metres down hole, with a higher grade core (282 metres of 0.70% copper, 0.49 g/t gold).
• MPD-20-005: 515.8 m of 0.41% Copper, 0.22 g/t Gold and 1.50 g/t silver (0.63% CuEq*) from 223.5 to 739.3 metres down hole, with a higher grade core (192 metres of 0.74% Copper and 0.48 g/t Gold).

Cross-sectional summary of drill results at the MPD Project – Gate Zone

Source

Looking ahead Kodiak Copper states: “The Company has just completed a successful 2020 drill campaign that resulted in a transformative discovery of a high-grade central core within a broader, well-developed copper-gold porphyry system at the Gate Zone. Kodiak will continue exploring at MPD in early 2021 with a fully funded, significantly larger program. Plans include up to 30,000 meters of drilling in several target areas, as well as further geophysical and geochemical surveying, prospecting and geotechnical studies.”

It should also be mentioned that in the next few weeks the final assay results from the 2020 drill program are due which will be most interesting to see.

Closing remarks

I agree with Goldman Sachs that we are likely entering a green energy and EV commodities supercycle this decade. Battery metals (lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel), key rare earths, and copper are likely to be the big winners.

Investors can look to position themselves ahead of the supercycle by buying into quality and promising junior miners now. Kodiak Copper is still a junior but they have plenty of potential with a possible large sized copper-gold porphyry deposit in BC Canada and the right management to deliver. They also have two other promising projects – The Mohave Copper-Molybdenum-Silver Porphyry Project in Arizona USA, and the Kahuna Diamond Project in Canada. One to follow for sure.

Further reading and viewing:

• Kodiak Copper – Annual Investor Letter
• Claudia Tornquist on Kodiak’s MPD Copper-Gold Porphyry Project and new shareholder (video)

“In the last few months we have got our permitting in place, compensation agreements with the chiefs of every [Fiji] village, license renewals…we are ready to go now with joint venture partners.”  — states Bryce Bradley CEO, President and Co-founding Director of Thunderstruck Resources Ltd. (TSXV: AWE) in an interview with InvestorIntel’s Jeff Wareham.

Jeff Wareham: Of all the places that I talk to about mining, Fiji is one of the most interesting ones. How is it as a jurisdiction to work in?

Bryce Bradley: Surprisingly a lot of people did not know about Fiji as a mining jurisdiction, but it has been mining for over 75 years. There is a gold mine to the north of us on the main island. There is another one, Lion One Metals, which is going into development right now. It has its development permit. It is a gold development play. There is a big copper porphyry owned by Newcrest right to the right of us at 20 kilometers. It is very mining friendly right from grassroots right through to production.

Jeff Wareham: When should investors be looking for more news?

Bryce Bradley: We will be getting a lot of news. We are going to be putting out a press release next week on results from our exploration program on our gold asset, Liwa Creek, that will come out next week. The following week we will be putting out results on Rama Creek, our copper porphyry. In the meantime, we are actually getting, it cannot be called a resource estimate, but it is a back-of-the envelope grade and tonnage estimate on our zinc-copper assets for potential joint venture partners…to access the complete interview, click here

Disclaimer: Thunderstruck Resources Ltd. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel Corp.