Can you give an overview of Copper Bullet Mines?

Copper Bullet Mines was established in 2021 focused on copper projects in the Americas, specifically the western US. We wanted to focus on a jurisdiction where there is a rule of law and a pathway to permitting to get into production, and there is a massive need in the US for copper.

We decided to focus on Arizona, due to the rule of law, and the huge historical and current copper production. Arizona continues to be on the Fraser Institute's top 10 list every year. Copper Bullet Mines has built a fantastic Arizona project, intending to raise capital and start drilling to move the project forward. Arizona is an easy jurisdiction to work in, with enormous opportunities.

Can you elaborate on the Copper Springs project in the heart of Arizona’s Copper Triangle?

The Arizona Copper Triangle is approximately one hour east of Phoenix Airport. Rio Tinto and BHP’s Resolution mine is at the top western corner of the triangle, Asarco’s smelter is at the bottom, and in the top eastern corner is Freeport-McMoRan’s smelter. To put this in perspective, there are only three copper smelters in the US, and two are in the Copper Triangle. To date, the triangle has produced approximately 37 billion lb of copper, and there are still believed to be over 95 billion lb of known reserves and resources. The Resolution mine has about 60 billion of these resources, so there is still another 25 billion on top of that.

Copper Bullet Mines owns the Copper Springs and Gibson projects, which join each other and are essentially one project. Our primary focus and where we will do the initial exploration will be the Copper Springs project.

The Copper Springs project is approximately 9,000 acres. Although we are already one of the most significant permit holders in the triangle, we plan to stake additional land to grow our property significantly. Fortunately, we have a historical open pit resource of approximately 47 million t at about 0.4% copper. There is also significant potential to find higher grades deeper, as the deepest hole drilled is only approximately 500 m. We aim to continue building out the extensive oxide near-surface resource of 400 million lb of copper to get closer to 6 billion lb of copper. If we hit something deeper and it is a high grade like that of Resolution, there could be multiple billions more tons of ore on our project. The Copper Springs project is a direct neighbor of some of the world’s largest copper producers; Rio Tinto, BHP, Capstone, South 32, Freeport-McMoRan and Asarco, and benefits from the existing infrastructure in the region. Our main goal now is to raise the capital to continue to build out the oxide mineralization at the surface to bring the historical resource to a 43-101 compliant state, as well as drill some deeper holes to see if there is a deposit at depth.

Considering copper being listed as a critical mineral, do you think this will improve market conditions and benefit junior companies that need to raise capital to continue drilling?

The markets are challenging, but we aim to raise approximately US$5 for drilling. We would also have to obtain permits, which can take from six months to a year. We will start the drilling as soon as we have the capital and permits – the best-case scenario is within one year.

It is a great challenge when you have a market where people are uncertain about inflation, interest rates and geopolitical conflicts. Even though the fundamentals for copper are better than ever, investors are still holding off. Copper Bullet Mines has a potentially substantial project in an excellent jurisdiction with an extraordinary team to build this project; getting financing is just a challenge.

Besides advancing the Copper Springs project through drilling, what are Copper Bullet Mine’s objectives for 2024?

Copper Bullet Mines is considering additional acquisitions in the Arizona Copper Triangle as we believe the opportunities are huge in this area. We are now in a complex scenario where it is the best time to acquire assets as market valuations are low, but on the other side, the markets are not there to raise capital.