What attracted you establish ATEX Resources and acquire the Valeriano Copper Gold Project?

RJ: The Valeriano property, owned and maintained by Jozsef Ambrus and Ramon Araneda, was drilled by Phelps Dodge during the late 1980s and Barrick in the early 1990s., They explored the property for near-surface gold and copper mineralization. In 2010, when I was VP of geology and exploration at Hochschild, the company optioned the property as we were interested in the high sulphidation epithermal (HSE) gold system and believed that there could be a porphyry at depth. During two drilling campaigns, Hochschild encountered HSE mineralization and made the copper-gold porphyry discovery, but had other priorities at the time.

In 2019, ATEX was formed and immediately acquired Valeriano and  in 2020 staked several HS-Generative projects in Northern Chile. The company divested of all but two of its HS-Gen assets in 2021 to focus attention on our flagship Valeriano property. From historic results, our exploration work and  complete relogging of all the drill holes, we believe that Valeriano has many similarities to Filo Mining’s Filo del Sol project. Both have high sulphidation copper mineralization progressing in depth into hypogene porphyry mineralization hosted in Permo-Triassic rhyolites as the host rock.

CN: When the company was raising funds in 2020, I participated in a small way but after further review of the technical reports,  saw great potential in the copper porphyry asset. I then joined the team with the idea to advance this asset located in a new emerging belt, the Link Belt, which links the Maricunga district with the El Indio district. There is a long list of connections between our management and investors, including Pierre Lassonde who helped me establish Metallica Resources, and ATEX’s exploration manager, Albrecht Schneider, who we picked up the Salares Norte project from when running exploration for Gold Fields. We are a team of good friends with extensive experience in mining exploration and development.

How have you advanced the Valeriano property through exploration?

RJ: After acquiring the project in 2019, we started working on putting out inferred resource estimates for both the near-surface HSE gold oxide deposit and the copper-gold porphyry deposit. The results outlined an HSE deposit containing 585,000 oz gold and 2.65 million oz (Moz) silver in the inferred category, totaling 622,00 gold equivalent (Au eq.) oz at an Au eq. grade of 0.561 g/t. The copper-gold porphyry deposit contains an estimated 1.77 million tonnes of copper, 1.84 Moz Au and 8.62 Moz Ag in the inferred category, for a combined 2.30 million tonnes of Cu eq.

We proceeded to raise approximately C$3 million in late 2020 and in early 2021, commenced with a drilling program focused on expanding the size of the HSE gold oxide deposit as well as converting inferred resources to the measured and indicated categories. Although the HSE gold deposit is an interesting resource, we decided we were more interested in the copper porphyry at depth, and built a conceptual model of what the project could look like, followed by a C$8.5 million financing round to further drill the deposit. This campaign commenced in January 2022, and we are currently looking for porphyry in extensions of the known high-grade zones. We are presently drilling two holes, one 200 m northeast and the other 200 m southwest of our big intersections, and are planning a third hole 200 m further southwest with drilling to start in March.

ATEX raised C$8.5 million through a private placement in December 2021. What led to the company’s share price appreciation before this financing and where will these funds be focused in 2022?

CN: During and after the financing, ATEX’s share price increase almost five times, going from C$0.10 in October 2021 to C$0.48 in December. Getting Pierre Lassonde on board as a lead investor in a private placement attracted significant attention. We showed him significant previous results which made him enthusiastic, and I think this helped drive other investors’ interest.

RJ: All the funds raised are going into the advancement of the Valeriano project. We are currently drilling three holes into extensions of the known high-grade mineralization zone defined by drill hole VALDD-14 (1194 meters with 0.52% Cu, 0.24 g/t Au, 1.0 g/t Ag & 36.4ppm Mo for a 0.73% Cu-equivalent). However, we will need another 50 to 70 drill holes to come out with an adequate indicated resource. We are exclusively conducting core drilling and expect to our first hole to be completed by the end of March and the second by the end of April. Although we are experiencing assay delays from the labs like many in the industry, there are a lot of visual observations we can already make out that we are excited about.

Where would you like to see the company by 2023?

CN: We hope to have successfully hit on our three exploration holes and will be able to demonstrate the makings of a significant deposit. As a result, we would like to see all outstanding warrants exercised and go to market to raise approximately C$25 to C$50 million to further advance the project. Concurrently, we will continue expanding our team to set us on the path of doing everything right, from inclusion to public relations, and relations with the government and communities.