Modern Mining October 2024

Test work taking place in the uranium-rich Athabasca Basin.

exploration means that any asset-level financing can prove to be crucial. This investment is an endorsement of Oriole’s progress to date and the prospectivity of its licences, maximising the scale of the resources and fast-tracking the pathway to development. For the foreseeable future, the projects will no longer require any financial input from Oriole, whilst BCM’s decades worth of experience in mining in West Africa and capacity for drilling will provide invaluable assistance. The deal has huge upside potential for both parties and should enable Oriole to capitalise on their first mover advantage and spearhead the growth of a new gold frontier in Cameroon. Between January and June 2024, both Oriole’s share price and market cap doubled, evidence of a thriving company in a tricky market. Los Andes Copper Los Andes Copper has taken a different approach again to maximising the value of its asset. It wholly owns the Vizcachitas copper project in Chile, which it is confident will become the South American nation’s next major copper mine. Los Andes entered into a royalty agreement with Ecora Resources in August 2023. In return for a $20 million investment, Ecora will receive royalties on minerals sold from open pit and underground operations. The investment allowed Los Andes Copper to accelerate the optimisations identified by the pre-feasibility study. A project of this scale and at this stage of development is also likely to see interest from larger mining

companies that are looking for future copper production. To generate this interest, much of the work to date has centred around demonstrating the value and prospectivity of the project, expanding on the exploration completed to date. The initial ‘proven and probable’ mineral reserves for the project are a massive 10.889 billion lbs of copper-equivalent, contained within a 26-year mine life and, once in production, Vizcachitas is expected to produce 180 000 metric tonnes of copper per year, with further underground potential beyond that. A resource of this size will be attractive to larger mining companies looking to help meet the burgeoning global demand for copper whilst ensuring that there is a steady supply of the metal for rapidly advancing green technologies. These four mining companies demonstrate the creative solutions that have been necessary to secure financing in a tough market. The variety in each source of growth illustrates that, at least in this environment, there is no set method for generating capital. Junior companies have little protection against tough market conditions, so forward-thinking ingenuity is vital. Across the breadth of the industry, we see examples of corporate Darwinism; those that adapt, improvise, and perhaps thrive, and those that stagnate without ever realising the full potential of their assets. Phoenix Copper, Power Metal Resources, Oriole Resources and Los Andes Copper appear to be on the right track, even if sometimes it is the road less travelled. n

Striking blue rock in Phoenix Copper’s drill core.

October 2024 | www.modernminingmagazine.co.za  MODERN MINING  11