Latest / Kitco MINING / Copper Giant Plans to Scale Mocoa Without a Massive Upfront Build | Ian Harris
Transcript
- 0:07SPEAKER_00: Copper in Colombia.
- 0:08SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Kitco Mining with me, Paul Harris, here at the 2026 Precious Metal Summit in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
- 0:15SPEAKER_00: Joining me now is Ian Harris, president and CEO of Copper Giant, which trades on the TSXV under the ticker CGNT.
- 0:23SPEAKER_00: Ian, welcome to Kitco.
- 0:24SPEAKER_01: Always nice to see you.
- 0:26SPEAKER_01: We live in the same city and we have to go to other places to actually meet each other.
- 0:29SPEAKER_01: You know that, right?
- 0:29SPEAKER_00: I know that's pretty crazy.
- 0:30SPEAKER_00: That's perhaps because our wife's don't let us out when we're at home.
- 0:33SPEAKER_00: Anyway, before we get into that, um, you're exploring the Makoa Copper Molybden and Porphyry Project in Putumayo in Colombia, which for those that don't know is right down in the southeast corner near the border with Ecuador.
- 0:45SPEAKER_00: You've got an inferred resource of more than one billion tons.
- 0:48SPEAKER_00: It's looking high grade.
- 0:50SPEAKER_00: You've got your largest exploration program ever underway this year, what, 23,000 metres or something of that nature.
- 0:57SPEAKER_00: Ian, uh congratulations on the resource.
- 0:59SPEAKER_00: What's the aim of the drill program you've got underway at the moment?
- 1:02SPEAKER_01: So surprisingly, our drilling this year is actually focused on a pre-feasibility study.
- 1:09SPEAKER_01: So we are right now working on before the end of the year, we'll have our PEA, which will be a preliminary economic assessment.
- 1:17SPEAKER_01: Um, but the drilling right now is we want to move as quickly as possible and start converting more of that inferred resources into measured and indicated.
- 1:25SPEAKER_01: So uh with this PEA, we'll obviously be doing an updated resource and some of that material will be moving into measured and indicated.
- 1:32SPEAKER_01: But the goal here is you need to have all of it into measured and indicated.
- 1:36SPEAKER_01: So we really I think we started the year with one drill, then two drills, then three drills, and we're literally mobilizing the fourth drill right now is that site being moved to to its pad.
- 1:46SPEAKER_01: So I think we'll be able to get past a little bit past our 23,000 meters this year, but next year's program will be much, much bigger because you'll have the starting the starting point will be four four drills.
- 1:57SPEAKER_01: Um and so there's a little bit of infill.
- 2:00SPEAKER_01: Um, sorry, actually, expansion because the you know, outside the the confined pit, there's some holes in it that need to be filled in and never been drilled before.
- 2:08SPEAKER_01: But the big one is trying to get uh to measure it and indicate it as quickly as possible because we have this wonderful window has opened up in Colombia.
- 2:18SPEAKER_01: Uh so advancing the project as quickly as possible.
- 2:20SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be talking about that uh a little bit later on.
- 2:22SPEAKER_00: And um, I've been dying to get out to the project.
- 2:25SPEAKER_00: I know we've been talking about doing a site visit while the drills are there.
- 2:27SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you can maybe do that in October.
- 2:30SPEAKER_00: Um, let's look ahead to the sort of PEA.
- 2:32SPEAKER_00: What are you sort of targeting with the PEA in terms of potential scale, scope, grade, um, things of that nature?
- 2:41SPEAKER_01: You know, um there A, there isn't a lot of billion ton plus copper projects sitting near surface on the planet.
- 2:47SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that kind of um vexes a lot of them is you need roads, you need power lines, you need ports, or they're higher elevation, how do you access remote camps, all these different things?
- 2:58SPEAKER_01: And then they get very, very large capex numbers because you actually have to pay for that offsite infrastructure at the same time.
- 3:05SPEAKER_01: Um, and we have a very nice luxury is A, with the power lines are there, the road is there, the ports are there, or I mean it's uh five kilometers to the project area, and nobody lives in the project area, but the town of Makoa is 10 kilometers away, and we're at about 1,300 meters, not some high elevation um type situation.
- 3:24SPEAKER_01: So the nice thing about a PEA is how much is 12.7 billion pounds of copper equivalent worth, right?
- 3:31SPEAKER_01: It's actually wrapping the numbers around it uh and figuring out if you got it out of the ground, what would that look like as we call it an NPV, which is a discounted cash flow.
- 3:40SPEAKER_01: And it allows the market to say, okay, if they get to that point, that's how much this project is is worth, though.
- 3:45SPEAKER_01: It's about discounting and it's about de-risking, de-risking, de-risking, de-risking.
- 3:49SPEAKER_01: So I saw I'm not roundabout way of not answering your question, but it was why.
- 3:54SPEAKER_01: Um, so we a number one, we have a billion tons.
- 3:58SPEAKER_01: We want to make sure there's a billion tons within that in that actual mineable resource.
- 4:03SPEAKER_01: It's a weird term because it's not not yet a reserve.
- 4:06SPEAKER_01: Uh so you want to make sure you get to that Sage, but we have this advantage of you can start and because we also have a high-grade core near surface, start a very large size and continue to expand in a in a normal way, right?
- 4:19SPEAKER_01: If you you already have the biggest sag mills, the biggest ball mills, it's just duplications of those trains.
- 4:24SPEAKER_01: And it it makes it a lot more capitally uh financeability.
- 4:28SPEAKER_01: Is that even a real word?
- 4:29SPEAKER_01: The ability to actually finance the project uh is a whole lot more attractive than saying, oh man, day one, I got to cut a seven billion dollar check.
- 4:37SPEAKER_01: Uh and it allows you to use the same cash flow of the project to continue to expand it.
- 4:40SPEAKER_01: And you're already sitting at kind of you uh, you know, once you're at the biggest sag mills, biggest ball mills, biggest trucks, there's no the the marginal return on on going from 30 to 60 is really just the the the indirect.
- 4:53SPEAKER_01: You're already getting the economies of scale.
- 4:56SPEAKER_01: And so that's that's the painting that we would like to paint with this PA.
- 5:00SPEAKER_01: And we'll also be looking at ultimate uh uh additional scenarios within the PA.
- 5:04SPEAKER_01: You can still do that of saying this is our base case and these are some of the alternatives.
- 5:08SPEAKER_00: Will that be very much a phased approach, starting off with a let's say a modest scale, and then as your cash flow gets going, you can increase the scale, increase the scale.
- 5:16SPEAKER_01: I mean the the answer is if I was the biggest mining company in the world, that's the way I would do it too, right?
- 5:20SPEAKER_01: It's it's the least amount of risk and it also allows a very controlled um uh expansion.
- 5:27SPEAKER_01: I mean, 30,000 tons per day is not a small project, right?
- 5:30SPEAKER_01: But it's still easier to go 30, 60, 120, and 180,000 tons per day than really these really big projects, they're an engineering feat, right?
- 5:40SPEAKER_01: To keep all of that coordinated too.
- 5:42SPEAKER_01: So you're actually at a higher risk of going way over budget.
- 5:46SPEAKER_01: So um the the the disadvantage of it is obviously because they're discounted cash flows, your NPV number normally is a little bit is a little bit lower, but I think the attraction as market can say, wow, these guys could do it themselves if they had to, right?
- 6:01SPEAKER_01: It's actually something you could get financed.
- 6:03SPEAKER_01: And it's about that initial capital uh versus the overall NPV, is how attractive it is to actually finance.
- 6:09SPEAKER_01: So those are the type of things that will be coming out.
- 6:12SPEAKER_01: And because we're going to be going as quickly as possible towards licensing, um, which you can do basically after a PFS and in in Colombia, it is also going to, you know, be a real look at what this project really could look like.
- 6:26SPEAKER_01: Not a marketing document, it's an actual, the basic first run of what this project could actually look like.
- 6:31SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves in, you know, obviously the first thing is looking at um what how how you could potentially extract that 12.7 billion uh pounds of copper, the you know, the what's the geometry of the ore body, what does that lend itself to?
- 6:46SPEAKER_00: But there's also the considerations of what else is in the the geography, the topography, the local conditions that may or may not impact the kind and size and scale of mine you can develop.
- 6:57SPEAKER_00: Um, what what are those potential factors and how does that influence or um the type of mine you think you may be able to build?
- 7:07SPEAKER_01: So um we're going to be looking at multiple different scenarios, even at actually the mine, the mine uh development.
- 7:12SPEAKER_01: But I think the base case is pretty simple.
- 7:14SPEAKER_01: If you're gonna be mining a billion tons, you've got to find a place to actually put all that material.
- 7:18SPEAKER_01: So at least you need a very strong.
- 7:20SPEAKER_01: This is a functional solution, and then from there you go on to expanding.
- 7:25SPEAKER_01: We have uh kind of a a mini luxury, is on the northern side of the the project.
- 7:30SPEAKER_01: It's a kind of a flatter ground and looking at maybe a co-disposal or thicken tails or those, but you you know, you got to find a place to put a billion tons of of material plus.
- 7:41SPEAKER_01: Um, and then the other nice part about the project, and probably not for this stage, is there's flat land, right?
- 7:47SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, very, very close to the project as you go further to to the east.
- 7:51SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's projects that are pumping uh uh material a thousand kilometers or in and a you know four thousand meters uh elevation change.
- 8:00SPEAKER_01: Um so you know, going a short distance with with material is not that big of a deal.
- 8:05SPEAKER_01: But the big one is where do you actually put um the waste material?
- 8:09SPEAKER_01: Where do you put the tails?
- 8:10SPEAKER_01: Where did all this this um actually fit into the topography?
- 8:14SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 8:15SPEAKER_00: Um the deposits near surface.
- 8:17SPEAKER_00: So are you looking at an open pit or combination open pit and then underground?
- 8:22SPEAKER_01: So um there's by far a portion of the project that is amenable to underground, also, right?
- 8:28SPEAKER_01: Because and then it gets it continues at at depth.
- 8:31SPEAKER_01: We have a thousand three hundred meter holes, but we have twenty percent of the material is what I would call high grade.
- 8:37SPEAKER_01: It runs, I think, a 0.94% copper equivalent, about 20% of the material.
- 8:41SPEAKER_01: But I think the base case scenario would be what would it look like as an open pit.
- 8:46SPEAKER_01: And then I don't even think it I think the lesson we looked at initial scenarios, it's like a 30-year mine life.
- 8:53SPEAKER_01: So, yes, eventually it could transition to underground, and they'll also look at an uh, you know, an underground only type type type uh type case, um, which is a part of the process in Colombia too, is that you have to demonstrate uh how you came up with your selection for your mining method.
- 9:07SPEAKER_01: So we're getting that out of the way now, too.
- 9:09SPEAKER_00: Now, copper's obviously the the driving factor here, but uh you've also got molybdenum in in the project.
- 9:15SPEAKER_00: Molybdenum, the molybdenum prices come up very nicely as well.
- 9:18SPEAKER_00: It's also a critical mineral.
- 9:20SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's another positive for you, it's another positive for Colombia.
- 9:25SPEAKER_00: How does the molybdenum element or component sort of factor in, or how will it factor in into the PEA?
- 9:31SPEAKER_00: Um, and presumably a recovery circuit for that.
- 9:34SPEAKER_00: Correct.
- 9:34SPEAKER_01: So uh 90% of the world's molybdenum comes from copper, molybdenum porphyry's.
- 9:39SPEAKER_01: Uh, the is so it's the main source.
- 9:40SPEAKER_01: The issue with molybdenum normally is recovery can be difficult because the grades are the particle size are very sort.
- 9:47SPEAKER_01: So our initial metallurgy is looking good because it's free grain, right?
- 9:51SPEAKER_01: It's uh it's a special deposit of seeing five different pulses of mineralization over 10 million years, and we get a very large particle of MOLLE.
- 9:59SPEAKER_01: So, in the the flow sheet will basically be producing a copper concentrate and producing a MOLLE concentrate um at this stage.
- 10:07SPEAKER_01: So it would definitely be its own product.
- 10:09SPEAKER_00: Okay, you mentioned um earlier that the political situation in Colombia uh has improved significantly in in the past few months.
- 10:19SPEAKER_00: Colombia got uh elected a new president, he took office in early August.
- 10:24SPEAKER_00: Um very pro-natural resource development.
- 10:27SPEAKER_00: We're we're starting to see that in the oil and gas sector, we're starting to see that in the mining sector.
- 10:33SPEAKER_00: Um the president's got a four-year term.
- 10:36SPEAKER_00: Is is that really sort of driving forward your timelines to be able to get things into a position or into a condition whereby you can apply for your licenses, your your permits during this government to hopefully get permitted during this government?
- 10:50SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm going to tell you a secret that before we know who was going to be the president, it said that whoever's the next president creates that political window.
- 10:58SPEAKER_01: We wanted to have the PEA out as soon as we had a new president.
- 11:01SPEAKER_01: So you're not talking about a deposit, you're talking about a consumption project and what it could mean for the country.
- 11:06SPEAKER_01: So we were way ahead of that in terms of baseline and metallurgical test work and geo geo hydrogeological and geochemical characterizations, all the things you need actually to do the license, because it doesn't matter who is president, you're going to need these.
- 11:21SPEAKER_01: This is a project of national scale.
- 11:24SPEAKER_01: Uh, and presidents don't want to help support a mining project in their last year, right?
- 11:28SPEAKER_01: They're going to support it in the beginning of their term.
- 11:30SPEAKER_01: So we were already staged to say we want to get an environmental license submission as quickly as possible into the new presidency and have get into the project development at the very beginning.
- 11:44SPEAKER_01: Um, but now we are feeling definitely for viewers, right?
- 11:49SPEAKER_01: The guy has been president for 40 days, and look what he's done in his first 40 days, right?
- 11:54SPEAKER_01: I mean, it has been a tremendous change.
- 11:58SPEAKER_01: Uh, and they're definitely uh the vice president is in New York saying Colombia is open for business, and one of the major areas is strategic metals, right?
- 12:06SPEAKER_01: And McCoa by far is one of the most important strategic metal projects inside of um inside of the country.
- 12:13SPEAKER_01: So we want to make sure and we feel it.
- 12:15SPEAKER_01: And when we went to Cartagena, uh, you know, which was the mining congress of of Colombia, sitting across the table of okay, where are you?
- 12:22SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
- 12:23SPEAKER_01: What are the major things you're focusing, and how do we work together to make sure things can to continue to move forward?
- 12:28SPEAKER_01: One of the things I liked about Colombia was it has an existing legal system that can improve things in time.
- 12:34SPEAKER_01: So, like you don't have to write new laws or do new legislation.
- 12:38SPEAKER_01: You just have to make sure that it's being followed and and uh and working together to make sure you don't trip up.
- 12:45SPEAKER_01: Um Mark Gibson, who is a director because he was COO of Cordoba, helps you know helped uh massively with that in saying this is what we did, and these are the things you have to be looking out for.
- 12:55SPEAKER_01: Um so it's basically keeping on track and staying aligned with what the government wants to do.
- 13:00SPEAKER_01: So, and and avoiding any uh bottlenecks in that process.
- 13:05SPEAKER_01: You can get a license approved in a year in Colombia.
- 13:07SPEAKER_01: It's been done.
- 13:08SPEAKER_00: Well, that's uh what I wanted to touch on now.
- 13:10SPEAKER_00: Colombia's got a national licensing authority called ANLA.
- 13:14SPEAKER_00: Um, in the previous government, ANLA did issue permits, uh albeit you know sometimes quite slowly.
- 13:22SPEAKER_00: We're seeing in Canada, we're seeing in the US initiatives by the the the federal governments to accelerate permitting timelines to ensure that projects can advance.
- 13:32SPEAKER_00: Are you seeing a similar similar initiatives, or do you expect to see similar initiatives in Colombia to really sort of you know supercharge the permitting process so that timelines can be reduced so that you can start building sooner rather than later?
- 13:45SPEAKER_01: Yes, and and and Colombia has that framework there.
- 13:48SPEAKER_01: It has a projects of national interest, right?
- 13:50SPEAKER_01: So they have that piece, but they also the analog system, right?
- 13:54SPEAKER_01: If you know it it it's feasible, not I'm not highly likely, but you can get a license in six months in a normal system, but normally it takes about a year.
- 14:02SPEAKER_01: As long as you follow the normal timelines and don't hit any roadblocks within those times, there's the the structure is already there.
- 14:09SPEAKER_01: So it's more if there's a will, there's a way than even having to develop some special structure, right?
- 14:14SPEAKER_01: It's just the the political will is there.
- 14:16SPEAKER_01: There's a structure that exists in Colombia that projects can get their licensing done, as long as you know, thinking today, what is required tomorrow, and working together if there's certain concerns by the government, voicing those now so we know what to include and make sure we're watching in order to um not trip up during the licensing process that would kick it back to to zero, right?
- 14:39SPEAKER_01: So there that that's that's the exciting thing about Columbia is that the the structure already exists.
- 14:46SPEAKER_01: So and you see the will exists, so it's uh getting things moving forward.
- 14:50SPEAKER_01: Uh you could also talk about you know the application versus titling, which is like uh if you um stake something and then get your permit to actually drill, it's actually very similar, just a different terminology, which is was you know, works, but it nothing came out the other end.
- 15:05SPEAKER_01: Um, so I also think, and we're going to say this on the compar side, if you think about where you find big gigantic copper deposits, we know where they are geologically.
- 15:16SPEAKER_01: They happen in these big subduction zones, and for the majority of porphyry.
- 15:19SPEAKER_01: It's not saying that's the only type of big copper project, but we know where those zones are.
- 15:23SPEAKER_01: And if you look at Chile, it's been explored, especially near surface.
- 15:27SPEAKER_01: Now that you know they're getting deeper and deeper and deeper.
- 15:30SPEAKER_01: Peru, it's been explored.
- 15:32SPEAKER_01: United States, it's been explored.
- 15:34SPEAKER_01: So the normally the bigger projects are going to be much deeper.
- 15:36SPEAKER_01: Colombia is one of the last places on the planet that is, you know, there's very few where it's you have a high chance of finding big projects near surface that hasn't been explored because of the problems that that Colombia had over many years.
- 15:51SPEAKER_01: So we're excited about Makoa and we think we can create a massive amount of value as we dis de-risk the project.
- 15:56SPEAKER_01: But we're also sitting on 130,000 hectares of unexplored ground on the Jurassic Belt.
- 16:01SPEAKER_01: That uh, so we feel the next four years in general for Colombia, and you could have a similar uh statement for for gold and other other minerals.
- 16:10SPEAKER_01: This is, I think you have you have the the legal structure, you have the political will, you have a commodity cycle.
- 16:17SPEAKER_01: You can see at Beaver Creek is the amount of people here that it could all come together, and and Colombia has a real chance of being one of the hottest locations on the planet and mining in the next four years.
- 16:28SPEAKER_00: Well, there's certainly a lot of interest amongst the big companies.
- 16:30SPEAKER_00: You know, Rio Tinto is in Colombia, First Quantum Minals is looking in Colombia, Freeport MacMoran's in Colombia, Barrack Mining, Newmont, Agnico Eagle Mines, Glencore.
- 16:39SPEAKER_00: Glencore.
- 16:40SPEAKER_00: Um, some of the biggest names, Anglo Golder Shanti, of course, some of the biggest names in the industry are there.
- 16:45SPEAKER_00: Um anecdotally, I'm also hearing a lot more people asking me about Colombia and what's happening, my opinion of what's going on with the government.
- 16:53SPEAKER_00: We're at an investor conference, Ian.
- 16:56SPEAKER_00: Um are you getting you seeing an uptick in investor interest in in the company, in the project in Colombia?
- 17:04SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
- 17:05SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and I think it's reflected in our own share price, right?
- 17:09SPEAKER_01: I think our for the quality of the project that we had previously it was the discount and was Columbia.
- 17:15SPEAKER_01: A obviously we passed a billion tons, which is a very important threshold in uh for copper projects to demonstrate scale, and that gets the eyeballs of those companies we just listed right there.
- 17:26SPEAKER_01: But the big change is saying, whoa, this is now the time and an opportunity where projects can actually get across the finish line.
- 17:32SPEAKER_01: I think the the clear demonstration was Trafficora coming into our project uh before we even put out a PEA, right?
- 17:39SPEAKER_01: They're saying, A, the market is extremely tight.
- 17:42SPEAKER_01: There's not very many projects like this, and Colombia is a place that I can see new copper mines being built in a time where there's not, you know, there were some serious concerns over supply and demand of copper in general.
- 17:54SPEAKER_01: Um, so yes, uh a lot, a lot, a lot more questions about uh Colombia, but in a much more positive fashion.
- 18:02SPEAKER_00: Okay.
- 18:03SPEAKER_00: We've covered a lot of ground during our conversation today.
- 18:05SPEAKER_00: Ian, maybe uh you can recap for me and for our viewers what some of the key cases for the company are gonna be over the next 12 to 18 months.
- 18:13SPEAKER_01: So the the the biggest catalyst within our control, and what I what I really like is now that we pass this billion tons, you know, that you can't design a project bigger than that.
- 18:22SPEAKER_01: You're just gonna start adding years.
- 18:23SPEAKER_01: So you can go to two and three billion, but it's just adding adding uh adding years to the end of a project.
- 18:29SPEAKER_01: So now we have really de-risked significantly the geological foam component.
- 18:35SPEAKER_01: So the value now comes from de-risking as you get towards a construction decision.
- 18:38SPEAKER_01: So our big catalyst is that first PEA because it provides an NPV which says that is the value of this project if it got produced at this price.
- 18:47SPEAKER_01: And so it gives a nice target for market of understanding where the value of the project should be.
- 18:53SPEAKER_01: Meanwhile, we have four drills, maybe be moving to some additional drills, but have a solid news flow in terms of drilling.
- 18:59SPEAKER_01: And some of the biggest catalysts for the company are actually ones that aren't really in our control.
- 19:04SPEAKER_01: It's the United States and Columbia relationships or that, you know, just last week, Marco Rubio and the Minister of Finance, I think, what signed a new agreement and MOU to over the next six months look at private strategic metals projects to finance in the country.
- 19:18SPEAKER_01: Um, that type of news.
- 19:20SPEAKER_01: Plus, the president continued to make advances.
- 19:22SPEAKER_01: I think they're going to continue to do things to attract investment.
- 19:25SPEAKER_01: I think could be serendipitously very fortuno for anybody who wants to build a big big copper project in in Colombia.
- 19:32SPEAKER_01: Otherwise, after the PEA, we will continue to move quickly to get out that that that PFS and continue.
- 19:38SPEAKER_01: It's all about de-risk, de-risk, de-drisk, so a combination of continued exploration.
- 19:43SPEAKER_01: We also still have a ton of targets we've never drilled on before.
- 19:47SPEAKER_01: Um, and then a bunch of the you know metallurgical and engineering type work that is associated.
- 19:52SPEAKER_01: Uh, so we have a very strong news flow and some very big catalysts coming up.
- 19:57SPEAKER_00: Exciting times.
- 19:58SPEAKER_00: Once again, copper giant trades on the TSX V under the ticker CGNT.
- 20:02SPEAKER_00: Ian Harris, thank you very much for joining me this afternoon.
- 20:05SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Paul.
- 20:06SPEAKER_00: And we have a lot more to come from the 2026 Precious Metal Summit here in Beaver Creek, so stay tuned and hit that subscribe button.
- 20:13SPEAKER_00: I'm Paul Harris, and this is Kiko Mining.