Kincora Copper - Drilling advanced-stage exploration projects with the hallmarks of neighboring world-class mines that host >20Moz gold and >5Mt copper in Australia's Leading Porphyry Region; CEO interviewed
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By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 7/29/2021
We spoke with Sam Spring, President & CEO of Kincora Copper Ltd. (TSXV: KCC, ASX: KCC). Kincora is focused on becoming the leading listed, pure play explorer, in the Lachlan Fold Belt (LFB) of Australia. The LFB is a world-class gold and copper region, hosting an estimated endowment, of over 100Moz gold and over 24Mt copper. It is Australia’s foremost porphyry region that hosts flagship operations and is serviced by favorable existing infrastructure. Kincora secured a district level project pipeline in the belt. Drilling is underway at the FAIRHOLME and TRUNDLE projects, both adjacent to existing world-class mines that already host over 20 million ounces of gold and over 5 million tons of copper in total.
Photo: Kincora drilling at the brownfield TRUNDLE project (Kincora Copper Ltd).
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, interviewing Sam Spring, who's President and CEO of Kincora Copper. Sam. I'm very impressed with the progress you've made since our last discussion. I think your projects, in New South Wales, are very exciting. You're in an area of great discovery. And you have the Team to do it and the finances to do it. I'm going to stay close, and keep on reporting, as you discover more and more. Sam, I know there have been a lot of new things going on, with Kincora Copper, since we last spoke. Could you give our readers/investors an overview of your Company and what new projects you are working on and developing.
Sam Spring: Thanks, Al. It's great to connect and provide an update. Kincora’s very active now in the Lachlan Fold Belt in Macquarie Arc, which is Australia's leading copper porphyry region. It is also very gold rich, with multiple world-class mines.
The flagship project in this region is Cadia, which is the largest gold mine in Australia and that our technical director John Holliday originated, managed and led the discovery phases for. It is also an extremely profitable mine. This week Newcrest announced a record quarterly operating margin of $2157/oz gold from Cadia (all-in sustaining margin after copper credits).
The reason for stating this background is because these are the sorts of porphyry systems, we and others, majors and juniors alike, are looking for in this belt.
Kincora has secured a district level project pipeline. We are positioning the Company to be able to be a leading pure play explorer, within this region, with a Team that has found multiple world-class projects before.
We have rigs turning at two projects, a third project effectively being drill-tested for us, and a fourth has had one hole drilled so far, and another proposed.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great. Could you update us on the Mongolian projects?
Sam Spring: Given the opportunity in New South Wales, we ran a strategic review for our Mongolian strategy and asset portfolio. That's led us to sign a definitive agreement, with a group called Resilience Mining, who is now in the advanced stages of listing on the ASX, with our Mongolian assets.
Post-listing, Kincora will retain a 20% carried interest, at the asset level, and 9.9% in the listed company, once they've raised a minimum of $5 million at the IPO.
Resilience is working to drill in the next quarter post-listing. That achieves us realizing value for the Mongolian portfolio and assets, retaining upside to exploration success and aligns us to be focused on the New South Wales business.
Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great, particularly given it is hard to get value from the market, for such a large portfolio of projects. Could you tell us more about the New South Wales projects, what you have done, what you've learned to date and what your plans are? I know you've done a lot of drilling.
Sam Spring: Our New South Wales activities are currently centered on two advanced projects, both of which have had over 60,000 metres of prior explorer drilling. We have been drilling at TRUNDLE for the last year and have commenced drilling at our FAIRHOLME project this week.
To put it into perspective, FAIRHOLME and TRUNDLE are adjacent to existing world-class mines that already host over 20 million ounces of gold and over 5 million tons of copper in total.
Northparkes is Australia's second largest porphyry mine, with over 5.5Moz gold and over 4.5Mt copper. Our TRUNDLE project sits in the same intrusive complex as Northparkes. Our drilling to date has shown a lot of similarities to that neighboring world-class mine.
Our FAIRHOLME project, where we have just commenced drilling, is less than 15 kilometers away from the gold corridor at Evolution Mining's flagship Cowal project. Within that region, there are 13.7 million ounces of gold in a series of deposits. We're very excited to see if our FAIRHOLME project has the potential to have a similar system to what you see along the same trend, just down to the south – drilling and geophysics to date strongly suggests its does.
Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds like a very exciting time for Kincora Copper and your shareholders and stakeholders. Could you tell our readers/investors your primary plans for 2021, going into 2022?
Sam Spring: With the focus on the Australian portfolio, earlier in the year we dual listed on the ASX. We retain our listing on the TSXV, but with an Australian focus, Australian-based Board and Management, that really made sense to engage with the Australian capital markets.
So, we raised $10 million at the end of March in a heavily oversubscribed offering. That really provides us a favorable balance sheet, to drill into next year. Within our plans, of over 17,000 meters of drilling, after this ASX listing that's achieved, we're focused on drilling at TRUNDLE. We've just commenced drilling at FAIRHOLME. There's another project, NYNGAN, where we've completed one hole. We'll be doing a second hole shortly.
There's a neighboring explorer, drilling on our licensed boundary, with our CUNDUMBUL Project. So effectively, there are four projects in New South Wales that are being drill tested. With the Mongolian portfolio, with Resilience looking to list on the ASX, in the next quarter and start drilling, there should be some pretty positive news there on multiple fronts.
So Al, a key thing when investing in an explorer is looking to see meters go into the ground, testing targets and looking to confirm your concepts and make/confirm a discovery.
That's really the focus of Kincora. We're in a favorable position to do that, with the asset portfolio, the Team, and the balance sheet that we have.
Dr. Allen Alper: Well, it sounds like this is a very exciting time for Kincora, with all the exploration that's going on.
Sam Spring: Well, it is. There's a lot of work that's gone on since we last spoke, and over the course of the last 12 months, to get the foundations right for an exciting period, with a lot of value catalysts clearly ahead of us.
Dr. Allen Alper: Could you tell our readers/investors a bit about your background and your Team?
Sam Spring: Our Team is technically very strong. It's led by John Holliday, who's one of the foremost experts, on the Macquarie Arc, in New South Wales. As mentioned John originated, managed and led the discovery phases of Cadia and John is based in the region and plays a critical role.
Peter Leaman is our VP of exploration. Peter's credited with multiple discoveries, including the Tier 1 Reko Diq copper-gold discovery, in Pakistan.
Technically, our Team is extremely strong, backed up by a Board that has a lot of very relevant skills, from capital markets into mine studies and developing construction.
Our Chairman is Cameron McRae, who led the development of the Oyu Tolgoi open pit and commencement of the underground there, which will be the third largest copper mine in the world, when fully complete. My background's more on the finance and corporate side, previously being a research analyst in the junior mid-cap sector, and before that, working at Goldman Sachs, a tight Team that has complimentary skill sets and no passengers, also shareholders with about 5% of the Company.
Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds like you and your Team have great experience and a great background. And it's great to have, not only a balanced team of people on who understand finances in the market, but also the technology of exploring for gold, in the region that you're in.
Sam Spring: Thank you, Al. We're very excited about what we have ahead of us.
Dr. Allen Alper: Oh, that's great. Could you tell us a little bit about your share and capital structure?
Sam Spring: As mentioned, we dual-listed on the ASX earlier in the year. We now have about 120 million shares outstanding. We've seen the liquidity significantly increase, since our listing on the ASX. We were able to attract a number of new domestic institutions, retail and family office groups. The 10 million rising was significantly over-subscribed.
In terms of notable significant shareholders, LIM Advisors, out of Hong Kong, which has the longest running hedge fund in Asia, retained 16% of the Company. Legal Funds Management, out of Sydney, is 8%, New Prospect Capital, out of Hong Kong, as well is 6%, Boardroom Management 5%. So a good balance between international and domestic capital and institutional and retail, with liquidity significantly improved, after listing on the ASX.
Dr. Allen Alper: Could you tell our readers\investors the primary reasons they should consider investing in Kincora Copper?
Sam Spring: The key takeaways are that we are focused on a world-class copper belt in a Tier 1 jurisdiction.
We have a technical team that has found Tier 1 projects before, including in this region.
We have advanced exploration projects that we're drilling at the moment that have hallmarks of neighboring world-class deposits.
And we're getting some favorable results with the drill bit turning and capital in place to keep the rigs turning.
We have the critical fundamentals that you need for a successful explorer, we feel that we tick all those boxes, and now have to execute with clear catalysts ahead.
Dr. Allen Alper: Well, those sound like very compelling reasons for our readers/investors to consider investing in Kincora Copper. Sam, is there anything else you would like to add?
Sam Spring: It's a great opportunity to touch base with you Al, and provide an update on where Kincora is, with the drill rigs turning at TRUNDLE and FAIRHOLME. And obviously, with a favorable copper and gold price environment, in a historical sense. So, thank you for the opportunity.
Dr Allen Alper Sam. I'm very impressed with the progress you've made, since we started talking together. I think your projects in New South Wales are very exciting. You're in an area of great discovery. And you have the Team to do it and the finances to do it. I'm going to stay close, and keep on reporting, as you discover more and more.
Sam Spring: Thank you, Allen. and you have done a great job just there summarizing the opportunity.
Dr. Allen Alper: I enjoyed talking with you and I’m very excited, to hear what you do next.
https://kincoracopper.com/
Sam Spring
President & CEO
sam.spring@kincoracopper.com
Melbourne +61431 329 345
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