Adrian Smith, President & CEO ArcPacific Resources Corp. (TSX-V: ACP) Discusses Exploring for Gold and Copper, Adjacent to the Largest Copper Mine in Canada, in a Known Productive Copper-Gold Porphyry Belt

By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 5/3/2022
We spoke with Adrian Smith, who is President, CEO and Director of ArcPacific Resources Corp. (TSX-V: ACP), a Canadian-focused, gold and copper exploration company, advancing their 100% owned, Lucky Mike Silver Lode Project, located 20km north of Merritt, British Columbia, Canada, in the Nicola Mining Division. The project is adjacent to the largest copper mine in Canada, in a known productive copper-gold porphyry belt, and it is host to several past producing silver lead zinc scar mines, surrounding untested porphyry targets. The second project, ArcPacific is planning on working on this year, is the Blackdome Gold Project, located in the Clinton Mining Division, approximately 120 kilometres southwest of the city of Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada. Blackdome holds very high discovery potential, currently permitting for first ever drilling.

ArcPacific Resources Corp.

Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, talking with Adrian Smith, who is President, CEO and Director of ArcPacific Resources Corp. Adrian, could you give us an overview of your Company and tell us about your key projects?

Adrian Smith: ArcPacific is listed on the TSXV (TSXV: ACP). We’re an exploration company, focused on developing and advancing our Canadian exploration properties. The main commodities that we’re after are copper and gold, with secondary silver, lead and zinc. Our main focus for 2022 is to advance our, what we're calling the LMSL Property, which stands for Lucky Mike Silver Load. It's an advanced copper project, located in Southern B.C., in a prominent mining district. It's had a significant amount of historical work done on it, which looks very promising. We're looking to build off that work and show that there is actually great potential there.

The second project that we're going to be working on, this year, is called the Blackdome Gold Project. It's a new epithermal gold-silver discovery that doesn't have any significant work done on it, so it's new and exciting. It's never been drilled. We have only just trenched it, for the first-time last year. We were able to get continuous gold mineralization, in both of the two trenches, proving that this project has significant potential.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great. You also have one in Ontario, is that correct?

Adrian Smith: Yes, the Rickard Gold Project in Ontario, with which we're assessing how to carry forward. Currently we are looking at doing some surface work, to find additional targets, but we’re going to focus on what gives the Company the best potential to make a significant discovery and get something that's going to excite the market. We know what benchmark we have to hit. We have to find some decent gold values, with a little bit of width to them. For our copper project, we need to hit significant porphyry copper-gold grades over several hundred meters in length. We see this potential at the two projects in B.C., which is why they are our focus moving forward.

Dr. Allen Alper: Could you tell us a little bit more about the LMSL Projects’ historical data?

Adrian Smith: The LMSL project covers a significant area, adjacent to the largest copper mine in Canada, the Highland Valley Mine. The project is also just to the south of Kamloops and just to the north of Merritt, BC. To the north, we have New Gold's, New Afton Mine that's an operational high-grade gold-copper mine, and that's a similar style of mineralization to what we're chasing. Then just to the south of that, in between our project and the New Afton, there is another discovery, going on right now, on Tower Resources Rabbit Project.

To the south Kodiak Copper had a fairly recent discovery, based on chasing a similar style of mineralization that we see on our LMSL project. Regionally, this amounts to a very pronounced trend of deposits and discoveries, reaching all the way down to Copper Mountain, which is a long-lived mine that is now being rejuvenated into a larger operation and developing what they're calling a “super pit.”

The area is a mining friendly region and a very prolific district, as far as the copper and the gold endowment goes, and the LMSL project has a significant amount of historic workings and even more data, which we are now working on, with GoldSpot Discoveries, to identify new targets and prioritize our work, moving forward.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, it sounds excellent. What are your key plans for the LMSL Project this year?

Adrian Smith: We've been busy, quietly working away on it in the background. I didn't really mention the abundance of historical work that's been done, which dates back to the 1960s. It had several small tonnage operational mines that were mining the skarn mineralization, on the property. It is those skarn deposits that we are now looking at on a higher level and saying that these skarns are likely driven by a porphyry system. We have multiple zones of skarn mineralization and locally they form an arcuate shape, which in a technical sense, indicates that there should be a porphyry system, driving that, and that's what we're hunting for.

Due to the extensive development history, on the property, there’re over 75 historic reports that individually have hundreds of samples, in each report. We've spent quite a bit of time and effort compiling that information into a usable database, what we call digitizing this historic information. We've been able to utilize that information to look at the larger picture. Each report might be dealing with one separate area on the property. That is now amalgamated and combined into a substantial land package.

The current land package is sitting over 120 square kilometers in size. We've only recently been able to fill in all the missing pieces. So now, we've been able to secure, close up and get the land position that we wanted. We have now taken all of the data, across the project area, and put this to use, by working with a Company, called Gold Spot Discoveries. GoldSpot is using advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence, in tandem with analysis from industry experts, which will act as a road map for the upcoming exploration planned for this year.

Dr. Allen Alper: Yeah, that’s a great Company. I’ve interviewed Dennis many, many times. He has an excellent Company.

Adrian Smith: Yeah, GoldSpot is making a name for themselves, and they’ve gotten a lot of credit for the work they are doing in Newfoundland, with New Found Gold. They have a very good crew. I know some of their people personally, through my career, and I know that they are extremely capable professionals. I was very happy to get involved with them. They are currently finalizing their extensive review and analysis and running the AI programs, on the scrutinized scientific data.

It's also important to note that GoldSpot is not just dumping any old data into a program and running the AI and seeing what happens. We spent a lot of time reviewing and qualifying the data, to make sure that it's good quality, in order to give us something usable that we can rely on. It's really going to give us confidence when we get the drill turning.

That's happening now, it's been ongoing since December of last year and we're just looking to get their final reports and analysis, within the next few weeks, so we'll watch to see that come out in the market.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent!

Adrian Smith: There's a lot going on. There was one more piece, I just wanted to mention, with the LMSL project. It is that we've recently acquired a historic resource, that is now included as part of the large LMSL project that is really a value add to the project. It adds around 80 million tons at 0.23% copper equivalent, which is a substantial amount of material, at a grade that would be above the cutoff grade. We know this is not going to drive the economics on the project, but it will add to it. We're still searching for that higher grade material, and we're using Gold Spot to help us with it.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent! They will make a great joint explorer! So that’s excellent!

Adrian Smith: I really believe in building on as much of the historic work as possible. It is such a substantial amount of work that's been done in the area. It wouldn't make sense to go in and repeat everything. So, we're really putting a lot of time and effort into making sure that we're building on what's been done and moving forward with it, as opposed to redoing it.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds great. Adrian. Could you tell our readers/investors, a little bit about yourself and your Team?

Adrian Smith: I'm a professional geologist. I've been working in the mining industry, at various underground mines, in Canada. I have extensive experience, running programs across the U.S. and Canada, on various exploration projects. I've had experience creating Maiden Resources, on multiple projects. In 2012, I helped build a 7-billion-ton iron resource, from scratch, and was part of building a Maiden Gold Resource in Nevada. I have always been involved in a management role and now I have built my way up to an executive role, where I can still oversee and understand all the technical requirements, for these projects.

I believe, putting a Team together that has the right abilities can really push you in the right direction. So that's what I strive to do, to get good people and work with a Company like GoldSpot, that I know has the technical expertise to accelerate our projects. It is extremely important! I've been working in the mining industry for a long time, and I'm focused on developing these exploration projects and building out, what I hope to be, new expanded resources, on the projects that we have.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. Could you tell us a little bit more about some of the other members of the Team?

Adrian Smith: Kosta Tsoutsis is one of the Directors, he was a broker in Vancouver, for over 20 year, and he brings the financial understanding and connections, within the capital markets, to help us.

We also have Collin Kim, as a Director. He brings connections, with international investors and corporations, which have been a big part of the Company, in the past. Another one of our Directors, Mike Collins, brings a significant amount of technical expertise. He's a P.Geo. that is able to provide valuable insight, as a technical advisor. He has been involved, for most of his career, with building resources on the technical side, and understands what is required for a project to be economic.

We have also recently brought on a Technical Advisor, Jim Turner, who has significant experience, especially in B.C., on developing and exploring for copper and gold, for large companies. He has an in-depth knowledge, when it comes to projects like The Lucky Mike Silver Lode (LMSL), so he's able to help guide our exploration.

Dr. Allen Alper: Oh, that sounds very good. Sounds like you have a nice, diverse Team, working with you. Could you tell us a little bit about your share and capital structure?

Adrian Smith: We have approximately 60 million shares outstanding, at the moment. We're just working through a process to clear out some of our warrants, so we really don’t have a significant number of outstanding shares. We're looking at getting a little bit of extra money in there. Then we're going to start our exploration program here in the spring, beginning with the LMSL Project.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. Could you tell our readers/investors the primary reasons they should consider investing with ArcPacific Resources?

Adrian Smith: Absolutely. It is high risk/high reward that we're striving for, with ArcPacific. Our goal is to provide that high reward potential, through discovery. As a secondary project, the Blackdome has confirmed gold-silver veins, part of an epithermal system, exposed at surface, which has never been drill tested. Getting the drill turning, on that project, could by itself provide that initial discovery and reward event.

On the Lucky Mike side, we're looking for what I believe is the highest value deposit type, especially in B.C., a significant size copper-gold porphyry. With a copper-gold porphyry, we're looking to try to define billions of tons of copper-bearing material and millions of ounces of gold. If we're successful, the amount of value that those projects would demand is significant, and it could potentially lead to a buyout. That's the endgame and we invite investors to take the ride with us.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, that sounds like you have a very compelling investment opportunity, for our readers/investors. Is there anything else you would like to add, Adrian?

Adrian Smith: I'd add that moving forward, in the near term, investors should watch for the news highlighting the GoldSpot work, we're looking forward to being able to share that, with the market, and get to work this spring. The exploration season in B.C. is just starting and it's a great time to get invested in ACP, with these projects and exciting to be able to follow along with them, through the summer, as the work programs commence.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. It's a great region and it sounds like you have a great Team. GoldSpot will be an excellent resource for you, for pinpointing areas to explore. I think you have everything going very well and you're surrounded by extremely successful companies, in a successful copper-gold region. So, that sounds excellent!

https://arcpacific.ca/

Adrian Smith
CEO and Director
info@arcpacific.ca
1.778.331.3816