Quetzal Copper

Investor Insight

With a copper-focused exploration strategy and North American assets, Quetzal Copper is in an excellent position to capitalize on the widening copper supply and demand gap and play a key role in the critical minerals race.

Overview

Quetzal Copper (TSXV:Q) is a copper exploration company focused on three drill-ready copper projects in British Columbia, Canada: Princeton, Big Kidd and DOT. All three projects are situated in the copper-rich jurisdiction of British Columbia and nearby producing mines such as Teck's Highland Valley copper mine, Hudbay's Copper Mountain mine, and the Craigmont mine.

The company’s flagship is the Princeton copper project, which is immediately to the north of the Copper Mountain mine. The project has seen limited historical drilling, and studies have identified targets characterized by copper mineralization and geochemical anomalies. Quetzal plans to begin drilling at the Princeton and Big Kidd projects in 2024.

The recent acquisition of the Cristinas copper project in Mexico is encouraging. The Cristinas project is an exciting exploration target boasting all the key features required for success, such as proximity to infrastructure, road access, exceptional geology with high grades, and a history of successful exploration. Historical drilling at Cristinas yielded impressive results, intersecting 4.7 meters @3.2 percent copper and 3.7 meters @3 percent copper. The Cristinas project offers shareholders a compelling risk/reward profile for an exploration venture, with plans to begin drilling in 2024.

The company’s focus on copper is very attractive given current supply and demand dynamics. The supply of copper is far more concentrated than oil. While three countries account for 40 percent of the oil supply, only two countries – Chile and Peru, contribute 38 percent of the copper supply. Given the history of political instability in these countries, a supply source from North America, with its stable policy environment, makes it very attractive. Government-supported tailwinds also encourage domestic copper supply, with Canada and the US promoting copper production through tax breaks and incentives.

The demand scenario for copper looks attractive given expectations of rapid growth. According to Nornickel, global copper demand is estimated to rise by 20 percent to 30 million metric tons (MT) per year by 2035, from around 24.8 million MT per year in 2022. This growth in the demand will be led by applications such as electric transport, power transmission grids and renewable electricity generation.

Quetzal Copper is likely to be a beneficiary of Western countries trying to realign their supply chain of critical minerals by sourcing them domestically or from friendly countries. Quetzal, with its portfolio of copper projects in tier 1 mining jurisdictions, is well positioned to offer domestically sourced copper to fill any supply gap.

Company Highlights

• Quetzal Copper is a copper exploration company focused on three drill-ready copper projects in British Columbia: Princeton, Big Kidd, and DOT. Additionally, the company recently acquired the Cristinas copper project in Mexico.
• The flagship Princeton copper project is located northeast of Copper Mountain mine in British Columbia. The company is planning a significant drill program for the project in 2024.
• The Big Kidd copper project is located in southern British Columbia, midway between the Copper Mountain and New Afton mines. The company has an option to acquire 100 percent interest in this project.
• The DOT copper project is located south of the Highland Valley mine in southern British Columbia. The company has an option to acquire 100 percent interest in this project.
• Historical drilling at Cristinas yielded impressive results intersecting 4.7 meters @3.2 percent copper and 3.7 meters @3 percent copper. The Cristinas project offers shareholders a compelling risk/reward profile for an exploration venture.
• Given that around 38 percent of the world's copper is supplied by two countries (Chile and Peru), a North American supply source makes the company’s projects very attractive.
• The company’s senior leadership team is well-experienced in both geoscience and capital markets, which will help the company unlock the potential of its projects.

Key Projects

Princeton Project

The Princeton copper project spans an area of 11,500 hectares and is approximately 5 kilometers from Princeton town in British Columbia. The project is located to the north of Copper Mountain mine. The project represents an ideal location and favorable geology for copper exploration, located between the Copper Mountain mine and the Miner Mountain properties. Several operators have conducted various property surveys over the past 60 years. The geophysical and geochemistry surveys conducted in 2020 and 2021 have identified multiple drill targets. The project has three key targets: Bud South, Knob Hill and Aura.

1. Bud South: Historically drilled in 1987, this will be a primary drill target in 2024. One of the drills encountered copper and gold over 10.5 meters. The section yielded 0.184 percent copper, 0.33 grams per ton (g/t) gold, and 8.7 g/t silver over 10.7 meters. Moreover, a lower section graded 0.149 percent copper, 0.121 g/t gold, and 3.2 g/t silver over 4.6 meters.
2. Knob Hill: The target is located 2 kilometers south of August Lake and is characterized by granodiorite outcropping over an area of 1,000 meters x 600 meters. Historically, two samples have reported 0.99 g/t and 0.51 g/t gold, 33.6 g/t and 49.0 g/t silver, and 0.60 percent and 1.22 percent copper.
3. Aura: This target has similarities to porphyry copper deposits, having a mineralized zone at the periphery.

Big Kidd Project

The company has an option to acquire 100 percent interest in this project. The Big Kidd copper project spans an area of 4,055 hectares in southern British Columbia. It is located just 20 kilometers from the city of Merritt, and benefits from excellent infrastructure in terms of accessibility by a network of roads. The region hosts several copper and gold deposits, such as the Copper Mountain mine and the Craigmont mine.

The historic exploration dates back to the 1890s. In 1916, 10 tons of ore was extracted with 1,000 lbs of copper. Moreover, in 1918, a mine produced 44 tons of ore with 12 percent copper, 68 g/t silver, and 0.57 g/t gold. In 2019, Jiulian Resources completed a drill program on the project. A 2004 resource estimate has identified a non-compliant resource of 122.4 Mt at 0.33 g/t gold and 0.15 percent copper. Additional drilling has expanded the footprint of the mineralization beyond the 2004 estimate.

The project has three important targets for 2024. 1) Target 1 – a narrow target spanning 100 m x 400 m; 2) Target 2 – that spans an area of 200 m x 350 m; 3) Target 3 – this opportunity is in the Dago zone.

DOT Project

The company has an option to acquire 100 percent interest in this project. The DOT copper project spans 846 hectares and is located in the southern portion of the Guichon Creek batholith. The project is located just 25 kilometers away from Merritt, and enjoys excellent accessibility by roads. DOT is located in a region with a history of copper exploration for more than 130 years. Moreover, the project is adjacent to Highland Valley mine (20 km) and Craigmont mine (12 km). In 2008, Aurora Geosciences estimated a non-compliant indicated resource of 5.3 Mt at 0.49 percent copper equivalent and 2.9 Mt of non-compliant indicated resource 0.45 percent copper equivalent.

Moreover, in 2010, a resource report identified the following grades: 30.2 meters @ 1.32 percent copper, 27.4 meters @ 2.58 percent copper, and 76.2 meters @ 0.91 percent copper. These grades and thicknesses indicate a robust copper system on the property.

The project covers five zones of copper-gold-silver-molybdenum mineralization: southeast, northwest, west, east and copper zones. All five zones remain open. The company is planning an exploration program at DOT, which will include a comprehensive IP survey across the property, drilling at the east zone and northwest zone, trench and drilling at the southeast zone, and metallurgical testing.

Cristinas Copper Project

The Cristinas copper project spans 685 hectares and is located in the northeastern Chihuahua state in Mexico. The project encompasses a historic copper mine that was operational in the 1950s, focusing on shallow copper oxide mineralization.

The project boasts a copper mineralization zone exceeding 1,250 meters in length, identified through surface rock chip samples and 12 historical drill holes from 2014. This mineralization remains open along strike and at depth, with significant expansion potential indicated by limited geophysical surveys. Historical drilling at Cristinas yielded impressive results intersecting 4.7 meters @3.2 percent copper and 3.7 meters @3 percent copper.

The recent surface sampling program returned encouraging results, ranging from <0.1 to 7 percent copper, mainly in copper oxides. Only four of the 18 samples returned less than 1 percent copper.

The Cristinas Project offers shareholders a compelling risk/reward profile for an exploration venture, with plans to begin drilling in 2024. The company intends to conduct an initial drill program spanning 1,500 to 3,000 meters, incorporating downhole electromagnetic surveying to enhance the accuracy of geophysical targets.

Management Team

Matthew Badiali – CEO and Director

Matthew Badiali holds an M.Sc. degree in geology from Florida Atlantic University. He is a geologist and has over 18 years of experience as a financial analyst covering the natural resources sector with Stansberry Research. He is also a founder of Mangrove Investor Media, a publishing company.

Chris Lloyd – VP Exploration

Chris Lloyd is a geologist with over 35 years of experience, working in Canada and Mexico. He is a co-founder of Soltoro, which discovered the El Rayo silver deposit and was acquired by Agnico Eagle. He was also associated with the Panuco Project of Vizsla Silver.

Charles Funk – Technical Advisor

Charles Funk is a geologist with experience in gold, silver and copper projects, and is associated with multiple deposit discoveries in Australia and Mexico. He has more than 14 years of experience with several mining companies, including Evrim Resources and Newcrest. He is also the CEO of Heliostar Metals.

Dr. Roy Greig – Technical Advisor

Dr. Roy Grieg is a geologist highly experienced in advancing copper projects. He served for over two years as vice-president of exploration for Amarc Resources, where he advanced their district-scale porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum projects in British Columbia in collaboration with major partners Freeport McMoRan and Boliden. Greig holds a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.