Cascade Copper: Market Update

0:07 Good morning or good evening, depending on where in the world you're signing in from today. Did look like a bit of an international crowd, so I appreciate you signing in from wherever in the world you're popping in from. I am joined today by Jeff Ackard, Cascade Copper's CEO. And the way today's gonna work is Jeff's gonna be going through a bit of an update, also be describing the story of Cascade to people who are completely new to the story a little bit. Then once he's done, I'm gonna ask him a couple questions, combination of stuff that's come in over email, and my own questions for Jeff, which I always like to have answered, love the opportunity. And then we will get into live questions from the webinar audience today. So, what's great is today's event is interactive. There's a chat button in the bottom right of your screen. If you do have questions for Jeff, ask them at any point during the presentation. We'll make sure that he's able to answer them today. For any questions that come in live, we'll tackle them towards the end of the presentation. If for whatever reason we don't get to it, I'm going to make sure Jeff gets your question and that we get back to you afterwards.

1:05 Or if you're like me and you come up with the perfect question the second the webinar ends, often happens, please still feel free to reach out and we'll make sure that Jeff gets back to you. Today's event is also being recorded and should be available early this afternoon. So it'll come straight to your inbox. Feel free to share it at that point. But that's the end of my housekeeping. People didn't come to listen to me. So Jeff, I'm going to throw it to you for quick updates and then I'll pop back on for questions. Okay. Thanks very much, Romeo. And thank you everybody for joining us today. As Romeo said, I'd like to start off with a bit of a overview of Cascade for those people that may not have

1:41 heard of us before or not familiar with the story. So what I'd like to do is share my screen at the moment and just stand by while we get this up and running. And here we go. So it'll take a bit of a few seconds to come up, but should be there now. So Cascade Copper, it's a relatively new company. We've put it on the market, did an IPO in April of 2023, so just over a year and a bit old. Our mandate was basically to look at copper projects in Canada. And we've been able to build a good portfolio projects in British Columbia and just recently we added 1 in Ontario. So I'll just go through a few things here for looking statements. There may be a few forward looking statements mentioned.

2:33 So just be aware of that. Our vision is just to be the best that we can in the junior exploration market and try to find the next new deposit that everybody needs. So I think one of the things that is really a feather in our cap, at least at this stage, is the fact that we have a very tight share structure. As you can see here, we've only got 33 million shares outstanding, A few stock options and a few warrants, fully diluted 53M shares. The market cap is relatively small, but I think our mandate is to certainly grow that with exploration discovery, exploration results.

3:21 And I guess the final point here is that insider ownership is still relatively high at about 23%. That's management and directors and insiders. So what I'd like to do is just get some key points across to those people that are listening today and watching today. As I mentioned, we're focused on Canada. We see that the Canadian jurisdiction, and in particular BC and Ontario, are 2 of the best for copper, at least in Canada. And we like it because it gives us a safe haven, stable jurisdictions. We don't see any massive changes, you know, year on year. We can rely on the jurisdiction and the regulations that we're dealing with. Commodity. Well, Copper, as most of you know and have seen and heard in the news lately is certainly in high demand.

4:20 And the problem being is that we may not be able to supply that demand over the years with the green revolution and the change to electrification. Fundamentals of copper are solid and I see that for at least several decades. We've also got the assets we have also have commodities that are associated with them like gold, silver and molybdenum and those obviously gold prices have come up quite high as well. So these are all attributes that will certainly help our assets. And the geology, we, you know, the geology is key, you know, number 1 is the geology and we certainly like the geology in both jurisdictions because gold and copper and silver have been found in these areas before.

5:08 So where do you go? You go and look for where it's been found in the past. So all these key points are what really focus us on our projects. Just a quick overview of the management team, myself, Shannon Baird, Yannick is our CFO, Darcy, Allison and Sam are our directors. Just a great team, all very helpful in pushing us forward to get getting things done. I've been involved in the business for many years, probably 30 years now, Shannon, 20 years. So we're explorers, we've had great success in the past across Canada and overseas. So we've got a really good team to find the next big copper deposit. And I'll just do the next 2 maps here to show where our projects are in British Columbia.

6:00 3 in the Western side of BC, which we call the Cascade Arc, Bendor, Rogers Creek and Fire Mountain. Rogers Creek, Fire Mountain are copper, related copper porphyry systems. Bendor is more of a high-grade Gold and Copper system. And our other project that we'll talk about today is called Copper Plateau, and it's sitting over near Kelowna and near the Princeton area. Copper Mountain is a producing copper mine that's very close by. And if you're familiar with the exploration space, Kodiak Copper is right next door to us with their MPD product. So in the right area for sure. So what I'll do now is I'll change screens.

6:48 Just stand by here for a second. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna look at a couple of other things to start us off here. What I'll start with, I think at this first here is just talk about our financing that has been opened up. And the financing is for flow through and non flow through. And the use of funds are for drilling at Rogers Creek, which is that project, our key project, or basically the project that we have the best information, the most information on, We're really excited about getting in there and drilling the targets. And I'll show you some of those targets in a second.

7:35 The funds will be used for drilling at Rogers Creek and also at Centre of Water in Ontario. And we see Rogers Creek as a very, very good copper porphyry system. We have all the ingredients. We've got surface sampling, we've got geochemistry, we've got IP, we've got inversion modeling and magnetics. And I guess what I'll do is I'll show you that target right now. And it's basically this is a see-through of the mountainside. And we're looking at these IP chargeability anomalies that are sitting within the mountainside. And you can see there has been some drilling in the past. And our targets are now these IP chargeability anomalies that are related to sulfides which are related to the copper system within the porphyry.

8:31 So a very compelling target And I'll give you an update now on sort of where we are in the drilling phase at Rogers Creek. We've been waiting, unfortunately, we've been waiting quite a while for the permit to come from the BC government. And it is our understanding that it is pending. It's just maybe days away or so. Now, what we're doing is putting together a security bond for the remediation, environmental remediation.

9:00 Once that's in place, we should have the permanent hand and I'm hoping we'll see that in the next week or so. So keep an eye on the news for that. And what that means then is we can move forward on not only drilling, but more exploration at Rogers Creek. But most importantly is the drilling. And really the drilling there is

9:22 relatively easy compared to maybe some other places like up in the Golden Triangle. We're able to drill from drill pads that have been in place. We can drive the drill right directly to the drill pad right from Vancouver if we so desire. And so that makes logistics much, much easier. There's no helicopter, there's no pad making needed or anything like that. So it's very, very simple to get us in there and start drilling. So we hope to see at least the drill permit started and then depending on whether we can get in there, shortly thereafter or not, We'll see how that goes. We'll keep our shareholders up to speed on how that goes. Now, just a quick comment about Centrefire. Centrefire is a VMS, Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide Deposit style that we have in Ontario. And it's another walk up, drill, drive up, drill target, so we're working on getting the permitting ready for that one as well. So that's kind of where we are with the update on

10:30 Our financing, still open. We're happy to take subscriptions for flow-through and non-flow-through money. We'd like to get up to $500,000

10:40 combined, a combination of either flow-through and or non-flow-through. And if anybody wants to discuss that with me, I'm happy to talk with them after the webinar today. So I think that's it, Romeo. If you want to go to the next step, we'll see what kind of questions you have for me. Awesome, appreciate it, Jeff. And I see there are already some comments in the chat. We'll just get through questions that I had first, some of which came over on email, then we'll get to those. But I think we've got time to at least get to the ones that are there today. If anybody has any additional questions, let us know in the chat.

11:16 So starting off, Jeff, and I know you've already touched on it, but I just want to I want to I want to clean soundbites pretty much I'm looking for here is what is the goal with current financing? What is it actually going to pay for? Well, the bulk of the money will come. Well, Well, we'll go towards drilling.

11:33 That's the main part of it. And the flow-through is used for any exploration. So flow-through, any flow-through funds that come in will be used for our drilling. Number 1 priority for drilling is at Rogers Creek. And then depending on the ratio of hard dollars to flow-through dollars, if there's more left over, we'll then go over to Ontario, to the Centrefire project. And any hard dollars that are raised then goes for just basically running the company, you know, just general G&A. You know, we do have a tight team, small team, so we don't have a really high burn rate. So you know, we don't use a lot of hard dollars during the year, but we do need some. So that's important to get some of that in the door. Sure, makes sense.

12:21 What's the current state of drill site preparation and what steps remain to initiate operations once you've got financing secured? Yeah, good question.

12:31 Yeah, as I quickly mentioned at Rogers Creek, it's a basically drive up drill site. We're, we have the ability to go and use some older sites that were done back in 2010, 2011.

12:48 And what there is is active logging in the area. So the logging companies maintain the roads. So we're able to use those roads for our access as well. And we do have an agreement with the group that is doing the logging. So, you know, no worries there for getting on the site. So, that's half the battle is actually getting those set up and it's basically ready to go. So, next steps for drilling would be to secure one of the 3 drilling companies that we have sort of, quote, sitting on our desk. And, you know, once the financing is closed, then we can make that commitment to the drilling companies. So that's basically where we're at. Great. Appreciate that. Next question. And this actually ties into a TV friendly or question from the chat is, can you share expected timelines for obtaining

13:40 permits for Rogers Creek and then the Ontario projects?

13:44 Yeah, like I said, Rogers Creek is probably days away, just once we get the remediation bond in place, which shouldn't take too long, it's a banking thing. So we'll do that. And then so very, very soon we'll have that permit in hand. Now with the Ontario project at Centrefire, We're working on getting that going. And there was a few delays with, because it was an option with another group, we had to do some option. What do we have to do? We had to add our name to the claims, even though we haven't fully realized the option, the government wanted us to have at least some kind of ownership there. So nominal ownership. So we got that out of the way.

14:29 So that is ongoing. We should have that ready, you know, probably within a month, I'd say. So both permits, both projects ready to go,

14:40 both drive up easy to drill target areas. So it's very good. Awesome. In the same kind of vein, but just different details looking for, could you elaborate on the drill program at Rogers Creek, specifically the total meterage number of targets you intend to test? Yeah, if your viewers recall that image that I showed with the 2 red areas,

15:03 Those are our priority target areas at Rogers Creek. And they're not that close to surface, but relatively close in respect to porphyry systems. So we're looking at probably about 1500 metres of drilling at Rogers Creek, and that could be within 2 or 3 holes. So we'd like to drill a fairly deep hole, probably an 800 metre hole, and then maybe another 600 or maybe a couple of 300 or 400 meter holes as well. So the target that we've got is sort of the primary target. It's got the best information that we've got so far, the chargeability, the magnetic lows associated with porphyry systems and alteration.

15:50 All of that is combined to give us a really good priority target that we hope to sink that 800 metre hole into. Awesome.

15:58 One question, this actually came in over email from investors, which assay lab will you be working with? And what are the, sounds like somebody who's been burned by time. What are the anticipated turnaround time for results?

16:10 Yeah, good question. Now, we've always used in our BC projects, ALS out of Vancouver, Just makes sense. It's like next door, we can drop it off weekly or after the program is completed, depending on how things go. You know, it's like an hour and a half drive from the site. So, And they've been fantastic. ALS is a top notch lab for sure. Never had any problems with them. Now, turnaround time, well, you never know. It's quite variable, depends on the season. And this time of the year, I think everybody's trying to get

16:46 their assays in or their samples in for assay, you know, at the end of the field season. So typically we see a 3 week turnaround when it's not too busy and up to 6 weeks when it is busy. So all I can say is that's kind of variable, but let's say 3 to 6 weeks is probably what we're looking at for turnaround time.

17:10 Perfect. Thanks. And one last question before we get into the questions in the chat. I always like to ask this, I think it primes you to talk about what investors will be looking for too. But what are you most excited about in the rest of this calendar year? So between now and Christmas? Yeah, well, certainly the drilling, if we can get that drilling completed, assays in or samples in for assay and then announce some results to the market soon after. That would be the highlight for sure. The secondary is certainly closing the financing. And we've got 4 other projects other than Rogers Creek. So those are ones that we're trying to, you know, bring up to the next level. We've got quite a bit of historic work that was done at our Copper Plateau project near Princeton.

18:00 And we'd really like to sort of put a 3D inversion model together with that. We've got enough drill holes, historic drill holes at Copper Plateau to really kind of maybe come up with a mineral inventory that gives us an idea of where to drill next and maybe what to target and so on. We really liked that one because we see in the historic data there's some very high grade copper intercepts with molybdenum. So quite keen to get in and do some more modeling with Copper Plateau. And maybe one last thing is that, these days everybody's talking about high tech and AI and machine learning and so on. Well, about a year ago, we saw that it could be an advantage to us at the exploration stage.

18:48 So we've started working with a group that is basically developing a field-based XRF and hyperspectral scanning system that we can use in the field to, you know, analyze soil samples and rock samples and even core samples in the core shack. And not only do they scan them and give us the results, but in our process what we want to do using machine learning, which is just basically pattern recognition,

19:22 is compare it to other porphyry systems and other ore bodies that we know of. And with the information we get from the field today, tomorrow, or the next day with this program that we're trying to set up, we can get the results and where we are in the whole porphyry system. And it really, what it does is it

19:45 reduces the amount of time that you need to make your decisions. So if you can make decisions in the field to where to go next, to where to sample next, you know, you're accelerating your exploration process and the road to discovery basically. So We're very excited about using that and developing that down the road. So I just wanted to let people know that we're not only in the 20th century, we've actually come to the 21st with using some AI or machine learning in our exploration. That's Mining is pushing into

20:16 the future. Yeah, yeah. Well, you have to, yeah. Yeah, that's cool tech though. I'll bug you about that later. That's actually really interesting. A couple of questions from the chat I wanted to go through. This is a double-part question, so I'll ask kind of 1 at a time. Okay. Who are the potential buyers for Rogers Creek? It's A speculative question, obviously, but curious your perspective. Well, it's a good question because it opens up like how do you monetize your exploration and your projects, right? So there has to be some kind of an exit strategy because

20:47 we wanna bring these projects to the best level that we can that attracts not only shareholder interest, but also purchaser interest or JV partnership interest. So, you know, I think the bottom line is that all the big companies are really looking for the new deposits of the future, right? They're running out and they see the writing on the wall that copper demand is just going to go crazy and has started already. I mean, 450 copper, it's fantastic. So the potential buyer is probably a medium to large scale producer, Canadian, Australian, American, that wants to, you know, add to their portfolio of future production. So that there's a good there's a good portfolio, it's a good pool of those people out there. And we've already already got a bit of interest from a couple of them on a few of our projects. So they're kicking tires for sure.

21:48 And they're looking and they want to get something. So we're a good candidate for that. It's when copper is high, that's when all of a sudden phone calls start. That's how it goes. And in the same vein, this is the second half of their question. And I assume it's related to the copper demand and copper price increasing, but they ask, is M&A heating up right now in the copper space? Well, I think so. I think you're

22:13 seeing the M&A at the higher end of the market. You're seeing the M&A where a lot of the risk has been diminished, the de-risking of the projects. Philo, for instance, being bought up just recently. There's a few other ones that you can hear or have heard about in the past. So for sure, M&A is only going to

22:37 get larger or bigger and better. And I think it's gonna come further down the food chain as well. You're gonna see that the obvious ones that have been de-risked are going to get scooped up quickly. And then they're going to come down a little further. You know, they're going to come to the discovery level. They're going to come even to the conceptual level. You know, there's companies like BHP will look at concepts in that early stage. You know, If they see that it's got the potential for

23:06 the big company size, porphyry systems can be extremely large, especially in that magmatic belt that we're in. I didn't mention it before, but there's billion ton copper projects and copper deposits in that belt. So the sky's the limit basically for those in that area. Cool. TBS, that's another 2 part question. First one should be quick answer. Is Rogers Creek 100% owned? Yes, Rogers Creek is 100% owned. There is a small

23:37 block of claims that have a small royalty on them from the original prospector. Otherwise, 100% ours. Great. And the next question, this is the person I think has been burned by time. And that is, is permitting faster in BC generally than Ontario? And they put in brackets, 7 years exclamation mark. So I think they're talking about to construction. Yeah. So first of all, we'll, we'll answer the permitting part of things first. So permitting for us is just the exploration permitting. So it gives us the ability to drill. It gives us the ability to do some geophysics and so on and so forth, but more importantly is the drilling. And we did have to, you know, look at a lot of different aspects in BC when you're drilling, not only do you have to have consultation with First Nations, which we looked after very quickly and got that done very quickly and got them on side.

24:35 But there's also the environment. There's also grizzly bears. There's undulates, which are like the mountain goats and mountain sheep, owls. And all of that stuff has to be, you know, the boxes have to be ticked. And I think what's happened in BC is that they have had a lot of success and a lot of people are working in BC. And That's put a lot of pressure on the permitting side, the government's permitting side. So it's taken them a long time to go through the entire list. So it's taken us over a year from application to well, pending permit approval. So Ontario is a bit different. They have a mandate that says that they will get it to you within, I think it's 60 days or less than 90 days.

25:30 So they will do that for you. So Ontario is actually a little bit better for the exploration side of things. Now, I can't give any opinion on permitting to production because that's a different stage and we just haven't been there yet. But I think in any case, it is a bit of a long road. And if you do everything properly right from the start, like hopefully we're doing, that it doesn't take very long. And you just have to tick the boxes again, you know, environmental, social, you know, remediation, all of that stuff, it just has to, you have to do it all, which is good, it's important. Yeah, no, totally makes sense. One question from the chat is pretty specific.

26:17 For the Sully property, is there a plan to partner with North Isle Copper? They put the ticker as NCX. Which property is that? Sully property is what they said in the chat. Yeah, we don't have a Sully property. Maybe you can ask them if they mean one of our other ones. But North Isle Copper is on Vancouver Island, I think. So maybe they've got us confused with another group. Okay, possible. Now, that is the end of the questions that we've got today. If anybody does think of a question they've got for directly after, please do send it in. Love to get Jeff back in touch with you. But otherwise, thanks so much for your time, everyone, today, and for the questions you sent in over email and over chat. The replay will be available very soon, but I'll throw it to Jeff for final words before we jet today.

27:05 Thanks, Romeo, and thank everybody for coming on board today and listening and watching the story. I guess just in summary, we've got a portfolio of fantastic Copper projects. We've got an open financing going on right now and once we get that closed, we'll have the momentum to move forward on not only drilling at Rogers Creek, but also developing new targets for our other projects as well. And I'd just like to invite people to go to our website, cascadecopper.com. And again, get in touch with me anytime, either through email or through Romeo, or just give me a call. That'd be great.

27:50 Thanks so much. ♪♪