Los Andes Copper: CEO Letter While summer is drawing to a close in the northern hemisphere, spring is upon us in the southern hemisphere and we have a very exciting remainder of 2022 and 2023 head of us at Los Andes Copper Ltd.
A lot is happening with our Company right now and I wanted to take this opportunity to recap some of the key things we are working on. We have closed theUS$5 million convertible debenture with Queen’s Road Capital Investment (“Queen’s Road”) which we announced initially on August 25. This is the third such financing we have undertaken with Queen’s Road this year for an aggregate of US$14 million. Queen’s Road has been a stalwart investor and shareholder of the Company and we appreciate their ongoing support.
This convertible financing benefits all shareholders as it allows us to complete a prefeasibility study (“PFS”) on our Vizcachitas copper deposit in Chile (due before year end) and to keep drilling in order to grow the resource. It also minimises the dilution to all shareholders during these times of depressed copper equity share prices caused by the recent pullback in the copper price. Remember, we currently have just 27.2 million shares issued and outstanding so minimising the dilution which comes with equity raises is a means of protecting the value that each of your shares represent.
We believe the PFS work and resource drilling at Vizcachitas will translate into growing the value of our Company which is one of the keys to growing our share price. Another key is to increase the liquidity of our stock by attracting more potential buyers. With this in mind, we are always looking to meet with new people to share the Los Andes Copper story with and we are stepping-up our outreach and communication with institutional investors as requested by the firms which provide research on our Company.
At a corporate level we are working hard at this, organizing a series of one-on-one meetings with the Executive Team. If you would like to have a direct Zoom call with me please respond so we can arrange a convenient time to speak. As shareholders it is in the best interest of all of us to increase the interest in the Company and the liquidity in the stock. And so I would also like to ask you the favour of forwarding this email to two or more people you know who may potentially be interested in finding out more about our very attractive and exciting copper project and Company.
I mentioned that we are going to be drilling more at Vizcachitas, and we are preparing to mobilise up to five drill rigs as soon as we can to expand the size of, and infill drill, our massive copper deposit in central Chile. The world needs copper and major copper producers want large copper deposits which can sustain multi-decade production. We have already shown that Vizcachitas is a world-class deposit and we want to continue making it bigger so that we are near the top of the list when the big miners eventually go shopping to put new copper development projects in their pipelines.
The world is rapidly awaking to the importance of copper to meet decarbonisation goals. Barely a week passes now without one institution or another reporting on the looming copper deficit and the absence of a supply resource. Forecasts show a deficit in copper supply emerging later this decade and growing towards 10 million tonnes per year by 2030 due to additional demand from the move to decarbonise the world economy. That is an awful lot of additional copper that the market will need! Recently, the looming battery metals shortage made mainstream news on Australia’s Channel 9, while Mining.com reported that for Tesla to reach its stated goal of producing 20 million EV’s per year it will need to acquire some 1.8 million tonnes per year of copper, which would make it a bigger buyer than China’s national grid!
To show how Los Andes Copper and its Vizcachitas deposit can help meet that deficit, we are advancing an educational campaign called #electricbynature where we talk about how copper is the key to meeting the world's energy transition and electric vehicle goals. As part of these communication efforts we have refreshed the design of our corporate presentation and factsheet to better inform of the many advantages that our Vizcachitas copper project has and why it is increasingly desirable. Please check out our website to download and share these.
https://losandescopper.com/
We are not just communicating with potential investors. Maintaining our social license to operate is a continual goal. To this end, at the local community level we have completed over 100 meetings in the last 24 months as we continue to increase our communication and relationships in the area of the project and at a provincial and national level.
We note that over the first weekend in September Chile voted in the national referendum on the new Constitution and rejected the proposal in a landslide vote. We deeply respect the strongly democratic process in Chile, and the clear preference of the vast majority of Chileans to continue searching for new constitutional arrangements that allow the nation to prosper and to achieve more just and sustainable outcomes. Responsible mining is important in Chile and it will be important for decades to come.
In closing, the balance of 2022 is very exciting as we look to publish our Vizcachitas prefeasibility study and daylight our value with one of the largest copper resources available at a very bullish time for copper.
As always, if you have questions or comments, especially if you think we can do better let us know.
R. Michael Jones
CEO
Los Andes Copper Ltd