Western Copper and Gold Corp T.WRN

Mitsubishi Materials Corp.

[jclarke042]

At first glance, MMC's involvement here is NOT to acquire Casino outright down the road, nor (IMO) is it necessarily designed to get Rio to pull the trigger. Be interesting to see if they elect to keep 8%, up to 12.5% or stay at 7.x %.

MMC does develop mines & projects, but appears they're not sole owner/operators but more junior partners, on to feed their smelters & refiners, then selling to end-users. Check here:

https://www.mmc.co.jp/corporate/en/business/metals/

In the Americas, MMC is:

25% partner in Copper Mountain Mine, BC Canada
30% ownership in Montoverde Mine, Chile
5% partner in Los Pelambres, Chile

The only real "con" here IMO is realistically no buyout this year. Given the track record, we HAVE TO assume Mitsubishi will take 24 months, and that Rio will extend past November to the same time frame.

Grat, you're right: MMC isn't big enough to take this on solo, so this is more building the consortium than pitting one against the other. But we've got runway now on cash, I was getting nervous reading the cash flow statement yesterday - we burned half our $$ position in 2022. I'm more comfortable with the time horizon now with someone else on board. I'll consider selling a small take here on any run-up, it WILL come back down, so no fear on missing out.

Steve - couple years ago you mentioned the possibility of a Japanese company getting involved here. Good work.

[Sooner]

and at a minimum, let's just take solace in the fact that SOMEONE other than Rio believes that Casino is worth more than just moose grazing pasture ---- like that stupid meth smoking meathead monkey worshipper tries to convince us of...

[jclarke042]

To modify my below post: I'll rephrase "MMC will take all 24 months," because likely their end goal is NOT outright ownership. Their 24 months is the right to partake in the technical committee, board seat at 12.5% ownership.After that they simply become a shareholder. The key here is the first right to negotiate their proportion of copper offtake at the LATER of: 1) April 2025 or 2

[Pinegrove]

With such a minority interest why would they have the ability to negotiate X% of copper offtake.  I would think that they are a shareholder like anyone else and this investement doesn't give them any more rights than anyone else with a similar stake.

[IvanRo]

A similar strategy was done by Glencore and Traifigura for Ironbark Zinc for up to 70% offtake. Both are major shareholders.

[IvanRo]

Agree Clarke, looks like they are only in it for securing the coper offtake agreements and yep, takeover looking less likely this year with more interested parties. A few positives points: 1.) I think this strategic investment gives us more market place credibility. We now have a major miner plus a major customer / potential junior partner onboard. 2.) It demonstrates, at least to me anyway

[EvenSteven27]

JC, I live 20 minutes away from Mitsubishi's Yahata/Tobata smelter. That is where Rio sends all their ore for Japan. They are partners. A few years back I talked to a Mr. Obata. He said he wasn't obligated to answer questions. His English was impeccable.