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As the Demand for Copper Grows, So Does this Explorer & Developer’s Projects

Dave Jackson Dave Jackson, Stockhouse
1 Comment| June 3, 2021

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(Click image to play video)


Back in March, Stockhouse last met up Libero Copper & Gold’s (TSX-V.LBC, OTCQB: LBCMF, Forum) President & CEO Ian Harris to talk about his company’s four-pack of copper porphyry deposits throughout the Americas in prolific, mining-friendly jurisdictions.

Libero is an aggressively-positioned mineral exploration company whose portfolio includes:

  • Big Red & Big Bulk in BC’s Golden Triangle.
  • Esperanza in the in the prolific precious and base metal-endowed Huachi mining district of San Juan Province, Argentina.
  • Mocoa – a copper-molybdenum deposit located in Putomayo, Colombia.
In Part 2 of this highly informative metals & mining investor vodcast, Stockhouse Media’s Dave Jackson caught up, once again, with Mr. Harris to discuss the company’s intriguing Argentinian Esperanza project, their duo of exploration projects in northwestern BC, and Libero’s strong growth metrics for 2021 and beyond.

TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

SH: To start off with, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and the history of the company?

IH: Libero really started in 2018 with the acquisition of the Mocoa project in Colombia, but the major focus in recent years was on the Big Red project in British Columbia, mostly focusing on gold anomalies and then at the end of the year made a new porphyry copper discovery. So it was a major transformation. I myself joined with a lot of new directors and management to strengthen around strength in the Americas, South America, and North America. I am a mining engineer, and that means I bring a mining engineer perspective tothe focus of our projects. I think that's important. I've got 25 years in the industry. 15 of those have been working in South America, over 12 of those living in South America. I'm fluent in Spanish, I'm comfortable in the area. So that's a little bit about myself.

SH: Can you update our investor audience and your ‘LBC’ shareholders on any new company developments, especially at the aforementioned Big Red & Big Bulk Projects in BC’s Golden Triangle?

IH: I have to be frank that this is really an exciting time for us because a lot has happened. A dramatic amount of work has been put together since January and the company with two acquisitions, new management, a significant raise and now the boots are finallyhitting the ground. At both Big Red and at Big Bulk we're starting to mobilize to site and our drills are expected to be turning around the first week of July. And that's a huge development because I think we've been telling the story and the new story of Libero since the beginning of the year, got a lot of excitement associated with the copper market, the assets that we've been able to acquire but you know everybody's says, Ican't wait till June, can't wait till July and now we're here. And people, I think, are coming off the fence and are getting their fingers in the pie. So, it's nice that we're at this point where we're actually starting to move forward with technical advancement of the projects.

SH: Now across the continent to Argentina at your Esperanza project. Have the recent drilling results at the nearby Filo del Sol and their recent discovery of a new high-grade feeder zone, impacted Libero’s drill plans?

IH: It really has. First, the mining engineer perspective says, hey we have minerals, we have a discovery hole, incredible hole, mineralization directly from surface, 220 meters of it at over a 1% equivalent copper, but then you say, does it have the size?You need size and scale to be able to become a future mine. 1.8 kilometers of strike length. We have a very large alteration zone over about 800 meters. So it's got the size, it's got the grade. Now, what else is going on at the project? We've always been very excited, the geologists are extremely excited because they're seeing the telescoping potential, multiple events and we've gone back, were-logged it. We're seeing all those things and we're like, do we have a real feeder zone here? And then we looked across and, kaboom, Filo del Sol puts out one of the most spectacular holes of the year!

I think over 800 meters at a 1.6 equivalent copper, I think was their numbers. They hit their feeder zone. We compare the projects, and it gets us, it confirms what we were hoping for that there's a high chance that Esperanza also has a similar feeder zone. We look, we’re at the same age, miocene porphyry, same type of host rock, same type of alteration. We look at the cores, we're seeing the same over printing, same sections within that different sections of that porphyry and we get really excited. Wefeel like we're basically where they were, testing the top of the system, we've adjusted our plans to do some of the things that they've done and targeted testing. We've included some deeper holes based on ourhigher confidence that we have something very similar as Filo del Sol. So, it was really well received on our side.

SH: Moving over to Colombia, what’s the latest news from Mocoa – a Jurassic porphyry belt in the same neighbourhood as Solaris’ highly prolific Warintza project?

IH: So interestingly in a previous life, I wasSenior Vice President and Country Manager for Corriente Resources, and I took part of the team that took it post discovery through feasibility, sale, stayed on board for a year afterwards as a part of the sales agreement and got that into the start of construction. That's now the first large-scale operating mine in the history of Ecuador, in that same Jurassic belt. Warintza was actually part of Corriente at one time with David Lowell. I know the project well, it's in the vicinity of some of our projects. We see what's coming out of Solaris and obviously we're very excited that Mocoa is just a continuation into Colombia of that same Jurassic belt, have had very big success, Ernie Mast was CEO of Inmet’s Cobre Panama, and oversaw the $6 billion construction of that project.Also the first operating large-scale operation in that country. Sowe always joke around, we're using the exact same game plan we used in Ecuador, and we used in Panama, but in a lot more positive playing field and that's the big change.It hasn't been seen yet in terms of announcements of actual advancement, but we've seen the difference with the government being very supportive.

The announcements by the President,he wants to be the third largest producer of copper in South America. He wants to diversify the mining sector that's basically been coal and gold to date. So, highly supportive from the President all the way down through the Ministry and the National Mining Agency, working together with us, saying, how can we help you? How can we double our efforts between communication and local community and working withthe local environmental agencies? So we've really ramped up our activities and getting prepared. We submitted our permit for exploration and feel that support, things that I haven't seen in my 15 years in South America.Instead of hearing, prices are high, let's increase our royalties - things are looking good for Colombia, how do we get more investment into the country? It’s the kind of thing that you really want to hear and it gets us really excited about Mocoa.

SH: You announced back in February the upsizing of a seven-million-dollar private placement. This raise may be news to many investors. Can you unpack the benefits of it?

IH: What's really nice is that we're sitting on the financing that we're required to execute on our exploration programs for the year. Not having to worry about, we got all these great plans and how are we going to pay for them? We've got the money in the bank already, and now movement is finally happening. Finally, that money is being deployed intoadvancing our projects. So it's a very exciting time and it's good to know whenwe're talking about things that we're going to execute on instead of these are the things we'd like to execute on if we can raise the money.

SH: You’ve said that with mineralization continuing at depth or stepping out at Big Red next month and drill permitting at either Mocoa or Esperanza this will be a complete game changer for Libero. How so?
IH: When you look at any one of these projects, whether it's Big Red,Mocoa, or Esperanza, there are some very clear trailblazers that have been ahead of us that are comparables. Any one of those projects is a company builder. We look at GT Gold, we look at the results we've had so far at Big Red, the grades are almost identical. We know what happened to GT, it sold for $450 million Canadian. We have the same size, we have a very large style, over a kilometer diameter, anomaly that we're following up on. It needs to be followed up with depth, but we see a growth path. We know where the value of that project can go if we are successful.At Mocoa, we know that Solaris is worth a billion dollars and Mocoa has 636 million tons already. It has those kinds of holes that Solarishas been putting out. So we know that once we get that project up and running and moving that we can repeat those types of results. So we see, again, a path to value and Solaris is trading over a billion dollars today.

The last one is Esperanza. Again,it's obvious with what we just talked about with Filo de Sol, they're worth over a billion dollars today. So we know the path, we know what needs to be done, and we can see that we can be creating real value on three different projects, not one single project. We are going to be advancing on multiple projects. It's extremely exciting to have so many opportunities to create real value. I mean, we're trading today, we've been increasing a lot over the last few weeks, but around $25 million Canadian and when you talk 25 million to 450 or a billion dollars, are those are the type of paths we're going to be going down, you can see that we have the ability to create a lot of value. Now that boots are on the ground and moving forward, it's obviously a very exciting time for us.

SH: The Company looks set for strong growth in 2021. How are you placed to expand operations to meet this kind of demand?

IH:We’re really fortunate. A lot of key management and directors have been put in place. I talk a lot, in our circles, about a center of gravity, that if you can create the projects, get some really key management,really key people and players, you start to attract other people that want to become involved, and I think we've hit that critical mass. Where I think in terms of portfolio, and quality of the projects or in quality of management, quality of our officers and directors, were really ahead of the game and that is attracting a whole lot of newadditional attention.You know in the past a lot of it was a waste zone, it was like “zombieland”, where financing was next to impossible and now, we're seeing a lot more money flowinginto the junior mining space.

The next was people were saying, where are our projects? In copper? That is a real problem due to the lack of investment over the years. Butthe last question is, where are the people? We are lucky that we have that trifecta in terms of people, funding and project quality. We're not blind to the opportunities that that can continue to bring to us. We're happy with what we have, but we are continuously looking for even more opportunities because we have the confidence with experience and connections and networks that we can attract the strong management required to move these projects forward. On the ground, we have strongproject managementand people to move those projects now and we know that we can continue to grow, if necessary.

SH: I have to mention your stock has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride over the past 12 months. What can you tell our investor audience regarding the current valuation of your stock and why you think it’s a good value buy right now?

IH: The truth is, to those not familiar with the junior mining space, they're not accustomed to that kind of volatility. We’ve been floating around the 50-cent mark for a very extended period of time now since the beginning of the year really and bouncing between that value. Recently over the last two weeks, we've seen a dramatic improvement in our share price. I think today we hit 69-cents (stock price as of May 27, 2021. Current stock price here) and I think a lot of it is people have been on the fence. They love the story, but there's so many opportunities. I think eveybody's looking for very short-term opportunities and I do believe because we're mobilizing, and they know a real news flow. People are like, OK we can't wait any longer, we've already gotten a couple of emails, man, if I would've just done this Tuesday! People are already feeling that they're missing out on the real opportunity. I think that we're now on a steady path to create that value as I explained, between the three different projects, very clear pathways.

SH: What’s the long-term strategy for the company moving into 2021 and beyond, and what retail and institutional investors should be looking out for?

IH: I've had some very interesting conversations recently on exactly this question and like, what's going to happen? How are you going to manage this? I was like, I can't wait to have those types of problems. If you have three excellent projects moving forward and how are you going to continue to push forward three incredible projectsat the same time? All I can say now is, we have a focus and have a strategy, very clear there is going to be a large significant gap in the availability of copper over the next eight years and that's how long it takes to take projects, post discovery, and get them to a construction decision. So that every single dollar that we put in the ground is to advance those projects towards that construction decision, whether it is us or somebody who wants to construct it a whole lot more than us, we still have the responsibility to get it advanced. When the majors are going to be relooking and they will, right now, they're really looking at that dividend that stockholders are addicted to, but it can't last forever.

Eventually one of them is going to break rank and they're going to acquire somebody. They are going to create a lot of excitement and they know they're going to have to acquire additional projects to create that excitement and we want to be ready for that. We don't want to be just still kicking around, looking for resources and drilling a little bit here, there, we need to make sure every drill hole we're putting down is advancing that project towards a construction decision, whether in the creation of resources or through the engineering required.

SH: And finally, Ian, if there’s anything I’ve overlooked the floor is all yours.

IH: You know, I'm sitting here in Cocoa Beach (Florida) and I'm watching the rockets go out into outer space. We've been lucky, we've seen three over the last three weeks. It'sexciting and I know the feeling. I don't have kerosene in the tanks, but I’ve got $7 million in the tank and I'm so happy thatwe're T-minus two. We’re mobilizing to site and things are moving forward. It's a very exciting time andjust happy that I'mcapable of sharing that with you and the viewers today.


For regular updates, visit www.liberocopper.com.


FULL DISCLOSURE: This is a paid article produced by Stockhouse Publishing.


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