Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with True North Copper (ASX:TNC), Managing Director Bevan Jones
Lel Smits: True North Copper is an Australian copper explorer and developer advancing a highly prospective portfolio of assets in Queensland’s world-class Mount Isa region. With a strong balance sheet, no interest bearing debt and backing from major shareholders including Tembo Capital, Regal Asset Management and Glencore Australia, the company is focused on both near-term production and long-term growth. Managing Director Bevan Jones joins me ahead of the Mining Rockstars Investor event in Sydney to discuss True North’s latest drilling results, aggressive exploration strategy and growth outlook.
Bevan, welcome to the Stock Network.
Bevan Jones: Well, thank you very much, Lel. It’s great to be here.
Lel Smits: Now, recent drilling at Wallace North, part of the Klonkari copper project has delivered significant copper gold mineralisation well beyond the existing resource boundary. How does this discovery reshape your development pathway at Klonkari and what does it mean for establishing Wallace as a potential production hub?
Bevan Jones: Yeah, look, the Klonkari copper project is a hub-and-spoke model where the centrepiece of that is actually Klonkari, but it relies heavily on the satellite operations that we have in the region and Wallace North is our most prospective region. The drilling that we’ve done recently really starts to expand the existing footprint and we’re looking at a district play size now.
Originally there were a couple of small Gold pits within the region and we started pre-stripping the copper pit last year and this drilling is outside of those 2 particular areas, but we think that it’s all part of a bigger system. So it’s very, very exciting for us and moving forward it will form a big part of any restart discussions.
Lel Smits: Excellent. Now at Mount Oxide, phase 1 drilling has confirmed the depth persistent large-scale Aquila copper-cobalt-silver discovery with phase 2 drilling now underway. How do these results position Mount Oxide as a district-scale opportunity and also what milestones should investors watch out for as you advance this exploration through the upcoming season?
Bevan Jones: Mount Oxide is so exciting. Everywhere we go there and the more that we look, the more that we see. We’re strongly of the view that this is a district-scale play. We’ve got our existing resource at Vero and we’re drilling the Mount Oxide area like you discussed at the moment. What we’re seeing is a much larger system about 4km north of our existing Vero discovery.
So it is a much bigger system and the most important thing is that the guys are on-site drilling today and so those results will start to roll in over the next couple of months. It takes 6-8 weeks to get our assays back, but between now and the wet season we’re expecting to have a significant amount of information coming through for that drilling. Well Bevan, thank you so much for the update on True North Copper and look forward to seeing you at the Mining Rockstars event in Sydney later this month.
No worries, thank you very much.