Transcription of The Stock Network Interview with Kincora Copper (ASX & TSXV:KCC) President and CEO, Sam Spring
Lel Smits: Kincora Copper has just released its latest quarterly report headlined by a ramp-up in management fee income and partner-funded drilling across its portfolio of copper-gold projects in the Macquarie Arc of New South Wales. The company has also secured strategic funding from leading North American investors and is advancing discussions with new asset-level partners for its remaining wholly-owned projects. Kincora Copper President and CEO Sam Spring joins me to discuss progress on the company’s partner-funded exploration strategy.
Sam, welcome back to the Stock Network.
Sam Spring: Thank you, Loel, for having us on. Now, Kincora has made significant progress in moving to a project generation and partner funding model with six asset-level partnerships secured so far.
Lel Smits: Can you tell us about the second earn-in agreement with AngloGold Ashanti executed during the quarter?
Sam Spring: Yeah, and that was a key milestone during the second quarter for us, that second deal with AngloGold Ashanti. It’s consolidated up to 100-kilometre north-south strike, five projects within that. It’s seeing us accelerate that exploration where the operator will receive a management fee for it.
And as you pick up, we’ve done six deals to date that unlock over $110 million of partner funding. To date, since we’ve shifted that business model, we’ve had over $6.5 million in the ground from those partners out of the 110. We’ve had 13,500 metres of drilling without our shareholders having to fund that.
We’ve seen management fees ramping up. So really, the second quarter was a continuation of us expanding on our existing strategy.
Lel Smits: Excellent. You’re also ramping up drilling and exploration works across your portfolio of projects in the Macquarie Arc. Why is this geological region prospective for globally significant copper gold discoveries?
Sam Spring: Yeah, and well, we’ve seen $16 billion of M&A with the producing assets. We’ve seen over $385 million of earn-in deals with majors, with juniors.
There’s been two $10 million-ounce gold discoveries recently. And really pleasingly, just after period end, we’ve seen Waratah make a new discovery at its spur project. That saw the share price double and added over $65 million to its market cap.
They raised $30 million off the back of that to ramp up drilling. So it really shows that from a globally significant perspective, the Macquarie Arc is Australia’s leading porphyry belt, and it really is on the international radar for the major players.
Lel Smits: Brilliant. And finally, Kincora secured up to $4 million Canadian through a strategic placement backed by leading natural resources investors Rick Rule and Jeff Phillips. What’s the significance of this funding for Kincora’s operations?
Sam Spring: And Rick and Jeff have really backed our strategy, and it’s provided great endorsement. This extra funding means that we can drill at our Condobolin project.
The funding’s expected to close towards the end of the month after our shareholder meeting. And that will see us be able to ramp up ongoing drilling on a 100% own basis on a couple of projects. It will also support us as we continue our conversations with our Trundle and Fairholme flagship projects with new asset-level partners.
So it really means that we can get on the front foot with our existing strategy and ramp that up with more drilling, more deals, more management fees, and ultimately that leading to more discoveries. Great to hear, Sam. Appreciate the update from Kincora Copper and look forward to seeing what happens next.
Sam Spring: Fantastic. Thank you, Lel
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