Koryx Copper in Final Stages of its Haib PFS

0:17Trevor Hall: One of the benefits of coming to these conferences and doing as much coverage as we can is we get to connect with old friends. So that's what we're going to do in this episode. Haya Don, now CEO of Corex Copper. We don't get to do this very often, Haya. I hope we get to do it more often next year because there's an important piece of information, technical report, preliminary feasibility study imminent for your Hive project. So congratulations. You run fast when you do these projects. So give us a rundown of the last year and how you got to this PFS so quickly. Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it. Great to be back.

0:55Wait with the congratulations because we're only going to publish in a week's time. But yeah, I think you'll be impressed with what you see. I absolutely believe that we will shoot the lights out with the numbers of the PFS. Can't tell you what they are, of course, but generally speaking, it's going to be a high production, good economics, excellent economics, in fact. but it's really based on three or four major improvements that we achieved over this last year. Reminding your listeners, we published a PEA at the end of last year and the results of that PEA demonstrated technical and economic feasibility of this project with the concentrator flotation layout.

1:42So that was the first win but it was still based on the old mineral resource with lots of optimization potential. So since then we have drilled constantly with 15 rigs so we've made the resource significantly bigger, we improved the grade, we brought in gold and molly as a byproduct and in fact we have silver too now although it's not 43-101 yet but there is silver that's that's great that's good fresh news. We also did flow sheet optimization by increasing the throughput substantially and also by bringing in a sorting sorting step called CPF, coarse particle flotation, which increases the grade by about 25%.

2:21If you put all of that together that gives us much higher production and these excellent economics that we're going to publish.

2:27Trevor Hall: Okay, very good. There's one of the things from the optimization that you've been talking about too is moving from a 92 ,000 ton per annum and you were talking more over to a hundred. Is that correct? Is that still kind of in line with what you're going to be? Yeah, we're going to be substantially over a hundred. You're substantially over 100. Okay. And so talk about the role of the drilling of this last year. Obviously, you talked about expanding the resource. Is there some conversion in there? Are you going to be improving confidence in the ounces as well? Yes. So one of the key things to understand is that in order to call a study a PFS, you have to have indicated resources.

3:06So we had to do a lot of infill drilling in order to convert infer to indicated.

3:10Trevor Hall: Yes. And that's a good thing because indicated obviously you have a much higher confidence level. But we also through this drilling we managed to convert a lot of waste that was material that was previously classified as waste we managed to convert into low-grade but payable material. So therefore if you look at the resource that will come out on a global basis the grade actually went down marginally but the size increased substantially it's because of the introduction of very substantial lower-grade resources. The effect of that is that the stripping ratio has been reduced substantially. That's obviously highly economic.

3:43So all of these are really very positive benefits that come into the project. And then the byproducts, you know, the gold, the molly, the silver, they will get the copper equivalent grade up of the portion that gets processed. So really positive numbers that we're going to put out.

3:59Trevor Hall: You've dropped the oxide heap leach from the base case? Yes, we have. Reason being, it was always questionable. You know, sulfide, well, put it this way. Heap leaching and oxides, no problem. Heap leaching and sulphides is a problem. In our case, we had a significant oxide, I don't want to call it a cap, it was a transitional zone, it was a weathering zone at the top of the deposit, which was of a size that would be justified to have a heap leach add on to the project. But obviously that adds complexity. So with all this infill drilling that we've done, we've been able to reduce that weathering zone substantially.

4:40We've got a much better weathering surface. So now we have far less oxide material, plus an oxide heap leach is just unnecessary complexity and that's why we've dropped it all together. That oxide material will go on stockpile. It's a future opportunity and we have substantially increased the sulfide throughput through the conventional concentrator plant.

4:59Trevor Hall: Yeah. I want to talk to you, the speed of things. I mean, when you were with Ossino, Ossino moved fast, but this actually seems like it's moving even faster. Is that just a testament to how the project was established before you took over it? Obviously a testament. I mean, 15 rigs. I don't remember Ossino having 15 rigs. A lot. But 15 is quite a bit. And so how do you manage to do things so fast but yet so efficiently in this project? Firstly, well, a couple of things. Of course, you need money. Everything costs money. but at the same time I am always focused on the time value of money so moving fast pays it's the best way to add value is to move fast so I'm personally my DNA is just I like to fast-track things I don't like to sit around I like to do things in parallel but there's some unique aspects here too we've got an excellent technical team who and those guys really know what they're doing I have the experience and also the confidence to make quick decisions so when we have to do certain studies or so we don't have long processes we give approvals very quickly on rigs you know the the more rigs the better because that increases your drilling rate the critical path for us was always the conversion of the infer to indicate it and that's why we went to 15 rigs and that's that that's how we did it I mean we were blessed also with pretty good historical study work that gave us confidence that the direction we were going in was the the right direction and we just built on that and improved on it.

6:33Trevor Hall: Yeah, yeah. You know, and obviously you know the biggest criticism from HYBE has been great. Large project, low grade, but do you think this PFS is really going to put some of those criticisms to bed? Absolutely, absolutely. You're 100 % right. HYBE was always known to be large, world-class in terms of size, but low grade. Sitting at just under 0.3 % copper. With the PFS that comes out, the The feed grade that goes into the processing plant, after all the magic that we're doing, is going to be just under 0.45 % copper equivalent. And I mean that's a game changer. It's not a low grade dog anymore.

7:11It's actually a very credible project. And you know what I also say is it's actually not about the grade. It's about the place on the cost curve. It's about the unit cost. Because we have some certain advantages in Namibia, like a low cost operating environment, excellent infrastructure and so therefore these low stripping deposit from surface so if you add all these things up our unit cost on a you know all in sustaining unit cost on a dollar per pound basis is going to be just over two dollars which is sort of at the beginning of the second quarter that's excellent and that includes the grade and that's why it's actually about your margin not your grade.

7:52Trevor Hall: I'm just kind of curious base case copper prices right now obviously copper has had an incredible 18 months but there's quite a bit of volatility still has come off those highs but what is an appropriate base case copper price right now for these reports? You know what I know this is the sort of how long is a piece of string so we're We will use$5 in the study. Most recent studies are sitting around that level. And the justification for that is typically what is called street consensus. So basically the forward curve of the investment analysts out there. That's how we derived it. So that's$5. And that's obviously significantly below spot.

8:35But when I said how long is a piece of string, what I meant by that is that any observer can use their same copper prices. at the end of our press release will be a sensitivity analysis. If you don't like that number and you want to use a lower one, there will be a table in there and you can look at it, what the economics will be for a lower-priced project.

8:54Trevor Hall: Okay. We're going to leave it at that and try to touch base with you next week. Funny thing is I will be in Namibia when this PFS is being published. I hope maybe you and I could catch online, If not, maybe the following week, you know, an update in your comments on that. Let the market digest it, do what the market needs to do. But my final question for you, Haya, is you move fast. You're already thinking about post-PFS 2027. What does that look like? So we are going to deliver obviously a very credible PFS, which opens up the question what's next? That's what you're asking. and next is rendering this project to become shovel ready.

9:40That means we need to get all the permits in place second half of next year. We need to do operational readiness planning and we need to build a construction implementation plan, hire a team that's already started, basically build a self-built scenario. We will also do an internal study on a lower capex scenario, like a staged scenario, a self-built scenario. Something that's a bit smaller from a overall CapEx perspective, something that's more digestible. Because our base case is that we are going to build this project. Of course, it's a true mega project. I do believe it should end up in the hands of a large, well-financed, credible international mining group.

10:19But we will be ready to take it forward ourselves. And that's what we're going to do next year.

10:24Trevor Hall: Okay. All right. We'll talk to you here in the next few days here, Haya. All right, Corex Copper trades on the venture with KRY and on the OTCQX with KRYXF. Important news coming down the pipeline with the PFS for HYBE, so stay tuned for that. Thanks, Haya. Great. Thank you very much. The information presented should not be considered investment advice. Mining stock daily Yintz affiliates are not responsible for any loss arising from any investment decision in connection with the material presented herein. Please do your own research or speak with a licensed financial representative before making any investment decisions.