Vizsla Copper’s Alaska Pipeline Takes Shape After the Agnico Deal

0:17Peter Mercer: This podcast features Peter Mercer. The deal added to Visa Copper's other big acquisition announced in December. Palmer, a high-grade copper, zinc, and silver project in southeast Alaska with 4.77 million tons of indicated resources at 3.5 % copper equivalent and another 12 million tons inferred at 3.1%. Meanwhile, its stable of BC properties keep growing. Woodgem returned 266 meters, 0.97 % copper, including 48.5 meters at 3.32%. 2%. Thira at Poplar also keeps expanding. Peter Mercer, he is Senior Vice President Alaska. Peter, welcome to Mining Stock Daily. Thank you, Michael. Peter, let's start with the Agnico deal.

1:13Peter Mercer: Last time you talked to Mining Stock Daily, the Agnico deal was still being approved. Now the Delta and Helm Bay are officially yours. What changes on the ground in Alaska this winter and how do those project sit in queue behind Palmer? The NICO deal, just coming in as our largest shareholder at 19.9%, 99 % really gives us an opportunity. And then the acquisition of the Delta really gives us an opportunity to build up a pipeline of projects here in Alaska. Our flagship project is the Palmer. It's the most advanced with current mineral resource. And over the next number of years, we'll continue the engineering evaluation and baseline work in order to move this project along to prepare for environmental review what delta itself provides in helm bay as well is a pipeline so we have some permitting to do over the winter on both of these projects which should be to focus say for early in q1 but once that permitting is approved by the state and federal bodies then we have a pipeline of projects that we can continue to explore and build over the next number of years on the back of Palmer as we sort of enter that environmental review phase in the next number of years.

2:24So really, it's about as a mid-tier copper producer, and that's our vision and that's our goal, Palmer being a flagship, it gives us a number of projects that we kind of advance once we get Palmer into that next stage.

2:36Peter Mercer: I want to turn to Palmer a minute, but just let's stick with Delta and Helm Bay. Delta is a polymetallic VMS. I believe copper grade is about 10th of percent there helm bay is orogenic gold just kind of wondering how those actually fit within visa copper and what your um what the focus of the company is there i think for delta itself there's about 40 kilometer of prospective ground uh really less than five kilometers have been explored in in the seven or so lenses that have been identified and and but i look at it as part of the historic resource there are some very high grade copper results in the north portion of the property and overall if you look at our copper equivalent side it does sort of breach that five percent copper equivalent which is fantastic i think some of the higher grade portions up in the northern end that's going to be one of our focuses that start looking at that on the ground and how to build that portion out and in the meantime we get to work and qualify that historic resource and bring it into a new current reserve current resource under ni 43 101.

3:41so the property is large It has about 40-kilometer strike length of a prospective horizon, and a very small portion of it has been explored and really nothing over the last 20 years. So as Vizsla Copper, we'll have the opportunity to build on what's there historically, but really start looking at some of these other prospects that really just haven't had much attention and bring in some new ideas and interpretations to expand on them.

4:04Peter Mercer: Can you talk about your synergies and your focus on Alaska, what you kind of see in terms of your expertise there? just because you did have Palmer from December as announced, and then you've just added this as well too. Those projects are quite far away from one another as well. You have talked in your decks also about developing government contracts. I do bring it up. I mean, it is a short season up there. You see a lot of companies, for instance, that they will have a project down south where they continue with news flow. But just talk about synergies, talk about actually kind of the focus of the company within BC, and then also up in Alaska.

4:43Good. When VCU acquired Palmer in 2025, it was looking for two things. It was looking for a project with a good resource base and a district that we could expand in and build in over the next number of years. But it was also looking for an operating team, which is what we brought onto the table. They purchased the asset itself, Palmer, and they also purchased the whole team and all of us came along in order to help develop this asset. As we start in discussions with Agnico in terms of this acquisition, that was part of what attracted them to us in terms of the acquisition, is that we have a whole operational team set up, an exploration team and a group on the ground to be able to sort of develop and move these projects along, which is so important when you're working in Alaska.

5:33Like you said, the shorter seasons, you have to be very focused and disciplined and to be able to execute during that time period. What works well with Delta and on the back of Palmer is over the next couple of years, as we collect and sort of finish off the baseline work and move into environmental review phase, we have a whole exploration team here now that we can move to these other projects as we get them permanent over 2027. And we can start exploring each of these projects as we move into the next phase of Palmer. So Palmer is really at that critical mass now and at that turning point where it's getting very close to that next milestone.

6:07We have a team that I'm looking to deploy on these other projects and expand as we sort of finish up over the next two years on the data collection side and start moving into that next milestone for Palmer. And then I can focus on Delta and then also put some work into Helm Bay. Initially, it's going to be remote sensing, geophysical work over the next year or so on the back of that interpretation. Then we'll start planning out our drill programs into Delta and Helm Bay.

6:36Peter Mercer: Let's turn to Palmer. Season is wrapped up. A lot of the assays are pending right now. It is, as you've mentioned, Peter, your flagship project. Outside of kind of getting the drill results right now, you have completed your first field season up there. What do you really kind of want to underline? What do you want to kind of take to investors just regarding what you've learned about Palmer? I think two main things, really. This was our first year we took a break from drilling in 2025. as we secured Vizsla as our new partner. And this year was just a restart and coming in to test some of the initial interpretations that we saw in 2023 and 24, really some of those high grade centers, particularly in zone one, where we saw some very high grade copper grades.

7:21And then also look at the other deposit on AG and sort of expand, look at that, which haven't been drilled in since 2019 and see and take our interpretations that we've taken from zone one and start applying it to the other deposit in the region. So I think from like as a first point, it's to understand the high-grade nature of these deposits, understand the structures that are controlling some of that mineralization, and then apply to both the AG and the Southwalt targets in order to build up and sort of move into a mineral resource update into Q1 of next year. So that was primarily like looking at that high-grade nature.

7:55The second really goal of this year, and we're quite successful in that as well, is look at some of the other prospects that are in the region and help develop out a regional exploration plan. There's about 15 sort of high-quality targets and prospects that have been identified with surface mineralization. And so only four of those projects have really been brought into, prospects have been brought into the current mineral resource, and only six of them have seen any amount of drilling. So our second goal of this season is to sort of reestablish the exploration potential of this project, have a real good look at some of these historical prospects and then start developing some new ones.

8:33And so between the resource expansion and looking at the high-grade nature and then expanding the prospects in general, I really feel that this season has been quite successful with the amount of drilling that we've had and got some new ideas in terms of how to advance the project and mineralization going forward.

8:47Peter Mercer: I believe in the news release, you said that two new prospects were drilled for the first time. Why did you select those targets? Between the Southwall prospect or the Southwall deposit and the AG is about three kilometers. So part of what this season was, was looking at what's in between these three prospects, if we're looking at from a development aspect, are there additional mineralization in between these two areas that we should be focusing on and incorporating that into our overall development plan. So that's what was the primary focus. And then step out again, look at the overall 15 prospects that we have across the property and some have very high copper grades and have things like cobalt associated with it so understanding that a little bit more as we sort of move into the next phase of our project definition was very important we felt to start that this field season now uh you're looking towards a resource update in q1 of 2027 for uh palmer that's right Do you have in your mind in terms of like what a successful update will look like in terms of tons of grade just kind of giving its location?

9:54Peter Mercer: Also talk about how much of the zone one high grade from 2023 and 2024 is going to be captured in that. So we have this with some of our additional drilling in both AG and Southwall. I expect some of the high grade and that core portion of it is going to grow. just with some of the results we've managed to extend it both down dip and laterally as well. So we expect to receive some modest improvements on that high grade area, but modest improvements in tons with that type of grade, obviously adds a lot more metal into the ground, which would be exciting to see how that works out on the modeling.

10:29I think the two sort of key areas that we've seen a big change in copper price since early January 2025 and sort of at that above$6 range right now quite consistently. But a lot of other metals have also increased in commodity price as well. And looking at a polymetallic type of deposit that we have, it's not just the copper. We're looking at the price of zinc, the price of gold, the price of silver, and how that's changed over the last two years and how that sort of will add to the mineral resource. I think the other thing that we did include an estimate on, but we did not include in our cutoff calculations, was bar rate.

11:05And bar rate is in high demand, particularly in Alaska with its oil and gas exploration, but throughout the world. And the supply of bar rate is in short supply right now, specifically when you're looking at some of the restrictions over in China and Japan. So adding bar rate into the resource calculation, more than just the tons calculation and see how that can impact the overall cutoff. That's going to be one of the primary goals for this resource update in Q1 of next year.

11:33Peter Mercer: Further out, talking about a preliminary economic assessment is also as well as a pre-feasibility. I think you told us in September you were thinking about a pre-feasibility in two to three years. What are you looking at right now in terms of those larger-scale economic studies and possible sequencing? We'll start with the PEA update going into next year. With the Inventor Group and Vizsla Copper and the whole structure we have, we can do a lot of this work internally. so we'll start that as soon as the mineral resource update is done and we'll also do sorry peter what's the advent group uh the inventor group sorry inventor group sorry inventor group being the umbrella underneath uh helio star and then uh also um uh also uh visa silver as well too my fault absolutely and co-star the whole umbrella that uh sort of makes this company quite unique from many others so we'll start that work next year right after the mineral resource update in Q1.

12:31We'll start with doing it internally, using some of the inventor expertise, and then by the end of the year, we'll target sort of get that PEA updated. With the pre-feasibility study, part of the challenge is, as you mentioned earlier, working in Alaska is you have very short seasons. So as we look at our resource conversion from inferred over to indicated, and then how much material that we feel that we want to bring into the indicated, then that kind of dictates how much drilling that we're going to need before we initiate the pre-feasibility. So as a strategy in sequencing this out, resource update and then PEA going into 2027, early 2028 for the PEA, and then the environmental review going into 2029, the pre-feasibility portion of it, we'll gauge that as we finish off and we start looking at a resource conversion.

13:18And so that may take an extra year on the back of that. We'll start providing some guidance on that as we look at our drill spacing studies and we initiate the PEA and see the results of that. So the timing of the pre-feasibility will come post-environmental review, but all the work that sort of feeds into that will be collecting that information over the next two to three years.

13:38Peter Mercer: What's your cash position now and what's your budget as you march out? How much of our money have you got in terms of advancing the project? So we're currently in our bank. We have around$8 million to$10 million. That's post-field season, everything. We've done very well with our budgets this year. We're very budget conscious. both on our BC projects and up on our Alaska projects. So that 8 to 10 million cash position will certainly take us into the start of next year's field season. And then we'll evaluate this over the next six months as all the drill results and all the assay results from both our BC property and Alaska are sort of fully out and released.

14:15Then we'll look at how the budgets of going into next year and how we'll arrange that with our current cash position.

14:21Peter Mercer: Any insights right now in terms of when you'll be getting those assays? Labs are backed up, my goodness. And it's not just for Palmer and BC. They're so like, they're eight to 10 weeks out and sometimes 12, but they've done a great job in sort of picking things up and adding in, reducing prep times and then the assay times. We will have assays coming right into January. We've got some that are just receiving now over the next couple of weeks and some of our additional infill holes. And then some of the work on our buried assay program, we'll see that coming right into January. So expect to see results out of us every couple of weeks right up until the new year and early into the new year.

15:02Peter Mercer: Peter Mercer, thanks to speak with Mining Stock Daily. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity. The information presented should not be considered investment advice. Mining Stock Daily and its 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.