Copper Lake’s objective is to create shareholder value by focusing on industrial metals where there is long term rising demand and where long term supply is likely to be constrained. Our primary metal focus is on Copper, Zinc and Nickel as well as their associated precious metal credits.

However, those precious metals do matter because they can significantly improve the overall value of a tonne of rock when it is mined. A 10% precious metal credit is often seen in press releases as interesting but not transformative. But when “The economics of mining” become the defining metric that 10% credit turns a modest 20% margin into a 30% margin, which can yield much higher rates of surplus cash thus significantly improving valuations. Also previous marginal base metal resources can become nicely profitable when those “Sundry credits” are added. This “Total metal value” approach often is what transforms the bottom line by leveraging the asset base through bigger volumes and delivering surplus cash flows.

Copper Lake looks to factor this thinking in at the exploration phase rather than as “A bolt on” later in the process. One way we do this is by actively assaying for other metals and spending time on simple tasks like grab sampling and trenching as part of the exploration mix.

Copper Lake does this by focusing on acquiring properties with a history of near surface piecemeal exploration with significant development potential. Working in the Canadian Shield this means we have a particular emphasis on Volcanic Massive Sulphide targets (VMS) which are one of the dominant geological features of the province and one that has made Ontario a world-class destination for metal exploration.

Key to our approach is to take existing historical information and look to bring this together in an integrated database. That database can then be interrogated using multiple geological techniques at very low cost. From this we aim to identify the underlying sources of historically identified surface discoveries. Through this process we aim to look for the geological “Fire” rather than chase the “Smoke”, as so often happened historically through piecemeal methods.

Secondly we believe significant value can be unlocked through reprocessing data acquired in the 2000s and prior using today’s cutting edge data analysis tools.

Combining these two approaches of using historical exploration to better qualify exploration properties and secondly using integrated searchable database with modern data reprocessing creates the opportunity for significant shareholder upside.

As to whether Marshall Lake or Norton Lake move from being advanced exploration properties into become mines well that requires a lot of hard work, mobilising sufficient financial resources, the right economics and some good luck! But to quote the famous golfer Gary Player “Well, the harder I practice, the luckier I get. Crucially we believe that there is strong evidence that both properties are good candidates to achieve the transformation.