Categories: Mining Stocks
Topics: Copper Stocks

Intrepid Metals (TSX-V: INTR)(OTC: IMTCF) CEO Ken Engquist on Long Widths of Copper-Gold Mineralization with High Grade

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the CEO of Intrepid Metals (TSX-V: INTR)(OTC: IMTCF), Mr. Ken Engquist. Ken, great to have you back on. How are you, sir?

Ken Engquist: I'm doing great. Thanks, Gerardo. Appreciate you having me back on.

Gerardo Del Real: Let's get right to it. Listen, you had some news yesterday that I don't think the market's fully digested yet, so let's help set the table per se and see if we can feed them something juicy, right? And this was the headline, the headline said, Intrepid Metals Intercepts 27.50% Copper, 10.15 gpt Gold, and 192 gpt Silver Over 0.55m in First Drill Hole of 2025 at Corral Copper [program]. Now that is absolutely impressive. Highlight numbers, copper, gold, you name it, you have it. I'll tell you what really stood out to me. 142 meters of 0.51% copper, 0.17 grams per tonne gold and four grams per tonne silver. That is really, really, really spectacular to me. The widths on the first hole, you got to feel happy with that. Can you provide some context there?

Ken Engquist: Yeah, I mean, backing up a little bit on the title of the press release and everything, I think part of that is I get pretty excited. I'm an ex smelter guy. I started out early on in my career working at the Kennecott Utah Copper Smelter, and when I see grades of 27%, I think, okay, well, that doesn't even need to go through a mill for a concentrator that can go straight into a smelter, but obviously we wouldn't do it that way. But it's pretty spectacular intervals though, right? We're repeating what we saw last year at Ringo and we're into the program now about on our fifth hole. We've got assays out in the labs and we'll have constant turnaround throughout the summer and constant news releases, and I've seen the first four or five holes, and I can tell you it's looking very similar to what we're seeing here. So we're hitting into the same massive sulfides and the same relative intervals.

We're seeing the same stratification in the different lenses as we go through. The logging by the geos is getting easier and easier because it's very predictable. Even the fault zones, as we pass through those, we can identify those really quickly, but we are seeing very similar, as we get into the massive sulfides, we're seeing the grades spike and then we're seeing some magnetite as well. It's clearly in there and it's really confirming, and Ringo itself is really turning out to be... We've always done this comparison to the Copper Queen Mine down in Bisbee, Arizona, the historic one. And we always have said that we see the same exact host rock mineralization, the Abrigo Limestone, and we do, we see that throughout our property, and that's the main sediment hosted mineralization is the Abrigo limestone where we have our, what's called a CRD, a carbonate replacement deposit in Ringo and throughout Holiday and Earp as well.

But we see the intensity in Ringo that is building up and the peripheral mineralization around Ringo is very analogous to rocks that are very close to a porphyry source. And so as we continue our work in the field, we continue mapping the outcrops and we continue to uncover the story of the geology here as we drill more and more. We're really seeing this not just the same host rock, but we're seeing the same story as what Copper Queen is. It started out at 53 million tonnes at 6% copper, and they mined that. Then they went into the porphyry and they mined for another 60 years. And so that's the large long life mine that a lot of the majors and operators are looking for.

Gerardo Del Real: The Corral project benefits, and I got to highlight this and emphasize this, from phenomenal infrastructure. You got copper headed to what I believe is going to be new record highs that are going to catch a lot of people off guard. You're here in the US at a time where all of these critical metals are being designated as what they are, critical metals, right? Critical to national security and being able to provide the energy sources that we're going to need if we are going to lead the global race in everything from AI to, you name it, nuclear benefits, copper benefits, we could go on and on. But the infrastructure to me is top-notch. Let me tell you the other thing that's top-notch to me, and that was really important for me to see the widths of mineralization that you're pulling on that first hole is the fact that this isn't a part of a small, tiny, little deposit. I'm looking at the location of the drill holes and where they were spaced. You clearly are drilling to prove out scale in an efficient way. Can you speak to that a bit?

Ken Engquist: Yeah, I mean, we certainly prioritize the holes based on probability of success out of the gates because that's what we do in this business is we have to generate news and show the markets that we have something here. And we don't want to put those holes out into the distance and waste a lot of time. We want to put those out and get people interested, get our share price up, bring more money into the treasury so we can continue to drill this thing out and take bigger risks and get out to identify the porphyry source and stuff like that. But what we're in right now, yes, you're right, we did step out a little bit and we're seeing the breadth and depth of this and intervals, like you said, 142 meters at half percent, 85 meters even at 8%. Those are great intervals.

And again, I go back to my background as a mine developer largely is I'm thinking about the economics of this. I'm thinking about the open pit mine plan that goes along with this, and I see 80 meters, and I'm thinking, that's three benches. That's as many as three or four benches in a mine, and that's how much it's going to take. And I got a sense of the timing and everything of what that would take and the cashflow that would go with that, that's going to be generated from a mine of this size. So yes, you're right. It is starting to show signs of having some significant size.

Gerardo Del Real: Look exciting stuff at Ringo. You mentioned that drilling is going to be moving over to the Holiday and Earp Zones, and can you touch on that just lastly? I know you mentioned it briefly, but I want to emphasize again what comes next there because I think as exciting as Ringo is, I think we're going to get some fireworks from Holiday and Earp as well.

Ken Engquist: We are. I think we are. Yeah, we're going to move over to Holiday next, so we do expect to see some similar results as we saw last year in Holiday, but we'll also be working to connect these systems as well. I think what we're really realizing though is Holiday and Earp kind of go together and the type of mineralization we're seeing there, there's a lot of faulting, there's a lot of back thrusts. It makes the geology tough or challenging to interpret, but we've done it and largely through a lot of the mapping of our outcrops by a gentleman named Ken Ballywag, who's just done a phenomenal job towards opening up our mines and what we're seeing here. So then we're seeing that Holiday and Earp are very similar to each other, and then Ringo's kind of standing out on its own there and a lot more like Copper Queen, but I expect some great results coming to Holiday and Earp real soon.

Gerardo Del Real: No, look, you have assays pending. The rigs are moving. You're off to a heck of a start. I'm looking forward to having you back on. I really love being able to have someone with your background and pedigree because you can speak to what it looks like to envision potential economics in the future. And of course we're talking hypothesis at this point and we're kind of making it up as we go, but you have the experience to know A equals B is likely to give me an outcome of C, right? And you either have that or you don't, and you have that in spades. So I think it's going to be really fun to do this more often and be able to take everything that you're drilling and pulling together and see what that could potentially look like one day, because I think it's going to be worth a whole heck of a lot more than what it's worth right now.

Ken Engquist: Often when you do enough of these economic models and everything at early days, PEAs, and feasibility studies, pre-feasibility studies, and you're seeing all... I mean, there's all the same components, and when you see all those, you're thinking about all the different components and there's always a couple in there that are like, well, how is this going to work? How is this going to generate value or contribute value? Or how is this going to take away value? And I'm not seeing any of the downsides here on Ringo and Corral as a whole. I mean, I'm seeing a lot of the potential upside, even on the CapEx side as we look at the... You mentioned the infrastructure earlier. This is easy terrain, great location, great jurisdiction, near a 600 megawatt power plant. I mean literally a couple miles away. And then two rails to the West Coast. This has got all those things that are going to keep a really moderate to low CapEx.

Gerardo Del Real: Yeah, perfect setup. Let's do one from the drill site. If you got some good Starlink action out there and good internet connection, I'd love to have you, by the way, one of these days.

Ken Engquist: I just ordered it last week for the site.

Gerardo Del Real: Get it done, sir, and we'll do something from on-site. I would love that. And so with the audience, I'm sure.

Ken Engquist: Awesome, awesome. Great.

Gerardo Del Real: Okay. Always a pleasure. Thank you, sir.

Ken Engquist: All right, thanks, Gerardo.

Gerardo Del Real: All right. Cheers out.

Ken Engquist: Bye.