Categories: Mining Stocks
Topics: Copper Stocks

Intrepid Metals (TSX-V: INTR)(OTC: IMTCF) CEO Mark Morabito on Teck's 9.9% Equity Stake

 

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. Mark Morabito. Mark, it is great to have you on. It's been a bit. How are you, sir?

Mark Morabito: Really good. We've been busy, but we've got some good news out and I'm happy to talk about it.

Gerardo Del Real: Well, let's dive right into it. Look, copper making brand new all time highs, gold making brand new all time highs. I could go on, right, in the metals space. But you have attracted the attention of none other than Teck Resources, which just decided to acquire a 9.9% equity interest to fund exploration at the Corral Copper Project in Arizona. Congratulations. That is not an easy get. I've had several companies that we've helped finance or work with that have attracted similar interest, and I know the due diligence process is stringent. Congratulations. Tell me about the equity stake and what you've been up to with Intrepid.

Mark Morabito: Sure. Well, the last time I spoke to you at Beaver Creek, I told you that we were engaged in discussions with a number of potential strategic investors and that there were several different forms of partnership collaboration that were being discussed and in fact negotiated. So, we wanted to keep that competitive process going as long as possible, to get the best possible deal and find the best possible partner. And we think we've done that. At the end of the day, although the initial investment is at 9.9%, there is a pathway for them to go higher. There's a whole suite of investor rights that come with the investment that enable them to increase their position, or at a minimum, maintain it. And typically large companies won't come in at 9.9 unless they're planning to go higher, subject to receiving good results from the programs where the money's allocated.

In this case, what they're interested in is the porphyry potential at Corral. We have full alignment between our technical group and theirs on what steps need to be taken before launching a drill campaign, which will be expensive because porphyries are not cheap to drill out. So, we always took the position right from day one that we were not going to build this company out the same way. Certainly I started the company, so that was my intention and the people I recruited bought into my intention, which is we're not going to start publishing resources and march toward a PEA and dilute the treasury over and over again to fulfill that process. What we wanted to do was demonstrate the clear potential for open-pitable CRDs that could be mined and profitably, while the porphyry, which we believe was there, could be identified and drilled out to a certain degree.

So, there's a price to be paid for that at Corral, that means you don't have, as you go along with third party validation that people look for in the marketplace to tick the due diligence box. So, you don't have a published resource. If you don't have a published resource, you're not getting coverage from investment banks. So, it can be a bit tough. But the payoff is once you finally get that strategic, then you've got that validation on a much bigger level than a published resource with some banking coverage. This is Teck and the due diligence process is brutal, to be perfectly honest.

Gerardo Del Real: Absolutely.

Mark Morabito: And so, I don't know that you can get any more third party validation or tick the due diligence box any better for investors out there than this investment. And so, we're excited about that and we see the company's share price starting to move. I think this is a full re-rating, and by the time this news is fully digested over the course of the next couple of months, and given the price of copper, I think investors are in for a significant gain in their holdings at Intrepid.

Gerardo Del Real: Yeah. No, listen, great work, sir. Heck of an endorsement. It couldn't come at a better time, literally. I mean, you can't get much better than record high copper prices. You couldn't be in a better jurisdiction at a better time. So, congrats on all fronts. A lot of tailwinds there. What comes next, Mark?

Mark Morabito: Well, first of all, we need to close the deal, and then we need to initiate the exploration and development program that we've agreed upon with Teck. There's a committee of the board that they'll have representation on a significant amount of rights as well. And it's all about going after the porphyry. So, everything will be focused toward that. We don't need to drill anymore the CRDs that we've been drilling, putting out good results, obviously, because that's been identified to everyone's satisfaction.

Now, as we need to do this work, this is basically to line up definitive drill targets for the porphyry program. So, we're out next year executing that program with Teck. And I don't expect it to take 24 months necessarily to do that. I mean, the timelines are in there to get the maximum amount of room, but we're out there to get to work as soon as we can and to identify those targets.

Gerardo Del Real: No, listen, congrats again. Looking forward to a catalyst rich 2026. Thanks for the time as always, and I'm looking forward to chatting again soon. A lot going on.

Mark Morabito: Great, Gerardo. Thank you.

Gerardo Del Real: Thank you, Mark.