Exploration Co. Seeks Possible Large Copper System in BC

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Vancouver-based minerals explorer Prosper Gold Corp. (TSVX: PGF; OTCQB: PGXFF) is focused on its district-scale Cyprus copper-gold project in north-central British Columbia.

It had planned to drill at three known prospects on the property — Kaza, Northstar, and Big-Time — one of which historically assayed 138 meters of 0.55% copper (Cu).

But a recent property-wide ZTEM (z-axis tipper electromagnetic) geophysical survey changed everything, revealing several possible large porphyry copper-gold targets under swamp cover in the western valley of the project.

"We came up with half a dozen targets that look exceptionally good when you're looking at both the magnetics and the conductivity," Vice President of Exploration Rory Ritchie told Streetwise Reports. "One large, pronounced magnetic low anomaly lit up with conductivity . . .  So that's the big target that essentially we were hoping for."

Known as Target A, the company has now readjusted its priorities to drill two deep 500-meter to 600-meter holes there. The drilling is expected to start in January because the swamp's soft overburden will be frozen then.

Ritchie said the company is "one drill hole away" from confirming a major copper system under the muck.

"If you find one of these, they're worth a lot of money," Ritchie said. It's just that the big ones are few and far between. … (But) we're getting ready to drill the best target we've seen, or I've seen, in a long time."

'Particularly Excited About Target A'

Cyprus is a porphyry copper-gold project comprising 623 square kilometers of contiguous claims in part of an Eocene porphyry belt. It is on trend with American Eagle Gold Corp.'s (AE:TSXV; AMEGF:OTCQB) NAK Project, 60 kilometers to the south in the same metallogenic belt, Technical Analyst Clive Maund reported in an Aug. 16 report.*

The company recently appointed Colin Burge, a retired exploration geologist with a 30-year career, as an adviser. Discovery-oriented Burge was part of Inmet Mining Corp.'s corporate development team that led on-site geological activities that resulted in the discovery and delineation of 30,000,000,000 pounds of copper at the Cobre Panama project in Panama.

Ritchie said ZTEM technology was used to discover one of the deposits at the project.

Subsequently, First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FM:TSX; FQM:LSE) acquired Inmet for US$5 billion in 2013.

The heli-borne ZTEM survey comprised 3,760 line-kilometers covering 683 square kilometers and collected magnetic and electromagnetic field data that have helped to define structural lineaments and conductive anomalies that may represent mineralization, alteration and widespread veining associated with porphyry copper-gold systems, the company said in a release in September.

"The broad valley in the west-central portion of the Cyprus Project is a large northwest-trending fault zone with limited bedrock exposure given the presence of glaciofluvial cover," Prosper said. "The characteristics of the ZTEM survey are ideally suited for exploration in covered terrains."

The survey identified numerous "multi-kilometer sized" targets at Cyprus, "six of which are considered high-priority targets and will be followed up on with ground-based exploration activities immediately," the company noted.

"We are particularly excited about Target A," Chief Executive Officer Peter Bernier said. "It is a 2- by 4-kilometer conductivity anomaly adjacent to a regional fault that coincides with a pronounced magnetic low, representing a very attractive porphyry target."

Experienced Management Team

The Canadian exploration company also boasts "an experienced and outstanding management team," as described by Maund. At Richfield Ventures, Bernier delineated a significant bulk tonnage deposit whose initial resource estimate was 4,200,000 ounces of gold in the Indicated and Inferred categories. New Gold Inc. (NGD:TSX; NGD:NYSE.MKT) acquired Richfield in 2011 for US$550 million.

"The fact that people like Peter Bernier are on the management team of Prosper Gold means that there is a very good chance of it making a significant discovery or discoveries, for the simple reason that if it didn't, he probably wouldn't be there," Maund wrote. "If Peter Bernier can do what he did with Richfield Ventures once, he can do it again."

Maund said the stock charts indicate Prosper Gold is positioned to break out of its consolidation pattern and begin a new upleg. He rated the stock an Immediate Strong Buy for all time horizons and indicated he intends to remain long in it.

"The strongly positive results from this ZTEM survey make the stock even more of a Buy than it was before," he wrote.

The Catalyst: Long-Term Optimism in the Market

A recent USA Today report said copper was up 12% on the year. According to Credendo, demand for the red metal could double by 2035, as electric vehicles (EVs) use more than three times as much of it as gas-burning cars.

"Long-term optimism prevails, buoyed by potential supply imbalances and increasing demand for copper in green energy projects," Fastmarkets noted in an analysis on October 11.

UBS said increasingly tighter supplies of copper in the coming year could lead to a deficit of more than 200,000 tons in 2025, Mining.com reported.

New investment in exploration will also be needed to fuel the supply of those vehicles in the long term, experts said.

The hunt for copper "has been accelerating, as companies involved in all parts of the copper supply chain realize the structural supply deficit facing the copper market," wrote Rick Mills, author of the newsletter Ahead of the Herd.

"They understand the need to find sources — existing mines, expansions, brownfield projects, greenfield projects, etc. — and are making deals to acquire the base metal, which is not only essential to electrification and decarbonization but industry in general," Mills wrote.

Ownership and Share Structure

According to the company, 21.3% of Prosper Gold is owned by management and insiders. Of those, CEO Peter Bernier owns the most with 12.24% and Director Jason Hynes owns 3.17%. 

About 16.3% is with institutional investors and the rest is with retail investors.

According to Reuters, the company has about 50.39 million shares outstanding. Its market cap is CA$4.8 million and it trades in a 52-week range of CA$0.09 and CA$0.20.