Abitibi Metals

Hi, everyone. Appreciate the opportunity for the intro on Abitibi Metals. So a bit of background on myself. I'm a member of Family Office out of Toronto, Ontario. We're most known for the airline business with Porter Airlines. Uh, but we've bui- really built leading Canadian companies in both the airline, real estate, and mining sector. So between myself and Family Office, we have over $14 million invested in Abitibi Metals, and we are the largest shareholders with 21% ownership of the company. So we've really built the company around our flagship asset, the B26 deposit. The B26 deposit is in the northern Abitibi. Very unique opportunity in the fact that since discovery, this was, uh, developed by the Quebec government subsidiary, SOQUEM. So SOQUEM invested almost $30 million, which led to us starting with a resource in 2023 of 11 million tons that we've been able to grow by 125% in a two-and-a-half-year period and that we now own 100% of B26. So really unique in the fact that this had never been in a public company. This was a, is, is an asset that con- remains to be open for expansion in a market that is now starting to really value, um, high-grade polymetallic, especially copper-gold deposits. With there being so few in the market at a size above 25 million tons and, and above 2% copper equivalent. So that's where we are today. Uh, our resource, which was published in February of this year, uh, 25 million tons basically split 50% indicated, 50% inferred at 2.15% copper equivalent. So really, um, a deposit makeup, uh, 85% hosted in a copper-gold stringer zone with the balance of 15% within a massive sulfide zinc silver. Um, and along with our purchase of the remaining 20% of B26 in June, we did, uh, earn a ROFR, a 10-year ROFR on the, what we believe will be our next two assets currently operated by the government that surround our existing land package and the historical Salbaie Mine. So really our vision is to build a tier one VMS camp. This-- In the center of what is this camp, there is the historical Salbaie Mine, which was in production for a 20-year period ending in 2004 after the takeover of Billiton by BHP. But as a result, we have a power line that runs through the project, a substation within seven kilometers, and that's really why the government was involved here. They saw a Bourlamaque contact that hosted a 60 million ton VMS deposit, and when the Salbaie Mine went out of production, that was it. There was no other discoveries in the area at that time. So that's was the government's vision to invest in exploration, um, in a market that was not rewarding VMS exploration. But it really showcases once again why Quebec is really a leading jurisdiction in Canada with having an exploration arm that is able to explore through down markets to put companies like Abitibi in a position to now build a world-class VMS camp in a market that these deposits are really high, highly in demand. So market cap today about 170 million with $34 million in cash. So we are fully financed for our acquisition, exploration, and development strategy between now and the end of 2027. Um, and in terms of shareholder base, as I mentioned, myself and Family Office, we did a strategic investment with Discovery Silver in May of this year, really bring, bringing a world-class partner with Tony Macuci and the Discovery team, uh, at, on, which was been their first strategic investment, um, outside of what they're doing in the Timmins camp. So drill very cost efficiently, traditional no drilling at 250, deeper directional at 400. So we're, we really pride ourselves in very cost-efficient exploration and putting money into the ground where it matters for shareholders. Uh, so we are three-quarters of the way through our 40 throu- 40,000-meter drill program this year, and we are funded for another 40,000 meters next year. Uh, 38 million as at the last financials, as at today, closer to $34 million in the treasury. So a bit about the team. So Dave Bernier, proven mine builder. He was the COO of Foren Mining between 2021 and leaving the company in 2025. He permitted McLevany Bay in 18 months, uh, while landing o- uh, about $150 million in federal government grants. So he did three months of due diligence, really saw the parallels with Foren, so we're very excited. And really this year is adding a serious mine development team to what was mostly a year ago of an exploration-focused team. Ben Pollinger, a large, um... We got to know through our large, uh, family office holdings in ATEX. He did an excellent job growing ATEX from 50 million to a billion and a half market cap. Very strong on the, on the capital markets and technical, so very excited to have him join the team. In addition to Keith Gorman that joined us from Foren and KL Gold, and Louis Gariepy, who has been our VPX since early, um, early last year after the takeover of O3 Mining by Agnico. In terms of board and advisors, um, some of our key advisors and, and major shareholders, Craig Perry, Victor Cantore, and Chris Levy. So really good long-term focused shareholders in addition to a, a family office and more or less government board. So looking, we've never issued a warrant, um, on the company over the last three years, so we've really focused on building a long-term shareholder base. Uh, as I mentioned, Discovery Silver, my family office, BD Capital owns 9.9% of the company. So basically- Between 60 and 70% of the company is owned by less than 10 people. Uh, really long-term focused capital, a lot of which were ex-foreign shareholders, saw the parallels in potential value creation, and we have now started to get recognized by the market. And I think the metrics we, we, we have here as well is a focus on growing per share value and not just market cap. In our last financing, we have d-- we had demand up to 71 million, which we cut into 31 million to really showcase us our being very cautious of developing while maintaining a clean cap table. So we're in the northern Abitibi, same east to west as Detour Lake, as I mentioned, with the benefit of the historical Salbaigne mine, well-positioned for infrastructure in this area, uh, of Quebec, in a market that has a lot of funding available for critical, especially high-grade copper projects. So to just showcase just a high-level view of the deposit. So a- as I mentioned, eight- 85% is hosted within a copper-gold stringer zone, which is shown in red, with the balance 15% within a parallel massive sulfide zinc silver. Nearly vertical, 85 degree to the west, very well-situated for high grade underground, um, and that's the model that we're working towards. This is something that we already see a very strong base case at a 25 million ton deposit, which we now have the mine building team to really deliver a very high quality PEA to the market. And looking at the resource, as I mentioned, this was published in February of this year, and really using conservative metals prices, $4.50 copper, $2,500 gold, $30 silver. Average true thickness on individual lenses in the stringer zone is eight meters. However, these are stacked high-grade lenses with the leverage of low grade within it. So when we look at flexing out the cutoff down 20%, this is a deposit that is already close to 30 million tons while holding that 2% copper equivalent. So when we look at this in a potential mining scenario, we see again, the leverage within the deposit, but also potential opportunity stopes of this lower grade halo on the boundary of a pot- of a potential mine plan. So putting this in ter- in, in context. So in terms of VMS camps, B26 today is already in the top 10% in terms of size of VMS deposits worldwide. And when, when we, when we look at the progress from the resource in 2018 published by the Quebec government subsidiary, SOQUEM, with our, our Abitibi maiden resource in 2024 with the update in 2026, we have been able to show strong growth leading towards our 2027 target of publishing an update between 30 and 35 million tons, which really starts to catapult us into some of the largest VMS camps worldwide. And really our strategy with B26, combined with regional exploration and our vision of consolidating the camp, this is where we really see this building into a tier one district. And looking at the deposit scale, we've been successful in expansional this year, uh, with a good example with 373 wedge four with 2.71% over seven meters. We've been successful in infill and, and been able to increase where the core high grade, uh, areas of the, of, of the block model and really the-- Oh, sorry. Uh, the western down plunge where we hit in the fourth quarter last year, 18% copper equivalent over 6.3 meters with eight grams gold. It's really a high grade. Uh, you, you could take the copper grades off of that and you could see just a really the remnants of a gold deposit at depth. So really this has the upside of that high gold credit, and we're in the process of, of revamping our geological model to try to understand if there are separate controls over the gold separate from the copper. So looking regionally, uh, we drilled our first regional drill program last winter. We drilled 3,400 meters across the property. The headline from that program was we stepped out one and a half kilometers to the west of B26, one of the first holes under 200 meters vertical, and we were able to hit what we think is the boundary of hopefully, whether it's an extension or a standalone lens is to, to be determined. But we hit 14 meters at 0.8% copper equivalent, primarily zinc and silver, but we hit the black chlorite signature right below it that hosts the copper gold mineralization at B26. So really it looks very similar to B26 system. We are doing down hole geophysics at the moment to prepare for a larger regional drill program this winter that will stretch property-wide, whether or not-- whether it's the eight-kilometer overall contact that hosts B26 our, our other targets between B26 and the historical Salbaigne mine, and also looking at the potential, uh, of the northern portion of the property. So this just shows that regional contact that hosts B26 looking west. So really an underexplored eight-kilometer trend, one of the first holes under 400 meters vertical or 200 meters vertical. And we've been able to showcase what we think could be an exciting new zone and development for the regional exploration potential. So this, this showcases the camp as a whole. So in addition to B26, we have the Bescher Gold project, of which in our last-- one of our last drill programs, we drilled five grams gold over 30 meters in the central shallow zone. So it, it's a good example of the gold potential in the camp, whether it's within the B26 deposit and the gold credit there, or this contact and complex having the ability to produce meaningful gold-only deposits. So really, again, showcasing how underexplored this camp is as a result of this being covered by overburden Over the majority of the camp and not o-outcropping at surface like the Ru-Rouyn camp, for example. And our ROFR that we have with Socam covers all of the ground in pink to the west of our existing land package. So really our vision looking out again, to consolidate the camp and really build on what we started with on the B twenty- twenty-six front. So when we look at B26 in the context of what is a very limited high grade polymetallic, uh, deposits in Canada, we see Macovanny Bay with Foreign. A lot of our now team members were part of the build and success at Foreign and Macovanny Bay. And when we look at the Tesla zone, which was a down dip extension of the main deposit, it, it really look-- showcases the type of size and scale that these deposits can have, especially at the, at a time that we are hitting meaningful zones on the western down plunge of the deposit, which we'll continue to expand on. Um, and again, when you look at the LaRonde complex, near surface was more zinc rich, but really hit what was higher grade gold zones at depth. And again, we're early and we're revamping the geological model to get a better understanding on the gold controls. But again, these are very deep-seated systems in the Abitibi, and we are looking forward to trying to target the higher grade source of this strainer mineralization. So again, with the pullback, we're closer to twelve to thirteen cents p-per pound copper equivalent in the ground. Um, so we think, again, we've had a re-rating over the last year, but again, we think that we're, we are nearing critical mass and really in the-- over the next six to twelve months, being able to demonstrate how much larger this camp could be while delivering a, a maiden, uh, PEA to the market in twenty-twenty-seven. And when we look at the case for development, as I mentioned, this is nearly vertical stacked lenses. About a month ago, we announced, uh, preliminary MET testing from phase two, which came out with world-class recovery on copper. So ninety-eight percent recovery on copper because our copper gold zone is pure chalcopyrite. No bornite, no py-pyrite, pyrrhotite. So pure chalcopyrite, it floats after four minutes, after two circuits, so it's, it's really a strength of the project. We will have our full MET results out over the next month, which will also include the gold, silver, and zinc. And again, with the legacy infrastructure at Salbaie, which includes the power, the roads, the substation, uh, advantages, uh, for development in an area that both the government with developing the camp, and we have a strong First Nations partner that are in favor of development and have labeled these projects, uh, really of merit of the community, um, in a market that really needs more, uh, copper, especially with some of the concentrators in Quebec nearing the, uh, really being an underutilized. So we have a packed schedule with the-- a lot of, as I mentioned, our mine development team joining. We have gone from a purely exploration, um, approach to starting to de-risk the project early with environmental baseline, with hydro-hydroge-geotech work, and really setting up for a larger, um, camp-wide studies to kick off in twenty-twenty-seven. And we're, we're really in a market that M&A is starting to pick up, especially in Quebec. So we're very excited about the prospects to really have, uh, a deposit on a, on-- and just to compare it across the majority of the Abitibi, above two and a half million gold equivalent ounce in resource in a market that development stage properties are gonna be-- are being picked up. We really see that increasing as a result of producers in the region really producing record levels of cash at a time that exploration is, has been neglected, and there is a lack of projects of this stage available in the market. So we've, we've-- I, I think we've been able to accomplish a lot in two and a half years, but we've been able to grow the resource to a point that we believe that we are nearing critical mass. So we really view the next year as a tipping point that we're able to demonstrate the really the tier one potential of this camp as a whole, um, and starting to really snowball with additional distribution, working with our banking partners, analysts, to really bring out to market what is still quite an unknown-- un-underknown story. But I appreciate everybody's time for the intro. Brilliant. Thank you, John. Do we have any questions for John? Yes, at the front, please. Thank you, John, for the presentation. Could you confirm the expected timeline for the PEA? So our-- the PEA is targeted for the second half of twenty-twenty-seven. Okay. Do we have another question? Uh, we've got a minute left. I was just, um, as John just-- I was wondering about the, the zonation you see within the deposit, and is that actually-- are you seeing that clearly, and is that actually helping you target exploration? Yeah. The, the periphery, like the driver is the zinc. Although the zinc silver lens is, is only fifteen percent of the deposit, we feel like that that's the driver of this VMS system, and the strainer zone is really on the peripheral of, of this, this, um, this zinc silver more engine of, of the system. Um, but really the black chlorite, the strainer is hosted in a black chlorite signature. The continuity is quite strong. It reacts with downhole geophysics. So we're using downhole geophysics and also the, the host rock signature, uh, which has these-- the strong continuity of these-- this strainer system, uh, with that more massive, semi-massive zone that sits parallel with a remob zone right, right in between it. And exactly the gold influence, we believe as of today, the gold runs with the chalcopyrite, but it's part of what we're challenging with the updated geological model to try to understand if what-- why in some areas of the pod-- po-deposit we see higher grade gold versus some areas that there's none or lower. So I think we're still revamping the geological model, but in terms of the main controls of the ore body, it's been very predictable and the continuity has been quite strong. Brilliant. Okay. Well, please join me in thanking John. No. Thank you. [audience applauding] Thanks very much.