Strategic property acquisition in prolific copper-gold region in BC
Canadian-based Grid Battery Metals focuses on exploration for high-value battery metals required for the electric vehicle (EV) market. The company has just made a big move in copper and Tim Fernback, President and CEO of Grid Battery Metals joined Coreena Robertson in studio to discuss the details.
The following is a transcription of the above video, and The Market Online has edited it for clarity .
Coreena: Let's start with the big news. Grid just closed on the acquisition of a copper property. Can you walk us through what this asset is and what kind of potential you see there?
Tim: It's a 275 square kilometer mining tenure, five distinct claim blocks in a very prolific Omineca region of central BC. So it is a prolific copper gold region in British Columbia. And there are three deposits adjacent to ours, which are being worked by Northwest Copper. And of course, we're in the region where Centerra Gold's Mount Milligan mine has already produced 1.8 million ounces of gold and 750 million pounds of copper.
Coreena: Now, you've already got a strong focus on lithium. How does adding copper to the mix strengthen the portfolio for shareholders?
Tim: You know, it's all about diversification. We are a battery metals focused company, so we're looking for good projects with good metal potential. And copper and lithium are both in high demand and also they are projected to have a supply crunch going forward. So it's a good place to be for a Grid shareholder to have both of these metals in your portfolio.
Coreena: Alright. Now copper's obviously a big deal, but from a defense angle, what exactly makes it so critical?
Tim: So, it's the best conductor of electricity. So, if you have equipment that's powered by a diesel engine or nuclear power or even a battery, a rechargeable battery, it's going to need copper to get to where it's got to go to make it function. So copper, titanium, stainless steel. These are really critical metals within the defense industry because all their equipment uses quite a larger quantity of it.
Coreena: Alright. And we're going to need more of it.
Tim: Yes, of course.
Coreena: We've seen this shift in political momentum from Trump invoking the Defense Production Act to Mark Carney's push for resource security here in Canada. What steps is the government taking to make sure metals like lithium and copper are sourced more domestically?
Tim: So, the big trend with these critical minerals is reshoring or onshoring them back to North America. So North America over the last 40, 50 years has given away its refining capacity and its production capacity. So now that's being brought back onto North American shores and we're focused on developing our own internal resources. So good quality copper and lithium projects in North America will go forward and will be supported by the governments.
Coreena: And with Carney's recent push to ramp up Canada's defense spending, how does Grid fit into that picture?
Tim: So, what's happening in Canada is that there's a renewed focus on spending on military equipment and as mentioned before, copper's a big part of that, so is lithium. So Canada in particular has committed to going from about 1.4 per cent of GDP to 2 per cent of GDP in terms of defense spending. So that is $18 billion annually in addition to what we already spend for a total of about $60 billion. Most of that is going into equipment and metals like copper and lithium are a big part of what's being bought.
Coreena: And finally, do you see your asset base aligning with those evolving national priorities?
Tim: Definitely, having great lithium and copper assets as North America is onshoring those metals and developing those projects, they're going to be supported by the governments and it's really important for our shareholders to have those in their portfolio.
Thank you so much, Tim for taking the time to stop by here in studio.
You can find Grid Battery Metals trading on the venture under the ticker symbol FLT, and on the OTCQB under the ticker symbol TAKOF. Check them out at gridbatterymetals.com for more information.
Join the discussion: Find out what everybody's saying about this stock on the Grid Battery Metals investor discussion forum, and check out the rest of Stockhouse's stock forums and message boards.
The material provided in this article is for information only and should not be treated as investment advice. For full disclaimer information, please click here.
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