Hello, and welcome to Virtual Investor Conferences. My name is Scott Powell, President of Skyline Corporate Communications Group LLC. On behalf of the OTC Markets and Skyline Corporate Communications Group, we are very pleased that you have joined us for the third day of our Precious Metals and Critical Minerals Conference. The next presentation is from Koryx Copper. Please note that you may submit questions for the presenter at any time. You may also view the company's availability for one-on-one meetings by clicking "Book a Meeting." At this point, I'm very pleased to welcome Mr. Heye Daun, President and Chief Executive Officer of Koryx Copper, which trades on the OTCQX Best Market under the ticker symbol KRYXF, and also on the TSXV under ticker symbol KRY. Welcome, Heye.
Thank you very much, Scott. Thank you to everybody for joining this podcast or this presentation. As Scott said, I'm the President and CEO, but also the biggest shareholder of this company. Koryx Copper is an excellent copper development project or company with a very good project in Namibia, which is currently at the PFS stage and rapidly being fast-tracked. We're listed on the Canadian TSXV, but we are very rooted in Namibia. I'm a Namibian citizen. I'm a mining engineer, born and bred, and I, together with my business partners and employees, we've had a lot of success in Namibia, causing projects like these to be built and actually put into operation.
What sets us apart from many others is we're very real, we've got a very low BS factor, and we are very good at ensuring that projects like these actually get built and shareholders get delivered value. Obviously some forward-looking statements, the usual disclaimer. The investment highlights in summary, everything we do is based on the excellent Haib, H-A-I-B, open-pit sulfide copper project in Namibia. Haib has a very, very good track record and pedigree, having been owned by Rio Tinto in the 1970s, subsequently Teck, and then it kind of went through different hands, various juniors. Two and a half years ago, my business partner and I became involved. We took over management control with the aim of causing this project to be delivered. The project itself is technically very simple. It's got very strong economics. It has no fatal flaws.
It has a very clear timeline to delivery. We have a PFS study underway, which will be published very shortly, sometime towards the end of November, which will position this project as a truly world-class, large-scale future copper producer in Namibia. We have very credible leadership and management team who's done this before. We've raised money. We've built companies. We've grown companies. We've advanced assets. We have achieved very successful M&A outcomes. We're doing this for the third time in Namibia. Our value creation strategy is very simple. It's right-size, optimize, make it bigger, make it better, deliver quality, and ultimately make sure that this project gets built by us or that we sell it to somebody else who will cause it to be built.
And on top of that, you have a very low valuation, which obviously protects your downside, which is a critical aspect of any investment proposition. Our track record, there we are. Our track record, I mentioned that briefly. We have identified, acquired, advanced, and sold a couple of projects starting with 15 years ago. We did that with a project in Namibia, which we sold to B2Gold, which is a mid-tier Canadian producer. That project's in production at the moment. We did it again with a project in Ecuador called Lumina Gold, where we did successful M&A. It was a Ross Beaty company. Ross Beaty was the founder of that company. We merged our project into it, and it was recently sold to a Chinese entity for over $500 million. Then subsequent to that, we formed a company in Namibia called Osino, which was a gold explorer.
We made a discovery. We advanced it, and we sold that company two years ago, two and a half years ago to a Chinese entity for $400 million. Then, as I said, two and a half years ago, we took over Koryx Copper with the aim of right-sizing, optimizing, growing it, and achieving similar success, and we well on the way with doing so. We currently have a market cap of around CAD 450 million, call it $ 250 million, plus or minus. We have a very clean share structure. We've had a good share price performance, excellent share price performance, but we are still very, very much undervalued relative to our peer group. We have a strong shareholder base. Anglo Teck is noteworthy and a bunch of specialist mining funds. My family and I, we own roughly over 10%, and Anglo Teck still owns about 7%.
So very good shareholder base, good equity capital market support, some analysts covering us. And despite our good historical share price performance, still quite undervalued. We've got a top-class team, very strongly Namibian-rooted, Namibia-based, truly world-class exploration and study team. We are not yet a mining company. We're an expert study company, perfectly positioned to push this project forward and get it to the construction readiness phase together with a suite of high-class Southern African and international specialist consultants. Being in Namibia is of course unique. What makes Namibia special is firstly, it doesn't have any of the problems that one usually associates or that often are associated with African countries. No civil wars, no Kalashnikovs, no Ebola virus, nothing like that. It's peaceful, it's a democracy.
It's very sparsely populated, and it has a very successful, long-established mining industry that has drawn in Western majors, mid-tiers, juniors, and mining is a major part of the economy. What also sets it apart is that the government and the population is very supportive of mining. So it's a great place to permit and construct mines. And personally, I'm a Namibian citizen, I said it at the beginning of the presentation. And of course, I know my way around here, having done this or doing this for the third time now. So truly a world-class mining jurisdiction. We are located right down south in the country on the border with South Africa. The Haib project is a large, world-class copper porphyry. So it means it's a very large, generally lower grade project, very continuous, very low risk from a geological perspective.
Also ideally located in southern Namibia relative to infrastructure. We've got grid power close by, we've got river water close by, population centers, roads, railway. So really ideally located in an excellent country. This is what it looks like. It's a desert environment, so we have no social issues, no environmental issues, which makes it ideal from a permitting perspective. I think that's another factor that sets us apart. This project is going to get permitted and advance very rapidly, much faster than our peer group, which is normal in a country like Namibia where you can permit and build gold mines very effectively. I mentioned it is a, oh, there's the slide move. It's a large open pit. It's very similar to a lot of the South American large-scale world-class copper open pits. I can mention a few names like Escondida, Collahuasi, these kind of names.
These are big copper producers. This project is similar in size. When I say size, mining size. Obviously, the mineral resource is significantly smaller than, let's say, Escondida, but it is almost a tier 1 project. Not quite, but almost tier 1 from a copper total inventory perspective. We have just under 5 million tons of contained copper. So around 4 million tons of contained copper. 5 million tons would be a tier 1 project. It's a big project that's going to be of interest to the major copper miners in the world. Processing route is very simple. Milling and flotation, well understood, low risk. We published a PEA about a year ago. That's a scoping study or a preliminary economic assessment with some very credible economic and technical metrics. The PFS that we are about to publish will substantially improve on that.
The technical strategy is very simple. Right size, optimize, de-risk, advance, get the project shovel-ready, and then either get the project built or transact on it. This is what it looks like. As I mentioned, sorry, slides are slow in moving. There we go. This is an AI image. The mine doesn't exist yet, but it's stock standard, big open pit, processing plant, tailing dam, solar field. So very straightforward, very well understood, very low risk, technically speaking. From a timeline perspective, we are currently in the advanced study stage about to publish a PFS, and we expect the definitive study, which is the final study before implementation to be completed at the end of next year. Thereafter, construction and implementation of this project, probably a two- to three-year construction period. You could expect first copper production from the year 2030.
Getting to the end of the presentation, not only is it a good project, technically speaking, but we have very strong responsible mining ethos. Responsible mining is good business and it's required in order to earn social license. We have very strong social license in Namibia. Everybody knows us. Everybody loves us. The whole country is rooting for us and wants this project seen to be built. That is really unique and it sets us apart from, for example, operating in North America. From a valuation perspective, our valuation is still very low on any metric. On an NPV metric, we use as metric P/NAV, which is really the market cap divided by the value of the project. We lowly value it. This is based on the public study that we published a year ago.
The new study coming out will substantially improve on that, so you can expect our valuation to be much lower on that basis. Which demonstrates the investment opportunity, meaning not only do you have a great project with a great team that know what they're doing in country, but at the same time you can buy into this at a low valuation, so your future upside is very significant. That's my final slide. In summary, a great team. We know what we're doing, having done it many times before. We've raised money, we've built companies, we've sold companies. We've got a quality asset in a world-class jurisdiction. We have very strong financial backing, including Ross Beaty, and another billionaire, and very strong institutional shareholders with excellent growth potential that's going to be delivered with the PFS around the corner at the end of November.
All of that for a lower equity valuation. I'll pause there. Thank you very much for listening and I'll hand over back to the facilitator. All right. I believe we have some questions here. Let me deal with those. Just got to open them up. First question, I'm reading it and then I'll respond to it. "What's the biggest upside investors should watch for in the PFS targeted before November ends?" The biggest upside is the very significant growth in production. We expect the copper production to go up by 30%-40%. That is, of course, the biggest mover. In addition to that, lower stripping ratio, longer mine life, very good maintaining costs, slight increase in CapEx. I think that sort of sums it up. But the production, the big increase in copper production to beyond 100,000 tonnes per annum is the biggest numbers.
For those of you who are more familiar with gold companies, if you express that in gold equivalent terms, it's about just under 500,000 oz per year, which makes this a legitimate world-class opportunity. I'm going to the next question. Sorry, just navigating around the screen here. The question is, "Your January raise of about $51 million included Middle Eastern and Chinese capital. Are any of those groups potential strategic partners?" Yes, it included one or two Chinese entities. One actually, and it included an Israeli pension fund. The pension fund was the financial investor and he continues to support us. Very good shareholder. We had a Chinese investor who put cash into the company. They could be a strategic investor, but suffice to say, we have very strong interest.
Imagine a project in Namibia, high quality, low risk, near term, will attract interest from a whole range of major international players, and a lot of those are knocking on the door and we are talking to them at this moment. I'm going to the next question. Again, moving around the screen here, my apologies. Question number four, "How important is the Orange River water scheme as the lowest cost option for your CapEx and OpEx numbers?" It's very important because it's the lowest cost option, but at the same time, also the lowest risk option because we are only 10 km away from a major river, the Orange River, which is the boundary between Namibia and South Africa. We have a pumping and storage scheme where we pump water when the river is high and into a dam which supplies the mine.
The total cost of that is around $100 million-$150 million. It's well understood, an advanced stage of engineering, and it's a low risk water solution for this project, and we're very happy that we have it. The CapEx and OpEx of that compared to similar project in South America is very low because we don't have to desalinate. We don't have to pump up to a high altitude. Our project is at 400 m altitude, so wonderful location for this project. The fifth question is. Just look at time. Oh, we have lots of time. The fifth question is, "More than 40% of an earlier financing came from Namibian investors. How much does that local backing help on permitting and social license?" It helps us tremendously. That's why we did it. Let me just expand a little bit on that. I'm a Namibian citizen.
I was born in this country. My parents were cattle farmers and my brother and the rest of my family are still active in Namibia. A lot of people know me in Namibia. I've been doing mining business in Namibia for 15 years. As I said at the beginning of presentation, I initially identified, acquired, advanced a project which we ended up selling to B2Gold. That company has become the biggest taxpayer in Namibia and one of the most prolific social investors and environmental investors in Namibia, a superb and excellent corporate citizen. My name is still associated with that company, even though it's all to their credit. Subsequent to that, we did a number of other deals.
I'm a well-known factor in Namibia, and because I have delivered success and all shareholders have always made money off my deals, that's why I've got a strong following, and that is why we have such a big shareholding or such a big interest and such a big component of the last financing came from Namibia, which is a great support. It is strategically also important because it gives us visibility, gives us social license, and also it gives us localization, which is very important for government. Government wants Namibian projects to be co-owned by Namibian investors, and they want companies to make these opportunities available to Namibian investors, which we have done by listing them in Namibian Stock Exchange. I think that aspect makes us unique and is a risk reducer for Koryx investors. The next question.
It's a question on CPF, coarse particle flotation, which lifts the first decade grade to roughly 0.5% copper equivalent. "Is Haib still a low-grade story or is that label gone for good?" Maybe I must just caution and guide a little bit lower. I think we may not quite get to 0.5%. It's hard to say at this stage. The PFS hasn't been published. I'm hoping we get to about 0.45% feed grade. That comes off about 0.35% mining grade before CPF. CPF is an intermediate step, a sorting step, whereby we use flotation in order to separate out low-value waste material, roughly 20%-25%. It is not new. We didn't invent it. Has been used before. Anglo uses it. Newmont uses it at Cadia in Australia. It's a well-understood technique that's increasingly gaining acceptance and that is highly applicable to our ore type.
Yes, that is a game changer. I would say that yes, with that Haib is not a low-grade project anymore. I think at a processing milling and flotation feed grade of 0.4%- 0.45% copper makes us not to be a very low-grade story anymore. So it makes us quite profitable. More importantly, if you look at where we are in the cost curve, grade is one metric, but arguably a more important metric is what is your all-in sustaining cost? The all-in sustaining cost for this project are expected to land well in the second quarter or more or less in the middle of the cost curve, at worst, which is quite low cost, and that's why quite profitable and economically feasible.
I'm very happy to say that because of course this project had the reputation of being too low-grade and therefore it wouldn't work. I think we will be demonstrating conclusively that this project will work, will have very high margins, and will be very economically feasible. CPF, coarse particle flotation, this intermediate processing step is an important part of that. Next question. For someone new to Koryx, what do these latest drill results tell us about Haib's potential? The latest drill results that we published, a lot of them were quite high grade. That's nice because we have these high grade portions to the deposit. Some of it is quite close to surface. That gives us the opportunity to display or demonstrate or to pitch this project with much better production rates and grades and metrics for the first 10 years of the project.
That's what these results tell you. They tell you that this is a great project that's got potential to grow substantially and improve substantially from here off a high-quality base that we have already established. Okay, next question. Wow, we've got a lot of questions. I'm going to speed up here. Question number seven. That was the drill results. I've covered that one. Question number eight. After the PFS, what's the next milestone after the PFS? We're trying not to fall into the final doldrum of the Lassonde curve. It means after the PFS, we have to provide the market direction as to where this company is going. Is it in the fan of possibilities? Is it going to be a self-built? Is it going to be an outright sale or is it going to be a JV?
That depends on to what extent we can attract a strategic partner and to what extent we can finance this project ourselves or get the share price up, revalue, get a lift on the PFS, get another lift on the strategic investor, and then hopefully be able to attract a buyer for the entire project at an appropriate price. I think that's the story of 2027 from a corporate perspective. From a technical perspective, continue to fast-track the project, get it construction ready, get all the infrastructure, water, power in the bag, deliver a definitive feasibility study and project financing during 2027. Next question. I've got about five minutes to go, so let me try to get through this. What makes it for Zambia drill target? Zambia is not that exciting. It's small. It's not important in our life. We're adding a bit of value.
We're looking for a way to monetize that, maybe find another partner to sell those assets to. Zambia is definitely a secondary part of the story. We want to focus on Namibia. Next question. What's the biggest improvement in Haib's development story over the past six months? Right size optimized. It's gotten bigger, it's gotten better. Grade's gone up. Processing flow sheet has been substantially optimized. Infrastructure and water power has been almost completely de-risked and permitting has been advanced. We've de-risked this project substantially and pushed it forward. That's what's changed. Where do we see the biggest potential saving from rejecting low-grade material early? Well, it's a much higher copper production and as a result, much lower cost, lower unit cost, lower capital intensity, and higher profitability. Next question. What are we hearing from local stakeholders? Local stakeholders want to see us succeed.
Everybody in Namibia knows we need development in mining. We need job creation. We need socioeconomic upliftment. That comes from mining and that's why largely the society, both locally, regionally, nationally, people, everybody's rooting for us. Everybody wants to see us succeed. That's wonderful. That's what makes Namibia special. How much flexibility have you built into the site for future expansion? Plenty of flexibility. It's been on our mind from the onset. We've got two processing trains. It could go to a third or could need some more water, some more power, but that's been built into the development plan. Heap leaching. Question on heap leaching. Has it been retained as a future option? No, we are going to drop it. We want to simplify the project. Heap leaching of sulfides is questionable technically speaking. Our oxides have become less and we're going to stockpile them.
It's an opportunity for the future, but it's coming out of the PFS. What would you want to demonstrate before bringing in a strategic partner? Firstly, get the PFS out, get a bump in the share price, and thereafter, I think a strategic partner is appropriate, provided it's the right one and he's willing to pay the right price. He doesn't want too many hooks. Another question. What lessons from previous Namibian exits? Quality sells. We have to deliver a quality project that will sell itself. It's been the case twice before. Now I'm just doing it again. It seems we've submitted environmental applications. Question, what's the next major permitting milestone? Firstly, environmental approval and mining license. We're expecting it any time from the middle of next year, so sometime second half of next year. Question on moly and gold credits.
It's potentially 10%-15% of total revenue, so very material. But we need to demonstrate, particularly for the moly, whether we can produce a payable and sellable concentrate. I think we will, but that's a bit complicated. The gold is much easier. Then a question on high-grade results, will they be incorporated in the mineral resource faster payback? Yes. Although it's a big resource, 1.5 billion tons, even some very good results, it's getting harder and harder to move the needle. Question on the environmental approval, I think I answered that before the end of 2027. Yes. I think that's it. That was the last question. Sorry I had to race through these. Let me just scan through them, make sure that I haven't missed any. Higher grade zones near surface, could they give the early mine years a boost?
Yes, they will give the early mine years a boost. Correct. Here's another question. How much of the processing upside comes from rejecting waste before it reaches the main flotation circuit? Lots of upside comes from that. It is what gets us from 0.35%- 0.45%, roughly copper equivalent percentage, which turns us from a low-grade black sheep in the family to an excellent world-class project. It's an absolute game-changer. I see there's another question here. Can you put the coarse particle flotation breakthrough in plain English? What could it mean for margins? Yes. I've got two minutes, I'm going to try. There's a metallurgical feature that often they call it the elephant, it's a curve, the elephant curve I think. If you look at the back of an elephant, it's a curve like that.
On the sides of the back of the elephant, you have the coarse particles, coarser in the size distribution. It so happens that in the coarser size distribution, often you have lower quantities of copper. Now, by using flotation, which is a fluid dynamic. You've got a tank, you've got a liquid, an aerated liquid, and you're feeding your sulfides through this. By doing that, you can separate the coarse particles, and thereby you're separating lower quality material. It's very simple. You're effectively upgrading the material that you feed, and you're reducing your throughput. It's a really virtuous circle that effectively increases the grade by about 25%, increases the throughput, and reduces the cost. It's a very meaningful change. By the way, on the website and in the future presentation, we'll have a lot of detail on this. We will explain it in detail outwards.
It's not novel, it's not unique, it's been very successfully used, it's very low risk, very applicable to what we're doing here. I think, let me see if there was another one. I think I've got them all. I've got them all. All right. Here's another question on Teck. I can still squeeze that in. Yes, still a strategic and supportive shareholder, very much so, waiting for the Anglo Teck deal to close and I think then we'll get more direction from them. Until then, we're just standing by. I think with that, let me thank everybody. Thank you very much for attending the webinar, and I'm handing back to the facilitator.