Kristie Batten: Investors go barking mad for Newfoundland’s high-grade copper

One of Australia’s top mining journalists Kristie Batten joins Stockhead in her column placing a watchful eye on the movers and shakers of the small cap resources scene.

Copper exposure on the ASX can be hard to find. High-grade copper is even rarer.

Late last year, FireFly Metals (then known as Auteco Minerals) acquired the Green Bay copper project in Newfoundland, Canada from the administrators of Rambler Metals for $65 million in cash and shares.

Green Bay, which operated until early 2023, has a resource of 39.2 million tonnes at 1.83% copper and 0.5g/t gold, or 2.1% copper equivalent, for 811,000t of CuEq, as well as $250 million worth of infrastructure.

At the time of the acquisition, former Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) boss Steve Parsons stepped into the managing director role.

While the commodity and jurisdiction are different, the formula at FireFly is the same as Bellevue: aggressively drilling a historical high-grade mine with a view to get it back into production.

FireFly raised $52 million in March and now has four drill rigs on site. More recent results have included 13.1m at 14.3% CuEq.

The first of several planned resource updates is due in the current quarter.

At recent trading levels of 82c, FireFly has a market capitalisation of just under A$400 million.

Argonaut has a price target of A$1.45, while Canaccord Genuity has a price target of A$1.60.

Barrenjoey initiated on the stock last month with an overweight rating and A$1.60 price target, forecasting FireFly to be in production at Green Bay in late 2026.

BlackRock has recently increased its stake in the company to 13%.

Firetail moves in

About 180km to the south-west of Green Bay, the much smaller Firetail Resources (ASX:FTL) is treading a similar path.

In early June, Firetail announced the staged acquisition of a majority stake in the York Harbour copper-zinc-silver project from York Harbour Metals, allowing the Canadian junior to retain a stake in the project while advancing nearby rare earths exploration.

Firetail can reach 80% ownership of the project by issuing 175 million shares, paying $500,000 and completing 22.5km of drilling in stages over three years.

Like Green Bay, York Harbour is a volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit but at an earlier stage.

York Harbour produced around 100,000t at 3-12% copper, 7% zinc and 1-3 ounces per tonne of silver via a small underground mine between 1898 and 1913.

Only shallow exploration has been conducted since, with the previous owner spending around C$8 million and generating high-grade results in the past few years.

Recent results have included 29m at 5.25% copper and 9g/t silver from 147m, including 3.2m at 9.54% copper, 3.5% zinc and 10g/t silver.

Mineralisation remains open in all directions.

Remarkably, the project has never been subject to a property-wide airborne electromagnetic survey, a tool considered instrumental in identifying VMS mineralisation.

Firetail has been busy gearing up for its first exploration program, which will include an EM survey, raising around $1.6 million and appointing a new CEO.

Geologist Glenn Poole joined the company earlier this month after previously holding senior roles at Greenstone Resources and Spartan Resources (ASX:SPR) .

Poole has re-joined his former boss, Spartan managing director Simon Lawson, who sits on the board of Firetail alongside executive chairman Brett Grosvenor and non-executive director George Bauk.

Bauk’s Thunderbird Resources (ASX:THB) holds 8% of Firetail, while gold market darling Spartan holds just over 6%.

Jeremy Bond’s Terra Capital Natural Resources Fund and Terra Capital Green Metals Fund also sits on the register with 5.4%.

Shareholders will vote to approve the York Harbour deal next week, which should coincide with the start of field work.

The views, information, or opinions expressed in the interviews in this article are solely those of the interviewees and do not represent the views of Stockhead. Stockhead does not provide, endorse or otherwise assume responsibility for any financial product advice contained in this article.

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Firetail Resources and Spartan Resources were Stockhead advertisers at the time of writing, they did not sponsor this article.