(Kitco News) - Increased demand and declining production favors copper, said Arras Minerals' CEO Tim Barry.
Last month Barry spoke to Kitco Mining at Deutsche Goldmesse at Frankfurt.
Arras Minerals (TSX-V: ARK) is focused on copper-gold assets in Kazakhstan. In 2020 Arras entered into an agreement with Swiss-based Copperbelt AG for a four-year option to acquire 100% of the Beskauga project. In October 2021, Arras announced the start of the initial phase of a permitted 30,000-meter diamond drill program targeting the extensions of the Beskauga deposit both laterally and at depth.
In October the company announced drill results. Hole Bg21007 returned an intersection of 1,124.1 metres of mineralization grading 0.61 % copper-equivalent or 0.74 gram per tonne gold-equivalent 0.40 g/t gold, 0.25 % copper, 1.7 g/t silver and 28.2 ppm molybdenum, starting at 46.0 m from surface to end of hole.
Barry said that infrastructure near his project is good. Close to Beskauga are roads, heavy rail and a 1120KVA power supply. The project is also near a town and trained workforce.
Energy transition is going to need copper, said Barry. And on the demand side, copper projects are ageing.
"The big producing copper assets are getting old and tired. To replace an Escondido or a Chuquicamata, it's just not happening. And even if you [find one], trying to get one into production now is very difficult," said Barry.
Kitco Mining's coverage of Deutsche Goldmesse was sponsored by Faraday Copper.
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