Dunnedin Ventures - Annual Investor Letter
Dunnedin Ventures - Annual Investor Letter
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 6, 2020) -
Dear Investor:
From all of us at Dunnedin Ventures, our best wishes for a successful and prosperous New Year. We are grateful for your
continued interest and support and look forward to delivering exploration success in 2020. 2019 was a transitional year for
Dunnedin as we saw an opportunity to capitalize on an overall market sentiment shifting in favor of copper porphyry assets over
diamond exploration.
To that end, we added to our project portfolio with the acquisition of two promising porphyry projects, the MPD copper-gold
project in southern British Columbia and the Mohave copper-molybdenum-silver project in Arizona. Together with our Trapper
copper-gold project in the northern Golden Triangle we now own 100% of three advanced-stage copper porphyry exploration
projects in North America, all of which have large footprints and the potential to yield major deposits.
Our strategic priority is to drill MPD and Mohave as both projects have significant discovery potential, are accessible year-round
and are blessed with great infrastructure, including paved highways within a kilometre of the drill targets. In November, we
achieved an important milestone and completed our maiden drill program at MPD. We are optimistic about this early round of
drilling and much anticipating the drill results which are expected this month. Mohave is slated for drilling in 2020 so look out for
more results and news flow throughout the year.
Why Copper?
It's no secret that tomorrow's sustainably-oriented world will require an abundance of copper.
Battery powered electrical cars will
use up to 10 times more copper than today's conventional cars and clean energy from solar and wind will need 4-6 times more
copper than energy generation from fossil fuels.
According to Rio Tinto, more copper will be required in the next 25 years than
was consumed in the last 500 years. The recent China-USA trade deal was a catalyst that pushed the copper price to a 7-month
high in December, up 8% over 7 straight sessions of gains. The global commodities market is getting more bullish on copper
and as shown by the short selling position of the metal which has been decreasing dramatically over recent months while the
long position is gaining. Meanwhile, the pipeline of copper development projects is sparse and most analysts forecast a supply
gap opening up that will need significantly higher copper prices in the coming years to be filled (see figure 1 below).
Figure 1: Copper Supply/Demand (Source: Wood Mackenzie, Rio Tinto)
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Our Team
Dunnedin's recently acquired porphyry assets were evaluated and selected by Dunnedin's founder and Chairman, Chris Taylor
who you may also know as the founder, President and CEO of our sister company, Great Bear Resources which made a
significant gold discovery and was one of the best performing stocks on the TSX Venture Exchange in 2019. You may not be
aware, however, that Chris is a structural geologist with significant porphyry experience who 'cut his teeth' drilling copper assets
in North America for Imperial Metals for many years. My own background also includes significant experience in the copper
space and during my years as general manager at Rio Tinto I was involved in feasibility studies at some of the world's largest
copper mines such as Escondida and Oyu Tolgoi.
Vice President Exploration, Jeff Ward and Andrew Berry, VP Operations, have co-managed highly successful exploration and
drilling campaigns, with annual budgets exceeding C$20M in very challenging locations - they are certainly up to this task. We
are also fortunate to be supported by great advisors, including Tom McCandless, a well-recognized porphyry expert. In addition,
Dunnedin is able to access a wealth of expertise as a member of Discovery Group, which is led by successful mining
entrepreneur John Robins and includes companies such as Great Bear Resources Ltd., Bluestone Resources Inc. and Fireweed
Zinc Ltd. We are proud to be part of such a respected group, off the back of our exciting exploration potential.
MDP Copper-Gold Porphyry Project
MPD is a large, 78.5 km2 land package in south-central British Columbia, owned 100% by Dunnedin that we believe overlies a
gold-rich porphyry system of significant size.
It is located just east of Highway 5A, between Princeton and Merritt in a prolific
mining district with great infrastructure. Nearby mines with similar host rocks and mineralization styles include Highland Valley,
Copper Mountain and New Afton.
From 1966-2014, previous operators including Rio Tinto and Newmont Mining completed 129
drill-holes for 25,780 metres at MPD.
We acquired MPD in November 2018 and in the summer announced results of our initial ground work at the project which
consisted of mapping, prospecting, soil sampling and resampling of historic trenches.
Trenching results announced on August
22 included: 0.89% copper and 0.04 g/t gold over 46.0 metres, including 1.83% copper and 0.08 g/t gold over 12.0 metres. On
August 29 we released further results, including grab samples with 0.89% copper and 0.32 g/t gold, and 0.76% copper and 0.24
g/t gold.
November 2019 marked an exciting milestone for Dunnedin as we successfully completed our maiden drill program at MPD. We
drilled 1,766 metres in three drill holes and all holes intersected prospective sulphide-bearing, altered porphyritic host rocks.
Two of the holes were designed to follow up on drilling in 2013 which for the first time tested deeper than previous historic holes
which rarely exceeded 200m vertical depth. The 2013 holes yielded promising results as they both encountered porphyry
mineralization with grades increasing with depth, approximately 450 metres apart (see figure 2). The samples from Dunnedin's
drill program are currently in the lab and assay results are expected this month.
Figure 2: MPD Project Prime Zone Cross Section
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Mohave Copper-Molybdenum-Silver Porphyry Project
Announced on March 4, we acquired the Mohave copper-molybdenum-silver porphyry project in Arizona on favorable terms from
fellow Discovery Group company, Bluestone Resources Inc.. The project was last drilled in 2011 with 11 holes for 3,500 metres.
Anomalous mineralization over significant intervals was reported in all holes, with the first higher-grade intercepts also being
drilled at that time, including 0.49% Cu over 59.4 m, and 0.30% Cu, 0.01% Mo, and 2.54 g/mt Ag over 70.7 m. Work to date
strongly indicates that a large system of porphyry style mineralization underlies the project.
Mohave is road-accessible and adjacent to Highway 93 which links Las Vegas and Phoenix. The project is geologically and
structurally analogous to the neighbouring Bagdad mine which is owned and operated by Freeport-McMoRan and has one of
North America's largest copper reserves.
Over the course of 2019 Dunnedin's technical team reviewed the historic work on the project and we are ready to start
exploration on the ground in 2020, starting with a geophysical modelling and infill, and followed by drilling.
Trapper Copper-Gold Porphyry Project
The third project in Dunnedin's porphyry portfolio is the 100% owned Trapper project, located at the northern tip of the BC's
prolific Golden Triangle, adjacent to Brixton Metals' Thorn project which was drilled in 2019 with excellent results. Trapper is a
textbook copper-gold porphyry complex with an alteration signature of over 15 km2. It was drilled in 2011 and returned
encouraging gold values including 34.11m @ 1.71 g/t gold, which propelled the valuation of the company to almost $80 million at
the time. Trapper is an exciting project that provides Dunnedin with additional optionality for value creation.
Looking Forward to 2020
Our aim is to create material shareholder returns through exploration discoveries, in a global copper and gold market that is
gaining positive momentum. We look forward to releasing the results from our first drill campaign at MPD soon and are planning
to follow up with further drilling in the months ahead. In addition, our Mohave project offers further low-cost/high-impact
exploration opportunity. As our porphyry assets can be drilled year-round you can look for a steady stream of exploration news
from Dunnedin in 2020.
As we have witnessed in 2019, exploration companies have been rewarded handsomely in the capital markets for copper-gold
discoveries. Other copper exploration companies in British Columbia such as GT Gold have generated significant increases in
shareholder value through deeper drill testing of porphyry targets.
Having acquired MPD and Mohave because of their large
porphyry footprints and encouraging shallow drill results, Dunnedin is now advancing these projects with a similar ambitious goal
- the discovery of a large copper porphyry system that was hiding in plain sight, right beside the highway and surrounded by
producing mines.
Sincerely,
Claudia Tornquist
President & CEO
Jeff Ward, P.Geo, Vice President Exploration and a Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and
approved the technical information contained in this release.
For further information please contact Mr. Knox Henderson, Investor Relations, at 604-551-2360
or
.
About Dunnedin Ventures Inc.
Dunnedin Ventures is advancing a portfolio of copper porphyry projects in Canada and the USA, including the MPD copper-gold
porphyry project in the prolific Quesnel Trough in south-central British Columbia, the Mohave copper-molybdenum-silver porphyry
project near the world-class Bagdad mine in Arizona and the Trapper copper-gold porphyry project in the northern Golden
Triangle region of British Columbia. Dunnedin's porphyry assets all present known mineral discoveries with the potential to hold
large-scale deposits. The Company also owns the advanced-stage Kahuna diamond project in Nunavut which hosts a high-
grade, near surface inferred diamond resource and numerous kimberlite pipe targets and is located 26 kilometres from Rankin
Inlet and adjacent to Agnico Eagle's Meliadine gold mine.
Based in Vancouver, Dunnedin is backed by a world-renowned team of exploration experts with decades of combined
exploration experience and significant capital market strength. Dunnedin is part of the Discovery Group of companies led by
John Robins, one of the most successful mining entrepreneurs in Canada.
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX
Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our plans, intentions and expectations, which
are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as, "forward- looking statements".
Forward-looking
statements may be identified by words including "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "expects" and similar
expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the
Company's future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place
undue reliance on forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this
news release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward- looking statements, except as required by
applicable securities laws.
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