Chris Buncic on the “shocking” Chrysalis Copper timeline for production

In an engaging interview at PDAC 2024, Critical Minerals Institute (CMI) Director Peter Clausi sat down with Chris Buncic, Director of Chrysalis Copper Corporation, to discuss the company’s ambitious plans in Chile. Buncic, bringing a wealth of experience from his tenure at Ascendant Resources and Alto Verde Copper / Interra Copper, shared insights into Chrysalis Copper’s strategy to revitalize two historical copper mines, leveraging their significant untapped resources for rapid production startup and growth. The company’s approach is to initiate production under small miners permits, a strategy that promises to expedite the timeline to production to less than 12 months for both the Linderos and Santa Monica projects. Chrysalis Copper’s Linderos project, with a 15,000+ hectare land package, showcases a past-producing Tambor Mine with a fast track to re-initiation of production under a small miners permit, targeting an initial output of 250 tonnes per day (tpd). This project holds over 146 million pounds of copper in historical resources, setting the stage for a quick transition to NI 43-101 compliance and further exploration upside. Buncic highlighted, “It’s shocking that we’re going to be in production within 12 months. We have a great price for these operations and significant exploration upside on four drill-ready properties.” The Santa Monica project echoes this rapid development approach, aiming for near-term production with substantial exploration potential indicated by historical resources and the proximity to other major mines. Both projects are poised for an accelerated path to production, minimal upfront investment, and significant ROI potential, underscoring Chrysalis Copper’s strategy to become a mid-sized copper producer in Chile with a steady-state annualized production target of 57 million pounds of Copper Equivalent (CuEq) across both projects. Buncic’s previous success in turning around operations and driving them to profitability was a focal point, and the broad technical and management experience of the Company’s team in Chile will lead Chrysalis Copper towards a promising future. With plans to bring resources into compliance and explore the significant upside potential, there will be no shortage of catalysts to be watching for as these mines get closer to production. “The resources we’ve seen are great; they just don’t have core. So, we’ll go back, twin those, and within the next 12 to 18 months, we’ll have 43-101 compliant resources on each of these mines,” Buncic stated, emphasizing the company’s commitment to validating and expanding its resource base. Chrysalis Copper Corporation, is set to rapidly advance its copper projects from near-term production to significant exploration and expansion, leveraging historical resources, strategic permitting, and an experienced team in Chile. This strategy not only underscores the company’s potential for growth but also highlights its contribution to the copper sector’s development in Chile, one of the world’s premier copper-producing countries.