Company Interview / Digging deep in Argentina

Arvind Misra from Belararox (ASX: BRX) shares insights into their collaboration with Argentina's Conosur Drilling. They are set to explore copper at the Toro Mlambo Tombo site in the Andes with plans to commence drilling within four weeks.

Arvind values Conosur decision to accept part of their fee in shares, aligning their interest with shareholders' goals.

Discussing the significance of copper, Arvind highlights its soaring demand due to energy transitions and ongoing production challenges. He underscores the strategic location of their project in the San Juan province near Chile, a prolific copper-producing region. The area's ripe for new discoveries as bigger firms like BHP (ASX:BHP) and Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) seek significant deposits.

Arvind mentions major investors, Denali and Scotia Natural Resources Fund, supporting this venture. Mitsra emphasises that the project's scale has now become a primary focus for Belararox. Drilling is imminent, with comprehensive plans to uncover substantial copper deposits, supported by ample funding and strategic partnerships.

Full unedited transcript below:

0:00

Aussie miner Belararox has partnered with Argentina's Conser Drilling for an exploration project at the Toro Mlambo Tombo site. To give us more details on the collaboration, Belararox MD. Arvind Mitra joins me now. Arvind, welcome back to Aussies. All of that was a mouthful. Can you just explain to us what's happening there?

0:26

Yeah. Thank you. First of all, Nadia, to bring me again back to your hospice forum. Grateful for that. Yes. As you said, we are just about to commence our drilling at the very exciting project we have which is copper porphyry system we are trying to unravel in Andes. Connoisseur drilling is a very significant mining services provider. They are providing drilling services to other major companies around us. So we are very happy to have awarded this contract to them. And also I welcome their participation in taking some of the fee that will be paid to them in shares, which makes them aligned with our rest of the shareholders objectives in the business. So all in all, very happy that I have got somebody of the calibre of connoisseur to drill this exciting copper porphyry target. In the next four weeks we are getting ready to drill. Okay. Interesting. So they've become a shareholder so well aligned. Um, yeah. What type of drilling? I mean, without getting too technical. So

1:26

you said it's going to start in the next sort of month or so. Um, you're looking for copper and this is in Argentina, if I'm clear.

1:34

Correct. This is copper in Argentina. I just want to put a bit of picture on the copper in the jurisdiction I'm operating. Obviously, copper is one of the hottest commodity right now. The metal prices are sustaining around $10,000 US per ton. And the fundamentals of copper also is strong. If you look at the traditional demand that has been always there, that itself is not being completely filled with the production right now. There's a bit of decline in production just because the old mines getting tired, the grades coming off. And then on top of that, if you put in the new demand, new demand in the form of energy transition, you're going from fossil fuel to renewables and copper metal that conducts electricity. And also every EV that you replace with the existing diesel patrol takes more copper into the into new EV. So the new demand is there and the old demand not being made. And copper has been explored and mined for centuries. It's not like people have woken up to the copper. So new discoveries have

2:34

significance not being made to replace the old demand plus the new demand. So all of a sudden everybody is looking for copper deposits, and particularly the giant copper deposits are being hunted by the bigger producers like BHP and Rio and others.

2:49

Yeah. And so about about the region's significance. Where I am. Nadia, just to bring attention to your audience is that I am the ground that I have northwest in the San Juan province of Argentina, right next to the border of Chile and the other side of Chile, which produces 27% of the world copper on the other side of the same rocks in the Andes in the Argentina side is not been that well explored, and there's not too many copper mines in Argentina. So for the new discovery, that's where the world is going, which is the fertile land. It's the same rock in Chile, in Argentina, and that was recently validated by BHP transaction. Immediately north of us. They bought a project called Philadel Sol and Jose-maria in partnership with lending. They paid $4.1 billion for it. So right next door. Yeah. And uh,

3:40

and I'm looking at this site. So are you close? So you're close to infrastructure, existing infrastructure. So this isn't, you know, a big leap, um, to get the copper when and if you find the reserves and go to production to get it out of there and to market.

3:55

Correct. Uh, that's right. So in terms of infrastructure, immediately south of is a large gold mine which is being operated by Barrick and Shandong mine called Valero. So Valero is only about 50km south of, uh. So we use the same road, which is all weather, 365 days road. And then we turn right. Right from the very tip end across Chile and go north to go over to our site. So infrastructure is all there in terms of road and being able to do the work. And obviously the mining services side is very well developed in Argentina. Just because everybody you talk about FMG, you talk about Glencore, you talk about obviously Rio, BHP, tech, South32, Barrick, they're all drilling for large copper systems in in Argentina in that part of the world, San Juan. Interesting. Okay. And so um, recently I think it was the beginning of the month. You've also noted that Denali has become

4:55

a more significant shareholder. So it's taken up approximately 7.5 million bilateral shares. Who is Daniela? What is Daniela?

5:07

Daniela is a large commodity trader out of Hong Kong. Uh, they do trade around £4.8 billion a year and some part of their fund, now $100 million equivalent they have taken out to put into mining energy. And I'm glad to be their first client in terms of the investment that they have made.

5:28

And, uh, $7.5 million is on top of the 21 they already have subscribed for. So the dollar is really supporting us well into this venture of John that we are embarking upon, which is drilling for large copper porphyry system in Argentina. But in addition to that, Nadia, I'm also equally proud of having brought a very large fund out of Toronto and Canada at a fund called the Scotia Natural Resources Fund, and they are about just below 10% shareholder of my company. So I've got two large institutions on my registry now, including Denali and on and Scotia Natural Resources Fund. So is it safe to say that the, you know, the focus for Elora,

6:14

um, as opposed to its namesake is really on this TMT project in Argentina right now?

6:20

Correct. So obviously TMT was not part of my IPO when I did the IPO two and a half years ago in January 2022, at that time flagship.

6:28

But given the significance of this project, now we are looking for elephant in the giant elephant country. When you find something you don't find ten, 20, 30 million tonnes deposit, you'll find multi-billion tonnes of both systems. So obviously this has taken the significance for us. And that's where my investors are begging me to go and hunt those elements in Andy's. Mhm. Yep. Okay. And uh, so the next catalyst will be, once we get the drilling results coming through to figure out the the quality, size and scope of this deposit.

7:03

Correct. So in four weeks time, roughly from now, civil contractors are already fixing up the roads and they will slowly start putting the drilling pads. Drilling rigs will mobilize in October. We probably should be drilling by early November and it will take us 4 to 5 weeks to complete one hole. It's all diamond core drilling that we are doing there, and each horse could be from 500m to kilometer long, because these deposits can be like, you know, deeper and they can go longer. So we will probably have finished our first hole sometime in December. We may have some visual results, otherwise we will have the chemical results from the ALS lab by January sometime. So its drilling and drilling results are imminent now. And you recapitalised on the 16th of August with a $7.7 million placement, so that with your new backers shouldn't need to raise any capital anytime soon.

8:00

Look, I'm largely funded, my program is largely funded, and it's $7.7 million from those two companies, plus additional funds about close to $2 million committed by the Nala plus in the negotiations that we have done. And we are paying several of our service providers, like civil contractors and the drilling contractor connoisseur in shares. So my cash requirements have come down from the budget I did. So I'm largely funded now for my next stage of work.