This is the Investing News Network and I'm Georgia Williams. We're here in Toronto at day two of the PDAC conference. Joining me today is Patrick Krookshank, CEO and director of 9M Medals. Nice to meet you, Patrick. >> Good morning. Thanks for having me. >> How have you been? >> I've been great. I've been cold, but I've been great. >> I was wondering if we could start with your ticker symbol and what exchanges you trade on. >> Uh we ex we're traded on the Canadian


stock exchange. Our ticker symbol is nine. Um we're also on uh Tradegate in Germany, Frankfurt, Berlin, uh OTC in the US. And I think that's it for right now. >> Fabulous. Um you know, it's day two of PDAC. I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about any of the conversations you're hearing about copper or, you know, investor sentiment. >> Yes. Uh yesterday I was uh invited to be on a panel for critical minerals uh forum. Um and that was very interesting and and obviously with Canada and and


the US and and the increase in critical mineral list and the support from the federal government and provincial governments and I think New Brunswick, our jurisdiction is uh having their big announcement today on that. So I'm looking forward to that for sure. >> Yeah. And that's a perfect segue. So 9 Mile Metals is a Canadian exploration company focused on critical minerals and volcanogenic massive sulfides uh in the historic Baist mining camp. Can you provide an overview of the company's


asset base and uh the strategic focus on the district? >> Sure. Um it's a mature mining camp. It uh is about third largest mining camp in the world. Um there's 45 deposits uh 25 of them over a million tons. We call it VMS for short. You can say the bigger words. I'm not so good. But uh no, uh VMS, which is your copper, lead, zinc, silver, and gold all in one deposit. They're very rich. Um they're very large, but they're very small footprint because they're about 95% pure


mineralization. And the challenge we have, and we have four, uh projects. We have California Lake, Canoe Landing Lake East and West which surrounds the Canoe Lake deposit um which goes onto our properties, our flagship Wedge Mine and our other flagship which is 9M Brookke which we press released on this morning. >> Oh, can you give us a little update on the news? >> Yes. So, um this morning, so that is a lens and a lens is uh the deposits in the Bther's camp. It's 470 million year


old VMS camp and uh it's when the volcano and the smokers spit out the deposits and they form they're solid. >> But over 470 million years of pangia breaking up and tectonic and flips and every and folding they're all broken into pieces and the each piece is considered a lens and together cumulative on average five to six lenses make up a big massive deposit. Um, the biggest I think the third biggest in the world was the Brunswick 12, which was 335 million tons. >> Wow. >> And it stopped mining after 50 years,


not because it ran out of ore, but because it was so deep because they're vertical, >> so they're hard to find. They're underground uh subsurface. So, we're using new leading edge technology to find these now. And it went down over a mile. >> Wow. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> So, these are massive deposits. Uh, this morning's news is exciting. It's been over a year. been working with um uh Glenor and SGS labs. We have our flagship 9M brook project which is the


highest grade lens ever found in the Bather's camp. And we found the first one, right? So it's almost 20% copper, 38% lead zinc with 3 to four um ounces of silver and between half and two grams per ton gold. And it's 15 m and then a hard break. So that's where it broke. So now our job is to find the second, the third, the fourth. So we're using new advanced um UAV drone technology that can shoot uh down to 8 900 meters in the ground and give us 3D. >> And um >> we just finished our placement for $5.5


million. So we don't need any funding for about two years and we're going to go >> drill >> drill >> drill drill. >> Congratulations. Uh yeah and like you were saying this company the this year the company has announced its first drill results from its campaign at the past producing wedge copper mine. >> Correct. >> Um can you walk us through those and what were the highlights? >> Sure. Um in the 50s and early 60s the the wedge mine was in production but


remember back then it was just lead zinc. >> Mhm. >> They didn't really produce copper, gold, silver in the mill. Um so they they didn't it wasn't visible gold. So they just never never even assay for it. But the head pillar collapsed after they binded about a third of it. So there was twothirds left and we've taken on the job. Uh two years ago we had a drill program on the east extension, brand new. We hit on all our holes improved up a couple million tons. Now we're


drilling this fall at the because they're vertical at the depth and seeing how deep it goes and it goes west. So we're going to continue that phase three, but we just released our first drill hole a couple weeks ago and we we just got the results for our second one. We're working on uh putting that together and getting that release out. So, what we have found and we've put out releases with photos is it's a very copper rich deposit. >> So, not traditional VMS with the lead


zinc. It's there's a new lens, a copper lens that no one had known of. So, even going these orphan mines, um there's a strategy there and our strategy is to prove it up to 10 million plus tons. And these deposits also cluster like pearls. So we have two other targets to the west of it that we're going to try and to uh discover a deposit extension and hopefully have an economic mine. >> Yeah, absolutely. Is, you know, as a pass producing asset, is there any tailings reprocessing potential?


>> No. So, it's um yeah, because it it happened in the 60s and uh Kaminko was the company and I think Tech bought it um and they had to shut it down and um but we we we have it now and uh we're going to bring it back to life and obviously the metal prices are very different today than they were in the 60s when you add the copper and the gold and the silver that they weren't producing just the lead zinc. Um so and that's kind of revitalized the whole camp you know so it's um it looks like


brighter brighter days ahead in Baths for a while. >> Absolutely. And you know with higher commodity prices what does that do for you guys and you know your potential to attract investors? >> Well like I said um the copper the gold >> and the silver obviously yeah used to be just the extras on a VMS deposit. Now they're like that's a big part of the economics. >> And um because they are such rich deposits, you have the ability for an open pit >> because they're small deposits on


footprint >> cuz they're only about 1,000 mters of surface footprint, but they can go down 1 to two miles. >> Yeah. >> And it's 95% pure mineral. So it's uh very economic once you you have a discovery and find one. But there's also a strategy happening because liquidity is back in the market that majors are coming and they are looking at a regional rollup strategy because you can have 10 to 20 deposits all cumulatively toll milling at a mill and be economic. So,


>> you just uh you know, we have one mill there at the Caribou, but it's it's offline right now with Travali's bankruptcy and and it also doesn't do copper, gold, silver, so it's got to get upgraded. So, um there is a a spotlight to get um more deposits and justify, you know, we've always wanted a second new mill there, right, >> in the camp. So, >> yeah, >> hopefully commodity prices in a long bull market will will help that. Absolutely. Um and this this year the


company is uh focused on copper which has reached all-time highs and you know there's a strong long-term supply and demand outlook. How do rising copper prices support 9 mile metals exploration strategy? >> Well, it it doesn't really drive ours like VMS you're going to have the five elements. Right. Right. And actually we have indium now in in our nine mile brook which is for flat panel TVs and touchcreens. So there's all these new critical minerals in in the mix, the blend that they're that they're finding.


So it does help with um our awareness out there and our ability to differentiate ourel as a DMS or critical mineral um company. It does help with our placements and flow through funding obviously for Canadians and Canadian institutions. But uh um there's a lot now with the US and critical minerals with the Department of Defense um now allowing their funding to go to Canadian companies, Canadian projects and vice versa and and they're all looking for critical mineral stockpile buying now


because they never had it like the oil. So >> it's uh all these kind of stars are lining up for the industry after a long time and um I think it's going to be a very good elongated um market. Yeah, >> I mean Canada's been very supportive with this rock to road, you know, uh, building Canada Act, uh, shorting the the permitting for, uh, mining licenses down from 20 years to about five, >> which is much better >> instead of doing, you know, your provincial and then going after five


years doing your federal and then getting them all to talk, right? >> They got to streamline it quick as possible. Um because a lot of critical minerals for us not uh we're very fortunate to be in the Ba'athther's camp which is year-round access and and a mining community and deep water ports and rail and Irving help put in all the all the logging roads and everything but um you know a lot of the critical measures in Canada are in the Arctic. >> Yeah. >> There's no roads 20 20 miles from


anything. So you got to get that infrastructure in there to be on the map and but you know Canada's lucky. We're first in pod ash. We're first in in uranium. We're first in freshwater. Yeah. >> Um, second in nickel. So, critical minerals is is very important to Canada and I think this I think New Brunswick today is is having their announcement on their support >> federally and proincially. So, that's even the premier's here today. So, um, we couldn't be luckier to be in Baths to


be honest. >> Absolutely. And, you know, it has a rich history of mining and the infrastructure is there like you were saying which is so important because you know once you get it out of the ground you want to be able to take it where it has to go. >> Yeah. And and the other thing is, you know, we've learned with um VMS deposits that the best place to find a VMS deposit is in the shadows of another VMS deposit. >> Right. >> And it's been proven time after time. The Heath Steel, the half mile, the


strap mat, the Brunswick 12 and the Brunswick 6, they cluster. >> Yeah. >> Like daisy chain of pearls. And we believe we have that on the wedge. We have the wedge mine and right on trend our next target called the West Wedge and then the tri bag. So that's over six kilometers. And we hope we we'll be testing that this year. We've already announced that drill program. So, >> a lot of potential >> be active. We're going to be active finally. >> Um, looking ahead, what are the key


near-term catalysts investors should be watching for? And how do those build into your company's longerterm vision for growth in the bath mining camp? uh besides our exploration program and drilling our already defined targets with our proprietary geoysics that we use and it's not so much the UAV drone data collection it's the interpretation the algorithms that sets apart those companies right and we have taken our whole portfolio and done that two years ago and we have back tested it with did


the technology find the existing deposits >> or did it not well it did but also >> the mirror images of those deposits it's are our new targets. So when you filter it out and we do hundreds of layers of geoysical uh 3D modeling and uh so we have qualified targets. We just announced today we just uh announced phase one of our bulk sample at 9 mile Brook lens that high-grade ultra high-grade land. It's so uh what we're testing right now with SGS is you know recoveries and and doing all the


metallurgical and and minologial um uh an analytical test but we're also they're crushing and preparing it a sample two samples for Glenor. So Glenor because normally you go to a mill and then to a smelter with concentrate it's so high-grade we're maybe going straight to the smelter when you get up you know 10 12 15 20% copper. So, we're Glancor's uh we just announced that they're going to be doing their their proprietary testing for their um horn mill. >> Yeah. So, we're pretty excited. So,


hopefully and and again, the whole community of of companies in the Baths Camp, you know, we're all we're all very friendly. >> Yeah. >> So, one helps all. >> Yeah. And with a high grade like that and being able to bypass that one step, does that save you money in the long run? >> Well, it does. And and there's different And even um if it's not considered as high grade, you can always blend it. You can also we also have other ways to do that bulk sample and that's really the


test for the economics and and for the minology because every even if you go to a mill you're going to have to tweak it for the minology of your deposit. >> So in essence if we wanted to take our bulk sample and go to Kid Creek they'd have to tweak their mill for our ore >> because of the process because we have high copper. they have they may have low copper and high lead zinc and ours is you know everything's unique >> um but it's very economic so yeah so we're very excited but it's also that


first step on um processing feasibility and stuff right so um and again you know we'd love nothing to announce uh lens two and three and four >> absolutely >> that's our job >> get out there and and find it but it's all there's only 1% outcrop so everything's hidden everything's underground. All the easy ones have been found. Um, but that's why you need this technology. And about every 20 years, there's a there's a new technology that comes in geoysics, whether it's gravity


or magnetics or whatever. And that's where we are now with the UAV drones, uh, going down 7 800 meters and giving you 3D modeling. So, you can hit mineralization, you still have to drill it and go, what's the grade >> and, um, and how thick is it? You know, what's the width? So, we're getting much much better at finding the minerals. It's just is it economic? Right. >> Right. Absolutely. Well, I look forward to speaking with you again soon and getting more updates on uh the Nine Mile


Medals story. >> Yes. I'm Thank you for having us today. >> Thank you for joining me, Patrick. >> I'm Georgia Williams and that was Patrick Crookshank of Nine Mile Medals.