The Northern Miner August 8 2022 Issue 16

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OBITUARY: LUKAS LUNDIN REMEMBERED AS MINING VISIONARY / 2 Geotech_Earlug_2016_Alt2.pdf 1 2016-06-24 4:27:20 PM

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Ford goes directly to miners for lithium, nickel to support EV ambitions | Automaker also bets on LFP batteries over NCM

CRITICAL MINERALS

F Marimaca Copper president and CEO Hayden Locke (left) and Paola Kovacic, Marimaca’s exploration manager on site. HENRY LAZENBY

Marimaca Copper advances low-capex oxide prospect in Chile SITE VISIT

I

| Leading ‘green copper’ project could start production in 2026, says CEO

BY HENRY LAZENBY IN ANTOFAGASTA, CHILE

t’s about a two-hour flight north-northwest from the uber-developed Chilean capital of Santiago to reach the dusty airport just outside Antofagasta, a seaside city on the edge of the Atacama Desert, said to be the second driest place on earth after Antarctica. As we’re driven away from the airport, we pass under a giant BHP-Escondida greeting banner. It’s immediately clear we’re now in big-time copper country. The arid, brown-red landscape here is in stark contrast to the lush greenery of Santiago. We’ve travelled to view Marimaca Copper’s (TSX: MARI) eponymous brownfields project located about an hour’s drive inland from Antofagasta on well-maintained government roads. “Marimaca is the only copper discovery globally of the last five years,” says president and CEO Hayden Locke, who adds it’s a “low-risk project with substantial exploration potential.” On the way to the site, Locke points out just how well developed the local infrastructure is., built over decades to

sustain one of the most important copper-producing regions in the world. There’s a pipeline pumping seawater for the nearby Mantos Blancos operation and at least four high-voltage powerlines serving the big mines further inland. As we turn into the countryside, a freight train carrying cars loaded with copper concentrate, copper cathodes and empty vats of hydrochloric acid to the port at Mejillones, slowly snakes its way down from the majestic Andes mountain range. The Marimaca project has an exceptional location, just 14 km from the highway and power lines, 25 km from the port of Mejillones and 45 km from the regional capital of Antofagasta. Locke says Marimaca Copper is making steady progress with advancing a rare, economical copper oxide deposit in the Antofagasta region of Chile, regarded as a Tier 1 jurisdiction and the world’s largest exporter of the future-facing red metal. The development project is set against a backdrop of exponentially growing copper demand forecasts standing in stark contrast to stagnant supply curves not

nearly keeping pace. Analysts predict an annual supply gap of 12 million tonnes opening from about 2025 onwards. The project represents a small, welcome breath of air, as majors are forced to look for significant discoveries in ever more remote and expensive-to-operate-in places just to sustain current production. “It becomes clear that a low-cost operation feeding into a high copper-price environment is a recipe to make a lot of money over a relatively short timeframe. Our asset contrasts against the often long, uncertain timelines to permit a massive supergene/hypogene deposit and the considerable capital it requires to see it through to production,” Locke said. Permiting has become a political juggernaut in Chile. Some see copper mining in danger of becoming more restricted. Chile’s new president, Gabriel Boric, has been busy in recent months rejecting new copper mines and expansions. Anglo American (LSE: AAL) alone has had two copper mine expansions rejected just in the last couple of months. See MARIMACA COPPER / 16

BY BLAIR MCBRIDE

ord Motor Company (NYSE: F) announced plans to accelerate its EV production that are underpinned by several high-profile agreements with lithium and nickel miners to supply raw materials for the vehicles’ batteries. The U.S-based automaker said in a news release in late July that it has secured “100% of the battery supplies” it needs to produce 600,000 EVs per year by the end of 2023, and with the help of Chinese battery company Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) it could make 2 million EVs by 2026. It plans to invest more than US$50 billion in EVs through 2026, targeting total company adjusted EBIT margins of 10% and 8% EBIT margins for EVs by 2026. “Ford’s new electric vehicle lineup has generated huge enthusiasm and demand, and now we are putting the industrial system in place to scale quickly,” said Ford president and CEO Jim Farley, who is also president of Ford Model e. “Our Model e team has moved with speed, focus and creativity to secure the battery capacity and raw materials we need to deliver breakthrough EVs for millions of customers.” Ford said it will source battery cell raw materials through a set of agreements — mostly non-binding memorandums of understanding (MOU)s on projects that are not yet in production — with nine mining companies. The announcements follow on agreements EV leader Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has also made with nickel, lithium and graphite miners. Agreements span the globe Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO; LSE: RIO; ASX: RIO) signed a non-binding MOU with Ford to develop more sustainable and secure supply chains for battery and low-carbon materials for its vehicles. Materials covered in the deal include lithium, low-carbon aluminum and copper, Rio Tinto

INTRODUCING TNM DRILL DOWN: TOP GOLD ASSAYS OF THE WEEK / 3

said in a statement. The lithium would be supplied in an offtake agreement from Rio’s Rincon project in Argentina, currently under development, though it was unclear how much of the metal would be provided to Ford. Among the other lithium supply deals Ford has secured is a binding, offtake agreement with Australian miner ioneer (NASDAQ: IONR: ASX: INR) for 7,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate annually over a five-year period starting in 2025. The carbonate would come from its 100%-owned Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada. The deal would represent about 34% of annual output from Rhyolite Ridge in the first See FORD / 3

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