Cyprium Metals reports Nifty Copper leaching milestones

we saw immediate response from putting acid into the heaps and generating copper in the ratios, uh, in fact, better than the ratios that we had thought.

Cyprium Metals has achieved key commissioning milestones at its nifty copper complex. And here to discuss those milestones and how busy uh the company has actually been is executive chairman Matt Fifield. A Matt, good to see you.

Good to see you, Jonathan.

Um so yeah, you've been really busy.

Yep, so we're just in that stage right now where we're commissioning our heap leach operations and just uh finishing up pre-commissioning on the uh on the SXEW plant and getting ready for first cathode. So there's a lot going on at site. Feelings are very positive and we're just uh sort of smashing through the work. There've been a couple of really encouraging um immediate feedbacks during pre-commissioning that uh that we put a release out on recently.

And then let's talk about that. Um let's talk about rapid achievement of a target injection rates. Um talk us through that and the expected copper to acid performance uh that's been demonstrated uh about the suitability of direct injection leaching for the nifty heaps.

Sure. Well, if you remember, we went through a trial process where we we've been looking at direct injection leech for over a year now and trying to get the applicability um for the nifty heaps. So we went through in pre-commissioning, we conditioned the heaps with water, and we found that the entire heaps were acting uh like a aboveground reservoir that made it suitable for injection leaching. So as we've stepped into uh commissioning of the heaps and transitioning into operations, what we've seen is more of the same. Uh we're able to get uh the flow rates that we want, um that that can underpin our mind plan, and uh we're learning uh a couple of critical things and seeing improvements across uh the entire uh leaching activity. And that's sort of what you expect at this point in time. So things are turning on and we're doing it once, we're doing it twice, we're doing it uh four times and then you start going from night uh from day shift to day and night shift and we're in that kind of ramp up towards the commercial volumes. A couple of things that uh did kick over is we saw immediate response from putting acid into the heaps and generating copper in the ratios, uh in fact, better than the ratios that we had thought. And so that's really encouraging to see that fast response and uh the metallurgical ratios balancing out the way that we want. And then again, the rates that we've been seeing around our injection, um high pressure and low pressure injections and the cycle that we're uh uh our production cycle, that's all fantastic. So it's really one of those positive experiences where everything's going right um in the in the heap bleach uh in the way that we uh the way that you would want it to.

Yeah, and speaking of everything going right, I mean, that would strengthen the confidence and part of that confidence is that grade controlled drilling of the heaps reconciling with within approximately 5% of the resource block model. Um talk us through that.

Yeah, so as a part of so now if you go to the top of the nifty heaps, what you'll see is it looks like a well field with uh trunk lines and um production lines coming through and you'll see a bunch of PVC pipes sticking out of the top. We've drilled about 212 wells in in total. Recently we've drilled about uh 98 production wells and a similar number of monitoring wells. So the monitoring wells are spaced in between the injection wells and that allows you to see uh fluid going by and um and how the well field is working. So, when we do that, we're grade sampling. And the grade sampling is just getting a composite of uh, you know, from a monitoring well or production well and we're taking a set number of those and have put them in to confirm our block model so that we can later uh um, you know, deplete it as we produce. And it's you know, it's just what we expected. Uh, you know, our earlier mineral resource statement was based on drilling from uh 2007 until 2022. Here we are in 2026 and we just keep on seeing exactly what we expect. So yeah, it's a it's a it's a confidence booster. We you know, in some ways no surprise, but it's always nice to see.

And you mentioned the wells there, 212 production monitoring wells, um approximately 1.7 million tons of accessible material through that. So how does that support, I guess that planned ramp up that you're going to do over the next six to 12 six to eight months?

Yeah, so we have we actually have a really uh conservative um recovery number and with that at that conservative recovery number, effectively we've already established our next uh it was really our next six to eight months of production are covered by that well field depending on uh depending on what kind of recoveries we see. We think there might be upside um recoveries in that when you look at how all the test work matches up. And yet, uh so so it's kind of like we've already banked it. and now it's a process of um switching it on and seeing the, you know, seeing the numbers grow. So it's really more of a de-risking moment with all that uh production so quickly established and then and then de-bottlenecking as we're going through the commissioning side.

So Matt, just finally, what work remains now to to complete wet commissioning, um and deliver that first copper cathode?

Yeah, great question. So where we are right now, uh yesterday, we brought power into the plant infrastructure from the power station. That's the high voltage power. Next, uh is putting in PLC controls and energizing the plant. When that happens, you're basically right into, you know, right into web commissioning. So that's that's just right in front of us right now. So it's really exciting. There's a lot of focus on site across operations and then uh with the electrical team as well about the safe energization of the plant. We passed through one big milestone and we got a couple more to go.

Yeah, plenty to look forward to, especially as we hurdle towards the end of the year. Matt, you got a lot on your plate, so I'll let you go, but uh thanks for your time today.

Thanks, always great to talk to you, Jonathan.