C3 Metals Inc (TSX-V:CCCM, OTC:CARCF) announced earlier this week that it has secured key surface access agreement, enabling it to advance exploration at its Khaleesi copper-gold project in Southern Peru.
CEO Dan Symons joined Proactive to talk about the milestone, highlighting that building trust and transparency with the community was a priority for C3 Metals and led to the pivotal agreement.
Proactive: The company has significant news about reaching a crucial surface access agreement. So, let's talk about the area first, obviously in relation to your project.
Dan Symons: Sure. So, the Khaleesi project sits right along the contact of a very favorable geologic setting that we see in southern Peru. It has very similar surface expressions to the nearby Las Bambas mine, operated by MMG, and the Constancia and Pampacancha mines, operated by Hudbay Minerals, all within 45 km of the Khaleesi project.
The critical path for us to advance towards drilling was that we held the mineral rights to this area, and the Cancahuani Indigenous community had the surface rights to this area. It's been multiple years of working to build trust and understand exactly what we want to do and what our company culture is about. We've succeeded with that now, with an agreement where we can get in and access this area. So it's a huge milestone for the company.
You mentioned a word that I think is really important to highlight, and that is “trust.” Because this isn't something where you can go in and say, “Hey, this is what we want.” It’s more so, “This is what we'd like to do as partners.” That’s really the way this has happened, right?
That’s absolutely correct. And it doesn't matter where you are. This happens to be southern Peru. But in my career, I've been involved with communities in Mexico and in Canada with First Nations. It's about building partnerships and trust and recognizing that we, as foreign companies, are visitors to these areas. We owe it to these communities to be completely transparent about what we want to do, why we want to do it, and what the economic benefits to the community will be through our exploration and development of these mineral assets. That takes time.
As you can imagine, if a stranger showed up at your doorstep and said they wanted to do work on your property, you wouldn't necessarily trust them right away. So there's a lot of boots on the ground, spending time within the local communities, and these things have their own pace to them. You feel them out as you go. But where we sit today, now, the community is extremely supportive of what we want to do—the exploration. They’re very excited about it. We have members of the local community already in the field collecting samples that we need for our drill permitting process. That's part of what we're doing—trying to create jobs locally.
Last question, in the news release, you really emphasize the word “crucial.” Can you put in context just how important this deal really is for the project moving forward?
The project doesn't move forward without this deal. It's been the critical path item for us. For us to go through and get the environmental permit required for exploration drilling, the ministry wants to see that you have an agreement to access the surface and do that work. It's also crucial for us to get on the ground and take samples. The preliminary mapping that we've done in the area shows a large hydrothermal system with epithermal veins, rock chip samples grading over 2% copper, and 6 grams per ton gold. We have skarn grading over 2.6% copper in rock chips.
There are also porphyry-style B veins outcropping where we've seen rock chip samples above 1% copper and close to a gram of gold. It looks like it has size and scale potential with good grade. What we're seeing near the surface is all the recipes of what you want. But if you don't have that social license, you're not moving forward. That's something that really impedes projects globally—when companies are unable to gain that social license. It does take time, and it's about building trust. But we've done that now, and we have that agreement in place.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and style