Interview with  Sam Lee, CEO of Northisle Copper & Gold

Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/northisle-copper-gold-tsxvncx-district-scale-is-the-prize-8032

Recording date: 6th October 2025

Northisle Copper & Gold is advancing one of British Columbia's most significant undeveloped copper-gold assets at a pivotal moment when political alignment, commodity fundamentals, and strategic capital partnerships have converged to enable accelerated development. The company controls a major porphyry project hosting over 7 million ounces of gold and 3.5 billion pounds of copper on Vancouver Island.

Since CEO Sam Lee joined in October 2020, the company has systematically addressed the critical questions defining success in large-scale porphyry development. Exploration success at Northwest Expo and West Goodspeed delivered higher-grade zones that dramatically reduced capital intensity while improving project economics, culminating in what Lee characterizes as "one of the strongest PEAs I've seen in the market in the last decade."

The company's recent $40 million financing marked a transformational milestone, bringing Wheaton Precious Metals as cornerstone investor alongside nine institutions. This partnership establishes a pathway to exceptionally low-cost capital, with streaming arrangements expected to provide financing at 0-4% cost when finalized. Combined with potential Asian strategic partnerships offering 2% export credit financing, Northisle expects blended capital costs of 2-3% for project development.

A distinctive feature of Northisle's project is its substantial gold component, which serves as a financial bridge to larger copper production. "We have a very high margin gold project upfront in phase one that allows us to bridge into a big capital intensive copper project," Lee explained. This structure provides execution advantages over copper-only projects while reducing financing risk.

The company has assembled a world-class technical team including Kevin O'Kane as Chief Operating Officer, bringing 37 years of BHP experience, and Dr. Pablo Mejia as VP Exploration from Ero Copper. Lee emphasizes unprecedented political alignment across First Nations, provincial, and federal governments as creating an optimal window for accelerated permitting. "In my 30 years of being in the mining industry, I've never seen such political alignment for natural resource development projects like ours," he stated.

With favorable copper market dynamics including negative treatment charges and institutional backing secured, Northisle is positioned to advance rapidly toward production while maintaining district-scale expansion potential across a 30-year mining horizon.

Learn more: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/northisle-copper-gold

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