OROCO Resource Corp $ORRCF - What's next for Santo Tomas' Copper Project in 2026? Open Pit Permit?

[screaming] [music] >> The following content you are about to review is paid for content. The particulars of my compensation on behalf of an entity is provided in the description below. I encourage all reviewers of this content to take note of those disclaimers and to understand that the information that is passed in the following video is aimed at information and is not to be misconstrued as investing information as there will be statements that are made based on the company's current operations as well as potential forecasts of where the company could be. Again, I encourage all investors to heed the disclaimers and disclosures provided in detail in the description below. Please enjoy. Very good. Well, welcome back to the Independent Investor Channel. Got a friend of the channel back, Mr. Ian Graham. He is the president of Oroco Resource Corp. It's been a little while since we've spoken to Ian, but we want to make sure and get his summary for 2025 and especially his thoughts on going into 2026. I've been a share owner in Oroco now to put me in the long category and I'm just as excited now as I was then to take an investment in this company. Before we get started, I want to bring everybody's attention to the disclaimer in the description of this video. Please understand we'll be making statements in this video about the goings-on at Oroco Resource Corp. I want to invite all investors to do their own due diligence and and their own research. This is not investing advice, however, aimed to get to the information that is absolutely critical to make an informed decision for all investors out there. I am one of them. Ian, welcome to the channel. Welcome back to the channel. So good to have you. Would you mind just giving us a little bit of summary as we close out 2025, Ian? Thanks for having me back, Ryan, and I'm I'm looking forward to that you know, sort of Chilean like the further back you look, the further forward you can see. Yes. So, reviewing 2025, I think is particularly important in that context for Oroco in particular this year. Because as we came into 2025, we were facing certain regulatory headwinds and perceptions in the market that open pits in Mexico were off the cards for for permitting through mining. And so, I would say the achievement this year for us has been fundamentally overseeing a pivot in that situation. So, since March, we've gone from facing those headwinds to having fairly steady tailwinds. We've been added to Plan Mexico, which is the major plus billion dollar projects in Mexico across all sectors that the president of the country has indicated that the regime will support. And we were added to that back in May as part of Plan Sinaloa and as a result, we were on the the the list of projects that would see development. So, that was very exciting and then just 2 weeks ago, another company in the mining sector had their silver project, which is an open pit, Silver Tiger, approved to develop a new open pit in Sonora just a few hundred miles north of us. So, that was the first really tangible sign that the administration's declaration that they will support projects that bring economic and in particular indigenous and rural development to parts of Mexico that need that upliftment is in fact what they intend to do. So, that that was a very significant moment. And then just last week, Mike Leyhian myself were in Acapulco attending the International Mexico Mining Congress and the opening of that was addressed by the Secretary for the economy, think Minister of Finance, Marcelo Ebrard, where he specifically said that the regime is now directly engaged in supporting high merit mining projects. So, I think that was a bit of a trifecta this year of events that have taken us from I think a very challenging >> situation that brought us off our market cap highs, which in Canadian dollars were above $3, and back into the range of the sort of 30 cents that we've been at, you know, through this year. So, you know, that that that was an order of magnitude retreat in our in our corporate value and you know, hopefully as we now look forward on the basis of that fairly extensive look backward, we can regain the valuations we previously had as we now commit ourselves to do the necessary work to produce a pre-feasibility study, a PFS. So, we're excited, we're thrilled, can't wait to to just staff up and and get that that initiative going. Um in among the sort of events this year, we had another we think very significant event. We expanded the board. Our first Mexican board member, Faisal Rodriguez, joined us. He has a remarkable track record in Mexico. He's from Choix, the the the city adjacent to the project. Um and he started his mining chops sort of developed out of his involvement with El Sauzal, which is now in rehabilitation reclamation, but it was a decade-long gold producer for a time. It was the largest gold maker in in Mexico and Faisal was a key part of that operating team, developed his mining chops, went on to do other things internationally and in Mexico, but most recently has been the lead on the ground in Mexico technical person for Torex Gold and his involvement with the current Torex management took that entity from being a sub-billion dollar company to an now plus six billion dollar market cap company and they have become the largest gold maker in Mexico with his assistance. So, he has joined us. He's looking forward to helping us move forward, permit the project. It's it's something he's doing to give back to his community. It's something he's very passionate about. And on top of all of that, he made a million US dollar investment just recently into Oroco for zero ask back. So, we're thrilled. We feel quite privileged to have him join our team and we feel that that is another indication that we're now back on the tracks and hit barreling forward into the future. So, this is it's exciting to be able to relate both these recent past events to you, but don't underestimate, Ryan, we are now future focused and we cannot wait to just crack on, do the PFS drilling and get this show back on the road in a serious way. So, it's exciting and um yeah, we just can't wait to get going. All right. So, for the other shareholders that are catching this video, I I don't know if they've got the same feeling as I do. I've got some electricity down my spine and I'm trying to shake it when you talked about the pit permitting portion. And for for those of you guys who haven't followed the Oroco story, I know it's important to focus on the future. Important to mention to the audience, I've I've doubled my existing long position in Oroco. Those disclaimers will be made to you. All right. I'm very transparent about my share ownership in this company and I have no plans, no plans whatsoever, than to continue to ride the momentum of Oroco. But you talked about the recent permit being issued. How long had it been, Ian, since that previous permit had been issued for the open pit mine? Because for those that can really put those two together with the Oroco story, we know that there was a singular reason as to why your guys's fundamentals was providing that reciprocation in the market and just fell off of a cliff and you guys have been fighting ever since to get back that traction. That's correct. It's almost 7 years since the prior open new open pit permit had been issued in Mexico. And certainly the articulation of resistance to doing that by the last president was a feature of the last electoral cycle in mid-2024 and that came to the attention of the market and and there was broad nervousness and uh regarding the future of open pits in Mexico. Uh so, I think we were caught up in that quite correctly in a sense. Um but, we're now I think in a in a in a new dispensation, shall we say? And uh we're extremely relieved about that, as you can imagine, and hopefully our shareholders are, too. Um but, now we are pivoting to uh refinance and move forward on the PFS. And as far as we're concerned, the uh the future is rosy, and the impediments to rapid, normal progress through the usual cycle of project development are gone. Uh we we we we we think that um the the tough hurdles are behind us, not ahead of us. Well, I think 2025 has been a transformational year and and for the bulls of the company who understand your fundamental uh profile at Oroco Resource Corp, we get it. Um we knew that it wasn't going to be just a day-and-night switch to to to this thesis. It's taken this little bit of time. But, this momentum that's going on as of late, this is very, very exciting moving into 2026. And I want investors to truly understand that we really are looking to move this project forward now, having had those, you know, those political influences kind of come 180. I mean, they're they're favorable, and these little tidbits that are forward-facing that are uh public knowledge about, you know, the the appetite to to start to embolden some of these projects. And I know how much it means to you guys at the ground level with the economics of the jurisdictions that you guys represent. I It's a beautiful thing. And I I invest more for I know there's people who invest for different reasons. I look for those companies that yes, have the fundamentals. And you guys is a yes, okay? People can disagree with me all they want, but if you look below the surface, look below the hood, you will see that this property is absolutely for real. But, for you guys and for me, your guys' commitment to the local jurisdiction and what you guys are doing really is that cherry on the top for me as a shareholder. You're an easy company to own. You really are. So, can we talk a little bit? You're welcome. The the the latest uh tranche of financing, can you speak a little bit about that and how that potentially lends itself to uh how that financing is going to be earmarked in 2026, Ian? Certainly. So, it was a small financing, again comprising key Mexico-only base shareholders. So, it was a positioning round, not something we're basing a massive uh program off, but it tees us up up to commence the PFS work in early 2026. Um but, we do need to further finance around the PFS needs. And we will be doing that imminently. But, it was a great little financing to to get done and has positioned people, Ryan, who will be there for us uh through thick and uh and to be uh part of ownership in the company as Mexicans. So, you know, that has been a big step forward. The addition of uh Faisal, uh a native of the area, to our board, uh we're thrilled about that. He's having a real impact internally already. And uh and the other participants. So, you know, it was uh I I think it was a signaling round. Um and uh and and we believe that we're now coming off the starting blocks. Uh and uh and the sprint is right ahead of us. Well, I I look at it. I I bought my shares on the open market. I'm I'm happy to do so, and um I'm one of those good share owners that gets it. Um I'm I'm would caution the audience to understand my perspective. And for those people who have joined my channel on YouTube for the last 10 years, they know I'm digging for fundamentals. I'm looking to tell a story here. Um there's only one company that I'm representing right now, uh and and trying to tell the story, and that's you guys. Because I think there's a huge story to be told there. We've spent just a little over 13 minutes talking about all the cool stuff that you guys have done at the end of 2025. For those folks that are being brought into the Oroco Resource Corp story for the first time, certainly, I want to, you know, focus, and we'll put those resources to to hit the website, bring yourself up to speed on the newest investor slide deck that you guys have updated uh for November. I thought that was a wonderful product. But, can you talk a little bit about the showcase at Santa Tomas, please, a little bit, Ian? For those folks that need a little bit more granular information on what we're investing in here, uh the magnitude of the project, and just how how huge it is. Thanks, Ian. Certainly. So, the project comprises an over 1 billion-ton resource that hosts primarily copper. So, 90% of the value of the products is copper. That occurs as a very simple mineral presentation, chalcopyrite, which enabled us to do a preliminary economic assessment study that focused on very, very simple metallurgy, which is what characterizes the project. A large-scale project that will make 100,000 ton of copper a year for 23 years. So, that is a sizable project. There is resource well beyond that that we haven't put into a mine plan yet. So, it will be one of those large copper mines, generational business uh in a district that really wants mining. And uh the business uh at $4 copper will make over a billion dollars a year for 23 years. Uh it has a very competitive capital structure. We need to invest a billion to liberate 25 billion dollars at $4 copper. We think copper has a very strong future in terms of its commodity pricing. You know, we priced gold at uh under $2,000 when we did the study. Uh we've seen what's happened to gold, silver, which will be a small byproduct. Uh and we have a molybdenum circuit in the design that will produce a modest amount of molybdenum concentrate. But, it's fundamentally a copper mine, and we think that that's really important uh to the world currently. Uh the world makes about um you know, uh it about uh 200 times as much copper as we will make. So, we'll be making half to 1% of the world's copper for 22 years. So, it's a meaningful contributor in a mining jurisdiction. Uh and it will be in and of itself a very robust business for a mine operator. So, [snorts] you know, it's just a very compelling story, great project. And you know, what gives us a lot of confidence in this is that our CEO, uh former colleague of mine at Rio Tinto, Richard Lock, is a mine builder, and uh and he just looked at it when I first brought him to site and said, "Oh, well, this will be a mine." And uh he's one of those people who tends to understatement, and and uh he's an engineer by background, so he's sort of he he tends to sort of stick to the facts, shall we say? Um and uh and and he sees that business as uh you know, the only the only thing about it is it isn't built yet. Um but, uh we anticipate it will be, and uh everything about the ore body and the location and the infrastructure uh just make it a mine that will get built. Yeah, so very favorable attributes. Thank you for that, Ian. So, if you're out there and you're you know, coming to your to the story for the first time, it's super important to just take a few moments and listen to what Ian's talking about. He's culminating a lot of time on this project, and a lot of money has been invested in this project, too, since 2019. There's been a lot of investment in this, you know, to to really fortify uh what share owners own. And you know, for right now, we talked backstage a little bit, we'll dabble with just acknowledging the share price. And you know, for me in 2025, it's just been very, very simple. When I look at Oroco Resource Corp, it's been a transformational year to 2025. We've picked up some steam. We'll enter into 2026 with some phenomenal phenomenal um momentum. Uh and I'm excited. I I do want to to caution investors in understanding that the junior mining space is is, you know, every company has its own pedigree. And where a company is in its phase of of evolution is important. Will it transpire into a a meaningful project? Is the cost of doing operations feasible? Are you in a favorable location? Does the local jurisdiction accept you guys to even come in and do all that? And you guys have checked all of those boxes. Um so, when I look at the junior mining space as a whole, you guys are one of the very few that, as I went down my due diligence list, I I was sold right away. Now, I think the key ingredient for you guys is time. Is that correct, Ian, in in my assessment? It is, yes. I mean, we need to go through the PFS. That is a process. We need to do some baseline studies, and we need to produce the ultimate report. And what that then does is tee us up with a evaluation. We anticipate that the market will begin to understand that Mexico is back as a mining nation permitting open pits. Uh and with those lining up, uh we anticipate an opportunity, you know, a transactional opportunity in the M&A space uh that will crystallize value for us and our projects. So, you know, hoping that if there are potential new share owners, they do their due diligence, and we are available to contact through through the website, etc. And we'd be pleased to provide, you know, any the granularity required to people contemplating our company. No, absolutely. So, yeah, Ian's contact is at the end of the slide deck presentation. His contact is there. All you've got to do is follow that. Um you know, that uh presentation is there. It's at arocoresource.com. Uh the ticker symbols are there for your um uh for your convenience on the screen, o r r c f uh on the quality board markets in the OTC. Um but like you said, guys, I take it at face value. Um you know, I'm I am a a share owner in the company. And our angle on the Independent Investor Channel, um just the bottom line is to try to find companies at a deep disconnect to the fundamentals that are going on. And what an opportunity to sit across from, you know, not the president of the company, the director a director with the company, and hear the insights. If you really heard the the message on this, uh you really don't have a lot of choice but to take a second look at Oroco Resource Corp because I I I think this company stands uh to to profit from this momentum. I think it's going to be fun to watch as as things materialize and progress. And uh I'll I'll be right there alongside you guys uh uh watching the progress. Uh as as we close it down, Ian, uh is there anything else that you want to update the share owners on? Oroco Resource uh Corp, anything that we missed, anything exciting, anything to stand by for? Um uh the floor is yours, Ian. Thanks very much, Ryan. Just the future focus and the the really intense focus on restarting work at the project. Yeah. Um and as you recall, we picked up a an adjacent project uh that has uh porphyry copper potential, and we intend to do a little work on that in 2026 as well. Uh and we think that there's significant blue sky and upside there. So, you know, there's there's that additional potential uh coming next year. Fantastic. Uh thank you very much, Ian. You know, you're a friend of the channel. Uh we are going to be um uh talking frequently over the next uh coming 6 months or so. Uh it's an open door here on the Independent Investor Channel, and I know uh on behalf of my channel and the audience that comes in frequents, um thank you. Uh it is incredible to be able to gain the insights from yourself on the goings-on of Oroco, and and certainly as we look toward the future as you state. And uh very exciting times to come, and we'll be right there to cover it, man, as we start to uh get to some of those catalysts. You're very welcome, Ian. Have a happy holiday, and yep. Next stage, we briefly discussed having you down on site when the excitement builds again. >> coming. Uh and we're going to hold you to it. Oh, I look forward to it, absolutely. Uh nothing will crystallize a project better uh than for me to actually go down there, put put boots on the ground, just like I've done with some of my other projects. It it really helps fortify um what it means in my eyes my eyes to be a shareholder in a company. All right. We'll leave it at that, Ian. Thank you so much. Have a happy holiday. Thank you very much, my friend. Be well, my friend. Take it easy. Yep. Bye-bye. Yes, you too. Bye-bye. >> [music]