Peter Hume, CEO Celsius Resources announces the greenlighting of...

Peter Hume, CEO Celsius Resources announces the greenlighting of their MCB project in the Philippines for feasibility of mining. This proclamation paves the way for Celsius Resources moving closer to obtaining a collaborative mineral production sharing contract with the Philippine Government. For Peter, this landmark points out to the domestic administration and the market that potential mining licenses may be in the offing.Although this undertaking has extended beyond the initially estimated duration, he appreciates the increased backing they have garnered from local officials to speed up this intricate endeavor. Nestled in the hilly Cordillera region, the MCB ambition houses a high-grade deposit of copper-gold, containing roughly 300 million tonnes.As anticipation builds for commercial output kickstarting in 2025, the primary hurdles are stock market dynamics and maintaining investor faith towards reaching this benchmark. Peter underlines with assurance that their stock value is seriously underestimated and currently, they are in discussions with an array of prospective financiers, Japanese benefactors being amongst them.Below is an unedited transcript of the interview:All right. Celsius resources announced yesterday that it has received approval of the Declaration of Mining Project Feasibility for its flagship Mqb project in the Philippines. The issuance of the DPF will let the company move forward with its plans to obtain a mineral production sharing agreement with the Philippine government. And for more, Peter Hume, managing director of Celsius Resources, joins us now. Peter, thanks very much for your time today. Tell us, first of all, about this approval that you have received.0:31Yes. So thanks very much and good morning. It's the next stage in developing the project. Obviously, the end goal is to get the mining permit, which0:42we've been on a journey of getting a lot of permits.0:46The DMP is actually a consolidation of all the permits that we've got to date and it flags to the national government as well as the market, that the next step within a very short period of time will mean that we have the mining permit. It's taken a bit longer than what we first anticipated, but compared to1:11a lot of other projects around the world where we've been fast tracked by the national government of getting our mining permit. So we have a lot of support there from the national Government. And the next stage is yeah, is the mining permit. So yeah, I'm just looking at where this is in the Philippines or in the Cordillera region. And for those who don't know the Philippines, it's up north. So it's a mountainous region of the country. What time frame are you looking at and what are you expecting to find product wise?1:42Yeah. So for those that aren't aware, the deposit is a high grade copper gold project,1:49about 300 million tonnes of the high grade core and we expect to mine that over the first 25 years of the mine life. And there are other opportunities, as we've just recently been awarded another tenement that's beside the project which is called Bertolino, with a similar mineralization. So2:15we're expecting that the mine will have a very long life, more than 25 years. Okay. And what are some of the challenges getting to this point for you and moving forward? I mean, if anyone were interested in, you know, backing, supporting your company, what are some of the risks and challenges that you face?2:34So I guess the main risk to date have been the market and shareholders belief in that the company can achieve getting this milestone of getting the permits and approvals.2:48So2:50to date2:52we've been able to achieve all that. And basically moving forward, it's the usual risk in relation to construction, permitting and just just general construction permitting. That's about all that's left. Now, obviously, we need more support from the market. Our share price is significantly undervalued and we're also entertaining a lot of3:18investors at the moment. So one group of Japanese investors have been here over the last week or so3:27and they're also very interested. Yeah, okay. I did ask it earlier, but I'm not sure we touched on it. What about the time frame that we are looking at for this project?3:41So at the moment we have a time frame of coming into commercial production. In 2025, it would be the last quarter. We probably have slipped a little bit, so it may go into early 2026, although we're we're looking to pull that back.