Hi Ash, I've been looking at Chalice's WA discoveries with envy....

Hi Ash, I've been looking at Chalice's WA discoveries with envy. And I thought about getting into OZ (sold now to BHP) and Sandfire (like Chalice, the share price has unexpectedly soared in recent weeks, so I've likely missed both). I can't understand why though, as the copper price hasn't done much. We seem to have been left behind in this market run up. I'm not bothered by it. Base metals appear out of favour. It's funny how some analysts have been finding excuses to cut target prices and downgrade us to "neutral" or "hold" recommendations.

A few weeks ago, I was considering those companies for extra copper exposure. I felt no urgency to buy, as the world was supposedly heading into a recession, and the copper price was falling each day. I'm guilty of (poor) market timing!

S32 mainly has Sierra Gorda for copper, which is great, but I was hoping for a heavier weighing towards copper as an electrification metal. I had the belief that we were too heavy on alumina / aluminium and really lacking in copper assets.

After doing a fair bit of reading about Hermosa in Nevada, the Trilogy discoveries in Alaska / Arctic, and an ASX-listed junior explorer we have a partnership with in Australia (the company name escapes me), I've started to think my concerns are misplaced. I also remember reading an excellent S32 presentation dated earlier in the year, showing what our results would have been if Hermosa had been operating this year. We seem to be slowly but surely buying the surrounding parcels of land around that site too.

The copper shortage is expected to be in full swing by 2025. Maybe in the second half of this decade we have a lot to look forward to in the way of copper and nickel assets being in production?

Would I be right to assume I have nothing to be jealous of regarding other companies' discoveries? And that we'll have our hands full developing our own tier 1 copper/nickel assets, with more than enough exposure of copper through an investment in S32? I have started thinking that perhaps my S32 investment for electrification-theme base metals will end up covering all the bases without looking everywhere. And if l want more copper and nickel exposure I just buy more S32 as a one-stop-shop, so to speak.

Another positive point for S32 being good for future copper exposure is that our projects will be easily funded, and without share dilution, after reaching FID. For smaller companies though, who knows. If we want to mine somewhere, it just gets done. The raising of capital isn't as much of an issue.

Perhaps by the time companies like Chalice have their mines operational (if it actually happens...) we'll be producing from Hermosa just in time for the expected rise in demand. I remember you writing that the approval for our mine should be easier than another (Rio?) mine nearby.

Another question I have is does S32 have a company (ASX listed Monodelphous, Lycopodium, etc.) which usually builds its mines? Maybe not, if all the current locations were pre-existing BHP Billiton mines.

Anyway, I hope what I'm asking makes sense. Thanks, as always, for all the information you contribute here.