Great Plains Metals’ flagship project is the Yeoval Goodrich copper-gold project, about 70 km northwest of Orange in the Lachlan Fold Belt of New South Wales, where the company is earning in from joint venture partner Godolphin Resources (now rebranding to Orbit Resources). Secondary ground includes the Everton molybdenum project in Victoria and the Eversley IOCG project in South Australia. In this interview, I asked about the earn-in structure, the pencil porphyry thesis, the Stage 2 drill program, treasury, and where the risk sits.
TL;DR
Great Plains recently completed Stage 1 of an earn-in for 51% and elected to go to 70%, which requires another A$1 million and at least another 500 m of drilling on their flagship project. Hole 4 returned a 128 m intercept, which they call confirmation of a pencil porphyry, and Bishop told me he was surprised the stock did not move on it, blaming profit taking from the October financing at 5 cents and investors not understanding the grade. Stage 2 is roughly 1,000m across about four holes starting late September, and the sole goal is figuring out whether this is one pencil or several, not sizing it. They raised C$4.2 million in February and say they are funded through Stage 2 with runway into June next year. The 100 million tonne, 0.5% copper, 2 g/t gold figure he mentioned is an aspirational target with no basis behind it yet, and he said flat out that 30 to 50 million tonnes could still work. Everton has been dropped after drilling came up under-mineralized.
What have they done for shareholders lately?
They finished the first diamond program at Goodrich, four holes total. Hole 3 stopped at 82 m after crossing a fault and appears to have exited the mineralized body, hole 4 delivered the 128 m intercept they announced as confirmation of discovery, one hole tested a magnetic anomaly with nothing of note, and one at Mt Rose had nothing worth assaying, so no further Stage 1 assays are coming. That completed the A$1 million Stage 1 spend and locked in 51%. They also pulled historical core, and 334 samples from two historical holes from Baker Ltd. and Malachite Resources are at the lab. They are building a model that ties the historical drilling into the porphyry picture, which he expects to release at some point. On the negative side, Everton was drilled, found to be a pencil porphyry but not sufficiently mineralized, and they have announced they are dropping it.
How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?
They raised C$4.2 million in February at 18 cents with a half warrant at 28 cents for two years, following roughly C$800,000 raised the prior October at 5 cents. Bishop says all of Stage 2 is funded and runway extends comfortably to June next year, and he does not see the next 2,000 to 3,000 m stage as a large budget item. He claims about 50% of financing proceeds go into drilling itself, with more of the remainder going to other exploration work. Overhead is light: two GIS consultants in Manila and one porphyry consultant in Australia at roughly C$15,000 a month, directors at C$5,000 each and the CEO at C$9,000, with no salaries paid at all between April 2024 and October 2025. On marketing they spent C$50,000 on a one-month trial they say they would not repeat, there is no approved marketing budget, and he does not see needing more than C$10,000 to C$20,000 a month. Structurally: just under 77 million shares out, roughly C$11.2 million market cap at 14 cents, 11.6 million warrants and about 5 million options for 93.5 million fully diluted, no rollbacks ever, and the three insiders hold about 15 million founder shares from the 2021 capital pool vend that were escrowed for three years.
Upcoming catalysts
Technical: assays from the 334 historical core samples within the next couple of months, plus additional unassayed historical core they intend to send in; a compilation news release placing historical drill intercepts into the porphyry model; Stage 2 drilling of roughly 1,000 m over about four holes starting late September, drilling across the system to test whether it is one pencil or more, expected to take two months on a single shift or 30 days if they secure a double shift, with results giving them a much better read by around year end.
Corporate: completion of Stage 2 spending triggers the move to 70% and forces Godolphin/Orbit to either contribute or dilute, with dilution priced off the A$2 million spent implying roughly A$2.7 million for their 30%; below 10% they convert to an additional 1% royalty. Operational: after Stage 2 the JV dynamic changes, they take over operatorship duties, add staff and establish a permanent presence in Orange, then move to a 2,000 to 3,000 m Stage 3 aimed at the geometry of the system.
Risks
The risk the CEO named repeatedly is scale, meaning they do not know how big this system is and Stage 2 will not yet answer that, only whether they are dealing with one pencil or more. The market has already shown it will not reward a 128 m intercept on its own, so the share price may keep drifting until the model and the historical assays land, and the stock is currently below both its 50 and 200 day moving averages. Drilling is capped at the A$1 million Stage 2 commitment rather than sized to the target, so they stop regardless of what they hit. Their partner remains operator through Stage 2, so execution timing is not fully theirs. Beyond that, this is a pre-resource explorer with a historical 2012 foreign estimate of 12.8 million tonnes at 0.38% copper, 0.14 g/t gold, 2.2 g/t silver and 120 ppm molybdenum in the inferred category that cannot be relied on, and a further raise is inevitable at some point before a major drill program.
Great Plains CEO Interview
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