Sasquatch Resources is a small Vancouver Island-based company with a handful of legacy copper-gold-silver-zinc projects in British Columbia, the most advanced of which is the Mount Sicker waste pile complex near Duncan, BC. The interview covered the company’s unconventional strategy of attempting to process old mine waste piles rather than building a new mine, the state of its permitting application with the BC government, its financial position, and the shape of its project pipeline.

TL;DR

Sasquatch wants to crush and sort 100-year-old waste rock from the Mount Sicker mining camp, pull out the sulfide-bearing fraction (copper, gold, silver, zinc), truck it to Crofton port about 15km away, and sell it to an overseas buyer. All without creating any new waste, which they argue puts them in a faster permitting lane than a conventional mine. They’re targeting a spring 2027 production start. Whether that’s realistic depends almost entirely on how quickly BC permitting and First Nations consultation wrap up, and neither timeline is in management’s hands right now.

What have they done for shareholders lately?

The most concrete recent deliverable is a half-tonne pilot run through their crushing and ore-sorting process, which they say removed over 95% of all sulfides, including the target metals but also arsenic, lead, and sulphur, and left behind material that tested as non-acid-generating. CEO Smith says that’s a meaningful technical checkpoint given that acid generation during pile disturbance is the regulator’s main concern. Beyond that, the company recently picked up additional pipeline properties, including what they call the Alberni claims near Port Alberni (about 15 minutes from a deep-water port), and Justin, their in-house prospector, is currently sampling waste rock at that site. They’ve also started their first marketing push after roughly three years of operating with essentially no public profile.

How much money do they have and what are they spending it on?

Sasquatch has approximately C$700,000 in cash. Pete told me their Burn rate is around C$30,000 per month including a recently added marketing spend, up from a historic low of around C$10,000 per month. The CEO draws C$5,000 per month. The company has raised a total of roughly C$2 million since listing, across a 2-cent founder round, a 10-cent IPO, a 5-cent placement, and a more recent 10-cent round, with insiders participating in every round. There are 15 to 20 million options and warrants outstanding, averaging 8 to 9 cents, mostly held by insiders. CEO Smith said he’s personally put in approximately C$400,000 and owns about 10% of the company. Spending between now and production is aimed at completing permitting deliverables, reclamation plans and engineering reports primarily, with O’Kane Consultants as the key external contractor. Management also says CAPEX to reach first production (crusher, ore sorter, front-end loaders) would be under C$1 million all-in. They’re actively exploring grants given the environmental component of the work, and they’re considering debt over equity for equipment financing once permitted.

Upcoming catalysts

On the technical and operational front, the most important near-term catalyst is a permitting decision from the BC government, which the CEO described as progressing well but with no firm deadline. Alongside that, the company is completing additional metallurgical work on the concentrate mix to understand how to minimize smelter penalties before approaching offtake counterparties seriously. On the corporate side, a First Nations memorandum of understanding covering consultation rights and post-reclamation land use is in early-stage negotiation with at least two local groups. Once permitted, management said the board will need to make a formal decision on whether to stay public, raise equity, use debt, or some combination. That decision point was flagged as significant and unresolved.

Risks

The single biggest risk is permitting. This is a novel application, and it doesn’t need a full mine permit, but it’s also not a simple bulk sample. The BC regulators are essentially writing the rules as they go, which means nobody, including management, knows when a decision comes. First Nations consultation adds another layer of unpredictability, with CEO Smith explicitly acknowledging that the process moves at the community’s pace, not the company’s. If spring 2027 production is the target and neither of those boxes is checked within the next few months, that date slips. There’s also no NI 43-101 resource, no PEA, and no offtake agreement in place, which means the economics of the pile (grade, mass pull, and end price) remain unverified by any independent standard. Peter also talked to me about the acid generation risk during pile disturbance. Their mitigation plan relies primarily on operating only in the dry season. And the insider conflict around Justin, who found the properties, holds NSRs on them (2%, with a 1% buyback option), sits on the board, and sells assets to the company, is managed by board abstention but is structurally worth watching.

Sasquatch Resources CEO Interview

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