READ TIME: 10 MINUTES
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Pallas Resources is a private exploration company with a 16,000 km² land package in Kazakhstan, targeting sediment-hosted copper, porphyry copper, and orogenic gold systems. This conversation covered the company’s corporate structure, technical capabilities, exploration strategy, joint ventures with Ivanhoe Mines and First Quantum, and detailed plans for drilling in 2025. It also addressed insider ownership, compensation, jurisdictional risks, permitting, and the rationale behind staying private. The interview focused on understanding how the business is run, how capital is allocated, and what the company expects from its key projects.
TL;DR
- 1. Pallas Resources controls 16,000 km² of exploration ground in Kazakhstan, including major land positions in the Chu-Sarysu Basin, Ili-Balkhash Arc, and Stepnyak-Kokshetau gold belt.
- 2. The company is privately held and backed by insiders and known resource investors, with 30% insider ownership and no insider-held royalties.
- 3. Pallas has joint venture agreements with Ivanhoe Mines and First Quantum, which are fully funding exploration and development work in exchange for staged earn-ins up to 80%.
- 4. In 2025, the company plans to drill 21,000 meters across seven projects, with the majority of that focused on sediment-hosted copper targets.
- 5. Pallas remains private by choice to avoid public market overhead and distraction, and may pursue a public listing once a significant discovery is made.
Is Simon Cooper the Right Man for the Job?
Simon Cooper is the co-founder and CEO of Pallas Resources, and by training, a geologist and mining engineer.
His early field career spanned base metals and coal exploration in Australia, followed by a mining engineering master’s degree at Camborne School of Mines. From there, he moved into sediment-hosted copper systems in the DRC, working at a major Glencore operation. Cooper later worked on porphyry projects in Kyrgyzstan, which were ultimately deemed uneconomic, before joining and scaling a royalty company from four assets to 60+. After returning to exploration, he co-founded Pallas, bringing with him experience in project generation, private capital raising, and both base and precious metal systems across Central Asia. Cooper is 38.
Do Any Executives Reside in Kazakhstan?
No.
While Cooper and co-founder Daniel Rickleman (also an Australian geologist) are based overseas (Rickleman in Beijing), both travel to Kazakhstan regularly.
Rickleman is described as the driver of generative targeting and makes six to seven trips annually.
However, the company’s technical and operational functions are executed by a local, in-country Kazakh team covering geology, licensing, permitting, ecology, and general admin. While no senior executives reside full-time in-country, the team composition reflects a lean, bilingual, and regionally embedded operating structure.
Does the Team Have the Right Geological Expertise?
Pallas is targeting three major geological environments: sediment-hosted copper (Sed Cu), orogenic gold, and porphyry copper systems. While Cooper and Rickman have experience in Sed Cu and porphyry systems, they are supported by a notable advisory board including:
- – Dave Selley: Sed Cu specialist, formerly with Ivanhoe and active in the Central African Copperbelt.
- – David Groves: Orogenic gold expert, described as having “literally written the book.”
- – Jon Woodhead and Tom Woolrych: Both offering support across porphyry and broader geological targeting.
Despite limited domestic expertise in sediment-hosted copper (a consequence of 60 years without modern exploration in Kazakhstan), Pallas asserts that its team has developed domain-specific knowledge internally over the past seven years.
How Did Insider Ownership Reach 30%?
Cooper and Rickleman each own 15% of Pallas, having bootstrapped the company from 2018 to 2021 before the first seed financing.
Their positions are entirely paid for, with capital contributed across all private rounds. They have also participated in the current raise. Notably, no insiders, management, or founders hold any personal royalties on the assets.
How Important is Pallas to the CEO?
Cooper states that 70-75% of his total net worth, including real estate, is tied to Pallas. He describes the company as “what I live and breathe,” with personal compensation consisting of below-market base salary and minimal options (300,000 options each for Cooper and Rickman over seven years).
The company has never paid bonuses and does not tie compensation to KPIs. Most options have gone to the advisory board.
What is Their G&A?
Corporate G&A is approximately £250,000 to £300,000, with Cooper estimating 80% of capital raised goes into the ground.
Factoring in JV partner spending, that ratio improves materially. The company operates without a marketing budget, has spent “effectively nothing” on paid promotion, and only attends select conferences to engage JV partners and investors. This interview was their first long-form media appearance.
Why Are They Still Private?
Pallas remains private by design, citing advantages such as lower overheads, reduced volatility, and distraction-free focus on exploration. Cooper states, “our job is to focus on work streams that hopefully will add significantly more value.”
The company intends to stay private until a discovery or near-discovery stage is reached, positioning itself to capture maximum value at the inflection point. Some elements of the portfolio, especially JV-derived royalties or carried interests, may remain private longer if they become revenue-generating.
What is the Business Plan?
The goal is to make discoveries of global significance, with a stated strategy to:
- 1. Focus on underexplored but endowed belts.
- 2. Leverage scale (“16,000 km²” across multiple basins).
- 3. Employ a three-pronged portfolio strategy:
- – Wholly Owned Projects: 9 projects, with 4 slated for drilling in 2025.
- – Joint Ventures: With Ivanhoe and First Quantum, fully carried through production, with backend royalties, carried interests, and cash payments.
- – Portfolio Companies: Altai (nickel-copper sulphides) and Kulan (hard rock lithium/REEs), seeded with Pallas capital but majority-owned.
How Did They Secure 16,000 km² in Kazakhstan?
Pallas was an early mover following Kazakhstan’s 2018 mining code overhaul, which introduced a first-come, first-served Western Australia-style system. This allowed them to claim large portions of key belts before the floodgates opened. Their success stemmed from speed and timing, not from proprietary access.
Which Project Would Cooper Keep if He Could Only Pick One?
The sediment-hosted copper portfolio in the Chu-Sarysu Basin is the flagship.
It is the world’s third-largest known Sed Cu basin and has seen minimal modern exploration in the last 60 years. Pallas has JV deals with Ivanhoe Mines and First Quantum in this basin, positioning it as the most advanced and capital-rich part of the company’s portfolio.
What is the Ivanhoe Deal Structure?
The Ivanhoe JV covers 16,000 km², 80% of which is already granted:
- – Initial Spend: $18.7M over two years (in progress).
- – Earn-in to 51%: Additional $115M plus 200,000 m of drilling.
- – Post-earn-in: Pallas retains 49% and a royalty.
- – At 80%: Ivanhoe must complete a PFS confirming over 1Mt Cu, acquire permits, and commit $70M toward development.
- – Optionality: If Ivanhoe walks, control reverts to Pallas. If they reach 80% but stall, obligations exist (details under NDA).
Cash payments to Pallas for management fees and annual per-project compensation total over $2M in 2025.
Is Ivanhoe in it for Optionality or Mine-Building?
Cooper asserts that Ivanhoe and First Quantum are “not here for optionality” but are “groups that want to discover and build mines,” citing Kamoa-Kakula and First Quantum’s long mine-building track record. Both companies have deployed exploration teams in-country.
What Exploration is Happening in 2025?
Drilling is underway. Total 2025 drilling is 21,000 meters across seven projects. Of this, 17–18,000 meters will be in the Chu-Sarysu Basin. The program includes both direct target testing (based on historic intercepts and new geophysics) and stratigraphic drilling to build regional geological models. One hole will be 1,000 meters deep.
What are the Geological Models in the Chu-Sarysu Basin?
Pallas is targeting multiple styles:
- – Dzhezkazgan formation (analogous to large flat-lying, vertically stacked copper horizons).
- – New conceptual horizons outside known formations.
- – Reduction traps analogous to oil and gas models, with hydrocarbons precipitating copper along impermeable layers.
Soviet drilling offers sparse but valuable intercepts (e.g., 19 m at 1.1% Cu from surface). Coverage was minimal: in some cases 25 km spacing between holes.
What Target is Most Promising?
Cooper highlights three:
- – Dzhezkazgan East: Adjacent to 22Mt Jez Kazgan deposit. Historical intercepts but collar locations lost.
- – Glubokoe: Historic intercepts “up to 3% Cu over tens of meters”.
- – Bor (First Quantum JV): A strong geophysical trap adjacent to low-grade intercepts (140m @ 0.1% Cu).
What Geophysics and Geochem is Being Used?
- – Drilling is the priority.
- – Seismic: legacy 1970s oil and gas tapes are being digitized.
- – Gravity, AMT, MT: being deployed basin-wide to test utility.
- – Hydrogeochemistry: being used to trace fluid flow paths.
- – Geochem: limited value due to 80% cover.
How is the Porphyry Portfolio Advancing?
Primary focus is the Ili-Balkhash and Bozshakol Arc, which together host 25Mt Cu in historical endowment. Target size remains >5Mt Cu.
Most advanced project is Sarybastau, hosting four Soviet-defined porphyry anomalies, with new IP over one of them. Drilling is planned in 2025.
Second target is Aktogay West, a JV with First Quantum adjacent to the 12Mt Aktogay deposit. Drill targeting is supported by vector IP and Soviet drilling.
What About the Orogenic Gold Belt in the North?
Located in the Stepnyak-Kokshetau belt, part of the Central Asian orogenic gold trend (>45Moz historical endowment). Drilling to date includes scout holes at Sula Köl, now followed by 2–3 deeper holes at Alakol.
Gold targeting is based on three pillars:
- 1. Major structural intersections.
- 2. Associated intrusives (cockatau-type).
- 3. Soviet grab samples up to 40 g/t Au.
Access and infrastructure are strong, though some agricultural land-use sensitivity exists.
What About the Nickel and Lithium Portfolio Companies?
Altai (Ni-Cu sulfides):
- – Targeting Norilsk-style magmatic sulfides in previously unexplored belt.
- – EM surveys in 2025, possible drilling contingent on time and capital.
Kulan (pegmatite-hosted Li + Be):
- – Soviet-era REE/Ta/Sn district.
- – No economic Li at surface; Be values may be economic.
- – Still early. Shallow drilling to test zonation planned for 2025.
Do They Have Any Uranium Exposure?
No. Kazakhstan’s uranium is deemed strategic. Any discovery would be compulsorily acquired at cost by Kazatomprom. Consequently, Pallas avoids any overlap.
What Are the Main Risks?
Geologically, the company does not appear overly concerned. Cooper notes that large portfolio size diversifies technical risk. Main concern is safety: “any CEO not concerned about their people getting home safely is lying.”
How is the Capital Raise Going?
Pallas is actively raising capital for the first time in 2.5 years.
Proceeds will fund drilling across multiple wholly owned assets, expansion of technical programs, and provide a 2-year runway. Existing investors have participated; new names are being added.
Shareholder base includes:
- – SAF Group – Brian Paes Braga Syndicate
- – Rick Rule
- – Haywood Securities – David Elliott Syndicate
- – Family offices and small institutions
Register totals 138 shareholders.
Pallas Resources Interview with CEO, Simon Cooper
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