Fitzroy Minerals: Pedigree, Partner, and Position in Chile's Copper Belt

• The heap leach joint venture with Pucobre S.A. is structured for a potential near-term, low-capital-intensity production scenario, with the joint venture terms under active negotiation.
• Fitzroy Minerals holds two copper projects in Chile - the Buen Retiro Copper Project near Copiapó in the Atacama Region and the Caballos Copper Project in the Valparaíso Region - with a market capitalisation of approximately C$138 million and approximately C$28 million in cash.
• The Buen Retiro project is structured as a heap-leach joint venture with Pucobre S.A., a Chilean copper producer with a continuously operating 800-tonne-per-month copper solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) plant and a market capitalisation of US$2.1 billion.
• President and Chief Executive Officer Merlin Marr-Johnson brings 30 years of minerals sector experience, including exploration geology at Rio Tinto, equity analysis at HSBC, and portfolio management at Blakeney Management, as well as two prior company listings on AIM London.
• Board and management hold approximately 12% of the company, with funds and institutions accounting for approximately 20% of the register, alongside a high-net-worth individual and retail component of approximately 46%.

A Management Team Built Around Exploration, Finance, and In-Country Execution

Fitzroy Minerals (TSXV: FTZ, OTCQX: FTZFF, FSE: C3Y) is led by a team whose combined experience spans exploration geology, capital markets, and in-country operations across South America. President and Chief Executive Officer Merlin Marr-Johnson is a geologist with 30 years of industry experience spanning exploration at Rio Tinto, equity analysis at HSBC, and portfolio management at Blakeney Management. He has previously taken 2 companies to a listing on AIM in London and speaks several languages, including Spanish.

Chief Operating Officer and Chile Country Manager Gilberto Schubert spent 22 years at Vale in progressively senior roles, culminating as Country Manager and Chief Executive Officer of Vale's Chilean mining subsidiary. He has lived in Chile for 21 years, is a Qualified Person in Geology and Mineral Resources, and has worked in all stages of the mining chain, including exploration, development, evaluation, construction, and operations.

The board is further supported by Chief Financial Officer Queenie Kuang, a Chartered Professional Accountant with over 17 years of experience across investment banking, listings, and mergers and acquisitions, and Director John Seaman, who served as Chief Financial Officer at Premier Gold Mines and Wolfden Resources. Technical Advisor Craig Parry - co-founder and Chairman of Inventa Capital, Chairman of Skeena Resources, Vizsla Silver, and Vizsla Copper, and founding Chief Executive Officer of IsoEnergy - has invested in Fitzroy twice.

President and Chief Executive Officer of Fitzroy Minerals, Merlin Marr-Johnson, spoke to the significance of Parry's involvement:

"Craig Parry has joined, which is a huge result for us. He's been behind Skeena Resources, IsoEnergy, NexGen Energy, and Inventa Capital, and, of course, he's the chairman of Vizsla Copper and Vizsla Silver as well, so we know what a guy. And he's a shareholder. He's invested twice in this company, once at 15 cents and once at 30 cents, and he continues to support us and the work we're doing. He thinks, when he looks at the photographs and the geology, that we're on to two really interesting projects. So it's not just me."

Pucobre S.A.: A Partner With an Operational Plant and a Reason to Fill It

The Buen Retiro heap-leach joint venture is structured around Pucobre S.A., a Chilean copper producer named after the Punta del Cobre district near Copiapó. Founded in the late 1980s, Pucobre has operated the Planta Biocobre solvent extraction-electrowinning (SX-EW) facility continuously since 1992. The plant has a rated capacity of 800 tonnes per month and is currently operating at a fraction of its capacity. Pucobre S.A. carries a market capitalisation of US$2.1 billion on the Santiago Stock Exchange and produced 35,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate and 3,000 tonnes of copper cathode in 2024. It is also the only primary copper producer listed on the Santiago Stock Exchange.

Pucobre previously operated a historical mine at Buen Retiro, trucking ore to Planta Biocobre. Pucobre retains a 30% clawback right exercisable upon delivery of a technical report, requiring payment of 90% of Fitzroy's eligible expenses with a minimum of US$10.2 million.

The Planta Biocobre facility is already built, operating, and has grandfathered permitting. Under a formalised joint venture, Marr-Johnson has indicated that attributable production could potentially be in the region of 10 million pounds of copper per annum from the heap leach operation, and that if a margin of one to two dollars per pound were achievable, that would represent a significant cash flow contribution.

Marr-Johnson described the structural advantages the Pucobre joint venture is designed to deliver:

"We're looking at doing a heap leach joint venture with Pucobre, who are a proven partner, and as I've mentioned, there are various infrastructure advantages. This would give us non-operated cash flow and a very, very low capital intensity. This is a low-cost operation to bring into production; we think we can do it super quickly."

Chile's Copper Belt: Jurisdiction, Infrastructure, and Geological Context

Buen Retiro sits near Copiapó in the Atacama Region, within a district that hosts some of the world's largest and most productive copper operations. Lundin Mining's Candelaria mine, with a market capitalisation of C$22 billion, and Capstone Copper's Manto Verde operation, with a market capitalisation of $9 billion, are both located within the same Punta del Cobre district. The Pan-American Highway passes near the project; the coast is 35 kilometres away; and Copiapó has established water, power, and labour infrastructure. The project sits at approximately 370 metres of elevation, which the company describes as a low elevation with superb infrastructure around it.

Chile's regulatory and political framework for mining has remained broadly stable since 1980, when the current mining code was established following the nationalisation era. Royalty reforms introduced under the current government apply only to producers of more than 50,000 tonnes of fine copper per annum, and companies producing less than 10,000 tonnes per annum pay no royalty. A licensing reform programme introduced during the current political cycle has also targeted simplification of the permitting process.

Chile produced approximately 5.43 million tonnes of copper in 2024, representing approximately 24% of global production, according to the International Copper Study Group (ICSG) 2024 data cited in the corporate presentation. The Cochilco report, the Chilean Copper Commission's 2025 publication, projects that over $83 billion in capital will enter Chile between 2024 and 2033, with over 75% directed at copper projects.

The Investment Thesis for Fitzroy Minerals

• A management team with direct exploration, capital markets, and in-country execution track record leads the company - two prior AIM listings by the Chief Executive Officer, 22 years at Vale in Chile by the Chief Operating Officer, and a Technical Advisor with founding roles at IsoEnergy and NexGen Energy.
• The Pucobre partnership structure is designed for a potential near-term, low-capital-intensity production scenario via an existing, permitted, and underutilised extraction-electrowinning plant, with any non-operated cash flow identified as a potential funding mechanism for the concurrent sulphide discovery programme at depth.
• Chile's mining code has remained stable since 1980, royalty obligations do not apply below 10,000 tonnes of fine copper per annum production, and the Buen Retiro project sits at approximately 370 metres of elevation with Pan-American Highway access, coast proximity, and established labour and water infrastructure near Copiapó.
• Board and management hold approximately 12% of the company, funds and institutions account for approximately 20% of the register, and the company carries approximately C$28 million in cash against a market capitalisation of approximately C$138 million.

Several factors warrant monitoring. The heap leach joint venture with Pucobre S.A. has not yet been formalised on agreed terms, and the production and margin figures are described as hopes and aspirations rather than confirmed by an independent economic study. The company plans to prepare a maiden mineral resource estimate so it can be included in a preliminary economic assessment. At Caballos, the Phase 2 work and drilling over the next 12 months will continue to test the scale and potential of the system.

TL;DR

Fitzroy Minerals combines a technically credentialed team with prior AIM listings and 22 years of Vale in-country experience, a proven Chilean operating partner with an existing SX-EW plant near Copiapó, and a low-capital-intensity pathway to potential copper production in one of Chile's most established copper districts, with C$28 million in cash to fund the full 2026 programme and a C$10 million buffer retained.

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