Inside the Investment Case: Midnight Sun Mining

Midnight Sun Mining details its exploration focus, jurisdictional advantages and the catalysts that could unlock value as it advances its projects.

Featuring: Adrian O'Brian, VP Business Development at Midnight Sun Mining.

Guest Host: Lyndsay Malchuk, Apaton Media.

Recorded live at 121 Mining Investment London, May 2026.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You're listening to the Assay Podcast, where mining meets capital, powered by one-to-one mining investment. Today we are coming live from our event in London. Please note this podcast is for information only and isn't financial advice or recommendation to invest. As always, the views you'll hear are those of the speakers.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Welcome back to Inside the Investment Cain. And right now, the copper race is heating up globally. But the real question is this: who's actually sitting on the kind of ground that could change the conversation entirely? Joining me now is Adrienne O'Brien, VP of Business Development at Midnight Sun Mining, a company strategically positioned in the heart of Zambia's prolific copper belt, surrounded by some of the biggest players in the mining world and chasing what could become a very significant copper story at exactly the right time in the cycle. It's so great to sit with you.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

That's great to sit with you too.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

You know, how's the show been? How's all the things?

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Show is amazing. Uh lots to talk about. Obviously, copper is really topical. Nice that copper took such a move last week. Oh my gosh. Yeah, so it's it's on everybody's mind right now. It's been pretty amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Okay, so this is actually a really great place to start because there is a lot happening in this space, and there's a lot of companies that people are just sort of getting to know. So why don't you tell us a little bit about your company?

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Midnight Sun. Uh so we've been working.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

What do you mean, by the way?

SPEAKER_02 1:23

Look, the background of the name is kind of funny. We get asked yesterday, I probably had three people ask me why Midnight Sun when you're in Zambia. So the backstory is the company started in the Yukon.

SPEAKER_00 1:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

So land of the Midnight Sun, right? So we had these gold projects in the Yukon, worked on those for a long time and ended up shifting to Zambia but keeping the name. So it doesn't have a whole lot to do with the Zambian, uh, you know, Zambian Copper Belt, but definitely sticks.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Wow. Okay. So you're in Zambia. Tell us about the community there a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

Oh, I mean, it's amazing. You're looking at a town. So Solwazy is the closest community to our project.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Um, you're talking the copper belt. So just to set the stage a little bit, we're talking a region with some of the most prolific mines in the world, right? These are massive, massive copper mines and very long life. We think about a mine like Chingola, for example, which is in the copper belt, a little south of us, it's 120 years or something of production. Oh my gosh. Amazing, or 100, over 100 years, anyways. And when you think about the district, you think about it it's entirely mining. I mean, Zambia, 75% of their export earnings are copper. This is truly a district that is built and runs on mining. Um, so the town that's near us is called Solwazi, 65,000, 70,000 people almost entirely mining.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Yeah, it's pretty incredible. And they service all the mines around us. I mean, you have Barracks Lamoana mine nearby, you have First Quantum's Kansanchi mine nearby, Sentinel is nearby. Um, so this is we're we are in the heart of it.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

You're definitely in the heart of it. Now it is pro-mining. Um, however, you know, we have to address it geopolitically. You know, it's so uncertain absolutely everywhere you go in the world right now, but there's not a lot of education around that zone specifically. Can you tell us about the geopolitics there?

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Well, the geopolitics, look, you're dealing with an area that's that's fairly insulated. Zambia is a very stable nation, right? So you're looking at a place that has a democratic, democratically elected government. Okay. Um, you're looking at uh a jurisdiction that, as I just said, is it's totally built on mining. Um, there's no unrest there. It's a very, very calm and easy place. And when you consider, we're very close to DRC, right? DRC is an area known for being a little tougher to work in. Yeah. Um, Zambia's exact opposite. Really easy, easy jurisdiction. President Hichelema is out there marketing on behalf of mining, pushing mining, saying we want to be, I think they're number six or seven in the world right now for copper production. Yeah. They want to be number two. And he's out there beating the drum, coming to site visits, showing up, presenting, telling the world that Zambia is open for business and that they want to do this. So it's um, it doesn't get any better.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Definitely doesn't get any better.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

Now, as we have all heard time and time again, you know, we have gold who's, you know, the grandfather of them all. And then we have silver, which is that, you know, that kind of crazy uncle that's like, oh, wait a second, I got something to say. Yeah. But then we have the copper, which is that cousin that's coming in going, uh-uh, I got a say in this too.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

And there's a lot of hype around copper right now.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

So there's a there's is there is a big question that is buzzing around. And it's because copper is is making such a great run right now, there's a lot of companies that are pretty they're pretty okay with just a low grade copper. Sure. Would that be suffice enough for what the demand is needed here in the world right now? Or are we still needing and should be shooting for of, of course, those higher grades? And where does your company sit in all that?

SPEAKER_02 4:40

That's a that's an interesting question. So think about it this way. Let's flip it a little bit to the copper deficit.

SPEAKER_00 4:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

So if you think about the copper deficit currently, Robert Friedland's out there, probably the most outspoken person on the planet for copper. And good for him. Yeah is awesome. It helps all of us. Getting the word out, people can understand what it means right now to be dealing with copper projects and copper demand. If you think about the copper demand in terms of a contained copper deposit, okay, the figure that's getting thrown around is that the world needs 10 million tons of contained copper. Now, that would be the very, very top end of the continuum in copper deposits. Okay. If you had eight or 10 million tons, and I'll give you a good example. In the belt where we're working, Lamoana, okay, that's Barracks flagship asset. Sits right beside us, just to the west. They've got somewhere in the range of eight and a half million contained tons of copper. Okay, actual copper. That's the metal, take it, break it all down, just the metal content itself. If you listen to Robert Friedland, it's something like 10 million tons of contained copper needs to be found every year for the next 25 years to meet the deficit that is looming on the horizon in copper right now. If you even think for a second or try and wrap your head around that number, it's extraordinary, right? Like it's just it's unfathomable. Now, imagine that in the belt we're working in, there hasn't been a major, major deposit found in 22 years. So if you're working on something and you need contained copper of that kind of quantity, right, and you think globally, and you think about porphyry copper deposits, these are big, these are underground, these are deep, and you think about areas in the world where you can find deposits that have scale, that have that billion ton mark, that have that, you know, that that status that can actually globally impact the copper deficit. Where are you gonna find them? Where are you gonna get them? And where is that deficit gonna be filled? Because it's it's almost impossible. Okay. Um, you know, you think about deposits that have five and $10 billion CapEx, where are you gonna get the funding for that? Who, what bank is gonna put up uh $5 billion or $10 billion to build a deposit where the mine is gonna operate at, you know, on block cave mining and that money needs to be paid back in a year or two. No one's gonna take that bet. No one's gonna take that. So you need deposits that are near surface and that have scale. And there's only a couple of places in the world that can do that. So the deficit's real. Um, you know, we've all encountered electrification. I mean, you you can't live in our world and not have been touched by what's going on in electrification. I mean, it doesn't matter if it's AI data centers, which are really the big driver, or if it's electric vehicles or or whatever. The reality is the copper deficit's real. I think it it may be the most important metal in the world right now.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

And if you think about that deficit, how much it actually equates to, and how hard it is to fill that, um, tons are gonna beat grade. It's gonna be about tons. It's gonna be about getting deposits that are near surface that can be produced very, very quickly, that can be in production fast, that have low capex, and that can actually fill that deficit. So look, I'm gonna spin it even another direction. If you look at what's happening in Zambia, you have a rail line being built that's getting a lot of attention lately. It's called the Lobido Corridor. Okay. The rail line is being built by the US government to connect four or five copper projects to a western port in Angola to get copper back out to the US and Europe.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

$4.4 billion financing package coming from the US. Now, if that isn't backing of that thesis, I don't know what is, um, you know, you see Trump coming out a month and a half ago or so saying he's going to cut off AIDS funding to Zambia if they don't give him guaranteed access to critical metals. The critical metals he's referring to is copper. Then you have the Chinese building a competing rail line going east through Tanzania to an eastern port to get that same copper back to China. There is a tug-of-war going on. There is a there is a global battle for copper deposits, for for real access to meaningful copper deposits.

SPEAKER_01 8:31

Well, I mean, that actually brings me to a really, you know, great point going forward is as an investor is now looking at copper as a way more serious investment, how do they know which ones are worth it and which ones are another story?

SPEAKER_02 8:44

Wasn't this always the case? Right? This is the big this is this would be the magic eight ball for mining investment or speculating, right? Like what how do you how do you pick through? And I and I think obviously investors can educate themselves. You can figure out which projects actually have legs. Right. Um, you know, and at the end of the day, it's all about scale. Okay. What what are you delivering? What's the jurisdiction? What's the scale? Um, you know, one of the things I think with copper deposits that really gets it it fools people is when you look at uh an intercept, okay? So you see a drill result, drill result looks fantastic. Big intercept, good grade, everything looks great, but you're not thinking about how far underground it is. Uh, most of the porphyry deposits you see, you see results from, um, and that's largely South American projects, they're one to two kilometers underground.

SPEAKER_00 9:29

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 9:30

So people don't think about the economics or the timeline to get that copper out and whether that's actually feasible. Um, so you know, it's there's no magic uh recipe other than look for things that are near surface, look for things that are easy to get at, look for the jurisdiction, and uh look for scale. It needs to be big. And if you want to attract the big companies, it needs to be even bigger. They want they only want things at the very top end of the continuum.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

And is that what you want to ultimately do with the company? Do you want it to be a takeover? What do you want to do?

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Yeah. Yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_02 10:00

That's why we're here.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

That's that's the name of the game.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

Now, you said that you are in a jurisdiction where it is actually very pro-mining. Yeah. How's the permitting there?

SPEAKER_02 10:07

Permitting is interesting. Now, given that we're not a mining company, we're not gonna have to deal with a whole lot on that front, other than our actual permits to go out and work, which our projects are fully permitted, so we're not worried about that. Yeah. Um, but in terms of looking at, say, a major mining company looking for an expansion, um, this is another one of President Hichelama's things. He's he's moving permits quickly. He's showing the world that projects can move fast in Zambia. Yeah. And, you know, that's all part of attracting bigger players. And you think about the belt, um, you've got first quantum, you've got Barrick, you've got Ivanhoe, Rio Tinto, BHP, Glencore, Anglo-American. I mean, how many companies do you want to name in one little area that's 300 kilometers by 300 kilometers? It's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

My gosh, it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

Every player on the planet.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Let's look for maybe let's say 12, 24 months.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Um, you know, what are some of the catalysts that you really want to hit and what do you have to do to hit them?

SPEAKER_02 10:57

So our flagship asset is called Doombois. This is a big, near surface, um, very large system that we've been drilling off. We made the discovery in August of last year. Um, been super exciting. It's been 12 years in the making.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Um, so we funded this project, we put a plan together. We were lucky enough to get a fellow named Kevin Bonnell to join our team. Kevin is the geologist that led the team that unraveled Limana for Barrick. So if you don't know that story, Lamana was 900 million tons.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Uh Barrick paid Equinox 7.3 billion for it 20 years ago. Just a little bit. A little bit of a little bit of a price tag. Pocket change. Yeah. And then they spent 15 years trying to make it work and they couldn't do it. Um, so they brought Kevin in four years ago, said, you know, your this is your wheelhouse. This is your specialty. Help us unravel this thing. Uh so in 24 months, he gave Barick about 1.6 billion tons, 62 years of mine life, almost 9 million tons of contained copper. And then he joined Midnight Sun because he saw the same thing at Doombois. So we've got Kevin. Kevin's working on Doomboa, walked in, took a look at it, came up with a plan, third hole hit, and we've been on our way ever since. So we're on hole 205 or something now. Um, yeah, we're underway. We've got a big system. So it's uh it's a target that runs for 20 kilometers. Yeah. Um, we're up to somewhere around 5.3 kilometers of strike length now. Um, waiting for some assays to come out, which are gonna get exciting, hopefully. And uh this is it. We're showing the world how big this thing is, and this is a system that could have the scale everyone's looking for.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

So we are running out of time. I'm gonna leave you with this one though. Okay. What is something that you think investors are just not quite understanding about Midnight Sun quite yet?

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Well, if I'm being perfectly blunt, I think it's just all about understanding how big Doombook can be, um, understanding the scale, and understanding how important, if if we boil it down to just one thing, how important this asset could be globally. When you think about what we were just talking about, you think about global copper deficit, right? You think about what can fill that global copper deficit. There are so few areas that actually have deposits of scale. So when you look at the domes region, right, the average deposit's a billion tons. Very top end. I mean, that's that's the biggest deposits in Africa. We're surrounded by the five biggest mines in Africa. And when you think about what the world is looking for, what are those majors looking for? What does the world need? What is the copper deficit that actually needs to be filled? And how the heck are we gonna get all that copper? There are only a couple projects in the world that have that potential scalability. And Midnight Sun is in that position of having a project that could actually reach that. So, you know, this is a system that has that magic scale to it, and we're just gonna keep uh keep pushing. And I think the other thing to tie into that is just how quickly we're driving this to the finish line. Um, you know, when I talk to people about our drill program, they know it's ongoing, but they don't realize quite how aggressively we've gone at this. We're drilling with five rigs. I think today we're running four, but around that, we're doing 10,000 meters a month. My gosh. I can't tell you how many times I talk to a company and they say they're drilling us. Well, how much are you drilling? And we're gonna do 4,000 meters this year. We're doing 10,000 a month, and we've been doing that since August. So we are absolutely hammering this deposit to get it to the scale that will show the world how big it is. So by August, or let's say Q3 2026. So coming up, August, September, we are gonna be able to show people how big the first 12 kilometers of this system are. And the thing runs for 20. So this is the first half, and we're already approaching that kind of inflection point, which is pretty exciting. Yeah. Well, you know, so there's two things, but one. That's okay. We'll tie them both together.

SPEAKER_01 14:34

I hope we all have our sunscreen on because this is heating up. I'll say that. See? Thank you so much for sitting with us. It's been such a joy. I'll come back soon.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

You bet. I will. Thanks.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

I've been chatting with Adrian O'Brien, VP of Business Development at Midnight Sun Mining here at the one-to-one mining investment conference right here in London. The company trades on the TSX Venture under the symbol MMA and on the OTQX under MDNGF. And you can learn more at MidnightSunmining.com. I'm Lindsay Malchick, your guest host on Avaton Media. As the global fight for future copper supply intensifies, the question investors may want to ask themselves is this When the majors start looking for the next serious copper district, will Midnight Sun already be too far ahead of the market to ignore it?

SPEAKER_00 15:18

We'll see you next time.com to stay close to the conversations shaping global mining and investment.