FireFly Metals targets copper boom with exciting finds at Green Bay project in Canada

FireFly Metals (ASX: FFM) has made a strong start to exploration at its newly acquired Green Bay copper-gold project in Newfoundland, Canada.

The Green Bay project hosts resources of 39.2 million tonnes at 2.1% copper equivalent for 811,000t of copper equivalent.

“The potential to grow this resource is significant,” FireFly chief executive officer Darren Cooke told the Resources Rising Stars Summer Series in Brisbane yesterday.

FireFly has already reported early exploration results including 46.4 metres at 4.6% copper, 1.2 grams per tonne gold and 7.5g/t silver; 17.8m at 4.4% copper, 2.2g/t gold and 18.8g/t silver; and 2.7m at 13.5% copper, 7g/t gold and 33g/t silver, extending the known mineralisation by 350m.

FireFly has kicked off a 40,000m underground diamond drilling program and 700m development drive.

Further drilling results are due in the coming weeks and the company plans to report a resource update in September.

“The question isn’t if we’ve got the prize,” Cooke said.

“The question we’re going to answer in the next year is how big the prize can be.”

Why copper?

The market is turning increasingly bullish on copper with structural deficits forecast due to the challenges of bringing new supply online and increasing demand associated with the energy transition.

“We were looking to get into copper and we think we’ve timed this run absolutely perfectly,” Mr Cooke said.

He added it was difficult to get exposure to copper on the ASX, especially after the takeover of OZ Minerals last year.

“What we’re trying to do is fill a niche on the ASX. There’s a real lack of quality copper stories on the ASX – and the TSX for that matter.”

Broker backing

Shaw and Partners recently published a list of top ten research ideas for 2024 and FireFly made the list.

This week the firm reiterated its buy recommendation and $1.20 per share price target.

Canaccord Genuity and Argonaut each have speculative buy ratings for the stock with price targets of $1.35 and $1.04 respectively.

FireFly shares last traded at $0.505, giving it a market capitalisation of $181.4 million.