MDF Global – anything but your average exploration business

MDF Global was built with a mission to find the tier-1 critical metals deposits the world needs for the green energy transition.

Annual copper demand is expected to double from 25Mt in 2022 to 50Mt in 2035, creating an annual deficit as much as 9.9Mt, with undersupply slated to hit markets from next year. We recently got a taste of what a sudden and slight shortage can do to the copper price with its surge above US$11,000 in May, rallying 25% in just half a year.

MDF’s approach towards monetising this opportunity, however, is completely different from your average explorer.

MDF Global uses the model that helped Rio Tinto become the behemoth it is today – running discovery and exploration as a profit centre and as a commercially self-sustaining, capital-light portfolio.

This unique approach is the brainchild of MDF Chairman John Main, previously in charge of Rio Tinto North America’s exploration unit, where he led teams on discoveries worth over $100 billion of actual and planned production.

A major success factor is to stack the team with world-class geologists and dealmakers that bring expert knowledge across all stages of the mining life cycle – from greenfield exploration to production. The table below shows a selection of some of the world class discoveries credited to MDF geos:

Selection of Discoveries by MDF board members

The key to MDF’s success lies in the continuous de-risking of their projects through expertise, funding, big data technology and a diversified portfolio approach.

In a way, it’s like a PE fund with a sharp sector focus, which is also the likely explanation for their high profile register.

“Having a lack of sustainable early exploration funding can be a major issue for junior resources companies,” MDF chair John Main says. “It can be a high-risk game at the best of times, and MDF’s objective is to reduce that risk by project identification, technology and continual funding.”

Reach Markets will soon open an opportunity for wholesale investors to invest in MDF’s world-renowned team of geologists. Click here to request the offer docs.

MDF’s Pyramid Copper Project – a global top 20 producer in the making?

Probably the most exciting asset in MDF’s portfolio is the Pyramid Copper Project.

The vast project is shaping up to be one of the world’s most significant copper assets, with near term prospects of production. Its strategic location in the US state of Alaska, MDF’s first portfolio hub, has it poised for an accelerated development pathway.

The deposit contains a mammoth 153Mt resource with over $8.5 billion worth of contained copper, and with the strong prospect of expanding to 300-500Mt at a contained copper value of $16.65-$27.75 billion – which would put it among the world’s top 20 largest projects.

Furthermore, it is open in all directions, with strongly mineralised trends that are consistent with the existing resource remaining untested.

Pyramid’s Geology (Source: MDF Presentation)

But we are not talking about early exploration here – Pyramid is a development project with the strong prospect of producing more than 50ktpa Cu which would already make it a top 35 global copper producer based on its existing resource alone.

There is a high grade, near surface supergene that could contain an additional 25Mt at over 1% Cu, with only one major hole striking through it with 48m @ 0.94% Cu, 0.15g/t Au and 0.01% Mo – and the rest of this 600m strike length being untested.

Shallow Resource with High Grade Supergene (Source: MDF Presentation)

The resource is made of cataclysmically wide assays, including results such as 261.5m @ 0.57% Cu, 0.13g/t Au and 0.02% Mo, including 40.85m @ 1.17% Cu, 0.17g/t Au and 0.01% Mo.

A shallow starter pit of 70Mt @ 0.6% CuEq is ready to move into accelerated feasibility and development, which would allow for payback of capex and expansions of mining capacity.

On top of this, while not even a part of the main thesis, there is also an untested potassic core that contains a strong chargeability anomaly with evidence of mineralisation.

Pyramid Untested Potassic Core – Significant Untapped Upside (Source: MDF Presentation)

This potassic core could be a potential monster deposit with material upside not currently factored into the project.

It is why MDF MD Joe Webb sees “[…] a clear pathway to doubling or tripling the resource, and potentially exponential growth from there”.

Reach Markets will soon open an opportunity for wholesale investors to invest in MDF Global and its portfolio including Pyramid Copper. Click here to request the offer docs

MDF’s Critical Minerals Alliance deal – one of the largest in Alaska’s history

On top of all of this, MDF just secured a major deal that gives them access to up to 10 million acres of underexplored Alaskan land that has been out of reach for explorers for decades – notably in the US where the Inflation Reduction Act is injecting US$350 billion to shore up its critical metals supply chains.

MDF locked in US$25 million (with potential to go to US$50m) from some of Australia’s best known mining billionaire’s for the 5-year generative AI driven exploration plan that will search for copper and other critical metals across up to 10 million acres of the most prospective regions in the US state – known as the Critical Minerals Accelerator.

Conducted in partnership with Alaska’s traditional owners and funded for the next five years, the Critical Minerals Alliance represents one of the largest generative exploration programs in the history of the US state.

As a part of the deal, MDF also gains access to swatches of historical data, worth tens of millions of dollars and priceless in the hands of their expert team, from mining companies that were exploring in the area half a century ago.

“Large deposits are easier to find than small ones and that’s why we’ve struck a deal to access such large swatches of acreage in our search for the next big one,” John Main says.

Reach Markets will soon open an opportunity for wholesale investors to invest in MDF at terms established prior to the close of the Critical Minerals Alliance deal. Click here to request the offer docs.

The next five years for MDF – scaling into a global opportunity

With their proven exploration successes in their first hub, Alaska, MDF has laid the foundation of an industry-leading setup, and the path from here is clear for them.

The business is perfectly positioned to scale to numerous hubs around the world by applying their proprietary exploration model and technology, producing a consistent and lucrative stream of projects.

“The endgame for us is long-term commercial self-sustenance. We want a portfolio of dozens of projects including several tier-1’s like Pyramid – where the cash flow from the tier-2 and opportunistic projects that we monetise pays for the early discoveries, creating regular liquidity events for our investors”, says Chair John Main.

With the world on the cusp of its largest ever copper shortage, MDF’s timing could not be better.

Mr Main confirms this: “Very few times in my career have I seen opportunities laid out in front of a company that I’m seeing laid out in front of MDF and its subsidiaries today”.

Given this outlook, their industry-leading setup, strong evidence of success and a clear growth plan, it is no wonder why MDF has attracted such significant support from some of Australia’s best known resources investors.

Reach Markets will soon open an opportunity for wholesale investors to invest alongside leading institutional investors, with exposure to projects backed by prominent Australian billionaire mining families. Click here to request the offer docs.

Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.