From Exploration to Production: Scott Williamson Discusses Blackstone Minerals' Journey

In this episode, we have a returning guest who last appeared on the show back in July 2023 (Ep 360). Scott Williamson, MD of Blackstone Minerals, a listed mining company who are developing a high-grade undeveloped copper-gold porphyry projects in the world and is uniquely positioned to capitalise on the untapped potential of the Mankayan Copper-Gold Project in the Philippines. Scott is a mining engineer by background, working in operations and corporate roles during his career and has exposure to corporate finance and capital markets, investor relations, and project management during his career. He has been at the helm of Blackstone for nearly 8 years now and gives us an update since he was last on, discusses the Mankayan project, talks about gold and copper porphyry, and what the Philippines is like as a mining jurisdiction, and more. KEY TAKEAWAYS The current copper market is experiencing tight supply due to increasing demand driven by electrification and the transition to electric vehicles. This has resulted in high copper prices Blackstone Minerals plans to conduct extensive exploration, aiming to drill around 50,000 meters over the next 12 to 18 months. This includes systematic exploration techniques to identify new ore bodies Strong community relations have been established, with previous owners successfully engaging local stakeholders. Blackstone has inherited a solid foundation, including a 25-year mining license and agreements with indigenous communities The project offers multiple development pathways, including the potential for a smaller-scale operation focusing on high-grade ore, which could generate cash flow to support larger-scale mining in the future BEST MOMENTS "Copper is probably the tightest copper concentrate market the world has ever seen... Unfortunately, the supply is quite limited, and it takes a long time to bring copper mines online." "This particular ore body has already got 10 million ounces of gold and another 10 million ounces of gold equivalent in copper... It's already a world-class scale." "We want to drill around 50,000 meters... We want to do a lot of drilling, but we also want to do that systematic exploration." "The good thing is that we're not just inheriting a world-class ore body, we're inheriting all of that great work that the previous owners have done." VALUABLE RESOURCES Mail:        [e-mail] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/ X:              https://twitter.com/MiningRobTyson YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DigDeepTheMiningPodcast  Web:        http://www.mining-international.org GUEST SOCIALS  https://blackstoneminerals.com.au/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/blackstone-minerals/ https://x.com/Blackstone_BSX CONTACT METHOD [e-mail] https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/ Podcast Description Rob Tyson is an established recruiter in the mining and quarrying sector and decided to produce the “Dig Deep” The Mining Podcast to provide valuable and informative content around the mining industry. He has a passion and desire to promote the industry and the podcast aims to offer the mining community an insight into people’s experiences and careers covering any mining discipline, giving the listeners helpful advice and guidance on industry topics.  This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/