Categories: Mining Stocks
Topics: Copper Stocks

Gladiator Metals (TSX-V: GLAD)(OTC: GDTRF) CEO Jason Bontempo on Unlocking District-Scale Potential of Whitehorse Copper Project, Yukon, Expanding Cowley and Cub Prospects, and Accelerating Fully Funded Drilling Across Multiple High-Grade Copper Targets

 

Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the very busy CEO of Gladiator Metals (TSX-V: GLAD)(OTC: GDTRF) — Mr. Jason Bontempo. 

Jason, it is great to have you on. It’s been a bit. Congratulations on a heck of a run thus far in 2026. Let’s get into why I think it’s early. But congrats on a great year thus far. How are you today?

Jason Bontempo: Great, thank you, Gerardo. Great to be here again catching up with you. 

Gerardo Del Real: Well, listen, once upon a time, a few years ago, we sat down in a hotel lobby, and it was yourself, some of the team, myself, Mr. Jeff Phillips, and Mr. Nick Hodge. And you all had this great idea for this project that you felt you understood very well. And you felt that it had the kind of scale that could be a game changer if you could prove it.

When you sit down with people in this industry, everybody believes they have a project where somebody maybe didn’t identify the scale or didn’t latch on to the more pertinent parts of it. And so we said, “Hey, great. Happy to watch the story and support the story.” And fast-forward a year and a half or two years later, you clearly have a tiger by the tail, and I want to get into that.

But before we get into that, can you start by providing a brief overview of the team and, frankly, the team that allowed you, at a very early point in the company’s history, to identify the potential for both grade and scale and multiple discoveries at the Whitehorse Copper Belt?

Jason Bontempo: Sure, Gerardo. The team comprises, obviously, myself, Marcus Harden, our president; and our partners, Kluane Drilling, which is owned by the Coyne family, a very successful local family in the city of Whitehorse in the Yukon.

The way it all came together is that I’d previously worked with the Coyne family. We were involved in a gold project in China, of all places, and I worked with Kluane Drilling, the drilling company owned by the Coyne family, for three years. We drilled out a very large gold deposit in northwest China that went on to be successfully developed into a producing gold mine.

Then, 15 years later, I was reacquainted with Jim and Rob Coyne via Marcus Harden, our president, and it all came together. I think it was just unique that the Whitehorse Copper Belt Project had been, in effect, hiding in the cupboard — hiding in the Kluane Drilling Coyne family cupboard.

No one really knew it was there other than them. Then, of course, Marcus Harden, who had moved from Australia to Canada and had briefly met them, brought us all together in 2021. I was very excited because I had looked at the project back when I first worked with the Coyne family in 2007.

I was amazed to think that a 35-kilometer-long copper belt with a previous deposit — one of many deposits, but one that had produced in the ’70s and ’80s — was available. And that’s how we got together. 

Marcus went and spent six weeks there in March 2022 and digitized a lot of old data records. He spent a lot of time in Whitehorse, on the ground, having a look at all the prospectivity. And the report came back and said, “Well, I think there’s potential here for over 100 million tonnes of high-grade copper resources from surface, and maybe more.” And that was how it all started, Gerardo.

We got together, came to an agreement with the Coyne family, and brought it into Gladiator Metals. We’ve been working at it now — well, it’s been about three and a half years since the first Gladiator Metals drill rig began turning at the project. And I think we’ve moved from a C$20 million - C$25 million market cap to now just shy of C$400 million.

Gerardo Del Real: Let’s talk about why it’s probably still early despite the run. We have copper making new all-time highs and looking like it’s going to continue making new all-time highs for the next several years with structural deficits really materializing in the space that I just don’t see an answer for anytime soon.

Give me your thoughts on why it’s likely still early because you talked about how, early on, you all felt as a team that you had the potential for 100 million tonnes of high-grade copper. And all you’ve done since then is prove that out to the point where you’re having companies and groups like BlackRock lead a C$35 million institutional private placement on very favorable terms. 

That doesn’t happen every day in the resource space. Can you speak to that a bit?

Jason Bontempo: There are two key points as to why it’s still early, to answer your question, Gerardo. The first point is what we already know about the project, particularly what we know at the Cowley prospect. I’ll call it a prospect even though it’s very much looking like a deposit with the amount of drilling we’ve done. We just haven’t reported an official resource.

At the Cowley prospect and now the Cub prospect, I think what we see very much substantiates a large portion of our market cap and valuation just between those two future deposits. And that is really only on the basis that we’re still very early in our stage of development — or the stage of the project — which is pre-resource.

Now, if you look at peers in the industry that are more advanced than us — whether they’re post-resource, in feasibility, or even in construction — you’re looking at valuations ranging from over $1 billion to $2 billion to $4 billion.

For example, Foran was in construction and on its way to producing when it was taken out by Eldorado for close to $4 billion — $3.8 billion. And that was 40 million tonnes at 2% copper underground.

Arizona Sonoran, again, was at the permitting or feasibility stage when it was taken out for $2 billion by Hudbay. You look at Marimaca Copper or Meridian Mining. They’re both valued at over $1 billion and are more advanced, with very similar potential tonnes and grade. Arguably, we will have a higher grade at the Whitehorse Copper Project.

And so that is why, when we’re pushing C$400 million, there’s still a long way to go. Just between those two deposits or prospects — Cowley and Cub — advancing them will unlock value.

The second point as to why we’re still very, very early is that we have two areas with what appear very likely to become high-grade copper resources within a 35-kilometer-long belt that still has numerous targets to test.

We have the Great Southern prospect, which we’re going to be drilling next year, where we’re identifying targets. Then we have the Arctic Chief trend and the Chief trend. These are advanced prospect areas where we just need to get drill rigs on them and show that they are the next prospects or deposits that will deliver resources.

And that is why it’s still very early — a combination of unlocking value from what we already know and the potential to deliver additional resources and discover more deposits or prospect areas.

Gerardo Del Real: The geophysics and the work the technical team has done clearly have enabled you to get this tiger by the tail. How important was receiving that Class 3 exploration permit for what comes next? And then I’d love for you to let the audience know what is next.

Jason Bontempo: To answer the first part of your question, yes, the geophysics work is very important. And what you’re referring to is the discovery of the Cub deposit, which came purely from geophysics — a combination of gravity and IP.

The gravity gives you the density, and the IP gives you the chargeability. You match up the density — where the higher the density, the more likely it is to be a copper skarn, which is what we’re looking for — with the IP. The higher the chargeability, the greater the chance that it’s sulfides carrying copper mineralization.

That worked at Cub, and now we have an exploration tool and technique that we can apply to the rest of the belt. I think investors and the market recognize that we’ve potentially unlocked the tool for further discovery.

And then what’s next? Well, now that the summer is beginning to wind down in the Yukon, it won’t be winding down for Gladiator. We can drill year-round.

Over the final part of this year — particularly through September, October, and November — there’s going to be a significant amount of drilling. We’re going to be moving from three rigs to five rigs, and there’s going to be lots of news coming out of Cowley and Cub.

We’re also hoping to get a sixth rig onto Best Chance, which is a prospect we tested last year that looks very promising. It looks like it could have the size, tonnes, and grade of Cowley, and we’d like to show that it’s going to start stacking up as the next cab off the rank in terms of a deposit.

So there will be a significant amount of drilling and lots of news with plenty of substantiation of what we know at Cowley and Cub, but also, hopefully, further discovery at Best Chance.

Gerardo Del Real: All of those catalysts, together with what I believe is going to be a red-hot — pun intended — copper market, should make for a fun close to 2026 and a heck of a 2027.

Jason, thank you for your time. Anything else you’d like to add before I let you go?

Jason Bontempo: Just to add that we are fully funded, Gerardo. Back in June, we announced a significant C$35 million financing led by BlackRock. And so we currently have just under C$50 million in cash in the treasury to fund drilling right through to the end of next year.

Gerardo Del Real: Congrats on all the success. I suspect there’s a lot more to come. Jason, thank you so much.

Jason Bontempo: Thank you, Gerardo.

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