Craig Parry named CEO at Vizsla Copper

Vizsla Copper Corp. [VCU-TSXV, VCUFF-OTCQB, 97E0-Frankfurt] has appointed its Executive Chairman Craig Parry, to the role of CEO and said it will update the mineral resource estimate for the Poplar Deposit, which hosts a porphyry-related copper and gold deposit and is located in British Columbia.

Parry, who was previously the CEO of IsoEnergy Ltd [ISO-TSXV, ISENF-OTCQX], will remain Chair of Vizsla’s board of directors. He succeeds Chris Donaldson, who is stepping down as CEO, effective immediately, but will remain a director of the company.

The announcement comes after Vizsla recently said it had struck a definitive deal to acquire all the issued and outstanding shares of Universal Copper Ltd.  by way of a plan of arrangement.

Universal is a Canadian copper exploration company. Its flagship Poplar Project is one of the most advanced pre-production copper projects in British Columbia. The project is large and covers 39,000 hectares in an accessible region of the central interior of B.C. It hosts an indicated resource of 152.3 million tonnes of grade 0.32% copper, 0.009% molybdenum, 0.09 g/t gold and 2.58 g/t silver. On top of that is an inferred resource of 139.3 million tonnes of grade 0.29% copper, 0.005% molybdenum, 0.07 g/t gold and 4.95 g/t silver.

Vizsla Copper shares were unchanged Thursday at $0.09 and trade in a 52-week range of 29.5 cents and $0.07.

Vizsla Copper has evolved from a move by Vizsla Silver Corp. [VZLA-TSXV] to spin out its British Columbia copper assets. Combining the Poplar project with Vizsla Copper’s Woodjam, Regold, Copperview and Carruthers Pass properties, offers shareholders exposure to a growing pipeline of projects ranging from expansion driven brownfield development to exciting discovery-seeking greenfield exploration, the companies said in a press release.

“With the completion of the Universal Copper transaction, I look forward to taking a more active role in the company’s day-to-day operations,’’ said Parry. “Since Vizsla Copper’s inception, we’ve succeeded in adding multiple exciting development and exploration assets and we’re just getting started,’’ he said. “Vizsla Copper is in a terrific position with the price of copper approaching US$5.0 per pound and strong tailwinds continuing the dominate the sector.

Looking ahead to potential development, Vizsla said the Poplar project possesses a higher-grade core that also extends to the top of the bedrock and may be beneficial to phased mining scenarios. The company went on to point out that very little exploration drilling or ground geophysics surveying has been completed outside of the immediate Poplar deposit area, suggesting terrific potential for the discovery of additional porphyry-related mineralization.

“Now that we’ve had a chance to absorb and reflect on the exploration data from the Poplar Project, I’m very impressed by the development potential and exploration opportunity it provides,’’ said Steve Blower, Vice-President, Exploration at Vizsla.  “With the significant precious metal component, large size and location essentially at surface, this deposit is impressive.’’