Imperial Metals Corporation

Notable vs. Peers

• All-in sustaining cost of $0.17/lb is 94% lower than the peer producer average of $2.64/lb.
• Financials score of 3.6/10 is weaker than the peer average of 5.5/10.

Lifecycle Milestones

1. Permit granted

   May 2012 · The Red Chris Development Company was issued a Mines Act permit by the Province of British Columbia for the Red Chris copper-gold project. · Source
2. Construction decision (FID)

   Nov 2010 · Imperial Metals completed the Red Chris Feasibility Study Update (after-tax IRR 15.7% at US$2.20/lb Cu, US$900/oz Au; capital cost C$443M), concluding the project had robust economic viability and recommending Red Chris Development Company proceed with detailed engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning, targeting Q1 2014 commercial production -- the company's real decision-equivalent event. No separately dated 'Board formally approves' release distinct from this feasibility update was found. · Source
3. Construction start

   Sep 2012 · Concrete placement began in the Red Chris process plant area (excavation already complete), per the company's November 2, 2012 project update -- the first physically-dated construction milestone found, following the May 4, 2012 Mines Act permit. · Source
4. First pour / production

   Jul 2015 · Commercial production achieved at Red Chris, following completion of mine construction in November 2014 (itself contingent on the Northwest Transmission Line completing that same month). · Source
5. Commercial production

   Jun 1997 · Genuinely reached with a clean, single, well-documented date: Imperial Metals' 100%-owned Mount Polley mine (British Columbia) achieved commercial production on 1997-06-13, under the same continuous Imperial ownership since before that date (Imperial Metals Mining Corp. held full control by 1987). Mount Polley was subsequently suspended twice -- 2001-2005 on low metal prices, and 2014-2016 for tailings-dam-failure remediation -- but both are the SAME mine under the SAME continuous corporate owner throughout, so the earliest/original date is used per the AYA/Zgounder precedent (batch4). Imperial's other asset, a 30% non-operating JV interest in the Red Chris copper-gold mine (Newmont Corporation operates the remaining 70% and the mine itself), is explicitly NOT the basis for this write -- noted for completeness only. This row was missing entirely prior to 2026-08-21 -- a genuine data gap, not a stage error; Miner.stage was already correctly PRODUCTION. [Task #697 chronology ruling, 2026-08-25] NOT A DATE ERROR -- READ THIS BEFORE "CORRECTING" THE DATE. Task #696 flags five inversions on this ticker, and all five are this one row measured against the other four. They describe DIFFERENT MINES, as the note above already states: this row is MOUNT POLLEY (100%-owned, commercial production 13 Jun 1997, continuous Imperial ownership since before that date), while PERMIT_GRANTED (2012), CONSTRUCTION_DECISION (2010), CONSTRUCTION_START (2012) and FIRST_PRODUCTION (2015) are all RED CHRIS -- a later project in which Imperial now holds a 30% non-operating JV interest, with Newmont operating. An older wholly-owned producer and a newer partly-owned one cannot be ordered against each other in a single five-slot chain that has no per-asset scoping. Textbook SBMI shape. Deliberately NOT disputed=true: Mount Polley's commercial production genuinely occurred on the date recorded. Flagged for MULTI_ASSET_INVERSION_EXCEPTIONS -- four keys, all "..._AFTER_COMMERCIAL_PRODUCTION" (PERMIT_GRANTED, CONSTRUCTION_DECISION, CONSTRUCTION_START, FIRST_PRODUCTION); once those are excused the ticker's remaining PERMIT_GRANTED_AFTER_CONSTRUCTION_DECISION pair falls under the permit rule's existing conditional-FID expectedGap. Not added here because the rules file was under concurrent edit. SECONDARY OBSERVATION, not acted on: this miner's FIRST_PRODUCTION row is dated 2015-07-01 but its note describes COMMERCIAL production at Red Chris -- a slot mismatch caused by the same one-chain squeeze (Red Chris's commercial production has nowhere to go, because Mount Polley holds the slot). Worth correcting if per-asset scoping ever lands. · Source

Milestones are recorded only from a company's own dated disclosure. A milestone with no date shown is one we can confirm was reached but for which no date was disclosed — we don't estimate one. "Not yet reached" means exactly that, not that a date is missing. An "Expected" line likewise only ever reflects the company's own guidance (e.g. a study or permit decision targeted for a stated quarter) — most not-yet-reached milestones have none, and that absence means no such guidance has been disclosed, not that one is overdue.

A relative ranking of how closely this company matches the profile of juniors that have actually been acquired — not a probability, and not a reason to buy. Acquisitions are rare: only a few dozen significant deals happen a year across a universe of thousands of juniors, so even a high score here describes a long shot. The strongest signal the underlying research identifies — whether a major already holds a JV, earn-in, or 5–19.9% strategic stake — isn't tracked yet and is absent from this score.