This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Kodiak Copper. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
Kodiak Copper’s (TSX-V:KDK) story stems from the same creative geological thinking that shaped one of Canada’s biggest modern discovery successes.
Founder and Chairman Chris Taylor, best known for leading Great Bear Resources from a grassroots explorer to a C$2 billion ($2.03 billion) sale to Kinross Gold (TSX:K), brings that same out-of-the box technical vision to Kodiak Copper.
Kodiak and Great Bear were founded at a similar time and built around the same thesis: identifying projects with historic exploration data located near strong infrastructure.
Alongside Kodiak CEO Claudia Tornquist and Discovery Group Principal John Robins, Taylor is leading the company with the added advantage of its participation in the Discovery Group, a North American exploration and mining collective of eight independent companies.
Tornquist notes that Kodiak’s Discovery Group membership provides them with significant benefits over other independent companies.
“There is a lot of cross-fertilisation amongst the group and sharing of experience,” Tornquist says.
“It brings a lot of credibility, particularly with retail investors as the junior exploration space can be crowded.
“Many retail investors see membership in a group like Discovery as a seal of approval that the companies are solid, well-managed, and with strong projects.”
Discovery Group’s track record of C$2.6 billion in exits and nearly two decades of cross-disciplinary collaboration enhances Kodiak’s credibility.
In 2026, Kodiak is focused on growth, with a strategy centred on expanding its resource base and advancing its flagship MPD Project — located in British Columbia’s Quesnel Terrane — toward a Prefeasibility Study.
Disciplined structure and scalable growth
Kodiak likes to keep a tight share structure, currently with around 111 million shares outstanding.
Tornquist notes that the North American market in particular values this share structure.
The company is currently trading at around C$0.70 per share, which Tornquist says is down slightly due to its current financing drive which just recently closed, adding C$15 million to the C$7 million already in the bank.
“With this financing, we’ll be well placed for this year’s growth program. We’ve upsized our drill program to 16,500m from 6,500 and added a second drill, so a very busy season with lots of results to come,” Tornquist says.
Tornquist notes that the company had a great run in 2025. It outperformed its peers and finished the year with a significant milestone, the maiden resource estimate on the MPD Project, which was well received by the market.
Kodiak sees strong potential to compete on a larger scale with other companies in the space.
“We’re currently just below a C$100 million market cap and comparable companies that are just one to three years ahead of us are trading at significantly higher values — that’s really the opportunity for us,” Tornquist says.
“Those companies are all doing porphyry exploration too, but they already have bigger resources than us or are at the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) stage — that’s what we’re aiming for in the coming years as we continue to grow our resource and progress down the development path to a PEA.
“We should be able to close that valuation gap.”
Tornquist notes that the current maiden resource at MPD is 3.2 billion pounds of copper equivalent, inferred and indicated, with the current drill program aiming to materially increase those figures. See Kodiak’s 9 December 2025 media release for more information.
“At the beginning of 2027, we’ll do a resource update and that should then show significantly larger amounts of pounds, ounces, and tonnes than what we currently have,” Tornquist says.
MPD: A consolidated copper district in the making
The MPD Project is based in an established mining district of British Columbia and is located between two large copper mines. Tornquist notes that this setting provides strong regional infrastructure, which makes exploration and mine development more cost effective.
MPD started in 2018 with the Dillard property, and over the years Kodiak has extended and acquired adjacent claims in the area, creating a 357km2 consolidated land package.
Tornquist explains that Taylor brought this vision of establishing a large, consolidated district, targeting properties with strong historical exploration (around 50,000m) but limited success.
“Previous owners had good drill results at these properties, but they were all on land packages that were too small to really do anything with them,” Tornquist explains.
“By consolidating this land package, we’ve created that critical mass needed to develop a big project and advance it to the resource stage.”
There are seven key deposits that together developed MPD’s maiden resource in December 2025, with 36 additional targets providing significant exploration upside.
That maiden resource outlined 440 million tonnes (Mt), about 83Mt indicated and the balanced inferred, with grades of 0.39% copper equivalent in the indicated category and 0.32% copper equivalent in the inferred category. See Kodiak’s 9 December 2025 media release for more information.
“The resource is not small, but it does have a lot of potential to grow, and we’ve found that the grades are comparable to others in the region,” Tornquist says.
“We’re focusing on growing the resource, having put a baseline in with the maiden resource, but all our deposits are open, and we see multiple paths in which this resource can grow as we move the project forward.”
The maiden resource was done conservatively, with a high cut-off grade of 0.2%. Tornquist notes that with this cut-off, Kodiak reports a total of 3.2 billion pounds of copper, 719 million pounds indicated and 2,500 million pounds inferred. By lowering the cut-off, however, Kodiak believes this could increase to up to 4.3 billion pounds. See Kodiak’s 9 December 2025 media release for more information.
“This is another way that we expect the resource to grow. We know we have this additional material that has potential to come into the mine plan in the future,” Tornquist says.
At present, all of Kodiak’s deposits remain open in multiple directions, giving the company clear pathways to extend the current resource. Tornquist notes that the 2026 program is designed to drill “most, if not all” of the known deposits this year, with the goal of adding those additional pounds, ounces, and tonnes ahead of the next resource update.
“Our expectation is that we’ll come out with an updated resource in early 2027 and that it will be materially larger than what we have currently in our maiden resource,” Tornquist says.
Kodiak began drilling in May 2026 and is expecting first assays in the coming months.
Beyond the core seven deposits, Kodiak’s 36 additional targets represent pure exploration upside, generated through a mix of conventional exploration field work and VRIFY AI-assisted targeting.
“If we’re successful on even one or two of these, that could create real excitement and have a meaningful impact on our share price,” Tornquist says.
Spinning out value through Kay Copper
Kodiak is also focused on value creation beyond MPD, having recently announced a transaction involving its Mohave Copper Porphyry Project in Arizona, a non-core asset that had been sidelined after Kodiak’s British Columbia discovery shifted its corporate focus.
Together with Teck Resources’ (NYSE:TECK) Copper Hill Project, Kodiak has agreed to create a new public company, Kay Copper, expected to list on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) in Q3 2026, combining Mohave with Copper Hill.
Upon listing, Kodiak will hold around 28% of Kay Copper.
“This is another value opportunity for shareholders,” Tornquist says.
“It allows us to unlock the value of Mohave while keeping our attention firmly on MPD.”
Drill results, deals, and 2027 momentum
Kodiak expects a strong cadence of catalysts through the second half of 2026, with drill results from MPD arriving in Q3 and continuing throughout the year, and the completion of the Kay Copper transaction, followed by the TSX-V listing.
The company is continuing to drill across MPD’s seven deposits, with the addition of select new targets, as it continues its growth trajectory and progresses toward the 2027 resource update.
Kodiak is now entering the second half of the year with clear momentum, a fully funded growth program, a district-scale project with growth potential, and a steady stream of upcoming milestones.
As drilling advances and the company moves toward its 2027 resource update, Kodiak Copper is positioning to close its valuation gap and solidify its place among North America’s copper porphyry developers.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au, Kodiak Copper
