Why Adrian Day Owns 19.9% of Lara Exploration: Copper Scarcity, a Buildable Deposit, and a Team That Runs on Fumes
Resource fund manager Adrian Day explains why his firm holds 19.9% of Lara Exploration: a proven management team running a royalty-and-project portfolio on minimal cash, anchored by the Pinalito copper discovery in Brazil, with the same team behind the Timok copper discovery later sold to Zijin. He expects a pre-feasibility study within a year and thinks the deposit — or the company — is a likely takeover target.
Investor angle
Adrian Day's firm owns 19.9% of Lara Exploration — his self-imposed maximum to avoid the 20% ownership threshold that triggers trading restrictions. His case rests on three legs: a management team with a proven exit (the Timok copper discovery in Serbia, sold to Zijin), a royalty-and-project model already generating some revenue with minimal dilution, and the Pinalito copper discovery in Brazil on flat farmland he says faces no permitting or social obstacles. He concedes the grade and size are unexciting but argues copper scarcity means the deposit will be built — or, more likely, bought, with a first pre-feasibility study expected within a year and recent Atlantica land acquisition adding exploration upside. Note: Lara sponsored this interview, and the host's disclaimer discloses sponsor bias.
Most of this interview with fund manager Adrian Day ranges across gold, oil, and stagflation — but the segment that closes it is a detailed, personal case for one explorer: Lara Exploration Ltd (LRA). Day, whose firm Adrian Day Asset Management is a cornerstone shareholder, lays out exactly why he owns as much of the company as he is willing to own of anything.
## The position itself
Day is direct about the size of the stake: his firm owns 19.9% of Lara, which he describes as the largest they want to go. Crossing 20%, he explains, would trigger restrictions on buying and selling — so 19.9% is a deliberate ceiling, not an accident of accumulation. He disclosed the position himself on the record, after host Bill Powers noted that Lara had come on as a show sponsor.
## Three reasons for the thesis
**The people.** Day's first stated reason is the team: he calls them solid in experience, solid in ethics, and solid at running a tight ship. His most vivid line is about capital discipline — he says he cannot think of another company able to run "on fumes" for so long while continuing to do its business. For an explorer that has not had to flood the market with dilutive equity, that is the trait Day prizes most.
**The business model.** Lara holds pieces of, or royalties on, multiple different projects, some of which already generate revenue. That gives the company cash flow and optionality beyond any single prospect — a structure Day clearly favors in a sector where most explorers live drill result to drill result.
**The asset: Pinalito.** The core of the case is the Pinalito copper discovery in Brazil, which Day calls one of the largest copper discoveries of the last decade. He adds a pedigree point: this is the same team behind the Timok copper discovery in Serbia, which was eventually sold to Zijin, the Chinese company.
## Why he thinks it gets built
Day acknowledges the deposit's grade and size are not as exciting as one would like. His rebuttal is the macro picture he builds earlier in the interview: copper faces a structural supply shortfall. Because a permitted, shovel-ready copper project still takes roughly five years to reach production, the industry already knows what supply will look like in five years — and Day argues that even after cutting projected EV and data-center demand in half, there is not enough copper at today's price. When supply is that tight, he says, price is the arbiter, and "this is a project that will get built."
He is equally specific on jurisdiction. Pinalito sits in mining-friendly terrain that is flat, entirely farmland, with what he describes as no indigenous peoples and no environmental objections — and farmers who are, in his words, happy to sell their land for a decent price and retire. "It's a mine that will get built. There's no obstacles to it."
## The catalysts he is watching
Day points to two near-term developments. First, Lara has just bought a land package called Atlantica, an extension of the same trend, and has announced exploration on it. Because the existing deposit is already economic, he argues, anything added is incremental — no new facility is needed — and the aim is to find a couple more high-grade deposits that would lift overall grade, alongside infill drilling. He puts the odds of success at much better than 50/50.
Second, he expects a first pre-feasibility study within a year. And on the endgame: "I think someone's going to buy the deposit, if not the company. But probably the deposit." In other words, the likely exit is an acquisition of the asset by a larger copper player rather than Lara building a mine itself.
## The fine print investors should weigh
Two disclosures matter here. Lara was a sponsor of the show that produced this interview, and the host's own disclaimer states that Mining Stock Education may hold financial interests in companies it covers and is biased toward its advertising sponsors. Day also has an obvious interest as a large holder. None of that invalidates his arguments — the copper supply logic and the deposit's siting are laid out explicitly — but listeners should treat the enthusiasm as an interested party's case, not independent analysis.
Day also notes honestly what the deposit is not: a grade-and-size standout on its own terms. The thesis depends on copper scarcity making a merely good project strategically valuable, and on the team's track record repeating with Timok-style M&A interest. Those are the assumptions to track as the Atlantica exploration results and the pre-feasibility study arrive over the coming year.
Generated by Pixys from the source video below. Not investment advice.
