Today, many junior resource companies dig around on their property until they find something – anything! Then they wait for larger companies to outbid each other in an effort to acquire the junior company.

Equitas Resources Corp. (TSX-V: EQT; FSE: T6U1) wanted to go in a different direction and, under the leadership of President and CEO Jay Roberge, they are blazing a trail that they believe other junior companies may follow.

Equitas started focusing on the copper and gold space in 2010 but wanted to set itself apart from other junior resource companies. Mr. Roberge, whose background is in corporate development and finance, suggested a different model. “My approach is always to do things a little bit differently so we can differentiate our company from all of the other juniors out there that are talking about copper-gold," he said. He assembled what he calls a "top notch leadership team" and together they embarked on a new strategy for Equitas.

"The normal [junior resource company] strategy is to go out and do it all yourself and then hopefully weather the storms and get to a point where a big company will come in and make you a big offer. The catalyst of our strategy is that big majors would see the value in moving upstream and making investments earlier, while Equitas would receive the backing and support of a major producer to plan long term and weather challenging market conditions.”

Moving in a different direction, Equitas first looked for a great property and then – much earlier than most juniors – it went looking for an investment partner in a major producer.

As Mr. Roberge explained, the first step was for the company to find a great property: "We wanted to get a key property that we felt was more than just grass roots. We wanted a property where we could take historical data and build on it. The property is the Day Copper-Gold Porphyry Project, located in the Quesnel Porphyry Belt of north-central British Columbia. It's known for prolific copper-gold porphyry systems, and copper-molybdenum systems. There are other successful mines in the area so we have the right street address."

Mr. Roberge continued talking about why the property was a great fit for Equitas: "What really attracted us to this project was the historical data. Falconbridge drilled on the property back in the early 1970's. And back then, copper-gold economics weren't what they are today. They came up with a couple of good highlight holes and very encouraging drill results in today's economics. We consolidated several properties in the area to form the property that we have today, which is a land package of approximately 7,200 hectares that we believe covers the entire system. [On one of the consolidated properties] we subsequently learned that it too had been historically drilled and the results contain encouraging data that we're looking to acquire. Preliminary reports again provide positive evidence that justifies further exploration.

After finding a great property with plenty of promise, the second step for Equitas was to find a large company that was willing to get involved earlier than usual and fund them. Mr. Roberge told us about recently closing a deal with a partner: "We did a deal just a couple of weeks ago – it's a strategic partnership with Zijin Mining Group. Zijin is based in China and they're a multi-billion dollar company trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. They are the number one producer of gold; the number three producer of copper; and the number six producer of zinc in China. "

So, what did the agreement look like? Mr. Roberge detailed it for us: "They put a $1.35 million strategic investment in our company based on the data we had on the original Falconbridge property. The mandate of the agreement is that Equitas is basically going to be the exploration arm of Zijin and our goal is to go out and find a copper-gold porphyry mine. So in the coming months, we're going to expand our asset base both in British Columbia and outside of Canada. We hope to acquire five or six projects in the coming months then explore those projects and narrow them down to two or three that we think are viable to move them toward development. Then, as we move toward a production decision, Zijin will have the right of first refusal to finance the presented project into production."

The relationship with Zijin worked well, right from the beginning. "Zijin understood what we are trying to do. They are a well-capitalized company. They've had other successful projects around the world but this is their first foray into this kind of venture. They have a lot of experts in their company and there's some value in getting their insight on the data," said Mr. Roberge.

 “The entire private placement that Zijin participated in was $2.25mm which was raised at $.15/unit (half-warrant @ $.20 included).  The raise included the $1.35 mm from Zijin Mining Group.  The involvement from Zijin will allow Equitas Resources to differentiate ourselves among our peers in two ways; 1. We have the financial and technical backing of a major prior to having a quantifiable asset and 2. Using Zijin's comprehensive network of contacts, we are put in a position to expand Equitas' own network of followers and exposure to the capital markets.  On the other hand, this deal also holds a mutual benefit for Zijin as they can expand their exploration efforts in Canada using the experience of Equitas' management within Canada and elsewhere. “

 So, what's next for Equitas? Mr. Roberge gave us an overview:

"We're long-term believers in copper. We believe there are fundamental issues that will impact the market for copper. Some of the larger copper mines are coming off from production and they anticipate that there will be a bit of a supply problem. The markets are volatile and investor confidence is low so our strategy was to pick a partner at an early stage rather than at a later stage to provide the company with some stability and investor comfort that Equitas is a long term company."

"A key part of our strategy is to expand our asset base. As we wrap up for the winter in Canada, our plan is to acquire a few new projects to further expand our asset base," Mr. Roberge continued. "We're currently looking at a number of areas including South America, Mexico, and Arizona, which would be warm weather properties – something to work on during the Canadian winter months."

For investors who are looking for earlier stage resource deals, with the backing and support of a larger company and a good team, Equitas is a good choice.

In spite of the challenges of the market in recent months, Equitas has several points on the "plus" side of the balance sheet. Mr. Roberge listed the highlights for us: "We have a fantastic team with a proven track record in exploration and discovery. We have a great lead project. It's early stage and we have a market cap of only about 5 million but with the financial and technical backing of both Zijin Mining and a local capital group Zimtu Capital, we think there is some strong upside potential."

REFERENCES

Equitas Resource Corp.

1450 - 789 W Pender St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 1H2

Tel: 604.681.1568

Toll free: 1.877.377.6222

info@equitasresources.com

http://www.equitasresources.com