Northern Miner ArticleDaily News Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Corrected resource estimate boosts Copper Fox 14%
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Vancouver - After a faulty resource estimate catalyzed a 35% drop in share price and forced the company to halt trading for almost a month, Copper Fox Metals (CUU-V) is on the rise again with a corrected Schaft Creek estimate that shows a 41% increase in measured and indicated resources.
In early May Copper Fox released an estimate for Schaft Creek that showed increased copper and gold resources compared to the 2004 estimate, but indicated 7% decreases in both molybdenum and silver resources. Copper Fox’s share price, which had been sitting at a record high of $1.54, plummeted to $1.00 over the following week.
On June 11th the company requested a halt on trading, announcing that the consultant company, Associated Geosciences, made a mistake in the formula used to calculate the copper equivalent cut-off grade. As a result, Copper Fox president and CEO Guillermo Salazar said in a press release that the “classification of resources is understated.”
Copper Fox stock was halted until the copper equivalent values were re-calculated, which took most of a month. On the evening of July 3rd the company released a corrected estimate and on July 4th Copper Fox resumed trading.
“We didn’t exist yesterday and now we do,” says Salazar. “It seemed like an eternity.”
The new estimate shows measured and indicated resources of 1.39 billion tonnes averaging 0.25% copper, 0.18 gram gold per tonne, 0.019% molybdenum, and 1.55 grams silver per tonne at Schaft Creek, using a 0.02% copper equivalent cutoff. The new tonnage and grades represent increases of 27% copper and 33% gold compared to the 2004 estimate, as well as the notable increases of 48% molybdenum and 23% silver, not the 7% decreased in molybdenum and silver resources that the erroneous estimate had indicated.
The stock quickly bounced back up 14% on 3.3 million shares traded, to close at $1.21.
“In a nutshell: the new estimate confirms what we expected – we had been kind of shell-shocked about the previous estimate,” says Salazar. “When we realized these were the real results we immediately changed some plans. We’re thinking about some much bigger plans for the mine now.”
Schaft Creek, in northwest B.C., was first discovered in 1957. It passed through several hands including Asarco and Hecla Mining (HL-N) before being sold to Teck Cominco (TCK.B-T, TCK-N) in 1978. Teck drilled 26,000 metres on the site and conducted engineering studies, but the project fell to the wayside. Copper Fox entered into an option agreement with Teck in 2002 to earn up to a 93.4% direct and indirect interest in the property. By the time Copper Fox entered the scene, Schaft Creek had already seen 60,200 metres of diamond drilling but no mineral production.
Copper Fox is currently working on a scoping study to evaluate the preliminary feasibility of an open pit mine at Schaft Creek. The company had envisioned a minimum capacity of 65,000 tonnes per day over a mine life of 30 years. Salazar says they are thinking bigger now, but declined to elaborate.
Copper Fox is conducting metallurgical and engineering work for the scoping study, as well as completing environmental work for the permit process and consulting with the Tahltan Nation, a native group local to the area.
“We opened camp in early May, and we are expanding,” Salazar says. “We have two drills working away there, and a third drill coming in soon. We just added a third helicopter a week ago – we need three helicopters because we are doing so much environmental work.”
Copper Fox can earn a 70% interesting the property by spending $15 million by 2011, $5 million of which it has already spent. The company can earn a further 23.4% interest from Teck by delivering a bankable feasibility study. Teck has a back-in option to re-take up to 75% of the project; if Teck does not exercise its back-in option it is entitled to a 1% net smelter return or Copper Fox shares worth $1 million.