Copper Fox Metals Inc V.CUU

The Old-New Reality of Copper Fox Metals

[Ecrevissecon]

The year 2021 showed all investors that Copper Fox Metals is somewhat mismanaged and/or over-hyped.  I, for one, became extremely disillusioned by the various CUU press releases this past few months and reality hit us all in the face:

1. the long-awaited Schaft Creek joint venture project PEA (preliminary economic assessment) came out as extremely disappointing because it should have been four times higher than reported!  Where did 4 billion dollars of new value, supposedly created by improved technology and logistics, go?  This sad outcome now means that Schaft Creek is not the foremost copper mine project in British Columbia anymore but just another good, possible long-term venture.
2. because of this low-value PEA, the majority shareholder of the joint venture project, TECK, might not set its eyes on the prize as we hoped.  Instead, TECK will probably concentrate all its energy on Galore Creek where more than half a billion dollars of investments have already been expanded so far.  Not a good omen for CUU shareholders.
3. the fact that the 2021 exploration and drilling season was totally mishandled, delayed too long and then stopped short by bad weather in the Fall was also a frustrating event.  Something like merely 1/5^th of the drilling was achieved, therefore preventing management at CUU to properly assess the final value of the Schaft Creek mine for selling purposes.
4. at the moment, CEO Elmer Stewart at CUU must be praying hard to have enough 2021 results to produce some kind of an acceptable report at the end of Q2 in March 2022 to sugar coat an hypothetical sale of the joint venture project.  He will be lucky if he can accumulate enough data from the poor 2021 season to do this.
5. the majority shareholder of CUU, Ernesto Echavarria, has repeatedly shown in the past decade that he does not care about the CUU share price.  He is in no rush to increase the value of the firm on the stock market; he clearly would rather accumulate more shares through private placements and wait until he can maximize the value of the various properties to a higher amount before selling.  He is very patient and he does not care about timelines.  That is why I believe that he might want more drilling and more exploration at Schaft Creek in 2022 and 2023 because the 2021 season failed.  Thus, more waiting for us, shareholders.
6. the news about the Van Dyke mine in Arizona felt like the last nail in the coffin: 5 years of waiting to get all the various permits?  Are you kidding me?  This, again, puts a very cold shower on all expectations of quick and prosperous sale announcements in 2022.

 
We now have to accept the fact that our junior mining firm is not going to create massive share price value for its shareholders soon.  We have potentially great assets but the desire to sell them fast and to achieve an amazing price growth in the near future is definitely not a reality.  And this has been our CUU story since the first PEA in 2013…
 
            The only positive aspect that I can see in 2022 is that TECK appears to be drowning in cash.  If TECK decides to look at CUU more closely, it might want to buy the Schaft Creek joint venture project in its entirety next year.  We have to wait for the TECK annual report in January 2022 to discover if they actually care about Schaft Creek, or not.  As I wrote before on this board, I often feel that TECK simply wants to run down CUU and force it over time to liquidate its shares of the joint venture project at bankruptcy rates.  TECK can wait and do nothing about Schaft Creek for years, if it wants.  And Ernesto will prefer to be paid in TECK shares for a sale, not in cash, for tax purposes.  This means that TECK controls the entire game, and CUU does not seem to want to take the initiative.  Seems like dj vu to me all over again...
 
            In short, this is my picture of the firm at the end of December 2021.  We must wait and hope for a miracle or decisive action from CUU.
 
            Best wishes for 2022 to all,