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While at the Vancouver resource show I was able to talk to Elmer, Mike and one of the directors of CUU who was also present, Hecktor macay-Dunn. The following is a summary of what I learned during my conversations with the CUU management. Both Elmer and Mike were very nice and very straight forward, they have a lot of class. Elmer’s presentation followed CUU’s presentation and he did a nice job of it.
He stressed that in 2011 CUU main focus was on improving grades and that they are very busy working on the final FS. Drilling was focused on the Paramount zone and there are considerable grade improvements, with copper and gold up by 10% to 15% and molybdenum by 100%. I think that the starter pit now has higher grades.
I think that they drilled ½ of the geo targets so there is still work to be done by who ever will carry the new exploration forward.
During the presentation Elmer said that the Titan study showed that Shaft Creek is one of the better systems out there.
The silver was left out of the RE at the recommendations of the engineers, even though CUU thought that it could be included. As far as I understood the reasoning it was because there was poor correlation between the old and new data. So the final FS will not include any silver data. However, they know what they have and so does TECK. Not having silver in the final FS is not that important according to them. I am not sure how they will incorporate all the silver values from the new drill results. By the way, I did ask if it is OK to call them to ask more specific questions and the answer from all was that yes they’ll be happy to talk.
I was told very clearly that CUU has no debt as of the last payment, so the books are clear of any debt.
As we all know the drill assays are long coming, but this is not CUU’s fault. The labs are busy. There were over 200 projects in BC alone that reported drill results in 2011, so you can imagine the backlog. One thing everyone can be assured of is that CUU does not sit on any results – IT IS NOT ALLOWE. Once they get the drill results they have to release them. I did ask if they are expecting to have some more NRs on the drill results and I was told yes. If we get lucky we may get something in two weeks or so, but that’s only a guess on my part.
I asked about the mine plan and was told that it’s work in progress. However, as far as I understood their position CUU is not planning to release the mine plan before the final FS. I was told that releasing the mine plan makes little sense, since 99% of people will not really understand it; it is just too technical.
I tried in a very respectful way to fish for any into of what could CUU take as a minimum price, but kudos to the CUU management they just do not divulge that type of information, which is good.
As one would expect they are happy with the NTL. However, it is BC Hydro that decides on the distribution, but they expect to be included. There is a pecking order and I think CUU may be already in the line. While this may be speculation on my part, there seems to be some support for this based on a new article in the January 2012 issue of the “Canadian Mining Journal”. On page 22 there is an article “Hydro Sparks new hope” and basically describes the NTL project and it’s importance to the BC mining industry. Now just at the end of that article is a blue highlighted section with a title: “Companies Already Investing in BC’s Northwest” and there are 6 of them. Copper Fox is listed as number 2 right after Capstone Mining. After CUU come Fortune Minerals, then Hard Creek Nickel, then NovaGold and Teck with their 5.16 billion Galore Creek and finally Sebridge Gold KSM.
So I am sure that CUU has their ducks lined up for the NTL. They did a great job with the holding facilities in Stewart, which will save them some 36 million!!!!!! So this was real big move by CUU that I am sure TECK or who ever will buyout CUU will appreciate.
Discussion on hiring an outside company to assist them with the negotiations is work in progress.
They would not elaboration any valuation since there are too many ways to do that for it to me meaningful.
I did ask about the Capex and the reference that was made in that earlier talk that Elmer gave and said that it will be the same or slightly below the pre FS value. Well, the current thinking is that the Capex will still be low, but clearly with the increase in the iron prices thus cost of steel the Capex will most likely go up, but it is NOT known as of now by how much. However, I did not het the impression that anyone is worried about it.
I did ask if they still expect to have a negative cost to produce copper will still be on the negative $0.32 and was told that most likely not since the silver will NOT be included this time and the price of copper has changed a bit and so did molybdenum. I did ask if they still expect a NEGATIVE value and was told - YES!
The land acquisition is a complex issue and I am sorry but I was not able to follow much of the legal speak.
I think the final FS will be released once they give it to TEC.
As we all know TECK is involved and they are consulted, so there will not be any surprises at the end.
Once the final FS is submitted to TECK I think CUU will continue to drill while TECK makes up their minds. Who will pay for the drilling is a good question to be explored some more. No numbers were given on number of drills, but they are planning 2012 drilling program. I was told that Titan gives you targets but you need to drill. I was also told not to get too excited about pretty pictures, and especially with the chargeability values. It seems that while we get excited about the red and purple blobs in the 35 to 40 chargeability values, they are more interested in the areas with the yellow to pinkish values (chargeability between 23 to 33 values), since that’s where there is more likelihood for copper. Maybe Webgog can explain this to us.
I did ask if they were getting any interest from outside parties and all that I was told that they do get telephone calls and that there is interest. Yes they get calls from China, but so do a lot of other companies.
I asked about the PPs and was told that it only makes sense to do it in house without any interest charges, legal fees and all the other expenses that come with outside financing. The point is that CUU does not have to worry about financing. Was told that the PPs are being used on the final FS, but not sure on what else.
I did ask what they thought TECK will do. Well, it seems TECK is a good poker player, at least they think so. So CUU does not really know what TECK will do. However, I was told that bankers (I did not ask who) tell them that TECK will most likely buy us out outright, since they will not want to carry us.
They do get a lot of calls from retail investors.
They are working very hard to get the final FS done in Q1 and think that it would be nice to have something to take to PDAC. By the way they are now attending the BC’s AME Roundup here in Vancouver. They were looking forward to it since it’s a professional event like PDAC.
Well that’s all folks.
