Still here in daily lurk mode and haven't sold a single share. I have added very lightly at these levels. In an ideal world I could add heavily right now - alas I beat myself to that punch 3 years ago.

At this point I'm just glad to have a time horizon that matches the investment.

Gears are turning "out there" (Teck/AZ/Carmax) so news will come...

I remain positive about the eventual outcome.

On Relincho, Teck’s last paragraph (dated Feb 2014):

“Given current economic conditions, no significant activities are planned for Relincho in 2014. We will work on optimization studies that will focus on capital and operating cost reductions and explore other ways of enhance the value of the project.”

When I read this it reminds me of our latest JV update:

“Teck Resources Limited ("Teck") as operator of the Schaft Creek Joint Venture has recommended a comprehensive series of studies to review all aspects … of the Schaft Creek project. The objective is to review all data collected … and optimize various parameters of the project…”

It’s a (four sided) dice toss as to what comes next:

• 
  

  A - The global economy strengthens enough to make us attractive as is (any optimizations an added bonus)

  
  


• 
  

  B - Teck’s optimization studies significantly improve our NPV and make us attractive despite slowed growth

  
  


• 
  

  C – Optimizations and the economy improve together

  
  


• 
  

  D – Neither i.e. long term stalled economic growth + marginal optimizations – that would be chilling.

  
  

$0.255 is painful to see. I think the market believes D has already arrived.

Regardless, the ever suspicious undrilled waste, the vast differentials in cost between the PFS and BFS and the wide spread between NPV and other valuation methods make me think there is a lot of “optimization juice” left for Teck to squeeze.

Perhaps AZ will feather our nest a little while we wait?

The Phase 1 drill results should be basically consistent with previous area results. NPV should go up.

The market is showing no love for this stock and no expectation of near term uplift. 35 Cents is as irrational as $2.x was back in the day...

I hope the Phase 1 results are consistent (or better!) than what is needed to kick-off Phase 2. Phase 2 could be a nice way to add yet more value while we wait for juniors to come into favour agan. This seems like a terrible macro backdrop for CUU to put its share of the joint venture up for sale. I'm in no rush to see them do so because I don't see "full value" (whatever that might end up as) being unlocked in the near term.

I'm down gazillions of dollars (on paper) and find solace in the fact that I can never lose more than another 35 cents a share at this point ;) Haha.

One of my ongoing hopes... Teck paid so little for their 75% compared to what we beleive this district could/should eventually be worth.. they could pay a premium for the remaining 25% and still net a great average on the full 100%.

Oh well, back to sleep. This may well stretch into a year+ from here and it's easier to keep my hopes low (in terms of how near a liquidity event is, not how big) and maybe scoop a little more if it drops much lower. At least my average will be really improved while I wait.

"How does getting Schaft Creek for free sound....with little to no capex coming out of their pocket......"

This jogs my memory.

At PDAC where I spoke with Mike, at one point during the conversation he said (almost exactly) "If I were Teck I wouldn't pay anything for Copper Fox".

He noticed my double take and went on to explain a scenario (which I didn't understand and can't remember, unfortunately) whereby Teck could use Somebody Else's Money for the liquidity event.

I think Mike's statement is evidence that supports the idea of Teck partnering up.

I found this article which provides an eye witness account of Zhengzhou, China. This city was featured in 60 Minutes's report of China's ghost cities...

http://www.vagabondjourney.com/zhengzhou-zhengdong-china-largest-ghost-city/

After reading this article, "ghost cities in China" are no longer on my concern radar. If anything, it seems to me that:

• Building entire replacement cities can only support overall demand for resources


• These new cities will only make it easier for people to have cars, appliances, "stuff", etc. which further drives overall demand


• And of course the old cities are still there, continuing to consume resources

Here's a portion of the article:

"...Zhengzhou is the capital of Henan province and has a rapidly growing population that’s topped eight million. Over the past decade, construction crews have been building a new district in its northeastern suburbs. The rationale here is simple: it is easier and more effective to build a new city than it is to completely tear down and then rebuild an existing one. This is an urban planning strategy that many big cities in China are in the active process of conducting to varying degrees.

The layouts of many older cities of China cannot easily be made to fill the demands of the modern era. Rather than fighting long, losing battles against transportation, urban migration, and sanitation, the Chinese are just starting over and building new cities from scretch. The old city of Zhengzhou is currently packed bumper to bumper with automobiles — its curvy, narrow, organically created streets are a warzone of traffic. The city is a scrambled mess that has been brought to a breaking point by a population that’s overgrown its bounds and consumes more resources than ever — so a pressure valve has been released in its northeastern quadrant, and the Zhengdong New District was created.

Many of China’s new urban districts are not being built for new migrants coming into cities, but for people looking to escape the congestion and insanity of the old cities. So, generally speaking, many of these new cities are being created to accommodate the country’s rising wealthy and middle classes — who tend to drive personal automobiles, leave large resource consumption footprints, and, simply speaking, want more space and things.

So the eastern suburbs of Zhengzhou were transformed into a rolling sea of brand new high-rises, soaring skyscrapers, elevated highways, museums, exhibition centers, and shopping malls. This new district currently covers 58 square kilometers, roughly the size of San Francisco, and there are plans to nearly quadruple it. Zhengdong was designed to hold two million people and act as the city’s upper/ middle class epicenter — a new city for the rich.

Likewise, no amount of monumentality was spared in the building of this zone. China’s new cities are often made to be recognized, they are built to be epic. The landscape in Zhengdong is littered with post-modern landmarks, oddly shaped buildings, and a kaleidoscopic offering of differing and contrasting architectural styles — the inevitable result of Chinese engineers and architects being given a completely blank urban canvas to paint a new city upon. So Zhengdong has a museum that looks like a clutch of golden Easter eggs, an exhibition center shaped like a paper fan, a chubby skyscraper that seems to have been modeled off of an overfed leech, and a dozen or so flamboyant, built-to-be-recognized towers..."

I went to PDAC today and spoke to Jason, Shane and Mike. Elmer was there, but I only got to shake hands with him. Unfortunately for me a couple individuals got to him first and I wasn't able to speak with him as he had a meeting to rush off to. Friendly guy though. You can tell he's got a good touch with people.

I didn't go with prepared questions and I didn't take notes, so these are my recollections only and should not be carved in stone.

Everyone was very friendly, etc. and I was happy to answer what questions I had. This doesn't the mean that the answers revealed much or were even what I wanted to hear.

According to both Jason and Mike, it is their belief that Stifel has most of the shares they purchased back during the price run up in 2011. I asked Mike if this suggested that a buy-out price at least equal to the average price Stifel paid is in the offing - and he could only say "it's a possibility" (my impression = "no"). In general he was extremely good at not taking any kind of bait with regard to share price speculation on my part (and I tried!) and frankly I was left with the "higher than $1 but not as high as $3, anything is possible" feeling. He never used any price at all in our conversation, so all numbers I'm stating are strictly my impression.

Interestingly he did say that if moly was to regain 50% of what it has lost (and gold and silver stayed the same) our copper cost would be around $0. He made a point of saying that, leading me to think that anticipated metal prices are an extremely import component of our valuation. Jason asked me what my expected price was and I said I'd be happy with $3 or higher and he felt this was simply too high and unrealistic. $2 (above? below? probably below) is around where he started getting more comfortable with my valuation conjecture. The market we find ourselves in and our share price DO matter to any final buyout price according to Jason. It is simply unrealistic from his perspective to not consider our price. If it goes up, that will help. Going from $0.80 to $3.00 was not conceivable to him. However, he wasn't saying $3 was inconceivable, but it was getting there from $0.80 that made him stick. I do understand arguments made on this board that insiders buying open shares could run up the price so this share price premium method of valuation is silly - but I am passing on what I heard at PDAC.

Regarding Arizona, the water issue was considered of no concern (Jason) and Mike was really pleased about this property and seemed fired up by it. They have made a couple executive/legal trips down to Arizona and my understanding is that Jason indicated an NR is coming out shortly (weeks?) to describe assorted drilling / aerial exploration plans. This is ongoing, unlinked to Shaft. It's simply an opportunity that presented itself and so they're pursuing it in parallel.

Environmentally, Shane said they'd be pleased to submit in Q2 (end of Q2 I'm sure), but it may well be Q3. After submission, government evaluation is supposed to take a six months it will probably take a year for the provincial and federal parties to "do their thing", bringing us to late summer 2014. The status of that EA is not going to drive the liquidity event. During this discussion period with Teck, environment related questions have been asked. What about I don't know. I asked if there were show stoppers, etc. and he agreed there were no red flags, but the outcome is never 100% certain. He's been through this before, knows what to expect and is working through the process. An NDP government (he brought it up) creates some uncertainty which is never a good thing... whether this will cast a long shadow over CUU or not is anyone's guess - environmentally, or otherwise. As long as CF is still an operator of this project, we will continue to manage pursuit of the EA.

Mike went on to mention that Ernesto is a very hard bargain driver. He leaves absolutely nothing on the table and will explore multiple scenarios and will be creative about maximizing value. He has a very long term outlook. I asked about Liard. Liard was simply not underscored by Mike as having the kind of pivotal relevance that this board gives it. Any revenue wouldn't be for 11 years or so. It's just too far in the future to be a significant factor and if they take us all it's not either.

If Teck backs in 75% that gives CUU a big value boost (4x expenditure) and Mike was pleased by that. He said many arrangements by Teck are possible including a partnership, foreign funding, etc. There seem to be many, many scenarios that could play out and it's not at all clear which twists and turns this will eventually take. Bottom line, he said Teck can take care of themselves with regard to finding money.

I also overhead Jason mention a $7M tax credit to someone else and he went on to say we were well funded for now. Also, with Ernesto ponying up to each PP, the turnaround is quick and with a minimum of fees and this is a great advantage. I was simply listening in to that conversation.

Regarding the timing of news... they definitely confirmed the FS has been handed to Teck. I did not confirm if this was Feb 4th, but I am comfortable (for my purposes) assuming it was. I conjectured to Jason that March 6th would be a deadline to recognize our FS as a BFS under section (ii) - here the long pause and lack of direct response indicated to me this is not the right perspective to take. Basically - it's in Teck's hands now. They have it, they've been working alongside CF for a long time and there was universal (all three of them) belief (with conviction I sensed) that Teck is going to tell CF how it wants to proceed sooner rather than later. I interpret this to mean during the next 2 to 3 months. Teck has shown interest all along the way. Jason did throw out the possibility that they "walk" (my word, not his) in which case be prepared for a major price dive as we spent 2, maybe 3 years to dress this thing up for sale to someone else. I suggested the 2 or 3 years and he nodded. He can't know, and may just have been anchoring on my suggestion for the sake of conversation. Perhaps there is a plan B, but I didn't get an opportunity to ask Elmer about this.

Mike did indicate that Teck has a lot of data on this project and Jason indicated that the upgrade recommendations in the FS are well understood by Teck. The FS is "vanilla" and made for Teck. It is very conservative. However, CF is going to proceed as if Teck isn't going to make a decision, but of course everyone knows what the elephant in the room is. Last year they held off on more drilling etc. to avoid further delays to the FS which could have generated who knows how many more months (a year??) of delay.

Boiling it down, what I gleaned from the exchange...

First, I'm happy I went and I was left with a positive feeling about the team. I had an opportunity to get in at $0.40 (missed), $1.37 (missed) and from $2.70 down through to $0.80 (yep, those are the doors I picked), so my average is above $2. I feel there is a definite possibility that I could lose some money when this is settled.

Further, I believe we really will know in the next 2 to 3 months (hopefully a bit sooner). Whatever price Ernesto can squeeze out of Teck's interest in the Schaft Creek project is as good as can be had. Teck has shown interest all along, as well as currently by entering into discussions. We have that going for us.

But are we looking at $3+ (as I'd previously believed)? - fat chance was my impression. I'll be very happy to be wrong. Also, it's entirely possible we get a back-in and keep drilling, etc.

One more thing on the various contract terms, etc... I really got the sense that THE MAIN event was getting the FS to Teck. Teck's interest in the package we offer is our main leverage but market conditions and our share price will limit that leverage. All the rest (Liard, 4 year requirement to build a mine, etc.) is not going to drive the decision time line or our valuation to the extent it has been supposed on this board. However the port, NTL (I confirmed we are spot #3 and it's on schedule), etc. have real value. I'm not saying the contract is without value, but it's not the contract we're selling, it's the metal potential in the ground in the context of economic conditions, which trumps all. Again, they stressed two things: their relationship with Teck and the hard value of our overall package (pounds + port + power, etc.). They did not stress the contract except to state that if Teck doesn't play they can muster a good defense if needed - but that is definitely not the preferred route.

If we do get bought, I say $2 +/- 10% by May 31 2013 is my personal guess.

Mike did say, there are many options to move forward for CUU and all of them are good.

Let's see how it unfolds since there's not much else we can do right now. However, stay positive.