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This is an old guys version of my impressions.
Mineral Mountain has been staked and claimed ,the cost is about 25k a year to hold. It brings out the explorer geologist in Elmer, he thinks this is a good project and it was fun to listen to. The upside would be to find a player to be involved and keep a percentage. To me it’s office expenses in this environment.
The meeting with Teck was 2 weeks ago and Teck has some stuff to work out. Teck is in a difficult position at a sub 5$ share price and it may be unlikely they would make any real announcement on SC let alone commit more money right now for anything. (ya and I got a bunch of Tck calls for 2017)
The upside is the SC information should be available in a few months to make a accurate assessment of the value of SC and the shopping program could begin. Yes we have heard that before but my feeling of the conference was the overwhelming doom and gloom just under the surface as all the big players are having trouble. Of course this could change very quickly if any turnaround is somewhat confirmed. But do you sell at fire sale prices or hold?
Van Dyke is worth about 120m and interest could come in at 50m to start, so if that was to happen maybe it could move the share price. Again firesale prices. I’m a SC guy.
It may be unlikely Teck will announce the project eventhough it would only cost them 50m per year for the first 2 years to complete the already permitted road. ER takes about 1 ½ years but would mean committing to the project.
We are still in the queue for Hydro the terms have gotten better.
It was good to talk (or listen) to Elmer, one gets the feeling he is trying hard for the share holders in a very difficult and fluid environment. He is very coherent and does not duck questions.
To me if copper rebounds we still got a winner if not it is just more of the same.
once we are optimiszed what is from stopping us from selling off gold and silver (discounted due to future mine development) and holding the copper for the long run
a few "if's" especially the when and if this will be a mine but Teck is spending money
it wouldn't be the best deal but would make this shareholder happy
To me this sounds like there is recommended work that has not been done yet that would be neccessary to move forward.
Additional geometallurgy testwork has been recommended and when completed, is expected to play a significant role in determining the mill size, daily mill throughput, metal recoveries as well as power consumption;
it looks like it may have been a shit happens event instead of a finger pointing one, maybe not such a bad hit to the industry who were the geotecks?
UPDATE 1-Investigation finds flawed design caused Canada mine dam spill1 hour ago by Thomson Reuters
(Adds details on spill's cause, panel recommendations)
VANCOUVER, Jan 30 (Reuters) - A massive spill from a dam containing mine waste in British Columbia in August was caused by a flawed design for the embankment, which did not account for the presence of a glacial lake deposit in the foundation, an independent panel said on Friday.
The probe by a three-member engineering panel found that the breach, which sent billions of gallons of wastewater and sludge coursing into fish-bearing waterways, happened because the dam's weight was too much for the foundation to bear.
"We concluded the dominant contribution to the failure resides in the design," the panel's chair, Norbert Morgenstern, said at a news conference on the 5-1/2-month investigation.
"The design did not take into account the complexity of the sub-glacial and pre-glacial geological environment associated with the perimeter embankment foundation," he said.
Shares of the mine's owner, Vancouver-based Imperial Metals Inc, were up 9.48 percent at C$9.24 on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock plunged more than 46 percent the day after the Aug. 4, 2014 disaster and hit a near five-year low of C$7.30 in December.
The panel, appointed by the provincial government with the backing of two Aboriginal bands from the Mount Polley area, also found that the failure was triggered by the construction of a downstream rockfill zone at an overly steep slope.
They concluded that had the slope been flattened, work under way when the accident happened, the failure could have been averted.
Went to the Vancouver Conference and had a long chat with Michael Smith. My overall impression was again these guys trying hard and they were honest but due to market issues, being a small player and having difficult decisions that had been made that may not be able to completely disclosed.
Many of my questions could not be answered and were differed cause Teck is the closed mouth operator ,--like size of mine –it seemed obvious they may try different scenarios, (still unknown why Teck has not added the resources to their balance sheet) Teck has some of their best people working on this project which could be good news or bad news if they do not do anything. There may be some conflict with Teck as what is material to CUU and what is material for Teck. EE may check in on a weekly basis. The Liard shares are independent of the JV so Teck cannot vote them away. The tax refund is not written it is applied for. The waste has been extensively drilled by Teck and there was a big fight with the geotecks on including it, ultimately it came down the spacing. This seems to be a bit of a wink wink situation. Michael thought Teck would bring in another partner and they talk to some other parties but to me Teck holds the bag. Michael suggests it would be difficult for any company’s share price if they entered into a new project at this time of constraint. The reason the drilling was stopped was not fog or tough ground it was labour issues ( I did not like this answer). Teck/Schaft is still #2 on the NTL, and the province is trying to download a big chunk of the cost, Christie may be left holding an expensive project with few takers, seems like there will be lots of negotiations still left here. The Talthan were expected to do a 10-15% revenue sharing agreement but with the new treaty, it is not sure, there does not seem to be active negotiations. The synergies with Galore do not really work and Galore has waste issues where Schaft is in the dry belt, away from ceremonial grounds. There is about 35 km of road and a major bridge to be built, not seen as a really big issue. I suggest they start now, slowly, but got the Teck answer.
I did not get the underlying smirk that something was going to happen soon, more quiet resignation and a bit of a defensive stance watching Elmer. Personally I think we need a bit of slow building optimism in the world situation first. Hope I am wrong.
This was 2 old guys talking at a convention and one of them is reporting it on an internet chat line so none of it really has any substantive basis. Make your own opinions. I feel stupid for still being here but I am.