Onepath, are you snoozlegrub on Stockhouse? This good post on PAX almost reads like your writing. Or maybe snoozlegrub is marcos.
"I agree with you, Topadviser--I never owned YZC either, and for the same reason--different size = different fundamentals = different economics = different value. I know people link YZC and PAX together in their minds, because they have the same management, and they think the snafu with YZC's FS shows incompetence on mgmt's part, but they certainly have not been incompetent when it comes to acquiring and putting together a world-class group of claims. I was just looking through the Yukon Minfile, and it lists and describes all the mineral deposits in the Selwyn Basin, and they list them all seperately with different names, and of course the XP, ANNIV, Brodel, and OP deposits (which they list and describe separately) were all part of the package PAX bought last year from the Placer Dome/US Steel JV, and when strung together with PAX's Don zone, that makes up the 30 km "main" area. But the Yukon Minfile also lists a whole bunch of other deposits, with names like Ness, Nod, Hawk, Tap, Dianne, Tam, Eagle, Falcon, Dorita, Candy, etc., and it gives the work history of each one, and after all the ones I just named, after listing all the companies that explored them, it says, "Acquired by Expatriate in 1999" or "Staked by Expatriate in 1998" or "Purchased by Expatriate in 2000." Expatriate, as you know, is the now-defunct parent company of both YZC and PAX (as well as Stratagold), and all those deposits (all of which are adjacent to and surrounding the "main" deposits I orignally mentioned) now belong to PAX and are part of the huge area they refer to as the "Howards Pass claim area." And today they just announced their acquisition of the Abbey showing, which is also listed in the Yukon Minfile, and although it hasn't been properly explored, it says that it is believed to be an extension of the Howard's Pass formation.
So now I would like to ammend my previous response to your comment that "there is the potential for 1 billion tons of ore," and I said, "but half of it may never see the light of day." Well, according to the Yukon Minfile, that entire area may contain a continuous blanket of zinc/lead mineralization ranging from 5 meters to 60 meters thick, that dips and rises (relative to the surface) over the entire area. If that's the case, and from the North end of the Abbey showing down to the Southeast end of the new extension to the XY deposit they added last year now measures in the neighborhood of 60 km, there could easily be 3, 4, 5, or even 6 billion tons of mineralization total, and if even 20% to 25% of it is open-pit mineable, there could conceivably be upwards of 1 billion tons of minable ore when all is said and done. But all that would take a lot of time and work to define, so maybe they're better off sticking with their target of 400 million tons at first and bring that to feasibility, and then they can define the rest of it as they go along.
An interesting thing I found in the Yukon Minefile is the presence of what it calls a "supergene zone" (I think it's in the XY zone) of super-rich ore that's right at the surface--they quoted assays up to 48% zn, and they said the average could be around 30% zn--it covers a large area, but because it's very thin (1-2m), it doesn't amount to huge tonnage (they quoted 80,000 tons, but that's not complete, because it's based on Placer Dome's incomplete exploration). But since it's right on the surface, it would be cheap and easy to get, and at that high %, they may not even have to concentrate it--they might be able to just shovel it onto the containers and ship it to the smelter as-is! 80,000 tons of that stuff at today's zinc price amounts to about $65 mil, and it might be a quick and easy way to help fund the operation, defray start-up costs, and cut down on the need for financing. "
Now we continue with a response by snoozlegrub himself to the previous post.
" made an error in my previous post entitled "I agree" that I would like to correct. When I named the deposits that made up the former Placer Dome/US Steel JV claims, I called them the "XP, ANNIV, Brodel, and OP deposits." All the names are correct EXCEPT the first one--it's really XY, not XP. I did refer to it correctly as XY several times after that in the same post. The reason that's important is that there actually is another mineral deposit in the Selwyn Basin named XP, but I think it's owned by another company, not PAX, and I don't think it's contiguous with PAX's claims. Sorry for any confusion that might have caused.
On another note, when I mentioned the possibility of shipping the "supergene" ore as-is without any processing, that wasn't just a whimsical suggestion--it's based on the fact that previous zinc mining operations have done exactly the same thing. They had no mills or processing facilities on site, but they had super-rich ore, so they just dug it out of the ground and shipped it to the smelter as-is, without any processing whatsoever.
And when I said that 80,000 tons of the "supergene" ore at today's zinc price amounts to about $65 mil, there's probably more than that all told, and the future price of zinc will probably be higher, so by the time it becomes a relevant issue, there could be anywhere between $100 mil and $200 mil of that stuff, so it could provide a significant source of self-funding. That could turn out to be a big plus factor, because the biggest obstacle for junior mining companies is usually financing the high start-up costs (case in point: YZC), and many juniors never get over that hump. If the "supergene" ore can be converted to cash with minimal expense, it could be PAX's ticket to financial independence, and we could possibly fund (at least to a large extent) our own start up. That could get us over that hump without too much debt, hedging, or other painful measures that other mining companies have to endure. It could even be factored into the feasibility study, and would probably have a very positive effect on the FS, thereby avoiding the reaction we saw to YZC's FS. I'm not an expert on this--these are just some ideas, but possibly very helpful ones. " |
