WCUFF / WCU.V
Sept 20: World Copper Signs Definitive Agreement for the Acquisition of Cardero Resource Corp.
Sept 30: World Copper Closes First Tranche of $4.0 Million Non-Brokered Private Placement
Their focus lately has been on expanding resources at Escalones... and thinking about early stages in looking at its three potential nearby extensions... soil sampling, grab sampling and the like... but they've also got another project called Cristal, up north, hear the border with Peru... and, are completing the deal with Cardero now, which will bring Cardero's option on Zonia into the WCU inventory...
Cardero's page covers it as:
The majority of the mineralized area was pre-stripped during previous open-pit mining operations at Zonia in 1966, as 17 million tons were mined with 7 million tons stacked on heap leach pads, producing cement copper up till 1975. The property has been drill-tested with almost 700 drill holes (60,000 meters). This high density drilling covers 30% of the property and defines the current resource estimate, reducing technical risk on the deposit. Mineralization is mostly open to the northeast, providing considerable opportunity to grow the resource.
A new (March, 2018) Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) on the Zonia copper-oxide deposit concludes that the economics of the project are excellent and gives Cardero the assurance to advance the project through feasibility. Cardero has an Option Agreement with Redstone Resources Corporation (“Redstone”) under which Cardero has been granted an exclusive option to acquire a 100% interest in the Zonia Copper Project (the project).
The PEA is based on the amended resource estimate by Tetra Tech Inc. ( see news release NR-17-08 dated November, 2017) and outlines an open-pit, copper-oxide heap leach project with a 9-year mine life and favourable economics.
Zonia is now a single property, but has a history of being two properties, both having underground workings and open pit operations in two different mine sites, with one more focused on copper / silver / gold, and the other focused on copper oxides. A couple of other old mines or prospects very nearby, within a mile, which appear they're a part of the property...
The copper grades up to 4%, but in the bulk operation seems it has historically averaged under 0.3%, from prior production of around 8 million tons of ore. Cardero has a fairly recent PEA they completed in 2018, which I haven't read, yet... said to have been based on some 50,000 meters in drilling... not sure how much of that is new work Cardero did, versus it being historic data... but, also, 5 million tons of ore already in place that were planned for in situ leaching... but maybe 15,873,000mt ore at 0.31% total being identified in place with the 98,412,600 lbs copper available for the cost of mining and extracting it... call it metal that's worth $295 million at $3... so, with a Feasibility Study and permits in hand, maybe worth more than $30 to $60 million, or $1 a share, as is... the biggest obstacle probably in permitting to resume an in situ leach operation... or, more likely, a bigger cost in having to mill it up and put it into a leach pad ?
Its last active use was in 1975, when it was operated as a copper mine by Phelps Dodge: "PHELPS DODGE WAS REVIEWING THEIR PROPERTY FOR OPERATION WITH A SOLVENT EXTRACTION ELECTROWINNING PLANT. TO PREPARE THE ORE BODY FOR IN SITU LEACHING, THE ORE BODY WAS SHOT USING 4, 140, 000 LB OF ANFO IN APRIL, 1973. THIS SHOT IS ESTIMATED TO HAVE BROKE MORE THAN 5, 000, 000 ST OF ORE."
A part of the appeal is that 1/3 of the ore has already been stripped and blasted... so it should be lower in cost than others might be in restarting... but, don't know what infrastructure has survived, or what it might cost to restore basic operations...
But on the PM side: IN 1986, ANTIOCH RESOURCES... WAS LOOKING AT COPPER-SILVER-GOLD MINERALIZATION. ANTIOCH REHABILITATED THE UNDERGROUND WORKINGS AND DID DETAILED MAPPING TO REVIEW THE PROPERTY'S PRECIOUS METAL RESOURCES.
Haven't found anything much about that prior history or heard about any current interest in the gold potential yet... but the JV partner Queenstake survived... became Veris Gold, yet is still Queenstake... mined Jerritt Canyon for a while... news recently that they'd sold it to First Majestic... so, maybe some institutional memory around still about this property...
It has a history of having been listed as a Superfund site... but, whether it was cleaned up already, or only needed to be reviewed and was found to pose no risk... the status currently is reported as "green" and "archived"... the file says there are no current or ongoing concerns. |
