Teck & CUU (1)

So with all these pieces in place, and a resource table expected in late April, pit design optimizations will lead to a complete mine feasibility study, which Stewart hopes to see this summer. “At that point, Teck Cominco will elect to earn a 20%, 40% or 75% interest, or walk away with a some shares and a 1% royalty,” explains Stewart. “That decision should come quickly. We’ve kept a transparent flow of information with Teck, the provincial and federal agencies and the Tahltan First Nations so everyone can decide quickly because they all helped us get it there.”

Teck & CUU (2)

The company has a relationship with Teck, Canada's largest diversified mining company, can you explain the significance of this relationship to our readers?

Teck has an earn-back right pursuant to the Option agreement entered into in 2002. We have been working with the senior technical people from Teck since early 2010 when we announced that we were proceeding to complete a feasibility study on Schaft Creek. The purpose of engaging Teck early on in the process of completing the feasibility study was to have their input into the feasibility study that is required to allow Teck to make their decision as to their participation in the Schaft Creek project. Teck’s experience in operating open pit mines of the size of that contemplated at Schaft Creek is valuable information that helps makes the feasibility study a realistic and practical study in the contexts of developing the deposit.


Lawrence Roulston (1)
Teck is working closely with Copper Fox in conducting the feasibility study. The Vancouver-based major operates a large copper mine near Kamloops, British Columbia and also has a huge base metal smelter-refinery complex at Trail in the southern part of the province.

Lawrence Roulston (2)
Copper Fox is about to start field work on the Schaft Creek copper-gold deposit in northern British Columbia. A feasibility study is due for completion by the end of June and is being led by Wardrop, a highly regarded international engineering firm.
The work is being done in close cooperation with Teck, a major mining company from whom Copper Fox is acquiring the project. The study considers a minimum 120,000 tonne per day open pit mine. The resource estimate supporting the feasibility study outlines 1.4 billion tonnes hosting 7.7 billion pounds of copper, 8.1 million ounces of gold, 584 million pounds of molybdenum and 69 million ounces of silver.


Elmer's experience
Stewart should know. He’s been in the mining business for 30 years, holding the position of QP (qualified person) and in this time has helped bring on stream five different gold mining operations.

The Pay back
Stewart’s approach is how best to maximize short term returns by maximizing the cash flow from the mine over the first ten year period. Doing it this way and by concentrating on selected zones where much higher grades (essentially a starter pit) of 0.7 to 0.8 percent copper equivalent have been found, a much shorter payback period appears feasible.


Elmer comments
''Stewart again demonstrated his belief in putting in the hard work and keeping the company focused on clear results saying, " We're going to have a really solid, practical, realistic feasibility study". For a junior exploration company not be puffing up potential and to be committed to this amount of work on a single property means that shareholders will stand to reap the reward of Copper Fox's obsession. ''