I think we all need to consider the possibility that the draft PFS numbers were not working and/or the mine plan for the NE wall encountered tough engineering challenges.

However, the company didn't say a peep about that in the NR so we will have to ask CUU management direct, pointed questions as to what they do know about the mine plan and economics.

The mine plan should have been done or close. The fact that CUU management has been stating that the BFS was on time for end of Q1 gives me doubt that the mine plan was not more advanced than what the NR states. How could CUU be maintaining that BFS is on schedule if the mine plan was not on track?

We are two weeks from end of Q1 and the targeted BFS date but we are 6 to 8 weeks from a Mine Plan and how many months from BFS?!

Copper Fox has been advised by Tetra Tech that due to manpower shortages and scheduling difficulties of staff the March 31st timeline for completion of the Feasibility Study will not be achieved. The main difficulty being encountered lies with the completion of the Mine Plan, the most critical component in the Feasibility Study, which now appears to be six to eight weeks behind schedule. Due to the fact many important components of the Feasibility Study cannot be finalized until the mine plan is completed, a further delay will ensue. It is now expected that completion of the Feasibility study will be delayed until mid-late summer, 2012.

The new timeline suggests that the draft mine plan needed to be thrown out and everything started over. Including the 2011 drilling into RE3, mine plan #2, BFS might give them the economics to move mountains.

Taking the NR at face value, staffing issues can be big problems. Did a key engineer on the SC project leave? I don't know how big Tetra Tech's Vancouver office is but they have an impressive list of job openings (note two pages of jobs!): https://tetratech.tms.hrdepartment.com/cgi-bin/a/searchjobs_quick.cgi?order=jobs.timedate%20DESC&start=0&kand=&kor=&kquote=&knot=&geog=Vancouver_BC_CA&qty=25&sj=1&search=Search%20Jobs&s_lcid=en-US

All of us have more questions than answers.

Unfortunately, the 2011 drilling is located in an area and at depths most influenced by the NE mine wall so the engineering is not going to get easier. If we push Paramount farther North (into steeper terrain), the North wall could become a problem as well.

jmho