Ladies / gents:

Good article from the "Vancouver Sun" - Wednesday, 01 May 2013 (page C1).

I have bolded a section particularly relevant to Copper Fox.

Ice

Industry likely to see positive signs despite downturn in grassroots exploration

Let’s take the politics out of the ( mining) industry so that both parties see the benefits.
GAVIN DIROM PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION FOR MINERAL EXPLORATION

Despite record expenditures in mineral exploration in British Columbia last year, almost no new exploration by junior companies took place, a trend that is not sustainable, the president of the Association for Mineral Exploration said Tuesday.

Terrane Metals employees work at the Mount Milligan copper- gold mining project. Despite the drought in exploration investment — fuelled partly by falling commodity prices — Association for Mineral Exploration president Gavin Dirom says 2013 is shaping up to be a positive year, if not a record year, for exploration.

Gavin Dirom told a PwC conference on the state of the mining industry that only one to two per cent of the $ 680 million spent on mineral exploration in 2012 was for grassroots or greenfield projects. The rest of the money went to mature or advanced- stage mining projects owned by major companies.

“That’s not a sustainable formula. Usually, eight to 10 per cent, even pushing 20 per cent, is where we need to go in terms of having sustainability in this sector and having new projects feeding in,” Dirom said.

Despite the drought in exploration investment — the result of the eurozone crisis and falling commodity prices — Dirom said 2013 is shaping up to be a positive year, if not a record year, for exploration.

Mining brought in $ 9.2 billion in gross revenues in 2012, down seven per cent from 2011, when revenues hit $ 9.9 billion. Lower prices for coal and copper were the main reason revenues fell, according to PwC.

Further, the industry faced a significant increase in exploration costs, particularly machinery and construction materials, said Marianne Carroll, manager of PwC’s mining practice, resulting in a net income of $ 1.8 billion, down from $ 3.7 billion in 2011.

Profits were trimmed, but PwC described 2012 as “another thriving year” for the industry as a whole.

And despite the downturn in grassroots exploration — the bread and butter of the province’s junior sector — Dirom said recent discoveries and innovative investment strategies are shining a ray of sunshine on an otherwise gloomy investment outlook. He singled out two examples: • An April 4 joint- venture agreement between junior Fjordland Explorations and a subsidiary of Sumimoto Metal Mining, a major Japanese mining company, on the Dillard copper- gold project between Princeton and Merritt. Sumimoto agreed to spend $ 3.5 million in exploration costs over the next three years in exchange for a 51 per cent interest.

• A copper- gold discovery by junior Colorado Resources in northwestern B. C., 15 kilometres southeast of Imperial Metals’ Red Chris copper- gold project. The junior released results April 25 from its first drill hole showing 0.63 per cent copper and 0.85 grams per tonne of gold over the first 242 metres.

“Investors are now quite excited by the results because the proof is in the pudding,” Dirom said. “And this project is near Red Chris. So you’ve got a mining camp potentially happening in this area, meaning it’s not just one mine. It could be multiple mines, which is significant; thousands of tonnes, high grade.

“This is what gets people really excited. This is what explorers and prospectors dream about.”

New discoveries are tempered by nervousness within the sector of a potential NDP government being elected on May 14.

“I think we will be OK, we will weather the storm regardless of the governing party,” Dirom said. “I don’t think ( mining) will be politicized as much as some people might fear.”

He said there is concern over past policies introduced by NDP governments, but this time around, the NDP has engaged with the industry in advance of the election.

“The platforms ( of the Liberals and the NDP) aren’t that different, in fact, which is what we are trying to achieve. Let’s take the politics out of the industry so that both parties see the benefits and understand that they need to support exploration and mining and that we don’t needlessly politicize the issues. Then we can move past the reality of what the ’ 90s was about.”

There are concerns, however, not just about provincial policies but about the growing opposition to resource development in general from urban British Columbia, said Karina Brino, president of the Mining Association of B. C.

“We are at a very interesting and important juncture in B. C. today. The competitiveness of the sector very critically depends on fiscal policies that are going to be friendly toward responsible development, and are going to be clear and transparent in terms of what is expected of proponents and what is required of the industry to operate in British Columbia,” Brino said.

“We think the opportunities are there. They are real. It’s a matter of figuring out how we seize the day when it comes to leveraging from that.”

She singled out civic and public opposition to expansion projects at Port Metro Vancouver as particularly troubling for the resource sector. She termed it the BANANA syndrome — Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone.

“There’s an increased need to have a different kind of dialogue,” Brino said. “I am absolutely convinced that we can sit down and have a conversation about how mining is being done today, what it actually is doing to contribute not only to the economy, but also a commitment to stewardship and respectful and meaningful engagement with aboriginal communities. The alarming part to me is that we don’t seem to be having a very effective dialogue.”