Copper John
Ascendant Copper Gains US Edge in Undervalued Copper Market
Long focused on copper in Ecuador, Ascendant Copper (TSX: ACX), announced on October 21 that it had signed a letter of intent to acquire all outstanding common shares in St. Genevieve Resources (CNQ: SGVL), another copper company with properties in Arizona.
The main attraction at St. Genevieve is its two near-term copper properties, the Zonia and Emerald Isle. Sixty percent of US copper production comes from Arizona; the US is the world’s second largest producer of the key metal.
What will most excite Ascendant’s shareholders about this transaction is the predicted lead time to bring the Emerald Isle property back into production – within 12 months of its initial acquisition, or by late 2008.
If you’ve been watching the newswires, then you’ll know that the direction of the price of copper has been forecast again and again to climb. Some say that by the time Ascendant is producing at Emerald Isle, the price of copper will have reached US $4.08/pound.
At Mining Journal’s 20:20 Copper Day in London, Bloomsbury Metals Exchange expert Chris Welch outlined a prediction that the price of copper would hit $9,000/tonne or $4.08/pound by 2009. Welch’s prediction is founded on the opinion that production estimates are too high because they haven’t accounted for closures and halted projects.
A second presenter at the event, Justin Longley of International Copper Resources, agreed and added that supply “figures also do not take into account the amount of copper or concentrate which is, at any given time, tied up in working stocks, in transit, and being processed.”
Building the case for a new copper high of US $9,000/tonne in 2009, Longley also sounded on demand estimates. StockHouse.com commentator Lawrence Williams explained the dynamic like this: Copper demand is growing rapidly in developing countries like South Korea and Taiwan that are building copper-intensive infrastructures. Williams writes, “In the real growth economies like China and India, this growth pattern has hardly started yet, and should this rise to Korean or Taiwanese levels, then the effect on the supply/demand pattern could be enormous with price development which could make $9,000 copper itself a huge underestimate!”
The primary St. Genevieve asset, the Zonia property, is a past producing mine. Between 1966 and 1975, Zonia produced 33 million pounds of copper. A NI 43-101 report on the property completed in October 2006 estimates an inferred resource of 460 million pounds of copper from 63 million tonnes of ore grading 0.37% copper on average. This estimate did not include certain information from those drill holes where the assay data was not deemed to be 43-101 compliant due to possible difficulties with quality assurance and control.
Numerous pulps from these earlier assays have been found and should allow confirmation of assays for inclusion of this data in an updated 43-101 without the need for significant re-drilling. The company anticipates that these re-assays will both shorten the time and lower the expense of upgrading the classification of the Zonia copper resource. Analysis of these pulps is ongoing.
A project review performed by Gustavson Associates of Boulder, Colorado in August of 2007 indicated that the project would be both economic and expandable. According to Gustavson, the apparent potential to expand upon these inferred resources at depth and along strike and within presently viable stripping limits represents an additional 40 to 50% over the presently defined resource. Gustavson analyzed the permitting, land rights, water availability, infrastructure, drill logs, cores, previous technical reports and resource estimates among other items, and indicated that the Zonia mine and property is economic.
Based on the results from previous metallurgical studies, the resource is responsive to recovery of copper via heap leaching. The Gustavson study supported the conclusion of an existing feasibility study which, although not fully compliant with today’s 43-101 requirements, suggests starting with a SX/EW plant to produce 60,000 pounds of copper a day, over a life of 17 years, with the possibility of increasing either future plant capacity or overall project life.
Gustavson is also confident that final permits, plant construction and mine preparations for production will be achieved in less time than the current projection of 3 years. Therefore, sometime in 2010 Ascendant Copper could be on its way to producing 20 million pounds plus per year of cathode grade copper.
The advanced-stage Emerald Isle property also hosts a past producing mine, at which Ascendant expects to produce 5 million pounds of copper annually. A March 2006 NI 43-101 technical report verifies an indicated resource of 27.5 million pounds of copper from 2.2 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.62% copper. The study also outlined a final estimate of 22 million pounds of copper to be produced over four years and an estimated total net income over the life of the mine of US $22.7 million. One of the real benefits of this acquisition is that Emerald Isle will begin generating cash flow for Ascendant Copper toward the end of 2008.
The takeover agreement between Ascendant and St. Genevieve stipulates that Ascendant will pay St. Genevieve up to 30 million ACX shares for all of the outstanding shares of SGVL. Additionally, Ascendant will extend credit to St. Genevieve and said Ascendant, “intends to extend two secured credit facilities of a combined aggregate amount of up to C$400,000 to SGV in order to provide SGV with the funds required to consummate the Transaction.” These funds will be deducted against the shares issued to SGV and are secured with an option that allows Ascendant to acquire St. Genevieve’s Emerald Isle property for US $1,250,000 cash should the acquisition not be finalized.
Ascendant is adding the Arizona assets to a pair of properties located in Ecuador. Leading the Ecuadorian portfolio is the 3,000 hectare, flagship Chaucha copper-molybdenum property in southern Ecuador. Ascendant is nearing completion of exploration drilling on Chaucha and hopes to move to pre-feasibility in early 2008. There is a non-43-101 compliant, historical resource estimate on the property of a huge 2.2 billion pounds of copper and 122 million pounds of molybdenum from 216 million tonnes of ore. An NI 43-101 complaint resource calculation should be released in early 2008 increasing the historical estimates.
Also, Ascendant’s second Ecuadorian property, the 23,475 acre Junin property, has an NI 43-101 compliant inferred resource estimate of 982 million tonnes of ore for 9.2 billion pounds of copper and 864 million pounds of molybdenum at an average grade of 0.4% copper, for another enormous resource in Ecuador.
Unique to Ascendant’s position in Ecuador is an affiliation with Rio Tinto and its expertise in Ecuador. In October of 2006, Ascendant Copper purchased from Rio Tinto exclusive use, for five years, of a document that could potentially unlock mineral exploration in Ecuador. Before 1997, when Rio Tinto withdrew from Ecuador, the company had completed extensive and detailed exploration of the South American country. Qualified person John King described the geological work detailed in the package as, “analyses of nearly 16,000 stream sediment samples, over 5,000 rock chip samples, numerous detailed topographic and geologic maps, hundreds of both internal and external reports, miles of site-specific geophysics (IP), and assays and logs of over 10,000 meters of drilling on very site-specific properties.”
As Ascendant President Gary Davis stated, “no other company, large or small, has committed anywhere near the time and effort to exploration in Ecuador as has Rio Tinto.”
So with the advantage of Rio Tinto’s data and two properties with potentially enormous copper and copper-molybdenum resources in Ecuador, Ascendant’s new acquisition of St. Genevieve could prove up the cash flow necessary for its South American projects – and substantial shareholder growth. Regardless of what transpires, it’s clear that Ascendant is on the rise.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
About the Author
Resourcex Investor is an internationally distributed newsletter about emerging junior resource companies. Sign up for a free 1-month trial to our newsletter and get instant access to news and investing tips that have helped many of our readers make more money. http://www.resourcex.com
Ascendant Copper Acquires St. Genevieve in Its Bid for Diversification and Near-term Production in the Americas
John Whittier Greenleaf, the American Quaker poet and abolitionist, was noted for saying, “I’ll lift you and you lift me, and we’ll both ascend together.” It looks as if Ascendant Copper (TSX:ACX) has taken some of his sage relationship advice as it ushers in a new phase of its ascendancy with its friendly takeover of St. Geneviève Resources (CNQ:SGVL) of Montréal. The Boards of Directors of both ACX and SGVL have unanimously approved a letter of intent in which ACX acquires all of the outstanding shares of SGVL in exchange for up to 30,000,000 ACX common shares, as per its October 31st press release. Completion of the transaction is subject to final due diligence by ACX and SGVL.
This latest news represents a new chapter for Ascendant as it diversifies its asset base and gathers momentum in its push to achieve mid-tier production status. Of particular interest are SGVL’s two past-producing copper properties in Arizona.
Emerald Isle is a formerly producing open-pit copper mine located 24 km northwest of Kingman. Infrastructure in the area is excellent on all counts, with water coming from nearby wells. Mine infrastructure also includes a SX/EW (solvent-leach/electrowinning*) plant, some buildings and equipment.
Emerald Isle contains a 43-101-compliant** recoverable mineral resource of 27.5 million lbs Cu. The property has a history of work dating back to 1917, with open-pit production starting in 1943. A final pre-feasibility study conducted by Behre Dolbear reports an expected mine life of 4 years, which is a conservative estimate. The company plans to put the property into production within 12 months in order to produce about 5 million lbs of copper annually. The company estimates costs of around $4 to 5 million in order to put the property back into production.
It is particularly important to note the economic advantage that a SX/EW processing scenario lends to this project. It requires a low capital investment requirement relative to the smelting process, and can be viable even on a small scale. The process has very little environmental impact, as its liquid streams are easily contained, and acids used in the process are eventually neutralized by the host rock itself. Most importantly, SX/EW also allows for the processing of copper oxides, which are very difficult and expensive to smelt. These include mined copper minerals that are in oxidized form, such as azurite, brochantite, chrysocolla and cuprite, as well as residual copper in old mine waste dumps that has been oxidized through exposure to air.
The Zonia property, located south of Prescott, consists of 3,300 acres that produced 33 million lbs Cu from 1966 to 1975 by heap leaching. In 2006, Scott Wilson Roscoe Postle Associates (RPA) prepared a NI 43-101 technical report on the property. It outlined an inferred resource of 63 million tons copper averaging 0.37% Cu at a cutoff grade of 0.25% containing an estimated 460 million lbs Cu.
Zonia is also considered a near-term producer. Ascendant plans to update the feasibility study and expand resources through additional drilling while preparing the site for production over the next 24 to 30 months.
The acquisition of SGVL enables Ascendant to build upon its comprehensive copper-moly portfolio. The company is also able to build on a great deal of copper exploration experience, gleaned while working in Ecuador, where it owns two properties: the Chaucha copper-molybdenum in the southwest, and the Junin copper-molybdenum porphyry project in the northwest.
Chaucha has an historic geological resource estimate of 216 million tons, with 2.2 billion lbs Cu and 122 million lbs Mo. Phase III of the drilling program – which involved testing for higher grade, +1% Cu – has recently been completed. Assay results are expected shortly. At the same time, according to the company’s website, Junin has a 43-101 compliant inferred resource estimate of 982 million tonnes, with 19.2 billion lbs copper and 864 lbs molybdenum.
This latest move serves as a bridge to create increased value and cash flow for Ascendant’s shareholders in the near and mid-term future. It also serves to support the advancement of Chaucha and Junin. Recently, Ecuador’s President has come out in support of responsible mining, and the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum is laboring to determine how to best advance mineral projects within Ecuador. These new political developments should bode well for the people of Ecuador, for the mining community in general, and for Ascendant in particular.
In the meanwhile, the company will continue to build on its ongoing strategic exploration alliance in Ecuador with Rio Tinto, which gives it access to Rio Tinto’s US$14 million database.
In terms of investor awareness, the agreement with SGVL signals a key entry point for Ascendant’s potential investors in the sense that all the building blocks are now in place to ensure a balanced approach in terms of growth – and profit – at all stages of its development.
*Solvent extraction/electrowinning (SX/EW) is a two-stage process that first extracts and upgrades copper ions from low-grade leach solutions into a concentrated electrolyte, and then deposits pure copper onto cathodes using an electrolytic procedure.
**National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) and administered by the provincial securities commissions that govern how issuers disclose scientific and technical information about their mineral projects to the public. It covers oral statements as well as written documents and websites. It requires that all disclosure be based on advice by a “qualified person” and in some circumstances that the person be independent of the issuer and the property.
This article is intended for information purposes only, and is not a recommendation to buy or sell the equities of any company mentioned herein. It is based on sources believed to be reliable, but no warranty as to accuracy is expressed or implied. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author except where statements are attributed to individuals other than the author, in which case the opinions are those of the individual to whom they are attributed.
About the Author
Resourcex Investor is an internationally distributed newsletter about emerging junior resource companies. Sign up for a free 1-month trial to our newsletter and get instant access to news and investing tips that have helped many of our readers make more money. http://www.resourcex.com
